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“I just risked my life by spilling everything—now it’s your turn. Tell me!”
Hurakan spoke first. “Ix-tub-tun spat the magic jade you used to give Ah-Puch his life back.”
“Ix-tub-tun?” I’d never heard that name.
“She’s a stone-spitting goddess,” Ah-Puch explained.
“And?” I pushed. “You think she spat the stone Adrik had, too?” I can’t believe I actually said that sentence.
Hurakan nodded.
My head was going to explode. I think the top of my hair actually sparked. “If it’s as powerful as the jade, and Zotz and Ixkik’ have it…” My mind reeled. “They could use it to do all sorts of damage.”
“It isn’t as powerful as the jade,” Hurakan said. “Ix-tub-tun can never duplicate a stone.”
And just like that, my big I-figured-it-out moment went up in smoke.
Ah-Puch shrugged. “Flawed design, if you ask me.”
“No one’s asking,” Hurakan said, grabbing a fistful of popcorn from Ah-Puch’s bag. Then he turned back to me. “If the stone is from Ix-tub-tun, Zotz and Ixkik’ hold substantial power, yes, but nothing significant enough to enable them to raise an army of the dead.”
“How do you know?”
“Because no single object has that kind of power.”
“And there’s no resurrection stone or wipe-out-all-your-enemies-in-one-breath stone?” I asked.
My dad laughed. Laughed! I didn’t know whether to be insulted or proud. Ah-Puch gawked at him like he had just morphed into a Keebler elf.
Hurakan said, “If there was, we would know about it.”
I paced the edge of the cliff. “Can’t we just ask Ix-tub-tun?”
“I’m afraid not,” Hurakan said. “She turned herself into stardust and now follows the planet Chak Ek’. Otherwise known as Venus.”
“Gods can do that?”
“Gods can do a lot of unimaginable things.” Ah-Puch’s gaze flew to the jungle below. “But why would anyone choose to be stardust when they could be all-powerful? That’s the universal question.”
I didn’t think I would ever understand the motivations of a god. I mean, one day they can be pure evil, and the next day, your best friend.
A bell rang across the treetops.
“The ceremony’s coming to a close,” Hurakan said. “We need to head over there.” He took me by the shoulders and looked me square in the face. And just for the record, I was almost as tall as him. “Zane, this is for the gods to worry about. Do you understand?”
“But the godborns are the ones in the cross fire, so I say we can be worried!”
“Not anymore,” he said. “You’ll be safe here. More magic surrounds this place than any other in the universe. When I return tomorrow, we’ll have more answers about Zotz, Ixkik’, and this stone, I promise—”
“Come on, Zane,” Ah-Puch put in. “You shouldn’t miss the end of the most boring ceremony of the century.”
I accepted their words, but they did nothing to calm the fire still burning in my blood. A fire that told me that we hadn’t seen the last of the darkness.
We emerged from the trees at the side of a torch-lit ball court, a large T-shaped area with stone amphitheater seating on each side.
I scanned the stands for my friends but only spotted the godborns I’d rounded up, including Marco, Louie, and Serena from the junkyard battle. Those three were sitting together in the front row, about fifteen yards away, like the tres mosqueteros. I almost didn’t recognize Serena, because her previously honey-colored hair was now black. Marco’s chin scar looked even bigger, if that was possible. And Louie? He was chewing on a nail, looking just as nervous as he had the last time I’d seen him.
Was that…?
