Mal turned to Stuart. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting the hell out of here.”
“What for?” he replied. “There’s no danger to us. The fusion reaction dies down as soon as the power to the magnets is turned off. There may be a plasma escape, but while we’re hovering up here, we’re not near enough for that to matter. The only people liable to get burned are those two.”
Quetzalcoatl bore down on Tezcatlipoca, one forearm to his windpipe. “I can kill you,” he growled, “and I will. You’re nothing but scum. Our mother should have strangled you at birth.”
“You keep blaming me for your own failings, Kay,” Tezcatlipoca said, choking the words out. “Accept some responsibility for once in your life.”
“I blame you for everything. I’m innocent.”
“Kill me then, if it’ll make you feel better about yourself. But know this. If I die, so does this world and everyone on it.”
“What?”
“Yes. All these humans you’re so fond of. All gone.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I? Don’t you think I didn’t anticipate that a moment like this might come? I’ve installed a failsafe system in this armour. If it stops detecting any life signs, it initiates a countdown. A signal is sent out worldwide to every fusion plant on every active volcano.”
“This is nonsense.”
“The fusion plants go into overdrive, forcing massive eruptions. Earth’s volcanoes, all fifteen hundred of them, explode simultaneously. Fault lines shatter. Tectonic plates are split asunder. An entire planet rips itself to pieces.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“The infrastructure is in place. If I can’t have this world, then neither can you.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Quetzalcoatl. “When has anything that’s come out of your mouth ever been true?”
“I’m telling the truth now. I know how precious this world is to you, the high hopes you have for its inhabitants. You wouldn’t risk their lives just to take mine, would you?”
“Try me.”
“Then go ahead. Do it.”
The confinement unit juddered beneath Tezcatlipoca’s back. Tongues of translucent orange flame licked out from the fissure near his head.
“You can’t win, Kay,” said the Smoking Mirror hoarsely. “Kill me, you lose. Don’t kill me, you also lose. I’ve outwitted you again, brother. You may be the noble one, but I’m the smart one. Brains beat good intentions every time.”
Quetzalcoatl bent further over his brother, pinning him down harder.
Stuart swooped down to his side. “Don’t,” he said. “Can’t you see it’s what he wants? He’s goading you. Don’t play into his hands.”
The Plumed Serpent didn’t look round. “Stay out of this, Reston.”
“I can’t. I believe him, even if you don’t. As the Great Speaker, he had control over volcanoes. He must have known all along that he might need a backup plan, something that would be sure to deter you. This is it.”
“Heed your human mascot, Kay,” said Tezcatlipoca. “He’s wise.”
“Leave him be, Quetzalcoatl,” Stuart urged. “There must be some other way of resolving this.”
“This is not your concern!” Quetzalcoatl bellowed, and with an almost casual flick of his arm, he swatted Stuart aside. Stuart struck a wall, and his chest filled with fire. It felt as though more than one rib was broken now. It hurt simply to breathe.
Mal came down and squatted beside him.
“We have to stop him,” Stuart told her.
“Great idea. How?”
There wasn’t a how. The fate of the world now hung on a god’s whim. It was all down to Quetzalcoatl.
“These are my terms,” said Tezcatlipoca. “Let me go free. Return to Tamoanchan, you and the others. Never return here again. Accede this world fully to me. It’s no longer your project. It hasn’t been for half a millennium. It’s mine.”
“No.”
“I understand humans far better than you do. They’re not worth your time. They don’t deserve to be exalted, only ruled and managed. Look at those two over there. A killer and a slave. And they’re about the best of the lot.”
“Humans are admirable. As a race. As a whole.”
“Stop deluding yourself.”
“Stop trying to delude me.”
“I’m being honest. Perhaps it’s time you started being honest with yourself.”
“I’m not listening to you. I listened to you before, and…”
“Yes, that turned out well, didn’t it?”
“Be quiet!” Quetzalcoatl snapped.
“You and Quetzalpetatl…”
“I said be quiet!”
“Sisterfucker,” Tezcatlipoca spat.
Quetzalcoatl hauled Tezcatlipoca sideways, so that his head was over the breach in the confinement unit.
Fire lashed out in flickering lambent arcs, touching Tezcatlipoca’s face.
Tezcatlipoca screamed.
So did Mal, in protest. So did Stuart.
Quetzalcoatl held his brother’s face to the scorching curls of plasma. He closed his eyes tight. Tezcatlipoca shook and shuddered, bucked and squirmed. Skin blackened and peeled. Flesh melted. Smoke coiled upwards. Soon bone showed through.
Quetzalcoatl let go only when his brother’s body fell still. He dropped Tezcatlipoca to the floor and heaved a deep, trembling sigh. He stood staring at the faceless corpse for several moments.
“It had to be this way, Tez,” he said. “Don’t you see? It had to be.”
Mal Rose. “What have you done?” she said, in cold fury.
“Freed you. Liberated you.” Quetzalcoatl’s tone was matter-of-fact. What could be more obvious?
“But the failsafe… The fusion plants…”
“Tezcatlipoca had your race so brainwashed, so cowed, you’d fall for anything he said. Luckily I was able to see through his deceit.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know my brother. This was a desperate, last-ditch gamble. Of course it was. He was preying on my one real weakness — you humans. He would never — ”
Faintly, through their feet, they felt a vibration. It swelled then faded, like the hum of a tuning fork.
“He would never…” Quetzalcoatl repeated, faltering.
The vibration came again, stirring up dust.
Quetzalcoatl took off, zooming up through the hole in the roof.
Mal knelt by Stuart again. “Think you can move?”
“Everything hurts, but yes.”
Their suits of armour carried them unsteadily skyward. Outside, above Tenochtitlan, Quetzalcoatl was scanning the horizon in all directions. His movements were agitated.
“This can’t be,” he muttered. “He wouldn’t. He didn’t.”
“You fool,” said Mal. “You big fucking arrogant twat.”
“How dare you talk to me like that?” But it lacked conviction.
“It’s happening, isn’t it? Just like Tezcatlipoca said.”
“I…”
“You didn’t listen. You were too bound up in your petty vengeance. And now look what you’ve done.”
“I can fix it.” This, too, lacked conviction.
“Oh yeah? Fucking how?”
“I can…” Quetzalcoatl broke off. He bowed his head. “I don’t know how.”
“You’ve screwed us all. Do you realise that?”
Faintly: “Yes.” Then, with a little more strength: “But I can save you. You two, at least. Come with me.”
“Where to?”
“Tamoanchan.”
“Tamoanchan exists?” said Stuart.
“It’s a world,” said Quetzalcoatl. “And such a world, too. A world where there are many like us. Where you can be like us.”
“You aren’t gods, are you?” Somehow, Stuart had known this all along. Ever since his first visit to the underground ziggurat. “You call yourselves that, and by comparison with us you are. But you aren’t. Not really. You’re scientists, that’s all. Scientists and warriors.”
Quetzalcoatl’s silence confirmed it.
“From somewhere like earth.”
Another silence.
“You live longer than us, you’ve discovered more than us, and you enjoy being hailed as gods by us. But you aren’t and never have been.”
“It seemed as good a description as any,” Quetzalcoatl said. “A useful shorthand. And what is ‘god,’ after all, but the name a lesser being gives to a superior one? A dog’s owner is god to that dog.”