'This is Halloran, the man I told you about, from across the sea. He came from Nexal to — to see if I was safe.' Briefly Erix told her father about the events of that bloody afternoon.
'And the shadows, child — are they still there?' asked the old man.
'I… I don't know, Father,' Erix replied, shaking her head miserably. 'I can't see them at night, and I didn't look back at the town before sunset.'
'I myself can see very little,' said Lotil. Nevertheless he reached out with unerring aim and took one of each of their hands. 'But some things it is given me to see, and this I see for the two of you.'
Halloran felt the old man's surprisingly strong grip. Lotil's strength was a comfort to him, and he returned the pressure, feeling a deep bond of friendship form between himself and the old man. It was more than the pressure of a handshake, but that clasp seemed to symbolize and define it for him.
'My blind eyes can see that the two of you are linked,' Lotil continued. 'And part of this link is formed of shadow — a darkness that was not dissipated by the events of this day.
'But another part of the link, and, we can hope, the stronger part, is formed of light. Together the two of you may yet bring light to a darkening world. I know, at least, that you must try.'
'Light? Bring it to the world? Father, what do you mean?' asked Erix, looking at Halloran in wonder. He looked back, warmed by the expression in her eyes and by her father's words. Meanwhile, Lotil answered.
'I do not know, child. I wish that I did.' The old man turned to Hal. 'Now, you are wounded! Come, lie here.'
Halloran stared at the blind man in surprise, suddenly sensing again the sharp pain in his chest. Erixitl took his arm and led him toward a straw mat in a corner of the hut.
Before Hal reached it, the world began to spin around him. He groaned, his legs collapsing as he barely sensed Lotil and Erix supporting him. Looking around, he blinked, but everything before his eyes slowly faded to black.
Chical, lord of the Eagle Knights, entered Naltecona's presence for once without donning the rude garments normally required of visitors to the great throne room.
This time there was no need to affect a bedraggled appearance. The scars of battle marked the legs, arms, and face of the warrior. His once proud Eagle cloak was a tattered rag. As he advanced toward the throne, he looked so battered that it seemed a miracle he could even walk. Even so, he had flown, in avian form, from Palul to Nexal.
Now his pride sustained him, holding his head high until he knelt before the great pluma litter that was Naltecona's throne.
'Rise and speak!' demanded the Revered Counselor.
'Most Revered One, it is disaster! A thousand times worse than we could have feared!'
'Tell me, man!' Naltecona leaped to his feet. His feathered cloak whirled around him as he stalked toward the groveling warrior. 'Where is Kalnak?'
'Dead — slain by the first blow of the battle. My lord, they knew of the ambush. They were prepared for it and unleashed their own attack before we could act.' Weeping, Chical told the tale of the massacre, and Naltecona sank back into his litter. His face grew slack, his eyes vacant, to the point that it seemed he no longer listened.
'Then they summoned killing smoke, a fog that reached its fingers into the hiding places of our men, slaying them even as they breathed. Revered One, we must make immediate preparations if we hope to stand against men like this — if indeed they are men!'
'No, they are not,' said Naltecona with a sigh. 'It is clear now that they are not men at all.'
He stood and paced slowly along his raised dais. The row of courtiers and attendants behind him stared in universal terror and awe at the tear-streaked face of Chical.
'My lord,' said the Eagle Knight, standing at last, 'allow me to gather all of our warriors. We can hold them at the causeways. We can keep them out of the city.'
Naltecona sighed, a portentous sound in the vast throne room. Evening's shadows drew long across the floor while the ruler paced and thought. Finally he stopped and faced Chical.
'No,' he said. 'There will be no battle at Nexal. I asked the gods to favor us with a victory at Palul, to show that the invaders are indeed mortal men. That sign was not forthcoming.
'The proof is clear,' Naltecona concluded. 'The strangers are not men but gods. When they reach Nexal, we must greet them with the respect due their station.'
'But, my lord' Chical stepped forward boldly to object. He stopped suddenly, frozen by the look in the Revered Counsellor's eyes.
'This is my decision. Now leave me to my prayers.'
From the chronicle of Coton:
Painted in the last bleak weeks of the Waning, as the end draws upon us.
I stand mute as I hear the words of Chical, a tale of grim terror about the slaying in Palul. Again Naltecona orders his courtiers from the throne room, asking only me to remain.
Then, tonight, he rants and paces around me. He accuses me of deceit, and he grovels before the looming presence of these strangers. Thoroughly cowed now, he knows no recourse but abject surrender.
For the first time do I curse my vow. How I want to grasp his shoulders, to shout my knowledge into his face, to awaken him from his blind stupor. Curse him! I want to tell him that he opens the gates of the city to disaster, that he paves the road to make way for his own, and his people's, destruction.
But I can say nothing, and at last he slumbers. It is a fitful dozing, for as he sleeps, he dreams and he cries.
THE BRAND OF ZALTEC
The smooth-carved blocks of stone fit together with precision, all of them touching snugly, supported by the weight of their neighbors to enclose the dome of the observatory. Here, on the highest hill of Tulom-Itzi, Gultec sat with Zochimaloc and spent the long night staring at the stars.
Holes in the dome of the observatory's ceiling allowed views into precisely selected quadrants of the sky. Now the black sky showed no moon, for this was the period of the black moon, when none could see it in the heavens. And consequently, his teacher had pointed out, this was a splendid night for viewing the stars.
'But we know the moon will return. It waxes tomorrow,' explained the teacher, stating the obvious fact. 'In a week, it will be half of its self, and in the week following that, it will be full.
'Two weeks from now,' Zochimaloc continued with grim finality, 'and the moon will be full.'
'This I know, my teacher,' said Gultec, confused. Zochimaloc crossed the stone floor of the observatory, gesturing upward through several holes toward the west.
'And these stars, these wanderers,' the old man went on, as if he had not heard Gultec. 'These bright stars hold special portents for the world.'
The Jaguar Knight felt it inappropriate to announce that this fact, too, was known to him. Instead, he listened as Zochimaloc explained further.
'In fourteen days, when the full moon rises, it will mask the three wanderers. They will disappear behind it but remain unseen from the world.'
'What does this mean, Master?' asked Gultec, intrigued by the description.
Zochimaloc shook his head with a wry chuckle. 'What does it mean? I know not for certain. The full moon will shine over the world, as always, and great things will happen — things we cannot predict, or perhaps even explain.
'But when next wanes the moon, the True World will not be the same.'
Riding quickly throughout the first night after the battle, Poshtli passed countless refugees. These Mazticans stared in awe at the warrior who galloped along the road atop the snorting monster.
He paused to rest a few hours around dawn, but then he thundered back onto the road. He passed into the
