I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Forty-Four

The skeleton-women dispersed to the darkness again, and Mictlantecuhtli went into his house. Still numb, I watched the fire burn low in the empty clearing. My hands shivered in the grass, cold now for the first time in what felt like days. Sixty Centzon Huītznāuhtin were seeping through Mictlan, searching for the last god who had evaded capture. Their second strongest? That would be Tlaloc or Quet, though probably Quet. He'd been down here before, and I suspected he was better at hiding. I could try to find him, but what good would that do? What could he do alone? What use would I be?

Except perhaps to provide an energy source, by a blood sacrifice or simply by proximity. Why had I left Tlalocan? If I had stayed, could my presence have stopped this? Helped Xolotl stay back just a little longer? Helped Chal or Tezcat detect whatever tracking spell had led Coyol after the gods' last link to the life forces of their people?

Or even if that had not been enough, I could have been one more mind to think about whatever Mictlantecuhtli had given the gods. Maybe I could have been the one to suspect a trap.

The fire in the clearing lost its last flame as the darkness asphyxiated it. Its coals glowed on, a swaying pattern of red and black.

Maybe the blood sacrifice wasn't such a bad idea. It might alert Coyol's forces to my location, but by then at least I might have been some help. I pulled out my knife and made a nick in my finger to test the blade. The first garnet drop hissed when it hit the grass. A circle the size of my hand withered on contact, and a wisp of smoke curled from its center. I would kill the whole area if I did any more.

I was too close to Mictlantecuhtli's house for this. I wriggled backwards off the hill and backtracked through the bushes to where I had left the dogs. Tochtli whined and chased my finger as I gestured for them both to come. Another blood drop landed with a snake's sound.

We slid back through the hills. I moved automatically, my mind only half present. No skeleton-women crossed my path. Were they all stalking the Centzon Huītznāuhtin? For all Mictlantecuhtli had done, I was savagely glad he might at least let the Tzitzimime take out a couple of my enemies before this was over. He had said they were not allies, after all. This was more than likely his payback for an ancient grudge, and he would benefit from the death of humanity so long as there was someone to guide them to his realm. With all those souls wandering the banks of the first river, I wondered who would take over Xolotl's task.

I was far enough to get to my feet now. I stumbled as I did, and stopped at last in a clearing among the hills. My fingers dug into my arms. I was cold all over now. Shivering. Where was the heat of my fire? Where was its tug? Sacrifice might be the best I could do now, and not a blood sacrifice, either. Maybe I could try to burn this place down, taking the Centzon Huītznāuhtin with it. I shuddered all over at the thought. Burning had lost all its appeal. I might die. But Jem and Emma might at least be saved.

I tried to prod the emptiness inside me towards a patch of grass, but the response was feeble. Fuego barely stirred, and a pathetic circle of vegetation withered just a little. I could barely comprehend what I was seeing. I tried again, but even a promise of complete free reign drew nothing. The grass smoked a little. In the shock of what I had just heard, even my fire was gone.

I sank down in a clearing as the hopelessness of it all closed over me. Maybe I should just stay here. Become a half-dead soul and wander these wastes forever, safe at least from whatever happened above. I would see Jem as soon as Coyol killed him, though the thought of waiting even that long made my whole body knot up inside. I missed him. I missed him so badly.

He could join me here. And Emma could come visit. She wasn't one of the original siblings, and Cihua had given her some of her power. Maybe they would let her live.