[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]effort he controlled his rage, keeping his voice calm and neutral. "Yeah, it
was interesting, Chief."
"There is more."
"What?"
"The bodies will be brought down after the hearts are thrown into the fires.
And the priests will build new fires in the empty bodies, where the hearts
lived. This will be the final way of giving them to the fire god.
He will be pleased and wars will go well. We will be warmed in the cold."
"And the crops'll grow," Mildred said. "Long as the creeks don't rise."
Itzcoatl looked puzzled. "No. This is not for the growing gods. That will come
when we" He stopped as though his tongue had been running away with him.
"When?" Ryan asked.
"When we are ready."
"Well, forgive me, Chief, but we've had a busy day and we've seen most of your
service. Think we'll all go on back to our huts now."
"It is not over," the chief insisted stubbornly. "You stick around."
"No."
"There is food after."
"More rat's brains," Jak said.
"Yes, if you want them," Itzcoatl replied eagerly. "We thought you did not
like them."
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Deathlands 28 - Emerald Fire
"I don't," the teenager replied.
"Then what ?" The smile disappeared. "Have we done something shitty and
offended you, Jak? Was it me? Or another? Give us your command."
"No. Nobody."
"They will be punished. The spines of the agave cactus will be pushed into
their flesh and then set on fire.
Or they will be strangled. Or stoned to dying. Or we will pluck out their
eyes."
"I said not. Look, we're tired and we've had enough. All right?"
"If the gods wish it so."
Ryan nodded. "They do, Chief. They surely do. Can you send some of that atolli
stuff to our huts, along with water? And we'll manage just fine."
"But the lighting of the fires in the bodies is the hottest potato, Ryan."
"No, Chief. Thanks a lot, but I reckon not. Thanks anyway. Some other time."
Ryan turned on his heel and led the others back toward the center of the
village and their huts.
Chapter Nineteen
Ryan awakened early, disturbed by the first fragile tendrils of dawn sunshine
peeking through holes in the thatched roof of their hut.
He had slept well, though there'd been a disturbing dream about losing
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handfuls of jack in a room that was burning. Everywhere he looked for the
money would burst into flames, scorching his fingers, making him jump back to
safety.
He and Krysty had made slow, gentle love during the night, bringing each other
to a shuddering climax
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Deathlands 28 - Emerald Fire with the skill of long practice.
Now she lay by him, hair spread across the woven blanket like living fire.
Outside, he could hear the sounds of a community rising to meet the day.
Women pounded grain and readied the mixture to make the breakfast tortillas. A
dog barked sharply, once, and somewhere in the village a baby was crying.
Fires had been lit, and lazy coils of smoke drifted through the beaded doorway
of the hut.
The acrid smell of the smoke and the cooking of meat brought back the jarring
memory of the ritual sacrifices the previous evening.
Everyone in their party had been quiet, shaken by the savage, brutish violence
of the ceremony, and nobody had felt like staying up late.
Now it was time to rise and face another day in the jungle. Ryan lay still,
flat on his back, wondering whether they should leave and make their way back
to the gateway and jump out, return to Deathlands.
Despite the savagery of the killings, Ryan's sense of morality pressed him to
try to do something for
Itzcoatl's tribe, caught between a rock and a very hard place.
Between their warlike Jaguar neighbors and the slavers away to the north.
"I think we could help."
Krysty had spoken without opening her emerald eyes, without giving the least
warning that she had awakened.
"Reading my mind again, lover?" Ryan said, grinning sideways at her.
"Not exactly. Last thing we talked about last night." She touched him gently
on the chest. "Last thing but one that we talked about. So I realized you were
lying awake and I figured it was a fair bet you were still puzzling over
whether we should go and jump back to Deathlands or stay. I think we should
stay a couple more days and see what we can do."
He nodded slowly. "Guess so."
FISH STEW WITH TORTILLAS followed by fruit started the day for everyone.
Itzcoatl, two priests, Rain Flower and a dozen older men joined the outlanders
for breakfast.
"You feel better this morning, Jak?" the chief asked.
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Deathlands 28 - Emerald Fire
"Yeah."
"You are not used to the way we pay our gods?"
"No."
"You did not like it?"
"Not much," the albino teenager admitted, helping himself to a second helping
of the stew, ladling it into his wooden bowl. "No, not much."
"It is our way," one of the priests said. Some blood remained in his hair from
the previous evening's ceremony, though he'd obviously made an effort to try
to clean it.
"Saying that doesn't make it right," Doc pronounced. "Every religion in the
damned world thinks it's the one that's got it right. None of them has. You
haven't. To butcher those three helpless, drugged men was murder in any
language. And trying to gift wrap it in mumbo jumbo and ancient ritual Well,
truth is, it makes me sick to the pit of my stomach, Chief. And that's the
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fact of it."
Itzcoatl looked at him for a dozen heartbeats. "There is a word for going
against the gods."
"Blasphemy?" Doc suggested, while everyone else remained silent.
"I think that is it. In our people there are many bad things. Murder is bad.
To force a woman to love is bad. Stealing is bad. Witching is very bad.
Blasphemy is a bad thing. A very bad thing. You could feel the noose tighten
about your throat if you speak things against the gods."
There were warriors standing behind each of the Anglos, something that was
already making Ryan uncomfortable. At their chief's words, the men had tensed
as though they were readying themselves for violence.
Ryan decided that it was time to make things clear.
He stood in a single easy movement, drawing the SIG-Sauer, cocking it and
pointing it at Itzcoatl's head at point-blank range. "Best you know what's
going down," he said.
"If I die, then your blood will flow upon mine," the chief said calmly.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkajaszek.htw.pl
