“Why not keep going?” Sha’di looked up at the clear sky. The sun was low behind them, but sunset still looked a long way off.
Tenok just shook his head. “It would be dark before we reached the pyramid. You should know by now the river at night is not a thing to trifle with.”
“Men, scared as boys,” Qayset said from behind them, a mischievous grin on her angular face.
“I’m not afraid,” Belam said, pretending to look offended at the suggestion.
Qayset looked the big man up and down, nodding with approval. “You are not boy; you are man.”
“I think little fear…healthy,” Sha’di muttered to himself, but the others ignored him.
“Yes, I always forget you uncoloured are free of fear—and common sense,” Tenok rolled his eyes in annoyance.
“Careful, huitl, you’re starting to look uncoloured yourself,” Qayset nodded towards Tenok, who looked at his skin. The dye on his hands and face, which had once been as bright red as blood, had nearly faded away completely. The salt of the ocean had done quick work to diminish the dye on all the men.
Behind them in the river, they heard a splash and saw Xupama fall on his backside, screaming obscenities at the poor oarsman who had obviously been trying to help the prim man carry the train of his long tunic. The four tried unsuccessfully to hide their laughter as two more men quickly rushed to Xupama’s side, trying to get the tall man back on his feet.
“We should eat real meat tonight,” Qayset said, wiping a tear from her eye as her male companions reached the shore and pulled themselves up.
“Surely, you’re not sick of fish yet,” Belam grinned. “There are so many varieties. Salty fish, dry fish, stinky fish—”
Qayset only turned up her nose in reply.
Tenok was still chuckling softly to himself. “Do you know how to hunt these lands? They’re different from the jungle.”
“Are they? I did not know this,” Qayset’s voice was acid with sarcasm. This part of the Grey Mist was called the Achaw. Chultun was behind them to the south. Before them were open fields speckled with trees and—much to Sha’di’s delight—llamas. The llamas were earthy colours, cotton and coal. Sha’di thought they looked like small fluffy camels with tall necks but no humps.
The first part of their journey from the lake down the river to reach the sea had taken several days. The mouth of the river was an impressive bay filled with fishing boats. Both the north and the south side of the bay had a pyramid and village on it, but the water was so wide you could barely see Lamopa on the southern shore even when standing on the top of B’ochoan to the north. The day had to been exceptionally clear and calm.
They had stayed awhile preparing before finally continuing on, following the coast north. The river had been calm and easy, but the sea had made Sha’di and a few others feel sick as the waves rocked the boat mercilessly. He was all too glad when they finally reached the north river and went back inland. In that short time they spent travelling by boat, Tenok told them they had gone the same distance they had on foot. Sha’di could barely believe that while it had taken them more than half of Orope to traverse the jungle, it had only taken them about a turn of the moon on a boat to traverse that same distance over open waters.
For the people of Chultun, including Tenok, travel between pyramids was harrowing. Travel was often one way, because the prospect of a return trip was too unwelcome. They held onto their connection with each other mostly through the antean messenger birds. Sha’di could understand why Tenok would want to leave such a sequestered land. Here in Achaw, you could reach any place easily by boat. The freedom this land offered was unthinkable in Chultun.
The oarsmen laid out their sleeping rolls, and a large bonfire was started, while one man had already floated a cask of strong liquor onto shore and was busily trying to crack it open. All Sha’di could do was look back at the boat and sigh wistfully. He would miss it.
“Come on,” Qayset said and threw a water skin at Sha’di. It slipped through his fingers and slammed into his stomach, making him grunt in pain, which only made Qayset smile. “Let’s go hunting.”
“Why me?” Sha’di looked around at Belam and the others.
“It’s your bird she wants,” Belam said, strapping a pouch to his belt and throwing a sling over his shoulder. Tenok did the same. They had offered Sha’di a sling when they first set off from Chultunyu, but Sha’di had turned it down. He felt slightly jealous now that he didn’t have a weapon to take on a hunt. Though he knew he’d never be able to hunt as well as he did using Nnenne. She was his weapon.
As though Nnenne knew they were speaking about her, she squawked excitedly on Sha’di’s shoulder. “All right, all right,” Sha’di patted the bird, calming her down. “She wants to stretch her wings. I might as well as stretch my legs. I need to get used to walking again,” he frowned.
“Walk? With all this open space, we ought to run,” Belam said, taking a deep breath of air, as though he was preparing for a race. A man like Belam couldn’t stand being trapped on a boat for so long. The entire journey, he kept talking about how once they reached Achaw, he’d wrestle and race anyone he could find.
“Don’t be so morose,” Tenok slapped Sha’di on the back as they followed Qayset. “We’re nearly to Chipetzuha.”
Sha’di nodded and smiled but couldn’t help notice the thought actually made him feel somehow worse. Suddenly, all he could think about was getting there and failing. He tried to push those thoughts away, tried to convince himself he would succeed. Maybe the chief of chiefs, what the Petzuhallpa called the Ellpe, at Chipetzuha would listen and heed his warning and all would be well. But then, he would have to make his way home. Even if he succeeded the day after he arrived, he still wouldn’t be back with his people until Zera was halfway through Skretch. So much time would have passed by then. Would Nnenne Hal’Sharag, the woman he loved, have waited for him? Would she have found someone else to give her a dozen children?
“You look distracted,” Tenok leaned towards him. “Not still seasick, are you?”
Sha’di shook his head and laughed. “No, I just can’t believe we’re nearly there.”
“Nearly there is still not there,” Qayset said, and motioned towards a tree. “That good place to hide.”
“You think we can ambush something?” Belam looked skeptical.
“I think you can only ambush if you hide,” she replied then turned to Sha’di. “Send your bird up.”
Sha’di had gone through the motions so many times he could have done it in complete darkness. He untied Nnenne’s jesses from the place on his cloak, swung the lure around to get her to swoop up and down, and finally let her fly off. Recently, every time he let her go, his stomach felt hard. What if she doesn’t come back this time? The thought burrowed into his mind deeper every day. What if she would rather be with the Whisperers in the desert than wandering lost with him?
“You hunt with that?” Qayset asked, nodding towards the sling Belam was readying. The pouch at his belt contained several small, clay balls.
“Of course. A sling is far more practical than a spear,” Tenok grinned, taking out his own and swinging it around a few times with a proud face.
Qayset looked at her long spear, tipped with a blade made from black rock, the same as Sha’di’s fire knife. The Rhagepe regarded the stone as sacred, but Qayset carried so much of it she acted like it was the most common thing in the Grey Mist. She grinned and looked back at Tenok.
“Ah, I understand. You think your silly thing better because it smaller, yes?”
“Smaller and faster,” Tenok smirked.
Qayset nodded. “Okay. Test.”
“Test?” Tenok looked uncertain. “How?”
“We test aim and speed,” her smile only grew.
“You against Belam?” Sha’di asked.
Belam chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, no. I’ll pass, thank you. Let Tenok fight his own challenges.”
Tenok laughed. “All rig
ht,” he reached into his pouch and placed one of the balls into the sling, closing the straps and swinging it around, faster and faster until suddenly, he released the ball. Qayset barely had time to let out a surprised gasp as the ball flew from the sling and slammed into the tree right over her shoulder. Bark flew around her as she crouched into a ball and rolled away from the tree.
“You crazy!” She screamed.
“Spider,” Tenok chuckled to himself, walking over to the tree and wedging the clay ball out of the tree trunk. It had cracked in half from the impact, but on one side the squashed corpse of a spider was attached.
She continued to glare at him, but then her features softened, and Sha’di was sure she was trying to hold back a smile or a look of grudging respect. “You saw that on the tree?”
“Good eyes, good aim, good weapon.” Tenok tossed the cracked ball aside and grabbed another from his pouch, throwing it up and catching it playfully. “Your turn.”
Tenok reached up to one of the branches and plucked a small leaf off the tree. He took a few paces back until he was as far from Qayset as he had been from the tree. He held the leaf up in his hand.
“Resist the temptation,” Belam laughed. “Hit the leaf, not the man.”
“Thank you for clarifying,” Tenok sighed.
Qayset got to her feet, a grin on her face. Without pausing, she tossed her spear vertically into the air with a flourish, and when she caught it, she launched it towards Tenok. Despite trying his best not to be alarmed, Tenok flinched and looked away, and as he felt the spear pass by his fingers, he quickly snatched his hand away and took a step back. He looked at his hand, smiling in amazement that she hadn’t taken one of his fingers off.
“If you were that scared, you didn’t have to hold the leaf,” Belam laughed as Qayset retrieved her spear. The leaf was still attached to the tip.
“She just went before I was ready,” Tenok said defensively.
“Always be ready,” Qayset winked, leaning against her spear as she dug it into the earth.
“All right,” Sha’di said, and the two looked at him as though they had forgotten he was there. “I have good test.”
Sha’di went to the tree, finding the place where the ball had cracked open the bark, and with his fire knife, pried off a large, rough square section of bark.
“For speed, yes?” Sha’di smiled.
“What’s your test?” Tenok asked, confidence back on his face.
“I stand in the middle, throw it up, you both shoot. First to hit is winner, yes?”
“Hmm, throw high,” Belam laughed.
The two of them backed up, and Sha’di took his place between them. “Throw when it starts to fall, yes?”
“Okay, okay,” Tenok loaded his sling and started swinging it around. The two of them got ready, bending their knees slightly, loosening up their limbs, staring at the piece of bark in Sha’di’s hands so intently he thought the force of their stares might cause it to burst into fire.
He threw the bark up as high as he could. It was light and flew high, higher than the nearby tree at least, and as it started to slow, it seemed to freeze in the sky for a moment. Then it began to flutter back down. The two released their weapons at the same time, and Sha’di heard a crack as the ball hit first, and half a breath later, the spear flew harmlessly by it.
“Ha! I told you it was faster,” Tenok said triumphantly, running to the piece of bark with a hole in it, holding it up like a trophy. “The spear is an out-dated weapon.”
“Hmm…” Qayset walked slowly over to her spear, nodding thoughtfully. “It’s true. If we’re both ready, the sling is faster.”
Tenok groaned. “Can’t you just admit you lost?”
“One more test,” Qayset picked up her spear. “Sha’di, more bark.” Unlike the Petzuhallpa, she had no trouble pronouncing his name properly.
Sha’di chuckled to himself as he walked back to the tree and cut off another wedge.
“Same distance, but this time, we are not ready,” Qayset put her spear on the ground.
Tenok got into position and began to reach into his pouch.
“No,” Qayset held up her hand. “No, we are not ready. We are relaxed, we are talking to friend, not looking around, and then—” Qayset motioned to Sha’di, who threw the bark up.
Tenok began to load the sling as quickly as possible, fumbling slightly with the pouch, and Qayset waited with a smile on her face. It wasn’t until Tenok had the ball in the sling and was just beginning to start spinning it that Qayset quickly crouched down to grab her spear, and without even getting back up, threw it effortlessly, skewering the bark before Tenok even had a chance to release.
Qayset stood, staring at Tenok smugly. He had a rueful look on his face.
“You keep your sling. I keep my spear,” she said through a smile.
“Can I have a spear, too?” Belam asked no one in particular.
“Me too,” Sha’di raised his hand with a smile. “One spear, please.”
Just then Sha’di heard Nnenne’s familiar cry. He looked up and saw her circling in the distance. “She find something,” he smiled.
“Good, I run out of ways to embarrass Tenok-huitl,” Qayset grinned, and even Tenok found himself laughing.
“This is Xalto?” Sha’di asked, nodding towards the hill ahead of them, on top of which a relatively small step pyramid had been built. Sha’di was surprised, since Tenok had told him that Xaltonatl, the chief of Xalto, the Green Slope, was the richest and most powerful of the Achaw-na-huitl.
“Once the largest of all the pyramids was here, but the huitl took it with him to Chipetzuha and left a small one for the regent to live in,” Tenok said with a wide grin.
“He…took pyramid? How?” Sha’di couldn’t tell if Tenok was joking or not.
“Stone by stone,” Tenok said confidently.
“Slave by slave,” Belam added.
“Lie by lie,” Qayset said, coming up behind them from the river, the last one to shore.
They had been travelling by ship so long that Sha’di had become comfortable with sitting all day and relaxing. He was not looking forward to continuing the journey on foot, but going inland past Xalto would be impossible by ship, or so they told him. This was their final destination with the boat.
Tenok shrugged. “It’s what I heard.”
Compared to the jungle, there were very few trees in Achaw, and so the sprawling village before them was completely visible. Unlike the wood huts in the south, here nearly all the buildings were made of stone. Obviously, the buildings closest to the pyramid belonging to hutils were larger and more intricate, while those closer to the river were just piles of stone with small openings.
Here the lords grew grapes. They’d passed countless vines as they’d neared the pyramid, which was the same colour of the wines the people of Xalto had made famous.
There were many villagers along the river shore to greet them, and Sha’di was again surprised to see that these people had very little body paint—a few wine-dark lines on their face, if anything at all. Instead, they had intricate piercings all over their faces, large amethyst discs distending their earlobes and lips. Sha’di wondered if it had hurt.
Sha’di hadn’t expected these people to be any different from those at Chultunyu, but he had to admit they were a long way from where they had started. They might have been completely different people, but they greeted each other like kin. They were all Petzuhallpa in the end.
“Hail, Yupanchatl, Achaw-na-huitl, Xaltonatl. He who Grows the Grape. He who Siphons the Blood of the Gods,” Xupama’s voice boomed elegantly and regally, but Sha’di always found it hard to pay attention during the formal introductions he had to endure at every pyramid. The only thing that stood out about this particular introduction was that it was the first time he wasn’t introduced to a chib’atl or a regent but the actual ruler and atl of Xalto.
There were only three atls, one for each of the three lands. Tenok’s father was the atl of C
hultun. Other than the Ellpe sitting on her throne in the Red Pyramid, the atls held the most power.
Yupanchi, or Yupanchatl to be polite, had seen at least three full cycles by Sha’di’s reckoning, maybe even four. He was a tall man with wide shoulders and thick arms. He looked like he could easily lift one of the chubby lords over his head with one arm, while using the other to drink a silver goblet full of wine.
The wine, oh gods be good the wine. On the way to the atl’s house, at the foot of the small step pyramid, servants rushed towards them with endless vases of wine. They kept refilling his cup before he’d even finished and would not take no for an answer. By the time they’d reached the atl’s chambers Sha’di was already unsteady on his feet, making listening to Xupama drone on even more of a challenge than usual.
“I had returned to Xalto to welcome you and your brother,” Yupanchi began, his voice low and gravelly, like the grinding of a corn mill. Sha’di felt his voice more than he heard it. Yupanchi frowned. “I am sorry for what happened to him. He is not the first huitl to lose his life trying to reach Chipetzuha. It is a trial the gods set in place.
Xupama translated, but Sha’di understood nearly everything the man was saying. His accent was very different from Tenok’s, but these days he rarely had any difficulty communicating with those around him, so long as they spoke Katan.
Tenok nodded slowly. “I wasn’t certain if word had reached Chipetzuha.”
“Trust the antean’s wing to spread the news,” Yupanchi smiled, reaching over to one of his servants holding a tray and plucking some fruit from it.
“My father—?” Tenok began.
Yupanchi waved his hand dismissively. “He is very busy, your father. He couldn’t afford to travel, not while the Ellpe continues to be so difficult.”
“That is a problem that cannot continue. The Whisperers sent us a message from their gods,” Tenok motioned towards Sha’di, who tried to take a step forward, stumbled, and then smiled sheepishly at the unimpressed atl and assembled chakatl.
Pekari -The Azure Fish Page 18