more complicated, but beneficial for all parties. Don’t just cut the hand. You kill yourself.”
He paused, as if to allow her to perfectly understand the meaning of his words. She scoffed. Did he imagine she was mad? Or so exhausted she’d simply admit defeat? She was tired, her body pained her, her hand ached, and there was a weariness of her spirit, as if it was being ground down bit by bit, and yet she was not so tired she’d stop at this point.
“Kill yourself, and as you die offer yourself to me in sacrifice,” he continued, tossing the apple in the air and catching it. “Those who pledge themselves to the Lord of Xibalba are invited to dwell in the shadow of the World Tree.”
“I don’t see how that is any better for me,” Casiopea said. “I’d be dead, and then you could harm Hun-Kamé.”
“Oh, Hun-Kamé offers himself afterward, too; he pledges his allegiance. He kneels down and I cut his head with my axe. Then his blood spills upon the floor and I collect it, using it as the mortar to complete my spells. But as weakened as he will be after you die, and as changed as my brother is, the Hun-Kamé who will walk into Xibalba will be very much a mortal man.”
Vucub-Kamé squeezed the fruit and it shrank, blackening and rotting in the blink of an eye, until he was holding nothing but ashes, which he displayed on his palm for her to see.
“I have the power to restore mortals who worship me,” Vucub-Kamé said.
As he spoke, the ashes in his hand formed themselves back into an apple, as crisp and red as it had been seconds before. Not a scratch on it.
“Gods don’t…they don’t become mortal,” Casiopea said. “They don’t die.”
“There are two warring essences in my brother’s body in this instant. Separate his immortal elixir from the mortal substance coursing from his body, and why not? I lop off his head, he resurrects. He’d open his eyes and be a man,” Vucub-Kamé said. “Free to walk Middleworld, to dream the dreams men dream. And you, too, Casiopea, alive again. I am offering you what no one else can offer. Give up your quest. And you, my brother, give up your claim. Give yourself to me, and in giving, grant me all you are.”
Vucub-Kamé took a half dozen steps and carefully placed the apple back in the bowl.
“I’m offering you your secret wish,” Vucub-Kamé said simply.
Casiopea felt as if she’d swallowed a goldfish whole and it swam in the pit of her stomach. She pressed a hand against her body, thinking this might soothe her, but it did no good, because she opened her mouth and sputtered silly words, anyway, unable to control her shaky voice.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“He knows what I mean,” Vucub-Kamé said with that same slice of a smile he’d smiled before, circling them. “You know what I mean, Casiopea. I mean the chance to live a life in Middleworld, a whole, long, happy life, even to love. Are you not tired of your denials?”
Vucub-Kamé stood immobile, watching them with his strange, inhuman eyes, as firm as a cliff against the ocean’s spray, so cold she shivered. Next to her Hun-Kamé wrapped an arm around her shoulders, as if to keep her warm, keep her from trembling.
“You don’t have the capacity to accomplish such a thing,” Hun-Kamé declared.
“If the whole of your blood spills upon this place, if this ultimate sacrifice is performed, every stone and every bit of metal in this building will thrum with the might of Xibalba. Bow before me, brother. Give me your blood and forget yourself. If you will it, it will be.”
Conviction, symbols. Casiopea thought the pale-eyed god spoke truth; that this could happen, this scared her more than any foe they’d met during their journey.
“I must ask again if you want her to walk the Black Road. Or maybe you’d prefer my most generous alternative,” Vucub-Kamé said, his voice light and sly.
No, she thought. She wasn’t entirely sure why Vucub-Kamé was offering this and what was happening, but she’d say no. She’d seen bones and ash and death. She was afraid, she wished to live, and yet she was no fool. She could not agree to this. She opened her mouth, struggling to put this into words.
“We need time to consider it,” Hun-Kamé replied instead.
Casiopea was so startled she gripped his arm and looked up at him. But Hun-Kamé was