Chapter Fifty-Two

87 25 3
                                    

Quet followed me to Tezcat's cell and insisted on entering first when Tlaloc murdered the lock. Only when he had both his brother's hands in his own did he let me open the gourd. Tezcat bolted awake on the fourth flick. He struggled to rise and collapsed, his reflexive swing at us arrested by Quet's grip. Quet helped him up, one arm around his back, and pulled his brother's head down onto his shoulder. Tezcat's body sagged against his. He had started to shake.

"Where is she?" he whispered. He kept trying to draw a breath and falling short.

Quet rubbed his back. "Not here."

If watching Quet wake had been hard, this was physically painful. Tezcat closed his eyes, but I couldn't unsee the barren side of his mother's house in the prison around me now. Chal brought the matzin cup. I handed her the gourd and went back to Jem's cell. He and Emma both hugged me. Tightly.

"How are we getting out?" whispered Emma.

"I don't know," I said, truthfully. After the prison, I had no plan. Coyol had taken my friends' charms. I had only one left, and it wouldn't get us all very far. Even if it did, teleportation to Mictlan would only work at the four times of the day when a tree opened its branches. "How does Huitz get up and down from here?"

"He's dead, isn't he?"

The question took a moment to register.

Emma kept her face buried in my jacket. "I watched for daytime under the door, but the sun didn't rise. And he's not here. Did Coyol kill him?"

I had hoped I wouldn't be the one to break the news, but it sounded like I was only confirming it. I could hardly swallow. "She did."

"It's not far. The place where the sky and ground meet."

Was she avoiding my answer? I couldn't see her face, but she had hugged me tighter and the force it took to keep her voice normal was audible. She pulled away abruptly. "We should go. Chal, are we going? Adi!"

Her scream whirled me around, hand outstretched. The Centzonhuītznāhua dropped in a roar of flame.

"Get to the tunnel!" shouted Chal over the din.

I slid past the gods. A guard outside blew a scream on a whistle as two more bulled through the door. I hurled Fuego at them with all the strength I could muster, but they kept coming. My back collided with Tlaloc as flaming hands reached for my throat. The whoosh of a club-sized fist grazed my ear. Tlaloc hit the Centzonhuītznāhua so hard, it spun into its companion, sending them both to the ground. I engulfed them in more fire.

More guards had arrived. "Make a wall!" shouted Chal. I didn't know how. A wall was a shape, not a fuel I could direct Fuego to. The only shape I could make was a flame in my palm.

Tlaloc kept a hand on my back. Chal snatched my knife from my belt as she ducked his other arm. She spun through the guards pressing into the prison. Their longer weapons were useless at such close range, and several more fell. Chal shoved their bodies into the Centzon Huītznāuhtin behind them, then hid just inside the door. When the oncoming guards clambered over the obstacle, she attacked again. This time, she dropped the corpses on top of the ones already piled in the door.

"Light them," she panted, scooting past me again. I complied. Fire roared up in the doorway, blocking it completely. A ward around the doorframe broke with an audible snap.

The wards!

"Burn the wards!" I shouted. Fuego took off through the doorway. A second later, the whole building shook as an electrical sound crackled overhead. The wards around the prison were powerful, but nothing was a match for Fuego at full strength. This fire disease was a monster: Cihua's spellcasting and Toto's expertise backed by Coyol's vast power. They had made it to be unstoppable once released, never thinking to add safeguards in the event that somebody got infected and survived. They had assumed nobody would survive. They would probably regret that now.

The wards ran in a circle, just like I needed for a wall. The ground rumbled again. I could not see what was happening outside, but I could guess. Even in grounded form, Fuego still fed energy back to me as it burned. It was coming from all directions now, weakening as the wards fell apart. I focused on the ground where they had stood and sent another order. Grass under the wards.

The fire redoubled. Now I had a wall. Or what felt like one, at least. I directed it next to the grass outside the grass-under-the-wards. The mouth of the tunnel I'd burned lay outside the original ward-wall, a spot currently accessible by Centzon Huītznāuhtin. If we wanted to leave through it, that had to change.

I jumped as Chal's voice popped into my head. You moved it!

She must be in the tunnel or outside, out of range of whatever curse on this building prevented the gods from using their magic indoors. I was glad of Tlaloc's steadying hand now. I was sweating buckets. I moved the wall out another inch, then another, then tried for a larger span. How much farther?

That last one put it right over the exit. Go another meter or two!

I passed the order to Fuego, which complied. My next telepathic message was Chal's whoop. She was out.

"Can you hold it while we move?" rumbled Tlaloc.

"I think so." I was panting, but this would be easier when I could see the fire I was making. I couldn't manage it blind for much longer.

Tlaloc turned me around, to reveal that we were the last ones in the prison. I let him steer me. It took all my mental energy just to keep Fuego where it was outside. Were the other gods clearing out the Centzon Huītznāuhtin? Could Coyol's minions make it through the wall? Did Coyol know we were here yet?

I crawled through the tunnel and was hauled out by both arms on the other end. Jem kept a firm grip on my shoulders until I stopped reeling from the transition in how I wrangled Fuego. It was easier when I could see it. Chal was standing over more dead stars, and Xipe had acquired a spear. He stood guard over his remaining siblings. I didn't realize Tlaloc was not behind me until a Centzonhuītznāhua skidded across the grass like a broken doll. The rain god had not been able to fit through the tunnel, and had taken the door. He joined us, patting out small fires on his clothing with his bare hands.

Let's go, he said in my head. I saw the dead-serious look on his face and didn't need to be told twice. Quet surrendered a still-unconscious Xolotl to him and helped Tezcat up instead. The night god had recovered a little now that we were out of the prison, but Quet didn't leave his side.

Bring it in to us, said Chal.

The wall. We had to move. I wished with every fiber of my being that I had practiced more before I came to get the gods. I'd had so much time in Mictlan, even while I snuck around Mictlantecuhtli's house or ran to the tree. Now I was winging this, and every new move I called Fuego to make felt like it would fail at any moment.

If I could index Fuego's new positions against its current ones, could I do the same against us? I kept the wall where it was and tested first. The grass around us. The fire reared far too close, and I pushed it out again in a frantic order. It retreated. I could do this. Now we were surrounded by a smaller ring. I let the ward-wall drop.

Oh gods, this was so much less work now. "I can hold it. Let's go."

"

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔Where stories live. Discover now