Sky Knife forced himself to his feet and leaned against the wall behind him. He reached into the pouch where he had put Stone Jaguar’s cigars.
Bone Splinter edged over to Sky Knife. “What shall we do?” he asked, his voice low and confident.
Sky Knife’s trembling hand wrapped around several cigars. “I’m not sure,” he said. “But I do know he doesn’t like tobacco.”
Sky Knife stared at the end of one of the cigars, willing it to burst into flames. Sweat trickled down his face even though the room was rapidly growing colder.
Sky Knife concentrated while the awful figure approached him. Finally, a small flame burst from the end of the cigar. He handed the cigar to Bone Splinter. “Attack him with it,” he ordered.
Bone Splinter didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the cigar and charged Cizin. The specter dodged. Bone Splinter missed his intended target of Cizin’s chest and got instead the figure’s right hand.
Hand and cigar slammed into the wall and Cizin screamed. Bone Splinter ducked as Cizin swung at him with his left hand. But the right was fixed to the wall just as surely as if Bone Splinter had run a spike through it. Cizin tugged, but his hand remained trapped between wall and glowing cigar.
Sky Knife focused on another cigar. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, finally, the cigar lit. He handed it to Bone Splinter. The warrior approached Cizin warily, then jabbed the cigar into the specter’s left hand. Cizin screamed again and yellow smoke came from his hands where the cigars touched them.
Sky Knife lit one more cigar, but it was so, so hard. He knew he would not be able to light another, so he lit the rest he had from that one.
“Pin his feet,” Sky Knife whispered as he slumped to the floor. Bone Splinter nodded and took the three remaining cigars. With two, he pinned the figure’s feet to the floor.
“What about this one?” Bone Splinter asked.
Sky Knife stared at the blotched figure quivering in agony on the wall. “Right into his heart,” he said.
Bone Splinter shoved the last cigar into Cizin’s chest. It sank into Cizin’s flesh. Cizin screamed again. Bone Splinter backed up and covered his ears. Sky Knife did the same. The screams echoed through his brain and grated against his skull like gravel.
Cizin’s entire body smoked. The yellow tendrils of smoke drifted down to the floor and disappeared into fine cracks.
“Death to you!” shouted Cizin, but the gibbering voices did not echo him this time. The terrible figure melted away little by little. His blotched skin separated from his body and slid down to the floor, becoming insubstantial as mist as it did so. Flesh dropped off Cizin in chunks, and his organs fell to the floor. Finally, only a skeleton remained.
With a final scream, Cizin’s skeleton splintered into uncountable yellow pieces and dissipated into the air. One of his eyeballs fell to the floor intact and rolled toward Sky Knife.
It faded, too, but while it did so, its gaze remained firmly fixed on Sky Knife.
It may have been Sky Knife’s imagination, but the eyeball of the death god seemed vengeful. Sky Knife swallowed heavily, convinced Cizin would remember his name in the future. It was not a comforting thought.
33
“Itzamna,” whispered Bone Splinter. “Is he gone? From Tikal, I mean.”
“I don’t know. I’m sure we can’t kill a god,” said Sky Knife. His voice cracked with weariness and his breath came shallow and shaky. “Stone Jaguar called him, but couldn’t make him go away.”
“Of course not,” said Bone Splinter as he retrieved the still-glowing cigars. He ground them out as he did so. “How could someone evil dispel evil? Even a child could see that wouldn’t work.”
“Stone Jaguar is no child,” said Sky Knife. “And he doesn’t see it. And we still have to face him.”
“Then we face him.”
Bone Splinter returned the remains of the cigars to Sky Knife. Sky Knife tried to return them to the bag, but his hands trembled violently. Bone Splinter held the bag open and put the cigars inside.
“Thank you,” said Sky Knife. “It seems I’m not much use right now.”
Bone Splinter grasped Sky Knife’s shoulder. “Don’t say that,” he said. “You got us through the cavern and killed Death Smoke. And you had the means to get rid of Cizin. You’ve been more use to us tonight than I have been.”
Sky Knife would have protested, but the earnest look in Bone Splinter’s face stopped him. He nodded.
Bone Splinter bent over to pick up Sky Knife.
“I can walk,” protested Sky Knife.
“Perhaps,” said Bone Splinter, “but for how long? You still have to fight Stone Jaguar. Conserve your strength.”
Sky Knife clenched his fists in embarrassment, but nodded. Bone Splinter was right. But how could Sky Knife face Stone Jaguar when he was so weak?
Bone Splinter walked down the corridor, but stopped after only a few steps. Sky Knife looked down the corridor.
The narrow passage was crammed with the dead, piled upon each other. The first ones must have lain down on the floor while the other had lain down in layers on top of them. They had layered themselves all the way to the ceiling high overhead.
The dead had formed a wall of flesh Sky Knife had no idea how to get through.
“Whatever he’s planning, it’s obvious he doesn’t want to be interrupted,” said Bone Splinter. “I’m all for interrupting him.”
“The tobacco juice won’t get us through that mess,” said Sky Knife. “They’re jammed in so tight, they couldn’t retreat from it if they wanted to.”
“What next?”
Sky Knife closed his eyes and thought for a moment. “Whatever Stone Jaguar is going to do, he can’t afford to expend more energy on us because his supply of power has run out. He has to use what he’s got stored because no more farmers are going to be coming his way.”
“Unless there’s another way into the cavern.”
“Could be,” said Sky Knife, “but the farmers were snared by Death Smoke’s spell. No Death Smoke, no spell.”
“So we have time to plan something without being attacked,” said Bone Splinter, “but at the same time, we have no idea how much time before Stone Jaguar strikes at the king.”
Sky Knife sighed. “That’s about it.”
“Then I say we look for another way back into the cavern. There might be hundreds of passages around here. Let’s go back to the cavern where the farmers were and start looking from there.”
“All right.”
Bone Splinter carried Sky Knife quickly back to the room and through the other narrow passage to the cavern. The balls of light that had lit it previously had disappeared. Against the immensity of the room, the glow from Sky Knife’s tattoo was pitifully small.
Bone Splinter stopped. “I don’t remember there being any steps,” he said.
Sky Knife thought back. “I don’t remember any, either.”
“Good.” Bone Splinter stepped forward again into the room. He moved slowly and put his feet down with care.
“What’s that?” someone shouted.
A woman screamed. The sound of sobbing reached Sky Knife’s ears.
“The farmers,” he said. “They’re still here.”
“Well, they can’t see to get out,” said Bone Splinter. “Any more than we can see another way back to the other cavern.”
Footsteps. Bone Splinter stopped while the other person approached them. When the other person was about six feet away, he came within the glow of the tattoo. A short, skinny farmer stood there. Grime stained his face and arms.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “And where is Ah Mun? We were told we were needed in his fields.”
“You were told incorrectly,” said Bone Splinter. “It was a trick to lure you away from your own fields.”
“I am Sky Knife.” Sky Knife tried to sound calm and confident. “I am a priest of Itzamna. I was sent by the king to find the source of our city’s bad luck.”
The farmer
looked confused. Slowly, hope crowded out the fear and confusion. He knelt in front of them. “I should have recognized you by the cloak, Lord,” he said. “I apologize for my stupidity.”
Sky Knife was embarrassed by the display. “There is a way to get out of here, but it is high on a wall on the other side of the room. I can’t stop to help you look for it right now.”
“Look above a pile of rocks,” said Bone Splinter. “It is a small crawlspace.”
The farmer bowed and backed away without looking again at Sky Knife. “Thank you, Lord,” he said.
Sky Knife waited until the farmer was well away. “He thinks I’m Stone Jaguar,” he whispered.
“To a farmer, a priest is a priest,” said Bone Splinter. “Why bother to tell one from another when they are all sorcerers?”
“Do you think they’ll get out?”
Bone Splinter hesitated. “Probably not. Not without light. You’re too weak to do that for them. Let them struggle on their own for now. If we fail in our task, Stone Jaguar will have them again anyway. If we succeed, we can worry about getting out then.”
Sky Knife nodded. Bone Splinter was right. The farmers would be on their own until the struggle with Stone Jaguar was over.
“Put me down,” said Sky Knife. “I’ve got to see if I can stand on my own.”
Bone Splinter lowered Sky Knife slowly. Sky Knife planted his feet wide and stood. He kept a hand on Bone Splinter’s shoulder, but his legs held him up.
“Good,” said Bone Splinter. “You should face him on your feet and make him grovel before you and beg for his life.”
Sky Knife flushed. “First I have to beat him.”
“You will.”
A deep rumble filled the air. It echoed in the cavern, and throbbed in Sky Knife’s gut. A small stone struck him in the shoulder.
“The ceiling’s coming down,” he gasped. Bone Splinter grabbed him and pushed him down to the floor, covering Sky Knife with his own body.
Screams came from all around Sky Knife. The high, thin shrieks of children mixed with the deeper screams of their parents.
“Looks like we don’t have a choice,” said Bone Splinter as the rumble continued and rocks rained down around them. Sky Knife felt one of them strike Bone Splinter and the warrior grunted.
“Time to get out,” said Sky Knife. “Which way?”
“I don’t know.”
Sky Knife closed his eyes and concentrated. He couldn’t remember exactly where they were in relation to the entrances to the cavern. But a small tingle on his left shoulder grabbed his attention.
“To our left,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
Bone Splinter grabbed Sky Knife and picked him up. He clutched Sky Knife close to his chest and stepped as quickly and carefully as he could.
The tingle in Sky Knife’s shoulder changed until it was in the center of his chest. “You’re going the right way!” he shouted.
Bone Splinter stopped. “The wall,” he said. He put Sky Knife down.
Sky Knife pressed himself against the wall. Fewer stones rained down from the ceiling here. His right shoulder tingled.
“To the right,” he said. He made his way along the wall. Soon he came to the pile of rocks and climbed up. The slope was steep and he sent several rocks spinning down the slope behind him. “Careful,” he shouted to Bone Splinter above the rumble.
The handholds were obvious in the tattoo’s glow. Sky Knife tried to climb, but his arms would not pull him up. He slumped against the wall.
Bone Splinter came up behind him. “Here,” said the warrior. “Hold onto the wall.” He picked Sky Knife up by the hips and pushed him up the wall. Sky Knife hooked his elbows over the crawlspace’s entrance, but he couldn’t pull himself up. Bone Splinter shifted his grasp until he had Sky Knife by the knees and he pushed him up with a mighty heave. Sky Knife slid into the crawlspace.
Bone Splinter followed him quickly.
“The farmers,” said Sky Knife. “We have to get them out.” Sky Knife tried to ignore the screams, but they cut through him like a priest’s obsidian blade.
“We have to defeat Stone Jaguar first,” insisted Bone Splinter.
“How? We can’t get to him from here.”
“Back to the pool,” said Bone Splinter. “We’ll look for another way from there.”
Sky Knife raised himself to hands and knees. Behind him, the rumble rose to a sudden shriek of rock against rock.
“What’s that?” screamed Sky Knife, but his words were drowned out by the horrible crash in the cavern. Dust billowed into his face and he choked.
Bone Splinter gagged. “The ceiling,” he said. “Itzamna. All those people…”
Sky Knife’s heart twisted in despair and tears rolled down his face, warm and salty. “We have to stop him,” he said. “We have to.”
“Go, then,” urged Bone Splinter. “Hurry. Whatever he’s going to do is almost upon us. Can’t you feel it?”
Sky Knife paused, unsure what Bone Splinter meant. A painful throbbing hit his ears as he did so and he winced. Stone Jaguar must be doing some terrible sorcery right now. Sky Knife crawled back toward the room of the zuhuy ha.
Sky Knife was tired and couldn’t move quickly. Bone Splinter half-pushed, half-prodded him through the last bit of the crawlspace. Sky Knife let himself fall down to the smooth floor of the corridor. Bone Splinter jumped down beside him, picked him up, and jogged back to the room of the water. Bone Splinter deposited Sky Knife by the water. Sky Knife let his hands and forehead sink to the floor, his energy spent. A deep exhaustion flowed into each joint, every muscle. Sky Knife felt as though he’d never move again.
“The stairs are gone,” said Bone Splinter from the other side of the pool. “May the beasts of Xibalba burn his soul slowly and roast his heart for their dinner. We will have to find another way.”
Sky Knife grunted in agreement, but the effort it cost him seemed to be too much. He closed his eyes.
Up the passage they had just come came the sound of laughter. “You are trapped,” laughed the mocking voice of Stone Jaguar. “And powerless. When I finish with the king, I will see to you.”
“No!” screamed Bone Splinter. “We will stop you.”
“Too late,” said Stone Jaguar. His voice faded away.
Bone Splinter ran to Sky Knife and grabbed his shoulders, propping the younger man up into a sitting position. “Sky Knife, we must do something—now!”
Sky Knife raised his eyes to the warrior’s. “We could get to the king.…”
“There’s no steps—and no time,” said Bone Splinter. “There is only one way for you to get the strength you need to defeat him.”
Suddenly, Sky Knife knew what Bone Splinter was going to say. He prayed he was wrong. But he knew he wasn’t.
34
“You have to do it,” said Bone Splinter. “If Stone Jaguar can take unwilling peasants and use their energy for his own use, you could take a willing sacrifice and use the energy to beat him.”
Sky Knife shook his head. “I’ve … I’ve never … I can’t!” he screamed. “I can’t.”
It would work. Sky Knife damned the simplicity of it. A volunteer—a true volunteer—was more powerful as a sacrifice than someone who came unwilling. No doubt Stone Jaguar had had to use hundreds of peasants because of that. But Sky Knife had always been taught that the perfect sacrifice would be powerful enough to move the earth, powerful enough to breach the walls of the underworlds and bring the heavens crashing down into the seas. Powerful enough, certainly, to best Stone Jaguar.
But it meant Bone Splinter’s death at Sky Knife’s hands. He couldn’t do it. Storm Cloud was his king, but he’d only met the man twice. Bone Splinter was his friend. Sky Knife didn’t have enough friends to lose one.
Bone Splinter grabbed him by the shoulders and squeezed. Sky Knife winced in pain and met Bone Splinter’s eyes. The warrior’s face reflected fear, but it wasn’t fear for himself
.
“We must do something, and this is the only way,” said Bone Splinter. He frowned and shook Sky Knife. “Do it—or I will curse you with every evil I can name.”
“I … I don’t know how,” said Sky Knife.
Bone Splinter released him. “There is nothing to know. You are a priest, you bear the Hand of God. You will do it.”
Sky Knife glanced around the cavern helplessly, anywhere but Bone Splinter’s eyes. “But there are no attendants, no other priests.…”
“It only takes one priest for a sacrifice,” said Bone Splinter. “And as for attendants, well, you won’t need anyone to hold me down.”
Sky Knife shivered at the coldness in Bone Splinter’s voice. It was the same tone with which he’d threatened Stone Jaguar in the southern acropolis after Yellow Chin’s attack. There was no doubt in the warrior’s voice, no fear. Only the sure knowledge that he would do his duty.
Sky Knife met Bone Splinter’s eyes reluctantly. He felt as if a great hand squeezed his chest and he had to bite back sobs.
Bone Splinter nodded. “There is no other way,” he said. “Come, do it quickly, before Stone Jaguar harms the king.” The warrior grasped Sky Knife’s shoulder and smiled. “I will miss you,” he said. “But we will meet again in the seventh heaven. Believe it.”
Sky Knife looked away and gestured toward the still pool of water. He couldn’t bear to think about saying goodbye. “Bathe yourself,” he said. “This is zuhuy ha, the pure water at the Navel of the World.”
Bone Splinter dropped his arm and lowered his forehead to the floor at Sky Knife’s knees. “As you will, Lord,” he said.
Sky Knife struggled to his feet while Bone Splinter removed his sandals, skirt, and loincloth and stepped into the pool.
Where should he do this? Sky Knife still couldn’t believe he was contemplating sacrificing Bone Splinter. He glanced around. Behind him, next to where the pool met the western wall of the cavern, was a boulder whose top surface was flat. Sky Knife went to it and bent over to examine it more closely. He leaned his weight on it as he did so, glad of the support.
The surface looked as though it had been ground down. No doubt it had been used as an altar before, but there was no way to know to which gods it had been sanctified. Sky Knife got out the cigars and placed them on the boulder. Then he removed the obsidian blade from its pouch and placed it next to the cigars.
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