by Layton Green
Just as Caleb was about to sound the alarm, the rustling faded into the undergrowth. The boy’s quivering continued for some time, and Caleb whispered soothing words and stroked his back until he relaxed again. After a while, the sounds of the night returned, an owl hooted outside the cave, and the boy laid his head on Caleb’s chest and grew so quiet that Caleb had to lean up to hear his breathing, just to make sure he was okay.
As Caleb lay awake in the darkness between Marguerite and Luca, as far from his friends and family and everything else he knew as one could possibly get, he had the surprising revelation that, despite the ever-present dangers of the journey and his utter lack of knowledge as to what the future held, he had never felt so at peace.
-37-
Both the spider web and the moldy voice in Will’s head disappeared. Instead, he found himself standing with Gunnar and Mateo and Selina near the top of a staircase made of huge limestone blocks. His stomach lurching with emotion, Will spun, looking for Mala and his brother.
There was no sign of Caleb, but Mala was standing on the step behind Will, her hand on the hilt of her dagger and looking just as confused as everyone else. He pulled her fiercely into a hug.
Instead of pulling away as he expected, she gripped his arm, then looked at Gunnar and back at Will, as if she, too, had faced an impossible choice.
So none of it was real, then. Somehow the sorcerer king reached out from beyond the grave, outside of the pyramid and across Urfe and into his brother’s head—Will steepled his fingers against his temples. Of course he didn’t do that. The answer to the question about my past was right here, inside my own head. As was everything else. His feelings for Mala, his fear of spiders . . .
Will turned and slammed a palm into the wall. “We’re coming for you, you bastard! Do you hear me?”
The pyramid was as silent as a tomb.
As Will’s anger ebbed out of him, the fear returned in full. With a shudder, he forced himself to concentrate on his surroundings. A few steps above him, the staircase dead-ended at a wall. He walked up to probe the barrier with his sword. It was solid stone.
Fifty feet below, a white light beckoned. Nowhere to go but down. As the party descended, Gunnar said in a numb voice, “I remember the nature of the fourth test now. What it was supposed to involve.”
“And?” Mala asked, when he didn’t continue.
The warrior’s eyes slipped towards Mala. “The heart. A terrible sacrifice of the heart.”
When they reached the bottom step, the origin of the light source was revealed. A short passage with a rounded ceiling led into a huge arena of some sort, lit by a bleached white glow that illuminated a rectangular playing field of packed dirt. On either side of the arena, high stone walls slanted up and away from the ground.
Wary and uncertain, the party stepped into the arena. High above loomed a ceiling made of rough black granite. The dirt floor was smoothly groomed, like the infield of a baseball diamond. Will pointed at the wall on the far side. Fifteen feet up, the face of a circle, two feet in diameter, had been cut into the stone.
Will knew what this was. He had seen pictures back home of the ancient ball game played by the Mayans and other Amerindian cultures. Though he couldn’t remember all the details, he thought the object was to throw a ten-pound rubber ball through the circle. It seemed simple, but it was a violent game with no rules. Serious injuries and death were commonplace.
And that was on Earth.
As if in response to his thoughts, a thump emanated from the far side of the field, and he looked up to see a gray ball the size of a basketball rolling across the field. It stopped just short of them, crunching softly into the dirt.
Will turned to inspect the wall above the passage they had just walked through.
There was no corresponding stone circle on their end.
After Mala toed the ball with her foot, Will bent to pick it up. It was made of dense rubber and was quite heavy. If he stood right under the circle, he thought he could toss the ball high enough to get through, but it wouldn’t be easy.
As soon as he picked up the ball, a doorway cut into the wall on the far left side of the arena creaked open, and out stepped five beings from Will’s darkest nightmares. The leader was a nine-foot tall skeletal humanoid with a forked tongue as long as Will’s arm, a necklace made of shrunken heads, and a rigid black snake that served as its staff. The shortest creature, about Mala’s height, was a squat green monstrosity covered in pus and open scabs and wielding a spiked club. A third had skin like bark, thick branches growing out of its skull, and a coiled rope ending in a noose in each hand.
Another walked with a simian lope, had gray skin and arms that dragged the ground, and tentacles that writhed on either side of its mouth. Last was a hulking crimson beast bunched with muscle and almost as tall as the skeletal leader. Tiny suckered appendages covered its arms and legs, and it carried a broadsword, as well as a bag slung over its scaly shoulders.
“The Archdukes of Xibalba,” Gunnar whispered. “Devils. Hell spawn.”
“How are they beaten?” Mala asked. “In the stories?”
Gunnar gripped his war hammer, still bleeding from the knife wounds the healing potion hadn’t closed. “They aren’t. But myth tells of how Hunahpu and Xbalanque escaped Xibalba by defeating two of the archdukes in a ball game.”
“Lucky us,” Will muttered. “We get five.”
“One apiece, then,” Mala said, twirling her sash as the five creatures fanned out in a line and advanced on the party. Diseased flesh dropped off the pus devil as it walked.
Will shook off his dread and focused. “Might as well try this the easy way. Selina, can you fly with that ball? Try to throw it through the circle?”
The sylvamancer used her magic to pick up the rubber ball and soar into the air. The archdukes kept advancing. Twenty feet separated them from the party. As Selina flew over their heads, arms extended to toss the ball through the circle and hopefully end the trial, the bark devil turned and launched one of his ropes at her. The coiled rope unfurled and the noose snagged one of her ankles. The creature yanked and brought her crashing to the dirt. She arrested her fall at the last moment, landed on her feet, and thrust her hands at the monster’s chest. Will heard the rush of a wizard wind, but the bark devil and the other archdukes barely flinched.
“Magic resistant,” Mala said grimly. “I feared as much.”
Those were the last words before the battle began in earnest. The huge crimson beast stalked towards Gunnar, and Will noticed in horror that its suckered appendages were little fanged mouths that opened and closed in hunger.
As the pus devil squared off against Mateo, Mala threw her sash at the tall bone devil. The skeletal being grinned as the weighted ends wrapped around his neck and clanged against his skull without effect. Short sword and curved dagger in hand, she sprang forward to cut him down at the knees, but he blocked both blows with a sweep of his snake staff. On the backswing, the head of the staff came alive and lunged at her.
Will didn’t have time to watch his friends or keep track of the ball. The gray-skinned devil flung both of its long arms at Will, scraping at his leather armor with fingernails as sharp as daggers. Will stepped back and blocked the blows with Zariduke, disappointed when the monster didn’t disappear with a snip of blue-white light.
Whether these beings were actual archdukes from the Mayan hell dimension or some twisted hybrid creation of the sorcerer king, they weren’t going to disappear with a touch from his sword.
Instead of falling back as Will expected, the devil thrust its head towards him, and the tentacles around its mouth tried to latch onto his face. As Will recoiled in horror, the gray devil’s fingers reached around to lash his back, ten dagger tips stabbing him from behind. He screamed.
Stay calm, Will. Stay calm or you’re dead.
Will shook off the pain and created distance with a snap kick to the monster’s chest. Closing in for the kill was not an option, he realized. Tho
se tentacles would tear his face off.
His sword thrusts took nicks out of the gray man’s long arms, but the creature didn’t react to the pain and never seemed to tire. Will risked a glance to the side and didn’t like what he saw.
Mateo’s sword had a greater reach than the pus devil’s club, but his cousin’s supple blade didn’t seem to cause any damage when it connected. Non-magical weapons, Will realized, could not harm the archdukes. He thought the two combatants equally matched until the pus devil tore off hunks of its own flesh and tossed them at Mateo, causing a smoking wound wherever they made contact.
Selina had managed to free her ankle from the noose but, her power waning and far removed from her preferred sylvan battleground, she was in a fight for her life against the bark devil. Will feared the fight was over when the devil snagged Selina’s foot again and dragged her forward, its head lowered to spear her with the branches growing like antlers out of its head. Mateo noticed and rushed to her defense, whipping the bark devil with his sword. The weapon had little effect, but it distracted the monster long enough for Selina to transform into a small rhinoceros that burst out of the noose and met the bark devil head to head. A fierce battle ensued, and Mateo paid for his decision with a club lash from behind.
Gunnar and the crimson behemoth stalked each other in a slow circle. As the big man kept his eyes trained on the broadsword, the archduke flung the sack on its back at Gunnar’s feet. The warrior leapt back as the sack burst, causing gallons of red liquid to splash over him. The crimson devil roared in delight as Gunnar slipped and fell, covered in blood.
Will started to despair. The archdukes had the edge in battle and did not seem to tire.
But the party didn’t have to win, he reminded himself. Assuming the arena was not a cruel diversion, they just had to put the rubber ball through the circle at the far end.
This fight would be won with their minds, not their swords.
It was hard to think of a viable strategy while keeping the gray-skinned devil at bay, but Will had no choice. He dropped back slowly, allowing his opponent to gain ground but freeing his mind to think. He forced himself to eliminate the human component of the battle, the terrible price of defeat.
How can I move my chess pieces to win this battle? What are my advantages, my variables?
He fought his way next to the Selina-rhinoceros. “Create more of them,” Will said.
The powerful animal tilted its head in a quizzical manner.
“The rubber balls,” Will said. “Can you make more?”
The rhino snorted and backed away. Moments later, Selina transformed back into human form and caused nine more of the rubber balls to appear, right beside the real one, which was lying near the passage where they had entered.
“Send them through,” he said. “All at the same time.”
With a sweep of her arms, the sylvamancer caused all ten balls to rise into the air and commingle, then speed toward the circle cut into the stone. Will felt a rush of elation until the bark devil threw a rope at the real ball, ignoring the other nine as he yanked the rubber sphere out of the air and sent it hurtling back towards the party. Mateo ducked before the ball flattened him. It bounced off the rear wall and settled at Mala’s feet.
So much for that.
Mala got the hint and called out a series of battle commands. As the archdukes advanced, the party formed a spearhead in defense, leaving Mala alone in the middle and Will at the point, engaging the skeletal leader and the pus devil at the same time. He wouldn’t last long against both archdukes, but he didn’t have to. As the two sides engaged, Mala broke away, picked up the ball, and took off for the side wall.
Instead of pressing their numeric advantage, all five archdukes broke off and went for Mala. Will sprinted after her, but the archdukes were as fast as he was, and he would never catch them in time. Horrified, he could only watch as the crimson demon caught up to Mala, raising his broadsword to cut her down from behind.
She was halfway across the arena, slowed by the weight of the huge rubber ball. Despite Will’s shouts, she didn’t seem to notice the approaching devils, until the last second when she dropped the ball and whirled, blocking the crimson devil’s attack with her short sword and shoving her dagger to the hilt in his chest. The archduke roared and staggered back.
At some point, Mala had retrieved her sash. She twirled it in the face of the bark devil, smacking him twice in the forehead while keeping hold of the weapon, then letting the sash fly at the skeletal leader. The weighted ends curled around his head and smashed one of his eyes, causing him to clutch his face.
Mala picked up the ball and kept running. The gray man loped after her, the pus devil steps behind. The rest of the party had drawn closer. Gunnar threw his hammer across the field and hit the pus devil in the back, causing it to stumble.
The gray man reached out with a long arm and caught Mala by the shoulder. She screamed as the fingernails dug in, whipping her around. She turned with blades up and fought like a wounded animal, driving him back with an acrobatic kick to his chest.
After grabbing the ball again, she closed the distance to the far wall. Will and the others were steps behind the archdukes. With a triumphant shout, Mala bent low and heaved the ball in the air.
It bounced off the wall a foot beneath the hole, fell to the ground, and rolled back towards her feet.
Will sagged in despair.
Mala wasn’t strong enough.
As the fight commenced anew, the rubber ball soared back into the air and shot towards the hole. Selina, Will realized. He froze, holding his breath as he followed the ball’s trajectory. Inches before it sailed through, the bark devil lassoed it and jerked it backwards. It bounced and rolled right up to the skeletal leader, who cackled, bent double to pick up the ball with a bony hand, and threw it all the way back to the other side.
Will’s heart sank. The archdukes converged on Mala, but she whipped out her expandable acrobat’s rod and pole-vaulted over them. At the height of her trajectory, the gray man reached out with a long arm and raked her leg in midair. She collapsed in a heap at Will’s side, bleeding in a dozen places.
He pulled her to her feet. “Can you fight?”
Her eyes flashed. “If I’m breathing, I can fight.”
She called out another battle formation, this time with Gunnar as the ball carrier. The attempt failed when the crimson devil caught the big man as he was dashing across the arena along the side wall. The archduke’s tackle put the big man flat on his back and left a string of bloody wounds on his side.
Teeth marks, Will realized with a shudder. From those horrid little mouths.
Mala kept trying to push Gunnar through, but the battle went downhill. Selina was forced to morph into rhino form to stay alive, Mateo looked ready to collapse, Gunnar heaved with exertion, and Mala looked frustrated and desperate.
We need something different, Will thought. Some way to fool them.
As the pus devil advanced on him, he wracked his brain for a new strategy, a way to harness their strengths or exploit the situation.
One ball, he told himself, through one single circle. That’s all it takes.
The pus devil swung his spiked club. Will blocked it. Again and again. His strength was fading. The archdukes were barely injured and looked as energetic as when they had stepped out of their stone doorways.
As Mala called out a new formation, a thought came to him.
“Different plan!” Will called out. “Selina, I need you!”
The sylvamancer broke away from her fight with the gray man and morphed into mage form, flying backwards to meet Will.
The ball was too big to hide, he knew, and the archdukes could pick it out of a crowd.
But what if they made it disappear?
“Gunnar, get ready!” Will called out, then ran to the rubber ball and picked it up. When the big man cast a quick glance over his shoulder, Will winked at him, praying he would get the hint.
Will turned to
wards Selina, not bothering to lower his voice. He wanted the archdukes to hear. “Can you cloak the ball with magic? Block it out with light?”
“I believe so,” she said, breathing hard as she darted back and forth along the rear wall to avoid the gray man’s reach. The archdukes pressed the attack, sensing the party’s reserves were spent.
“Then do it!” Will shouted. “Now!”
He knew wizards could work with light. He assumed Selina could use the white illumination in the arena to form a barrier around the ball that would cloak its presence. Whether it would fool the archdukes was another matter. He doubted she could hide the ball itself, but maybe she could create a barrier the archdukes couldn’t see around.
Whatever spell she used, it worked. Though he could still feel the heft of the rubber ball, it disappeared in his hands. As soon as it did, he called Gunnar’s name and pretended to toss the ball to him.
The big man seemed surprised at first, causing Will’s heart to sink, but he caught on at the last moment and feigned catching the projectile, oomphing and falling backwards as if it had caught him in the chest. Clutching his arms around a bundle of empty air, Gunnar feigned a step forward and then darted to the side, around the crimson archduke. Dashing for the far wall.
The devils broke off from their opponents and converged on Gunnar. Will’s spirits soared. They bought it.
While the battle raged around Gunnar, Will sheathed his sword and took off at a dead sprint down the center of the arena. As soon as he started running, the ball reappeared. Selina’s spell must not have been mobile.
The pus devil noticed first. With a shriek, he babbled in a strange tongue and pointed at Will. The other archdukes broke away again and gave chase. If Will was unencumbered, he would have made it free and clear to the far wall. But the ball was heavy.
The stone wall loomed ten yards away. He debated a desperate heave but knew he had to get closer. Right to the bottom of the wall. Not only did he have to throw the ball high enough to reach the circle, he had to be accurate, and he probably had one chance to get it right.