“I know.” Pedro gestured with his thumb toward Bronko. “Wecan have Mr. Commando here pull down his pants and give ol’Camazotzthe moon.”
“Moon is supposed to be the verb in that context,” Quint told him. “You moon someone. But you can also moon over someone, like what I do with the boss lady day and night.”
“I’d rather fillCamazotzfull of black holes,” Bronko said, pointing the barrel of his gun skyward. “Send him back to the stars.”
“A double reference to the celestial world,” Quint said. “Well done.”
Angélica growled, glaring up at the three men surrounding her. “Have you forgotten we have to find a clumsy geoarchaeologist who may or may not be in the process of harming himself in order to perform some ritual to raise an ancient god from the Underworld?” She shined her light on each of them in turn.
“Not forgotten,” Quint said when her light landed on him last. A worried frown lined his forehead. “No matter how hard I try.”
She felt a twinge in her chest. “Right, okay. I’m sorry. You’re trying to keep things blithe in the moment, and I …” She took a deep, slow breath, fighting a wave of overwhelm-spurred anxiety. “Listen, give me a minute to talk to KuTu in Mayan and try to sort things out before anyone starts shooting.” Stepping toward KuTu, she directed her light to the weapon in his hands. “Where did you get those obsidian blades?” she asked in Mayan.
“They were left over from others who came before me,” he answered. “They tried to defeat the great death-bat god.”
“Is that whose weapons we found in the caches?”
He shrugged. “Or those who came after me. I believe many have tried to slayCamazotzbut lost and are now forced to live forever in the House of Bats inXibalba. My son may be one of those, but I will not know until I escape from this cycle of never-ending sorrow and try to find my way through to the afterlife.”
“What is this place?” Angélica pointed at the ground. “Is it sacred to the Maya gods?”
Lines crisscrossed his forehead. “The traveler called it a sacred place of rebirth, but he spoke only what I wanted to hear. I cannot dislike him for that. He wanted freedom from the endless deaths. If only I had known of the trickery, I would not have offered my son to the lords ofXibalba.” He sighed heavily, turning to stare at thebutterfly mound, where he supposedly buried his son long ago.
She came closer and touched his shoulder, her heart hurting for him. So many years of guilt and anger and sadness—an endless living hell. “Help us find Dr. Fernel, King Po Ki Tali.”
He nodded, looking back at her. “I believe he entered the mouth leading into the House of Bats.”
“The actual House of Bats?” she repeated.
He nodded.
“As in one of the six houses inXibalbameant to challenge those traveling through the thirteen levels after death?”
He nodded again.
Dear God, if he was right …
But no, those were just myths aboutXibalba.
Weren’t they?
If Angélica remembered correctly, this particular house in the Underworld myth had huge, bloodthirsty bats, as large as the giant golden-crowned flying fox. At least that was what the paintings and carvings showed. These huge bats worked alongsideCamazotzto challenge visitors trying to sneak through the Underworld. If the visitor cleared the House of Bats without being decapitated or gutted, they were given a clear pass to the next house of horrors, or forced to defend themselves from any gang of nasty death-dealing tricksters they came upon. Getting caught meant suffering through endless horrors beyond imagination for eons.
This was only a myth, though. Just stories. None of it was supposed to be completely true.
“Reincarnation here is a trick,” KuTu added. “It is one of the punishmentsCamazotzdelivers. This reincarnation is not the true rebirth bestowed by the great maize god.”
This all felt like one big trick at the moment. She moved on to the question that had haunted her since they found the first cache. “Who was fighting here with all of these weapons?”
“I believe before my time, many tried to stopCamazotzfrom coming to the surface. They wanted to close this gate toXibalbaforever. They did not realize thatCamazotzhad many warriors that feed on men.”
Angélica scrubbed her hand down her face, wiping away sweat and grit and frustration. What was truth, what was fiction? In themeantime, she rolled along with his tale. “So, you think others found out about this gate and built all of this as a way to kill the bat god?”
“Yes, but when that did not work, they tried to seal the gate inside the entrance with rocks and mortar. ButCamazotzis no meager god, and one does not shut and lock the door toXibalba.”
“What about the wall surrounding this site?”
KuTu frowned, looking off into the darkness. “The wall was the last defense to protect the rest of the world fromCamazotzand his army of death-dealers. But there is no way to hold off this evil.”
