“Gross!” Louie gasped. “A giant centipede tried to eat you?”
“What did Ah-Puch mean by ‘already gone’?” Brooks said.
“I don’t know,” I said, frustrated. “He just said ‘We are no longer here.’” I turned my gaze to Marco. “Like Nakon said to you. But where is ‘here’?”
Marco’s expression hardened. “How should I know? Maybe you should ask the calendar.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Brooks said. “I mean, we’re talking about a calendar that can see across time and dimensions.”
“We’re talking about a calendar that can find the gods,” I said.
Maybe I should have softened the blow a little bit. Revealed the details more gradually. I mean, it was a lot for the godborns to absorb all at once. The Maya gods had been taken, and we didn’t know how to find or wake them. There was a cosmic calendar that might help, but if it existed at all, it was hidden, too. And everyone who had tried to find it was dead. Meanwhile, Zotz and Ixkik’, masterminds of power and evil, were raising the stakes every minute. Not to mention the devourer, a wicked Mexica goddess, being resurrected. Oh, and the World Tree was likely to fall in the next couple of days, meaning none of us were safe.
Things were grim. So, no, I didn’t sugarcoat it. I laid it all out there.
No one spoke.
Marco shoved a table; its legs scraped across the stone floor. “Find and unlock a thing that only the dead are allowed to see? Do you have a death wish, man?”
“It’s a threat,” Ren said. “Don’t you see? Pacific put security in place to keep people from looking for her calendar.”
“The centipede tried to choke him!” Marco argued. “That’s no threat.”
My mind kept turning things over and over and over, trying to put all the pieces together.
Time. Evil. Deception.
“Why didn’t the Red Queen just tell you about K’iin?” Louie asked. “Then you might not have gotten choked.”
Brooks said, “Seeing the future isn’t an exact science—sometimes it only comes in little pieces.”
I stared at Ren, wondering what her role was in all this. Was she the time part? Or was I grasping at straws? I thought about her dream—if it was real, was Pacific trying to communicate with her?
“Ren,” I said, “your mom mentioned a cave…?”
“The Cave of Crystals.”
“What if that’s where K’iin is?” I asked. “Could she have been trying to tell you where to find it?”
“So we could see where she and the other gods are being kept!” Ren nearly shouted.
Marco shot me and Ren a glare. “Are you all listening to yourselves? Who cares about K’iin! Let’s get out of here and save ourselves.”
“If Zotz and Ixkik’ are in control,” I said, “there is no ‘out of here.’”
I could tell Marco’s wheels were turning. Prison, death, or quest? Quest, death, or prison? Finally, he grunted. “Fine. But can we at least be smarter than the bat and Ixkik’? We have to think like they do and try to anticipate their next move.”
“How can we be smarter than a god?” Adrik asked.
“We all have gifts,” Marco said.
I threw a side-glance at Alana. Her shades had dropped to the middle of her nose, and her eyes were glued to the ground.
“My dominant power is ‘duplicity,’” Marco went on, making air quotes. “I guess I can change faces. So far all I get are different eyebrows or a different chin or nose. It’s dumb.”
“Cool,” Ren said. “Can you show us?”
Marco scowled. “That would be a definite no.”
“At least you don’t have to be asleep to use your powers,” Adrik grumbled.
“Seriously?” Alana kicked a half-eaten apple across the ground. “At least you guys have gifts! So stop complaining!”
Everyone got awkwardly quiet. Louie offered her a piece of chocolate. But Alana stormed off without another word.
“I’ll go talk to her,” Ren said.
“No, I’ll do it.” Adrik shook his head. “I’m her brother.”
After he left, Ren faced Marco. “Okay, son of war. How do we anticipate Zotz and Blood Moon’s next move?”
“What if they’re out of moves?” Louie said. “What if this is it?”
“Jerks like that?” Marco raised his eyebrows. “They like power, but they like gloating over it even more. This is a game, and winning is no fun unless it’s public.”
“Whoa,” Louie said. “You got all that because you’re the god of war’s kid?”
Marco cringed. “No,” he said. “I play sports. But it’s the same idea.”
The hairs on my arms stood at attention. Marco was right. Zotz loved an audience. But not Ixkik’. She liked to slink around in the shadows like a thieving rat that only comes out at night. And until we knew for certain which one of them was in charge, there was no way we could guess their next play.
“As fascinating as all this is,” Brooks said, “shouldn’t we be asking how to find that cave?”
Silence fell over us like a thick cloud.
Marco rubbed his thumb over his scar. “If you can find K’iin, and it shows you where the gods are, and if you survive, you need to figure out how to wake them up.”
“And rescue them without getting eaten,” Louie said.
“First things first,” I said, feeling overwhelmed.
Ren nodded. “We need to go to the Cave of Crystals.”
“You mean you need to go,” Marco said. “I’ll stay here and…” He didn’t finish, but his eyes said it all. They were a mix of anger and defiance, and I understood. He didn’t want to sit around doing nothing, helplessly waiting to go down.
“Okay. You get ready to defend SHIHOM and the World Tree,” I said, “if it comes to that.”
Louie covered his face with his hands and moaned.
“We’ll take the twins with us,” I said.
Brooks ran a hand through her hair. I could tell she was frustrated and not used to so many voices brewing in the quest pot. “Zane…” she said in a warning tone.
“What? We can’t do this alone,” I told her. “We’ll need the godborns’ help.”
Ren kicked a lump of melting snow with the toe of her boot, fixing her eyes on Marco. “Find out all the godborns’ gifts. Make a list of which will be the most useful.”
“But don’t tell them anything,” Brooks put in. “Not yet.”
“Fine,” Marco said. “But about this quest…Where’s the element of surprise? Zotz and Ixkik’ know you’re going to try a rescue mission. They’ll be waiting.”
Ren twisted her watch anxiously.
Ah-Puch’s words echoed through my head: Ren is the one…
And then, finally, the revelation hit me like a two-ton wrecking ball. The idea was bold and brilliant and unexpected. Even old Zotz and faceless Ixkik’ wouldn’t anticipate this move, not in a million years. My mouth spread into a full-on grin as hope filled my chest. “You’re right,” I said to Marco. “They’re expecting us to storm the castle.”