People of the Sun by Ben Gartner

Author:Ben Gartner [Gartner, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crescent Vista Press

Hands tied with a rough twine, Sarah marched into the forest ahead of her brother and their captors. They followed a path hardly bigger than an animal trail through the foliage.

“You’re not really going to sacrifice us and eat our hearts, are you?” John asked.

Ome and Huitzi laughed.

“Of course not,” Ome said.

“Oh, good. Phew.” John smiled.

“We don’t eat the hearts. They’re burned for Huitzilopochtli,” Ome said.

John stopped in his tracks.

Sarah couldn’t help but chuckle. They had the pendant! No one would be burning their hearts while they had that amulet as an escape. “Don’t worry, John. No one will be burning your heart today.”

“True, not today,” Huitzi said. “We won’t be to Tenochtitlan for several days.” He grinned, teasing.

Ome’s laughter even made Sarah chuckle along with them at John’s grim expression.

“Huitzi,” John said, whistling the wee-tsee. “Is that like the first sound in ‘Huitzilopochtli’?”

“Similar, but people just call me Huitzi as short for Huitzilin,” the boy said. “Means ‘hummingbird.’ My mother named me that because, she said, she wants to remind our people that we can still be kind and admirers of beauty. You know, even though I share the title with Huitzilopochtli, god of war.”

“Your god of war is named after a hummingbird?” Sarah asked.

“The hummingbird is a brave and courageous fighter and never dies. They are our warriors’ spirits lost in battle,” Ome said. “But Huitzi is not quite the big warrior he likes to think he is.”

“Shush, sister,” Huitzi said.

“You two are brother and sister?” John asked. “We are too!”

“I’m the eldest,” Huitzi said, thumping his chest.

“Don’t listen to him,” Ome said. “We’re twins. Like Ometeotl, the dual god who created everything.”

“You’re named after the creator of everything? Sounds like a lot of responsibility,” Sarah joked.

Ome just gave her an odd glance.

“So, if you’re so kind, why are we tied up and being led to sacrifice?” John snipped.

“Our mother teaches that the sun will rise whether we burn hearts or not. She’s told us the offerings are not necessary,” Ome said.

“Then why are we being led to our deaths?” John asked, stopping. Sarah stopped with him.

“You’re not,” Huitzi said. He huffed and walked past them, obviously impatient. “We’re taking you to see our mother.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes, Toci. Let’s move faster or we’ll never get there.”

“Toci is your mother?” Sarah asked, starting after him.

Ome and Huitzi were probably thirteen years old. How long had Toci been trapped here?

“Yes. She is wise and will know what to—”

“Stop!” Sarah screeched. She grabbed Huitzi’s cape in front of her. It yanked his neck and he gagged, but the move had been effective.

He turned and glared at her. “Do not touch me! If we don’t keep moving—”

“Look.” Sarah pointed to a camouflaged snake hiding in the brown leaves just off the trail. Its body was caramel colored with black-edged diamonds and lines of white. But what made her stop Huitzi so suddenly was the triangular head. It reminded her of the rattlesnakes in Colorado. And she’d learned to steer clear of those venomous creatures, so her instincts had kicked in when she saw this one stone-still in the grass.

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