Tobias Buckell - Ragamuffin

He watched as a second flying machine climbed up into the air over the city. More than one had landed, and they had all filled their holds with Azteca warriors bound for Capitol City.

The strange creatures in their divans didn’t so much as glance his way as he walked toward the machine and the crowd of twenty warriors standing around Jerome and Pepper.

“Pepper is what they seek,” Ahexotl told him. “Eventually you can do what you want with the boy, but for now, I want him chained and guarded. Encouragement for Pepper. He’s dangerous. I don’t want him causing trouble.”

Xippilli looked over. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“He needs controlled.” Ahexotl looked over at the man. “He’s dangerous. We know there are other immortal Nanagadans that have been here from the beginning, but these people are always hard to ferret out, and we already have what we need to please the gods. My thanks to you. Our task is already over, and we are in the gods’ favor.”

Xippilli nodded and continued to stare at the machine. Ahexotl waved at the warriors and they circled Jerome, cutting him off from Pepper.

“Hey,” Pepper snapped. Xippilli flinched. “What are you doing?”

“We need to make sure you fulfill your end of the bargain.” Ahexotl waved again, and the warriors clapped a collar on the boy’s neck. “It is a prong collar. He’ll be fine, as long as he doesn’t struggle.”

Nasty tips dug into Jerome’s neck. Xippilli avoided both their eyes. No doubt they viewed him as the worst kind of traitor right now.

Maybe they were right.

“Please,” Xippilli said. “Don’t struggle against this.”

He wanted to crawl into a hole and not come out as the warriors pulled Jerome with them, and they followed a spiked, gleaming Teotl into the great machine.

Ahexotl waited until Pepper followed, then spoke to Xippilli. “The attack will be over by the time you arrive to take control. You make sure to give the gods what they need and send me what I need, and all will be well.”

“And the outlying areas?” Xippilli asked.

“We’ll start with the city. I will decide what to do with the rest of Nanagada.”

Xippilli nodded, then followed the warriors into the heart of the machine. Faint light glimmered and Xippilli waited for his eyes to adjust as the hull behind him sealed itself shut. The machine started to shake as it rose into the sky.

Xippilli swallowed.

The thundering pitched higher, and inside everything shook. Xippilli grabbed the wall.

Pepper balanced easily enough while crouched on the floor, staring at him. He was also poking at the wall, using a fingernail to probe at it.

Xippilli stared at the tiny crenellations all along the domelike chamber whose smooth floor they sat on. At the front, a tiny niche hooked off from the chamber. Fibrous strands draped from the walls of it to swaddle the yellowed, fat Teotl as he leaned back with eyes closed to control the ship.

A glass of some sort separated the niche from them, and on their side of it an inky black and spiked Teotl stared back at them. Xippilli had no doubt it would kill them if they tried anything. That and the packed crowd of warriors in here made this a very, very secure space.

Yet still he felt like frayed rope about to snap. Pepper did things , he did not sit around waiting unless it ended in something. But the Teotl didn’t really know what Pepper was truly capable of or they wouldn’t have let him aboard. Would they?

Pepper versus the spiked Teotl. Xippilli wasn’t sure who would win.

“Relax,” Pepper told Jerome, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall. He closed his eyes. “Now’s the time you need to take a nap. Even in this thing it’s going to take another hour.”

Xippilli stared at the man, then at Jerome. Jerome leaned closer. “I will kill you one day, traitor,” the young man hissed.

Xippilli turned his back and moved toward the warriors, who reverently whispered among each other in awe about being so close to the Teotl.

Pepper shifted just as Xippilli felt his ears start to hurt. The ship settled down, thudded, and the vibrating slowly wound down.

“And here we come,” Pepper said, and stretched slowly, while keeping an eye on the twenty warriors packed in with them. “Xippilli, do me a favor? Step to your left two paces, and remain calm.”

“Calm?” Xippilli frowned. But he stepped over. Teotl or not, he would not trifle with the man.

“You have a collar on Jerome, who I promised John nothing would happen to. I’m getting off, and I’m going my own way for a while.”

“Your promise to assist the gods?”

“I might yet. But I disdain being told what to do.” Pepper reached over to the nearest warrior and pulled his rifle away in a smooth, relaxed movement. Then kicked the man back into the tightly packed crowd.

The Teotl behind him leapt. Pepper rolled forward with the impact and threw it into the group. Its head bounced off to the side and clear fluid pooled quickly at the warriors’ feet. Pepper raised the rifle and Xippilli grabbed the barrel.

“Wait.” He had do something to avoid the bloodshed.

Pepper hesitated.

Xippilli pointed the barrel of Pepper’s gun at the side of his own head and said in Nahautl, “You know who this man is and what he is capable of?”

They nodded.

“Then he’s taking me prisoner for now,” Xippilli said. “He does not want to currently go with us, and by fighting in here we endanger the god at the front.” By offering himself as a temporary hostage he could calm Pepper and get the man out of the ship without causing more damage. And Pepper would owe him. That would be valuable in the future.

The warriors nodded in agreement, and Xippilli let out the tight knot of fear in his stomach. He faced forward to the Teotl at the front. “Great sir, please open the hull for us so that no one further is killed.”

The hull cracked open and light spilled in. Judging by the carefully trimmed shrubs outside, Xippilli guessed they were in the gardens near the very center of Capitol City.

“I want that man’s clothes.” Pepper pointed at a jaguar-masked warrior with a long cape.

He handed the gun to Jerome once the items were handed over and changed, adjusting his dreadlocks. It was, Xippilli thought, convincing enough. Pepper as a Jaguar warrior.

Pepper looked forward at the Teotl in its niche, then walked over to where the hull had puckered, pushing Xippilli and Jerome in front of him. “You all wait for two minutes before following us out, or I’ll kill Xippilli.”

The hull opened further, more light stabbing into the dim interior. Xippilli walked out, and Pepper kept the rifle pointed at him. Ten Azteca waited outside in the bright sun, arrayed in a half circle.

Xippilli kept a cool expression as the Azteca stared at him. Pepper continued to push them forward.

“Where are our headquarters?” Xippilli asked the group, switching to Nahautl to talk to them. He looked around. The carefully kept grounds of the central gardens lay between the Ministerial Mansion and the docks. The mansion was behind them, and the closest Azteca in the welcoming reception pointed back at it.

Xippilli, Pepper, and Jerome moved toward it, and the Azteca fell in beside them.

“I am Atlahuah,” the nearest man said. “I command the men for Ahexotl, and for the gods. What is going here? ” They were obviously not sure whether they should be trying to shoot Pepper, but Xippilli seemed quite calm and okay.

“I’m temporarily being used as a hostage to get to that road.” Xippilli handed Atlahuah a piece of parchment with Ahexhotl’s instructions on it. “There is nothing we can do right now, so I’m going to walk with them, and then return. I know the mansion. Come find me in the lobby, but don’t endanger your life by trying to rescue me right now, or shoot these two men. The gods want them for some reason.”