Viperhand - Douglas Niles [40]
"Can you listen to me, Grandfather?" asked Poshtli, bowing humbly outside the door to Colon's cramped quarters.
The high priest was the only person the warrior could turn to, the only one upon whom he would confer the honorary title of "Grandfather." Colon had always been his trusted adviser, and even after the cleric took his vow of silence, Poshtli had found these one-sided discussions very useful. And Colon, too, seemed to enjoy the companionship.
The cleric of Qotal smiled gently, waving a piece of copal incense around his small painting chamber, leaving a trail of sweet smoke in the air. He gestured for the Eagle Knight to enter and sit.
"I feel as if I am in the grip of a giant's hand" said Poshtli, clasping his hands together and staring into Colon's deep, unfathomable eyes. "I have answered whal I Ihoughl was Ihe will of the gods. I have brought the stranger to Nexal because that was the hope of the city. Him and the woman, Erixitl." For some reason, it was difficult lo say her name. He told Colon of his proposal, her gentle rebuff. "Perhaps she doubted the depth of my devotion. Truly, I offered my hand out of fear for her, though indeed she is slrong, smart, and very beautiful. She would be a fine wife.
"And her life is in danger! I have brought this trouble upon her! By marrying her, I hoped to protect her!"
Colon stood and stepped to the door of the small chamber. The sun had long since set, and he saw the dying torches on top of ihe great pyramid, left Ihere by Ihe priesls of Zaltec hours earlier, before they had descended from their grim evening rituals. Poshtli lurned lo follow the cleric with his eyes.
"I have seen the destiny of Nexal, Grandfather! It is to lie in ruins-in black, smoking wreckage!" The Eagle Knight stood. "My visions have shown me that this stranger offers some hope of salvatation, bul now he, too, is seized by events beyond his control!"
Poshtli abruptly reached his hand to his shoulder and plucked one black, white-tipped eagle feather from his cloak. He offered the plume to Colon, and the old cleric reached out to take it.
"If I aid Halloran, I shall break the vow to my order, for this 1 have been forbidden to do." Now the knight's pain was mirrored in the cleric's eyes.
"I have spent my life striving to be the finest Eagle Warrior the True World has ever known. Now the life of a man from another world can snatch that away from me. For I know this, Grandfather: I cannot let him die."
Colon nodded, his face expressionless. As always, however, the silent cleric had helped Poshtli in some mysterious way to clarify what was in his own mind. Now the warrior nodded respectfully and thanked the cleric for listening. Then he stepped quickly from Colon's temple.
Some unconscious sense of urgency propelled Poshtli's step as he slarted into Ihe palace, toward ihe apartments Naltecona had provided for his friends. As he drew closer, his hurried gait broke into a trot, and Ihen a run.
Poshtli dashed around the corner before the apartments, somehow certain that danger loomed. He saw a group of slaves huddled outside the door, listening in terror but nol daring to peer inside.
"Move, damn you!" he cursed, knocking the slower ones aside.
He sprang through the door and immediately saw the dead Jaguar Knight illuminated in Ihe strange pale glow that emerged from Halloran's room. A growl in the corner called his attention to Ihe shadows, where he saw Halloran backed into a corner, facing three monstrous felines.
Poshtli barked a sharp sound, Ihe shrill, keening cry of the hunting eagle. Instantly two of the jaguars spun to face this new threat, while the third crouched before Hal, its tail twitching tautly from side to side.
For a momenl, ihe Eagle Knight froze. His maca fell light in his hand, eager for blood. Bul suddenly the memory of his vow, the clear orders from the leaders of his order, came back to him. He was prohibited, by Ihe terms of that vow, from aiding Halloran against the forces of Zaltec.
The great cats crept forward,