Beautiful Salvation (18 page)

“Wait, where are you going?” Adonis called out, rushing behind him.

“If I’m going to speak with Aiyana, then I need to go back to the astral plane.”

“Saamal, you got back less than an hour ago, let your body rest.” Adonis groaned. “Saamal, you can’t stay there very long. Small increments. I don’t know how much more your body can handle.” His voice lowered as he muttered, “Especially since you just healed after being half-gutted.”

Saamal whirled around and Adonis nearly fell backwards down the stairs he stopped so fast, arms shooting out to grip the walls for balance.

“My body will handle what I tell it to,” Saamal said evenly. “And I am not coming back without a wife.”

Aiyana leaned back against the smooth bark of the poinciana tree, shifting her shoulders right and left to scratch an itch that had sprung up between her shoulder blades. The tree’s wide canopy of fiery red-orange blossoms reminded her of the gardens at the palace. She wondered if the gardens on the physical plane were as beautiful.

Tenoch hovered beside her, his ghostly form less threatening now that Saamal’s absence had wiped the scowl from his handsome features.

“Have you been to the physical plane?” she asked. She paused. “I mean, after…”

The ghost frowned at Aiyana, but nodded. “After my death. You don’t have to hesitate, princess, I know I’m dead. Yes, I have been to the physical plane as a ghost. It is where I spend most of my time.”

Aiyana ran a hand over the fur on her arm, toying with the rosettes before following the line of her finger down to a black, curved claw. It was strange to think this form had once frightened her, that she’d seen it as a sign of evil. The fur was actually very beautiful, silky to the touch. She didn’t feel the urge to eat anyone, to attack innocent victims. Perhaps Saamal was right. Perhaps her powers were not different from a sword, evil only in the hands of someone wishing to do evil. “Is it as bad as Saamal says? The land, I mean. Is it truly suffering since the sacrifices stopped?”

The ghost flickered, swirling around in a phantom version of pacing. Waves of agitation rolled off of him. “The land has suffered since your curse,” he admitted finally, his voice more of a mutter than a proper answer. He halted his pacing. “Why are you in your jaguar form? You have nothing to fear from me, I am no danger to you.”

Something about the way he avoided eye contact and tried to change the subject had the fur on the back of Aiyana’s neck standing up. She shifted from her sitting position to kneel, keeping her eyes fastened on Tenoch, trying to make eye contact. “What aren’t you telling me? What has happened to my kingdom?”

The ghost floated farther away from her and for a moment she thought he’d leave again. She leaned back a little, trying not to appear threatening. Then he stopped, hovering over the gnarled roots of a tree, his back to her. “Cipactli is growing restless. Deep pits are opening up all over the land, filled with jagged rocks in the form of giant teeth. The primordial monster is hungry and she grows impatient for Saamal to make good on the pact he made so long ago.”

Shock pulled Aiyana’s jaw down, widened her eyes. Images of what Tenoch described danced in her mind’s eye. So Saamal had spoken the truth. Her kingdom was built on the body of a giant sea monster. She dropped her hands to the ground, digging her claws into the earth as if she could grab the crocodilian immortal by the throat. “She is trying to eat my people?” Her stomach rolled at the thought of innocent men, women, and children falling into the pits, being consumed by the ravenous monster under their feet. She blocked out the screams she could imagine, the blood she could practically smell. “No, I cannot allow that.” She raised her eyes to the forest around her, searching for some sign of Saamal.

“You’re waiting for Death to help you?” The ghost’s lip curled in disgust. “I don’t understand why you put your faith in him.”

“How can you ask that?” Aiyana snapped. “You’ve seen for yourself that he tells the truth, that the land suffers when his pact with Cipactli is not honored.”

“There must be a way to feed the monster without killing anyone,” the ghost insisted, eyes glowing with an eerie white light. “I heard what you said earlier, Aiyana. I know what you thought of the Black God. Like you said, how could a god who cared for his people want them to die? Hearts ripped out and thrown into pits, flesh torn. Has his pretty face turned your head so easily, caused you to forget your values? Are you so ready now to throw your people into the jaws of a monster?”

A blush flamed to life in Aiyana’s cheeks as the ghost’s accusation called up a memory of Saamal. He was paler than most of her people, his copper skin blanched as if he’d been out of the sun far too long, and his hair was shorn much too close to his head. There were those in her kingdom that would find him unattractive, his features too sharp, his dark eyes too intense, too…frightening. But from the moment she’d seen him, Aiyana had been drawn to him. Touching him had opened a connection she’d never experienced with anyone, given her a rush of energy that had left her feeling invincible, as if she could do anything. There’d been no fear, no doubt. Just power. And his kiss…

Anger flared hot and bright inside Aiyana and she dug her claws farther into the earth, this time to help her resist the urge to swipe at the ghost. Her attraction to Saamal was none of his business. “Do not ever question my dedication to my people,” she seethed. “It was out of concern for my people that I was afraid of the power inside me, because of them that I believed I could fall to evil at any time.” She eased her claws out of the dirt, straightening her spine slowly, gaze boring into the ghost’s eyes. “I do not believe that it’s a coincidence that on the very night I decided to rid myself of these powers, the Black God himself showed up. I don’t believe that the bond I feel with him is evil, or that he is evil. Can you blame me for wanting to believe that these powers inside me could be used to help my people? That maybe I’m not the threat I’ve always believed I was?”

“The Black God has always believed that the ends justified the means.” Tenoch’s face twisted with contempt. “If he thought lying to you would benefit—”

He stopped suddenly, his face becoming sullen. Aiyana leapt in front of him as he turned away from her, chasing that moment of doubt in his eyes.

“If what?” Aiyana demanded. “Benefit who?”

Tenoch floated farther away, but she moved with him, keeping her eyes on his face. The ghost’s face was pinched with anger, but it lacked the spark of a moment ago.

“Benefit his people,” he snapped finally. “The Black God will commit any atrocity if he thinks it will benefit his people.”

“And you stand here mocking me for believing in him, for wanting to help him.” Aiyana wrinkled her nose in disgust. “You admit everything he does is for the good of his people and yet you judge him.”

“They
tore
my
heart
from my
chest
!” Tenoch screamed, eyes blazing with a white ethereal light. “Because of him! Because of a deal he made!”

“And without which you wouldn’t exist in the first place.”

Tenoch jerked back as if she’d physically struck him. In the blink of an eye he was gone, his misty form evaporating as if it had never been. Aiyana stared after him, the rapid rise and fall of her chest making her hyper aware of her own breathing. Her anger bled away, leaving her cold and trembling. The silence of the forest seemed louder, the buzz of insects and the occasional hoot of an owl only making her more aware of how alone she was. Her thoughts grew louder and for the second time that night, she heard the echo of her mother’s voice.

“The dark god put his influence inside of you. You must fight it, keep it locked away. Do not let anyone know. Do not give in. Blood and death lie down that path. You must choose life for you and your people.”

“Everything has changed.” She spoke the words into the night, raising her eyes to the approaching dawn. Scarlet light spilled into the darkness like trickles of blood, the meager warmth amplifying the chill more than dispelling it. If Tenoch was right, if she was being fooled into falling in love with the Black God her parents had warned her about, then she would become a danger to her people, hurt those she had always sworn she would protect.

Aiyana closed her eyes, letting the spirit of the jaguar slip away, taking her fur and claws with it and leaving her even more susceptible to the chill than she’d been before. The cool air helped her think, helped her clear her mind. She opened her eyes. If the ghost was wrong, if Saamal was everything he claimed he was…she would be the queen of a people who ritually sacrificed one of their own. Every year she would watch one of her subjects go to their death, have their hearts torn out…

“If what Saamal says is true, then the monster does not just want flesh and blood, she wants respect, an acknowledgement of her sacrifice.” Aiyana lowered herself to sit once again with her back to the tree. “Animal sacrifices would not appease her.” She took a deep breath and leaned her head against the trunk, letting her mind wander to the human sacrifices Saamal had mentioned. If that was the only way…could she do it? Could she allow it?

“I did not think it was possible, but I believe you are even more beautiful now than when I left you.”

Aiyana tilted her face in the direction of the voice. Saamal stood a few yards away from her, emerging from the darkness between two massive mahogany trees. The smile on his face wilted as he noticed her expression.

“You look sad.”

“The world is a very different place than the one I woke up to yesterday.” Aiyana kept her voice quiet, anything louder seeming inappropriate for the soft light. “When I woke up yesterday, I believed that the images I saw in my sleep were nightmares. The young men being challenged to fight—many of them dying at the crossroads. The blood being poured into the earth, the sacrifices…” She pressed her lips together for a moment, thinking. “It was so much simpler when that was all evil, something to be resisted, something to be eradicated if possible. But now…”

“Now you are reconsidering?” Saamal came closer, hesitating before sitting on the ground next to her.

“Tenoch thinks me a fool for believing you. He thinks me simple for being so easily convinced, for releasing beliefs I’ve held my entire life just because a handsome face came along to seduce me.”

“Tenoch is the fool if he thinks you are easily convinced.” Saamal leaned closer, looked into her eyes. “Anyone who looked at you could see the conflict inside you, the battle going on behind your eyes. My handsome face aside, you are still thinking very hard about the information you have.”

“I feel a connection to you,” Aiyana admitted, still staring into the sunrise. “I don’t know if it’s the part of your power that’s inside me, or something else, but I feel that you truly mean everything you’ve said.”

“I will do everything I can to earn the trust you’ve put in me.”

Tears pooled in Aiyana’s eyes. Saamal shifted beside her then hesitated, as if he wanted to comfort her but wasn’t certain of his welcome. Part of Aiyana wanted to put him at ease, but the turmoil inside her kept her still. She was in no place to offer comfort, not while her own thoughts were so chaotic.

“I don’t know if I can be the queen I need to be.” She whispered the words, not wanting to say them, but needing to all the same. “I believe what you’ve told me about the land, about Cipactli. I’ve…sensed the land suffering. Even here in the Dreamworld, surrounded by this false greenery, I could feel it.” She looked at him, a tear sliding down her cheek. “But I don’t know if I can watch my people die—even willingly.”

Saamal brushed her tear away. Very slowly he drew her into his arms. She let him, easing against his chest, letting him hold her as another hot tear escaped. So many images fought for space in her head, so many conflicting thoughts. She was exhausted.

“Earlier this evening, I found myself in the uncomfortable situation of explaining our culture to guests from neighboring kingdoms. They reacted much like you did to the idea of human sacrifice, they were appalled by the idea, horrified that I allowed it. Even after I explained the purpose of the sacrifice to them, I could see in their eyes how they abhorred the concept. I will admit that part of me was…angry. I resented having to defend myself, my kingdom. I resented the fact that men who didn’t know me, or my people, would judge when they so obviously didn’t understand.”