Escaping Fate (18 page)

“No! I will not die for any
god!”

“Tlaloc will be angered. The rains will
not come. Sickness will spread. This will all be on your head. You
must submit!”

“Never!” Anger shook her body. “The
gods are immortal. Why do they need my blood? I will not submit,”
she growled.

“The gods need blood to be sustained.
Since they have no blood of their own, we must offer them ours. You
foolish girl. You know this! Every child knows this. You must die,
to save us all.”

He raised the obsidian blade high above
his head. Her chest heaved in strangled gasps and pleas for
mercy.

“No!” she screamed relentlessly, her
eyes wide with terror. “I will do anything you want. Anything.
Please, don’t kill me. I’ll do anything. I don’t want to die,” she
sobbed helplessly. Tied to a stone altar, she begged for her life.
“I’ll do anything.”

The priest’s blade faltered, still held
high above his head. Slowly his hands fell back to his sides. Eyes
glazing over, he lifted his face to the sky. Perfectly still, he
listened. Even Kivera could not help reducing her mewling and
begging to a quiet stare of amazement.

Finally, his faced slackened. Eyes
focused once more. The oily black blade twitched in his hand. A
painful smile creased his features.

He lowered the wooden mask from his
face. The high priest’s skin was smooth and unblemished. Younger
than any other high priest in remembered history, he was revered by
all of his fellows, and many believed that he had risen higher than
any other in his standing with the gods. His next words confirmed
those beliefs.

“Tlaloc has spoken to me. He will not
accept an unwilling sacrifice.”

The bound woman gasped, but a vicious
snarl quelled her relief instantly.

“Tlaloc will accept the Eunuchs,” he
gestured to her guards, “as sacrifices this day, if you are willing
to give up all of your daughters to Tlaloc on the last year of
their childhood. If you do this, Tlaloc will allow you to live
through this day.”

Kivera’s hesitated only a second. “Yes,
yes I will do this. I will give my daughters to Tlaloc if he will
only let me live. I will do it,” she cried, relief flooding her
soul.

Her bindings were cut from her hands
and the covenants were made. Her tear streaked face lifted upward
to the heavens in pure exalted joy. The sun shone on her face,
burning her eyes. She blinked only once.

***

I opened my eyes. The room was dark, a
shock after the bright Aztec sun. My eyes burned with unshed tears.
I pressed myself against Tanner’s still sleeping form and knew I
was facing the end. “No,” I whispered as I cried, “please,
no.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

His fingers brushed away my tears
before I even realized he was awake. My crying must have woken
him.

“Hey,” he whispered, “what’s wrong? Did
you have another dream?”

All I could do was nod. Tanner’s lips
came down and touched my temple. His hand came down to my shoulder
and ran up and down my arm. His touch slowly sent the pain far
enough away that I could feel his warmth surrounding me. Reaching
up for his hand, I grabbed it and pulled it across me so I was
wrapped in his arms. I felt protected in that moment. I never
wanted to move.

“What happened in the dream,” Tanner
asked.

I did not want to think about it, but I
answered anyway.

“
She gave us all up. She
promised her daughters’ lives to her god so she could save
herself.” I choked back another fit of crying. I could hardly
believe the words I was saying. This belonged in a bad Hollywood
movie, not in real life. Blood thirsty gods thousands of years old
did not exist, I told myself over and over again. Tonight I would
go to dinner and watch a random movie with my parents. I
would.

“Are you alright?” Tanner asked,
shattering my weak fantasy.

“How could she?” I questioned, the
tears and sobs flowing freely once more. I was amazed to find I
even had any tears left to cry. “How could she condemn her own
children, condemn me and Katie and everyone else, to death? She had
no right to offer what wasn’t hers to begin with. How could
she?”

“Some people are just so selfish they
can’t think about anything beyond what they want,” Tanner
said.

“What do I do now? There’s no way to
stop this, is there?”

Tanner’s body stiffened and he moved my
face to look at him. “Arra, you are not going to die today. Do you
hear me? It isn’t going to happen.”

“Yes it is. There’s no way to stop it.
I don’t know how many girls have died already, but I know I’m going
to be the next one.” I just wanted to curl back up and close my
eyes.

“What about your grandpa? You said he
had some kind of theory or something. What was his plan?” Tanner
asked.

“I don’t know. He said he had an idea,
but he never told me what it was,” I said. “He might not actually
have a plan. He might have just been saying that to make me feel
better.”

Tanner rolled onto his back, but did
not let go of my hand. “There has to be something we can do.” He
looked back over at me. “I wish you’d told me sooner. Maybe if we
had more time we could find something.”

I almost laughed. “Tanner, for one
thing, if you hadn’t mentioned going to the bonfire Saturday, I
don’t think I would have told you at all. I mean, ‘Hey, Tanner, I’m
gonna die tomorrow. Wanna hang out?’ just isn’t something you
really say to someone. And two, I have been trying to figure this
thing out since I found out about it. There’s just nothing left to
do.”

“I won’t accept that, Arra.” The
seriousness in Tanner’s face startled me.

“Why do you care so much?” I asked.
“You’ve know me for less than a week. I mean, I’m glad you do, and
I’m glad you even believe me, but why? Why aren’t you running from
the crazy new girl as fast as you can?”

Tanner’s face softened as he looked at
me. I was no shrinking violet. I didn’t fall all over myself or
spend hours in front of the mirror, but I knew I was attractive.
Being pretty was definitely not the whole reason for Tanner
sticking by me, though. It would take way more than pretty to make
up for everything I had laid on Tanner. There had to be something
more.

“Why are you still here?” I
asked.

“I…I don’t really know,” he admitted.
“I remember seeing you walk down the dirt path that day and I was
completely mesmerized by you. You were so focused that you didn’t
even notice us even though Evan was laughing like an idiot about
something. I didn’t know what you were thinking about, but it
seemed important, and I instantly wanted to know more about you.”
He paused and his boyish grin returned. “Plus I thought you were
absolutely gorgeous.”

That broke through my hopeless pallor
and elicited the tiniest smile. Tanner leaned down and kissed me
lightly, transferring a little more of his hope to me.

“Well, now you know what I was thinking
about that day,” I said. “And you’re still here.” I wanted to
believe him so badly. I had nothing left to put my hope in but him.
“Do you have any ideas? I’m willing to try anything.”

Tanner considered my question for a few
minutes. I could see the barest hint of the morning sun starting to
edge into the sky.

“I may have one,” Tanner
said.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Hello?” a voice mumbled into the
receiver.

“Grandpa?”

“Arra? What’s wrong honey? What
happened?” His voice was frantic. I could hear him shoving away his
blankets. I thought he would be up already. Weren’t all old people
up before sunrise?

“Grandpa, it’s okay,” I said. Well kind
of. “Grandpa I saw the end of the dream. Kivera did exactly what
you said she did. She gave up the lives of her daughters to save
herself from being a sacrifice.” Tanner took my hand and rubbed his
hand up and down my back to give me strength. I soaked up every
ounce he could give me.

“Was there anything specific in the
agreement? Anything we could use to undo it?” he asked.

“I don’t think so, Grandpa. She made a
covenant with the priest and then they sacrificed the guards in her
place. It was just a promise. No secret steps or magic potion. It
was just a promise between her and Tlaloc.”

My grandpa sighed. I had been hoping
for something more useful too.

“Arra, go back to sleep if you can. If
Katie and Maera were any indication, you should have until about
noon,” he said. His voice was steady, but I could hear his fear. He
hadn’t formulated any plan yet. That seemed clear. Because there
was no plan that would work, I told myself grimly.

“But, Grandpa,” I began before he cut
me off.

“Now listen, Arra, I don’t completely
understand all of this, but whatever happens, you will need all
your strength. I will get you through this, I promise. Please, get
some more rest. Meet me at the park near your house at ten o’clock.
I haven’t given up yet and neither should you.”

“Grandpa, wait,” I said, “we had an
idea.”

“We? Did you tell your parents?” He
sounded absolutely horrified.

“No,” I said quickly, “of course not.
But I did tell someone. I told Tanner everything.”

“Tanner? Why?” he asked.

Wasn’t that the question of the day?
“Because, Grandpa, I needed someone to talk to and he was willing
to listen. We were talking about it this morning after I woke up
from the dream and he had an idea.”

“You talked to Tanner when you woke up
from the dream?” Silence. “Is he there right now?”

For crying out loud. Was that really
what he needed to be worrying about right now?”

“Yes, Grandpa, he’s standing right next
to me. And he has an idea,” I repeated.

“Arrabella, it isn’t even dawn yet. How
long has Tanner been there?” he asked.

My body was rigid with anger,
embarrassment, frustration, and just about every other emotion.
Tanner looked at me with a question in his eyes. My grandpa was not
going to let up. I didn’t have time to try and lie to
him.

“He stayed with me all night because I
was too afraid to fall asleep alone,” I said quickly. Tanner’s eyes
widened in alarm. “And before you ask, no we didn’t do anything and
no my parents don’t know he’s here, and please don’t tell them. I
promise it won’t happened again.” Tanner pouted at that. I couldn’t
help but throw him a devilish smile. “That is, if I ever even get
the chance to sneak a boy into my room again. Okay? Now can we get
back to what’s really important this morning, Grandpa?”

My grandpa cleared his throat. I think
my mentioning that this would be a totally moot point if I didn’t
make it past noon alive quelled any further desires he had to
question my choices or threaten to tell my parents. “So, uh, what
was Tanner’s idea?”

“Do you know Father
Margulies?”

“The priest over at Saint Michael’s
Parish? What does he have to do with anything?” he
asked.

“Tanner attends church there. He thinks
Father Margulies might be able to help us think of a way out of
this mess,” I said. “Would you please just meet us there? It’s
worth a try, isn’t it?”

It took him longer than it should have
to answer. I did not understand his hesitation. He had promised to
help me in any way. Why would talking to a priest seem so bad? My
family wasn’t particularly religious and neither was my grandpa,
but I was perfectly willing to go.

“Grandpa?” I urged.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” The
line went dead.

Chapter Twenty-Four

After my grandpa’s reaction, I walked
toward the church fearing what I would find. I’d seen pictures of
some of the old Catholic churches, complete with gargoyles and
stone saints staring out at the sinners, but this church was
nothing like that. A simple building stood in front of me. The red
brick walls stretched up to plain slate roof.

No snarling animals or stern visages
were anywhere to be seen. I couldn’t imagine what my grandpa’s
problem was. In fact, where was he? I looked up the street toward
his house. I thought he would beat us here. Tanner and I waited in
front of the building for several minutes. Fidgeting in my
irritation, I started pacing in front of the steps, dragging Tanner
along with me because he refused to let go of my hand.

My grandpa still hadn’t appeared when
the old door of the church creaked open. I spun around to lock eyes
with a middle aged man dressed in black. The little square of white
on his collar and the cross dangling from his neck named him as
Father Margulies.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Um, good morning,” I said, glancing
around for my grandpa. Where was he?

“Good morning, Father,” Tanner
said.

“I saw you two arrive a few minutes
ago. I waited for you to come in, but you seemed to be reluctant to
open the door,” Father Margulies said. “I thought I would make it a
little easier for you. I often counsel youth in need of answers. If
there’s anything I can do to help, I would be happy to
listen.”