The Serpent Passage

by Todd Allen Pitts

  “Don’t cry. I’m here,” William said, disrupting her sad train of thought. He cradled her face in his hands, drawing her attention back. “You’re not going to lose me, Teshna, because…” It was hard for him to say, for he had never felt that way before.

  She gazed deep into his blue eyes, looking desperate for him to continue. “Because, why?”

  He took a deep breath and announced his true feelings. “Because… I’ve fallen in love with you.”

  Teshna cried tears of joy, melting into William’s arms. The moment they embraced, they could no longer contain their desire for one another. They kissed and caressed their way deeper into the chamber, their bodies moving to the rhythmic beat of the Mayan drums below, their passion heightened further by the bloodstone—saturating the chamber with a deep amber glow as the festivities raged on beneath the pyramid.

  The next morning, William awoke in his bed with a wonderful stretch, feeling more rested and content than he had felt since his arrival. He recalled the incredible night before, knowing that his love for Teshna would carry him through—would give him the strength and motivation he needed to survive the coming battle.

  After rubbing the sand from his eyes, he wrapped a fresh loincloth around his waist and pulled on the other trappings of the Mayan wardrobe that had been spread out on the table in the center of the room.

  “It’s about time you woke up. You look like crap,” Betty said from the arched doorway to his room.

  “Good morning to you too,” William said, followed by a yawn. “What time is it?”

  “Past noon, I’d guess. The Serpent Priest said we should let you sleep in. Teshna too. Funny, huh?” She wiped the perspiration off her forehead. “It’s damn hot today, isn’t it? Hotter than usual,” she said, giving him a surreptitious glance.

  William sighed, figuring she somehow knew about his time with Teshna on the pyramid the night before. But he didn’t care. It was easier if their relationship wasn’t a secret. “Where is everyone?” he asked, trying to change the topic.

  “Oh, you know… the usual routine. The men are down in the fields, training and what not. Yax is there too, organizing the details of the battle. I was just about to go meet up with the gals for archery practice.”

  William grabbed a piece of dried mango from the platter on the table, popped it into his mouth, and gobbled it up. He regarded Betty with worry. “It scares me to think about you and Teshna being involved in the actual battle.”

  Betty shrugged. “Ah, we’ll be fine. But if I were to get killed in the battle…”

  “Don’t say that Betty!”

  “Hey, if I were to die for a good cause, in some kickass epic war… I’d feel okay about that. Beats drying up years from now in a musty hospital with nurses treating me like a cranky old hag.”

  William laughed at her remark. He shifted his headdress until it felt comfortable; it’s long turquoise and purple feathers made him feel like a peacock. “You’re not going to die. There’s still a chance we can go home.” He told Betty more about the Serpent Passage—how it was part of a crashed spaceship activated by the sun on the solstice days.

  He had expected Betty to react with a measure of excitement, to learn that there was a technological way to get back to their time, but she didn’t seem all that interested. She went over to one of the small circular holes in the wall that served as a window and peeked out. The sunlight illuminated her face while she waited for him to finish. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, William. I’ve decided that I’m not going back… even if you do. It just seems too risky. You’d have a better chance if I wasn’t there to slow you down.”

  “Don’t talk like that. We’ve been looking out for each other all this time. I wouldn’t go without you. Besides, don’t you want to get back to your husband?”

  She became serious. “Burt’s much older than me. He has terminal lung cancer; they gave him a year at best. My disappearing like that could not have helped his resolve. He may already be dead.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. But maybe you can change how things turn out if you go back,” William said, thinking back to his adventure with the Sun god, where he had been given an opportunity to alter events. He told Betty about the difficult choice he was forced to make in Kohunlich.

  “Sounds like you’ve already decided to stay, too,” she said with a look of revelation. “I mean, you could be home right now, living with your dad in the states in some… altered reality. But instead you chose this.” She waved her hand like a game show hostess pointing out the gifts he just won.

  William shrugged. “I guess I did.” Although it was comforting to know that he had the option to return home, Teshna remained his one lingering temptation to tip the balance in favor of staying. Besides, his family already thought he had drowned. If he tried to return, drowning could become the reality of the situation. He shook the cobwebs of his confused thoughts from his head. “Like I said before, there’s no reason to even think about that for now. It all boils down to the coming battle, and that’s still a few months away.”

  The days and weeks slipped by in a dreamlike blur for William as he fell into a comfortable routine—battle training and strategic exercises during the day, and hanging out with Teshna at night. He knew he had missed his eighteenth birthday, but it didn’t matter. The coming battle was just a few weeks away, and it was more urgent to spend his time preparing. He wanted to make it to nineteen.

  While practicing alone with his maquahuitl sword at the ballcourt—swinging at imaginary warriors with the techniques that Salmac had taught him—William was startled by Priest Quisac’s voice. “That is a strong swing,” the Serpent Priest said. He lost hold of the sword and it skidded along the plaster floor. “Do not carry your weight so far forward—it will open your back side.”

  William retrieved his obsidian-studded sword and nodded to Priest Quisac with a smile across his lightly whiskered face. He was surprised to see him because the Serpent Priest had been mostly keeping to himself since they returned from Kohunlich. William set the sword by a tree and picked up his water jug, drinking from it as he approached Priest Quisac. He sat beside him on a stone bench in the shade. “Where have you been?” William asked.

  “I have been studying the stars… looking for directions we can follow,” he said with a troubled look. “I did not predict the outcome in Kohunlich, nor did I sense danger for you there… even as it occurred.”

  William shrugged. “How could you have known?”

  “I am a Serpent Priest, Balam—in tune with the cosmic plan. It is unusual for profound events to escape my notice.”

  “I’ve heard you say that before… what do you mean exactly by cosmic plan?” William asked.

  The Serpent Priest contemplated the question, his silver eyes darting around as if trying to find the best way to explain. He snatched William’s water jug and dumped it into a puddle on the ground. While studying the water as it flowed along the cracks in the plaster floor, he pointed at the little stream with his atlatl, and followed its course as it moved along. “The cosmic plan is like a river. Sometimes it moves slowly, and sometimes it picks up great speed. It twists and turns, carving out the land as it proceeds. One may predict with some certainty that the river will ultimately find its way to the sea.” Priest Quisac stood and stepped in the path of the water; it began to collect around his sandal. “Yet one may find a way to block the river, to divert its course in another direction for a time.” The water worked its way under and around his foot; he gave William a disturbed look. “When we are not in balance with our world, the course becomes difficult to predict.”

  “An imbalance,” William mumbled, recalling what the Sun god had said. “Kinich Ahau said that I created an imbalance by being here. That’s why he wanted me to change events… to keep me away.”

  “No. You were meant to be here, Balam,” the Serpent Priest said, reassuring him. “We had predicted your arrival katuns ago. The imbalance is from the soil plague,
and the damage it has caused to our environment.”

  “Why do the gods care about our environment?”

  Several young boys entered the ballcourt, kicking a rock back and forth in a pretend ball game, not noticing William and the Serpent Priest there in the shade. Priest Quisac cleared his throat, catching their attention, and the boys ran off with guilty looks. He returned his attention to William. “The gods flourish when our people are in balance with nature. They are sustained by our prayer and sacrifice. In return, they provide abundant crops, wildlife to hunt, and healthy children. If our people disperse, and our beliefs and rituals dissolve, the gods would also lose their power to assist us.”

  William stood and stared at the sky, trying to remember something important from his conversation with Kinich Ahau. He walked part way into the ballcourt and spun around to face Priest Quisac. “The Sun god said that the soil plague drew the attention of the feathered serpents… they want to end the power of the gods. They will send the chupacabras after me… to get the bloodstone.”

  Priest Quisac nodded, seeming to understand. “The feathered serpents appear at moments in our history to control our people. The gods protect us from this. Perhaps the feathered serpents see an opportunity to weaken the gods’ protection. The Sun god used the power of the bloodstone during the Ritual of Ascension to try to prevent this.”

  William held the bloodstone in his hand, staring at it with a confused look. “What is this bloodstone, Priest Quisac? Why is it so important? How can it do so many amazing things?”

  Priest Quisac smiled, looking pleased, as if he had been waiting for William to ask him all along. “The name of the stone has evolved over the katuns. When I was a child it was still called the heartstone. But in the beginning, it was simply called Pakal’s heart.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The Serpent Priest put his hands on William’s shoulders, locking eye contact with him. “Balam, this is something that very few know. Of those that have heard, most think it is just a myth. But my knowledge descends from the Solar Cult, passed from one Serpent Priest to another, and I tell you that this is the truth.”

  “Ok, let’s hear it.”

  “The bloodstone is the heart of King Pakal of Palenque, taken from his chest upon his death nearly a baktun ago.”

  William almost laughed at the idea, but Priest Quisac’s unwavering stare confirmed that he was serious about it. William held up the bloodstone, studying it. “It seems kind of small to be a heart… and it’s so light too. If it’s just someone’s heart, why is it so smooth and have powers?”

  “Pakal the Great was the last physical incarnation of a god into the body of a Mayan king. His heart is now a gateway to the dimension of the gods, and that is the reason for its power. The heart compressed and hardened to stone over the katuns. It was polished to a smooth surface from all the hands that have held it along the way, and it has been empowered by blood and sacrifices. After the last ruling son of Pakal was captured, and his direct bloodline ended, the bloodstone was passed to the Serpent Priests of the Solar Cult… and then to the kings who protected them.”

  “You mean I have a human heart hanging from my neck?” William asked, dropping the bloodstone, feeling a little creeped out.

  “Come,” the Serpent Priest said, ushering William away. “You have spent sufficient time learning to fight. Now you must learn to control the bloodstone.”

  As the following weeks passed, William spent more time with Priest Quisac, learning to focus the imagery in his mind to make the bloodstone do different things. He felt like a superhero trying to learn his powers.

  William was not allowed to attempt the fire explosion skill again—like he had inadvertently let loose on the return from Kohunlich. Priest Quisac explained that he would need to experience sincere rage for that ability, which might exhaust the bloodstone’s remaining power in a single burst. He could, however, start small fires by focusing a small degree of his anger onto an object for about a minute, while visualizing a flame in his mind. It surprised William how difficult that was… to maintain anger on an inanimate object, like a stick, for any length of time, before becoming distracted and laughing at the absurdity of the task. But in time, he found he could do it through sheer determination.

  One of William’s favorite skills was the empowered throw. While gripping the bloodstone in his left hand he would direct all his attention to the object in his right hand. Upon throwing the object—a spear, rock, or whatever—he could make it go much further by visualizing a strong wind, while pushing it with his breath. He could also direct the projectile’s trajectory by seeing through its point of view. It was like watching through the eyes of a Kamikaze pilot crashing an airplane into its final destination. With practice, he found he could hit a target with a spear from over a hundred yards away.

  Another unique power he learned was to tap into the minds of animals, to see through their eyes. Priest Quisac said it was possible to take the skill to the next level and push the animal’s consciousness aside—to take control of its body. However, the possession skill could only be performed on animals with smaller brains, those with less resistance. Birds were the most useful animal to possess—to survey from the sky. But after the soil plague, there weren’t many birds around to practice on… only those passing through their land. Whenever William came across a bird, he would drop whatever he was doing to attempt the technique. He had to get close enough to acquire and maintain eye contact with the bird until he felt its heartbeat through the bloodstone—to sync up with its pulse. Usually, the bird could feel William invading its mind, and it would flee before he could get a firm hold. He only had one successful possession in several attempts. For a brief moment, he could actually see through a bird’s eyes, staring back at himself before losing his grip.

  Strangely, after learning the possession skill, William began to have weird dreams nearly every night, where he was flying around the jungle and hunting small rodents. During the dreams, he always sensed the bloodstone calling him from far away. He felt compelled to reach it.

  Having just those skills would have been amazing enough. Yet Priest Quisac told him that the bloodstone’s true power could only be fully utilized by focusing on positive energy. “Better to use the bloodstone’s power to heal and to shield,” the Serpent Priest said.

  The healing ability of the bloodstone was obvious to William, for he had seen how it mended his own injuries much faster than they would have healed otherwise. Priest Quisac explained that the skill could also be extended to others. There were plenty of opportunities to practice with all the cuts and sprains from the warriors-in-training. Upon holding the bloodstone against the wound, the blood circulated through the stone, and it replaced the damaged cells with some kind of super-healing cells. But the healing technique required a different mindset than the other skills, for he had to focus loving thoughts toward the injured person. At first, he found it difficult to feel genuine love for someone he didn’t know. To get around the mental challenge, he imagined that the patient was a family member—a process that ultimately brought him closer with the Mayans that he helped along the way.

  William also learned how to use the bloodstone as a shield, but he didn’t appreciate how effective that could be until the last official training event.

  The coming battle with Calakmul was just ten days away—when Venus would appear as the evening star. They had planned to separate the enemy forces, to entice them in numerous directions, into scores of lethal traps set all about the area: pits with spikes below, fields that would be lit ablaze, women archers positioned in the trees, warriors with atlatls on the hilltops, and deadly snares all about. The details of the strategy had been rehearsed over the months. If everything went as planned, William thought they just might win. His attention drifted back to the one detail in the strategy that had not yet been practiced. It was the purpose for his being there at the women’s archery range that afternoon. William took a deep breath when he saw Yax ap
proach.

  “It is time, Balam,” Yax said.

  Teshna left the line of women archers and made her way over. “I don’t like this, brother,” she said to Yax. “I am not going to take part in it.”

  “You must,” Yax said. “You are one of our best archers.”

  “Exactly. If this fails, I may be responsible for the death of Balam. Can’t it wait until the battle?”

  Priest Quisac scolded Teshna with a stern look. “Balam requires faith in the bloodstone’s ability to shield. We must practice this now so that he has confidence during the battle as well.”

  “It’s okay, Teshna,” William said with a brave smile. “I can do it. I want you there with the others. Take your best shot.”

  Teshna regarded William closely, seeming to evaluate his confidence level. “Oh, okay. But only because you asked me.” She gave him a wink.

  While following Teshna to the field behind the ballcourt, William observed more than a hundred women readying their bows, watching him with grim expressions as he passed.

  “Good luck, Will,” Betty said from her position with the other women. She gave him a big thumbs-up

  William proceeded to the other side of the clearing. He turned to face the long row of archers, feeling the intensity of their collective attention. Other citizens had gathered on the stands, gazing down from the eastern side of the ballcourt. William glanced over to Priest Quisac; he bowed slowly, reminding William to collect his scattered energies.

  William took several deep breaths, preparing himself for the skill that King Pakal had last used in battle—when the bloodstone was still a beating heart in his chest—a technique called the sun shield. He removed the bloodstone, feeling it heat up as he raised it over his head. Following Priest Quisac’s instructions, he shifted the stone in his hand until he could see the sunlight striking its center, and then chanted the command to initiate the sun shield. “K’in Chimal, Hanab Pakal,” he said over and over while moving the bloodstone in a counter-clockwise circle.