“Menage a trois later. Does anything hurt?” I demanded.
Itabimori breathed a sigh of relief when the were-dog shook her head. “Thank Goodness.”
“What the hell happened?”
Narani raised a furry hand and pointed to a small scribbled ritual circle innocuously hidden amid a scene of ritual slaughter.
“Your Nagual left a little surprise behind. Just for us. Joy.”
Chapter 31
“I’ve heard of these before,” I said, inspecting the scribble. “Every magical discipline is capable of being corrupted. Pyromania from too much pyromancy. Fascinations from enchantment. Disregard for the value of life with Necromancy. Body magic however, is a real mine field of ‘forbidden’ spells.”
Narani and Itabimori wordlessly nodded, sitting hand in hand on the cold stone trying to recuperate from the near death experience.
“Body magic can be used to increase strength, speed, and personal physique, but the real masters in the field were supposedly able to extend this to other people as well.”
Like making were-crocodiles with super speed.
“Is that one of those forbidden spells?” Itabimori asked.
I nodded. “That ritual circle there is designed to inflict a bodily harm on someone. It could be made to do anything from cause stomach cramps, dizziness, or--”
“Or for your advanced villainy, bring your heart to an abrupt stop,” Narani finished for me.
“That’s the problem though. The ritual only affected you, even though I looked over the room before. I even remember seeing it too. Why?”
Narani licked her lip absentmindedly. “It’s because of my eyes probably. Even though I’m a were-doggy, all the real magic isn’t in my looks, but in my lookers.”
I dragged a hand down my face. “Right. That’s how you’re going to guide us past the perpetual darkness at the front door, I take it. Supernatural eye sight.”
“Bingo,” the were-dog replied, her tail wagging lazily.
“Did you figure out where the entrance to Xibalba is?” Itabimori asked.
Narani very nearly smiled. “See that big rocky hill over there? The one that looks like it’s got two horns?”
It was just as she said. The hill was hidden by green vegetation all over it except for a pair of horn like rocks jutting out of the very top. It looked like the letter ‘U’ if you squinted. Or almost like a--
“They called it Hun Came’s bowl. At dusk back in the olden days, the sun would set on the rock thing up there. It would look like a bowl getting full of the sun and then slowly consumed. At least that’s what the murals are referencing. That’s where the pilgrim went, and exactly where Xibalba’s entrance is.”
“What are we waiting for then?” I said, and rose to my feet. Itabimori followed suite.
“Wait. That was the good news,” Narani said.
“Unless the bad news is that you chipped a nail, I don’t want to hear it,” I quickly replied.
Narani wagged her lazy tail lazily. “Too bad. I’m telling you anyways. That heart stopper spell wasn’t just a spell. It was a message too. From the Nagual.”
I blinked in surprise. “How?”
“I thought he was here speaking directly to me before my heart stopped beating,” Narani said, “But if he’s a body mage then the spell was designed to tickle my ears to make it seem like he was speaking to me.”
“What could he possibly have to say to you?” I demanded.
Narani shook her head, her eyes aglow with baleful purpose. “Actually, the message was for you: ‘I thought I’d even up the stakes, Señor Locke. I’d feel just awful leaving the runners up to flounder. That’s why I let them in on a few secrets. I hope the illustrious Nine Towers agent doesn’t mind a small handicap. Heartfelt regards, Ignatio.’”
I drew in a deep breath, my mind struggling to grasp onto the ever worsening situation. Itabimori’s hand rested on my shoulder. Her palm was as warm as midday sand.
“More Nagual interference. The Magi and were-beasts got here before us. One hell of a head start into Xibalba. That means that not only do we have whatever lurks inside a ruined realm of the dead to deal with but contenders that are faster, stronger, and better equipped than we are now too.”
“Charles,” Tabi spoke, her voice doubtful, “We can’t just…”
“However,” I said, grinning wickedly. “Ignatio Nahua, the Nagual, has made a small mistake.”
Narani and Itabimori replied in unison. “He did?”
“He revealed his hand: ‘I told them’, the message said. The Nagual was never part of the race. He’d already reached the finish line, but orchestrated this whole ‘race’ as though he were in the running. Used the archaeological discovery as a trampoline to jump start his game. In reality though, he had already discovered Xibalba long before this race even got started.”
“What would he have to gain by all this sleight of hand then?” Narani asked. “If he’d won this ‘race’ long before anyone else knew about Xibalba, why would he make sure others find it too?”
“Because,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “He told me that I was unworthy of the One Death’s blessing. This implies that he thought himself worthy. Which means…”
Itabimori’s eyes widened. “Which means that the Nagual is working for a God of Death. But still, why would he bring us all to Xibalba?”
“That’s the easiest part,” I replied, all the pieces finally clicking into place. “This is the Mesoamerican pantheons we’re talking about. That she-devil practically spelled it out for me before. I was just too stupid to figure it all out.”
“Figure what out?”
“Sacrifice,” I said. “He’s brought us, the Magi and the werebeasts all here to Xibalba as sacrifices to a very evil and very thirsty God.”
Chapter 32
“I don’t believe it,” I said, staring at the crumbling rock face before me.
An hour long trek through the steaming, humid jungles amid howling wind and rain, and when we finally arrived at the supposed entrance to Xibalba, at long last, what do we find?
“You’re really unlucky, doomed agent. Looks like we’re--”
“Too late. Yeah. Story of my life,” I groaned. “Not only did those bastards get here before us, but they even took measures to make sure no one else interferes.”
“They blew up the entrance?” Itabimori asked hollowly.
“If I had to guess,” I began, “The Mabinoy did it after getting here second.”
“They’re as good as dead,” Narani added, dead pan. “Without dog guides of their own there’s no way into the underworld. Looks like we don’t have to--”
“Wrong,” I replied.
Narani perked a delicate eyebrow at my retort, rain pattering down on her angrily. The scent of wet dog reached my nose.
“Tlatani can make werebeasts of his very own,” I explained. “That means that he probably thought ahead and made several were-dogs to act as guides.”
“You sure know how to pick your enemies,” Narani said.
“It gets even better. The Mabinoy don’t have were-dogs at their disposal, but that’d be a poor excuse to give to their bosses. They have numbers. They have throw away troops, and they have professional top tier mages. They found a way past the perpetual darkness. And even if they couldn’t then surely Ajay was smart enough to keep a couple of were-dog prisoners of war on hand from the Sunken Shrine raid.”
“But if they can make it,” Itabimori began.
“Then so can we,” I finished. “And I think I know just how to do it too. Narani, you must have knowledge of Xibalba’s outlines, don’t you? Some sort of map encoded to the Bonampak murals?”
“I do,” she replied, surprised.
“Good. I need you to take us to the place where the inside of Xibalba is closest to the outer world,” I said.
“Not that easy, doomed agent. It’s far underground. However, the entrance cave stretches on for quite a while. This way.”
Overgrown mountain paths were what we walked to get to Xibalba’s now blocked front door. But now we were blazing trails that no Human had ever taken before. Thankfully the wind was blowing so hard that mosquitoes couldn’t bite.
Past bushes and branches, tree barks and puddles, Narani finally came to a dead stop in the middle of a rocky outcropping. She turned around to Itabimori and I, and simply point down.
“About twenty meters down is Xibalba.”
I grinned, “I can tell. The vegetation around here is gnarled, and doesn’t grow easy. Oppressive trees, rotten fruit, telltale signs of a place with affinity for decay.”
“How are we going to get down there though?” Itabimori asked.
“This is where you come in,” I told the snake woman.
Itabimori cocked her head in confusion.
I smiled at the gesture. “Creation magic has a lot more utility value that you use it for, you know. The fact that your favorite trick involved the roots and vines of many small plants as opposed to commanding pre grown trees is what gave me this idea in the first place. You’re going to use your roots to burrow a hole through the muddy ground and into the caverns below, and we’re all going to jump into it.”
Itabimori’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Why didn’t I think of that? Super smart, and a master of magic too. I love that big brain of yours.”
As Itabimori focused light green magic onto her palms and pressed them to the ground, a whole troupe of gnarled roots and stubborn vines answered her call. As they begun their work, I decided to tell her my dirty little secret.
“You’re wrong about me,” I said, shaking my head.
Two pairs of eyes turned to regard me.
“The reason I can think so out of the box is because I have almost no magical talent of my own,” I said.
An incredulous look passed over the two girls. Itabimori’s vines stopped burrowing to gawk at me.
“Nope. I don’t see it. You’re probably an archmage pretending to be a warlock or something,” Itabimori said, then returned back to her burrowing vines.
Total rejection?
I scoffed, “An archmage? What, because I can make a little blade of arcana on my wand? That’s novice tier.”
“Sure. What about that body magic you used to beat up that jaguar in that warehouse basement?” Itabimori
“Can’t use body magic. No talent. That was just me fighting it hand to hand. Didn’t even have my wand til the last second.”
Narani narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Itabimori looked exacerbated. Was it that difficult to believe?
“Fire magic when you saved me from the Magi!” the snake woman practically shouted.
I shook my head. “Hand grenades.”
“You’re not just some Mundane with the tiniest dab of talent, are you?” Narani asked incredulously.
“I am.”
“So all this time--” Itabimori managed to say before I cut her off.
“Are you disappointed?” I asked.
Narani and Itabimori shared a brief glance between them before they both crowded me with a zeal I’d never seen in them before.
“That’s amazing. You’re amazing! You’re beating up Supernaturals and you’re not even a mage?” Itabimori all but squealed in delight.
I felt my heart crack at the words ‘you’re not even a mage’ comment.
“I have some talent, dammit.” I said.
“That’s really something else though,” Narani added, inspecting me anew like she was looking for some hidden trick to it all. “You’re not leading us on or something, are you, Mr. doomed ordinary guy?”
“Remind me not to let you two in on any future secrets.”
Narani almost grinned. Itabimori laughed before wrapping her hands possessively around my neck.
“Well, I like you anyways. The fact that you’re ordinary makes you even more special,” she said, before frowning. “That didn’t make any sense when I said it, did it?”
It sounded like something Lis would say. I shook the thought of the she-devil out my head. It was Itabimori’s arms hanging around my neck.
“Does this mean you’re done with the tunnel?” I asked.
Itabimori nodded proudly. “Thanks to your quick thinking, and yep, it’s all set. Going down?”
As she spoke the words, her vines knitted into a neat little ladder, down into a deep black hole. My eyes peered into the yawning abyss.
“Yeah. Here goes nothing.”
At least down there we’ll be out of the rain.
Chapter 33
Every child has been afraid of the dark at one point or another. Even if they’d never admit it, or it never manifested beyond a certain uneasiness when staring into the cracked door of a closet late at night. For some, the fear never really goes away.
What people don’t realize however, is that it’s not the darkness they’re actually afraid of. The darkness is just a symptom. What people are actually afraid of is the uncertainty.
Lack of knowledge, Lis told me. That is what fear of the dark really is. It’s a fear of the unknown. Ignorance made manifest and so brutally imposed by that dark spot in our understanding that it can drive you nuts. In that darkness hides every imagined bogeyman and villain, horrible act and terrible fate the whole world over.
That’s what I was reminded of when I descended into the abyssal dark. And that’s why the first thing I did was what that she-devil taught me to do: Gather knowledge.
It’s a cave. A watery cave judging by the drops dripping from on high. Likelihood of underworld guardians is high, but that’s no great matter. I wasn’t in the dark, after all. I was just blinded for the moment. Blades of hardened arcana could still be swung and the slightest noise could tip me off.
I even had help. Others in the suffocating dark that were on my team. I had to remind myself of that fact when a clawed hand gently grabbed a hold of my wrist and led me away. With a flick, a flashlight turned on that revealed a scowling gray skinned face cast in shadow.
“Boo,” Narani said.
“Boo? Your performance wasn’t that bad,” I retorted.
“Another joke like that and any chance at rubbing my ears flies out the window forever,” Narani replied.
Pretty thin skinned for a were-dog. Still, all around me the shadows subsided. The abyss became just a really dark cave.
“Itabimori?” I called out.
“Here, just trying to shake off these shivers. Ugh, I’m going to molt out of season if we have to go through that on the way out too.”
“Narani, you’re the tour guide. Up til where can you take us?”
“See that overhang about twenty paces forward?” she asked. “That’s where my ride stops.”
Twenty steps forward and I was treated with one of the more memorable vistas in my life. Not because it was pretty to look at. It was one of those views that the morbid fascination nestled deep inside your heart doesn’t let you turn away from. Like staring at a car crash.
Sprawled out before me was a dark necropolis gloaming at the bottom of an immense beshadowed chasm. The stench of an ancient miasma pricked at my nose, and in the distance the dull roar of a waterfall reached my ears. I could tell just by looking that we were no longer fully in the Mundane realm. We must have Crossed Over into a Supernatural plane without really realizing it. Or perhaps Xibalba straddled the line between the Mundane and the Mythical.
“See those pyramid temples?” Narani pointed out. “Those are famous death traps. Even though most of those temples are ruined, they’re still chock full of danger. So don’t take this place lightly.”
“You’re being surprisingly firm with this warning. How bad could Xibalba possibly be?” I asked.
Narani’s lazy tale wagged once. “See that stream of browning gold water at the bottom?” she asked.
“Yes. Poisonous water or something?”
“Not water. Scorpions. And that temple over there is the House of Jaguars. Guess what you have to overcome when yo
u get there?”
I did a double take. “Hold on, am I hearing this right? That moving yellowish stream over there is entirely made of scorpions crawling over each other?” I asked. “What kind of maniac thought that would make a perfect conversation piece when they were first building this hellhole?”
Itabimori smiled weakly. “You must have noticed Charles, but Xibalba’s reality doesn’t completely agree with the one we’re used to. Even in the old myths the place was avoided by Mortals and Supernaturals alike.”
“Any advice before we get going then?” I asked Narani.
The were-dog nodded. “House of Razors, just past the Jaguars, was built on top of a death magic font. Beyond that you’re home free to the Altar of the One Death, if the surviving accounts are accurate. You’re bound to find the Nagual there. Oh, and stay far away from any Ball Courts.”
“Got it.”
Narani frowned. “I’ll wait here. Give him one for me too.”
Itabimori turned to me and tugged at my sleeve, “Ready when you are, Charles. Let’s crush ‘em.”
She sure had a way of beefing up a man’s confidence. We started our descent.
The stairs down from the overlook weren’t pleasant in the slightest. Slick with water, they looked like they had been carved directly into the cavern floor. One false step and I’d get a free bungee jumping lesson. Safety cord sold separately.
As we worked our way down, I caught sight of pillars in the distance, reaching all the way up to the cavern ceiling. It was only after a bit of squinting that I realized that they weren’t actually pillars.
They were waterfalls. But coming out of the cavern roof?
“It’s raining really hard up top now. Do you think it’s that hurricane that Nine Towers warned you about?” Itabimori asked.
“Strange,” I said. “It should have just struck the coast and broken up. If it were natural, at least. We need to hurry up. I have a bad feeling about this, and I’ll be damned if I’m too late to catch that bastard Nagual this time around.”
The cavern floor belonged in the opening scene of a triple A horror flick.. Vapors rose up off of it, and a chill filled the air as we approached the only bridge over the river of scorpions. I made the mistake of looking down.
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