CAMAZOTZ

Though the rest of us only heard their bat-like chittering, to Mr. Stephens, the Zotz were raising their voices in song.

Their voices had begun after the sun had finally set and the darkness became absolute, soft chittering along with the swoop of leathery wings flying all around the building, though none of them entered.

Mr. Stephens had his hands over his ears as he stood in front of the archway. “It does not work,” he said in a voice filled with despair, dropping his hands as he looked at us with a face drawn and haggard. “Their song is penetrating right into my skull.”

“Come away,” Catherwood said, “and join us by the fire.” The half dozen men, holding their repeating rifles as they guarded the entrance, watched Mr. Stephens with wary expressions while the automaton, seated on the stone bench closest to the archway with the Gatling gun in front of it, scanned the opening as Professor Bella had instructed it to do. Catherwood rose to his feet and walked over to Mr. Stephens, the guards looking relieved as he pulled the human away and got him moving deeper inside.

The night air was not as chill as Londinium would have been, yet cold enough to have us huddling near the blazing fire pit with the remainder of the rough looking men, all of them frightened and trying hard not to show it. Professor Bella had taken a Terramagica lantern and Ran-Li, and was now investigating all of the murals, not just the ones Rune and I had seen but those on the other three walls as well.

Shadows danced on the side wall near us and on the rows of pillars that ended quite a few yards away as the two men joined us. “Please forgive me,” Mr. Stephens said as he got close to the crackling fire spitting sparks into the air. “The singing of the Zotz has me all to pieces.”

“John,” my grandfather said from his seat on a stone bench, “sit beside me.” As Mr. Stephens did so, he asked, “Can you understand their song?”

Mr. Stephens sat on the bench with his knees pressed against his chest. “The Zotz are singing about me. Somehow, they understand who I am, and their song is about how excited they are to inhale my scent.” He exhaled sharply. “They are begging me to come out so they might show me how much they love me.”

“They’ll tell you anything to get you out there.” Rainbow and I were sitting on the bench next to my grandfather, the Eldarion’s slender hand in mine as she added, “The only thing they love is the taste of your blood.”

“I know,” Mr. Stephens said. He stared past the fire as the chittering continued. “Yet, their song is so exquisite, I am finding it harder and harder to resist.”

“Then I will tie you to one of those pillars,” Catherwood told him. “If I had known how badly they would affect you, I would never have let you come here.”

I piped up, “Why do the Zotz remain outside? If there were only a few, I could understand, but it sounds like there are hundreds out there.”

“Stelae on pillars sing own song,” Ran-Li said as she and Professor Bella joined us. “Mortals can’t hear song. Zotz can. Hurts ears, Zotz stay outside.”

“What about the Camazotz?” Professor Bella said in a sharp voice. “Will this supposed song of the stelae keep it away as well?”

“Camazotz not like song either,” Ran-Li said as she got close to the fire and warmed her hands, “but stronger than Zotz. Camazotz come inside, all go between pillars. Probably safe.”

Several of us said, “Probably?”

Ran-Li’s deeply wrinkled face broke out in a grin. “Camazotz likely stay in temple of Zotz-Na, down in big hole. But who knows?”

“May we speak of something other than the creatures living here before I go mad?” Mr. Stephens asked.

“Certainly,” Professor Bella replied, looking at Rainbow. “Ran-Li told me about this half-breed Eldarion named Cornflower, the one Captain Lafitte shot and killed. Your grandmother said the two of you had a marriage of sorts.”

Rainbow shot her grandmother a murderous look. “A temporary union.” Her expression grew fierce. “If Cornflower was still alive, she’d have already rescued me and killed you.”

“How dreadful,” Professor Bella replied in a mocking voice. “However, since she is not, were Jonathan to find a way to destroy me and decide he wished to remain here, as absurd as I find the notion, Ran-Li told me that he could step into her now vacant spot and thus find a place among the Eldarion-Maya. Is this correct?”

Rainbow leaped to her feet with her hands clenched. “Grandmother, how can you continue helping this foul creature?”

Ran-Li gave her a stern look back. “Camazotz must die. Rest happen as must happen.” She turned back towards Professor Bella. “If you destroyed, Black Lion could leave Old Lion and go Edzna with Kinubal. Have place. If Cornflower alive, Eldarion-Maya decide on place. Might have place. Might not.”

Professor Bella shrugged. “Well, the point is moot. Are you strong enough to do some scouting for me? I want to know if we have anything to fear this night.”

“As wish,” Ran-Li said, walking over to an unoccupied bench and laying down lengthwise on it. She crossed her bony hands over her narrow chest and closed her eyes. After a few moments her breathing slowed, and she reopened her eyes, speaking a word in the same liquid tongue the old man in the courtyard had used.

Aethyr magic always glows blue while Terramagica glows green, but Ran-Li’s body began glowing a ghastly shade of red as a spectral figure of an owl-like creature began oozing up out of her body, struggling to break free. I gasped as it pulled itself out and launched itself into the air, taking the blood red glow with it, while Ran-Li’s arms flopped to either side and her head lolled as if she were dead. Her chest still moved, albeit slowly, as the owl seemed to absorb the glow and become indistinct, rising until it reached the darkness well above our heads and vanished. I was stunned as if I had been hit with the business end of a shock stick. “What kind of magic was that?”

“The kind we are forbidden to use,” Rainbow said.

“Which the leader of our movement should be quite interested in hearing about when I return,” Professor Bella said. “Ran-Li will say little about it, but I am thinking of bringing her with me to Paris, and-”

Ran-Li gasped and sat up, fear taking over on her face. “Camazotz here,” she said, pointing at the archway as her body shook. “Go between pillars now.”

“Where?” My grandfather asked as he rose to his feet. “I do not see-”

A man screamed. A Camazotz identical to the one Rainbow and I had encountered but twice as large, stepped out of the darkness. It picked up the man with its clawed hand and bit off his head with its yellowed fangs, then spat out the head and shoved its mouth over the neck spurting blood. It drank deep as the man’s skin turned a ghastly shade of white.

It threw away the body as the automaton stopped scanning. “Intruder detected. Unit opening fire.” The Camazotz grabbed another man staring up at the creature in horror and bit his head off as well as the automaton began cranking the Gatling gun. Bullets hit the Camazotz’s body and it roared in pain, throwing the body away as it unfolded its wings and leaped into the air just inside the archway.

“Rainbow, get my grandfather to the pillars,” I yelled as I ran for the rifle I had been given. I picked it up and chambered a round as I took in the scene before me. The automaton scanned without looking up, the creature hovering above it as other men grabbed their rifles and began firing. Dame Kerry drew both her axes and Rune slid his long sword from its scabbard at his back.

I sighted along the barrel for a good shot as the same cold voice I had heard in Campeche City, whispered in my ear, “The eyes are vulnerable.” My head whipped to the side as I searched for the speaker.

No one was there. I suppressed a shudder as I re-aimed my rifle, finding the quiet that ignored the chaos, ignored the shouts of those scrambling for the safety of the stelae, the quiet my grandfather had taught me to embrace when Kobols were rushing towards me and their shaman had to die. The quiet where nothing existed but the rifle and its prey.

The Camazotz swooped down and grabbed another man, leaping back into the air before the automaton could bring the Gatling gun to bear on it again. It bit open the poor man’s throat as he thrashed about, the creature’s massive head faced towards me as it held still and drank. The quiet became the rifle and the red globe of its orb as I fired.

Its eye exploded in a torrent of reddish-black gore. I worked the lever as the Camazotz roared in pain, chambering another round as ichor ran down its man-bat face while its good eye glared at me. Then it swooped down like a hawk on a rabbit.

I lost the quiet as I panicked, firing wildly before leaping back as it landed in front of me. My legs hit a stone bench and I went over it, the rifle clattering as it flew away from my hands. I landed on the stone floor as the Camazotz’s claw tore a furrow across the bench where I had been a moment before, the Camazotz lurching, perhaps unbalanced, as its good eye found me again. Behind it, Rune and Dame Kerry came running over with their weapons raised as it leaned over the bench and reached for me with its clawed hand.

Rune’s sword bit deep into the back of its knee. Its roar became a bellowing shriek, the massive body collapsing as its claws closed on my shirt and sliced it into shreds, missing my skin by inches. Dame Kerry swung both axes at the Camazotz’s other leg as she screamed, “Doden til mine Fiender!” It roared again, and her leap away from it became a roll as it slashed at her, its good eye missing Rune as he came in on its blind side and swung hard. Then he dove for the floor as the Gatling gun opened up.

The automaton had the sense to fire at an upward angle, over the heads of the men also firing their weapons, and spurts of reddish-black ichor began erupting from the Camazotz’s upper body as it staggered. The creature leaped into the air as the Gatling gun began shredding one of its wings.

It crashed into the fire pit. Flaming pieces of wood showered out in all directions as its head smacked into the stones surrounding the pit, the Camazotz instinctively throwing itself back onto the floor with its reddish-black ichor on fire. It shook its head and tried going airborne again.

It corkscrewed midair and crashed again. The Gatling gun hammered away, the air acrid with gunpowder smoke as the rifles fired at a faster rate than I ever imagined possible. Rune and Dame Kerry scrambled to get behind a different bench as stray bullets whizzed past us. I knew it was stupid, likely to get me killed, but I continued peering around the stone bench with just my head exposed as the Camazotz roared yet again and struggled to rise.

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Its blood turned black as it continued to burn, the creature pushing itself up off the floor with one clawed hand raised skyward, its body shuddering in the shattering hail of bullets as it tried leaping into the air one last time. It could only stagger back as it gave a piercing shriek so loud everyone dropped their weapons and covered their ears with their hands.

Then the sound died as the Camazotz slammed against the stone floor and went still. The automaton stopped firing, perhaps unable to see through the clouds of smoke swirling madly in the wind coming out of the chittering darkness and slap of leathery wings. The air stunk of gunpowder and burnt blood as Professor Bella yelled, “Stop firing; all of you, hold your fire.”

The rifle fire tapered off and went silent as she strode toward the creature, pulling out a pistol from the small of her back underneath her Khaki shirt, and cocked it before stopping beside the Camazotz. She took aim at its good eye and fired.

The eye exploded in another torrent of black ichor. The Camazotz gave a last shudder and went still as we got to our feet, and I retrieved my rifle while Professor Bella fired point blank into the creature until the pistol ran out of ammunition, her men to cheering as she pulled more bullets out of her pocket and reloaded. Dame Kerry and Rune wiped the ichor from their weapons as they joined me. Despite my feelings, I said, “You saved my life.” I looked Dame Kerry in the eyes. “Both of you.”

Dame Kerry grinned. “Told you that keeping you alive was my job.” She motioned with an axe at the rifle in my hand. “You weren’t blowing smoke up my arse about being a good shot after all.”

“I’d say the three of us make a good team, Ja,” Rune added.

Before I could explain that my feelings had not changed, Professor Bella raised her free hand into the air and made a fist. “Our mission is accomplished. All that is left is to retrieve the gold, and then call the airship to come and take us all home.”

Her men cheered again as Professor Bella turned toward my grandfather and the others walking towards her from the safety of the pillars. “Shabaka, ze bones of ze Camazotz are yours to take back to ze Explorer’s Club in Londinium. I will detail several of my men to strip them of flesh while ze rest of us explore ze temple down in ze sinkhole tomorrow.”

“Madam,” my grandfather said, “I would ask you to speak the truth. You have no intention of keeping me alive once you have everything you came for.”

Professor Bella shook her head. “Still, you do not understand. You are important to your grandson; ze guiding star in his sky, as it were, and thus important to me as well, now that ze biggest part of my mission is complete.”

She made an open gesture with her hands. “Besides, I want ze world to know what I have done. I want John Lloyd Stephens to document it, Caldwell to illustrate it, and you to mount its bones on a stand for all ze rich and powerful of ze British Empire to see.” Her corpse-white face took on the warmest smile it could muster. “I want you with us, Shabaka, so your grandson will be with us as well.”

My grandfather shook his head. “Madam, you are a monster. While I accept that my grandson’s blood can be used to create them, I will never abide-”

“The singing has stopped,” Mr. Stephens abruptly stated. Hand to his ear, he made a complete circle as we stared at him. “Listen.”

The chittering and swoop of leathery wings had gone silent. “Have they settled on the outside of the building?” I asked.

“Supposedly, they can’t stand even the touch of the stones,” Rainbow answered, leaving the others and walking over to me. “Zotz don’t ever leave potential prey unless something frightens them away.”

“But what would-” A deep rumble came from the darkness outside the archway as the heavy tread coming towards us shook the ground. “Dare I ask what that is?”

Ran-Li turned toward the others. “No fighting. If shoot gun, man die. Bella, tell metal man not shoot or see it crushed.”

Professor Bella looked bewildered. “But-”

There was a roar, deep and dark, as if the bones of a great beast from the British museum had become flesh and now stalked us. Rainbow hurried over and placed her hand on my arm. “Jonathan, oh please, do as she says. She won’t let us get hurt.”

Rainbow’s voice was uncertain, as if she hoped her words were the truth and not misguided hope. Yet, as the roar echoed again, what choice did I have? I laid my rifle down on the stone bench and Rainbow looked at Dame Kerry. “Your weapons as well.”

Dame Kerry’s eyes narrowed as her mouth set in a grim line, but Rune laid his long sword next to my rifle. “We keep them close in case we need to use them, Ja.”

Dame Kerry gave him a sour look. “I’d feel better if they were in my hands, but I can live with this.” She set her axes with the handles extending over the side, directly in front of her.

I wrapped my arms around Rainbow, holding her close as Professor Bella’s expression turned grim. “Old witch, if this is your way of betraying me, I will see your granddaughter dead before I am destroyed.” She raised her voice. “Unit will go into inactive status and remain there until further instructed.”

The automaton took all of its brass hands off the Gatling gun and let its arms hang at its sides as Professor Bella ordered her men to lay their weapons on the floor. They looked fearful and uncertain, yet no one disobeyed her, the men placing their rifles down before taking a step away from them as she turned back towards Ran-Li. “Now, you will tell me exactly what is outside or so help me-”

The men closest to the archway screamed and ran away as a jaguar, twice the size of the Camazotz and blacker than the darkest night, made the floor tremble as it stepped into the building. The rest of us, frozen in fear like field mice, stared up at the creature as it stepped carefully around the automaton and stopped in front of the Camazotz’s body.

The jaguar’s body sparkled in the lantern light as if its fur had thousands of black diamonds instead of hair. Its massive head turned to regard us, and each eye meeting mine was the night sky blazing with stars. My grandfather gave a cry and clutched his chest, Catherwood catching him and lowering him to the floor as Mr. Stephens scrambled to pull the tin out of his pocket and crush an ampule under his nose. Rainbow refused to let me go when I tried to help him. “Star-Jaguars,” she whispered, pointing at the archway. “The legends are true.”

A dozen or so smaller jaguars the size of horses bounded through the opening and ran straight towards us. Professor Bella gaped at them, wide-eyed as they passed, but Ran-Li laughed like a schoolgirl and touched as many as she could with her outstretched hands, the exhaustion seeming to fall away from her as if she regained strength with every touch.

I put myself between Rainbow and the jaguars as they got close, the creatures slowing to a walk and giving way to the smallest one, as large as an adult lion, that padded up until it was close enough to touch me before it stopped.

My heart leapt to my throat as our eyes met. It was an exact version of the monstrous jaguar now seizing the body of the Camazotz by the scruff of its neck and beginning to drag it back outside. The creature moved close enough for me to feel the coldness of its breath, and despite my terror, I found myself fascinated by the swirl of lights in its eyes as it stared unblinking into my own.

I saw movement from the corner of my eye, and turned my head in unison with the jaguar’s as one of the horse-sized jaguars slammed its paw down on Dame Kerry’s axes. She backed away with her hands up, Rune’s fingers dug into her leather armor to make sure she kept moving. They both stared at the creature in horror as its mouth seemed to smile.

Again, I moved my head in unison with the lion-sized jaguar until we faced each other once more. It raised a paw, running its pad along my chin where Professor Bella had cut me, then held it up as if waiting for my approval. I felt like I had fallen into a waking dream. I slowly nodded, moving my chin at an angle while the logical part of my brain screamed for me to stop, that I was damning myself for all eternity if I allowed this to happen. For some reason I paid it no attention as the jaguar extended a claw and laid it against my skin.

It gashed me to the bone. I gasped as the pain became a cold so intense I thought my skull would freeze, yet it ended an instant later as the jaguar began licking the blood dripping from my chin, its tongue not rough like a cat’s but smooth as ice. It took one last lick, then turned and bounded away.

The moment its gaze left mine, I woke from the dream, shaking the cobwebs out of my brain as the other jaguars took off after it, the group racing past the great jaguar that had gripped the Camazotz’s body with its fangs and was now dragging it across the archway into the night. The upper body, legs, and then clawed feet of the Camazotz vanished. After a few moments, the sound of flesh being ripped from bone began.

“It’s stopped bleeding.” I gave a start as Rainbow, who was standing beside me, wide-eyed, ran her finger along the gouge in my chin. “The Star-Jaguar healed it.”

“Star-Jaguar?”

“A legend of the Eldarion-Maya,” Catherwood said, trembling as he crept up beside us. “Every culture has its version of the end times, and according to a shaman I spoke with some years ago, the day will come when jaguars from beyond the stars turn Earth into their hunting ground, killing all of its people except for those few humans who will survive to repopulate the lands.”

“A myth,” Professor Bella said as she joined us, her expression angry, “based on their interactions with ze creatures we just saw.”

“Maybe the horse-sized cats are real,” Miss Rose said in a quavering voice, “but the giant beast has to be an illusion.” The ragged edge of hysteria gave her words a rough edge as she pointed at Ran-Li. “The old witch woman’s the one causing this.”

Bella turned her glare on Ran-Li. “If this is your way of betraying me, I will make you suffer.”

Ran-Li laughed like an evil witch in a Three-penny opera. “You are fool, no better than child. You want Old Lion have Camazotz bones, so Star-Jaguars prepare them. But there is price. Always price, with them.” She motioned towards me. “Black Lion pay price with blood.”

I struggled to calm my breathing as fear threatened to overwhelm me. “Why? Why would it want my blood? It is already a monster.”

Ran-Li’s dark eyes met mine. “Star-Jaguar belongs to you, now. Why?” She shrugged. “One of many things not known.”

The expression on Professor Bella’s corpse white face turned calculating. “If you are speaking ze truth, then you have done me a greater favor than you know. Will this Star-Jaguar grow as large as ze others?”

“No need. Already able to kill Camazotz, if wanted.”

Professor Bella’s voice turned mocking. “That is absurd. A physical impossibility.”

Ran-Li gave her a derisive snort. “Child. Tomorrow, visit temple of Zotz-Na, get gold.” She motioned towards me. “Black Lion dance.”

I gave her a puzzled look, and Professor Bella said, “Tomorrow is ze day when a king has to dance in front of a statue of ze Camazotz-Ahau, mythical Lord of ze Bats.” She gave Ran-Li a sharp look. “It is a myth, is it not? You have shaken my faith in you already, so if there is something else there, I need to know right now.”

Ran-Li shrugged again. “Camazotz seen many times by Eldarion-Maya. One killed long ago by Eagle warriors, bones taken to Edzna.” She chuckled. “Warriors call it Camazotz-Ahau, gain more respect.”

“You mean it’s all a legend?” Rainbow stared at her in shock. “The elders swore it was real.”

“Shaman know better. No living Eldarion-Maya ever see Camazotz-Ahau, only statue. Tomorrow important day, end of Bak’tun. Black Lion give gift of gold to appease Camazotz-Ahau, then dance.”

“But… I do not have any great gifts of gold to give it,” I said, adding, “And why is tomorrow so important?”

“A Bak’tun is a great cycle in our calendar,” Rainbow said, “lasting four hundred years or so.” Her voice became sharp. “Grandmother, sacred dances are supposed to be done by Maya kings, not Nubian ones.” She looked at me. “I mean no offense.”

“None taken; I agree with you and besides, the dance needs the other players to do it right.”

“Black Lion not worry about dance,” Ran-Li said cryptically. “Show gold you have.” I reached into my pocket, and pulled out Myste’s locket and Dame Kerry’s circlet, holding them up in either hand. Ran-Li nodded. “Black Lion must choose most important, and give to Camazotz-Ahau. Return other to giver. Black Lion must choose path to follow.”

“I do not understand.”

“You will. Choice Black Lion makes affects Eldarion-Maya, Nubian acceptable for dance.” Ran-Li gave another amused snort. “Besides, no one else.” Before I could respond, she motioned towards my grandfather, still seated on the floor some distance away. “Should comfort Old Lion.”

My grandfather was weeping into the arms folded over his knees. Aghast, I hurried over and knelt beside him. “Sir, what is wrong?”

“Everything,” he replied, raising his head up. “Those creatures, those… Star-Jaguars, they were the monsters Naamah summoned when the Gupta rebels threatened to overwhelm us.”

Rainbow had followed me, and now knelt down on Grandfather’s other side. “She always told me it wasn’t your fault that they came. My mother wanted to live more than anyone, and when the Lord of the Night came to her, he said it was the only way.”

It tore at my heart to see him this way, as he turned his tear stained face towards Rainbow’s. “You are kind to an old man. But if I had known the price we would pay, especially your mother, I might have talked her out of it.” He began to weep again, both Rainbow and I putting our arms around him as he said, “I never realized until now how much I miss her.”

“What would you do to have her back?” All three of us gave a start as the same cold voice I had heard before, whispered, “Tomorrow, when the sun has fled and darkness reigns triumphant, we shall see.”

Rainbow and I both whipped our heads around, gathering strange looks from the others, but there was no one else besides us. My grandfather laid his head back on his knees and refused to be consoled.

There is always a price for their help…