And indeed the warriors of the Payit gather, many thousandmen of the city and the surrounding towns. More warriors arrive daily from Payit lands deeper in the jungle, mysterious regions unknown even to Nexal.
But only Naltecona believes they may solve his dilemma.
ULATOS LAGOON
The cleric of Qotal gasped and wheezed, each breath coming shorter than the last as his lungs slowly filled with blood. Erixitl wept softly beside him, holding Kachin's hand in hers. The cleric forcefully stopped her when she tried to tend his wounds, shaking his head to indicate certain knowledge of his fate. This man suddenly meant a great deal to Erix, and the thought of his loss left her frightened and lonely.
Halloran stood awkwardly off to the side, while Daggrande looked fruitlessly for some indication of the dark attacker's nature or trail.
The shrine, Hal saw now, was a round, dome-shaped building in the rain forest. It was covered with vegetation and stood very near to the shore. He wondered how far they were from the fleet's anchorage. He did not allow himself to consider the possibility that the legion had moved on. Nothing Halloran could imagine seemed as frightening to him as the thought of being stranded here, never to see men of his own world again.
Erix moaned and leaned across Kachin's suddenly still body. Halloran looked away, realizing with surprise that this man's death saddened and angered him.
The attack had been cowardly, and the cleric had given his life to save a maiden, a clear statement of the relative merits of attacker and victim. But also this cleric had acted as a decent and reasonable man.
Indeed, Kachin had almost seemed civilized, Hal admitted. Too, he was discomfited by this unusual girl who had magically learned his language and who regarded him with those luminous eyes.
"Well, there's no sign of that thing, or person, or whatever it was," reported Daggrande. "Now let's get going back to the fleet."
"Wait!" Halloran suddenly felt reluctant to leave. He turned to the girl. "I'm sorry about your friend."
Again she disturbed him, this time with the extent of the pain he could see in her face. She studied him with a wounded innocence that finally forced him to turn away. "Will you help me bury him, please?" she asked softly.
"We have to go!" Daggrande objected. "Cordell might already have decided to move on!"
Halloran sighed and looked at his old friend. "You go ahead. I'll help her and catch up as soon as I can."
The dwarf looked at him incredulously for a moment but made no move to leave. "I never did think you had much in the way of a brain. But I'd best stay here and help you get the job done. Then" – and his voice dropped to an ominous growl – "we're going!"
Erixitl selected a spot beside the shrine of Qotal, the god Kachin had served all his adult life. The fringe of forest along the coast was lined with many rocks, for the beach here was more gravelly than it had been below Twin Visages. All three of them helped carry rocks to the burial site, then slowly built a mound over Kachin's body.
Erix worked steadily, ignoring the questions that began to grow in her mind. Where should I go? What should I do? Fiercely she forced those questions aside until the grave was completed. Finally the work was done, and all her uncertainties settled to the fore of her mind.
A small part of her wanted to return home, to Palul, to finally see Nexal, the great city she had never seen. She knew no one in Ulatos – indeed, in all Payit – and she had come here as a purchased slave. Erix understood that, though Kachin had called her a priestess, she did not have the training or background for such an exalted calling.
But if she was not a priestess, neither was she any longer a slave. She feared the forces of Zaltec, for they had attacked her more than once, yet it seemed that greater things had been set in motion by the arrival of these strangers. And those forces would threaten her everywhere in the True World, perhaps with even greater savagery near their highest temple in Nexal.
Too, there was the matter of Chitikas's gift to her. She was probably the only Maztican who could communicate with the strangers. They were indeed a frightening, even horrifying, lot. The prospects for peace between Halloran's people and her own looked very grim, especially after the melee at the pyramid. In her heart, she wondered whether war was inevitable.
Could her destiny, the destiny Chitikas had spoken of, involve the prevention of this conflict? She doubted whether this was possible, but at the same time she felt compelled to try to do something.
She would return to Ulatos. If the strangers sailed up the coast, this would be the first city they encountered. She would get there first and offer her abilities as a translator. Then she would do everything she could to prevent a war.
"Now I – we – must go." The man called Captain Halloran looked at her with a certain sadness in his face. Once again she bravely met his gaze. Indeed, he had begun to look less horrid than she had first thought. His pale blue fish eyes still unsettled her, and he, like all of these strangers, seemed surrounded by that unpleasant odor. Obviously bathing would be difficult on the strangers' great flying houses. No doubt they would resume normal human hygiene now that they had landed.
She looked up at his genuine smile, his tall, powerful form. He was the most magnificent warrior she had ever seen. True, Erix had never been one to be swayed by the prowess of a fighting man, but never before had a warrior saved her life. And every one of his acts seemed tempered with honor and decency.
"I will show you the way back to Twin Visages," she offered. They stepped from the verdure onto the gravelly coastline, and she turned to the right. "There, perhaps one or two hours from here."
"Where will you go?" asked Hal, looking at the long stretch of stone and jungle.
"I journey there." She pointed to the left. "To the city of Ulatos, heart of the Payit lands." She did not add her fears of war, nor her thoughts of prevention.
"I wish you a safe journey," he said, bowing. "Perhaps we will meet again."
She looked at him with humor. "I think perhaps we will!"
He did not understand, and she pointed past him. Daggrande groaned as they looked out to sea, and Halloran's heart sank. All of his fears came back. He was stranded on a distant shore!
Fifteen sets of sails jutted above the horizon. The legion sailed along the coast, headed in their direction. But the ships were too far from shore for the pair to have any chance of hailing them as they passed.
The wind cooperated splendidly, carrying the fleet seaward, beyond any shoals that might have lurked around the headland of Twin Visages. After they had safely passed from the lagoon into the deep sea, the breeze shifted, gently ushering the caravels and carracks along the luxuriant vista of this new shore.
Cordell watched the tangled jungle press forward to the sea, and he guessed that they passed a river delta. Indeed, dozens of canoes darted back and forth through the lush greenery, and he knew that the natives of this land observed them as they sailed westward.
"These are puzzling people," remarked the captain-general to Darien. The pair stood alone atop the raised afterdeck of the Falcon. The elf woman's hood was pulled completely over her head in order to protect her skin from the blazing afternoon sun. "In many ways savage, yet they show organization and considerable energy."