Thank you, Jett-Wolfe98 and EllieStone! :)
Cocijo is pronounced kokE oh. Neither him nor his father is based on any real person.
All original characters and storyline belong to Scott Westerfeld.
Secrets
"Miss Sharp, you can walk away from those you love or have them taken from you. It's your choice."
"Please!" Deryn begged, tears streaming down her cheeks. She sobbed, out of frustration and despair. "Don't hurt them."
"It's not me who's going to hurt them, Deryn, if you agree to our bargain. They won't even know we exist."
She closed her eyes and thought of Jaspert, her Ma, and Alek. Alek. What was she going to say to him?
She sighed, defeated. "And you say you'll let me go once I successfully create your beastie?"
His expression was serious. "If you don't break any of our conditions we agreed on, you have my word."
More tears. Before she could change her mind, she nodded. "I'll do it."
"Excellent. If they knew the conditions, I'm sure your family would be glad, too. We leave tomorrow morning. You have until then to do what you need to."
Deryn's heart sank into her stomach. "But you said-"
"That your family and loved ones will cease to exist if you don't cooperate!" he hissed. "I think you know how powerful I am, Deryn. Or should I make another example out of your family?"
The boy beside her whimpered, big brown eyes still full of tears. He was so small. How could this man slaughter his sisters right in front of him, a mere child? He looked at her with pleading eyes.
She nodded. "Just give me a few hours, and I'll do what I need to."
His expression changed, back to the pleasant mask he wore so well.
"Wonderful! I think I'm going to like you, Miss Sharp. Welcome to the United Darwinist Society of Russia and Mexico. However, within the society, you may refer to us as Dextera Domini."
"But not outside of it?" she ventured.
He frowned and looked almost.. sad?
"No, Miss Sharp, The world does not yet know what Dextera Domini is capable of, and therefore won't respect it, and therefore won't accept it. Just the United Darwinist Society of Russia and Mexico for now, I'm afraid. But UDSRM will be acceptable, too."
"And what precisely does Dextera Domini mean, sir? Is it Latin?"
He looked down, then turned his eyes up to meet hers, manic expression back. "The Right Hand of God," he said, gleeful grin in place.
Deryn did not like that expression, not a single bit.
Deryn, she thought to herself. What have you gotten yourself into?
"Deryn! Deryn!" a muffled yet frantic voice called, accompanied by a quick pounding of the door.
She shot straight up in bed. The nightmare again. She'd been reliving that moment nearly every night for the past two years. She wiped the tears and sweat from her face and jumped up to answer the door.
A few rays of early sunshine trickled in through the small window in the small room, illuminating her dresser. On it, she could see the portrait of her family, Da included. Deryn commended herself every day for grabbing that one before she'd left. Next to it, unframed, was a sketch she had done of Alek. She had done that one when she first arrived in Africa.
She grabbed her robe and wrapped it around her nightdress, and swung open the door.
"Yes?" she said, a little sharper than she'd meant to.
It was Cocijo. The poor boy looked more frightened than usual.
"Nightmares, too?" Deryn guessed. He nodded. "All right, come in," she said. "But be quiet about it!"
He went in and sat in the chair by her dresser, quietly observing her few precious belongings.
She looked both ways down the hall to make sure no one had seen and closed the door. Luckily, her room was the only one on this side of the hall, which was closest to where the monkeys were kept. They were noisy neighbors, but it turned out to be a helpful thing for when she and Cocijo needed to sneak about. They were especially smelly, too, so not many people came down this way if they didn't have to. She sat down on the edge of her bed and said, "..Do you want to talk about it?"
Cocijo furrowed his brow shook his head no. All right, Deryn thought to herself. Cranky and frightened.
"Would you like me to fetch you some water?"
He shook his head again.
"Do you want to talk at all?"
He nodded.
"All right, what would you like to talk about?"
"What would you do if you ever saw Alek again?
Deryn was caught off guard by that. She thought about that question quite often herself.
She scoffed. "I think you and I both know that's not going to happen anytime soon, Cocijo."
"But still, what if it did?"
"Then I would throw my arms around him and tell him how sorry I was," she answered, exasperated.
Cocijo sensed her irritation and changed the subject. "Deryn, may I tell you something I've never told anyone else before?"
She nodded. Cocijo was her assistant and now her only friend. Since he didn't have his mother, he sort of treated Deryn like one, coming into her room when he had nightmares, asking her for help with various scientific business, and the like. She'd never thought herself as particularly motherly in nature, but she liked having someone around that needed her.
"Do you remember last week, when Dmitri told us the last true Mayan king of Guatemala had been killed by revolutionaries, the one they called the Jaguar King?" he asked, slowly looking up at her.
"Aye," she said softly. "I do. Why?" The revolutionaries had been more riled up than usual lately. Deryn thought they were all foolish. Killing their own king, and then complaining about it!
Cocijo looked upset. "My father was killed in the battle."
She saw tears fall from Cocijo's eyes. "Poor wee lad," she said aloud. "Come here, you."
He sat next to her on the bed as she put her arms around him. It may not have been very proper, her sitting with a boy on her bed in her room, but she didn't care.
He was a child, after all, who at age 13 had been through more grown-ups ever will in life. This situation reminded her so much of the first time she and Alek had been alone on the Leviathan.
"There, there," she cooed. "Here, dry your eyes," she said, once his quiet sobs began to let up.
He gratefully took the handkerchief from her hands. "Thank you," he tried to say through the last bit of tears.
"Aye," she said. "I remember when I lost my Da! I wanted to do nothing but curl up in a ball and cry for the rest of my life."
Still wiping his eyes, Cocijo said, "What did you do?"
She brought her arms back and crossed them in front of her as she said, "Well, I did just that, for a week, anyways. My Ma wouldn't let me after she'd found out about it."
Cocijo's eyes widened. "She didn't'?"
"No, and I hated her for it," Deryn said dryly. "But I thanked her a few years after. It was such a good thing that she did."
"How so?"
"It made me stronger," Deryn began. "I had to learn to deal with the pain head on, no matter how much it hurt. I still missed my Da like crazy, and I still do, but I'm okay now."
"What do you mean, 'okay'?"
"I mean that I can think about him without getting all teary, most of the time anyways. That wound has healed, not completely, but for the most part." She turned to him. "And I know you don't believe me right now, but I promise you, Cocijo, you're going to make it through this," she said with great earnestness in her voice.
A very small smile crept on Cocijo lips. "Thank you, Deryn. That means a lot to me."
She smiled back at him, "Aye, lad. Now, go back to bed and try to get some more sleep. We've got a big day ahead of us."
He nodded as he returned her handkerchief and walked to the door.
"Actually, there's one more thing," he said.
She looked at him expectantly.
"I never really knew my father; he sent me away after I was born. I used to be angry about it, but I think he did it for a reason, to keep my safe." Deryn nodded. Dmitri had found Cocijo in England, where he'd been living with several of his older sisters.
"His name was K'inich Yax Ahkal K'awiil II."
Deryn's eyes widened. That was the name all the papers had in them. Cocijo's father was the king, not some barking revolutionary! "That would make you.."
"Cocijo, the last Jaguar King of Guatemala."
