Thieves Till We Die (29 page)

But Traynor didn't even look round from overseeing the work.

‘Coatlicue understands disease only too well. It decimated her people.' His voice fell to a low, reverent whisper. ‘The prophecy says she will feed on the poison in men. Well, there is
so much
poison in these phials … Thanks to them she can gorge herself on the deaths of her enemies. She must see the phials. She must bless the poison inside …'

Tye nodded, sickened.
So you can kid yourself you're doing holy work instead of committing mass murder
. She watched as the phials were neatly lined up in a semi-circle around the statue. It was like she was watching a bunch of kids trying to impress their teacher at some kind of twisted ‘show and tell'.

Another of the priests opened the long, mahogany box and carefully removed Cortes's sword from inside. Tye could almost imagine the mass of serpents coiling down from the statue's waist, craning to see as the sword was laid in the centre of the inner circle, its handle presented to the monstrous claws.

Then the priests cleared the inner circle. Averting her eyes from the statue, Tye looked at the sword – and noticed a part of the blade was gleaming. She blinked, but the effect continued. Not a trick of the half-light then, but –

She turned and stared into the inky blackness behind her – and saw a chink of sunshine peeping in through the old, cold stone. She shivered. It was as if the outside world, with all its warmth and light and normality, had been reduced to the faintest glimmer by the darkness of this place. She glanced across at Ramez, who was staring straight ahead.
There has to be a way out of this
, she thought.
I could grab those phials – or kick them over. I could take the sword, threaten to damage it – no, threaten to use it unless they set Ramez free. I could –

But she felt the strength of the bodyguard's grip on her wrist and knew she'd have to struggle to break free in the first place. That would lose her the advantage of surprise that Coldhardt had taught her was vital when the odds were stacked against you.

‘We're ready to begin,' Traynor announced, his words echoing strangely round the cold, dank curves of the chamber. He entered the inner circle and stood astride the sword at its centre while his followers retreated to positions either side of the pillars. Only Honor wasn't attentive; she seemed more resigned than anything else. In one hand she held a long, dark flint knife.

As high priestess, the kill would be hers. And Tye could see from the casual way she held herself, that it meant nothing at all.

‘Great goddess Coatlicue!' Traynor began, raising his voice and his arms to the shadows, the folds of his jaguar robe rippling about him like the flames of the sputtering torches. ‘You who endure while fragile men fail and die. You who gave shade to those who lived on the Earth, we enter your sacred domain. We are your new attendants. We pray you hear us.'

‘
Hear us
,' chanted the priests.

‘We know that your rule over men was broken by the invading conquistadores.'

‘
Though it be made of jade, it breaks
,' the priests intoned, their voices low and reverent.

‘Your great knowledge, your power, was thought lost.'

‘
Though it be made of gold, it grows dull
.'

‘Your glorious existence was dismissed as primitive myth.'

‘Though it be made of plumes from the quetzal, it shreds apart.'

Tye bit her lip and shivered. It seemed to be growing colder and colder in here.

‘But know this – it is
we
who have awakened you.' A new fervour was creeping into Traynor's voice. ‘It is we who have shaken the earth and raised your world from out of the darkness. It is we who bring the sword of your conqueror to break at your feet.'

‘As eagles we fly to you. As jaguars we run to you.'

All eyes were on Traynor.

Tye knew that now was the time to act.

She elbowed her guard in the stomach with all her strength, wrenching her arm free of his grip at the same time. Whirling round, she swung her fist at the
big man – but the blow fell wide, he ducked easily aside, grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully behind her back. ‘No!' she shouted –
I messed up, I blew it
– ‘You're crazy, all of you!' The bodyguard's big, clammy hand wedged over her mouth. She saw Ramez was looking at her. For a second he almost looked his old self. Then the glazed look returned to his eyes and his head lolled forwards.

She felt something sharp dig into the cut in her side and gasped with pain. She realised Honor was beside her with the knife. ‘Just one more word and I'll be using this twice,' the woman warned her.

Traynor was carrying on as if nothing had happened, his voice ringing out around the temple. ‘It is we who arrest the passing of the Suns, we who seek to start a new era where your word will be law. A Sixth Sun, not only in this land, but in all lands.' His voice dropped to an urgent whisper as he stared up at the hideous statue. ‘Your mind has touched mine before. Know me again, great goddess … as I bring you fresh blood.'

‘As jaguars we kill for you.'

‘I bring you a boy made fit for your feast by the old traditions.' He snapped his fingers without turning round. ‘As prophecy demands, we your attendants shall reach into his heart as we reach into our own hearts, and restore you to strength.' He clapped his hands together. ‘Bring Ramez to me.'

The guard brought the unresisting Ramez to the outer edge of the inner circle. With a last warning look at Tye, Honor crossed back to the centre of the action. She took one of Ramez's arms and Traynor
gripped the other. The bodyguard stepped back.

‘You are honoured, Ramez,' said Traynor, forcing him down on the temple floor. ‘You never amounted to a thing in this world. But in giving your life to a goddess, she shall in return give eternal life to you. You shall know paradise.'

‘Come, little hummingbird.' Honor was pulling open Ramez's shirt, exposing his smooth, toned flesh. ‘Let the offering be made.'

Tye writhed desperately in the bodyguard's grip. She had to break free, had to reach Ramez, struggled harder –

And then the voice rang out.

‘
The child is not fit to be sacrificed
.' Harsh, high and terrible, the screech reverberated around the chamber.

The circle erupted in fear and confusion. Priests reeled back, or clutched hold of each other in fear. Shouts and gasps went up, Honor jumped to her feet and rounded on the statue, wielding the knife. Ramez pushed himself up on his elbows, staring round in terror.

‘Great goddess?' Traynor's voice was wary and low, he was holding himself completely still. ‘This is not how you came to me before.'

‘
Bow down to me!
' came the commanding shriek. ‘
Fall to your knees! All of you!
'

And through a mouthful of thick and trembling fingers, Tye grinned in joyful disbelief.

Because however well disguised, she knew Con's voice when she heard it.

People were falling to their knees all around, and Tye went limp in the bodyguard's grip, making out
she'd fainted. But the bodyguard could barely have noticed, he was hurrying to kneel as well.

‘
Lower your unworthy eyes from my image!
' Con ranted in full-on goddess mode. ‘
Or you will be punished, yes?
'

‘No!' shouted Traynor suddenly. ‘Get up you fools, it's a trick –'

‘Now!' came a shout.

It was Jonah's voice – and the cue for all Mictlan to break loose in the temple.

Jonah launched himself through the smoky haze into the inner circle, Motti right beside him. With a bellow, Motti hurled himself at Traynor, bringing him down.

The sound of shouts and fighting filled the temple with hard, noisy echoes. The confusion and chaos was tinted blood red by the flaming torchlight. Jonah made for Honor and knocked the knife from her hand, she snarled with anger – but then someone grabbed Jonah round the waist, yanking him backwards. Jonah spun round, trying to free himself, and managed to crush his attacker against one of the pillars. Another priest appeared instantly to take his place, an old man with a cloak. Jonah ducked a fairly weak blow and then floored the old guy with a punch to the jaw.

But where was Honor now? She'd vanished from view, like Motti and Traynor – was she hiding? Jonah knew just how well you could hide in those thick, freezing shadows. It had been agony, seeing Tye so helpless but with no way of getting to her, as he and the others waited to grab their best chance of taking
Sixth Sun off-guard. Unable to clear the rubble at the entrance, they'd climbed the sides of the pyramid and loosened a slab of plaster from an upper storey. They'd finished up in here, with barely enough time to replace the slab before Traynor led his party crashing out of the jungle. Coldhardt had taken Patch off to explore one of the lower levels, but Jonah had persuaded the others to stay and help him try to save Tye…

Staring round at the chaos as the temple filled with smoke from the billowing torches, he decided he was insane for
ever
thinking they could pull this off.

Another priest rushed for Jonah but stumbled over the old man's body and crashed into the statue of Coatlicue. As he tried to right himself, a pair of well-manicured hands reached round from behind the hideous figure, grabbed him by the ears and whacked his head against the carved stone, knocking him out cold.

As the priest collapsed to the floor, Con burst from behind the statue. ‘This is madness!' she shouted, high-kicking Xavier under the chin as he rushed for her, sending him sprawling back into the smoke and shadows. ‘We should be with Patch stealing that treasure.'

‘Did you see where Honor went?' Jonah glanced at the ground and saw the sacrifice had gone – along with Cortes's sword. ‘Where's Ramez – did Tye get to him? Where
is
Tye?' He stared round in confusion, but it was too dark and smoky to see far. ‘And where's Motti?'

Suddenly Motti loomed up in front of him, glasses smashed and buckled, one eye bloody and black.
‘Where's the goddamned exit?' he said weakly, before falling to his knees. Then Con shouted out as a guy with a strip of red across his mouth tackled her and brought her down. She grappled with him on the temple floor.

Before Jonah could go to help her, Traynor came out of the shadows, his feathered headdress discarded, his robe and tunic torn. ‘You're gonna pay for this.' He advanced on Jonah, wielding Cortes's sword like a Samurai. ‘You're gonna pay with every last pint of your blood.'

With a sudden scream of rage, Traynor hurled himself at Jonah.

In the darkness beside the outer wall, Tye brought her elbow back with a crack against her bodyguard's face then lunged forwards to break his grip. Throwing herself on to her back, she kicked him hard in the chest with both feet. Propelled backwards, he hit the wall with a thunderous crash, knocking out a stone slab from the fake window in the wall. Sunlight peeped timidly inside, filtered by the canopy of trees. But as it turned the smoke opaque, it actually made things harder to see.

Scrambling up, Tye peered through the haze and saw Con trying to drag an injured Motti clear of the fighting, even while red-mouth had hold of her leg. Her stomach twisted as she glimpsed Jonah ducking back behind the statue of Coatlicue, Traynor raising the sword of Cortes above his head.

It was as she was running to help that she realised Ramez was no longer on the ground.

Then suddenly the other bodyguard jumped on top of her, brought her down, his big hands fumbling for her throat.
No time to waste on you
, she thought. She slammed her hands down hard on his ears and twisted his head round with all her strength. He shouted out and rolled off her, clutching at his neck. But then yellow-mouth loomed up, grabbed hold of her arm, and tried to get her in a half-nelson.

‘Will you just give up and let me go!' she shouted, anger giving her strength as she twisted her arm clear. She delivered a roundhouse kick to the man's stomach, and when he doubled up, she punched him once – twice – in his stupid yellow mouth, before her final uppercut slammed him into one of the pillars.

Shaking her aching hand, Tye stared through the smoke; in just a few seconds everything seemed to have changed. Motti looked a mess, out of it, slumped on the floor. Con was matching red-mouth blow for blow, but there were others crowding round to deal with her in turn. Jonah was playing cat and mouse with Traynor, who was now lunging wildly with his priceless sword. Honor was still nowhere to be seen and neither was Ramez – he'd been drugged, he would be vulnerable, helpless.

Tye froze, agonised. Her friends all needed her at once.
Who do I help? Who the hell
can
I help?

Jonah swung himself round past a pillar and into plain sight. But Traynor had anticipated his move, charged forwards, and swept back the sword ready to strike …

Then something knocked against Tye's foot – Ramez's bronze eagle helmet.

‘Jonah, down!' she shouted, scooping it up. He looked at her, wild-eyed, as she hurled the heavy helmet with all her strength. It flew through the air and struck Traynor on the shoulder, knocking his sword arm aside; caught off-balance, he staggered and fell.

At the same time Tye sprinted to where Con was now taking on three men at once in unarmed combat. Tye came up behind red-mouth and delivered a karate blow to his back. Xavier spun round. She swiftly struck him in the throat and he staggered backwards into Con. She knocked his legs out from under him, then crouched and rammed her elbow down hard on his sternum. Xavier's whole body jerked, then he lay still.

The third of Con's assailants turned to face Tye – just as she launched herself into a flying jump kick, ignoring the way the wound in her side burned with pain. Her steel toecaps connected with the man's ribs and probably broke a couple. He went down like a sack of sticks.