James Axler – Deathlands

RYAN AND HIS COMPANIONS chose not to go to the ceremonial sacrifice of the seven surviving slavers at sunset, preferring to remain quietly in their huts, checking their weapons and recovering from the adrenaline rush of the battle. “You glad you chilled Bivar, lover?”

Ryan nodded unhesitatingly. “Sure. I’m the number-one man when it comes to scraping scum off the planet. But I don’t go for this ritual murder.”

The slaughter of the slavers had left only three dead in the village, one of them Rain Flower, and a handful more with minor injuries. Itzcoatl and his elders had been euphoric about the spectacular victory over their hated enemy and almost came to blows with one another as they traded tales of their own individual deeds of bravery.

The chief had come to the hut of the outlander visitors, insisting on shaking hands with each of them, except for Jak, to whom he bowed.

“The old stories were right on the fucking ball,” he said. “Since you have all come here to us we have enjoyed great good fortunes.”

“How about dead children?” Jak said.

Itzcoatl shrugged. “The wheel turns, we say. The Jaguar folk are gone, and the threat of the whip people vanished like smoke in a strong wind.”

He asked them all to come with him to witness and join in the ceremony with the heaped fires and the razored swords of obsidian.

When they refused, Itzcoatl hadn’t pressed the matter, though he insisted on their attendance at the banquet that would follow the butcheryor the “gifts to the gods,” as he called it.

AFTER THE KILLINGS, the villagers readied themselves for a night of feasting.

Itzcoatl, the priests and the older warriors all wore their richly embroidered finery and their feathered masks. And they brought out the most sacred relic of the village, which was normally kept hidden in a secret place known only to the elder priest and the chief.

It was a full-size human skull carved from a single huge chunk of veined crystal. Chips of jade were set into the center of the eyes, and threads of pure gold outlined the teeth.

“Thats one of the most beautiful things I ever saw,” Mildred said.

“It is the skull of the white warrior with no shadow, as we call it. Only at the most special occasions is it shown. In a couple of days it is one of our biggest and best holy days, and it will be shown again, the day when Tlazolteotl became pregnant from swallowing the chip of rare white jade and then bore the sun king of our people.”

The table was laid with bowls and platters of fish, duck, vegetables and fresh bread.

Beakers of octli rested at every place, along with individual dishes of the fiery honeyed maize, atolli .

Ryan and the others had agreed that they would leave the village at dawn the next day. Their help was no longer needed, and they had nothing more to offer to the natives.

But they were also united in not telling Itzcoatl until the last moment.

IT HAD BEEN a great celebratory occasion.

The women servers were dressed in yellow to show their link to the food. Some of the priests wore their suits of flayed skin, dyed black, hair matted with fresh blood, smelling of wood smoke and roasted flesh from the sacrifices. Some of the warriors had skulls daubed on their chests in blue, revealing that they had been active in the ritual slaying of the wounded slaver prisoners. Itzcoatl himself wore vivid green.

During the magnificent banquet, the village leader three times raised the suggestion that Jak might stay behind with them and continue to give them the undoubted benefits of his own godhead, offering anything to him by way of food or drink or female company.

And three times the albino teenager rejected him, politely but firmly.

The chief had taken the disappointment well, nodding silently. He walked out beyond the fires and returned with an embossed silver tray that held a dozen shining goblets. He placed it on the table.

Mildred leaned across and read the words engraved on the rim of the tray. ” ‘From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli,'” she read. “Must have once belonged to a Marine unit, back in the pre-dark.”