We were going to rescue Molly. We were going to find Mahanamtz and kill him. I held onto Bas’ Green Scapular and prayed to Ix Na Li Kawa. I did not pray for Molly, or Taat, or Teul, or the other missing Warriors. I prayed for me. I looked up at Eztli who had come to stand beside me. He was staring at me, at the Raax Ch’ayom Puag that was glowing, and at my body that was faintly golden in the dark.
CHAPTER NINE
QUIRIGUÁ
K’iin 17 - The Uinal of Yaxk’in’
Wednesday, May 16, 1973
It was with the haunting whistle of the kolol that Bas kicked me into wakefulness. The camp was already stirring and the fire was roaring at the center of camp.
“Morning, Bas.” I smiled, trying not to think of what lay in the day ahead and what had happened the day before. “Still have that kick,” I said. “Just like old times.”
“I have some news,” he said. I sat up quickly. “It seems that Eztli kept checking the riverside during the night. He heard struggling in the water and wondered, at first, if it were an áayin. He called out and there was a weak answer. He jumped in and pulled Chimalli out of the river. He was almost drowned, but Nenetl and Zeltzin worked on him and revived him. He is still sleeping.”
“I must speak to him,” I said jumping up.
“You will have to wait.” I stared at Bas. “Eztli has ordered that he rest until we’re leaving. That is good, seeing what he has been through. Also, I don’t think it would be good to override Eztli’s … suggestion.”
“Fok! I need to find out what happened to the others.”
“I know. So do all of us, but you have to wait. He will be awakened in a little while as we’ll soon be on our way.”
I nodded, indignantly, then walked to the edge of the camp to piss. “Fok!” I cussed, again. I wanted to shit. I had eaten quite a bit of meat, and some of it was not thoroughly smoked, quite raw. I took a walk deeper into the bushes. When I was finished, I felt for leaves but, as it was still dark, I couldn’t be certain what type they were and certainly didn’t want to start the day with an itch or irritation in my ass-crease. I walked into the river and sat down.
Eztli came and sat in the water beside me just as the first signs of dawn began appearing in the east. “There is something I want to tell you before we reach Quiriguá,” he said.
Cha-cha-lac! Cha-cha-lac!
Cha-cha-lac! Cha-cha-lac!
“Go ahead,” I answered, not looking at him, my thoughts on what I would find as the day progressed.
I am now Nimelaj Achi of my village. If it were a city, I would be Ajaw. There are many small villages like my own scattered along the banks of the Ja’-nima’. We all give tributes of q’ä’n-jal and kakaw to Quiriguá, and Ajawal K’awill Yopaat gives tribute to the great Kingdom of Oxwitik and its dynasty in the lands of Hozanek.223 I want to unite all our villages into one dynasty and pay no more tributes.”
I turned, frowning, and looked directly at him. I had thought I had seen ambition in his young eyes as we talked at Sib Juyub, but what he said was more than I had anticipated. “I think you have more immediate problems, Eztli. Even after you have surmounted those, should you persist in your other dream, all you will do is have your people killed,” I responded. “And yourself.”
He chuckled and I stared at him, puzzled. He stood up, placing his young, muscular, almost naked body against the sunrise. “Not if you help me,” he said, and walked away. He stopped. “It is not just a dream.”
I gawked at his back, not believing what I had heard. Firstly, he told me I would train him to be a Warrior. Now, his latest revelation was that I would help him stage what was in effect a coup. I turned away and gazed at the Ja’-nima’. Its level had fallen further overnight and it was not as raging as before. Trees were still passing bye and I thought of Taat, Teul, and the other Warriors, wondering if Q’eq Ha’ Wíinik had taken them to the undercut rocks of the swollen river.224 My skin started to develop a very slight golden hue and I pulled my thoughts away from the Ja’-nima’ and Q’eq Ha’ Wíinik.
“Kaloonte’!” I turned to the voice. It was Chimalli. He seemed tall against the early sunlight.
“Sit,” I said. “Tell me what happened.”
“There were difficulties in controlling the canoe, once the Ja’-nima’ turned angry, as many of our paddlers did not have much experience in such a wo-ja’. We were pulled towards a large boulder that had been pushed upwards by Cabrakan. The water was very foamy and bursting over the large rock. Iuitl was at the bow and I was at the stern, but we could not head the canoe away as the current was very strong. As we approached, the canoe slowed down, suddenly, and the Ja’-nima’ began flowing backward. Then we began falling as if the Ja’-nima’ had opened its mouth beneath us. The canoe turned over and the Ja’-nima’ clung to us, pulling some of us down, hurling some of us over and around the boulder where we fell into a deep jul.225 The wall of the jul was about twelve hands high. We would have been able to come out, but at the bottom of the jul was a swirling sutbal-ja’226 pulling us under. I fought the Ja’-nima’ and, when I emerged above the water, I held onto a tree covered with large chiwekox, but they left me alone. As I was washed downstream, the water level fell and the tree kept slowing down as it began scraping along the river bottom. I looked for the canoe. I looked for the Warriors. I saw no canoe. I saw no Warriors. I continued floating until Kinich had left U Wach Ulew, then I saw the fire on the bankside. I left the tree and swam towards it. I almost didn’t make it. If Eztli had not pulled me from the nim-ja’, I would have drowned just off the bank.”
“And Taat?”
He shook his head. “He disappeared in the jul before the boulder.”
“Teul?”
“He was sucked down by the sutbal-ja’.”
I felt sick in my stomach. I remember Bas telling me, on the hill overlooking Chay Abaj, that I should spend more time with Taat, more time with the men. I stood up. “Do you think any of the others survived?”
“I did,” he responded. “I had to fight the Ja’-nima’ to get to the surface, but once I got there, I just let the Ja’-nima’ take me where she wanted until I found the tree. If they made it to the surface and did as I did, they may have survived.”
“I grasped at that little hope then stood up. “I think it’s time to go, Chimalli.”
Kinich Ahau was already a hand above the horizon when we left our camp, Chimalli riding with us in Eztli’s canoe. Matlalihuitl, not Eztli, was standing. Eztli had ordered one Warrior standing in each canoe to look, firstly, for the lost canoe and, secondly, for any dead or surviving Warriors on the Ja’-nima’.
We continued downstream and it was not long after that there was a shout from Iztali’s canoe. Necalli, the Warrior standing, was pointing to a clump of fallen trees on the inside curve of the river. Two feet above the surface, among the branches of an uprooted tree, was an overturned canoe. We paddled our way towards it without difficulty and Eztli quickly identified it as the missing canoe. Eztli was very pleased at finding the canoe and after retrieving it, ordered Chimalli and one villager from each of his three canoes to paddle it. He looked briefly at the clump of trees, knowing that I had already checked it. There was no one, nobody. Eztli told us to spread in parallel across the flooded plain and river, close enough to shout to each other, searching for survivors and bodies as the canoe was no longer lost.
There were still areas where the water was turbulent and boulders and trees were numerous. We searched the trees, but there was no success. About an hour later, there was a shout, again from Iztali’s canoe. He started heading to a large rum-p’ok tree that was lose and floating, still carrying its yellow-purplish-red fruits. Eztli blew the töt to catch the attention of all the other canoes and they all turned towards where Iztali was going. Necalli jumped onto the tree and reached in among the limbs and leaves. He pulled a body from the limbs, but I was unable to see who it was. He turned towards us and used his hands to indicate that the
Warrior was dead. He placed the body into the canoe and they were off again, the rest of us following. How different from the way we would have reacted in my other world. I thought that the body did not look like Taat or Teul, but it was from a distance and, perhaps, I was just being hopeful.
We approached a slight turbulence downstream which, at first, I thought was just caused by rocks near the surface then I realized it was moving and moving towards us.
“Eztli,” shouted Matlalihuitl. “There’s something moving in the water.”
Eztli stood up. The canoe did not even rock. “Get your bate’, “he ordered. I turned to see Matlalihuitl quickly pick up his bate’ then looked ahead once more to the disturbed surface. Rising above the Ja’-nima‘ was the large black head of Mahanamtz’ Bocotora clapansaya.
“Ralxik,”227 cried out Eztli, his shout emotionless.
Flashes of sunlight reflected off the bocotora clapansaya’s evil black eyes and it made a low whistling sound as air was sucked into its mouth. I felt the panic of the men in the canoe as they reacted to the obnoxious hissing sound of Ralxik that stabbed horror into both men and animals, stabbed fear into them. As I recalled what had happened when I walked up the Cockscomb Branch, the hairs on my body rose as koal seed spread over it. Slowly, Ralxik’s yellow throat began to swell about its yellow jaw and nose, until its hideous head was more than a foot across. It did not approach us, but turned and headed to a clump of trees. If it had just climbed onto the trees, there would have been no further horror other than that firmly engraved in my memories, but as Ralxik pulled its coils onto the tree it brought up two bodies, dropping them between the branches. It turned its vile head and stared at us, spittle flying from its gaping mouth as it inflated its repulsive head, once again, the eerie whistling spreading over the surface of the Ja’-nima’ until it reached us.
“Paddle!” ordered Eztli, as he brought the töt to his lips and blew after which he too sat and paddled.
I did not know whose bodies they were and I wanted to retrieve them, but I knew that was impossible. It would also be dangerous and foolish. Everyone in the canoes paddled looking forward, except me. I kept looking back at the tree. Eztli told me nothing.
“Fok you!” I shouted. The men saw me staring, my skin beginning to develop its golden hue, and turned to look, their paddling halted for the
moment. Ralxik had one of the bodies in its jaws, holding it straight in the air. The body began disappearing down its throat.
“Achaq!” exclaimed Eztli, standing up. “That is no way for a Warrior to begin his journey to Xibalba.” He looked very angry. He picked up his bate’, held it high in the air. “One day we will meet again kaan, for that is all you are, a lowly kaan.” He hit his chest in tribute to the Warrior. Every one of my Warriors in each canoe hit his chest, followed by Uwa-Uwa-Roarrr! Uwa-Uwa-Roarrr! Eztli sat again. “Paddle!” he shouted, gruffly. “You too, Chiac.”
We continued downstream, one Warrior standing in each canoe as we continued scouting the area, especially the trees and floating debris for any signs of the remaining four missing Warriors. There were none. Also, we saw no evidence of villages along the banks and Eztli and Matlalihuitl spoke softly to each other, almost continuously. Occasionally, we saw mud covered cleared areas large enough for a village, but there were no huts, no signs of life. The nine canoes lined up parallel as before, moving quickly with the still increased current and our steady forceful paddling. So far, four of the eight missing Warriors had been accounted for and only one was alive. One was at the bottom of Iztali’s canoe dead and the other two provided a meal for Mahanamtz’ Bocotora clapansaya, Ralxik. Four were left. I tried to concentrate on my paddling, but it was difficult. Uncertainty was the instrument of pain. It brought the most agony possible to the human mind. We had gone about another half k’ab when Eztli spoke.
“The trees, Chiac. They have lost many of their leaves and many of their branches are broken.”
I looked. I had been searching the floating debris more that the banksides and had not noticed the change that was occurring.
“It looks like a chakik’at228 was here,” Eztli continued. “U K’ux Kaj229 has been angered. He must have sent the chakik’at and all the rains that caused the Qas Nim Wo-ja’ to punish us.” He frowned deeply and looked up to the sky. “I have heard citizens of Quiriguá speak of big winds and high water coming in from the Nohoch Atz’am Ja’.”
I pushed my mind to my other world. The damage to the jungle was definitely from the effect of high winds, the flooding would not have been so high and the earthquake would not have caused that type of damage. I knew that Quiriguá was some sixty miles from the coast; yet, it was May, probably too early for hurricanes. But I also knew that to have a hurricane or tropical storm in May was not unheard of. I remembered Bas telling me one morning during Expedition Bold that there was a tropical storm off the coast in February, 1952. My thoughts were interrupted.
“Go to the bankside,” ordered Eztli, pointing to his right. “Now!” I hesitated a bit, looking to the right, trying to see what was there. “Keep paddling, Chiac!” he barked. I looked up at him. I am really going to cut out this little foka’s u-ye’el-toons. I was about to remind him that I was Kaloonte’, but remembered that, when I had spoken to him earlier, I had given him just my name, Chiac, not Kaloonte’, and so he had put himself in charge. Upstart! I had to admit to myself, however, that he was proving himself … and I was getting to like the foka. I picked up the pace again.
As we turned to approach the bankside, however, I saw someone gesticulating from a fallen tree that was still attached to the bankside. I heard his shouts, but could not make out if he were one of my Warriors or a trapped villager. We paddled in his direction and as we got close enough, I saw that it was Iuitl. My hopes increased, possibly unreasonably, for Iuitl was Taat’s mate that guarded him when we were escaping from Xibalba. I saw someone beginning to stand beside him. It was not Taat. It was the woman Yoloxochitl that Teul had taken in his section. I didn’t see anyone else and my heart plummeted as our canoe and Chimalli’s reached the tree together.
Iuitl looked at Eztli, who was standing, then at me, showing no undue excitement at being rescued. His eyes went back at Eztli. “Nabe Ajch’o’j,” he said. Eztli nodded. He then came back to me. “Kaloonte’!” I nodded.
Eztli indicated to Chimalli’s canoe. “Get in. Both of you.”
“I have another,” advised Iuitl. “I will need help as his legs are hurt. They are swollen, bruised, and may be broken.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It is Taat,” he answered. I started to get up.
“Achaq! Sit, Chiac,” ordered Eztli. “You will capsize the canoe.” I stopped and looked up at him, angrily. “He will get the help he needs.” Eztli indicated to two of his villagers from Chimalli’s canoe and they got up and climbed onto the tree. Shortly after, the four of them were bringing Taat from within the tree and placing him in their canoe. Taat looked at me and nodded, but I could see that he was in pain; yet, he did not cry out.
“Iuitl!”
“Kaloonte’!”
“We still have no accounting for Teul.”
Iuitl shook his head. “When the canoe turned over, some of us were pulled into a violent sutbal-ja’ towards the bed of the Ja’-nima’. A strong current, the very arms of the Ja’-nima’, held me and pulled me through a narrow space between two rocks then pushed me upwards through fighting white waters.230 I felt the bodies of other Warriors going with me. When I surfaced, Yoloxochitl, Taat, and Teul were with me.”
“Teul!” I exclaimed. Eztli frowned at me.
“Yes, Teul. But then we got separated.”
“How?” I demanded.
Iuitl looked very disheartened, but continued. “When we reached the surface, we supported each other and allowed the power of the Ja’-nima’ to carry us. It would have been deadly to fight it. Everything was okay, at first, but then we came onto more boul
ders and the strong arms of the Ja’-nima’ tore at us, pulling us apart. We tried to stay together, but couldn’t. We were all hurled against the rocks, but, as the water was pouring over the rocks, we were thrust over them, thankfully receiving only bruises and scratches to our bodies, not to our heads; that is, except Teul. When I saw him again he seemed dazed and I saw that he was bleeding from his forehead. I shouted at him, asking him if he were okay. He nodded. We looked for Taat and saw that his feet had become stuck in a narrow space between two rocks and the strength of the waves was battering his body, swinging him about. Just behind the rocks was an area of calm and the three of us were in it. Luckily, the rocks rose above the water in places and Teul and I were able to climb up and free Taat. His feet were damaged and he had almost drowned by then, but came back to himself after a while in the calm behind the rocks. We were not able to stay on the rocks as they were covered with moss, and slippery; also, the waves suddenly shifted, wanting to hurl us against and between the rocks. Teul, Yoloxochitl, and I held onto Taat as we pushed ourselves once more into the swift arms of the Ja’-nima’, hoping to find a tree on which to pull ourselves up.
“We saw trees, but they were passing us quickly and were always too far away. Then one came down upon us. It was a Sacred Yaxché. I knew then that the gods wanted to save us, at least some of them. That’s why they sent the Sacred Yaxché to help us rescue ourselves. Yoloxochitl was able to climb on quickly while Teul and I tried to get Taat onto the tree; but we were like obstructions in the water and the water began to pile up upon us and drag us under. Yoloxochitl grabbed Taat, and with her help, Teul and I gave Taat a great heave, lifting him and pushing him onto the branches of the tree. I quickly followed. I turned around to help Teul.” Iuitl shook his head. “He was not there. We continue floating. Kinich Ahau left, came back, and we floated. But Taat was having difficulties and the tree would roll, at times. Luckily, we came to the calmer waters and when we passed near to this bank, Yoloxochitl and I got into the water with him and came here. Once Teul had disappeared, we did not see him again.” I held my head and sank as low as I could into the canoe.
Sisimito III--Topoxte Page 15