Page 47 of Corvus and the Broken God

“I regret the need for them.”

He nodded once. “And would you do it any differently, knowing what you now know?”

“No.” But I almost choked on the small word.

“Then we have nothing more to discuss.”

“Fine.” Although it wasn’t really, but we had opposite opinions on the matter. “Are you finally willing to tell me what the plan is for our trip?”

He sighed, put out by my refusal to let this go, but resigned. “Yes, we will travel using our new identities and pretend to be tourists visiting the area for the first time. While touring, we will check in with an old shaman friend of mine who knows about the summit. He will have received enough news to give us a head start. I would be most appreciative if you would reserve accommodations and transportation however you see best.”

He reached into the desk and pulled out a pile of cash, mostly hundred-dollar bills. He pushed the pile toward me.

“What’s this?”

“This money is for you. I noticed you paid some of the cabin bills, and I imagine you still have expenses from your old life. I have made sure my accountant knows to pay those bills from now on.”

I stared at the cash, easily thirty thousand dollars or more. “Um, I really shouldn’t book the hotel and rental car in my old name unless you’re certain Chaac and the rest of your friends don’t know anything about me.” Of course, they wouldn’t. What was I thinking?

“No. This money is for your private expenses.” He pulled a manila envelope out from the desk and tapped his talon on the top of it. “This is what you will use to pay for the trip.”

Curious, I leaned in and took the envelope. I shook the contents out onto his desktop. Two passports, two driver’s licenses, and a couple of credit cards slid out onto the wood, one of each for both of us. My passport looked just like the one in my safe deposit box, except the picture was of my new face. I grabbed his to find a photo of a younger version of his mountain man skin. His name read Benjamin Black. I looked back at mine: Morrigan Holly Black. A giggle escaped my lips.

“Do you know much about the Morrigan?”

“That was the name you gave to Darryl when he brought the sheriff and his deputy up here. While that deity never existed outside of folklore, I decided it suited you.”

“He misunderstood and called me Morgan each time.” He gave me a blank stare. What did he care? Oh well. At least it would be easy to remember. “Does this mean you’ll call me Morrigan instead of Corvus?”

“Unlikely, Corvus. It has a nice ring to it. You seem more inclined toward peace than a war-maddened goddess. Besides, I’ve grown fond of my little crow.”

I drank some more mead to hide my blush, even though I couldn’t be sure if he was serious or not. “Well, you should try Morrigan instead, since Corvus is a strange name, and we want to blend in instead of stick out.” Blending in would be hard enough. “Do you think you’ll have any issues staying human for so long?”

“I spent centuries in my human form. It is only recently that I reverted back.” He shrugged, once again creating more unanswered questions. It didn’t matter. We would both do whatever it took to get him through the summit. Then, hopefully, they would leave him alone for the next fifty years.

“In the meantime, we have three weeks to prepare. I would like you to keep familiarizing yourself with the area and the history. The more you know, the fewer surprises we will have to deal with. I would also like you to practice flying as an eagle. Every day you go to the cabin, go as an eagle, and try to do as much free-fall and maneuvering as possible. I will be looking to ambush you some days. Corvus, you will need to be completely at home in the sky. I am not taking you with me unless you can convince me you will be able to escape my enemies once we face them. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” I had my work cut out for me. “As long as you tell me more about these enemies.”

He didn’t answer.

The remaining weeks blurred into a quiet rush of days. Mindy had tried calling, both on my cell and the Stag’s landline. While I replied to her emails, I couldn’t quite stomach answering the phone or texting, in case she could sense my distress over Darryl, and I ended up confessing my crime. I pretended not to hear the phone in time and filled my notes to her with minor details. Just enough of my daily minutiae to convince her I was satisfied with my mountaintop life. I stopped urging her to visit, and she didn’t push once. Goddess only knew how I’d ever face her again.

Instead, I focused on the upcoming trip: booking reservations at one of the Cancun resorts, complete with airline tickets and a rental car for two weeks. By day, I flew to the cabin taking the long route, incorporating dives and all sorts of strenuous aerial maneuvers. Camazotz usually came after me in the afternoons, ambushing me and giving chase. While I knew he had no intention of harming his crow of whom he was fond, he still managed to frighten me plenty of times. When he was satisfied I had broadened my flight skills for the day, he would insist we try the pinwheel, talon-locked free-fall we had seen the adult eagle couple do so gracefully. The first time was terrifying, as the entire world whirled around me, and I almost crashed into the side of the cliff before he dropped my claw and yelled in my head. But by the fifth time, I began to enjoy the insane, spinning, manic fall to the ground, pulling up in time to make sure my heart still beat in my feathered chest. We would always return to the house high on adrenaline, spirits joyful before thoughts of Darryl’s death invaded, reminding me of the cost.

A week before we were scheduled to leave, we sat in his room preparing, him at his desk and me in the chair that I had claimed as mine. History had never been a good subject for me, so while I soaked in the information about the building styles of the ruined cities, the flora and fauna, I hadn’t made as much headway as I wanted regarding the gods and goddesses. Not to mention, despite Mayan descendants still living in the same parts of the world, most of their histories sounded speculative and less than clear.

“Who were all these gods and goddesses?” I wondered aloud, not really asking him another question he would avoid. “Were you all parading around with your horns, just living amongst the simple people?”

“No, Corvus, we saved the horns for special occasions.” I gave him a raised eyebrow. He continued with a smile. “We were mixed in with the upper classes, either masquerading as kings and queens or as astronomers or such.”

Surprised to have gotten a straight answer out of him, I decided to push. “What actually caused the toppling of the Mayan culture then? I’ve read a few theories, but they all seemed oversimplified.”

He gazed off into space, thinking for long enough that I feared he wouldn’t tell me. “It had a lot to do with drought, which caused famines that either wiped out whole cities or sent people northward. After struggling for centuries, the Spanish invaders only finished off what nature had started. While our culture was sophisticated in many ways, they had come to conquer. I suppose my kind could have done more to stop it, but we were fascinated by the new worlds they came from. Most of us set out to see what we had been missing while we had lived in our isolated kingdoms. I spent a lot of time in Europe and North Africa.”

“So how did you end up here?”

He smiled, making him look almost human. “I looked for the most isolated spot I could find with a mild climate. These mountains were hard to access for people back then.”