AllFreeNovel
Share Us
One of the cave walls was angled and pitted enough that I thought I could climb up to the opening I hadn’t seen. I shoved the statue into my jean pocket and started up.
“Don’t go anywhere, Brooks!” I called down.
When I got to the top and peeked out, what I saw wasn’t the volcano crater or the desert. It looked like the surface of Mars, miles and miles of red rock, dust, and no life. I turned toward the sky, shielding my eyes so I couldn’t look directly at the eclipse. The sky was a deep bruised blue, turning darker and darker with each passing second.
I tugged the owl figurine from my pocket.
The time has come, Ah-Puch whispered.
“Save her!”
You have to free me first.
What do I do, Brooks? I hoped she could hear me, like when we were under the water. I can’t let you die.
“Your demons did this to her!” I screamed at that stupid sm
iling owl.
She wanted to keep me in my prison.
“So do I!”
Ah-Puch laughed cruelly. Seems circumstances have changed.
He was right. I didn’t even know where I was, and Brooks was barely holding on. I dropped my head, feeling pathetic and defeated. “If I let you out, you promise to save her?”
Or you could just wait and see.
“And you can rot! CAN YOU SAVE HER?”
I’m the lord of the dead. I can save her.
I remembered what Ms. Cab had told me about Puke waking up thirsty for my blood. But that didn’t matter. Not if he could save Brooks. I know it was foolish, trying to save one life by releasing a god that could destroy the whole world. But I’d worry about that later. Right now the only thing I cared about was making sure Brooks didn’t become the newest resident of Xib’alb’a.
The moon crept across the sun, slowly strangling its light.
Set me free.
“And I want Rosie back, too. She’s my dog stuck in your underworld.”
Yes.
As the moon’s shadow blotted out the sun, I took a deep breath and did what I swore I’d never do. I slammed the clay figure on the sharp rock edge in front of me. The owl busted open, its wings flying off in opposite directions. Dust rose from the broken shell, briefly obscuring the object inside. I coughed and fanned the air, then saw that it was a long folded strip of paper, dark and soft, like wet tree bark. I picked it up to examine it more closely, and it shimmered faintly in my palm. Then it unfolded itself three times. There was no writing or picture on it—what was up with that? I traced my fingers along its blank curled edges.
Suddenly, it lifted into the air, burst into blue flame, and a tower of black smoke billowed out, followed by a sickening screech that pierced my eardrums and drove me to my knees.
14
A creature—Ah-Puch, I guessed—appeared on the rim of the volcano with his back to me, crouched like a wild animal. He didn’t look like an all-powerful god of the dead. He was skeletal, and his skin was so paper-thin I could see his crooked spine. It writhed and twisted like a snake as he heaved and moaned. And the guy didn’t just smell bad—he filled the air with a bitter, poisonous odor that I was sure would kill me with one whiff.
At the same moment, the black owl, Muwan, appeared. Her feathers were slick with oil. She turned her enormous eyes toward me.
A trail of black smoke rose from the bird, and it shifted into a woman with long gray hair. She was wearing some kind of headdress made of red and yellow feathers.
She kneeled next to Ah-Puch and said with a bad lisp, “My lord, I bring you a thacrifice to give you power.” Her gauzy black skirt swept across the rock.
She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a small clay figurine, but I couldn’t see the details from where I sat. She smashed it against the rim. There was a terrible screech. Then she handed Ah-Puch a creature with two goat heads and a body like a yellow snake. It squirmed and bleated, trying to wriggle its way free. Ah-Puch scrambled to clutch the thing. Bones snapped. Then he brought it to his mouth, bit its neck, and sucked all the blood from it before tossing the drained corpse to the cave floor below like an old orange peel.
