Jungle Crossing (9 page)

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T
HE
D
AY
4 I
X

Night and Sacrifice

Birds called to each other as the sky brightened to blue. For a brief moment Muluc felt as if she were back at Cobá. But when she opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by baskets and bundles. The girl next to her started crying again.

Muluc whispered, "Be strong."

"I want my mother," the girl sobbed.

"She will find you," Muluc said.

"She died trying to save me." The girl wailed like a howler monkey.

Muluc gulped down her own sob.

The guard came and kicked the girl. "Quiet!"

Snake passed a gourd of thin corn gruel around, first to the men, then the girls. Muluc drank until a man snatched the gourd from her lips; she needed strength to escape. The other girl refused to eat. Did she want to die, like her mother? Small and frail, she looked as if the spirits had stopped protecting her. Muluc hadn't seen anyone killed at Cobá while she was being carried away by her captors, but she had heard the screams. Was that crying infant her brother? The shrieking woman her mother? Muluc shook the memory away, like a dog shakes off water.

All day, in spite of stifling heat, Muluc and the traders trudged through villages and thirsty fields. When the sun began to tilt in the sky so that it shined into their eyes, Muluc saw large stone buildings through the spaces where the jungle had been cleared for planting. The temples burned the color of blood in the descending sun.

Muluc stopped, alert, as if she were standing in front of a mother jaguar. One of Snake's men shoved her, so she stumbled forward, but her heart beat faster with each step she took toward the red city. Surely someone in the city would help her return to Cobá!

Panic tightened Muluc's chest like vines strangling a garden—she dropped her bundle and ran, feet pounding the road so hard that her whole body vibrated. Her breath came in gasps. But she ran and ran. She heard shouts and laughter behind her, but she didn't dare turn around to look. The city still seemed so far away. After several more steps, a sharp pain pinched her waist. She paused, gulping air. A bit of vomit burned in her throat. Then the gruel came pouring out of her mouth, sloshing around her feet.

Snake clasped her wrist, like an eagle snatching a fish from the lake, digging his nails into her flesh. His men laughed and jeered.

"I should smash your skull," Snake hissed, crushing her wrist in his rough hand until she whimpered with pain. "Foolish girl. No one there is going to help you."

Muluc simply stared into his dark, cold eyes.

As they neared the city, the pat-pat-pat of tortilla making filled the air and the smells from cooking fires wafted across the road. Muluc's stomach tightened, pain pinched her temples, and thirst scratched her throat. One foot, then the other—she did not want to faint again.

Just as the sun dropped below the trees in the distance and the Great Star began to shine in the sky, the caravan reached the vast plaza of Chichén. Muluc stared at the four-sided temple with steps going up each side. Though shorter than some of the temples at Cobá, it squatted solidly in the center of everything. Massive red and yellow stone snakes slithered down one stairway to rest their heads on the plaza.

Snake, the warrior, kneeled and pierced his lip, letting a few drops of blood drip onto the stones.

"I have returned," he prayed. "My Lords, I have brought many offerings for your gods and many goods for your people."

People crowded the central plaza—rushing about, chattering like birds. Nearby, Muluc saw a large wall with a small temple connected to a steep stairway. Painted murals covered the wall, and Muluc realized that it formed a ball court. She gasped. Such a gigantic ball court!Cobáhad several ball courts, but all of them would have fit inside this one. Muluc felt as small as a mouse in a cornfield. Cobá had grand temples and beautiful murals—most more elaborate—but the size of the plaza gave these temples a look of power and dominance. Did the gods favor Chichén over Cob´?

In the distance, Muluc heard the familiar sound of men dragging large stone blocks up the sides of a new temple. The echoing thuds of temple building used to sound routine to her, almost comforting; she felt pride in the beauty of the temples, comfort in knowing the gods would be pleased with her people. Now the sound echoed deep inside her body in heavy thuds of fear. She stopped walking and took a long breath; the man behind her stepped on her heel, muttering a curse.

"On to the market," Snake said.

Even late in the day, people crowded the market. Women in plain dresses bought small quantities of food, paying with cocoa beans or short lengths of cloth. So many items to trade! A woman wearing shimmering green feathers on her dress argued about the price of vanilla. Muluc inhaled the sweet, rich scent and tried not to think about her mother. The elegant woman briefly glanced down at Muluc: her dusty, tattered dress; crusty vomit clinging to her skin; hair matted like a ragged child's; her bitter scent souring the air. Muluc flushed with shame as the woman averted her eyes. How many times had
she
treated a dirty-looking common girl the same way? Too many.

Some of the men in the group stopped to trade with people in the market, but Snake kept walking. Muluc marveled at the piles of tomatoes, beans, corn, squash, melons, coconuts, and fruits she'd never seen before. The jungle had been so dry, yet these people still had food. Not like the drought in Cobá, when the markets were filled with coconuts, fish, small withered ears of corn, and little else. Muluc did not see much fish here in Chichén—only dry salted fish and turtle. Instead, monkeys, kinkajous, peccaries, rabbits, opossums, deer, turkeys, and pheasants lay piled on reed mats for trade. One woman sat behind a large black-and-white tapir. The aroma of roasting meat from another vendor filled Muluc's dry mouth with saliva while her stomach twisted into a knot of hunger.

At the end of the market, men with long obsidian spears guarded a large building.

"I have captives from the kingdom of Cobá and trade items for the Lords," Snake said.

The inside of the building looked like the gods' market: crammed with more exotic goods than Muluc ever imagined.

A man with long hair braided with a strand of colorful cloth greeted Snake. "You did well," he said, directing the men with salt to a far corner of the building while examining a large pouch of turquoise and jade stones from Snake.

"The Lords will be pleased." The merchant walked among the traders, examining the contents of their baskets, bags, and jars. Each man kept a small portion or traded for something else he wanted. As they finished their business, the traders began to leave. Muluc saw the elite captives—including Parrot Nose's brother—at the far side of the building. They stood with their hands bound, looking strong and fierce in spite of the black and white paint marking them as prisoners. Muluc stood on tiptoe so that they could see her. The merchant prodded them as if they were pigs at the market! Muluc stamped her foot on the stone floor. Parrot Nose's brother looked up. His eyes grew wide as they met hers, but he remained silent and still. Then he lowered his eyes as though ashamed. Why didn't he do something? Attack! Rescue her!

The merchant with the braid whistled and motioned with his hand toward the captives, so the guards took them away. Parrot Nose's brother paused, glancing back at Muluc, but a guard jabbed him with a spear. Muluc watched the blood trickle down his back, like tears.

The man returned to Snake. "All royals," he said. "We may have rain yet." He looked at Muluc and the other girl. "Slaves?"

"Strong girls. They walked all the way from the island," Snake said.

"We've had a lot of female slaves come in from the raids," he said. "We need more strong men." The man lifted the other girl's chin. "This one looks ill—not fit for work or the gods."

"Just tired," Snake said. "And hungry."

"I'll give you a bag of cocoa beans, some obsidian, feathers—"

"I also want some of the jade for my trouble."

"What about her?" The merchant gestured to Muluc. "So pretty. She almost looks—"

"I'm taking her for my household," Snake said. "You said you didn't need more female slaves."

"You'll never get away with having such a pretty house slave." The man laughed. "Not with your fierce woman."

Snake's boy gathered the goods while Snake took the beans and a small piece of jade, clasped Muluc by the shoulder, and walked away. Muluc squirmed under the firm pressure of his hand.

The sky had darkened when Snake and Muluc walked back through the market. The sellers packed up their goods, taking the exotic fragrances with them. Some carried bundles across the plaza toward the road Muluc had traveled, but this time Snake and Muluc walked in the opposite direction, winding through groups of small temples. The woody smell of copal incense lingered in the air, so that at night the city smelled like Cobá. Muluc closed her eyes for a moment and thought of home, even though it made her throat tighten. Small fires burned in family compounds as she and Snake walked farther from the plaza. She imagined her mother playing with the baby by the hearth fire. Could wishing it make it true?

Snake walked through a short rock wall into a garden where children swarmed him, grabbing his legs, swinging from his arms, hugging his neck.

"My children." He stopped to embrace them and handed them each a piece of dried fruit. "You are growing straight and tall like the Lords' corn."

He continued to walk toward a stone house with a thatched roof. As they entered, Muluc's feet felt dirty on the cool stone floors and her hair felt greasy and tangled as she smoothed it with her hand. Across the room a plump woman reclined on a reed mat, sipping from a clay bowl. Oil burning in little clay pots provided some light, although copal smoke choked the room. A colorful weaving of a battle scene hung on the wall behind the woman—Snake standing over a captive, surrounded by his warriors.

Snake walked to the woman and kneeled before her.

"I have returned, dear one," he said.

He reached into his satchel and brought out the piece of jade. "From the yellow men who travel across the sea." He put the jade up against her skin. "We can carve it with your favorite god, or it would make a good sacrifice."

The woman snatched the jade with her soft, plump hand. "I'll have it for myself," she said. She looked behind Snake. "What is
that?
"

"A slave to make you more comfortable," he said. "She can rub your feet with cocoa butter and help you paint your face."

The woman smiled. "Bring her to me."

Muluc walked to the woman and kneeled as Snake had done. The woman wrinkled her nose. "Do all girls from Cobá stink so? Must be a miserable place." She snorted a laugh, but her smile faded as she touched Muluc's forehead, ran her finger down the jade stone in her nose, and tapped her fat finger on Muluc's lip plug.

"Her forehead is longer than mine—and look at these jewels," she said. "She's obviously elite born and more beautiful than I, even if she is unclean." The woman pouted. "I'll not keep her."

"Her beauty magnifies yours."

The woman narrowed her eyes. Lowering her gaze, Muluc stared at her refection in the polished stone floor. How could the woman think she was beautiful? Filthy. Exhausted. A jagged scab crossed her cheek. Even Parrot Nose might not want her any longer.

"You agree she is beautiful?"

"You said so first," Snake said.

"Harrumph." The woman stood, hefting her round body, fattened with much meat, corn, cocoa, and no work. "I married you when you were just a reckless boy—not the Lords' Great Wandering Warrior."

She plopped back down on her mat. "How many times do I have to remind you that I married beneath myself?" She brought her hand to her forehead.

"Your father is a merchant," Snake said. "I have risen you to the warrior class."

"But you make me suffer," she said. "I'll not keep the girl. Sell her. Buy me jewels like she wears."

"I'm keeping the girl," Snake said. "An elite girl could be worth a lot if handled well."

The woman drew her lips back into a sneer, exposing her teeth, like an angry tusked peccary. "Sell her," she growled.

"Don't you see?" Snake said. "With her we have a connection to the kings of Cobá. If nothing else, she could be valuable for sacrifice."

"Then sell her now and collect your precious jade." Snake's wife rested her head on her arms.

Muluc remained kneeling, as if to fade into the hard, cold stone floor, until Snake yanked her up by the arm. She trembled in his grasp, legs wobbling like a toddler learning to walk.

"We'll talk again in the morning," Snake said to his wife. "I'll take her to sleep in the cook's hut."

The cook splashed a jar of water over Muluc before she would allow her into the cooking hut. Then the cook picked through Muluc's scalp, looking for lice, nearly chopping off her hair. The humiliation! Muluc had always wondered why her mother's new slaves had short hair.

Now she knew.

After putting on a scratchy dress and eating a stale tortilla, Muluc fell asleep on the cool dirt floor like a mangy old dog. At least the dirt absorbed her tears.

"You can't stop the story now, Nando," Barb said as the bus slowed in the parking lot. "What happens to Muluc?"

"I'll tell you more when we get back on the bus," Nando said. "Maybe."

"I just need an eensy-weensy hint." Barb pouted.

"I think you'll live." My thighs made a sucking sound as I lifted them from the seat, and I flapped the front of my shirt to keep it from sticking to me.

"Uh, gross." Talia wrinkled her nose. "Did you forget the antiperspirant?" She waved her hand in front of her nose just like Fiona always did when Grace Williams walked past. Turning toward the cheerleaders, Talia made another joke about me and Nando. More stupid
amor
stuff. Yeah, right. The guy
hated
me. I looked away so she couldn't see my cheeks turn red. Maybe I should just stay on the bus. I couldn't take a whole day of Talia. Or Barb. Or Nando. Or anyone, really.