Read Online Dai-San - 03 by Eric Van Lustbader - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Eric Van Lustbader
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thoughts.
‘Waiting for what?’ said Moichi. ‘The end?’
The feline mask which covered Cabal Xiu’s head swiveled in his direction. The oblate sun’s dying rays fired his eyes.
‘Oh no.’ A line of crimson light fired his whiskers and was gone. ‘That has already come.’
In a hush, the sun left the land and the city of Xich Chih was engulfed in amethyst and lapis light. In reflection, the valley glowed, as if from a frozen spectral fire kilometers distant.
‘See to the rushes, Kin Coba,’ said Cabal Xiu.
The woman rose from her alabaster stone seat, crossed the stone acropolis to the north building. Ronin watched the movement of her buttocks, the strength of her firm thighs.
She returned moments later with two reed torches, smokily lit, which she set into stone pillars on either side of the group.
‘This is the Chacmool,’ said Uxmal Chac, the taller of the two men, speaking for the first time. He pointed to the low table between them. Its top was the back of a cat, stylized and perfectly flat. The stone from which it was carved was either stained red or was naturally ruddy. Into its sides and back had been sunk circles of green jade, representing spots. The table’s top was strewn with fired clay bowls of dried white corn and a heavy milky drink, spiced and certainly alcoholic. ‘It is the Red Jaguar, which still roams this land. It is unique in all the worlds for the Chacmool never knows defeat until all life has fled from its body.’ His mask shook as he spoke; several strands of mixed teeth and claws and carved flint clicked against each other as they lay around his neck. ‘It is the fiercest and therefore the most feared of carnivores.’ His eyes were in deep shadow. ‘Among our people it was told sometimes that the Chacmool was a supernatural being; that it could, for short periods, assume the form of man.’
‘The Red Jaguar was the basis for many tales,’ said Kin Coba, her voice evenly modulated. ‘Quite natural since the creature was always extremely rare.’
‘In the end,’ said Cabal Xiu, ‘it was revered as a god.’
Now the stars, glittery in close array, manifested themselves through the deep azure and magenta of evening’s haze, the brilliantine light of frosted ice crystals scattered across the sky by cosmic breath.
The great stone city lay just beneath this eternal blanket, an unmoving, articulated expanse of planes and angles, mathematically precise, perfectly situated, abruptly in harmony, now that darkness had fallen, with the slow intense wheel of the heavens, stupefying in its chill, cruel calculation.
Uxmal Chac inclined his head. ‘Tell us—’
‘I think,’ said Cabal Xiu, deliberately interrupting, ‘that our guests must be fatigued after their long journey through the jungle.’ He extended a long arm. ‘Kin Coba, please see that these men are comfortable. Uxmal Chac and I have much to discuss.’
At their backs a green and gold bird fluttered across the cool geometric expanse of the acropolis before disappearing into the tangled maze of the black jungle.
Night.
They were narrow cubicles within the building at the north end of the acropolis. What little light fell across their lintels was the result of reed tapers set along the blank stone walls of the brown airless corridors. In his and in Moichi’s a thin straw bed without legs lay on the stucco floor. Next to each was a shallow earthen bowl filled with water and, in the opposite corner, a chamber pot.
The walls of the cubicles were frescoed. Strange beasts and fantastic warriors bedecked in plumed headdresses and animal skins, men with large hooked noses and flat craniums, long eyes and wide full lips; scenes painted in hues of soft maize and brick red, deep green and lustrous midnight blue (purple seemed an unknown color here, except in the sky).
‘Is there anything that you require?’ said Kin Coba. She addressed both of them as they stood in the corridor.
‘Not for the moment,’ said
‘Waiting for what?’ said Moichi. ‘The end?’
The feline mask which covered Cabal Xiu’s head swiveled in his direction. The oblate sun’s dying rays fired his eyes.
‘Oh no.’ A line of crimson light fired his whiskers and was gone. ‘That has already come.’
In a hush, the sun left the land and the city of Xich Chih was engulfed in amethyst and lapis light. In reflection, the valley glowed, as if from a frozen spectral fire kilometers distant.
‘See to the rushes, Kin Coba,’ said Cabal Xiu.
The woman rose from her alabaster stone seat, crossed the stone acropolis to the north building. Ronin watched the movement of her buttocks, the strength of her firm thighs.
She returned moments later with two reed torches, smokily lit, which she set into stone pillars on either side of the group.
‘This is the Chacmool,’ said Uxmal Chac, the taller of the two men, speaking for the first time. He pointed to the low table between them. Its top was the back of a cat, stylized and perfectly flat. The stone from which it was carved was either stained red or was naturally ruddy. Into its sides and back had been sunk circles of green jade, representing spots. The table’s top was strewn with fired clay bowls of dried white corn and a heavy milky drink, spiced and certainly alcoholic. ‘It is the Red Jaguar, which still roams this land. It is unique in all the worlds for the Chacmool never knows defeat until all life has fled from its body.’ His mask shook as he spoke; several strands of mixed teeth and claws and carved flint clicked against each other as they lay around his neck. ‘It is the fiercest and therefore the most feared of carnivores.’ His eyes were in deep shadow. ‘Among our people it was told sometimes that the Chacmool was a supernatural being; that it could, for short periods, assume the form of man.’
‘The Red Jaguar was the basis for many tales,’ said Kin Coba, her voice evenly modulated. ‘Quite natural since the creature was always extremely rare.’
‘In the end,’ said Cabal Xiu, ‘it was revered as a god.’
Now the stars, glittery in close array, manifested themselves through the deep azure and magenta of evening’s haze, the brilliantine light of frosted ice crystals scattered across the sky by cosmic breath.
The great stone city lay just beneath this eternal blanket, an unmoving, articulated expanse of planes and angles, mathematically precise, perfectly situated, abruptly in harmony, now that darkness had fallen, with the slow intense wheel of the heavens, stupefying in its chill, cruel calculation.
Uxmal Chac inclined his head. ‘Tell us—’
‘I think,’ said Cabal Xiu, deliberately interrupting, ‘that our guests must be fatigued after their long journey through the jungle.’ He extended a long arm. ‘Kin Coba, please see that these men are comfortable. Uxmal Chac and I have much to discuss.’
At their backs a green and gold bird fluttered across the cool geometric expanse of the acropolis before disappearing into the tangled maze of the black jungle.
Night.
They were narrow cubicles within the building at the north end of the acropolis. What little light fell across their lintels was the result of reed tapers set along the blank stone walls of the brown airless corridors. In his and in Moichi’s a thin straw bed without legs lay on the stucco floor. Next to each was a shallow earthen bowl filled with water and, in the opposite corner, a chamber pot.
The walls of the cubicles were frescoed. Strange beasts and fantastic warriors bedecked in plumed headdresses and animal skins, men with large hooked noses and flat craniums, long eyes and wide full lips; scenes painted in hues of soft maize and brick red, deep green and lustrous midnight blue (purple seemed an unknown color here, except in the sky).
‘Is there anything that you require?’ said Kin Coba. She addressed both of them as they stood in the corridor.
‘Not for the moment,’ said
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