I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Forty-Nine

I landed in a dark, starlit field. I had the wits to drop flat, thankfully, and my stained clothing was already dark enough to match the short grass. What was it with the spirit-levels and their love of fields? For the night sky, I supposed it made sense—if I was the sun or moon goddess, I wouldn't want to scramble across rocks or over mountains to cross the sky every day either. But still.

The only grass I ever wanted to see again was the patchy desert clearnings where rabbits liked to graze. It had never occurred to me how much more suited I was to hunting rabbits than celestial-level warfare. When had I made such a poor life decision that I ended up here?

Fuego. Right.

Gods, to think this had all started with a burned village and a white-eyed turkey.

Realizing I should probably focus on the task at hand, I scanned the field for any sign of anything I might want to see a sign of. The thought that I might have landed an insurmountable distance from where I wanted to go almost made me laugh. Was the stress of this getting to me? Or was it all so ludicrous by now that my own mind could no longer take me seriously? I was invading the realm of the most powerful goddess alive, armed with fire magic gifted to me by a white-eyed turkey and sealed with tattoos. My best friend had plant magic, and my other best friend was a goddess. I could burn a semi-deity to death with the flick of a finger. Was I sure this wasn't all just some long, nasty fever dream?

If I got out of this alive, I was asking Jem out. Properly: not the kind-of, sort-of thing we'd had going for three years, knowing neither of us wanted to spend our lives with anyone else, or had anyone else to pick from even if we did. I would ask him out, and then one of us would propose because dammit, I wanted a family and kids and a tent in the village to furnish with all the cozy things that made a place a home.

An arrow lodged with a thunk in the ground beside me before I could entertain the thought further. My hand shot out, and the Centzonhuītznāhua dropped like a sack of burnt tinder. This time I didn't look until I was sure even the bones were gone. I told myself that Coyol's four hundred brothers were just Tzitzimime in another body: devoid of personality, and arguably even of a soul at all. Just mindless, obedient weapons.

That helped stem my nausea as I ignored once again that I had just ended the existence of something undeniably human-shaped. I had to move. Already I could see earthbound stars in the distance, headed towards me. Quiet as a coywolf, I scooted off to the side. They would converge on their dead brother, then fan out to search for me. I had to be gone by then.

The field was easy to move across, at least. I soon figured out that it sloped slightly, a curve greater than that of the earth below. It did not take me long to lose the encroaching stars behind the horizon. Lesson one: no fire unless I was desperate. On the expansive field, it was as good as a beacon.

I still had no idea where I was going, so I scuttled onwards until I was sure I hadn't been followed. Then I lay down again, and immediately doubted myself. Was I sure no one was following? The horizon might hide me, but it hid the Centzon Huītznāuhtin, too. Could they sense my magic, even if they couldn't see me?

And even if they couldn't... could Coyol?

She lived here. She was more than likely somewhere on this field right now.

Moonrise, echoed the soul-woman's voice in my head. I took a breath, held it, and let it out again. If moonrise was like sunrise, that meant Coyol too had to make a nightly trek across the sky. The souls had said moonrise came not long before sunset at this point in the calendar. Coyol had left for the night before I reached the tree.

Of course, that did not tell me where I was and whether she was coming towards me or moving away, but it ensured she was otherwise occupied, at least. I put my head down, realized that was probably a bad idea, and lifted it again. How long had it been since I'd slept? I had not felt the need to since landing in Mictlan, but I wasn't in Mictlan anymore, and even the gods slept. Even when they were at full power.