Mayan December by Brenda Cooper

Author:Brenda Cooper [Cooper, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, mayan
ISBN: 9781607012634
Publisher: Prime
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

Ah Bahlam woke to the scent of corn cakes. His belly swore it was the best smell in the world, better even than a woman or the sweat of mock battle. The thought brought back the stench of true blood and fear mixed with courage, the smell of real battle, the eyes of the High Priest and Hun Kan’s pleading look. These things would have driven the hunger from him if his body didn’t need food so badly.

He pushed himself up from the thin mat on the stone bench, swinging his legs onto the floor. He found his mother and two sisters just outside the door, watching over two kitchen slaves doing the hot work of baking corn cakes over fire-heated stones.

His mother smiled at him, her eyes warm and pleased. When he saw her earlier they had been red from tears of mourning, but she had not cried at his return, only held him.

She had held him a long time.

When she stepped back, his two younger sisters and one younger brother had leapt on him, clambering for news of his journey, of the fight. His mother had watched while he answered their hundreds of bird-like questions, and finally taken him and made him lie down, shooing his siblings off into the market, saying, “Go get something to sacrifice for the coming war and make us strong.”

Now, he came up to her and kissed her. “Thank you for the rest.”

“In a moment, you may have the first corn cake.”

“Father is not home yet?” He had not been here when Ah Bahlam arrived, either.

“He’s in the city.”

It would be time to light the torches and small marking fires shortly. “I am pleased to be home.” She was smaller than he was, smaller even than Hun Kan. It was something he had barely noticed before, and it saddened him a bit. Surely she was not yet old enough to shrink and so he must have grown. He touched her cheek gently, noticing even in the fading light that more gray showed now. “Has it been a hard year?”

“It is a good year that has brought you home alive.” She gestured to the older of the two slaves. “Bring my son the first corn cake and pour him some bal balché che.”

Ah Bahlam had eaten three corn cakes with avocado and fish by the time his father returned. When his father came in, he too, appeared smaller than Ah Bahlam remembered. Still, he had to look up a bit to meet his eyes. “It’s good to see you.”

His father nodded, giving away his pleasure with his gaze. “I have been in the city meeting with Ah Beh and the War Chief.”

“Will they increase the guard outside the city?”

His father smiled broadly, clapping him on the back and sitting down beside him. His mother brought him a plate herself, and then went back for one of her own. “The news is that my oldest son is home, and that he brought both news and mysteries.

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