Page 74 of Death Dance

“And should things not work out the way we want, well, we will find a way to make these senseless deaths the beginning of a new journey. I’m not disagreeing with you, by the way. I’m just being a realist about the situation.”

After all the rest of the death and misery we’d found on the journey, expecting—no, even hoping—for anything else counted as a fool’s folly. I accepted my status as a fool with a shrug. “Tell my father to hurry it up. We’ve had enough talk for now. It’s time to get on to the doing portion of this venture.”

Breckenan’s fortress proved to be the ruins of an ancient stone temple, and upon seeing the place in person, the Columbians lost their minds. I didn’t need to speak their language to understand they cursed, ranted, and raved about the defilement of their history. Once the men calmed down enough I could get a word in edgewise, I said, “Isn’t it unusual that the structure seems intact? There are a lot of vines and growth around it, but the building itself looks to be in excellent condition.”

“Necromancy,” the reformed necromancer informed me. “He has, using the power of death, rewound time on this temple to before its ruined state. That is what I was sensing. The temple has been imbued with significant necromantic force. Some of it is new. Much of it is old.”

One of the Columbians said something, which my father listened to, before he translated, “Thiago, our pilot, says that this was once a temple dedicated to Chiminigagua and Sué; the Muisca people had not been known to venture this far; they are from the central highlands, and they did not build from stone—not like this. But Chiminigagua is the creator god of the Muisca people, and Sué is their sun god. The Muisca were less likely to sacrifice humans, but it did happen. They have historical records of such sacrifices being done, but they do not have much in the way of archaeological evidence. Most of the temples were destroyed or went to ruin and have since been rebuilt. Look below at the ziggurat’s peak. Idols to the gods can be seen there; Sué has been positioned on the east and west faces of the ziggurat, and Chiminigagua has center, north, and south. The ziggurat itself has been positioned with the alignment of the sun.”

“Like the Temple of the Sun in Peru?” I asked.

My father translated my question, and after listening to the reply, he said, “Exactly so.”

“Is the cultural human sacrifice the likely cause of the old necromancy?”

After making a thoughtful sound, the reformed necromancer nodded. “That is a sound theory, quite probable—and it might be that this temple has been here, preserved by those magics for all this time. The vines and foliage do an excellent job of hiding the temple, and much of the plant life has been recently removed. The imprint of much insubstantial death, like those of plants, is present. In good news, there are no imprints of significant life lost recently—and I sense the presence of vampires.”

I worried. “Anyone else?”

“No, only vampires. The energy is different.”

“This could become interesting,” my father predicted. “We will drop onto the top of the temple. The steps of the ziggurat will be easy enough for us to manage. Pepper, I will go first, and I will help you down. The rest of us are more experienced with such things.”

As the last thing I wanted was to take a tumble off the temple, I nodded my agreement.

After some instruction from my father, Thiago positioned the helicopter ten feet above the top of the ziggurat, hovering while we made our exit. My father jumped down with enviable grace, and I made use of the skid to lower myself down before dropping all the way, my father offering support so I wouldn’t fall.

With the exception of the priestess and the reformed necromancer, everyone else made it down without assistance. Making use of cables, the soldiers in the helicopter carrying the blood lowered down several crates.

If the vampires were low on blood, we would be able to provide for them until it was time to contact them for a ride out of the Amazon.

My father waved, and the helicopters departed.

“They will land ten minutes from here. They will restock on blood and medical supplies and summon extra helicopters in case they are needed. How many vampires are here?”

“I believe thirty-eight. They are sharing a close and confined space. Possibly a shared holding cell. There is little movement, but they are alive. There are no other life forces of significance within the ziggurat.”

I marveled at the man’s abilities. “Is this sort of working difficult for you?”

“There is so much latent necromantic magic imbuing the air I need not do anything other than harvest what is here. It will somewhat speed the defusing of the energies as well—in a steady stream rather than a drip.”

My father turned to the sun priestess and waited in expectant silence.

“This sun god valued sacrifice, which is a necromantic power. The sense of it is not malevolent. It is ancient and old, however. There are some undertones of perhaps unwilling sacrifice of life and blood, but the power was never claimed. It simply pools here as shadow,” she said, and she crouched, resting her hand against the damp stone. “The memory of sunlight and renewal is just as strong as the death, decay, and sacrifice. This was once a living temple to a living god, but that god sleeps now.”

My eyes widened. “Do you think Breckenan was striving to bring this god back?”

“It is possible, but he went about it the wrong way. This god sleeps deeply—no, these gods sleep deeply. There are two. All that remains of them are whispers of memory. Many hundreds of years have gone by since their age.” The priestess smiled, and she gestured to the eastern idol. “Mothers would bring their newborns here and present them to the light of the dawn so they might receive the blessing of the sun.” Still smiling, she gestured to the western idol. “Upon the death of their loved ones, they would sacrifice their hearts to both gods, at the wish of the deceased. There were no unwilling sacrifices, not here. Does this match with what you feel, necromancer?”

“Yes, that would match the energies converging here. A simple enough matter to defuse everything. I will channel it into the temple and continue the restoration. Then the people who once revered these gods can return.”

“They sacrificed the hearts after death?” I asked.

“That does seem to be the case. After the sun would set on the corpse, they would place it on the stone to the north side of the central idol, carve out the still heart, and lay it in repose on the south side of the altar until the first rays of the morning sun struck the ziggurat, which would be when the heart would be brought into the sunlight.” The priestess frowned. “I do not know what happened to the bodies after the presentation at sunrise. I sense nothing.”

“The organic matter likely dissolved and became part of the ziggurat itself,” the reformed necromancer commented. “It would explain much about the power here. This is quite the unusual application of necromancy, I must admit.”

“And none of it is Breckenan’s doing?”