Todd Pitts - The Serpent Passage

“So what the heck is going on?” Betty asked, interrupting William’s blank stare.

As if coming out of a day dream, he refocused back to Betty and explained things as best he could-how the Serpent Priest had promised to help them with their unusual problem.

“How does he even know what our problem is?” Betty asked, looking doubtful. “Anyhow, haven’t you already helped these people enough? What more could you possibly do?”

“What choice do we have?” William asked.

Betty’s annoyed look softened, until the heavy man seated beside her began touching her hair. She turned and glowered at him. William assumed he was a high ranking noble, to be seated so near to the King. The chubby Mayan had decorated his face with, among other things, a bone pierced clean through his nose. He continued to play with her hair, seeming to find its texture fascinating.

“Stop it!” Betty scolded, slapping his hand away. The chubby man put his hands to his heart, as though he had just found his true love.

William laughed as Betty fought off the affections of her new friend. In that moment, he decided to do as Yax had advised… to enjoy the day.

Teshna did not go to the temple to pray as she had told her brother, but instead followed Priest Quisac to his room. However, when she entered she did not see the Serpent Priest anywhere. Strange, she thought, for she saw him go in just moments before, and had only waited in the hallway just long enough for the servants to leave.

“Teshna,” a voice drew her attention from the ceiling above. “I must regain my strength. Please leave me to rest.”

She looked up, startled to see the Serpent Priest lying flat on his back, along one of the wood beams at the top of the vaulted ceiling. “Priest Quisac, how did you get up there?”

“Is that important, for I am here, am I not?” “Well, yes you are. Why aren’t you resting in your bed?” she asked.

“Is it not obvious, Teshna, for I am here.”

Teshna stomped her foot and moved to a table along the wall, taking a moment to light an incense burner. “You’re impossible, you know that? You never give me a straight answer.”

“Teshna, have I not known you since birth?” he asked, rolling onto his side along the narrow beam, and resting his head on his hand.

“Yes,” she said, worried that he might fall off any moment.

“Do you remember nothing of my abilities?”

“Oh,” she said, understanding, and spun around to find Priest Quisac in the corner of the room, hiding in the shadows. “Yes, I remember our games as a child. They are fond memories.”

“Why are you here?” he asked.

Teshna heard several nobles chatting down the hall, nearing Priest Quisac’s room. She moved to the side of the doorway where she could not be seen. She watched them pass, sighed, and spun back to the Serpent Priest. “I must know…. who is this young man? Is it true that he is the Balam… from the prophecies… sent by the gods? He is indeed powerful and…” She blushed. “Well, is it true?”

“We are all sent by the gods to serve a purpose in this life. Have I not told you this before?”

“More riddles!” she said, and turned away.

Priest Quisac moved to the side of the room, where a large Mayan calendar was hanging on the wall. He studied it for a moment. “Life is indeed a riddle. That is why we have our sacred calendar-to give us guidance for each day.”

“Priest Quisac!” she blurted, becoming impatient.

The Serpent Priest turned with a confident enthusiasm; a slight smile crossed his lips. “Yes, he is the Balam… sent by the gods… not only to help our people, but his kind as well. He does not yet understand all this.”

“His kind? Where is he from? How can such a man-so different-be in our land? He has hair over his face and body-and the color of his skin!”

Priest Quisac turned the wheel on the calendar, as the interlocking outer and inner wheels moved together. He set it to the correct date and studied the calendar, lost in thought. “I see… broken images in his mind, of places and things that I have never seen before,” he said in a misty voice, and spun around with an intense look. “Clearly he is not of our world.”

Teshna perked up with a coy smile, somehow delighted by his words. “When you learn more, will you share it with me?”

“Perhaps,” he said with a questioning glance.

“I can show you something of his, in exchange for your confidence,” she said in a tempting manner. “I took it before it was seen by the others.”

The Serpent Priest thought for moment. “I suggest you return it to Balam. When he desires, he will tell us about his life, and his… possessions.”

She stared at the Serpent Priest the way teenagers glare at their parents when they don’t like the answer they were just given. “Good day, Priest Quisac,” she said.

He nodded.

Teshna stormed from the Serpent Priest’s room, angry as she always felt after having been outwitted by the old man. But when she considered the idea of returning the item to Balam, a delicious smile spread across her face.

After the festivities in the courtyard concluded, Yax insisted on giving William and Betty a tour of the city. Children gathered along the way, following William as though he were Chuck E. Cheese parading through the restaurant at a kid’s birthday party. Young women also joined the procession to get a look at him. They giggled when he glanced their way. Some of the girls even carried children of their own. It bothered William to see infants with braces attached to their heads. He assumed it was why most the adults had angled foreheads.

The kids dispersed just before they reached the ceremonial center, leaving them alone with Yax and a contingent of the royal guard. Many nobles were there too, scattered throughout the plaza and temples; they bowed when they passed by them.

William recalled his last visit there with his grandfather, and he recited the same tour script to Betty that he had been told before. “The pyramid we’re heading toward is the Temple of the Owl. They found the corpse of a lady in a tomb there. A ceramic plate with a painting of an owl was beside her.” He glanced to his left. “That building is the North Palace.” He pointed to a long stairway leading up to a structure at the top. “I think that’s the Temple of the Captives.” He noticed artists sculpting images along the steps, and he turned to the King, speaking in Yucatec-Maya again. “Yax, what are they doing there?”

Yax glanced over with a stern look. “I was imprisoned there by my uncle, along with other nobles who had been supporting me. My uncle began that project to record the moment in our kingdom’s history of the important captives he had held.” He gave William a proud grin. “I now complete this task for a similar reason… so that we will never forget how the god’s sent you here to free us.”

They reached the Temple of the Owl, and Yax motioned for them to follow him up the steps. When they reached the top, rather than going inside the ceremonial chamber-as William had assumed they would-they followed him around the platform along the edge of the pyramid to the back side. He motioned with his hand across the view of the vast jungles, extending into the horizon miles away. William recalled having stood in about the same position just a week before with his grandfather, admiring the same view. But what a difference now, he noticed, with massive sections of the jungle cut down, where plantations were being worked by hundreds of men.

“I reckon’ those are corn fields,” Betty said with an intentional hick accent.

It occurred to William that Yax had shared the source of his true power with them-the farming efforts that he governed.