Daggrande had avoided them as much as possible — no mean trick on the ninety-foot carrack — and Martine's incessant talking had begun to ring in his ears even in his dreams. Perhaps this landing would give him an opportunity to be a soldier again, but he doubted it.
The fleet stood offshore, resting easily at anchor. Halloran and Martine stood at Ospreys rail as the longboat was lowered toward the crystalline azure waters. Bright flashes of color, schools of exotic fish, darted among the coral.
But their attention remained fixed upon the gargantuan faces. They showed a male and a female, each with a broad mouth and wide nose. The faces were flat and rounded, and even the male was unbearded. The eyes, though mere carvings in granite, seemed to stare at the ships with keen scrutiny.
"Your father says these people do not know of the gods," said Halloran. "I look at these faces and I cannot help but disagree."
Martine shrugged. "Well, let's go!" she said, nodding at the longboat, which now floated beside the Osprey.
Halloran groaned inwardly. "We've talked about this! You'll have to wait here until we've scouted the shoreline!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Martine turned toward the longboat.
"You can't go ashore with the first swords!" Halloran began to panic. She stepped to the short rope ladder dangling from the gunwale, and he followed helplessly. She smiled up at him as she descended with natural grace.
"Well, at least stay close to the boats!" he grunted, swinging onto the ladder as she sat in the stern of the little craft.
Halloran felt the same mixture of emotions that had belabored him for the three days since Martine had boarded the Osprey. Her beauty taunted him as she dazzled him with a smile, but he felt absolutely powerless in her presence, and this frightened him. The combination of emotions made him miserable.
Not to mention the matter of her father. The Bishou was a central pillar of the legion's morale, a spiritual authority to match Cordell's unerring generalship. And he served, faithfully as far as Halloran knew, a stern and unforgiving deity. True, the power of Helm had healed Hal's wounds when Domincus had prayed to the Vigilant One. But Halloran felt it a grave risk to incur the wrath of the Bishou.
Hal accepted Helm as much as he accepted the idea of any god. In truth, the god of eternal vigilance offered a useful comfort to a man-at-arms such as himself. But was he now inviting the god's disfavor by… what was he doing, anyway? He simply allowed Martine to have her way about things, and he knew there was nothing he could do to change that.
With a sigh, he turned to the bow and looked at those monstrous faces, now leering down at them as the boals glided into the shadow of the bluff.
"Wake up, you miserable dolt!" Gultec kicked the cleric none too gently.
Mixtal squinted and groaned, barely seeing the snarling jaguar face leering into his own. "What… what happened?… Where's the girl?"
"Gone. Her fighting prowess apparently overwhelmed you."
"How did — "Mixtal suddenly sat up, ignoring the stabbing pain in his skull. "The signs from Zaltec! Where are they?"
"Not signs from Zaltec, idiot." Gultec gestured to the east as Mixtal realized that he had been carried to the base of the pyramid. "They are men, warriors, even now gathering on our shore in great numbers."
Mixtal blinked and stared. Cold terror vied with incoherent awe in his breast. He feared the retribution of the Ancient Ones, for he had let the girl escape. At the same time, he now witnessed a miracle, or thought he did.
"What makes you so sure they're warriors?" he demanded. "They look like messengers from the gods to me!"
Gultec cast a contemptuous look at the cleric. "They sent their scouts ashore first. These investigated the forest around the beach. Now see how their numbers unfold on the sand, and they gather in organized companies."
"But they have no feathers! No clubs! And look, some of them are silver!"
Gultec growled inaudibly at the vista far below. "It troubles me, this silver. I do not see why a warrior would burden himself with such a weight. It makes me suspect they are very strong."
The Jaguar Knight turned to the priest. "Stay here and watch them, but do not let yourselves be seen. I will speed to Ulatos and warn the counselor."
Mixtal nodded dumbly as Gultec turned and trotted toward the edge of the forest on the inland side of the pyramid. In seconds, the Jaguar Knight passed from sight among the tangled branches. He placed his hands upon a horizontal trunk, vaulting easily over it to land on four soft paws. His spotted hide blended with the jungle as he sprang forward with feline grace and speed.
Soon Gultec took to the trees. He leaped from branch to branch across dizzying gaps, sinking his claws into hardwood at each sturdy bough.
Quickly the jaguar retraced the trail that had taken the human party two hours to traverse, then shifted back to his human body before emerging from the jungle. Even as he stepped onto the trail among the mayz fields, he saw that word of the strange visitors must have preceded him: No one worked in the fields, but ahead the streets of Ulatos bustled with uncharacteristic activity.
Gultec maintained a steady trot into the city. The throng naturally parted for the Jaguar Knight, and in moments he had reached Ulatos Plaza.
"Gultec, come here!" The voice called from the small pyramid in the center of the plaza, and the knight saw Caxal, the Revered Counselor of Ulatos, frantically gesturing to him. Gultec quickly climbed the twelve steps to the top of the platform, seeing that several other Jaguar and Eagle Knights, as well as the cleric Kachin, were standing there with Caxal.
"We have been invaded!" raged the counselor.
Gultec nodded. "I have seen them myself — strange men traveling in great canoes. They gather on the shore below Twin Visages. They are mysterious, but their numbers are small."
"We do not know that this is an invasion!" insisted a third voice, and Gultec turned to regard Kachin, cleric of Qotal. "We must try to speak with them, to see who they are and what they want."
Caxal looked from Kachin back to Gultec. "How many troops can we gather today?" The Revered Counselor tended to be suspicious of his warriors, but now he was frightened, and his fear took priority.
"Perhaps two hundred Jaguars, as many Eagles." The Jaguar Knight looked to Lok, Gultec's counterpart as chief of the Eagle Knights.
"Perhaps… certainly more than a hundred," Lok said thoughtfully. Though the two warriors were not friends, each respected the other as a man of bravery, skill, and judgment.
"We can have ten thousand spearmen gathered by evening, perhaps twice that many by tomorrow," concluded the Jaguar Knight.
"Gather them," said Caxal with finally. "Bring the troops to the top of the bluff, near the Twin Visages. But do not attack! We must learn more about them!" The group broke up, but Kachin stepped to Gultec's side before the knight could leave the platform.
"The girl, Erixitl," hissed Kachin, his eyes blazing with a vengeful fire that Gultec found strangely disquieting. "I have learned that you took her, you or your lackeys. Her death will not go unpunished!"
The knight, a man of steely courage, a veteran battle commander, squirmed under the cleric's steady gaze.
"I don't know what you mean," Gultec mumbled, hurrying down the stairs, cursing all clerics and their gods.
Chitikas emerged from the concealing verdure, and Erix stood numb with astonishment. She saw first that the serpent's skin was not covered with scales, but instead with the brilliant, silky type of down found upon the breast of a parrot. The macaw that had first spoken to Erix stood motionless, watching as the snake undulated forward.