Moonlight painted the jungle bluish-silver. Phoenix had been surprised at the moon's brightness, at how small and numerous the real stars were. A slight breeze ruffled her fur and stirred leaves and branches. Something far below roared, momentarily silencing some scurrying animals.

Flying was easier than it was in the Underworld. She could tell that immediately. The pull of gravity wasn't as strong here. It took her a few minutes to adjust, but once she had, flying was so easy.

Even just being here in the Upper World was better—the sounds, smells, sensations, everything. She'd completely forgotten what living was like. The air itself seemed almost alive, thick with heat and moisture.

For a long time she just enjoyed listening to her heart, life humming both within and around her.

She passed over a wide river that was hardly flowing and it occurred to her that she was thirsty—her throat was dry and itchy. She skimmed over it and gulped down water, relishing how cool it was.

A giant fish burst up through the water and snapped at her. She flipped out of the way and shot up away from the river. She hovered several dozen feet overhead, staring at the spot where the fish had disappeared. The jungle had never been safe.

Her heart was beating even faster.

She loved it.

Phoenix encountered Vampyrum bats long before she came into sight of the pyramid. She looked at the moon—it was past midnight. Of course. Nearly the entire colony should be out hunting now.

The other Vampyrum Spectrum took no note of her, intent on hunting. Reminded of the hunger gnawing at her stomach—one bat hadn't been nearly enough after nothing for three centuries—Phoenix considered hunting on the way to the pyramid but ultimately decided against it. She could hunt later.

After a while, her wings started to ache and the unfamiliar pain surprised her. How long had she been flying? It hadn't seemed like very long, but she'd pretty much lost all sense of time in the Underworld, and she could not remember how long it took for a living bat to tire.

She allowed herself to roost for a minute or two before continuing on her way. The rest hadn't helped much, and though her wings had loosened up, black spots kept flashing across her vision.

The pyramid soon came into view. Phoenix's eyes widened in surprise as she saw it for the first time in nearly three hundred years.

It wasn't nearly as grand as she remembered, hardly anything compared to the magnificent sonic structures in the Underworld. Vines and plants almost completely covered it, and parts of it were crumbling. The doorway from the royal chamber that overlooked the jungle was entirely blocked by greenery. There were fewer bats than she had expected as well, fewer than the colony had had in her time.

She knew it had been a long time. But still...to see it for herself...

She shook her head and kept flying.

When she reached the temple, three burly guards swooped down from their roosts and barred her path.

"Who are you?" demanded one.

"I am Phoenix. I come to speak with the high priest by command of Lord Zotz."

The guards glanced at one another, at a loss. One of them began quickly speaking to the other two in a low voice. Phoenix simply waited.

"Let her pass," called a harsh, creaky voice from inside the temple. "But send a messenger to the king."

Phoenix looked past the guards to see an ancient bat with tattered ears, several bald patches, and a crooked spine. The guards shared another look and then parted, and she flew into the temple and landed in front of the old bat. His gaunt face made his eyes look larger than they should be.

"Phoenix, you say?" As he spoke, she saw that his teeth were yellow and crooked, several of them broken.

She nodded. A few black dots danced in front of her eyes.

"I am Voxzaco, high priest of Cama Zotz. You claim he sent you here?"

She nodded again. "Yes. From the Underworld itself." She saw no reason to lie, especially to a priest of Zotz. "There shall be an eclipse—"

Voxzaco's eyes bulged and he hurriedly gestured to the guards, who seemed to be discussing which of them to send. "Quickly, send a message to the king!" he cried. "He must come here at once! Any of you, go!"

One of the guards dropped from his roosted and flapped off into the jungle, throwing a last suspicious glance at Phoenix.

"The Underworld itself," Voxzaco repeated. "You mean to tell me that you have risen from the dead?"

Phoenix lifted her chin. "Yes." She smiled to show her obsidian teeth, Zotz's gift to her. Voxzaco's eyes widened in surprise. He must know what that means, she thought. "I died nearly three hundred years ago under an eclipse," she continued, "on this very Stone. I was a willing sacrifice, made in Lord Zotz's name to liberate him from the Underworld. Now I have returned to make sure that this time it is a success."

Voxzaco gave a tiny gasp. "Yes—I remember, three hundred years ago...an eclipse..." He flapped across the room to land on the Stone. "Of course, here, on the Stone...the priest was unprepared and he failed...but I have seen no sign of a second total eclipse, not so soon." He glanced back at her skeptically.

"Then we have time to prepare," Phoenix said, ignoring his look.

At the sound of wingbeats overhead, she glanced up to see the guard who Voxzaco had sent as a messenger along with three other bats. The guard returned to his post and the other three landed on the floor in front of Phoenix.

The first bat was tall, nearly Phoenix's height, with billowing black wings, dark gray fur, dark red hair, a beige mane, and yellow eyes. He radiated authority in such a way that Phoenix could only assume he was the king. The second bat was the same height, with similar fur, hair, and mane, but with deep purple wings and sharp green eyes, and he was much younger and more handsome than the first. His son, perhaps. The third bat was reddish-brown, slightly shorter than the other two but still strong-looking.

"This is King Camaxtli," Voxzaco said, "and his son, Prince Goth."

Phoenix swept into a bow. "Your Majesty...Your Highness." She straightened up and looked at the third bat. "And...?"

"Xocama, captain of the guard."

She nodded in acknowledgement and turned back to the king, ignoring the spike of pain that went through her head.

"Who are you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Phoenix," she said again. "I come to tell you that soon there will be an eclipse—a chance to free Zotz."

"She is the reason I sent for you, my king," said Voxzaco from atop the Stone. Then, warily, "She says she has come from the Underworld. And it's no lie—look at her teeth."

Phoenix pulled back her lips to show them. She didn't particularly appreciate being examined like this, but at this point she had something to prove.

"Stained black," remarked King Camaxtli.

Voxzaco shook his head. "No."

King Camaxtli frowned at him. "Then what?"

"They're stone," said Phoenix. "A gift from Zotz. I received them when I died."

"Died," he repeated. "And yet you are here."

"She speaks the truth, Your Majesty," said Voxzaco. "I have seen this on the Stone—rising from the dead. It has happened in the past. Very rarely, but it has."

The king nodded slowly. "An eclipse," he said, looking back at Phoenix.

"The sun creates a barrier between the Underworld and the Upper World," she said. "To destroy the sun is to destroy that barrier and allow Cama Zotz to reign above as well as below. The coming eclipse will give us the chance to kill the sun, the first in three hundred years."

"Kill the sun," the king repeated. "How?"

"In my time, we attempted a ritual to give Zotz a hundred hearts within the eclipse." She paused as another, fiercer bolt of pain stabbed through her head, then dulled to a throb. What was wrong with her? "There may be another way, but none that I am aware of."

All bats in the room turned to look at Voxzaco. The priest coughed and said, "That is on the Stone, killing the sun. The Stone gives no sense of when it will happen, but that it will is prophesied." His cloudy purple eyes flicked to Phoenix, then back to the king. "However...I have my doubts about her."

Phoenix whirled to face the old bat, clenching her jaw tightly to stop herself from snarling at him—he was the high priest, and that required she treat him respectfully, no matter that twenty years of service to Zotz had nothing on three hundred.

"I do not doubt that she has been sent here by Zotz," continued Voxzaco, ignoring Phoenix herself, "but I have seen nothing on the Stone that would indicate a total eclipse."

King Camaxtli was silent for a moment, thinking, before fixing him with a harsh yellow glare. "Then find it."

Voxzaco stared back at the king, muscles in his jaw working, indignant at the swift dismissal. Eventually, he said, "Certainly, Your Majesty." As he turned away to begin searching the Stone, Phoenix saw the prince repressing an amused grin. She found herself smiling back at him despite the fact that it hurt to even keep her eyes open.

The king tilted his head slightly. "You should rest," he said to her. She had to blink rapidly to keep him in focus.

She gave a curt bow. "Of course."

She stepped back and started to open her wings when he asked, "You're a soldier?"

Phoenix blinked again, surprised by the question. "Yes, Your Majesty. A warrior."

He nodded, and then no one said anything more, so she spread her wings and flew up through the portal in the ceiling. She drifted down the pyramid to the passage where most Vampyrum roosted. She entered and roosted immediately in a spot that didn't look like it had been occupied recently. Very few bats were inside the pyramid at that time of night.

Phoenix shut her eyes and fell asleep in seconds.

A bat roosted in a thick tangle of branches and vines that almost completely blocked the moonlight out. Several other bats were gathered as well, eying the newcomer—a Vampyrum—with suspicion. The other bats were all Chrotopterus Auritus, who looked similar to Vampyrum but were smaller and had thicker fur and shorter snouts. Among them was Ichtaca, watching the Vampyrum warily. He may not be loyal to Camaxtli, Ichtaca thought, but that doesn't mean he thinks of us as equals. A lifetime of differences didn't lend well to an alliance.

"You better have a reason for coming here," said Kratos. Ichtaca could only see his eyes in the darkness. "And make it a good one."

The Vampyrum was breathing hard from his hurried flight. "There's going to be an eclipse," he panted. "The priest wants to...to kill the sun. I don't know how it works, but I don't doubt that something's going to happen. Another Vampyrum came to the pyramid, someone I've never seen, with strange black teeth…. She told the priest to make a hundred sacrifices during the eclipse. To kill the sun."

Kratos was silent for a moment. "They're mad," he said eventually. "There's no way."

Ichtaca wasn't so sure. As far as he knew, Kratos had never been to the pyramid itself. Neither had Ichtaca, for that matter, but his mate—Estrella—worked there as a servant. She'd seen the high priest, the sacrifices. Many things happened there that shouldn't be possible.

"Oh, there's a way," said the Vampyrum. "It might not make sense, but something's going to happen. You don't survive in that pyramid without knowing what the Vampyrum are capable of and willing to do. Make no mistake: if they follow through, not just the sun but the world will die."

All was silent but for the buzzing of insects.

"What are you suggesting?" asked another Chrotopterus.

Kratos answered before the Vampyrum could: "If the Vampyrum are planning something like that, we may have no choice but to fight."

The assembled bats erupted into protests.

"We're nowhere near strong enough to do that!" Ichtaca said.

"They outnumber us a hundred to one—at the very least!"

"They'll slaughter every last one of us!"

"We're not ready. They'll tear us to pieces!"

"Silence!" Kratos hissed. "You'll draw attention to us." Once everyone had quieted, he said, "It's not just this new plot of theirs. We've all been hurt by the Vampyrum. We're nothing to them, nothing but slaves and servants."

Vampyrum law didn't apply to other species; any bat that didn't serve the Vampyrum was fair game as prey, including Chrotopterus. That's why Estrella was a servant at the pyramid—it was dangerous, to be sure, but at least she wouldn't be eaten.

Well...that and the possibility of espionage.

"It's why we're all here—we want to strike back, to end their rule," Kratos continued. "We've been hiding and planning for long enough. It's all for naught if we don't act. And if they intend to kill the sun, we have to act soon."

"How?" Ichtaca asked. "How many of us are here, twenty? We have plans, but not the bats to carry them out. The Vampyrum number millions. They have an organized military and a stronghold to defend from. I want to fight back as much as anyone here, but we can't face them in battle."

The Vampyrum spoke up again. "I'm not the only Vampyrum opposed to Camaxtli's rule. Once word gets out about the eclipse, it could very well be the tipping point. I'll start looking for bats who might support our cause."

More Vampyrum? Ichtaca thought, unnerved by the prospect. Definitely a risky move, but we need more bats. We won't stand a chance without them.

"Kratos is right," said another Chrotopterus. "We've lived like this for too long. Things need to change and soon—if we wait much longer we'll all be dead."

No one said anything for a while. They had been waiting and planning for months, if not years. And that was just the bats present that night—Ichtaca was sure that thoughts of rebellion had been considered ever since the Vampyrum had first seized power. They'd held onto it for as long as anyone could remember.

Ichtaca had been waiting for a long time, too. Every bat here was here for one reason—to rebel.

"Allow me a few weeks," the Vampyrum said to Kratos. "I'll find you bats willing to fight."

It was dark by the time Phoenix woke up. The pyramid was already nearly empty, as it had been when she'd fallen asleep. She'd slept late.

She laughed quietly. I suppose that's what happens when you don't sleep for a few centuries.

Phoenix flared her wings wide and dropped from her roost. Once outside, she swooped past the temple, but it was deserted. She shifted direction and flew into the jungle. She needed to find something to eat.

Listening carefully, she eventually caught the sound of a small animal climbing along a branch. It had taken much longer than she thought it would—the Upper World was noisy; it was difficult to pick out individual sounds from the ceaseless cacophony without being used to it.

She roosted silently on a branch just above the rodent, a rat, which was now visible in her echo vision. It didn't notice her as it paused to sniff at something. One second, two—

Phoenix leapt at it, enclosing it in her wings so that it couldn't move, then killed it with two quick bites to the neck. She flipped upside down and ate it.

As she cleaned the blood from her muzzle, a bat flew up in front of her. She recognized him in a second: Prince Goth.

"I am leading a patrol this evening," he said. "Would you join us? I imagine the jungle has changed over time."

She took to the air and smiled politely. "Of course, Your Highness," she replied, then glanced up at the canopy, her smile fading. "It has."

They flew through the warm night along with the six soldiers also in the patrol. Prince Goth was right—the jungle had changed very much. The tallest trees had fallen, new ones sprung up.

For a moment, Phoenix thought she felt eyes watching her and twisted around, hovering. She scanned the branches behind her, but neither saw nor heard anything unusual. Must be that I'm not used to being in a place as crowded as the jungle. She shook her head and continued on with the patrol.

They reached the border of the jungle long before Phoenix expected them to. She reared back at the sudden absence of trees. All that remained were stumps, broken branches, and buttress roots. There was no life here. And this was new; three hundred years ago, this place had been all trees. She hadn't just lost track of time as she flew—the jungle was smaller.

"What caused this?" she asked as the eight bats hovered at the edge of the jungle, staring at the barren waste.

"Humans," said a soldier. "They've been encroaching on the jungle for as long as anyone can remember, taking trees and building settlements. They have villages all around it, and a city to the east."

Sure enough, Phoenix noticed several metal contraptions, some with slabs of wood stacked atop them, others equipped with hooked appendages. They were unfamiliar to her, but surely only Humans would use such machines.

Humans, here…. In her time, they had cut down trees, but never on this scale. The jungle wasn't theirs; they had no right to it. Things had indeed changed.

"We move on," said the prince.

Phoenix and the guards followed him back into the jungle.

From the safety of the trees, they moved around the jungle's border. Phoenix caught glimpses of the villages that the soldier had mentioned, but it was late enough at night that no Humans were awake. The only movements in them were those of insects and a few Bloodwings.

"The Humans have become a larger concern," she said as the patrol turned back toward the pyramid.

Prince Goth nodded. "They have. From what we've seen, they have not intruded deep enough into the jungle to be a direct threat, but with time they will be." He frowned. "Do you imagine they will interfere with the ritual you spoke of?"

Phoenix shook her head. "They shouldn't cause much trouble as long as they don't drive away prey. The only concern regarding it I have is whether Voxzaco will find when the eclipse will occur in time. Itztli, the priest three hundred years ago, did not until mere hours beforehand. We cannot afford such a mistake a second time."

"If Voxzaco is incapable, there are lesser priests who can assist him," said Prince Goth. "And...he may be the high priest, but failure is not tolerated."

Phoenix dipped her head in agreement. "I share the sentiment."

To be clear, the Vampyrum are the villains, but a lot of this story will be from their point of view.