“Perhaps, we should go,” suggested Ajawinel K’an II, looking at his Nim-q’ij Nah’. “You do not look well and there’s nothing more we can do here.”
Lady Batz’ Ek’ stared at Chiac then looked at Xico. “I will leave, Nim-q’ij Nabe Kaloonte’. See that the Ah-k’inob and his priests’ efforts are strong. If they hesitate, remove their hearts. If the physicians do not arrive very soon, send Warriors to drag them here.” Xico hit his chest.
Ajawinel K’an II stared at his nah’ as they walked away. “I am puzzled. When Fuck was first here, you ignored him. Why are you so interested in him now? So interested in saving him that you will kill priests?”
“Then,” she answered, “Fuck was just a stranger. An oddity. He had no influence on us or on our people. Now he has returned and he holds this empire in his hands. Didn’t you see the response of the citizens? I may yet have to kill him, but, firstly, I have to understand him and what it is that he and Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ have brought to our kingdom. I must know the real truth. I must know why they have returned. You should too.”
Lord K’an II frowned. “I don’t grasp what you say.”
“The ch’ayom puaq of cloth. Did you see it glow?”
“I thought that was because of the powder Ah-k’inob Coatl threw on it.”
“Don’t you remember what happened at the Ch’ajch’oj Tz’ono’ot384 when Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ dove into it? The Raax Ch’ayom Puag she wore
filled the air around us with the same color of ya’ax-chich. We, all our citizens, were amazed.”
“That was a ch’ayom-puaq of ya’ax-chich. It was the one Fuck made for her. Kinich Ahau was beaming reflections off the ya’ax-chich. That’s all it was. That was his Blessing.””
Lady Batz’ Ek’ shook her head. “ Ya’ax-chich. Cloth. Shell from the Nohoch Atz’am Ja’. Chay. It does not matter. It is the power the carved image holds that is our concern.” She turned and took her son’s hands. “Sak Witzil Baah,”385 she said, using K’an II’s boyhood name. “It has always troubled me that you wear the image of the one Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ calls Ix Na Li Kawa. Wearing it openly on your chest, as you would your battle armor, has made you enemies. Now, many conspire against you. Even here in Ox Witz Ha … and now the strangers have returned. Even the Nim-q’ijs and citizens who support your new beliefs are cautious about Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’, the woman who has no thumbs. The fact that she has no thumbs is regarded by many as a bad omen and the Chilans play on this.”
“What I wear around my neck is just a ch’ayom puaq with a foreign image. It was given to me by the woman of the Warrior who helped me save Ox Witz Ha. I wear it in their honor. The fact that she has lost her thumbs … she has lost her thumbs, that’s all.”
“You do not know what you wear, Paal. That Raax Ch’ayom Puag has the power to change this land. It has the power to change everything about us, our people, our beliefs. It will not only lay waste our temples, but also our gods.” She hesitated then added, “And I feel that the great T’oit’ik-jolom of Ajawinel K’an II of Ox Witz Ha will have a lot to do with it, whether he’s aware of what he’s doing or not.”
“Have you discussed this with our Chilans?”
Lady Batz’ Ek’ smiled, sadly. “I do not discuss these things with our priests. They are all influenced by the Ahau Can Mai and do not see beyond his beliefs. It is I who have seen. The Raax Ch’ayom Puag with the image of Ix Na Li Kawa will bring about the Fall of an Empire.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FLIGHT FROM THE DARKNESS OF K’AAS (EVIL)
K’iin 17 - The Uinal of Mol
Thursday, May 24, 1973
Sweet smoke. Not the smoke of the a’kl, but the sweet smoke of the Sacred Pom. I breathed in deeply and was overwhelmed by my exhaustion. I opened my eyes into darkness then slowly become aware of a light in the corner of the room I was in. There were people around me, rubbing me, pulling at me, praying and shouting incantations. I was sweating. I was cold.
“He’s awakening.” I knew the voice and I tried to smile, but I felt that I was once again going into darkness as the flame from the lamp in the corner began to darken.
“Fight!” shouted the voice. “You are T’oit’ik-jolom. Fight! Don’t drift back.”
I heard the incantations become louder, with urgency, and I fought to keep my eyes open. I felt the many hands over my body. I sensed them urging me to expel what lay within me, but I was weak. I felt someone grabbed my arm, then took my hand and placed it over Bas’ … my Green Scapular. I knew it was the Green Scapular for I was aware of the stains of Bas’ blood on it. And there was warmth, the warmth that was always there when I was in danger and needed that warmth.
“The ch’ayom-puaq of cloth glows,” said the voice, and the room around me grew brilliant as the flames in the incense burners turned green and reached out towards me.
“Fight, Fuck. Fight. Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ needs you. Do not go back. Ix Na Li Kawa is with you.”
I fought. I fokin fought. I perceived Mahanamtz’ evil holding me, struggling to keep me in a land of darkness. I heard the crazy cry of the kos, Wah-co!-wah-co!-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, pecking viciously at my mind. So, I fought. I held tightly onto my Green Scapular, taking in its warmth. I forced my eyes to remain open as I held onto the green flames surrounding me as they began comforting my cold and sweating body. I screamed out in terror as bate’s and ch’abs tore into my fingers and my toes, then stabbing and cutting they furrowed upward to my chest.
“Fight! Fight!” came the voice again.
And I fought. But the excruciating pains were crushing me as they moved up my limbs towards my chest. I felt my heart tearing at my ribs, wanting to escape the advancing bate’s and ch’abs. I sensed the Ah-nakom inserting his terrible and sharp chay knife into me, just under my ribs and through my diaphragm, cutting out my heart, removing it, and then showing it to me as it still beat and I slowly died.
Another voice, one I didn’t recognize. “I don’t think his heart can hold.”
The incantations grew louder and there was the touch of hands and cold liquids on my chest.
“Fight! Fight!” came the voice again.
Then there was yet another voice. It was a sweet voice, so different that I forgot the terror I was in, so sweet that I forgot the pain. And She spoke to me as She did by the Ch’ajch’oj Chiyul,386 and She said, Come to Me, Eutimio Chiac. Come to Me. Have you so little Faith in Me, Eutimio Chiac?
And I continued fighting ferociously as I forced her image into my mind. In all my darkness, I held onto my Green Scapular and I fought. My chest wanted to explode, to implode, and, once again, the pain was brutal, but I endured it because She spoke to me and I thought only of Her voice. From somewhere in the dark world I had been plunged came shouts from Choj and Bo. Think only of winning the game. Think only of winning the game. Then I heard the shouts of the spectators, the shouts of my people, Ke’kchi! Ke’kchi! Ke’kchi! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Ke’kchi! Ke’kchi! Ke’kchi! And I fought and I played the deadly game as only I could play it and my chest gripped my heart and drove out the rupturing bate’s and ch’abs. Then, suddenly, I was calm. I breathed slowly. I was at peace.
As in a dream, I saw Choj and Bo. They cradled me in their arms. I saw Yochi, Chalchiuitl, and Xico kneeling beside me. There were priests around me, one of them holding a nearly unconscious Ah-k’inob on his lap, the others swinging their incense burners and talking quietly among themselves. The Ah-k’inob looked weakly at Xico. “It is over. Let him sleep.”
“I will inform the Lady Batz’ Ek’.”
I began to drift, I was so tired. But I drifted not into darkness, but into the soft and calming emerald light of the Raax Ch’ayom Puag on which I had carved the image of Ix Na Li Kawa, and into world of Kaab Ya’ax of the Yaxché where my friend, Noh-il, awaited me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A
MEETING WITH K’ AN II
&
nbsp; K’iin 26 - The Uinal of Mol
Friday, May 25, 1973
“So, you’re alive,” said a voice I knew.
I looked towards Choj and Bo. They were seated just beside me, dressed only in their loincloths. I smiled weakly. “Choj. Bo. My friends. My achalals. You are here.”
“Of course, we are here,” smiled Choj. “We have always been here. It’s you we weren’t sure about.”
“We didn’t think you’d even be coming back to Ox Witz Ha,” said Bo. “And what an entrance you made. Turned the city upside down.”
“I thought we’d have to build a pyre. Send you off to Xibalba as the T’oit’ik-jolom you are.”
“I am done with Xibalba,” I said, trying to sit up, unsuccessfully.
“You need to rest,” said Choj. “Coatl says it will be a few days before you can take a woman to your mat.” They were grinning and I tried to, but it was a weak grin.
“I don’t have a few days,” I said. “So, I am in Ox Witz Ha.”
“Yes,” Choj looked at me. “You have been very ill, Fuck. Very ill. There were many times we thought you were gone.”
I frowned, trying to remember. “I don’t remember anything. The last thing I was doing was travelling through the jungle after the battle with the Hach-k’ek’en Ajchaq’e and his drove of hach-k’ek’ens.
“You were wounded by an enchanted hach-k’ek’en. You were poisoned,” said Choj.
I felt my leg. I felt the scars. I looked around. “Where are the others?”
“They are all here. My al-ch’utin-nan387 has seen to it that they are all well looked after. Your Ukab Kaloonte’ Yochi, Xico, and Ehecatl have been in and out.” Bo grinned. “They definitely got on the Ah-k’inob’s nerves. They’ll probably be back soon. As Kinich Ahau is directly overhead, they went to eat. Zyanya’s wife, Chalchiuitl, did not leave your side until she was sure you were out of grave danger. Lady Batz’ Ek’ has begun speaking to her even though she’s from Naj Tunich. That’s almost unbelievable.” He grinned again. “Coatl did not like that Chalchiuitl kept giving him orders.”
I tried to sit up. “Rest, Fuck,” urged Choj. “Ah-k’inob Coatl was very emphatic before he left. He ordered that you must rest.”
“Who is Coatl? I know that name from somewhere in the past.”
“He is the Ah-k’inob that cured you. Do you remember him?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t have the time now to concern myself about that. I must speak to Ajawinel K’an II.”
Choj sighed, as if resigned. “Yochi and the Warrior Teul have spoken with K’an II. They briefed him on how you arrived at Xibalba, the march to Ox Witz Ha, and why you are here.”
I was immediately perturbed. “What all did they tell him?”
Choj chuckled. “I thought you’d want to know that.” He stretched. “Yochi told him about the trials, the battle to leave Xibalba, and all that happened on the journey to Ox Witz Ha. It was then Teul’s time to talk. He insisted, actually. Incidentally, K’an II was told that Teul had introduced himself on his journey as Teul, T’oit’ik-jolom of Ajawinel K’an II of Ox Witz Ha.”
“So, you have met Teul.” They both nodded.
“Quite a … Warrior,” said Bo, with some mirth.
I shook my head. What has he gotten into already! “Yes. He did introduce himself as such. I had planned to deal with him on that issue.”
“Don’t worry. My al-ch’utin-nan found it … amusing. Unfortunately, there is also the affair of Sacnite, Xochitl, and Xipilli, and that of the Alixel Moyolehuani which has now been … awakened; and there is the other. But to continue, Teul said that you were getting married to Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ when Mahanamtz and his Kechelaj Komon attacked. Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’ was taken away and you set off in pursuit. When K’an II asked how you came to be in Xibalba, Teul said that Mahanamtz and his Kechelaj Jupuq forced you into a nim-ja’ and you were all drawn into the swift current of an underground nim-ja’. When you awakened, Yochi had found you. When K’an II asked Teul for more details of the wedding and where you started your journey, Teul spoke very little saying only that the wedding was in Pusilhá. K’an II knows that Teul is not telling the full story. You have told Bo and me you are not from Pusilhá, but we have told no one. It is dangerous, Fuck, for a Warrior not to tell the truth to his Ajawinel. That Warrior may lose his heart to the knife of the Ah-nakom on the stone. But K’an II is not angry. Yet, he is curious why you, Fuck, and now Teul, hesitate to tell us where you are really from. We are also curious, my friend, especially since you have returned. You have told us where you are not from, but not where you are from, and you have returned.”
“Fok!” I whispered, under my breath.
“We trust you, Chiac. Don’t misplace that trust.” Choj took in a deep breath, looked at Bo then they both seemed to relax. “Ajawinel K’an II is readying Warriors to assist you. He has also met with the envoys and is arranging help for the southern cities that have been destroyed by the K’o-chuq’ab Kiäqiq’-jab, the Qas Nim Wo-ja’, and the K’o-chuq’ab Kabraqan. Your Warriors are speaking of their great adventures. The stories will keep our scribes and artisans busy for many tuns and the demand for iztāc-octli and mats has been greatly increased.” Choj and Bo looked at each other, raised their eyes and grinned, roguishly.
“Is that really so?” I asked, feeling relieved that I was among my friends, once again.
Choj indicated with his hand to Bo. “Yes! And the priests are very unhappy that as the stories spread, you are spoken of by the citizens as Ox Witz Ha’s greatest T’oit’ik-jolom, blessed by Ek Chuah himself. The story of the q’aq’-puaq color of your skin has already spread. We don’t know who is responsible for that, but it is one of the favorites even though no one has seen it. Is that true?” I sighed and nodded. “Yes, there are problems. Some say Ek Chuah, others say that it was the Blessings of Ix Na Li Kawa. Some don’t know which to say, so they say both. The priests say it is a heresy and they fear that your name threatens their lives, their beliefs, and because of your closeness to the Ajawinel and the growing veneration of the citizens, they also fear that the Ajawinel will now have the complete support of the citizens to bring about the changes he wants.”
“Veneration?”
“Yes.”
“I am just a Warrior,” I said.
“We’re not sure about that. There is another issue,” cautioned Bo, and he grimaced gravely, looking at Choj.
“K’an II is happy, but also unhappy, that you killed the Ahau Can Mai.”
“Fok!” I held my head. “He deserved it.” I looked at Choj and Bo. “So, he knows already.”
“Yes, but it is not known in the city, as yet, and whether or not he deserved it is not the issue,” warned Bo. “The hierarchy of the priests throughout the kingdoms will want your blood and your heart. If they can sacrifice you, the great T’oit’ik-jolom, the citizens will fear them more and hesitate to follow the beliefs that the Ajawinel is putting in place. The priests are already saying that K’an II is practicing heresy by wearing the Raax Ch’ayom Puag that carries a glyph that says that Itzamná has a nah’.
“But the Ah-k’inob. He and his priests helped to cure me.”
“Choj laughed. “They did, but that was because of Lady Batz’ Ek’. The physicians were also here, stuffing you with all sorts of medicines, looking after your sores. I am sure that Lady Batz’ Ek’ thinks that they, rather than the priests and their incantations, were responsible for your recovery and it is not good to argue with her.”
“Stuffed?”
Choj and Bo both laughed loudly. “Well, most of the times you couldn’t eat or drink,” said Choj. “They had to get the medicines into you, so they pulled apart your legs and stuffed your xut’. Couldn’t give you balche’, however. You were too ill for that.” My face must have shown some kind of disgust for they laughed even more loudly. “It worked. The sores are drying up and you’re here. You do look as spotted as
the ek baläm, though.”
“Anyway, Fuck,” sighed Bo, “The priests are already reminding the citizens that our gods are very powerful and we should not invoke their divine anger. If they can arrange your capture by another kingdom, they will say that it was the power of the gods that allowed it and they would then demand that you be sacrificed and sent to the Underworld.”
“Can’t your al-ch’utin-nan, K’an II, stop them?”
“You have made it very difficult for him to help you. When the news is broken that you killed the Ahau Can Mai, if K’an II protects you, civil war could result. The Ajawinel will hold the safety and prosperity of Ox Witz Ha above the life of a T’oit’ik-jolom, even if he is a friend. You must leave Ox Witz Ha as soon as you can. As we said, Warriors are being readied for you so that you can continue your mission to rescue Xch’úup Xma’ K’aaba’. You must not be captured. Whichever battle you fight, you must win. If you don’t, you must kneel before your Ukab and have him plunge his bate’ into your heart. You cannot return to Ox Witz Ha without victory.”
“Oh fok! What a mess!” I definitely won’t have Yochi stick his bate’ into me. I looked around, pleadingly at Choj and Bo. “Help me to sit.”
Choj and Bo grinned again, Choj shaking his head, both back to their old selves. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to keep you down.” They helped me sit, my back against a wall.
They stared at me. “What?” I asked.
“Don’t you think it’s time you told us everything, Fuck. We have won the ballgame together. We have fought and travelled together. We did the blood-letting together. We are achalals. When will you tell us everything? My al-ch’utin-nan needs to know. You owe it to him.”
I frowned. “I don’t know if that would be good.” I shook my head trying to clear the fuzziness that still held it. “Owe it to him?”
Sisimito III--Topoxte Page 37