Our advantage? What was that
supposed to mean?
Look, I wasn’t about to argue with her. Even though I wanted to shout You’re wrong! my best bet was to listen, agree, and get the hell out of hell. I was supposed to meet Brooks in fifteen minutes. “Uh…okay.”
“Here,” she said. “Take the oar.”
“That’s okay.”
“It wasn’t a request.”
I was for sure going to be sick. I took the oar from her and propelled it through the river, which, by the awful way, was thick and thick, and did I mention thick?
Ixtab sat on a small bench at the stern. Her eyes glowed in the dark. I kept glancing over my shoulder so I could see if she tried to lunge at me or something. “Well?” she asked.
“Well what?”
“Do you feel the connection to the godborns?”
I thought about the whispering voice that had told me Time for the story to escalate, and She’s here, and Eating the chocolate was a bad idea. The voice had said I would find out who was talking soon enough. But it hadn’t sounded like a godborn—more like a crafty sobrenatural or some other Maya creature I didn’t know about and maybe didn’t want to know.
“Um, I…I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so,” Ixtab said evenly. I could tell she was trying to keep her temper in check. “You might not even be aware of the connection yet. Think harder!”
The oar glided through the blood, which had to have been pretty deep, because never once did it touch bottom. Whose blood was this, anyway? I wondered. Everyone who had ever died?
“Well, there is one thing…” I said, remembering the images of New Mexico that had flown past my brain.
Ixtab stood. “Tell me.”
Uh-oh. Her nostrils flared, allowing even more smoke to curl out. Yep, I told her what she wanted to know. That seemed to bring her blood pressure down a few notches. “New Mexico? Are you certain?”
“I think I know my own state. But the images changed so fast I have no idea about the exact location. It has to be a message from the godborns. To come find them.”
“And to hurry.”
“Are you positive it’s just ten kids in trouble? We have to make sure no more are taken!”
Ixtab smirked. “You’re lucky I am somewhat sympathetic,” she said, tugging on one of her bracelets. “I’ve ordered the magic pages in your book destroyed. I have a team out there as we speak, hunting them down so no other godborns are awakened, discovered, and abducted.”
“How will you find all those books? I mean, there could be hundreds….” Knowing Jazz, he had printed thousands.
“The paper is from the World Tree, remember?” As an aside, she said, “I knew there was a black market for it, but clearly I haven’t been paying close enough attention.” A deep scowl made her face look older as she went on. “Anyway, where are the tree’s roots?” She wasn’t really asking. “Right here in Xib’alb’a. My demons and hounds have the best senses. Believe me, they can trace anything that comes from their backyard. It won’t take long.”
I don’t know if it was the fact that I was rowing through blood or that I was locked in a dark tunnel with the goddess of the underworld, but I felt a surge of bravery. So I took the plunge (that’s a metaphor, by the way) and asked her, “How do you know they’re godborns, anyway? You told me none had survived….”
“Hmph. Your half-mortal mind couldn’t begin to comprehend the secrets I am privy to, the secrets I keep, the whispers that swirl around the dead. Why do you think Ah-Puch wanted so desperately to hold on to his throne? Because he liked the place?” She let out a bitter laugh that echoed across the stone walls. “No, he wanted the power that comes with the underworld. Believe me, Zane. The dead know much more than the living do.”
And apparently she wasn’t going to tell me any of her secrets, especially those about the godborns.
“But why would anyone bother taking the godborns if they haven’t been claimed?” I asked. “It doesn’t make sense. I mean, I was claimed and I still don’t have much power, so they mapped me for nothing.” It was hard to admit, but if Ixtab was the queen of secrets, she probably already knew.
“Zane!” she shouted. “I will excuse you this once, because it isn’t your fault that part of your brain is human. Such a shame. Try not to think in such obvious ways. It’s too easy to surmise that the abductors are trying to steal the godborns’ powers. No, their goals are bigger and viler than that. But one thing is certain—your magical connection to the godborns means you are the answer.”
Bigger and viler? As in they’re also draining sobrenaturals of their power?
Then another thought occurred to me. “If the godborns are visible to the gods, then that means you can find them without me.”