The Serpent Road: A Science Fiction Novel

by Anthony James

  “And you go off and do your own little thing expecting us to do all the work again,” said Acab.

  Tohil gave a sigh. “Maybe you’d like to go and talk to the priests instead of finding your precious chicha,” he said.

  “No, no. Forget it. You go and do your things, Tohil. We’ll just run around doing as we’re told.” He gave a mock bow and sign of obeisance, prompting Tohil to sigh again. He shook his head and turned away, heading across the square to one of the temple’s steps, leaving Acab and the others to their own devices.

  Painted carvings covered each temple step. He briefly wondered what happened to the paint when blood was spilled, but then the thought quickly faded. It did not look like there had been any on these steps, at least not for a long time, and besides, he’d seen quite enough of the stuff over the previous days to last him. He scanned the carvings with every step he took, but there was nothing to set them apart from any of the normal ritual carvings. There was Kukulcan, there Chac in all four of his manifestations, there Yum Cimil. Over there sat Yum Cax, brown and yellow with his necklace of jade. Tohil had often called to Yum Cax while he was hunting.

  As he neared the top, the smell of burning herbs and resins filtered down from the small rectangular altar room, stirring the air with several exotic aromas combined. Voices came from that enclosed room, and he almost hesitated, but then forced himself to climb the last few steps. As he drew closer to the doorway, the voices resolved into a continuous chant, repeating, low tones, deep voices. Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside the shadowed doorway.

  Immediately, the chanting paused. Two figures, clearly priests, though they could easily be mistaken for Elders, looked up at him, questioning the intrusion. Their faces were heavily painted in blue. Jade plugs sat in their lower lips and through their noses. Large jade pendants hung from their ears. Their skin was dark and heavily lined. One of them spoke, but they were words he didn’t understand. Tohil then understood how foolish he had been.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, spreading his hands wide, and bowing his head in respect. “I will leave you.”

  “Wait,” said the other priest, in a language familiar to him. The word was accented but clearly understandable. “What do you want here, boy?”

  “I…I don’t know. I am on the way to the Great City carrying a message from our Elders.”

  The priest who had spoken looked at the other one and then back at Tohil.

  “And what is this message.”

  Tohil hesitated. He didn’t know if he should share the words with these strange priests. He looked quickly about the altar room, but could see no immediate sign of sacrificial implements, and no sign of bloodstains upon the altar or the floor. They were watching him, waiting. He made a decision.

  “It speaks of the Dark Serpent,” he said.

  Again, there was an exchange of glances between the priests.

  “I am supposed to carry it to the Dwarf King,” he added.

  The priest who had asked narrowed his eyes for a moment.

  “Where do you come from, child?” he said.

  Tohil could see no harm in telling them that much. The fragrant smoke was swirling all about them, thick in the shadows, and with every breath it was making him feel more light-headed.

  “My companions and I come from a village many days travel back that way. We crossed forests and rivers and we travelled the white road.”

  “And this village….”

  Tohil waited.

  “Is there perhaps a temple there?”

  Again, Tohil felt a moment of doubt. These two were making him feel even more uncomfortable than he should in their presence. He quelled the urge to dash back out the door and race down the steps to the square and his friends. He knew now that it was not usual for a village to have a temple at its centre. His mind was racing, and then, with the coming of a sudden realisation, felt emboldened.

  “Where are your warriors?” he asked.

  They had not seen any fighting men, either on the way into the city or across the grand square where they had wound up.

  The priest who had first spoken, raised himself to full height and now spoke.

  “You seem to have many questions for one who has few answers.”

  “Just answer me,” said Tohil. He needed to know now.

  “They are within their living spaces or on their assigned patrols.”

  “Do you perform sacrifices here?”

  There was a pause before the second priest answered, a frown etched deeply into his face as if he couldn’t understand why Tohil would ask such a question.

  “We serve our gods here,” he said. “Of course, we provide them sacrifices. We give them the respect they deserve and we honour them. We are priests.”

  And with that answer, a sudden chill dropped through his chest, and he turned determined to leave them and their questions behind him.

  “Hear our names. We shall also tell you the names of our fathers. We are Hunahpú and Xbalanqué; those are our names. And our fathers are those whom you killed and who were called Hun-Hunahpú and Vucub-Hunahpú. We, those whom you see here, are, then, the avengers of the torments and suffering of our fathers. That is the reason why we resent all the evil you have done to them. Therefore, we shall put an end to all of you, we shall kill you, and not one of you shall escape, “they said. Instantly all the people of Xibalba fell to their knees, crying.

  — Popol Vuh, Part II, Chapter 14

  FIFTEEN

  “Wait!” said the first priest, stepping forward and gripping Tohil’s shoulder, clearly seeing him getting ready to flee. “You have not answered our question.”

  “I cannot,” said Tohil, panic rising inside him. Was he about to become one of their sacrifices?

  “Why not, child? Tell us.”

  The other priest had now rounded from the other side of the altar, stepping forward to peer into Tohil’s face.

  “Wait, Gacumatz, I can see what it is. It was the talk of sacrifice. Listen to me, boy and understand.”

  Tohil kept his lips tightly pressed together and swallowed in an effort to mask his fear.

  “Yes, we sacrifice,” the priest continued. “But we sacrifice in the old ways. The sacrifices choose themselves to honour the gods. Nobody forces them. We have a deep well. To honour the gods in the old ways, those who choose to be sacrificed throw themselves into that well.”

  Tohil frowned, trying to absorb that.

  “It is a great honour and a blessing,” said the priest called Gacumatz. “They choose this path to their glory.”

  “But, the old ways?” said Tohil.

  The first priest nodded. “Long in the past, there was a change in the rituals, in the nature of sacrifice. There are those who chose to follow the newer ways. Those who demanded blood. We are not among them.”

  Tohil’s breathing was starting to ease.

  “Why did they change?”

  “Some say it was the coming of the Seelee. They demanded a different sacrifice. They were not like the old gods.”

  Tohil felt himself leaning back against the doorway for support.

  “Do not fear us, child,” said the one called Gacumatz. “Come back. Talk with us.”

  Seeing that Tohil was no longer intending to run, they stepped back into the room’s centre, near the altar and beckoned him forward. Still the smoke wafted around them in streamers, filling his nostrils and making him feel now as if he were half awake, almost dreaming.

  “But the warriors…,” he said, his voice drifting away.

  “They are here to defend the city. We do not take captives. This city survives on trade and tribute. There are those who pass through here, raiding parties, the like, who would take captives, who would seek blood, but we have our warriors. Except for an all-out war, we are capable of defending ourselves.”

  Tohil stepped up to the altar and laid his hands upon the smooth surface. A hiss from one of the priests made him withdraw them quickly.

  “You come fr
om the village guarding the temple,” said Gacumatz. It was a statement, not a question.

  Tohil nodded slowly.

  “And this message?”

  Tohil pursed his lips for a couple of breaths, his head bowed and then spoke.

  “Our Elders have seen the temple opening, the Dark Serpent freed.”

  The priests looked at each other.

  “We have seen the signs in the calendar as well. The portents are clearly marked in the movement of the stars. The astronomers have foretold an event, but we hoped that it might not be that which you speak of.”

  “And your Elders?” asked Tohil.

  “We do not have Elders here,” said the first priest. “There are nobles and the ruler, the astronomers, the priests like ourselves,” he explained. “But we are party to the knowledge of which you speak.”

  The nobles must have been those he had seen in the marketplace, covered in jewellery and feathers.

  “But the Seelee? Where did they come from?”

  Gacumatz shook his head. “We do not know. Some say beyond the seas. Others say from the heavens. The records are not clear. And sometimes they are spoken in language that is like a puzzle. We only know that they carried great magic, and they are as powerful as gods. They may as well be treated as gods.”

  Tohil looked around the altar room then, seeking any of the strange carvings that spoke about the Seelee, but they were absent from these walls.

  “When we were travelling,” he said, “we saw temple walls with carvings. I thought that they were Seelee.”

  “That could be,” said the first priest. “After they came, the Seelee took our gods in places where they could and made them their own. Our places of worship and sacrifice became theirs. And they became the gods.”

  “The gods still exist,” said Gacumatz. “This we know and so we worship them. The gods did not go away. The Seelee did.”

  “But why?” said Tohil.

  “Why did they go away? We cannot tell. If you are travelling to see the Dwarf King and his magicians, perhaps they will have those answers.” He shook his head. “We do not.”

  “What is your name, child?” said the first priest.

  “I am Tohil.”

  “Well Tohil, you will not find the answers you seek here. You should leave, and you should speed your way upon your journey. We will pray to the gods for your safety and their blessing.” He reached into a small sack at his waist and withdrew something. “Take this with you. Perhaps it will offer you further protection on your way.”

  He reached out with the object and placed it in Tohil’s hands. It was a small figure of a jaguar, carved out of jade. Tohil looked at it, and them closed his fingers around the smooth hard form.

  “And one more thing.” He reached down somewhere beneath his robes and pulled out a small sack which he handed to Tohil. “This may prove useful.”

  Tohil started to open the sack, but the priest spoke.

  “That will keep,” said Gacumatz. “Now go. Do what must be done. May the gods watch over you and keep you safe.”

  Tohil nodded, turned away from the two priests and stepped out into a slight breeze and the fresh air and sunshine. He stood there on the platform, gazing down at the square, at the people moving back and forth, at the other temples reaching up from the clusters of building across the city. Had he been drawn to this particular temple for a reason? That he didn’t know. But with what the two old priests had told him now, he had even more to think about. There was a picture growing in his head, and he wasn’t sure that he liked what it was he saw there. He took a moment to peer into the small sack. It contained what looked like cocoa beans. He frowned at that. Why would the priest give him cocoa beans? He didn’t know what use they would be, but there was much that remained a mystery and he cinched the sack to his waist nonetheless.

  As he walked down the temple stairs, he pulled a spare bowstring from his belongings and threaded it through a small hole in the jaguar carving and then he strung it around his neck and tied it off so that it sat just below his throat. He reached up with one hand, feeling its solidity, it smoothness. If it would indeed offer them protection, he was glad of it. They needed all the protection they could get.

  Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, he scanned the square. There were so many people, so many confusing shapes and colours, noises, and scents that he didn’t quite know where to look. And still his conversation with the priests worked through his head, as well as whatever after-effects of the heavy incense that he had breathed in during the time he had been inside. He had no idea how long he had been there. He looked up at the sky. It seemed that he’d spent over an hour there, but it had seemed just like a fraction of that. He looked down again and spotted Acab standing over the other side watching the people passing him by. He started crossing the marketplace towards him, and then Acab saw him, lifted his chin in greeting.

  “Hello,” Tohil said to him. “The others?”

  “Not back yet.”

  “Did you find what you wanted?”

  Acab shrugged. “Did you?”

  “I don’t know,” said Tohil. “Here, can you help me with this? Cut those strings here.” He reached up and indicated where the extra length of bowstring hung down his back.

  “What’s that?”

  “The priests gave it to me for protection,” he said.

  Acab leaned in for a closer look and then reached for his knife and got rid of the dangling strings.

  “So, really, did you find what you were looking for?” Acab asked again once he was satisfied with his ministrations.

  “Not exactly,” Tohil told him thoughtfully. “I learned some things, but not what I expected. I am starting to believe that the world is not quite as we understood.”

  “Huh. I could have told you that,” said Acab. “So, did you find a way to get Quapar back?”

  The question took Tohil off guard. He frowned and shook his head.

  “I thought that was what you went up there for,” said Acab. “Why else would you go there and talk to the priests.”

  Tohil just stood there looking at him. Just at that moment, Xquic appeared with Tepeu in tow, loaded down with full water gourds.

  “There’s a big cistern that services the whole city,” she said as she walked up. “Plenty of water for all.”

  “And there’s a well where they throw their sacrifices too,” said Tohil without breaking Acab’s gaze.

  Xquic dropped her water gourds and planted her fists on her hips. “And now what is with you two?”

  Tohil reluctantly broke his gaze first and turned to look at her. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter,” he said. Tepeu too had lowered his gourds to the ground. Tohil could still feel Acab staring at him.

  “Oh, nice,” said Xquic, reaching forward for the jaguar pendant that now lay around his neck. “So, we took some time to shop for jewellery.”

  “No. It’s not like that,” he said. “The priests gave it to me. We had a long discussion.”

  “And I’m sure you’re going to tell us everything they said,” muttered Acab.

  “Yes, I will, but not now. Later. Has anyone seen Oquis?”

  “There he is,” said Tepeu, and sure enough, Oquis was striding up to them, weighed down with an array of sacks and some gourds.

  “I think we have enough for a while,” he said, as he got within earshot.

  “Let’s go through what we have later,” Tohil said. “But for now, let’s split them up and get moving.”

  “What, we can’t rest for a while?” asked Oquis, for the first time since starting the journey sounding a little disgruntled.

  “It’s better if we leave,” said Tohil. He glanced up at the temple as if to reinforce the message.

  “Hmph,” said Oquis, followed by an unintelligible mutter from Acab. The other two had already started dividing the acquisitions amongst the group. A few moments later, each carrying a part of the load, they had re-joined the white road and were heading out of the cit
y. On the way out, Tohil spotted a group of warriors, wondering why he hadn’t seen them before. They seemed to have little interest in the travellers, just going about their business and before long, they too were behind them and lost from sight.

  Tohil had no idea how much further the white road extended, nor what they might face beyond it, but in front of them now lay the large peak that dominated the mountain range, forbidding and rugged, the smoke trailing out across the sky. Below it lay wrinkled brown land, and from this perspective, it looked treeless. Whatever vegetation might be there, it was impossible to tell. According to the map, they would have to cross that wasteland, and there was no other way. To try going around it would add days, possibly weeks to their journey and Tohil was already starting to become conscious of how much time they had already spent. With every knew thing he learned, he was also becoming aware of the urgency of their task. If only they had their own Dark Serpent with which to fly across the skies and transport them effortlessly to the Great City. But they didn’t, and that was that.

  As they made their way further out through the city’s fields, Tohil could feel the hostility almost radiating from Acab, and he dropped back until he was marching along beside him.

  “Listen,” he said quietly. “I feel Quapar’s loss as much as any of us. He was my friend too.”

  “Well why aren’t we doing something about it?” Acab said, almost spitting the words.

  “What would you do? Where would we look? He’s gone, Acab.”

  “I know that. Why did you not talk to the priests? They could have done something.”

  “I’ll tell you more about it later, with the others,” Tohil told him. “But they are not the same. I told you about the well. They don’t have raiding parties. They don’t cut people’s hearts out of their chests. They are different people. I need to explain it more, but I want everyone to hear it, and I also want to get it all straight in my head.”

  Acab frowned at what he was hearing, shook his head a couple of times.

  “Well why aren’t we looking for him?” he said finally.