The Jade Bones

by Lani Forbes

  “Follow me,” she said in an elegant, mournful voice.

  Ahkin reached out a hand to the small of Mayana’s back as they followed Ixtab out through the doorway from the council room. Ona trotted in their wake. Behind the council room was a dark chamber lined with black stone pillars that disappeared into the darkness above. It reminded Ahkin of being back in the caves. At the center of the chamber stood a pure-black altar carved from obsidian. Vivid scenes of dismemberment and beheading adorned its surface. The sight of it sent a wave of cold over his skin. He had no desire to know what that altar was used for. Their footsteps echoed off the stone floor as they walked around it.

  Cizin’s temple backed against one of the fiery mountains. A cave entrance at the end of the chamber contained roughly hewn steps that spiraled upward. It was lit with more flaming skulls.

  “What is the altar for?” Mayana asked, looking back at the large blade sitting upon it.

  Ixtab faced them with black, whiteless eyes. “Let us hope you do not have to find out. This passage will take you back to the overworld. Do not linger here. The passage will soon close.” She bowed and dismissed herself back to the council chamber.

  “We made it,” Ahkin said, hugging Mayana against him. “We survived Xibalba. And rescued the bones of Quetzalcoatl.”

  A rush of joy flooded through him as he realized they would both escape. The warning he had fretted over for days was for nothing. They would both survive.

  But Mayana looked as though she had left her spirit back with the lords of Xibalba. “At what cost?” Her voice cracked with emotion. Tears flowed down her cheeks once more.

  Ahkin embraced her again, his heart aching. He wished he could take her pain onto himself instead. “I’m so sorry, Mayana.”

  She cried for a few moments into his shoulder. When she finally hiccuped herself into silence, they began their ascent up the winding stone staircase.

  The farther they climbed, the hotter the air around them grew. It felt as though they had entered a temazcalli steam bath, but the air was dry instead of moist. Soon Ahkin’s lips were cracked, and he had to ask Mayana to summon some water from her pendant. She did, offering some to him and Ona, but refusing to drink some herself.

  A loud screech echoed through the cave stairwell.

  Ona barked a warning.

  Ahkin turned and braced his shield on his arm just in time to see a giant gray owl descending upon him, black talons reaching for his face. He blocked the impact, but the force of it threw him to the ground. Mayana screamed as the bird dove at her next, its talons ripping at the canvas of her bag.

  “No!” Mayana withdrew her knife and slashed at the owl.

  Ahkin realized what the bird was after. “It’s trying to steal back the bones of Quetzalcoatl! That lying, stinking—”

  screech! A glisten of jade appeared in a hole the owl had managed to rip. Mayana slashed again with her knife, making contact with the bird’s scaled foot. It shrieked in indignation.

  Mayana cried out as the bird sank its talons into her skin, her blood flowing down her chest in small red currents. The passage around them began to rumble ominously.

  Ona launched himself at the owl. His jaws clamped around the bird’s leg until it released Mayana from its grasp. Ahkin lurched toward her, lifting her in his arms right as the owl sunk its blade-sharp beak into Ona’s side. The dog howled but refused to release his grip on the owl. He locked eyes with Ahkin, a look that clearly said, Take her and go. Then, the beasts both fell to the ground, the dog and bird tumbling down the staircase and out of sight in a flurry of feathers and fur.

  “Ona! No! onaaa!” Mayana screamed, reaching over Ahkin’s back to where her best friend had sacrificed himself to give them a chance to escape.

  “He wants us to run,” Ahkin yelled, throwing Mayana over his shoulder and starting back up the staircase. Her blood coated his chest, making it slippery to hold her. He tightened his grip. She raged against him, clawing at his back with her nails and drawing his own blood.

  “No! Take me back! take me back! ona! ona!”

  “Mayana, we have to escape now! The passageway is going to close, and if we don’t go now, we will be trapped here forever!”

  “I don’t care!” she sobbed, beating his back. “I won’t leave him here. I can’t!”

  “He gave us a chance to escape. You’ll waste his sacrifice if we don’t go now!”

  The tunnel around them began to shake, as if the earth itself was trembling. Fissures and cracks formed in the walls. Steam leaked from the cracks with a hiss. The layers of creation were shifting.

  Mayana kicked against his stomach. Ahkin grunted in pain. He loosened his grip—just enough for her wiggle out of it. Before he could stop her, Mayana bolted back down the stairs. Blood coated the ground behind her.

  “mayana!” After everything he’d done to keep her safe, to make sure she didn’t pay the ultimate price for his mistake . . . She would not die here. He wouldn’t let her.

  The image of her dead body hanging from the post flashed behind his eyes. He would not return to the overworld without her.

  With a quick glance back at their only way out, Ahkin sprinted after her.

  He skidded to a stop at the bottom, emerging into the lower chamber just in time to see Mayana standing above Ona’s barely stirring form. Blood pooled on the stone beneath the dog’s skin.

  With arms stretched out, her eyes glowed with a faint hint of blue light and her teeth were bared in a growl. The intensity of her face pulled the air from his lungs. For a moment, Ahkin swore she radiated the energy of a full-fledged goddess. Nothing and no one would stop her. The owl shrieked and fluttered into the darkness. Water swirled around her, lifting her hair to float above her head. The glowing in her eyes grew brighter, and she unleashed her fury upon the owl. The feathered figure swirled within a cyclone of Mayana’s making, thrashing and fighting against the currents. But when she opened her hands, the cyclone hurled the owl back into the council chamber behind them.

  “Maya—” Ahkin started to call, but he didn’t get the chance to finish.

  The ground beneath them shuddered, sending more cracks splintering up the back walls of the chamber. There was a crashing sound, so loud Ahkin swore the whole room was collapsing. He turned to see the doorway to the stairs collapse, covering their only escape with stone. From somewhere in the distance, the lords of Xibalba cackled with glee.

  The Nemontemi was over. The layers of creation were closed.

  And they hadn’t escaped in time.

  Chapter

  45

  Miquitz was unlike anything Yemania had ever experienced before. It took them hours to climb the steep mountain trails, at times skirting ravines so steep that it made Yemania’s head spin to look down. But the Miquitz soldiers and Ochix seemed perfectly at ease, like a bunch of mountain goats hopping along paths they’d trekked their entire lives. Which, she supposed, they had.

  Yemania was terrified she’d tumble to her death into one of the gorges. Far below them gushed a young river teeming with rapids, while beside her rose towering rock walls of various shades of gray, brown, and black. Stunted trees and slick green grasses grew in patches across the mountains’ many faces. She was surprised by how much green there was. Her assumption had always been that the Miquitz Mountains were dead places of stone, not bursting with bunches of wildflowers and scampering rabbits and squirrels. Even glorious birds of prey soared on currents of air rushing up the mountainsides. Mountain fields were impossibly steep and sloping, and yet crowded with livestock and llamas. Waving hands greeted them from inside stone cottages with thatched roofs. For the empire of death, it seemed to be teeming with life.

  “This isn’t what I expected at all,” Yemania whispered to Ochix.

  He grinned. “What were you expecting? Cold buildings of stone without a blade of grass to be seen? Perha
ps bones and skulls littering the desolate landscape like a grave?”

  She snorted a laugh.

  “Wait until you see the capital, Omitl. You will be amazed.”

  Yemania smiled at the pride that seeped into his every description. She could tell how much he loved his home. And it made her love him that much more.

  “You will be an amazing emperor here someday,” she told him.

  Ochix strutted ahead. “Of course I will. I will be the most handsome emperor Miquitz has ever seen.”

  Yemania rolled her eyes. “And the most modest as well.”

  “I will be the humblest emperor Miquitz has ever had too. None before or after will be able to match my humility.” Yemania giggled, and one of the soldiers glanced back at them through narrowed eyes.

  “Stop having so much fun. Act more captive-ly,” Ochix whispered out of the corner of his mouth, though he couldn’t stop his teasing smile.

  Yemania fought to keep her face straight. “Sorry, more terror and less giggling. Got it.”

  They continued up the mountain trails until they crested a final peak. Her first view of Omitl took her breath away. The city stretched between pointed peaks, four of them jutting up like thumbs. Their rocky faces were covered in plants, and the terraced fields of crops and gardens were green enough to rival the jungles outside of Tollan. The city itself was made of stone but bustled with life. Streets wove their way across the steep slopes, stairs snaking around the city’s many terraces. Precarious rope bridges spanned the gaps, while pearly white mists clung to the peaks and lingered in the canyon gorges below. The air smelled crisp and cold and clean, hinting at the scent of wildflowers and wet rock. A crashing waterfall fell from the highest of the mountain peaks, silhouetting the entire stone city against a backdrop of rushing water.

  It was absolutely beautiful.

  There were so many plants and herbs in these higher altitudes that she was unfamiliar with, and she itched to discuss their properties with the locals, to see if new remedies were to be discovered. Though that would have to wait until Ochix had broken her out of the temple.

  The Temple of Omitl was by far the largest structure in the city. The pyramid of stone was not tiered like those in the Chicome Empire, but smooth. It backed up against one of the highest peaks, where beside it a cave opening led to a massive amphitheater.

  “Is that where . . . ?” She nodded toward the cave.

  Ochix furrowed his brow and nodded. “The whole city gathers for the ceremony.”

  “When does it take place?” She swallowed.

  “At sunrise tomorrow. Those are the final moments the opening between the levels of creation can be accessed.”

  Yemania’s eye was drawn to the gaping dark tunnel that appeared to lead into the mountain itself. It was ominous in its bleakness, and even from this distance, Yemania swore she could hear the whistling of winds carrying the whispers of tortured souls trapped below.

  They marched her through the city, where the Miquitz people dressed in thick cloaks of black and green watched her progress with an excited gleam in their eyes. Children carrying dolls or sticks followed along after their little caravan, chanting songs and chattering excitedly about the newest captive.

  The Seventh Sun was already starting to set in the sky, casting the mountaintop city in eerie purple shadows. They marched up to the temple itself, which Yemania assumed was also the emperor’s palace.

  “The palace is built into the mountain,” Ochix said quietly. “It looks smaller on the outside, but it is much larger than it appears. And much grander.”

  For a brief moment, Yemania wondered if this would become her home, if she and Ochix did marry and he became emperor . . .

  Soldiers lined the stone bridge that spanned a gorge and separated the temple from the rest of the city. Their bone-tipped spears were honed to be impossibly sharp. They watched her pass with dark eyes matching the equally dark cloaks which fastened at their shoulders.

  They entered the temple, and Yemania immediately saw what Ochix had meant. The inside stretched high above their heads in a massive cavern supported by carved pillars along all four walls. The pillars were carved with hieroglyphs that Yemania couldn’t quite make out, and the sunken stone floor was polished to an impossible shine. Rubies and jade glistened from hanging weavings that depicted images of the gods. Hallways led off from the main chamber into what Yemania assumed were council chambers and storage rooms, and likely the residences of the royal family.

  Before her, on a throne carved entirely of jade, a man with a perfectly smooth head painted white as a skull, and decorated to resemble one, sat poring over codex sheets he fumbled in his hands. His black robe was open to reveal a bare chest, where a necklace of bone and black toucan feathers hung. Upon his head sat a small crown of black feathers.

  “Father,” Ochix said, approaching the emperor and high priest of Miquitz. “We have returned with some good and bad news.”

  Tzom, as Yemania knew he was called, did not look up from his papers. “What do you mean, bad news? Shouldn’t you be in Tollan preparing for your wedding?”

  “There will be no wedding, Father. At least not between me and the princess of light.”

  Tzom slowly lowered the papers, his face deadly calm. “And why is that?”

  Ochix kept his chin high, but he would not meet his father’s direct gaze. “She has called off our engagement in her desire to marry another. There was nothing I could do to remedy the situation. I did, however, bring a tribute to you in my apology for failing you.”

  Tzom’s eyes snapped to Yemania and narrowed. “A tribute? I do not need another wife.”

  Ochix’s jaw tightened. “No. Not as a wife. She is of Chicome royal descent. A healer, descended from Ixtlilton. I bring her to add to the offering.”

  Tzom’s eyes, painted black within their sockets to enhance his skull-like appearance, widened in surprise. “You bring divine blood for the sacrifice? Well, that is a fine tribute indeed.”

  When he turned back to face his son, his face split into a smile, made even wider by the black paint stretching out from the corners of his mouth. Yemania could see the madness in that moment, a gleam of manic insanity that lurked beneath his father’s eyes.

  “I will need to consult with my patron as to how to proceed.” Tzom rose to his feet and swept from the room. “I will wait to decide whether or not to kill you, son, based on her guidance. I recommend you make yourself at home until I return.”

  Ochix turned back to her and frowned. He pulled at her ropes and led her out of the main throne chamber. “I’ll take her to the sacrificial holding rooms with the others,” he called out to the guards.

  They let him pass without incident into the darkened halls lit with torches.

  “Will he really kill you?” Yemania asked now that they were temporarily alone.

  “Well, I guess if the Obsidian Butterfly decides I can live, then I live.”

  “Do you think she will?”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Ochix smirked. “Because I’m not giving her a chance to decide. You and I”—he pulled her close and slipped a blade out from his waistband—“are going for a little walk in the city, what do you say?”

  “A walk?” Yemania asked flatly.

  “I was actually thinking more along the lines of hiding out in the city. I know an innkeeper who will let us stay there until we figure out what to do next. She is a close friend of mine and will let us hide there for a little while.”

  Yemania bristled for a moment at she, but then quickly let it go. She didn’t have time to worry about that. “If it keeps me away from any sacrificial altars, then lead the way.”

  Ochix grabbed her hand and pulled her to the labyrinthine halls of the palace. They reached a crevice in the stone concealed behind a small wooden door. There was no hallway behind it, only a roughly hewn cave. “
I know a secret way out. I used to use it to sneak out and meet”—he paused, looking embarrassed—“meet, uh, people. When I was younger.”

  Yemania’s cheeks went hot. He sneaked out to meet with girls, he was probably going to say. Maybe a little jealousy was called for.

  Ochix must have read the look on her face. “It doesn’t matter what I’ve seen before, daughter of healing, you are the only one I see now and will ever see.” He pulled her close and kissed her deeply. Yemania melted within his arms.

  “All right,” she conceded, though she still gave him a playful smack on the arm.

  Ochix beamed at her and pulled her into the dark interior of the mountain. Yemania didn’t know what the Mother goddess’s purpose was in bringing her here, but she trusted she would find out soon enough.

  Chapter

  46

  The water swirling around Mayana crashed to the stone chamber floor. She fell to her knees beside Ona. The wounds on his abdomen gaped, blood rushing out of him and coating her knees. She placed her hands on his sides, feeling his frantic, shallow breaths. He was in so much pain.

  “Ona, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry . . .” she cried into his fur. Ona tried to lift his head, but whined and lay back down, panting heavily.

  Ahkin’s hand gripped her shoulder. She wanted to jerk away, but she couldn’t. His touch steadied her.

  Ahkin sank to his own knees beside her. His grip on her shoulder tightened. “Why?” was all he said through gritted teeth.

  His suppressed rage ignited her own. “He saved us! So many times. I couldn’t leave him down here to die alone.”

  She glanced up at his face, at the rage and despair he was trying so hard to hold back. But even Ahkin couldn’t be that strong. He released her and fell forward, his hands digging into his short hair. “We were so close. So close.”