Page 74 of Corvus and the Broken God

Well, wasn’t that just great.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Water Dragon

I took two deep breaths before making my way down to the bottom of the steps, steps much more intricately carved than in the ruined cenote not so far away from here. The still water reflected the crystal-blue sky, inviting me into its cool depths. I could do this. Maybe if I said it a few times, I would believe it. No, I could. The pebble took up a lot of space in my mouth, saliva pooling uncomfortably, tasting of salt and metallic dirt. Then again, if I could pull this off, I would have a much larger mouth. What had I always heard? Were birds actually the closest things to dinosaurs on the planet? And a crocodile definitely reminded me of a dinosaur. One that could hold its breath for long periods of time, if Hiroshi could be trusted.

I looked up at the edges of the limestone cave. Thirty-foot tree roots hung down like ropes. Light played with the water, aqua blue in the center, deepening to indigo on the edges. I peered into the darkness of an underwater cave headed in the direction the pebble urged me to go. It was one thing to step into the clear water here where I was safe, but did I have the strength, the raw bravery, to swim into the blackness, even if I knew which way to go?

I thought of the caves under his house up in the Tennessee mountains. The clear blue water reminded me so much of this setting, which seemed completely out of place up there. Maybe he had Hiroshi carve it out for him? A little reminder of this land for his own personal enjoyment. Only the water up there was shallow. He was afraid of drowning. So how must he be feeling now? Trapped somewhere, the only escape lay underwater? Even if he did get up the nerve to try, he could search endless tunnels and never find a clear path, especially since the usual way out had caved in. Hopefully, my little rock would guide us back out once I found him again.

These musings were not helping anyone.

I thought instead about changing form. I could deal with facing the black cave once I was used to my new body. Unbuttoning my shirt and freeing my arms, I kneeled to be closer to the ground, putting my hands on the rock in front of me. Picturing every detail of the animal I was attempting to change into, holding the intricate details of Hiroshi’s work and transposing them onto a living, breathing creature, I told my body to Change.

The ground came up fast, and I braced my arms in front of my face, but I didn’t fall. In fact, I had never felt more stable on the ground than at this moment. Bending sideways, I examined my backside, almost surprised to see the symmetrical patterns of my scales, the strange back foot, more closely resembling my bird feet, and the tip of my impressive tail. They were all different shades of deep gray. I looked back at the cenote. The colors had shifted from brilliant blues to slightly duller ones. Instead of the postcard beauty, my reptilian eyes took in my new surroundings, noticing unusual details. The streak an insect made across the surface of the water, the ripples the wind created. My new vision took some getting used to, but I’d recently had practice adjusting to new worlds. I focused on the strange movement of the air through my nostrils all the way at the end of my snout, adapting to the new process of breathing. Just like feathers took some getting used to, this shape limited my movement. But then I wiggled my long body. Powerful muscles flexed in my sides, my legs, and my tail. I might need to get used to my current range of motion, but the power to move quickly was there, buried beneath the skin.

The darkness didn’t look quite as black. The back walls of the cavern showed more definition; cracks and crevices revealed themselves. I could do this. I said it again, just in case.

Checking to confirm the rock was still in my mouth, although in my much larger mouth it seemed hardly a pebble, the direction it wanted me to go was still clear. I took a big breath, closed my nose flaps, and slipped under the water's surface.

My powerful tail made moving through the liquid easy, even easier than flying. I swam toward the cave mouth. While my new vision resembled human sight above the surface of the water, it was much better underneath it. Some type of film over my eyes made it effortless to look around. My new body was buoyant, and yet I could make it sink at will.

Okay, apparently, I could do this. At least I was going to give it my best try.

I followed the directions of Hiroshi’s pebble, heading toward the darkness, turning my snout this way and that, with each subtle nudge, a little less afraid than I had been as a human. Being a crocodile had its perks—especially the enhanced eyesight. But the inky blackness in front of me frightened me more than facing down Ixtab. Knowing that there were miles of caves beneath me almost made me turn around. I fervently hoped that I wouldn’t need to descend too far.

The pebble urged me forward, and my tail rocked side to side, silently moving me along in the dark water. The shadows gradually faded into complete darkness, making no difference whether my eyes were open or shut. I swam forward cautiously, afraid that I would bump my snout on something. So far, my tiny guide kept me intact, safe enough to focus on the fact that I couldn’t see a thing. Slow movements kept me sane, even as my eyes strained to see something, anything.

I hadn’t made it too far when the darkness changed. A sliver of light just up ahead had me moving faster, the water cool along my belly. My feet, short and fat and covered in birdlike talons, paddled here and there, but mostly I kept them tucked against my torso, the strength of my tail plenty to propel me. Eyes open, I scoured my surroundings, looking for any threats.

I didn’t see any fish, only stalagmites pushing up from the depths and stalactites hanging overhead, pointed guillotines waiting to fall. I reached a cave deeper underground than the others. A small hole in the roof let in a single stream of light. I swam to the surface, taking a breath even though my lungs didn’t need it yet. Slowing my pace, I looked around, only my eyes and nostrils above the surface of the water.

A thick rope of tree roots grew down from the ceiling and disappeared into the water. The Ceiba tree and its hitchhikers making their living in the unforgiving limestone. A few large seeds floated in the water, telling me there were fruit bats around, although I couldn’t see or smell them. I was still unused to this way of sensing the world. Then again, bats probably didn’t matter much to crocodiles.

While my pebble told me which direction to swim and my bird-sense kept track of where I’d been, I had no real idea of how far I needed to go. The one thing I had difficulty keeping track of in my non-human skin was time and distance, even though I was almost the same length as my human form.

I dove back under the water, feeling a little surer of myself, and continued on. More accustomed to my new shape and surroundings, I pushed my fear aside and focused on my senses instead. The soft caress of the water flowed from my snout, down my long body, and finally scooped past my tail. I could see so much with the tiniest speck of light, making the total darkness manageable, especially as the tiny pebble impossibly led me through the caverns without hitting anything. Every once in a while, the tip of my tail would scrape something, especially when I moved faster, but it was only the barest touch. Nothing hurt me. And yet, even as I passed through another cavern easily, in my formidable body, the darkness started to mess with my head. Fewer caverns let in any light, and I could only distract myself so much.

I kept going, visiting cavern after cavern, pushing my way forward in the darkness, when the reasonable parts of my brain kept control of the wheel, doing everything possible to quench the fear of the dark. The primal part of me wanted to find the closest cave with an opening and fly away fast as I could. No, I had come this far. His fear had to be greater than mine. At least I could swim. But how would I convince my Monster to brave the caverns with me—to bring him back the way I came?

I searched for other topics to worry about, those not having to do with the current darkness. The Mayans once considered cenotes to be portals to the underworld. They spun a complicated mythology of crossing over. While they relied on the sunken pools as sources of fresh water and built cities around them, they also used them as conduits to the gods. Sacrifices were regularly dumped into the water, everything from fruits of the harvest to virgins. Blood sacrifice was integral to their lives, but dumping a young girl… how could the gods allow this?

Then again, back then, like now, power was everything. Only now, the gods played with petroleum futures and hedge funds. Was that any better? Suppressing the fortunes of the masses in order to grow money on the backs of their hard work. And when was the money enough? Why would any one person need a billion dollars?

These thoughts accompanied me in the dark waters. Sometime into my journey, I had fallen into a rhythm. Swim in the murky darkness until my breath ran shallow, come up for air, look around, listen, submerge, and start again. It was almost soothing, so dark, so quiet, except for the occasional chirps of the birds and the bats, the swoosh of my powerful tail in the water. The movement of my body through the water sounded different, too, depending on how deep the pools were beneath me. I stayed near the surface as much as possible, but there were a few longer stretches that made me nervous. Not that my new body couldn’t handle it, because clearly crocodiles were astonishing in their breath-holding abilities, but my human way of seeing the world didn’t like it. I had no clue how I would ever get him back. If he was even alive. How long had he been afraid of the water? Oh, the messed-up idea of placing him down where his alter ego had once reigned. The most terrifying place he could be.

A ringing sound alerted me to something wrong before I entered the next cavern. Light burst through my multiple eyelids, and I opened my eyes. Cloudy water made it difficult to see, but instead of moving forward easily, I hit something hard, smashing my snout and stopping all my forward momentum. It took a few more painful collisions before I realized there were giant boulders preventing me from moving forward. Not used to having such short arms, I tried to feel the rocks in front of me for a channel large enough to let me through. My nose kept banging into the rocks until I wizened up enough to use it instead. When that proved unfruitful, I turned around and retreated to the last place I was able to come up for air to consider my options.

My guess was, I had found the cenote where they had thrown Camazotz and then blew the whole thing up. While it was good to know I’d not been going the wrong way this whole time, I had no idea what to do now. The pebble told me to move in a general direction, but it was more of an instinctual thing. No instruction manual, no alternative suggestions. No voice assistant to reconfigure my route.

I was in a smaller cave about thirty feet across, and while the water wasn’t as clear as it had been up until this point, I could still see pretty well. There was enough light to penetrate the space but only just. I tilted my head to get a better look at the sky. The shift in the shadows told me there was only another hour or two before full dark, and while I’d been keeping my panic in check up until now, the thought of spending the night here in total darkness didn’t appeal to me at all.

I’d come this far, now I needed to find another way. The porous limestone made these underground freshwater rivers possible, and water was a tricky element, constantly finding a way to keep moving. It obeyed its own rules, made its own path. There had to be another way around the collapsed channel that didn’t lead down. I searched the cavern I was in for another way out, but the fading light made it hard to locate.

Panic had been my constant companion for the past two days, but swimming had eased some of it. To make it this far, to be so close and not be able to reach my Monster brought it once again to the forefront. Did I need to change into my monster form to try to dislodge the rocks? But wouldn’t he have done it already if it had been possible? I couldn’t think of a single organic shape capable of digging its way through a collapsed pile of limestone.

Breath in through my nostrils, out the sides of my long mouth. A few more times. If I couldn’t go through, then I’d have to go around. I ignored the layers of waterlogged caverns below me. Going down there was a last resort only. And if the pebble couldn’t recalibrate its mystical directions, then I’d have to rely on my connection to him. The same connection that held fast despite him being married and a liar, yet someone I was unwilling to leave behind. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if relationships were truly black and white? Because, looking back at everything that had gone down since he stupidly walked into that room with his enemies, there hadn’t been a moment when I lost my grip on wanting the life he offered me on his mountaintop. Not that I’d let him know it right away.