The Great Flood

[Part ① · Blood Sacrifice and Dreams]

"Light, flowers, storms."

"Flint, earthquakes, vultures."

"Eagles, lions, reeds."

"Weeds, yellow dogs, water."

"Rabbits, deer, skulls."

"Snakes, dragons, temples."

The Indian war chief's son pushed his palms toward the fire and chanted, seemingly performing some mysterious ritual.

Wen Bucai could barely understand him, while Jack was full of curiosity—

—this Indian spoke English, but when the words were strung together, they were complete gibberish.

"Mr. Kio, what are you doing?"

"This is our sacred calendar." Kio closed his eyes. "My daughter is returning to the side of Tonatiuh, the sun god."

As he spoke, he searched his luggage and pulled out a rat. He snapped its neck and tossed it into the fire as fuel.

Tonatiuh was the bloodiest sun god in all of human history, and the one most fond of blood sacrifices. Most of the Aztecs' human sacrifice rituals were connected to this man-eating sun.

"Ometeotl makes up our souls."

"It comes from the stars in the sky, from all things in the universe."

"My daughter will follow these offerings back."

Jack Martin didn't understand this ritual. It only made his scalp tingle. A month ago, the warrant officer had said that these Native Americans were beasts while alive and beasts worth gold coins when dead.

When the ritual ended, two dead blackbirds had joined the fire.

"Mr. Kio." Wen Bucai had gotten some White Lady's solvent to stop the bleeding from his wound. He asked quietly, "Are you a Native American? Do you know of any temples near the Colorado River valley?"

"Don't rush." Kio Pap muttered mysteriously, then suddenly began to smoke.

He took out an incense burner carved from a cougar skull, stuffed it with strange mud, dug thirteen holes into it, and began to blow on the