Words of Love - By Hazel Hunter Page 0,11

lantern.

“Here, I’ve got to show you,” he said.

She took it but her eyes never left his face. He was elated. She stared at his smiling lips.

“This way,” he said, taking her hand.

He led her into the plaza, surrounded on all sides by different buildings. Although the three nearest them were massive and ornate, in the Classic Maya style, it was the round temple at the far end that dominated. It was barely visible in the dimness but clearly it was the focus of the cluster of ruins. Though ruins was hardly the right word to describe what she was seeing. The stonework, the stairs on the buildings closest to them, the carvings–it looked pristine. And there were glyphs everywhere. She tried to take it in all at once, her eyes darting all over, her head swiveling from side to side. But she could see where they were headed. At the base of the building to the right, centered at the bottom of its wide staircase, was a group of three stelae.

“Oh my god,” she muttered, as she dropped his hand and ran to them.

They were still painted.

Three vertical slabs of stone, each about six feet high and three feet wide, were set into the ground in a line. The lord of this city would have used these to proclaim his authority and dominion. She took off her glasses and began reading before she had even reached it.

“In the seventh katun,” she said, reading the bars and dots of the number system. “The Lord of,” she stared at the glyph, not quite believing what she was reading. “The Lord of Xibalba rules this city.”

Xibalba?

Xibalba was the dark underworld.

“The lord of the people of the south is the first of men. Ix-Kan-tacay is the name of the first of the men of the Puch family,” she continued.

Her hands danced over the colored glyphs–so much like the Spanish manuscripts and yet not quite. Their deep burnt umber colors and bright yellows were amazing. She quickly circled to the other side and had to step back.

Ix-Kan-tacay, depicted life-size, seemed almost alive. His head was turned in profile and his plumed feather headdress flowed over his shoulders and back. She lightly touched them as though they might be real. He wore jade bracelets, anklets, and ear flares. Her mind registered the details, cataloguing and comparing them to other images she’d seen. He was unique, she was sure of it. But there were no more glyphs on this side and she raced to the next stela.

Although the K’iche language sounded in her head, what came out of her mouth was English.

“Here on earth I am beloved and have all that belongs to me. The maiden of Xibalba rules this city.”

She quickly circled around to the back of this one as well.

It was a woman. And as Jesse neared, she knew who it had to be.

“Ixquic,” she whispered. “Blood Moon.”

The daughter of the Lord of Xibalba.

But that would mean–

She raced to the final stela.

Jesse quickly circled to the front of the first stela in the line.

“I am Cuchumaquic,” she read. “I am the Blood Gatherer on my throne. I am…”

She held the lantern next to the last row of glyphs and froze.

“I am the Lord of Tulan Zuyua,” she breathed.

The birthplace of the Maya.

She quickly circled to the back and nearly had to turn away. There he stood in all his grisly glory.

Like his grandson on the third stela and his daughter on the second, the founder of the city stood in profile. His intricate headdress rose impossibly high, decorated with skulls, feathers, and symbols meant to be smoke. In his hand, was the severed head of an enemy, held by the hair, someone who’d been used as a sacrificial offering.

Was it the vivid painting or was there something particularly macabre about this portrait?

Though Jesse wanted to avert her eyes, she found she couldn’t and slowly sank to her knees.

Blood dripped from the severed head and the Great Lord stood on the man’s prostrate body.

Slowly, she reached out her hand and touched the poor victim’s delicately carved fingers. Then she looked up at his slayer.

“Cuchumaquic,” she whispered. “Blood Gatherer.”

• • • • •

Brett couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was as though Jessica had entered a different reality. To say that she was in her own world when she quoted Mayan texts was one thing but this was something else entirely. It was almost like a trance.

She ran her fingers over the glyphs and the words