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Behind the her than all the others: a stepped pyramid of the whitest stone The two sides visible to Luce each had steep staircases running up their centers that ended at a single-story structure painted blue and red A shiver ran through Luce, part recognition and part inexplicable fear

She'd seen this pyramid before In history-book pictures, the Mayan temple had fallen to ruins But it was far fro drue around the pyramid's top Their tanned faces were painted with strokes of red, yellow, and blue to look like masks Their drued from the doorway

Thered-and-white-feathered headdress, his entire face was painted with ns His neck, wrists, ankles, and earlobes were adorned with the saiven Luce to wear He was carrying so stick decorated with painted feathers and shiny shards of white At one end, soleamed

When he faced the people, the crowd fell silent, alic

Who is that ?

That's the tribal leader, Zotz Pretty haggard, right? Tih when your people haven't seen rain for three hundred and sixty-four days Not that they're counting on that stone calendar over there or anything He pointed at a gray slab of rock marked with hundreds of sooty black lines

Not one drop of water for al off the crowd They're dying, she said

They hope not That's where you come in, Bill said You and a few other unfortunate wretches Daniel, too--he's got a ry by now, so it's really all hands on deck

Chaat?

The rain god The Mayans have this absurd belief that a wrathful god's favorite food is blood See where I' with this?

Human sacrifice, Luce said slowly

Yep This is the beginning of a long day of 'e, isn't it?

Where's Lucinda? I mean, Ix Cuat?

Bill pointed at the te with the other sacrificees, waiting for the ball gaame?

That's what this crowd is on their way to watch See, the tribal leader likes to host a ball gas back It's kind of a cross between basketball and soccer, if each teahed a ton, and the losers got their heads cut off and their blood fed to Chaat

To the court! Zotz bellowed froely guttural and yet were still comprehensible to Luce She wondered how they made Ix Cuat feel, locked up in the rooreat cheer erupted froroup, the Mayans rose and broke into a run tohat looked like a large stone a and low--a brown dirt playing field ringed by tiered stone bleachers

Ah--there's our boy! Bill pointed at the head of the crowd as they neared the stadiu, faster than the others, his back to Luce His hair was dark brown and shiny, his shoulders deeply tanned and painted with intersecting red-and-black bands When he turned his head slightly to the left, Luce caught a quick gli like the Daniel she had left in her parents' backyard And yet--

Daniel! Luce said He looks--

Different and also precisely the same? Bill asked

Yes

That's his soul you recognize Regardless of how you two may look on the outside, you'll always know each other's souls

It hadn't occurred to Luce until no renized Daniel in every life Her soul found his That'sbeautiful

Bill scratched at a scab on his arnarly claw If you say so

You said Daniel was involved in the sacrifice so her neck toward the crowd just as Daniel disappeared inside the amphitheater

He is, Bill said There's a lovely little cereuide the sacrifices into their next life

The winners kill the prisoners? Luce said quietly

They watched the crowd as it funneled into the aain

Not kill They're not common o back there Bill nodded over his shoulder at the palisade of heads Bodies get tossed into a skuzzy--pardon le He sniffed Me? I don't see how that's gonna bring rain, but who ae?

Will Daniel win or lose? Luce asked, knowing the answer before the words had even left her lips

I can see how the idea of Daniel decapitating you does not maybe scream out romance, Bill said, but really, what's the difference between his killing you by fire and by the sword?

Daniel wouldn't do that

Bill hovered in the air in front of Luce Wouldn't he?