901
Balam.
"...Please accept these devout sacrifices. May their souls go to your side."
"Praise death."
"Praise death."
"Praise death..."
The sacrificial ritual was underway. A human had been completely dismantled, the white skeleton laid neatly to one side and the flesh and blood buried in a deep pit. As the undead under their command scattered the last handful of soil, the flesh and blood lay buried deep underground, staining the surrounding gravel and earth dark, while the skeleton, its hands crossed flat over its chest, was covered with a shallow layer of soil. Two sets of remains lay on either side of the river channel, their heads facing west, buried like signposts. Traces of bone showed through the dirt and gravel, their sand-filled eye sockets staring hollowly at the sky.
The High Priest reached out and drew a long, vertical line of blood across the skull.
Haiter personally presided over the sacrificial ritual. The sacrifices, already daubed with gold and white paint, watched him with fervent eyes.
The royal passage along which the god's ship would advance required extremely elaborate sacrificial and excavation procedures. Excavating fifty kilometers in twenty days was already exceptionally fast. If it had merely been a matter of digging a great river, Haiter could have done it alone in a single day.
To ensure that the river channel in reality matched the "River of the Underworld" perfectly, the Church members had to perform a divination every kilometer they dug, praying for Death's response and correcting minute discrepancies. They would only resume work once they received instructions in response. Nor did the Church of Death remain idle while work was suspended. They conducted appropriate living sacrifices, burying devout believers at irregular intervals along both sides of the river channel. Their flesh and blood were offered to