made mistakes, requiring the sacrifice to be performed over, even once requiring three victims before the proper cut had been made. But Atax learned quickly, and his strength might now be an asset.
'We must find her!' Mixtal stood quickly. He paused at the edge of the bluff to observe the newcomers — he admitted to himself that they seemed to be men. Their great canoes had furled their wings, and it seemed to the cleric that perhaps a hundred of them had already gathered on the beach.
'Give me your knife,' Mixtal demanded, claiming the obsidian blade of a younger apprentice. He tried to ignore the shame of his own blade's loss but felt a flush creeping over his features. 'Into the forest! Follow me!'
For many hours of a day that grew hotter with each passing minute, the score of priests combed the jungle along the coast. They pressed eastward for a time, crossing Erix's trail at numerous points, but none of the clerics had the woodcraft to recognize it as such. Then they reversed course, moving back through the beaten zone, as the humid air settled heavily around them and morning became afternoon.
'Let's rest a moment,' gasped Mixtal, collapsing against a tree. He noticed with annoyance that none of the apprentices seemed as exhausted as he was. All of their prickly hair spikes had collapsed into tangled mats, however.
'Most Holy One, perhaps we should seek help,' suggested Atax tentatively.
'No!' Mixtal stood straight, vigorous once again with the alertness of cold panic. 'We must find her! This is our task!'
Atax recoiled from the outburst, and Mixtal took mild satisfaction in that fact. At least there were some who would treat him with respect! Then Mixtal blinked, disbelieving, and watched Atax slide to the ground before him. The man was sleeping!
Raging, Mixtal spun to face his other apprentices. His rage quickly cooled into something approaching fear when he saw that they all slept!
'What's happening here?' he demanded plaintively. 'Wake up!'
'Softly, O Holy One,' soothed a voice.
'Who's that? Where are you?'
'I will speak and you will listen.' The voice coaxed him gently, and Mixtal felt himself slumping to a seat on the ground. He listened.
'Searching for the girl in this fashion is foolish. Instead, you must gather warriors.' Mixtal halfheartedly looked for the source of the voice, but he saw only flowers and birds, whirling colors gathering around him. He did not remember the jungle as such a colorful place, but it was really quite beautiful.
'Warriors?' he answered, from a great distance. 'How?' Now the priest felt as though his eyes had been covered with a soft glaze, not painful, like looking through colorful smoke when the smoke was inside his eyes.
'Wait here.' The voice soothed him further with its reassuring advice. Mixtal could not question the words. 'The warriors will come to you. And then, if you look but a short distance, you will find her whom you seek.'
And then Mixtal, too, slept, lapsing into a dream filled with singing flowers, talking snakes, and chattering, brilliant-plumed birds. He did not awaken for some time, and then only when he heard a man's guttural question.
'Priest, why do you sleep here?'
'Wha — ?' Mixtal's eyes popped open and he sat up. He saw three Jaguar Knights, including the one who had just spoken, and beyond them a column of spearmen stretching to the limit of the cleric's vision in the undergrowth. Each spearman wore the breechclout typical of the Payit and carried three obsidian-tipped javelins, a caster, and a round shield of jaguar skin mounted over wood. Each had a bone or wooden ornament stuck crosswise through his nose and wore a high headdress of orange feathers.
'Warriors!' Now the priest sprang to his feet animatedly. 'Wake up, you louts!' He gave Atax and another apprentice swift kicks. 'The warriors are here!'
'You were expecting us?' demanded the knight as the apprentices roused their comrades.
'Do not question the will of Zaltec!' snapped Mixtal. 'I have heard directly from the Ancient Ones!' At least, he thought he had. Things were happening so fast that the priest couldn't quite keep up. But he enjoyed the fear that passed across the Jaguar Knight's face at Mixtal's words.
'We have an important task to perform! A sacrifice demanded by Zaltec has escaped and is even now arousing the anger of the god. We must find her!'
'What tale is this?' asked the knight. 'We have been sent here, this hundredmen, to keep watch over the invaders. A hundred hundred even now gather to the shore. I know nothing about a sacri — '
'The invaders!' Mixtal's mind seized upon an idea. His eyes still seemed to stare through a shifting haze of smoke, but now his brain whirled with ideas, with command. 'Yes, they are the ones. They have taken her from the altar of Zaltec! Don't you understand? They are an affront to our gods! We must reclaim that which is rightfully Zaltec's!'
'I have my orders, from Gultec himself,' grunted the knight, nervously.
'Would Gultec want you to stand by idly while our gods are defiled because of a woman taken from us?' Mixtal felt tall, as if the warriors were child-sized people gathered around him.
The knight turned and conferred quietly with the two other Jaguars of his company. Mixtal looked down and saw them gesturing and whispering.
'We must go! I will lead you to the invaders, and you will help me reclaim our property!'
Mixtal started into the jungle, followed by the apprentices. Slowly the column of warriors fell into file behind them.
'There! Let's go with them,' urged Martine. Halloran looked resignedly at the four swordsmen who were hacking their way up the bluff. All around them, other small groups of scouts worked their way down the beach or pioneered other paths toward the high ground beyond the shore.
'No!' Hal turned to her in exasperation. 'You shouldn't even be on the beach now!' He desperately wanted to lead one of the teams, but he knew that Martine would only accompany him. He looked at Cordell, together with the Bishou and Darien, several hundred yards up the beach. Halloran sensed the Bishou's eyes upon him every time he turned around. And Martine's bold gaze confronted him when he turned back.
'I am not a child, you know! I can take care of myself, and if you don't want to come along with me, you don't have to! I'm going to do a little exploring.' She whirled away from him, and once again he stumbled after her.
He reached out to take her arm, but she fixed him with a glare of such intensity that his arms fell to his sides, as if paralyzed.
'What are you so worried about, anyway?' she teased.
'Another hakuna, perhaps. And what if the people aren't friendly everywhere we go?' Hal grew increasingly annoyed with her. He felt frustrated by the way she maneuvered him into acceptance of whatever she chose to do. But he could not show his anger. Some inner reserve kept his temper in check as she manipulated him, turning his frustration inward to seethe and simmer.
'But I have you to protect me, don't I?' She touched his arm and he started stammering. 'Look at this — a stairway!' she exclaimed suddenly.
They reached the base of the bluff and saw the four swordsmen Martine had indicated earlier working their way upward through entangling vegetation. Now they could see that the path was in reality a series of broad, granite steps, climbing in steep switchbacks across the face of the bluff. Some distance to the right, the two huge faces looked out to sea.
Martine led Hal onto the granite steps, and they quickly joined the four men. Halloran wished he had brought Corporal ashore. The legion's war dogs were adept at spotting ambushes and other unpleasant surprises.
These steps, like the faces and the pyramid, evidenced a more organized and populous culture than the expedition had encountered on the islands. Even so, the level of jungle entanglement showed that they received very little use. Normally he would have enjoyed the exploration, with its splendid view of the lagoon, the strange sculpture, the steep ground. But instead, he found himself miserable, disgusted by his weakness in the face of Martine's manipulations.
It took some time to reach the top of the bluff, and Halloran watched the ships grow smaller below as they climbed. Most of the legion had debarked by now, but he felt quite isolated. He saw Daggrande lead perhaps a
