Page 80 of Corvus and the Broken God

Chaac continued, “You think you are powerful, but you’re just an infant. One day, you will wake up and decide you have had enough of sitting quietly on your mountain. And why not? You can change form. You can transform reality. You can bend humans to your will. And you will see the power in that.”

“And that threatens you? Don’t you have centuries of experience over me? Wouldn’t you know how to handle me? Wouldn’t he?” I took a step back toward Camazotz.

“But what if you created an army, secretly, mind you, without any of us knowing? So that when we tried to put you in check, you would rise up and overpower us. Without our experience, without our checks and balances, you could upset the delicate balance that keeps the world spinning.”

“I have absolutely no desire to do any of that. But you don’t know me. You could put restrictions on us…”

“Restrictions like the one Camazotz broke when he made you.”

“Yes, like those. Check in on us like you have done. We will live peacefully on the mountain, and you can go on with your plans of world domination.”

“That, my dear, is no longer an option.”

A low growl came from Camazotz, who had stayed quiet this long. He moved beside me, his foot in front of mine, ready to push me behind him. I had to try one last argument. “I didn’t ask for this, and other than protecting myself from someone who tried to kill me, I’ve done nothing wrong. You justify killing us over made-up ‘what if’ scenarios? What does that make you?”

“A custodian of the earth. But I can be merciful. To both of you. Camazotz, I am giving you two options. You can either kill her or return her to her former state.”

My ears filled with a loud buzzing, and I stepped away from my Monster. Would he do that? Kill me for his freedom?

Don’t worry, little crow, we just need to pretend long enough for them to leave. Can you do that?

I turned to him, still riding the adrenaline from earlier. But the thought of losing the ability to alter my form, of having this freedom ripped from me, gutted me. “Please, don’t! You can’t. We can swim out of here. There are options.”

“Would you rather die?” he asked, incredulous. Turn yourself back, Corvus. They won’t know who did it.

It took too long for my brain to catch on, but the moment it did, I dismissed my horns and wings, shrinking back to my original shape without further hesitation. Naked and terrified, I ducked behind him again, although it was good I hadn’t had my wits about me to create clothing, since that would have given me away.

The two demigods each took a step closer to us, while Camazotz stood tall in front of me. Whatever they were planning to do next, he had some idea, but I was clueless.

Chaac stepped back, turning to the man beside him. “Dart them both, then chop off their heads.” He walked back toward the water as the weight of his orders sank in.

Ixtab threw her head back and laughed. “Leave her to me.”

“This was not part of our agreement,” roared my Monster. He then lunged toward the man and ripped something from his hand, but then he went hard to his knees. Think big, Corvus, the bigger the better. That’s the only way we have a chance.

Seeing him fall energized me, cracking my fear in half. I was done cowering to these maniacs. But he was right—I needed to change the rules. To survive this, I would have to catch them unaware. The images came to me quickly, a large reptile, larger than anything anyone had seen, something big enough to stump a demigod just long enough for us to escape. It seemed ridiculous to think I could pull it off, but we were out of time.

He fought to stay upright, and I used his bulk to protect me from the darts, crouching down and staying close to him. I lowered my body to the ground, hands and feet in place, as if I were about to become a crocodile. I pictured my new shape in my head. Calling the shape of my crocodile, I pumped it up and reformed my reptile into something from a fairy tale. The tough skin would be the same dark gray as the cave behind us, only thicker. Smaller head proportionally with a long snout with ferocious teeth, eyes that could see better in the dark, a long, elegant neck, thick body, but not too thick, strong and flexible. Long legs, closer to horse legs but with rounded knees, giant wings, a ridged tail. I spent a few extra moments I couldn’t spare designing the lining of the inside of my throat, turning it into a four-inch-thick layer of stone disks, which could move independently of each other but would protect my flesh from the last piece of my new self. A small pocket of gas, also lined in stone disks, and the last thing I needed was flint.

Only a few seconds had passed, but Camazotz was losing his fight against whatever drug they had pumped into his system. I was out of time.

When my Monster fell to the ground, I crouched down, shut out the madness around me, and focused on my new shape. Putting all my attention into changing as quickly as possible, I barely noticed the sting in my side. Two, no, three darts sent their poison into my veins, but I was already changing. Growing my dragon as fast as I could, until I filled the cave with my bulk. I lowered my head and faced the enemy. Lighting the gas in my throat, I forced the fire out of me and aimed it at them.

I caught glimpses of the horror on their faces seconds before the fire reached them, but it was not enough to hold me back. They had come here for our execution. Nothing we said could dissuade them, and I had had enough. Numbness cramped my back, splitting my attention between the people cowering in front of me and diluting the poison trying to bring me down. Luckily for me, my new shape required a much higher dosage to do more than slow me down, but then I saw him lying face down in front of me.

My tail whipped around, thick and strong like a super-sized version of my croc’s tail, taking out the man who had sent the dart into my back. Ixtab backed away from me quickly, and when I turned my flames on her, she dove into the water. Chaac had already left or had found a way to hide, leaving me with his underling mortals.

Using the fire to push everyone back, I stomped on the lights, which had fallen to the ground when everyone ran from my fire.

Sensing my opening, I brought my big head down to Camazotz, transforming him into a sparrow, before I took a deep breath and grabbed him in my mouth.

I dove into the water and shifted my body into my crocodile form, only longer, powerful tail pushing us through the pitch-black waters. I swam through the long tunnel, holding my breath, hoping I had chosen the right cave, the one leading to the cavern I had seen with a large opening. I surfaced and searched the roof of the cave, seeing a hole large enough for our largest forms to escape. Waiting until the last moment, I pushed the healing energy into his small body, cleansing him of the drugs. Only then did I open my mouth, releasing him up toward the opening of the cavern.

He changed in seconds, back into his original form, powerful wings pushing him up into the air. It took me a moment to catch my breath, but I transformed in the water, not agile enough yet to push into the air from the water. I crawled out onto the ground, shook off my wet wings, and jumped, catching the wind and climbing up into the sky.

EPILOGUE

He sat at his desk reading one of his old books while I paced the room. It had been a few days since our manic flight home, with quick stops to reassure Hiroshi and grab our stuff from the hotel room in Cancun (mostly to avoid leaving anything potentially incriminating behind) and ship it all back to Tennessee. The flight from there had been long but gave me plenty of time to learn how to migrate in goose form, which, although helpful when needing to get far away without detection, didn’t leave much capacity for carrying anything useful. It also gave me time to think through the implications of being on the shit list of the world’s most powerful beings.