lost. I have never known him to be wrong in these things.’

‘And you? Are you ever wrong?’

Ixtab touched her heart. ‘I was wrong about you. I thought you would welcome the ceremony. I didn’t see the fear in you. The justified fear. That is unforgivable.’

Sabir nodded, more moved than he cared to admit by her obvious concern. ‘I don’t want to be a shaman. I don’t know any secrets. I’ve just met the woman of my life. All I want to do now is to take her back home with me and see if I can shuck off twenty years of thinking I’m an introvert – of thinking I’m some sort of a recluse – of thinking I don’t amount to anything.’

Ixtab said nothing. She just looked at him.

Sabir found her silence awkward, just as he was meant to. He hastened to fill it. ‘This has all become a massive red herring, you understand? If I’m honest, I came into it strictly for the cash. I wanted to be the guy that published Nostradamus’s lost prophecies. I wanted all the celebrity crap that would have come with it. If things had panned out the way they were meant to, I’d have appeared in a raft of documentaries. Done a few signings. Maybe even sold a movie option. Made a wad of cash, in other words. Instead, it got ugly. My Gypsy friends and I were unlucky enough to become entangled with Lamia’s crazy mother and her family of Devil-fearing freaks – without realizing it, I fell personally foul of the super freak, Achor Bale. It got so I was swimming way out of my depth. Last May I was nearly killed. This past week we’ve been running just ahead of the whirlwind again, and I’m tired of it. I just want to go home.’ He could feel Ixtab’s chocah drink calming him. Paradoxically, though, it was also making him more garrulous than he had intended to be.

‘And Lamia? How is she taking this? She seems uncomfortable.’

Sabir shrugged. ‘She doesn’t know what to think. She doesn’t know what to do. She’s like the rest of us. We’re taking each day as it comes.’

‘Are you sure?’

Sabir nodded his head in slow motion. He felt drowsy and relaxed. A sudden wave of self-confidence surged through him, surprising him with its vehemence. ‘Sure I’m sure. I know her. She’s hurting. So she’s withdrawn inside herself. She let me take her virginity today – after holding off for twenty-seven years – and that will have destabilized her too. The whole thing’s scarcely surprising.’ He stopped dead, stunned at his capacity for indiscretion. Stunned at what his mouth was saying. ‘I don’t know why I just told you that.’ He shook his head incredulously. ‘I didn’t mean to when I started out.’ He looked suspiciously down at the empty gourd, and then handed it back to Ixtab.

She shook her head in reaffirmation that the drink didn’t contain anything untoward.

Now that he’d let the cat out of the bag in such a spectacularly tactless manner, Sabir reckoned that he might as well call the beast by its true name. ‘All her life Lamia’s never let a man come near her because of her feelings about her face. You realize that, don’t you? But she let me. And then all of a sudden I start to go crazy. No wonder she’s feeling a little vulnerable.’

‘Don’t you think you owe it to her to put all this to bed?’

Sabir laughed at Ixtab’s inadvertent use of the American idiom. ‘Is that some kind of a Freudian slip? Or are you getting around to trying to persuade me to go inside your damned touj again?’

Ixtab ignored his false levity. ‘You’re carrying something inside you, Adam. A secret. Something you don’t know what to do with.’ Ixtab fixed him with her gaze. ‘This is a burden to you. This is why you do not sleep. Not the other thing. Not the claustrophobia. Not the memories.’

‘How do you know I don’t sleep?’

Ixtab sighed. ‘Must I explain?’

Sabir shook his head. ‘No. I suppose not. I sort of know.’

‘Only sort of?’

‘I know.’

‘Then you have mastered the first step. Now you need to pass on to the second step.’

‘Oh? And what’s that?’

‘To find out what you don’t know.’

Sabir burst out laughing. ‘Oh that’s cute. That’s very cute. That’s right on the button, that is.’

‘Cute? What is cute?’

Sabir sighed. ‘Forget it.’ He gave a wry smile. He was slowly beginning to feel like a man again – the sort of man a woman like Lamia might conceivably have fallen in love with. He looked at Ixtab. He trusted her – there was no doubt about that. It was a deep instinct with him. This was a woman who would always choose the right path. Always guide you in the direction you needed to go. ‘I don’t know what was in that damned concoction of yours, but if you ever wanted to sell it on the open market, you’d make a fortune. I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but I’m about ready to take a shot at your sweat-bath. If I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course I’m not sure. That’s why I reserve the right to make a second break for it anytime before I physically step inside the lodge. But this time around, you don’t follow me? Is that a deal?’

Ixtab returned his smile. ‘This time, if you run, I will not follow you. But you will not run, Adam. And later, you will sleep.’

89

The Halach Uinic shook his head. ‘ Datura? No. This is impossible. I may take it – or you, Ixtab – because we understand the extent of its toxicity, and know, too, how it has been grown, and the weather conditions that accompanied its growth. But for a gringo it is dangerous. The side effects can be extremely unpleasant and long- lasting.’

Ixtab shook her head. ‘None of the others will do. We three must take it together. We need to communicate on the other side. We need to summon up the Vision Serpent.’

Sabir looked bewildered. The effects of the chocah were slowly wearing off.

The Halach Uinic turned to Calque and Lamia. ‘Here. Chew this peyote. Chew it for a long time. If you swallow it too quickly you will be very sick. Do not worry about the bitter taste – this is normal.’

‘Why should we take this?’

‘Because it facilitates transcendence. It will allow us to unify. To go on a collective journey. Ixtab has looked into your hearts. She feels that this particular substance is suitable for you both. Later on in the ceremony, you shall have another piece. The Chilan will drink from the cane toad mixture – this he has always done, so he is used to its effect. The guardian, because he is only part Indian, will drink the pounded seeds of quiebracajete, from the morning glory flower, which we shall mix with balche. He has told us he is accustomed to drinking pulque on market days in Veracruz – this will have no bad consequences for him, therefore.’

‘Why are you people taking something different from us?’

The Halach Uinic shook his head. ‘I cannot tell you because I do not know.’ He gestured towards Ixtab. ‘Ixtab is the midwife of our journey. We are in good hands. She has guided many people through the underworld. If any one requests it, she will give them syrup of ipecac , from the ipecacuanha plant, and they will vomit out anything that is left inside their stomach.’

‘Great. Excellent. We shall all become bulimics. This has been one of my ambitions for many years.’ Calque shook his head, as if he was standing amongst a group of madmen. He hitched his chin at Sabir. ‘Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this?’

‘What do you think, Calque? Of course I’m not sure. But if I think about it any longer I’ll do another bunk. So here goes.’ Sabir glanced quickly at Lamia. Then he held his hand out to the Halach Uinic.

The Halach Uinic placed fifteen seeds in the palm of Sabir’s hand.

‘This is it?’

‘More would be dangerous. And unnecessary. When gringo kids take more, they end up schizophrenic. Their pupils enlarge for days, and they suffer from photophobia. Some become amnesiac. They are fools. They are simply concerned with gratification and not with knowledge.’

‘And this won’t happen to us?’

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