Sky Knife (27 page)

“Sky Knife, I know what you're thinking,” said Bone Splinter. “It does no good to think like that.”

“I can't help it,” said Sky Knife. “I've never walked in to meet my death before.”

Bone Splinter clapped him on the shoulder. “Don't think of it that way,” he said. “Think only this—Itzamna holds us in his hands. Whether we live or die, it is for his glory and the glory of Storm Cloud our king.”

Sky Knife took a deep breath. “For Itzamna,” he whispered. He walked toward the steps. Only a blank wall stared at him.

“Where are you going?” asked Bone Splinter.

Sky Knife pointed at the wall. “Here,” he said. “Yesterday, there were stairs here. Leading down to the cave.”

Bone Splinter tapped the wall with his knife. A deep thunk echoed back. “Solid,” he said. “Surely Stone Jaguar didn't build it this afternoon.”

Sky Knife pressed his hands against the wall. It was cool and rough. The gritty, slightly uneven surface felt like any other wall. “Well, it wasn't here yesterday.”

Bone Splinter grunted. “We don't have the tools to break it down,” he said. “What do you want to do?”

Sky Knife stepped back. “I don't think Stone Jaguar could have done this. Built a wall with stone, I mean. But if he can call up Cizin and free everyone's
nagual
—how hard could it be to create a wall with sorcery?”

Bone Splinter rubbed his chin with one hand. “An interesting idea. How do you think we could get through a wall of sorcery?”

Sky Knife reached into the cotton towel and touched the obsidian point. The tattoo at his throat tingled. Sky Knife pulled out the point.

“Remember Red Spider's assistant, the one Red Spider said could get good luck from the jade beads?” asked Sky Knife.

“Yes.”

Sky Knife looked down at the green stone in his hand. “Maybe, if there's bad luck, we can get it out of this point,” he said.

“Why?” asked Bone Splinter. “We don't need any more bad luck.”

“No, but Stone Jaguar could use a little.”

Sky Knife held the green stone up to his face. The rainbow glow of his tattoo reflected blue off the stone. Sky Knife knelt and placed the stone at the foot of the new wall, then stepped back.

“Now what?” asked Bone Splinter. “You're not going to bite it, I assume.”

Sky Knife walked back to the opposite side of the room and motioned for Bone Splinter to do the same. When the warrior stood against the wall next to him, Sky Knife held out a finger and pointed toward the stone. He called fire with his mind.

A brilliant blue ball of light no bigger than a corn kernel appeared at the tip of Sky Knife's finger. It hovered for a moment, then leaped across the room to the obsidian.

A terrible yellow flash blinded Sky Knife and a loud crack pierced his ears. He screamed and raised his hands to his face.

After a few moments, sight returned. The rumbling echoes of the blast still rang in his ears.

“Bone Splinter—are you all right?”

The warrior wiped tears from his face. “Yes,” he said. “Did it work?”

Sky Knife blinked tears from his own eyes. He stepped forward toward the wall. Only a black hole of a doorway faced him now.

“It's gone,” he said.

Bone Splinter walked over. “Then let's go.”

Sky Knife started forward, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“I'll go first,” said Bone Splinter.

“You can't see the steps in the dark,” protested Sky Knife.

“So make light,” said Bone Splinter. “Whoever is at the bottom of the steps has already heard us. But I should go first.”

Sky Knife frowned, but called up a ball of light. It danced over his head brightly. Sky Knife pushed the light with his mind until it hovered over Bone Splinter.

The warrior held his knife out in front of him and descended the stairs slowly. Sky Knife followed. The stairs seemed to go down endlessly. A slight breeze brushed by him. It was cold and smelled of rotted fruit. It smelled like the temple glow before the sacrifice touched the temple.

“Sorcery,” whispered Sky Knife. “Someone is working sorcery.”

“We knew that,” Bone Splinter whispered back over his shoulder.

“I mean right now.”

Bone Splinter nodded his understanding and continued. The smell grew stronger the lower they went. It filled Sky Knife's nose and throat and made him want to sneeze.

At the bottom of the steps, Bone Splinter stopped. “Get rid of the light.”

Sky Knife hesitated. Stone Jaguar had never shown him how to dismiss the light he called up. It shouldn't be too hard, but Sky Knife didn't want to take the time to experiment now. He pushed the ball of light up the steps. It zoomed away.

Sky Knife stepped around Bone Splinter. The cave was lit by a ball of green light that hovered beneath the surface of the water. Above the light, the water churned and splashed angrily.

Beneath the water, something moved. Sky Knife inched closer to the edge of the pool, but he couldn't make out what the something was. It just seemed to be a flickering shadow against the brilliant green light.

It came closer to the surface. Closer. Bone Splinter pulled Sky Knife back.

A human head broke the surface of the pool. A head connected to neck and shoulders. The person paddled toward the side of the pool and hooked his elbows over the side. The man tried to pull himself out of the pool, but he was too weak. He slid back into the water.

Sky Knife ran over and knelt by the side of the pool. He reached out his hand to the man.

“No,” said Bone Splinter. The warrior knelt beside him. “It could be a trick, or an evil spirit in the form of a man.”

Sky Knife grabbed the man's shirt and pulled, but the man was too heavy for Sky Knife to pull out alone.

“Help me,” he said. “He's no spirit. This is
zuhuy ha,
the Navel of the World. No evil could be in the water.”

Bone Splinter reached out and grabbed the man by the elbow and helped Sky Knife drag the man out onto the rock shore of the pool. “If Cizin could be on the temple, there's no reason evil could not desecrate the Navel of the World,” he said. “But I agree that this does not seem to be an evil spirit. For one thing, I assume that an evil spirit that knew it would be in a pool of water would also know how to swim.”

Sky Knife rolled the man over on his back. The man coughed and sat up. His deeply lined face, worn clothing, and gnarled hands spoke of the hard life of a farmer.

“Hello,” said Sky Knife.

The man did not react. Sky Knife waved his hand in front of the farmer's face, but the man did not blink.

“Look,” said Bone Splinter. He pointed back toward the pool.

Another head broke the surface. And another.

Sky Knife glanced back at the first farmer. “I would guess that this is where they end up,” he said. “They answer Ah Mun's call, go to the
cenote,
and are brought here somehow through the water.”

“If that is so,” said Bone Splinter, “where are all the others? Hundreds of farmers must have answered that call by now.” Bone Splinter got up and moved out of the way of the farmers as they pulled themselves out of the water.

The first farmer stood shakily and joined the others. All ignored Sky Knife and Bone Splinter. Soon, several dozen farmers stood in the room, their faces blank, their movements shaky and stilted.

As the last farmer dragged himself out of the pool, the green light died and the surface of the water calmed. Another green light, this one coming from a passage to the left, shone brilliantly in the cave's gloom.

One by one, the farmers walked toward the light and entered the passageway. Even though they moved slowly, it did not take long for them to all file out of the room. The green light died, leaving the cavern lit only by the glow at Sky Knife's throat.

“Should we follow?” asked Bone Splinter.

“Yes,” said Sky Knife. “But we'll keep back a ways.”

“Perhaps I should go ahead alone,” said Bone Splinter. “You can't hide. Whoever's at the other end of the passage will know you're coming.”

“I think we announced ourselves upstairs,” said Sky Knife. “When we destroyed the sorcerous door.”

“Yes, but they don't know exactly where we are or when we're coming,” said Bone Splinter. “I think I should go on alone.”

“No.”

Sky Knife walked to the passage and glanced down. Shiny flakes of obsidian dotted the floor.

Sky Knife eased down the passage. The rock here was gray and smooth. Someone had carved out this passage by hand. Sky Knife ran his hands along the walls, awed at the effort it had taken.

Ahead, he heard a low rumble. It bounced off the craggy walls of the passage and echoed strangely, so that several seconds after he first heard it, it no longer seemed to be coming from ahead of him. The strange rumble was behind him, then over. Sky Knife shook his head.

Bone Splinter touched him on the shoulder. “Pay no attention,” he said. “Go on.”

Sky Knife continued forward. The passageway curved around toward the left and opened up until it was wide enough for several people to walk abreast. Then it stopped. Sky Knife ran forward and put his hands on the wall.

“No,” he said. “There's got to be a way to go on.”

“Look around for an opening,” said Bone Splinter. The warrior dropped to his knees and felt around the wall near the floor. Sky Knife glanced up. A dark hole in the wall gaped several feet over his head.

“Here,” he said. “But how do we get to it? How do the farmers get to it, for that matter.”

Sky Knife felt the wall beneath the hole. Several small, deep horizontal grooves marred the wall.

“Hand holds,” he said. Bone Splinter came over and joined him.

Bone Splinter boosted Sky Knife up. Sky Knife hooked his elbows over the rim of the hole and pulled himself up. Bone Splinter followed. This passage was rough, though the bottom was smooth as if ground down by hand.

There was only enough room to crawl. Sky Knife pulled himself to his hands and knees and crept forward. The air grew hot and sultry and the smell changed from one of sorcery to the thick, bitter smell of blood.

Light came from ahead, from around a corner. Sky Knife poked his head cautiously around the stone of the corner. Just past the corner was a drop-off, as the passageway met a huge, cavernous room. Several of the great pyramids could fit inside, with a few palaces tossed in for good measure. Sky Knife gaped in awe.

The entire room was lit by brilliant balls of blue and green light that danced around the highly vaulted ceiling. On the floor of the cavern, among piles of stones and in the shadows of boulders, sat hundreds of men.

“What is it?” asked Bone Splinter.

“I think we just found the farmers,” whispered Sky Knife.

A movement caught his eye. Across the room, a man moved sprightly. He gestured for one of the farmers to come to him. The farmer did. The man led him away down another passageway.

The man turned back once and looked straight at Sky Knife. Sky Knife's heart jumped and he fought the urge to duck back down the passageway. Surely the man couldn't actually see him—but no doubt he'd see movement if Sky Knife pulled his head back.

Sky Knife bit his lip and stared back at the man. The man wasn't particularly tall, and his graying hair was swept back from his face with grease. Something about him was familiar.

Sky Knife's blood ran cold. He did know the man. He looked twenty years younger than he had yesterday, but it was he.

Death Smoke.

30

The strangely youthful Death Smoke turned away and the farmer followed him down a passageway. Both of the men were swallowed up in the darkness.

Sky Knife pulled his head back and sat down against the cold wall of the passage.

“Well?” asked Bone Splinter.

“A big room,” said Sky Knife. “Hundreds of men, just sitting around. And Death Smoke…” Sky Knife's voice failed him and he couldn't go on.

“What about him?”

“He's … he's younger somehow,” said Sky Knife. “He stands straight and his hair is only slightly gray.”

Bone Splinter frowned. “More sorcery,” he said. “Power had to be used for that, too. But where is he getting all this energy?”

Sky Knife shook his head. “I don't know. But the farmers are obviously part of it.”

Bone Splinter eased forward and peeked around the corner. “Itzamna,” he whispered. “It shouldn't be too hard to get across the room unseen, what with the rubble all over and the farmers. But getting down to the floor could be a problem.”

“The farmers had to manage it somehow,” said Sky Knife. “There are probably handholds carved into the wall.”

“I would think so,” said Bone Splinter. “What I meant was that we're sure to be seen.”

“Oh.” Sky Knife thought a moment. “But the farmers didn't react to us in the other room,” he said. “Perhaps they won't react to us here, either.”

“Could be. Only one way to find out.”

Sky Knife took a deep breath. “Right.” He got back on hands and knees and crawled around the corner. Cautiously, he crawled to the edge and glanced down.

The floor of the cavern was at least twenty feet below him, but near the wall, a pile of rock debris cut the distance in half. Sky Knife backed up to the corner and turned around. When he reached the edge, he lay on his stomach. The gritty floor of the passage scraped against his belly and chest as Sky Knife lowered his legs and then his hips down over the edge of the drop-off.

Bone Splinter caught his wrists. “I'll lower you,” he said. Sky Knife nodded and let Bone Splinter support his weight. Bone Splinter lowered him down over the edge and then dropped him. He didn't drop more than a few feet, but the impact jarred him and he fell backward down the slope.