Viperhand - Douglas Niles [82]
They heard a sharp click as Alvarro pressed down with the sword. "Push" he impatiently told the others.
Kardann and the Bishou leaned against the outline of the door and felt the portal swing easily inward. "Quick-get the lamp!" urged the assessor.
As the yellow beams of light spread across the large secret chamber, all three men gasped in astonishment. Alvarro raised the lamp high and stepped into the room, closely followed by the other two.
"It's unbelievable!" whispered the Bishou, staring around in shock.
The others, awestruck, didn't answer. They advanced slowly, stumbling over objects on the floor, stunned. Staring across the expanse of the large room, fully lit by Kardann's lantern, they saw mounds of gold around them. Golden shields, plates and bowls of the metal, box after box filled with dust of purest gold, all of these things scattered across the floor, piled high, and extending from wall to wall.
Around them they saw a fortune in gold, one that put all of their previous treasures to shame.
"You are man and wife, now, in the presence of the god," said Lotil as Halloran and Erix entered the house after daybreak.
The pair stopped in surprise. The old man chuckled and urged them to continue inside.
"If that is the custom of your people, so be it," said Halloran, placing his arms around Erixitl. His reaction surprised even himself with its total conviction, but he realized that a lifetime with Erixitl was the natural extension of the love they shared. "I want you to be my wife-are you?"
"Do you make this pledge for our lifetimes?" she asked.
"Yes."
"And I do, as well," replied Erix. "But it is not the custom of our people. Why do you say that we are already married, Father?"
"This is not a matter of custom, not the custom of our people nor of any people. It is a matter of destiny. It is in the light and the dark that you see, the light and dark that you are.
"Don't you see what has come together in the two of you?" asked Lotil. "Even I, blind as a stone, can tell. This man comes across the great ocean, and then departs his comrades. You are taken from your home into slavery, and led across the True World so that you will be there when he lands!
"Then-" Lotil paused to laugh, ready to lay the clinching seal on his arguments "-then comes the couatl, harbinger of Qotal, and he gives you the gift of the strangers' tongue. Now you come here, to Nexal, where you see not only the shadows of impending disaster, but also the light of potential hope. It is right that the two of you face this light and darkness together, for that is how you can both be truly strong."
"You are right," Erix said softly, taking Hal's hand.
"Now come inside. We must talk." Lotil ushered them to the mats by the kitchen hearth. They sat, and he presented them each with cups of hot, spicy cocoa and mayzcakes wrapped around cooked eggs.
"Man and wife in the presence of (he god, you said." Halloran raised one eyebrow in question as Lotil sat beside them. "You mean Qotal?"
"Yes, the Plumed One, of course," replied the old man. "The one true god who offers any hope of survival in this age of chaos and doom."
"Yes, I've heard of Qotal. But Erixitl tells me that he left Maztica centuries ago. Even his clerics are bound to silence."
"But do not forget that Qotal promised to return. There were to be several harbingers of his return, and one of them has already occurred."
Erixitl nodded. "True. We saw a couatl. I know that the feathered snake is supposed to be the first sign."
"No one knows about the others, of course," Lotil explained to botb of them. "Something about a Cloak of One Plume and the Ice of Summer. Imagine! A feather large enough to make a cloak. Or water, frozen beneath the hot summer sun… or moon. But the couatl, that is indeed something.
"And as to you, my son" Lotil continued with true affection, turning to Halloran. "There is, of course, the matter of the dowry."
Hal watched curiously as Lotil got up and