Gargoyles: Timedancer;
Vessels Part 4
My protective instincts flared up. Without a thought to anything else that was going on I surged into the jungle. Away from the onslaught. The Spanish were attacking the pyramid. They hadn't even waited for the dawn to begin their assault.
Carrying Zafira's limp form into the nearby jungle, I charged through and bowled over a pair of Spanish soldiers. I quickly came upon a large wall snaking through the jungle towards the pyramid. It wasn't well maintained, and was partially crumbling, but it would serve.
I ducked behind the wall. There was a nearby section that had simply fallen down. I gingerly lay Zafira down against the wall. Her breathing was ragged, but I could still hear it.
"Come on,' I murmured. "Don't die. It's almost dawn…you can survive to the sunrise…"
Not again, I thought. Please not again.
"I don't turn to stone anymore," Zafira whispered back to me, hoarsely.
Realizing the danger she was in, I immediately snatched her pendant from her neck, and ripped it off.
"No…" she groaned, limply trying to grasp at me. "The Pendant…It is a sacred trust with my clan…"
"You will turn to stone," I said. I glanced at her wound. It was quite large, and bleeding very badly. Dawn was minutes away, but there was a strong possibility that
Zafira wouldn't make it even until then.
I noticed something glinting in the wound, in the pre-dawn twilight. I reached into the wound with my thumb and index talon, and fished the item out. Zafira gasped in pain as I did this.
It was a round partially melted lump of lead. My logical mind kicked in, and I realized that the weapons that the humans were using were projectiles of some sort. Firing these spheres of lead at speeds that could kill.
I prayed to the Nameless Creator that there was only one of these spheres in Zafira's body. If there were more, they'd be in too deep for me to retrieve them. I wished that there were a way to make the sun come up faster, but the dawn still hadn't broken, and Zafira's breathing was becoming more and more ragged.
"I'm a fool!" I yelled. I dropped my satchel and began rummaging through it until I picked up the Orichalcos Crystal that I had found by the cenote. I pressed it into the wound.
Zafira did not react in pain this time. She was unconscious. The crystal glowed and began releasing magical energies, healing the wound, but it was clear to me now that the wound was far worse than I had feared. There must have been another projectile embedded inside her body. The wound was not healing easily, and the crystal was shrinking, like chalk being used up on slate.
I bit my lower lip, and then reached into the wound with my thumb and index talon again, gingerly feeling around. I could feel her organs…and then…something hard and metal. Carefully, slowly, I pulled the second projectile out of the hole and tossed it aside. I pressed my tiny shard of Orichalcos Crystal against the wound. The crystal dissolved into magic, but the wound did close, and Zafira's breathing became steadier.
I slumped backwards, sighing in relief. My talons and white fur were covered in Zafira's blood, but I was confident now that she would make it to sunrise. And if a gargoyle can make it to sunrise…they're probably going to live. Only a magical poison can survive stone sleep.
Zafira's body suddenly turned slate-grey accompanied by a sound like grinding gravel in a mill. I jerked in surprise, and crawled close to her. I gingerly touched her midriff where the wound had been. Cold. Cold and grey and hard…Stone.
Zafira had entered stone sleep.
It was only then that I realized that Zafira's sapphire pendant was still clutched in my left talon. Slowly, I turned my head eastward, and there it was. The sun had breached the horizon.
It was so warm. I hadn't expected that part. I had seen the sun many times in my ba dreams, which is more than most gargoyles ever get. But a ba dream is only used by Egyptian Mages; a simple way of staying active in the world while your body sleeps. Your spirit wanders, and learns important things.
Because your spirit cannot feel, a ba dream you are always cold, mute, and impotent. This warmth that rushed over me as the sun slowly began to rise…I didn't expect it. But I unfurled my wings, and I basked in it.
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I washed Zafira's blood from my talons in a nearby cenote, using the water and my narwhal tooth purification talisman. I tied Zafira's pendant around my neck and sat down next to her stone form.
Having never skipped stone sleep before, I didn't know exactly how the healing process worked. Had Zafira already healed from her injuries the moment she had turned to stone? Or would the process take all day?
I decided that the latter was the safer bet, and determined to stand by her and protect her all day.
The morning was very boring. I regretted that I had only the Papyrus of Thoth as reading material.
I tried to ignore the columns of smoke from the K'waiilAhPukuh pyramid. I also noticed that the pendant didn't magically compensate for my exhaustion. I found myself starting to nod off to sleep human-style several times.
I considered simply removing the pendant and sleeping in stone myself, but decided that that was not wise. I gingerly touched Zafira's stone midriff where the wound had been once more.
For the first time ever, I truly understood just how vulnerable we were in stone sleep. How fragile. It is one thing to experience it when one turns to stone…but to see it from the outside, to remain flesh while those you love and care about turn to stone and become vulnerable.
I wondered if it was in fact some kind of sick joke. That the Mayan Clans pendant bearers didn't truly realize until they took on the duty, that perhaps the price of seeing the sun, was the sanity of the pendant wearer.
Or perhaps I was over thinking it.
Having never actually sat through a day before, it was actually difficult to mark the passage of time. The sun slowly moved across the sky, but I wasn't sure of the speed, or how long it would take to set. Typically I gauged the time of the night by the positions of the starts, as well as the moon. I could still see the moon, waxing, in the corner of the sky, but there were no stars. The sky was now an unsettling bright blue color.
I was feeling a bit relieved around the time that was likely mid-afternoon. The sun was finally starting to drift lazily towards the opposite horizon from which it had risen. I was guessing three to four more hours at the most, when a thin, familiar figure quietly walked out of the jungle toward Zafira's stone form and myself.
In a heartbeat I was on my feet and my khopesh drawn, ready to fight to the death against Isabella Canmore, the Hunter. But to my surprise, she walked halfway through the clearing in front of the wall, tore off her mask, and tossed it aside, drew her sword, and then stuck in the ground in front of her.
"Parley, Gargoyle?" she asked.
I was so taken aback, I wasn't sure how to react. From what Brooklyn had described of this Hunter family…I'm fairly certain that what she was doing was unprecedented.
I saw her fight Brooklyn and Zafira. If she chose to engage me…I wasn't sure I could win. On the other hand, on the off chance she was sincere…my scholarly mind wanted to know the 'why'.
I dipped my khopesh into the soil in front of me.
"Parley, Hunter," I responded.
She folded her legs into a sitting position next to her sword. I did the same.
We stared at each other silently for a moment.
"You are the one who requested the parley," I said, finally.
"That I did," she said. "This is not easy for me. All my life, I've been trained, told, that evil existed in the form of gargoyles. That gargoyles preyed upon the vulnerable…but I've come to believe recently…"
She looked down at the ground, clearly in utter turmoil.
"Diego de Landa may be a Franciscan monk," she said bitterly. "But he is no man of God. He slaughters and enslaves the innocent. He is unnecessarily cruel. He is more evil than any de—Gargoyle that I have ever seen. Including the beast that killed my mother."
I stayed silent.
"Diego hired me to help him kill yuir kin should you stand in his way," the said. "I trained all my life…but before last night, The Demon was the only gargoyle I'd ever met. The gargoyles around here…they dinnae bother the humans. They just kept to their pyramids. Diego de Landa shows up, and he burns down their villages. I can't help but notice that the so-called-monsters aren't the ones running around hurting innocents and destroying their lives."
"You have gained rare insight that many humans never see," I said. "Cherish your newfound wisdom. Tell me Hunter. You now see the truth, but what do you want to do about it?"
She hesitated, as if unsure about how to go about phrasing her next sentence.
"What I want to do…will get me disowned by the Canmore Clan," she said. "de Landa is planning something. I dinnae know what, but it is big. He needs the big black pyramid back there to do it, which is why he attacked it. I want to stop it. I want to stop him."
I stroked my mane below my chin.
"What does this have to do with me?" I asked.
"I am just one woman," she admitted. "I cannae do anything on my own. My skills will give me a small advantage, but de Landa still has an army of Conquistadores at his disposal. I cannae fight them on my own."
"Ah," I said, realizing what she was trying very hard not to say. "You wish to make the Old Bargain."
"The what?" Isabella asked, frowning.
"Since the time that humans and gargoyles began walking this earth together," I said. "They have found that each had an advantage that the other did not. And so a bargain is struck between a gargoyle clan, and a human clan. The gargoyles will fight for the humans, and protect them like their own rookery…at night. And during the day, the humans will protect the gargoyles who sleep in stone."
Isabella was silent.
"The Old Bargain has had many variations, iterations, different details over the centuries," I said. "But at its core…it remains the same. We protect you and yours at night. You protect us and ours during the day."
"I dinnae know how much of this bargain I can fulfill," she said after a long silence. "I am but one person."
"Two people," I corrected.
"You dinnae count."
"I wasn't counting me," I said. "I was counting the young human over there in the bushes spying on us. He clearly has a crush on you, and the fact that he hasn't run off to tell de Landa that you are here bargaining with me, indicates that he does not intend to."
Isabella jerked in surprise and turned around towards the bushes. Alejandro de la Vega, one of the young Conquistadores who had helped find the Orichalos Mine cave quietly, blushingly walked out.
"You were upwind," I said. "I could smell you from the moment you arrived."
"I don't have a crush on Señorita Canmore," he said.
"Your scent and body language say differently," I replied. He blushed again.
"Are you with us, then?" Isabella asked. Alejandro nodded. Although personally, I suspect that if Isabella told him to follow her off a cliff and into the sea, he'd have done that too.
"Tell me, Alejandro," I said. Alejandro blinked and looked surprised.
"How did you know my name?" he asked, frowning.
"How many of your fellow soldiers might betray de Landa?" I asked, ignoring Alejandro's question.
"I know at least 10 who are uncomfortable with what he's been having us do!" he said eagerly.
"Call that five," I said. "Being generous. Plus the two of you is seven."
"Then," Isabella said. "The Old Bargain?'
"I, personally, intend to help you, either way," I said. "But I cannot strike the Old Bargain on behalf of another clan. You must speak to Obsidiano, the Mayan Clan leader. He is a cranky old gargoyle. He's very stubborn and averse to getting involved against the Spanish. But if you want the gargoyle clan backing you up…Then you must convince him."
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The sun slowly sank towards the horizon. It was actually something of a relief to me. It may sound silly, but when I was a hatchling, I thought that the duration between sunrise and sunset was several times longer than the night was. It was just one of those irrational thoughts that you have as a hatchling.
But now that I had spent the day awake, having seen the course of the day pass by, I could confirm with absolute certainty, that sunrise to sunset is roughly the same length as sunset to sunrise.
The twilight seemed to last forever, but it did bring with it a certain familiarity that I found comforting.
And then, as the last golden rays dipped below the horizon, I heard a crackling sound. I turned and faced Zafira. Isabella and Alejandro, who had been asleep near some trees opposite the wall, jerked awake.
A lattice of cracks began forming across Zafira's stone form, almost like she was breaking apart. Again, my scholarly mind was fascinated by this phenomenon. I had never seen gargoyles awaken from stone sleep from the outside before.
The cracks spread, and then Zafira burst out of her stone prison with an earth-shattering roar, her eyes blazing crimson.
"Welcome back," I said, gingerly helping her to her feet. "How do you feel?"
"Healed," she said quietly. "But not whole."
"Your pendant," I said, handing the talisman back to her.
"You…saved my life," she said quietly. "Did…did you stay here and guard me the whole day?"
"Yes," I said. "I could not do otherwise."
"A less honorable gargoyle could have simply taken my pendant and run off with it. We would never get it back, and you would have the day to yourself."
"It is possible," I said. "But I have never met a gargoyle who would do such a thing."
Zafira suddenly gasped, noticing Isabella and Alejandro. She reached for her obsidian sword.
"Peace!" I said. "She does not intend us harm. If she did, she could have inflicted it when she arrived four hours ago."
Zafira did not visibly relax one bit. Her talon gripped her sword tightly, but she did not draw it.
"You heard what Brooklyn said about her family. They hunt our kind!"
"Aye, that we do," Isabella said, quietly. "But this one does not. Not anymore. You have my word."
"She wishes to strike The Old Bargain with your clan," I said.
"You know that Obsidiano will not make the Old Bargain with humans," Zafira said, frowning.
"He may change his mind, now," I said, and pointed in the direction of the K'waiilAhPukuh pyramid.
Zafira's face went steely. Like me, she was bracing herself for what she was going to find there.
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I retched in the bushes near the base of the pyramid. I thought that I had been prepared, but I was not. Zafira steadied me as I lost the contents of last night's spicy soup all over the bushes.
I had contemplated during the day the extremely fragile nature of our existence during stone sleep…but here was the living proof.
Piles of rubble, bits of stone gargoyles, shattered helplessly in their sleep, lay everywhere. On the pyramid, around it, near it.
Only two actual gargoyle corpses lay among the dead. Jade and his mate Torqueso had remained flesh at the dawn, and thus had been killed by conventional weapons. They lay on the ground just a few feet from one another, clasping talons.
Zafira tearfully bent down and removed their Jade and Turquoise pendants, silently slipping the talismans into a pouch at her side.
I walked over, and saw Six-Jaguar's dead jaguar body. The shape-shifting talisman was gone. I frowned at this, but moved on.
Isabella stood off to the side, her eyes downcast, looking ashamed. Alejandro held her hand.
"Brooklyn," I murmured. Where was my friend? The time dancing gargoyle? Was he among the rubble? Or had the Phoenix whisked him away to safety before this massacre had come to pass.
My gut said that the latter was not likely. Brooklyn would not have abandoned the Mayan gargoyles of his own accord.
"Oh God," Brooklyn's voice said quietly, from behind me. "It's the massacre at Castle Wyvern all over again. Look away, kids."
Zafira and I turned around and saw him there. Brooklyn, his beast, and two very young gargoyles had all emerged from the forest. They were soaking wet, and but very much alive.
"Brooklyn!" I am not usually an emotional gargoyle. I'm a scholar and a mage. I prefer to think things over coolly and logically. But when I saw my friend, I couldn't help myself. I grabbed him and embraced him. "Why are you wet?"
Zafira bent down and led the two hatchlings away from the slaughter.
"First time you've seen a massacre?" Brooklyn asked me.
I simply nodded.
"It never gets better," Brooklyn said shaking his head.
"I thought that you were…Among them," I said.
"No," he shook his head. "I realized the sun was seconds away from rising. So I grabbed two hatchlings that were next to me, and jumped into one of those cenote things that Zafira showed us."
"That was incredibly reckless and stupid," Zafira said. "There are underwater currents that could have dragged you for miles down there. The Mayans believe that the cenotes lead to Xibulba; the Mayan underworld. Because those who enter don't come out."
"I almost didn't come out," Brooklyn agreed. "I turned to stone almost right after I was in the cenote. And apparently, this goof followed me in…"
He affectionately petted his beast.
"Which actually ended up saving our lives, because when we woke up, he was the only one smart enough not to roar underwater. Dragged all three of us back to the surface."
"Good beast," I said bending down and petting him. "You did good."
Zafira reached into her pouch and pulled out a talonful of dried meats, she bent down and fed it to Brooklyn's Fu-dog.
"He does like his treats," Brooklyn said grinning.
"How did you guys survive? Last I saw, Zee here was bleeding out from gunshot wounds."
"Benuthet saved me," Zafira said quietly. "Found a secluded spot, removed my pendant, and made sure I turned to stone. It's the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me."
"Any gargoyle would have done the same," I said dismissively. Brooklyn bent down and examined Jade's corpse as I spoke, his brow furrowed.
"Any gargoyle did not do the same," Zafira said. "You did it."
"These two look like they were killed by arrow wounds," Brooklyn said. "Not bullets."
"Possibly," I said. "The wounds do seem cleaner than the ones inflicted upon Zafira."
"If they were killed by arrows," Brooklyn said. "Where are the arrows now?"
"Presumably the archer came and retrieved them?" I said. "Why do you ask?"
"Just…," Brooklyn hesitated. "A bad feeling. The Spanish don't seem like the type to use archers."
"It is true," Alejandro said, speaking up. "We have no archers in our number."
Brooklyn jerked back in surprise. He'd been so focused on me, and the massacre, he hadn't noticed Isabella and Alejandro.
"The Hunter!" He yelped, drawing his sword.
"Ha-Tehp," I said, deliberately fighting the Phoenix's translation magic in order to say the word in Egyptian and make it a spell. It worked, and Brooklyn froze.
"I had no part in this slaughter," Isabella said quietly. "I ran from it. I'd wager that if de Landa saw me again, he'd have me killed like he did the Maya or your kin."
"She speaks the truth," I said. "She spent most of the day with me. She seeks to stop Diego de Landa. She seeks to make the Old Bargain."
"A Hunter?" Brooklyn asked incredulously. "Wants to make the Old Bargain?"
I frowned. Now that my attention had drifted away from the slaughter that surrounded us, I could see something odd. Braziers had been placed upon the steps leading up the pyramid. I flared my wings and leapt up the steps three or four times until I got to the altar at the top.
Changes had been made. Bits of the Mayan symbols had been removed. Greek symbols had been hastily drawn in. Brooklyn, Zafira, Isabella, and Alejandro had followed me up the pyramid.
"What is he doing?" Brooklyn said looking at the Greek symbols.
"Mixing magicks," I said, quietly looking over the layout. A pentagram symbol had been drawn around the altar. Items had been placed at each of the star points.
"I have seen something similar to this before," I said quietly. "It is not, quite the same…But…I think that de Landa is…He's…"
"Spit it out, already," Isabella snapped.
"He is preparing an ascension ritual," I said. "He's trying to become a god."
"You cannae be serious!" Isabella said.
"You've seen this before?" Brooklyn asked.
"A variation. Ptolemy the First attempted such a ritual shortly after the Greeks conquered Egypt. It didn't end well for him."
"How does it work?" Zafira asked.
"It depends," I said. "There's two ways of doing it. If de Landa has an ancestor who is of the Third Race, then he can channel that magic and expand it, while burning away his mortal body."
"Third Race?" Isabella asked.
"Gargoyles, Humans," Brooklyn and I said at the same time.
"—And the Children of Mab."
"—And Oberon's Children."
I blinked at Brooklyn's response.
"Oberon? Mab's spoiled brat son? Since when?"
"Not sure," Brooklyn said, looking quite perturbed. "But I'm now like 98% sure that that's gonna bite me in the butt someday."
"The...Children of…Oberon, apparently," I continued. "Fairies, Sprites, Specters, and sometimes beings that humans worship as gods."
"Pagan gods?" Isabella asked.
"Often worshipped as gods, by humans yes."
"Gargoyles don't worship pagan gods though?"
"In general, we believe that there is a God. This God is nameless, and has no limits," I said. "Those spiritually inclined among us pursue knowledge of the Creator. Those that are not, simply believe that acting as protectors—as is our very nature as protectors—is sufficient worship."
"And…you've met members of this Third Race?" Isabella asked.
"I've met Thoth and Anubis," I said. "No one else."
"Oberon, Puck, the Weird Sisters," Brooklyn said. "Just a few. I've met a few."
"What if de Landa doesn't have any…Third Race ancestor?" Isabella asked, her mind still clearly reeling from our revelations.
"Then he will be acting out the second type of ascension ritual. He will turn himself into an Avatar. A vessel for a supernatural being. This method is far more dangerous."
"Why?" Zafira asked.
"Is this pyramid a place associated with-,"
"Yes," Zafira interrupted. "K'waiilAhPukuh, K'waiil, is the god of Kingship and Lightning. Ah Pukuh is the Mayan god of Violent and Unnatural death."
"Oh no…" I said, suddenly horrified.
"What?!" Brooklyn demanded.
"de Landa clearly wants to merge with K'waiil. A powerful god in the same vein as Jupiter, Thor, and Horus," I said. "This pyramid being sacred to both gods, he thinks that he can pick and choose…but he hasn't realized what he's done."
"What? What?" Isabella demanded.
"He's tipped the scales," I gestured at the slaughter that remained around us. "He views us gargoyles as sub-human. But to the Third Race, all mortals are the same. This K'waiil will view this temple as desecrated now. But this much violent and unnatural death…This Ah Pukuh will be drawn to it, like a moth to a flame."
"How do we stop him?" Zafira asked. "Because we HAVE to stop him."
"Agreed," Brooklyn said. "My clan leader once witnessed a madman become the Avatar of Anubis. He slaughtered hundreds. Diego de Landa is just as bad, if not worse…And Ah Pukuh sounds ten times worse."
"Such rituals must be cast at midnight or high noon," I said. "If de Landa planned for midnight, he would be here already, doing the final preparations."
"He knows that there are two gargoyle clans in this jungle," Isabella offered.
"Then he wants to perform the ritual at High Noon…to ensure that the gargoyles do not interfere."
"Then how can we stop him?!" Isabella demanded.
"There is a way…" I said, looking at Zafira's sapphire pendant.
"There are only four magic pendants, Benuthet," Zafira said.
"Yes…But…You said Orichalcum was common in the cenotes?" I asked.
"Yes…"
"Then there IS a way…"
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Obsidiano stared at us blankly as Zafira handed him the Jade and Turquoise pendants.
"I told you," Zafira said bitterly, and looked away from Obsidiano.
"What…" Obsidiano steadied himself. "What can we do? How can I protect my clan? How do I ensure that this does not happen ever again?"
"This is Isabella," I said. The Hunter stepped forward. "She seeks the Old Bargain. The one that you would not make with the Maya."
Obsidiano nodded. "It has come to my attention, that perhaps not all humans are the same, as I thought. I will make the Old Bargain. What would you have us do?"
"Diego de Landa is planning an evil ritual atop the pyramid," Isabella said. "I wish to stop him."
"The ritual will be cast at noon," I said.
"There are only four pendants," Obsidiano said.
"Right now," I said.
Alejandro exited the jungle. Seven Spanish warriors appeared behind him, carrying a trunk.
"Seven of them defected," Alejandro said.
"More than we expected," I nodded. "Did you get what I asked for?"
"Easily," Alejandro said. "He rejected about half the crystals. Tossed the rejects into this box."
I ripped the metal lock off with my bare talon, reached in, and pulled out a glowing Orichalcos Crystal.
"Imperfect for de Landa," I said. "Perfect for us."
Zafira gingerly handed me her sapphire pendant.
"What are you doing?" Obsidano asked.
I touched the crystal to the sapphire, and forced myself to speak Egyptian.
"Hi-nehm!" I said. The Orichalcos Cyrstal glowed for a moment, then turned solid sapphire, then back to crystal.
"What did you just do?" Obsidiano asked.
"I cast a simple spell my mentor taught me with his Orichalcos Crystal," I said. "The Joining Spell lets you take a spell that has already been cast, or exists…And replicate the spell temporarily."
"So you just…"
"For Seven Nights," I said. "This crystal will have all of the magical properties of the last spell it came in contact with."
I reached into the trunk and pulled out more Orichalcum.
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We stood atop the ChacIxchel pyramid summit. A single Orichalcum Crystal remained unclaimed. I slipped it into my satchel. It might be useful following the fight. As long as the Crystals remained infused with the energy from the pendants, their normal powers—such as healing—Were gone.
Obsidiano had quietly handed Brooklyn and myself the Jade and Turquoise pendants. A loan. The old gargoyle had been very quiet ever since we had shown up. I think he felt ashamed at his stubbornness. If he had listened, then perhaps the K'awiilAhPukuh Clan might still be alive. Or perhaps both clans would have fallen. It's difficult to gauge the what-might-have-beens. Especially for Time-Travelers.
History is a constant. It cannot be changed or altered, no matter how hard you try. The Egyptians tried very hard to wipe anything from their history that they didn't like. But in the end, they only destroyed records. History itself remained unchanged.
Brooklyn sucked in a deep breath. His beast licked his lips, as we stood atop the pyramid.
"Anxious about seeing the sun come up?" I asked.
"I've seen the sun…Technically," Brooklyn said. "Phoenix dropped me off during the day once. Took my body like…Two minutes to adjust and realize that I should be stone. It was freaky."
"This is different," I commented.
"Yeah."
"The strain may be a bit much for the Sun Amulet," Zafira said, joining us. I noticed a leaf-bandage around her left talon.
"It was meant to power four pendants," she said. "Not seventy-two."
"Seventy-Five," I said. I tapped the Jade pendant around my own neck, and gestured to Brooklyn and Fu-dog.
"Nevertheless," Zafira said. "Energy is energy. I didn't want the amulet to burn out. So I added my blood to the amulet to recharge it."
"Smart," I commented. I still felt uncomfortable about the Blood Magic, but it seemed like the Mayans truly did use it responsibly.
The dawn broke. The enchanted Orichalcum Crystals glowed. There was a collective gasp from the various Mayan Clan members who had never seen the dawn break before.
Zafira reached behind her and unsheathed her obsidian blade from the sheath on her back.
"It begins," she said. We unfurled our wings and launched into the morning.
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Despite the sun now having been up for several hours now, the sky was overcast. A storm was brewing overhead. An ominous sign.
As we glided towards the pyramid, there was a sound. The Spanish had seen us coming, and were now firing upon us. More shots rang out.
A dark blue colored male suddenly plummeted from the sky.
"No!" I heard Brooklyn cry out.
"These weapons are powerful," I said. "But very inaccurate. The Spanish seldom seem to hit what they aim for."
"They're weapons of intimidation and fear," Brooklyn agreed.
I drew my Khopesh and dived upon the Spanish guarding the base of the pyramid. I landed and began engaging them hand to hand.
A dozen beasts bounded out of the forest, led by Isabella Canmore and Brooklyn's Fu-dog, striking the Spaniards where they stood, and knocking them to the ground.
With a swift motion I sliced through one of the arms of the nearest soldier. He staggered away from me, clutching it in pain. I saw a flash of red from the corner of my eye, and I saw another Mayan gargoyle fall from the sky.
Brooklyn landed next to me.
"Arrows," he said scowling. "I knew it. He's here somewhere."
"Who is here somewhere?"
"An old enemy," Brooklyn replied, and darted away from me.
It was nearly high noon. I needed to reach the summit and stop de Landa's spell. I lunged towards the steps of the pyramid, when a burly Conquistador blocked my path. He lunged at me with his weapon, and with a sweeping motion, sliced through the leather chord holding the Jade pendant on my neck.
I desperately grasped at it as it fell, but to no avail. I entered stone sleep.
But only for a moment or two. Longer than the time that the Humility Spell had taken, but still short. I burst forth from my stone shell with a roar to find the Jade pendant firmly around my neck once more.
The Conquistador who had removed it lay broken and bleeding at my feet, with Zafira standing next to me.
"Remind me never to anger you," I said.
"I plan to," she smirked.
Flashes of light began firing off from the pyramid's summit. Magical Energy crackled through the air.
Zafira and I exchanged and glance and went bounding up the steps.
Diego de Landa stood at the top of the pyramid, the Orichalcum Skull sitting upon the altar, resting upon a small bed of much smaller Orichalcum Crystals. The skull was coated with red blood, and de Landa smirked at us.
"Too late," he whispered.
Then his body expanded. Bloating to six times its normal size. He had become incredibly fat. The skin on his face sank inwards, as though all the fat had drained from it. A bony skull-like face upon a gigantic fat bloated body.
The Roman Crucifix twisted and changed shape, bending around itself, and his robe reduced to a tattered loincloth, making him look even more disgusting and bloated.
"At last!" he declared, a second voice speaking in semi-unison with de Landa's own imposing voice. "I am free from Oberon's Law!"
"A possession Avatar," I murmured. I had seen this before. Experienced it before. It was what I had truly been afraid would happen. Diego de Landa had thought that he could become a god. That he could cast an ascension spell and control the entity he summoned into his own body.
Ah Pukuh however, had other plans. He controlled de Landa now. And as a partial mortal, he was free from the usual restrictions that he faced.
"Not interfere in mortal affairs," he said sounding irritated. "But how else am I to cause violent and unnatural deaths?"
He laughed, a creepy echoing sound, and pointed. Zafira and I ducked out of the way just in time. A large blast of black energy erupted from his finger and launched out into the fray. Several dozen Spanish, and Mayan Gargoyles all exploded violently, and unnaturally. Zafira and I looked at one another in horror.
Ah Pukuh/de Landa smirked at us and laughed. He pointed directly at us this time. I hastily reached into my satchel and yanked out a Wadjet Amulet—The Eye of Horus—And held it up as the blast hit. Zafira clutched my arm and shielded herself under my wing as a small glowing shield appeared around us.
My Wadjet crumbled apart, and my shield with it. This far from Egypt, I was unsurprised.
"Can we crush the skull?" Zafira asked. "Will that break the spell?"
"Breaking the connection would end the Avatar, and free de Landa," I said. "But neither of us could break Orichalcum with our bare talons. The substance is too hard."
I fished through my satchel and pulled out a shabti in the shape of a gargoyle warrior. I threw it at de Landa. It expanded in size and lunged at him. In seconds de Landa/Ah Pukuh vaporized it into dust.
"Do you have any magic that can stop him?" she asked desperately.
I rifled through my satchel again. The Serpent's Crown was out of the question, of course. Tana leaves. Oils. The Papyrus of Thoth…Nothing useful. I was in grave trouble. Then I hit something soft.
"Yes," I said. "I can stop him. But I need a distraction."
"You have one," Zafira said. In an instant, she had drawn her obsidian blade and was striking relentlessly at de Landa. He raised his finger to explode her, but she dodged far too quickly. I was almost enraptured by the beauty and precision of her strikes.
I lunged at the crystal skull, pulling out the one item in my bag that could end this. The one magic in my possession stronger and more potent than Blood Magic.
I poured the purified cenote water over the skull, washing the blood away.
The reaction was instant. Ah Pukuh screamed and de Landa's body reduced to its original proportions. The Avatar had been cleaved.
The skull suddenly began pulsing and shuddering. The pyramid began to shake, violently. I ran over and grabbed Zafira's talon in my own. We leapt from atop the building just in time, as the pyramid collapsed in on itself. Burying the skull, the altar, and anyone who might still have been inside.
The remaining Spanish fled as quickly as they could. Collecting ourselves, the gargoyles and Isabella's Spanish defectors, who seemed to have doubled in numbers since we had arrived, retreated back into the jungle.
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"Pity we couldn't keep those," Brooklyn said. The two of us stood at the edge of the jungle by the ChacIxchel pyramid. "Time travel sucks…But at least during the day, it would suck less."
"The pendants belong to the Mayan Clan," I said, watching Isabella and her Spanish followers mingling among the gargoyles. Several of the Mayan humans from Six-Jaguar's village had shown up during the fight, apparently seeking refuge with the ChacIxchel Clan. They had been welcomed with open wings.
"We didn't have the right to take them," I said.
"Yeah," Brooklyn said. "Fu-dog's Crystal pendant isn't a bad consolation prize, though. It's got, what…Six more nights left?"
I placed the pendant-enchanted crystal in my satchel, in a separate pocket from the ordinary Orichalcos Crystal.
"Six nights and some change, if it remains unused," I said. "It only loses the enchantment while active. Since daylight is a rare gift for our kind, best to save it for an emergency or special occasion."
"Cool," Brooklyn said.
"I should also point out, that since the spell draws its power from the Mayan Sun Amulet, that it will be useless if we dance to a year prior to the creation of said amulet."
"Less cool," Brooklyn said. "Do you know how much time is before the Tenth Century? Like…Most of it."
He turned and looked back at the Mayan Clan, wistfully.
"We should be going," he said.
"Are you sure it's going to come?" I asked.
"After a while," Brooklyn said. "I kinda have a sixth sense about these things. It's coming. I can feel it in my bones."
We ducked into the jungle, slipping away from the Mayan Clan and her new human friends, and into the darkness.
We had maybe made it a hundred feet from the camp when I heard a familiar voice speak.
"So where are we going, exactly?" Zafira asked.
Brooklyn and I jumped about three feet in the air again.
"How do you do that?" Brooklyn demanded, "You're like a cat!"
"You're leaving, yes?" Zafira asked.
"Yes," I said. "It is our intention to depart."
"I thought that you two were courting me?" Zafira asked. "Did you not want to hear my decision?"
Brooklyn and I blinked.
"I have a certain fondness," she admitted. "For a gargoyle who not only saved my life, but also acted with wisdom and honor, and saved my clan."
She stepped forward and reached up, and stroked my mane.
"Oh you have…SERIOUSLY?!" Brooklyn said, turning and walking away, throwing his talons in the air. "What does a guy gotta do to catch a break around here?"
I reached up and stroked Zafira's hair.
"If I asked you to stay with me…would you?" She asked.
I considered. I honestly hadn't considered my feelings for Zafira before now. She was an incredible warrior. Smart and insightful too. I considered the way that I had acted when she had been hurt. Though I still had a duty to dispose of the Serpent's Crown…I could definitely see making a life here with Zafira.
"Yes," I said, quietly. " I would."
"Good," she said smiling and stepping away. "Then I made the right choice. So…where are we going?"
"Wait…" I asked. "Zafira?"
"It's not Zafira anymore," she said smirking at me. "Though I do like the name 'Zafira'. I might keep that. I returned the sapphire pendant to my clan. Turns out that I rather missed stone sleep. You don't know how you feel about something till it's gone. But I'm not going to miss my clan. I loved them…but I was an outsider there. Obsidiano has given me his blessing. I'm going with you."
"You don't even know where we're going!" I objected.
"Sure I do. I'm going with you."
"Dude," Brooklyn said. "If you tell her she can't come, then I'm so gonna punch you in the face. Do you know how long I've waited for a female to say things like that to me? Shut up, she's coming, or I swear by the Dragon I am turning this flaming time-traveling bird around!"
Zafira bent down and handed some dried meat to Fu-dog, who eagerly gobbled it up.
I looked at Fu-dog's face as he gobbled up the meats.
"It would seem that I am outvoted," I commented.
"So…for the third time…Where ARE we going?"
"I…Back to ChacIxchel, I guess," Brooklyn said. "Kinda expected the Phoenix to show up by now."
"Well that's gonna be awkward," Zafira muttered. "I already said my goodbyes."
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Diego de Landa sat down at his desk. Bleeding and bruised, but alive. He took an Orichalcos Crystal from his desk, and gently touched it to each of his wounds, quietly healing himself.
"Well?" he asked of the cloaked figure standing silently by the desk. Diego de Landa gingerly fingered Six-Jaguar's shapeshifting talisman as he spoke.
"Your methods were a tad bit…Extreme, for my tastes," the cloaked figure said, removing his hood to reveal a scarred, balding head. "But I can't really argue with the results. While you had the Mayans and Gargoyles distracted, my men stripped the caves and cenotes of all the precious Orichalcos Crystals. Those crystals will be invaluable in the future."
"So you are pleased," de Landa stated.
The man reached into his cloak. It was odd…Typically, in a ba dream, information, such as a person's ren or name was given to me automatically, as a matter of course. But this shrouded figure had such a negative aura, and so many nome de plumes, I couldn't sift his True Name from the pile. But there was a moniker that Brooklyn knew him by, and that name stood out among the others.
"Very," Brother Valmont said. "You passed your initiation."
Brother Valmont handed de Landa a small scroll, sealed with an icon of an Egyptian Pyramid with an Eye above it.
"Welcome to our organization."
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The Phoenix spat us out onto a large open plain, with a small set of cliffs overlooking us.
"Where are we?" Zafira asked.
"The question isn't where, my love," I said smirking. "It is when."
I turned and looked at Brooklyn. "I understand why you do that now, it is fun."
Brooklyn didn't respond, he just glanced at a small herd of very large creatures grazing on the plains.
"Huh," I said. "I've never seen a brown furry elephant before, but…I am hungry and I do need ivory for a new wand. Shall we?"
The three of us drew our swords, and launched towards the animals…
To be continued…