The wind whipped
past Maggie’s ears as they fell towards the trees below, so loud
that she barely heard what Alejandra was saying. "Come again?"
she shouted.
Alejandra took a
deep breath, and bellowed into Maggie’s ear, "What are we
going to do about landing!"
"Ow," said Maggie. "Jesus Christ. Uh...let’s say,
there will be a trampoline wherever we land." The trees rushed
up towards them. "Which is coming up fast! Everybody get ready."
Maria grunted. "You could just give us parachutes."
"We
have to get into the trees immediately,"
said Maggie. "Los Ojos
are probably watching us right now."
"I want
wings!" shouted Mojito.
"Wings you can’t get rid of until we find Rafael?"
"Wings forever!"
"Only after you’ve eaten your vegetables. Alright, people, brace for impact."
"How?"
shouted Alejandra.
"I
mean emotionally," said Maggie, as they fell past thick branches
and into shadow. So it was in near-total darkness that they came to a
lurching halt on a surface that yielded beneath them, though it
scraped their skins – and then another great lurch as they flew
upward through scratching branches on another parabolic arc, over
the treetops but not half as high as before. Once more they fell
through scratching branches, and again they came to a lurching halt,
and again they were flung upward, this time – THONK – right into
a great branch overhead. Maggie’s skull exploded with pain as
Alejandra and Mojito fell from her arms, and Maria, clinging to
Maggie’s back, rose a little past her, still hanging on – now
they all fell, down through the black shadows, and landed upon a
yielding surface that tossed them a few feet high, then a foot high,
then half a foot, before they came to rest without rising. And all was still.
All was total darkness, yet Maggie could swear she saw stars. Then
again, they winked out a lot faster than regular stars. "Ohhhhh,"
she groaned, "I can make my skin bulletproof but I don't know how to make it branch-proof."
She felt familiar firm arms wrapping around her from behind, and the
press of a familiar body. "I would have preferred the wings next
time," whispered Alejandra.
"Just glad we’re all alive," muttered Maggie. "Wait.
Who’s not dead? Sound off."
"Ow," said Maria.
"Whee!" said Mojito. The trampoline surface jounced up and
down a bit, as if someone very light was jumping upon it. "Let’s
do that again!"
"Hello," said a low contralto.
Two eyes gleamed out of the pitch darkness, right in Maggie’s face.
She screamed, and tried to scramble backwards, though Alejandra was a
firm wall at her back. "You!"
The voice laughed. "Me."
"Madame Balam," said Alejandra. "You never told me how
you do that with your eyes, especially when there’s no light at
all."
"Please," purred Madame Balam. "Look behind you."
Maggie turned, spying a green light in the distance. "Damn,
you’ve really got cat’s eyes. This whole forest must be as bright
as day to you. I assume you’re here to lead us to the light once
more?"
"Well now," said Madame Balam, "I think that is a
priest’s responsibility, is it not?"
"You’re funny as you ever were," said Mojito.
"And you are...in possession of a familiar scent," murmured
Madame Balam. She sniffed. Then she narrowed her gleaming eyes at
Maggie. "I assume this is your doing."
"Madame!" barked Maria. "Focus!"
The eyes blinked out of existence for a few seconds, then reappeared.
"You know that’s hard when I’m not hunting, Maria. But,
fine, spoil my fun. There are things for you all to be doing anyway.
Follow me."
Maggie
felt her hand being grabbed by someone, and all of a sudden she was
being dragged towards the green light. She only just managed to catch
Alejandra’s hand. And so a train of people was led on a path
towards the light – once
again the winding, twisting path of sharp turns and switchbacks,
where any step out of place could lead one to be swallowed by
despair. "You know," grumbled Maggie, "I’m tempted
to just make a straight path over this nonsense."
"You have demonstrated a remarkable willingness to bring your
enemies into the heart of this sanctuary," said Madame Balam.
"Creating a straight path over our remaining defenses would be about the
same."
"Oh yeah?" said Maggie. "What about getting our own
people into this place? How many of them have fallen into the bog?"
"You speak as though you are inherently one of them," said
Madame Balam. "Instead of simply being the one to decide things
for them."
"Don’t
get picky," said Mojito. "Mother,
it’s fine. You’re fine. You’ll see when we get there. Although
I won’t be fine, because dealing with the whole religious scene
there is super boring."
"You were once a patient woman," growled Madame Balam.
"Even in your early years."
"And
now I’m a six-year-old boy," retorted Mojito. "Are you
not familiar with children? No, you certainly are. I watched you
raising Benigno. He was more of a brat than me."
"You’re calling yourself a brat, then?"
"Peace be with you both," said Maria. "I am impatient
to reach the flame. It keeps Benigno’s forces at something of a
remove."
A chill wind blew through the forest, rustling the leaves and
rattling the branches. Maggie shivered, glad for the warmth of
Alejandra’s hand. "We can all step more lively, if you please.
Wait, did I just –"
"You did," said Maria, and all at once Maggie was swinging
dangerously wide at every turn, saved only by the strong grip of
Madame Balam before her and Alejandra after her, as everyone’s pace
quickened considerably. Well, a word uttered was impossible to take
back, for anyone except Rafael, and where was he anyway?
"Probably with his boyfriend," muttered Maggie.
"Who are you talking to?" said Madame Balam.
"Don’t ask," said Alejandra. "You don’t want to
know. I don’t want to know. I’m sorry I know."
"Finally figured it out then?" said Maggie. "You’re
finally admitting what we all are?"
Alejandra let go of Maggie’s hand. Then she appeared to think
better of it, for she clapped a hand on Maggie’s shoulder. Her grip
was not especially gentle. Maggie could not help but giggle. "Save
that for later, mademoiselle."
Alejandra growled, but said nothing further.
Presently
they approached a long patch of green light extending into the
forest. The vast trunks of tall trees stood illuminated, casting long
shadows. The light shone
through a gap in a tall yew hedge, through which Madame Balam and
Maggie and company marched
–
And
there was a vast gathering of people surrounding the great statue of the
lady, in the light of the great green flame. Chatting, arguing,
playing poker, playing dice, arm wrestling, sitting and saying
nothing. Maggie could recognize familiar faces among them. The
children who had hoped for candy, the man with the
wheelbarrow, the patrons of the bar, and everyone else Maggie had
seen in and around Los Hijos – every single one of them, not one
lost. And there at the statue was Benigno, chatting with seven of the
nuns.
"Does everyone have a secret entrance into this place?"
whispered Maggie.
"They don’t need one if everyone gets taught how to get here,"
whispered Mojito.
All conversation stopped when Madame Balam stepped through.
"Greetings all – I see we have quite a bit more than a
quorum."
"We have everyone," said Sister Margarita. "Everyone who hasn’t
joined Benigno’s forces already."
"And everyone seems to be saying the same thing," said a
child. "So we don’t need a formal meeting, do we? We’re
gonna get those guys."
"Excuse me?" said Maria, as she strode into the clearing.
"What exactly have we seemingly decided before I arrived?"
"To fight," said the man who had escaped death. "To
strike against the Sons of The Sea while they sleep, and then when
they are all dead, we move against –"
"Wait wait wait wait," said Maggie, stepping up beside
Maria. "Ah, this all seems like a bad idea."
"Revenge!" shouted a child.
"Revenge!" shouted more people, raising a fist in defiant
salute. Including some of the nuns. Soon much of the crowd was
calling for revenge. Even Mojito stood at their forefront and called
for blood with them. Maggie gave him her best Mom Glare, and he
seemed to waver for a moment. But then he continued.
"ENOUGH!" shouted Maria. The crowd fell silent. "What
all has become of you? Have I taught you nothing? Have I not
done my best to teach you to endure patiently, instead of strike in
hot anger? And this is what you greet me with? Your restraint
crumbles the moment I turn my back! You would thirst for blood so
much that you fail to even put your course to a formal vote! Was
there even any debate among you, or was it simply the angriest among
you who strongarmed everyone else into going along with them? ANSWER
ME!"
Everyone in the crowd sheepishly looked at the ground, at their feet,
anywhere except at Maria. Save one man, standing tall and proud near
the statue. "I did not strongarm anyone," said Benigno.
"All I said was that if everyone was willing, I and my own
forces would be ready to strike."
A cold wind fanned the green flames, briefly raising a brighter glow
over the clearing. Maggie saw a few metallic glints in the darkness
beyond. She shivered. "This is getting out of hand fast."
"I should say so," muttered Maria.
"You’re not even being fair," said Mojito. "You
already allowed –"
But Maggie made frantic "cut it out" gestures, and Mojito
fell silent, giving Maggie a curious look. Maggie winked. Then she
addressed the crowd. "Maria told me the plan was to get the heck
out of here and find better digs somewhere far away. But now the plan
is bloody revenge? Which one is it? Benigno, I thought you agreed
with me that we all had to get out of here."
"I thought you meant ‘here’ as in Los Hijos," said
Benigno. "This is where we’re all regrouping. Now we can plan
revenge if we're willing."
Maggie looked over the crowd once more. While many of them did seem
to have a hard look in their eyes, the rest seemed apprehensive,
ashamed, nervous – quite the opposite of people who were fired by
righteous wrath. "Are we willing though? Tell me, how many
people did Los Hijos used to have?"
An old woman near the front of the crowd shrugged. "What census
would be taken to Los Hijos? It must have been oh, tens of
thousands."
"And how many do you have now? Only enough to fit in this
clearing. You all tried revenge once. It failed. Are you all
intending to do a suicide charge now? You want to lose the last
thousand?"
"What else can we do?" said a young man near the old woman.
"We can go somewhere the hell else," said a lady beside
him.
"And find what food on the way?" said a preteen girl near
her. "We’re stuck in this dumb city, getting paid only enough
to buy tomorrow’s food. And somehow we’re just supposed to just
waltz off like Maria wants?"
"We could certainly raid the city food stores," said
Benigno.
"You seem to be ignoring your resident cheat code," said
Alejandra. She nodded to Maggie. "My friend, if you would?"
"I have here a taco in my hand!" said Maggie, holding a
palm up. A hamburger appeared within it. "I said taco you
wiseguy," muttered Maggie. The burger turned into a taco. "Thank
you." She bit into the taco. "Real food," she said
with her mouth full. "I can make tacos rain from the –"
Alejandra elbowed her. "I mean, from the shiny new taco cart."
A two-wheeled wooden cart appeared before her, painted in deep green
and bold red and bright white, with a little roof over the spot where
the vendor stood.
Everyone stared in stunned silence.
Alejandra knocked twice on the interior of the roof. A taco fell out
of it and landed in her palm. She bit into it. "Yep, this is
real alright."
The crowd began to murmur excitedly. Some people hesitantly
approached the cart. Maggie grabbed some plates from the shelving
below her and slid them onto the serving area. Then she knocked a few
times on the interior of the cart roof and a few tacos fell onto the
plates. A few people eagerly grabbed the plates, and were about to
bite into the tacos when Benigno shouted, "Hold it!"
Everyone fell silent and looked to Benigno, who wore an expression of
deep annoyance. "Maggie," he said, putting his hands on his
hips, "are you trying to bribe everyone with food so they
support Maria’s plan?"
"Yes," said Maggie. "To be clear, everyone, I’m
offering free food forever if you join my crusade northward, and
Benigno is allowing you to go and kill people and probably get killed
in return. Who votes for free food?"
"Crusade?" said a teenager.
"Against Los Ojos,"
said Maggie. "You all follow me to wherever they are and help me
out against them, and I’ll feed and shelter you the whole way."
Once more the crowd murmured. Maggie caught snatches of conversation
about how striking a blow against Los
Ojos would be even better than fighting against La Ciudad.
Some people were on the fence until other people emphasized the "free
food" part of the deal.
"Who votes for Maggie?" said Mojito, raising his hand.
Everyone in the crowd raised their hand – even Maria, even
Alejandra, even Madame Balam, whose face was split into a wide grin
full of sharp teeth. Even the nuns.
But Benigno did not have his hand raised.
"All opposed?"
None raised their hand, not even Beningo.
"Abstentions?"
"I shall abstain," said Benigno. "Courteously."
He bowed, and backed away from the light, into the shadows.
There were a few seconds of silence as everyone processed this
unexpected development. Then Maggie scoffed. "Yeah, sure, great,
big help, big guy. Look at me, I’m mister mysterious brooding
loner, I have an army of ghosts but no friends, I’m so mysterious,
woooooooooo."
"He does that a lot," muttered Madame Balam.
"Yeah?" Maggie crossed her arms. "You’re one to
talk, miss pops-out-of-the-shadows."
"Focus," said Alejandra. "You just convinced everyone
to join your weird crusade. You’re in charge now, get it? We need
details. How are we supposed to go about this? What do we need to
start doing?"
Maggie bit her lip. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She rarely
thought very far ahead. "Well will you let me think far
ahead?" she muttered.
"Please tell me you’re not talking to who I think you’re
talking to," murmured Alejandra.
The primary issue Maggie could see was that she had no earthly idea
where Los
Ojos actually were. She had never seen a single one
of them; she wasn’t entirely certain anyone ever had. The
too-bright sky and the vanishings and the like made a strong case for
the existence of something lording over them, but how exactly
anyone had ever come to call this unseen operator Los
Ojos was beyond Maggie’s severely limited
experience.
"Will you let me have enough experience?" muttered
Maggie.
I hadn’t thought of that. I did imply that you had some kind of
fictitious backstory, didn’t I? But Rafael said you were finally
back, as if you’d been gone since you were a kid. Oh dear, I’ve
created another plot hole, haven’t I.
"One more plot hole for me, thank you very much, I’ll keep it
in my back pocket." Maggie winked.
You got a hole in your back pocket?
"In a manner of speaking."
Fine, uh...let’s say you were super-studious and crammed as much of
every encyclopedia you could find into your head –
"Yay!"
But it was all, like, reality-based and stuff, so it didn’t have
anything about Los Ojos.
"Oh, boo." Maggie stuck her tongue out.
And also you reappeared three days before you technically came into
existence the first time, so let’s say you tried to find anything
in any library about The Aunts for 2.5 days and then gave up and went
clubbing where you met Alejandra.
"I’ll take what I can get," muttered Maggie. "And
I’ll have you know, I did do a lot of fictional reading
beyond my age when I was very young, and one thing I know about
things like Los Ojos
is that they’re the Big Evil Guy at the end of the story, and
they’re so often far far away so the heroes have to go on an epic
journey. This is a literary matter, not a supernatural one."
Alejandra elbowed her. "You are appearing very odd before
everyone," she muttered.
Maggie snapped back to reality. Everyone in the crowd was looking at
her like she was nuts. Especially the nuns. Sister Sangria crossed
herself. Maggie chuckled nervously. "Ah, ha ha, ha, sorry about
that, people, I was...having a bit of a consultation with an annoying
friend."
One of the nuns took out a book and handbell from behind her back.
Maggie grinned sheepishly. "I mean, um, yay team, let’s go and kick some
butt?"
"But how?" said Mojito. "Where are we going?"
"Uh…" Maggie looked around at the crowd. "Hey, does
anyone know where Los Ojos
actually are?" Many people shook their heads. Some of
them simply looked nervous and suspicious. Ah ha. They did know.
"Alright, let’s say we head towards the docks, get some boats,
and set sail, and we’ll see what information we can find in any
port. And if we never find any info, we can still be far away from
this city. We’ll make it work."
"Great," said Mojito, "Can we start now? I want to get
moving."
"Oh please," said Maggie. "Who on earth begins a grand
journey at night, from a spot like this? We leave at dawn!" She
thumped her fist on the countertop of the taco cart, causing a couple
tacos to fall onto her head. "That’s how heroes do it! In the
meantime, who wants to party? Can I hear a woo hoo!"
Crickets, and the crackle of flames. Everyone looked confused. Maggie
supposed that she looked quite odd, doing this all while she stood at
a taco cart.
A teenage boy cleared his throat. "Here? I don’t know, it’s,
uh…" He glanced at the green flames. "Kind of spooky."
He jerked at the Sisters standing at the statue. "And there’s
nuns."
"It’s gonna be spookier in a second!" said Maggie.
"Lights out, please." The green fire went out, plunging the
entire clearing into pitch darkness, followed by gasps and screams.
"Before we spill our blood upon the earth, let’s feel it pound
in our veins! Lights!" A swathe of glowing five-pointed stars
appeared on the branches, casting soft blue and purple lights down
onto the crowd. "Music!" A set of tall hand-drums and a few
stringed instruments appeared off to the side. "Party time!"