One by one the guards pulled us to the base of the tower and secured our rope-bound wrists to a long chain strung between two wooden posts. There were two men there who looked to have fifty or sixty seasons, one of them having a white beard so long it touched the ground where he sat patiently. Khasla and Jhoma were tied next to them, followed by Micha, then me and Tototl at the end. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I had a strong idea I wasn’t going to like it. I gave a strong pull on the chain to test it, to look for any sign of weakness that might be exploited to allow us to get free. Sadly, the post never moved.
We stood, attached helplessly to the chain, for a while as the crowd grew even more to fill every space in the square, with Nakbens sitting on roofs and leaning out the windows of the surrounding buildings. As we waited, I noticed there was a space on the front side of the tower that the crowds avoided, and it seemed to give up an orange glow to the storm clouds that were beginning to gather above.
I scanned for a thread I could connect and found a few people with weaker bracelets that stood nearby. It was a large opening, about twenty feet across, that accessed the volcano underneath the city. The orange glow was cast by the magma that had yet to surge out over the ground. It immediately clicked.
That’s how Xiuhpilli is going to kill us.
Thunder rolled across the square, lightly shaking the ground and getting the attention of the swarm of Chimalmans gathered in the square. A moment later, apparently cued by the thunder or some other signal, the crowd quieted. I realized Xiuhpilli was standing at the top of the tower and shouting to project her words.
“Tonight, our Nakben tribes become stronger than ever before.” I could barely see her at the top of the tower that rose up next to me, but could imagine her smug expression as she waited for the cheers to quiet. “Tonight, we unite the hawk and the tiger, the immune and the powerful. Tonight, we produce Tonani!”
The people shouted and hugged each other excitedly, as if it was the best news they’d ever heard.
Just then, a blonde girl with a large, feathered headdress was pulled to the top of the tower to stand next to Xiuhpilli.
Khea.
An enormous Nakben man followed behind her and looked like he stood at least two feet over her.
The tiger.
“First, we make our offerings to Chichiton.” The two older men were released from the chain that held us and gingerly pulled up the steps. There were enough steps that I wondered if they even had the strength to make it. The guards were quite gentle and patient considering the circumstances, letting the men take their time. Several minutes later, the two men arrived at the top and kneeled at the front of the platform.
“Chichiton, you make us strong, and we give you our weak.” With a hard kick to the back, Xiuhpilli pushed the first man over the edge and didn’t wait to watch him fall before kicking the second. Both tumbled down the hundreds of steps before disappearing into the orange glow. It was a horrific site to watch, and even more terrifying considering our vantage point. I never gave much thought to the specifics of my death, but plummeting into a pit of liquid rock was certainly never a consideration.
“Now, the hawk and the tiger.” The queen turned to address Khea and the huge man, trying to get them to get closer. Each time the tiger tried to move close to her, she would take a step out of his way and stand to the side of him. They performed the strange dance for a minute before, Xiuhpilli addressed the crowd again.
“The hawk requires another offering.” Before the words had even carried across the square, two guards were pulling Khasla from the chain amidst our screams and cries to leave him. He fought with them all the way to the top, almost escaping them once. Of course, there was nowhere to go. Even if he reached the bottom, there were more guards waiting.
I connected Khasla’s thread to get an idea of the situation on the platform. How many guards were there, where was Khea, how could he get away. The platform itself was made of the same dark stones as the rest of the tower and lacked any kind of a rail to prevent someone from falling over the edge. Khea huddled nervously in one corner, careful to keep her distance from the tiger, while Xiuhpilli turned towards Khasla.
Pushed to his knees in the same spot as the first two, Khasla maneuvered the ropes enough that he could barely pull off the copper cuff away from his skin just as Xiuhpilli pulled a long hand knife from her sandal. Khasla had no idea, thinking maybe she would just push him like the others and too occupied with his work at the cuff. He didn’t realize she would slide her blade neatly between his ribs and puncture his heart until the metal blade protruded from his chest.
“No!” Micha, Jhoma, and I screamed in unison, though the crowds cheered so loud I doubt if anyone heard. If any of us could have gotten out of this, it was Khasla. He could control fire, so death by fire was a little harder to achieve for him. If any of us had a chance of living beyond the next hour, it was him. And he had been the first to die.
Fiery heat radiated from my chest where my brain registered a blade between my ribs. The pain overwhelmed until I struggled to sort out which thoughts were mine and which had been from Khasla’s thread. I clutched at my bare chest to remove the blade, only none was there.
A blaze of lightning flew across the sky as Xiuhpilli turned back to Khea, who continued to step away from the tiger. The queen clearly hoped watching her friends be sacrificed would convince the hawk to go along with coupling with the tiger on a platform in front of thousands. I was relieved to see she wasn’t giving up, but terrified to know what that meant for the rest of us.
The tiger took a large step towards Khea, but she quickly darted to the side and skirted the edge of the platform. Xiuhpilli moved right into her path and grabbed the meat of her upper arm. Khea shot out her foot in response, striking the queen square on the bone of her lower leg and prompting her swift release.
“The hawk requires another offering.” The queen’s voice was laced with irritation, though it was hard to tell with the volume from the crowd.
Without hesitation, the soldiers released Jhoma from the chain and all but carried him up the steps to the platform at the top of the tower. He was pushed to his knees, but immediately jumped to his feet again. He thought he could surprise the queen, avoid what had happened to Khasla, but he didn’t realize he was only going to meet Xiuhpilli’s knife in his gut and fall hundreds of feet into the pit. That time, I had cut the thread soon enough to prevent feeling as if the knife had sunk into my own chest, but it hardly mattered. I had nothing left but pain and fear. Micha didn’t scream out; he looked over at me with horrified eyes instead.
I connected his thread, though it was so loud in the square I could scarcely hear my own thoughts–much less someone else’s. But Micha had been in my mind long enough that I could sense him regretting Iseut learning that he had died; knowing how close they were–and how sad she would be to lose him–he mirrored my emotions for Khea.
“Lark–”
“Micha, I’m so sorry I left you in Uxmal. I should have taken you with me.” It was my last opportunity to tell him how much I hated myself for getting him into this, and how disappointing I had been in terms of getting him out. I was a useless friend to him, and now I had gotten him killed.
“It wouldn’t have mattered.”
I knew he was right. We were both tied to a chain waiting to be pushed into a pit of lava, but it hardly made me feel better about leaving him behind. I shouldn’t have left any of them.
Xiuhpilli turned again to Khea with the knife raised this time, obviously becoming annoyed at the lack of cooperation in front of her people. Even at the large distance, I could see her slicing the air in front of Khea and once seemed to hit the mark, as Khea grabbed her arm and dropped to the stone floor of the platform. The tiger rushed over, but she pushed away and stood to avoid him again.
How long can this go on?
“The hawk requires another offering.” Xiuhpilli sounded aggravated, but all my thoughts were concentrating on Micha.
No no no.
Not Micha. Anyone but him. My only real friend. We had been through so much since we met in the back of the cart in the Creekmont. We had the
bear
. There had to be a way out of this.
Micha fought hard as he was dragged up the steps. His size gave him an advantage, but each guard he pushed off him was just replaced by another.
This is actually going to happen.
I was going to watch my best friend die. My screams to spare him were lost in the chants from the crowd. I made a last futile effort to pull the rope from the chain, or the chain from the posts, or even the posts from the ground. Anything to save him. Tototl heaved his shoulder into one of the posts, but still it didn’t move. There was nothing we could do.
After several arduous minutes, the guards managed to get Micha to the platform and kneeling on the edge. I was surprised to see Khea throw her arms around him, attempting to block the queen from pushing him over. She had known him as long as I had, and they were good friends. She would feel the same when he died.
The tiger effortlessly grabbed her wrists and pulled her back for a moment, long enough for Xiuhpilli to slice her long bladed knife through his neck before watching as his head bounced down the steps followed by the slow rolling of his lifeless body.
NO!
Tears burst from my eyes and streamed down my face in an instant.
Micha!
It had to be a dream. A nightmare I was going to wake from at any moment. My knees gave out below me and I crashed to the ground nearly hitting my head on the stones but barely able to see anything else. My mind replayed the horror of the moment over and over again.
I don’t know how long I lay crumpled on the ground, but the next thing I knew the guards were pulling me up the steps as well. All the anger I possessed surged up after watching Micha be killed by the queen we came to warn. I quickly made up my mind. If I accomplished nothing else, I was going to make sure she died before I did.
There was nothing left to do except walk calmly up the mountain of steps, pushing my anguish into a deep and dark place inside and waiting for the right moment to strike. I would take Xiuhpilli out with me, and it would be the last thing I ever did. A few drops of rain found their way to my face as I climbed the stairs, the sky matching my own sense of doom.
At the top of the platform, the ground looked farther than I would have thought. The tiger was as huge as I had suspected, and Khea looked lovely–even with blood streaming down her rope bound arms and her cheeks covered in the trails of her tears.
“Ladybird,” I called out to her, ignoring everyone else around me. We were going to have one more moment together. Our eyes locked just as they had at the Moonwater, the last site of her I would ever get.
The guards pushed me onto my knees and walked away. I hoped Xiuhpilli would drag out my sacrifice, knowing I would be the one to make Khea give in, if anyone could at all. The extra few seconds would be all I needed.
When the guards had started down the steps, I quickly spun and stood and found myself face-to-face with the tiger. Just as the queen had said, he was immune to my Spark, but if he was going to protect the queen then he was going to die tonight. I raised my rope-bound hands to his gut as I saw Khea lunging toward Xiuhpilli out of the corner of my eye.
The tiger took the hit but seemed less bothered than I would have hoped. He returned my hits with punches of his own, and I was dismayed to learn he was my even match. He was slow where I was quick, but he was far stronger than me. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have time to hash it out to the end. Khea was in danger, and the tiger needed to be dealt with quickly. I made every effort to get it done with.
But he just wouldn’t go down. He wouldn’t back up, he wouldn’t fall from a hit. He was wasting what little time I had left in this life, and I couldn’t let him spoil my murderous plan for the queen.
As one of the guards climbed onto the platform, I planted a kick in his chest and turned to hit the tiger again, not noticing how the guard fell into the next guard and knocked them both down the steep steps. The next guard that breached the edge of the platform was struck by a gruesome flash of lightning that was nearly blinding in the otherwise dark and rainy sky.
All my anger at having Khea taken from me, at their plan for her, and Micha’s murder boiled up from its deep place and found its way to the surface. The tower itself seemed to shake beneath us, and a moment later I realized it was shaking in earnest. The next guard appeared over the edge of the platform but couldn’t get his footing on the rumbling stones. He caught the edge of a stone with his sandal just in time for my punch to land and send him backwards over the edge. He didn’t go down on the side with the pit, but the fall would kill him regardless.
The stones that made up the tower began to shake enough to separate, creating wide chasms between them that were deep enough to lose a foot in. I managed to easily dodge the gaps somehow, even as the stones wriggled and bucked beneath my feet. I dropped to a crouch and flung my leg out to drop the tiger to the stone floor, but he merely stumbled back and recovered in an instant.
The tiger wasn’t thrown off balance from the shaking, but he was going to die. I could feel the anger and hatred flare up inside me as my time continued waste away.
I should be helping Khea.
The tiger was a monster I didn’t have time for. The sky lit up with blue and purple that mixed with the orange glow of the molten rock in the pit–and the flashes of lightning that struck the sides of the tower–giving an ominous atmosphere to the intense scene.
A second later, the tiger stopped fighting; instead, he stood still and looked down at his hands like he’d never seen them before–then he burst into flame. Not the fabric covering his waist or his hair really, but his skin itself was on fire. He let out a blood curdling scream as he threw his burning arms at his chest trying to put the flames out. The tiger didn’t last long; a few seconds later, he dropped to the stone floor in a pile of ash as the flames went out.