Starfields by Carolyn Marsden

Author:Carolyn Marsden [Marsden, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5622-5
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2011-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

After the cries of the crowd die down, the high priest comes to me. His feathered headdress stirs the air. While Mauruch holds my arm, the priest says prayers over me. Is sacrifice what I have trained for? Has Mauruch withheld this secret from me? Have I lived thirteen years only to be offered to the gods?

My heart still beats in my chest. But if the gods desire me, I am theirs.

After the prayers, Mauruch leads me, not to the blue stone of sacrifice, but down the stone steps.

“You’re shaking, Xunko,” he says.

“I thought I was to be sacrificed.”

After a short silence, he laughs. “Not you, Xunko. You’re too valuable. This is your special day.”

He means I will see. But when? Many events have passed. The hour grows late.

Our line of shamans walks the long way back under the dark moon. I, accustomed to the Underworld, lead the way.

In the cave a feast awaits us — deer and wild pig sweetened with mango, spiced with chili peppers. I grow sleepy. Perhaps tomorrow Mauruch will remove the bandage.

But when we finish eating, Mauruch clears his throat and the others grow silent.

“Today, Xunko,” he says, “is your thirteenth birthday. Thirteen years ago, you entered the world. You have become an adept seer of the world within and of the unseen world, both present and future. Tonight you will behold the outer world as well. Tonight we shall remove the final layer.”

Copal is thrown into the fire, and our chanting drones into the air.

As with all the other times, Mauruch removes the bandage as if he is going to merely wash my face. “Don’t open your eyes yet, Xunko.” His voice is firm.

He washes my face, my eyes, with a fragrant hot towel.

“And now,” he commands.

I open my eyes for the first time. Colors swirl before me. Instead of being flat, the world surrounds me. I can make no sense of it. Someone grips the back of my head.

“Focus here. Only here,” orders Mauruch.

My gaze falls on a sacred text, a codex linked to the heavens. My fingers close around the cover of jaguar skin.

As Mauruch fans open the codex, my eyes marvel at the thick red frames of the pages, at the red, black, and blue glyphs — pictures that tell the story of the world.

At last Mauruch stops unfolding. He points to one section. A symbol like an eye and the bars and circles of the Long Count march across the page. Having seen these symbols behind my eyes, with ease I now read the numbers they represent. These symbols indicate the number 13.0.0.0.0. The date is the end of the final Big Cycle. The day the world will end.

I shiver in horror.

“This you must know, Xunko,” says Mauruch. “Now you may gaze upon all that has been hidden.”

Instead of being confined to the small space of my head, the world blooms around me. I see Mauruch’s lined face and the others with their painted faces, their jewelry. The oil lamps, the fires, the cave, the turquoise waters of the dzonot.

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