Sail With Me (A Discovery Series Book) (22 page)

Shock zipped across Daniel’s face. “How did you know she was coming?”

“He can read my mind.” Yaretzi breezed past us to pick some flowers from
the courtyard. In a moment, we could no longer see her.

“Sure he can.” Daniel rolled his eyes.

I swallowed loudly, and both Tizoc and I turned our eyes to Daniel.

“What?” he said. “Oh, Charlie, he can’t possibly read minds. Come on,
now.” His voice was firm, but a faint uncertainty leaked into his words.

“I can,” Tizoc said. “I can read my parents, my sisters, and…” He looked
at me, hesitating until I nodded. “And Charlie’s.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Daniel said.

“Tizoc is telling the truth. We can
speak
to each other without
talking aloud. We can also see what the other person sees.” I stood and placed
my hand on Daniel’s arm. “Remember when I told you I had seen the sacrifice?”

“Of course. You were horrified.” Daniel looked past me to Tizoc.

I touched his chin and made him focus on me. His blue eyes were sharp and
wide. How could I make him believe this?

“Well, I did see it. I saw it because
he
was seeing it.” I pointed
to Tizoc. “Our minds linked somehow, and I saw what he saw.”

“If this is true,” Daniel began in a steely tone, “why would he allow you
to see something that would upset you?”

“I did not know she was linked to me at first,” Tizoc defended. “If I
had, I would not have let her witness the sacrifice. I only felt her in my mind
later on that night after you had gone to her.”

Daniel clenched his teeth together, and his jaw hardened.

Tizoc got up from the patio and stood in front of Daniel. “You stayed
with her that night. Right by her side. You held her. Made her feel safe.”

My cheeks grew hot as I listened to Tizoc, but his words convinced Daniel
we were telling the truth. The expression on Daniel’s face changed as his
eyebrows rose up, and his mouth opened several times.

“You saw us?” he said quietly.

“Through Charlie, yes,” Tizoc replied, looking a little uncomfortable. “I
did not watch for long. Just until I knew she was safe.”

“How kind of you,” Daniel said, his mouth set in a hard line.

“Daniel.” I tugged on his hand. “Don’t be angry with Tizoc. He can’t help
with whom he links. I am the first outsider to share his talent. It must mean
something important.”

“Considering what’s coming,” Tizoc said.

“What’s that mean?” Daniel said, some of his anger abating and a concern
washing over his features.

“Last night,” I began, “we shared a vision.”

“A vision about what?” Daniel jammed his hand into the front pocket of
his breeches.

“Beasts,” Xochitl said from behind us.

“Monsters wanting gold,” Teiuc added, joining her sister on the patio.

“They wish to hurt our people,” Eréndira continued, appearing in the
kitchen threshold.

“We have to keep them away,” Citlali finished.

“I think we’re supposed to help them.” I turned back to Daniel and rested
my palm on the front of his shirt.

“I think she’s right. Charlie is meant to help us,” Xochitl said.

“If you want Charlie’s help, you get mine too,” Daniel said. “I don’t
leave her side.”

“As you wish,” Tizoc said. “We will need a great deal of help if we are
to keep the Sunal safe from these Europeans that are coming. They are not like
you. They come with ill will.”

“They are not Englishmen,” Yaretzi said, having come back from her flower
picking.

“No,” I agreed. “I think they might be Spanish.”

“These men will be brutal,” Tizoc said. “We must be prepared.”

“Your father saw the vision as well, Tizoc.” Citlali rested a hand on her
son’s broad shoulder. “He is speaking with the emperor about it, but it is
difficult without any actual proof that these men are coming.”

“The vision is all we have,” Tizoc said. Turning to his sisters, he said,
“
Hueltiuhtli,
sisters, you should return home with your mates. Be ready
to defend our city in the months ahead.”

“What do we do?” Daniel asked Tizoc.

I gave Daniel’s hand a squeeze.    

“We will do the same as I have told my sisters. Prepare,” Tizoc replied.
“It means a great deal to me that you would stay and defend my home.” He
reached out his left hand to Daniel.

“It will be an honor protecting Ezenoch and everything in it.” With a
glance to me, Daniel took Tizoc’s hand and shook it firmly, sealing a pact of
sorts. I placed my left hand onto their joined ones and knew this to be one of
the most important promises ever made.

Three months had passed since Captain Finley and the
Rose
sailed
northward away from the Sunal shores in search of the captain’s son. Jonah had
been overjoyed to take over my post in the crow’s nest. Daniel and I had bid
them all safe passage on their journey while the captain reminded us in a voice
thick with emotion that he would come back for us whenever we wanted.

We only hoped there would be a Sunal city for them to come back to.

****

I looked up from my sewing out on the patio, Ghost curled up at my feet,
to see Daniel and Tochtli, one of Tizoc’s cousins, hauling a stout log across
the courtyard. During our time living with Tizoc’s family, I had found work
making garments, my skill in needlework coming in handy once again. Daniel was
showing the Sunal how to build boats sturdier than the dugout canoes they
currently used—ones that could hold more cargo, were more watertight, and cut
through the water with less effort required of the rower. He was also building
a small sloop of his own. Something we could continue our adventures on once we
were done in Ezenoch.

As Daniel passed by he sent me a smile that warmed me more than the
blazing morning sun shining down on the patio. We were enjoying our time with
Tizoc’s family. Citlali and Yaoti treated us like their own children and having
a whole family that noticed and listened to me was amazing. Tizoc’s sisters
came around frequently and spending time with them came to be one of my
favorite things to do, second only to my secret nights with Daniel.

He kept his own room, but as soon as the house fell dark and silent,
Citlali and Yaoti asleep in their own chambers, Daniel crept into my room. He
held me until just before dawn then was back in his quarters before sunrise and
no one knew, except Tizoc who had promised to keep mum about it.

Only one thing marred our otherwise perfect stay in the lovely Ezenoch,
and that was the impending bad times in Tizoc’s visions. In both of our
visions. Each image that came was bloodier in its content than the one before
it. I woke up some nights, covered in sweat, clutching Daniel. Each time he
would calm me with his soothing touch and consoling words while Tizoc’s mind
sought to comfort me as well. Because of these visions, Tizoc, Daniel, and I
also spent some of our time each day preparing.

Yesterday, the three of us dug a chamber in the southeast corner of the courtyard
that could be used to store supplies or as a hideout should it be needed. When
we traipsed back into the house, full of dirt and muck, Citlali stared at us.

“What have you three been doing?” Her dark brown eyes were wide, her lips
pursed as she held her breath, waiting for our reply.

“
Nantli
.” Tizoc took a step closer to Citlali. “Trust that we are
doing what needs to be done.” A long moment of silence passed between mother
and son, but they were speaking just the same.

Citlali hugged Tizoc, getting dirt on her dress. She stepped back from
her son and brushed uselessly at the soiled spot. “Wash up, all of you. We’ll
have dinner and think about such dreadful things later.”

We did as we were told, and this morning I found Citlali in the courtyard
digging herself. She believed what Tizoc had said was true.

Trouble was coming.  

****

After returning from building the chamber one evening and walking into
the house, we heard an additional voice in the kitchen talking to Yaoti and
Citlali. The words were in Tizoc’s native language. The speaker’s tone,
however, was laced with fear.

Tizoc stopped us on the patio so he could listen. In the darkness creeping
into the courtyard, his head shook and his shoulders lowered.

“Who is it?” Daniel whispered.

Tizoc held up a hand as he listened to the last of the speaker’s words
before the kitchen fell silent. When he turned to face us, his expression made
my hands grow clammy. My heart pounded in my ears.

“That’s Aochmin.” Tizoc leaned on the railing to the patio. “He’s a
steward of Dimazuno. He says he has been sent by our emperor to greet guests
arriving from the east. He’s been instructed to feed and supply the guests as
well as offer them gifts. There’s talk that the leader of these guests might be
a god come back to claim his kingdom. My father warned Aochmin of the danger,
but Dimazuno wishes to appease this leader, this god.”

“We have to stop him,” Daniel said, trying to keep his voice low.

“This is the beginning.” I searched Tizoc’s face. His eyes were boiling
liquid gold. I reached out my hand and touched his upper arm. His gaze shifted
to mine as if he had forgotten Daniel and I stood with him on the patio.

“Come on.” He brushed past us.

Daniel and I followed him as he stepped off the patio and jogged around
to the front of the house. In the darkened street, he stood for a moment
looking up to the tall central temple pyramid. The prayer he uttered rang in my
own mind.

My people have served you well. Protect them now in their time of
need.

I tossed my own prayer out there as well, hoping it would help somehow.

“Dimazuno has not heeded my father’s warnings. He said such warnings from
my family to keep guests away were ridiculous because we have two outsiders
living
in our home,” Tizoc said.

I hung my head. Yaoti’s kindness toward us was getting in the way of
protecting the Sunal.  

“Maybe we should leave your house.” It pained me to have uttered such a
suggestion, but the thought of something happening to Citlali, Yaoti, or
Tizoc’s sisters was too much to bear. They were
my
family at this point.
And Tizoc… nothing could happen to him. The best way to battle these outsiders
was not to battle them at all. If we could keep them out of Ezenoch in the
first place…    

 “No,” Tizoc said firmly. “I should very much like for you to stay.” He
looked at Daniel. “Both of you. Unless you wish to leave for your own safety.”

I immediately shook my head. “We said we were with you, Tizoc.”

“We meant it,” Daniel said.

Tizoc gave us each a quick squeeze on the forearm. “You two wait here
then.” Before we could reply, he slinked away in the nighttime shadows that
stretched across the empty street. Within a few moments, Tizoc, his cousins—Zolin,
Tochtli, and Coatl—were beside us, looking huge and fierce. I had not been
afraid of any of the warriors since arriving at Ezenoch, but the way they were
poised, like ready hunters, made me step closer to Daniel.

“Here comes Aochmin.” Tizoc motioned his head to the front door of his
house. A distinguished looking Sunal in a parrot-feathered cloak emerged. He
stumbled back a bit when he saw all of us waiting in the darkness.

“Aochmin,” Tizoc said in his calm, deep voice.

“Tizoc?” the man asked, then added something in his native tongue. They
spoke quickly in hushed tones. Tizoc conveyed the conversation to me.

“What are you doing out here like this?”
Aochmin said, casting a
wary eye over the rest of us skulking in the shadows.

“Has the emperor sent you to greet newcomers?”
Tizoc asked, though
he knew that to be true already.

“He has. I am to go at first light with a small party to feed and
supply the guests. They may be gods!”
Aochmin’s voice held a note of
excitement.

“You mustn’t go,”
Tizoc said.

Aochmin’s eyes grew wide, the whites surrounding his black irises
practically glowing.

“I have to follow orders, Tizoc. I am a steward to the emperor. I do
what he commands.”

“If you go, you bring about our downfall.”

“What are you talking about? I am merely extending the hospitality our
people have shown to all our guests.”
Aochmin shot a look at me.
“You
yourself have taken in outsiders. Befriended them. Made them part of your
family in fact.”

“Daniel and Charlie are different. They would never do us harm. These
outsiders from the east are lustful men willing to wipe us out to get what they
want. Captain Finley and his crew from England were merely curious about our
culture. They were here to learn and enjoy as Daniel and Charlie still are. These
new guests wish to take from us. Our gold, our city, our lives. They are not
gods, Aochmin.”

Tizoc rested his hands on Aochmin’s shoulders. I was surprised at how
much smaller the steward was than Tizoc.

“You have to trust me.”

Aochmin shook his head.
“I will carry out my orders. I will not anger
the emperor or the gods that have come to see us.”

He shrugged free of Tizoc’s grasp and stepped around him. Zolin and Coatl
moved like shadows to block his path out of the front yard, but Tizoc shook his
head, indicating they should let Aochmin pass. The two warriors hesitated for a
second before stepping out of the way. The steward left Tizoc’s house and
headed in the direction of the palace. The blackness of night swallowed him as
the sound of his retreating footsteps grew fainter.

“What did he say?” Daniel asked, not having the advantage I had of being
linked to Tizoc.

“He’s going anyway,” I whispered, my throat tight.

“We could have held him,” Zolin said to Tizoc.

“No,” Tizoc said. “He is doing what he thinks is right. Besides, Dimazuno
would only send someone else if we stopped Aochmin.” Tizoc brought a hand up to
his face, brushed it along his forehead, but the worry creases remained. “We
will have to accompany him.”

“We are ready,” Coatl said. The other warriors voiced their agreement.

I didn’t like the idea of Tizoc and some of the best warriors leaving Ezenoch,
but it made sense. If they could stop the outsiders from coming into the heart
of the city perhaps Tizoc’s people could be saved.

“Go to the armory. Get what we’ll need. We’ll leave at first light, same
as Aochmin,” Tizoc ordered.

The warriors left the yard to do what had been asked of them.

Tizoc turned to Daniel. “I know this doesn’t have to be said, but I’m
going to say it anyway. Don’t let Charlie out of your sight while I’m gone. The
gods have bound me to protect her, and I think stopping these outsiders before
they get here is a way to do that. I don’t like leaving, but if I know you’ll
guard her I can focus on the outsiders.”

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to Charlie,” Daniel said, more sincerity
in his voice than offense.

Tizoc nodded, obviously satisfied with Daniel’s pledge. The exchange,
done as if I wasn’t standing right among them, made me feel like a child,
incapable of managing my own safety.

“Well,” I finally said, “if you two are done passing the burden of
protecting me between one another.”

Tizoc let out a sigh as he turned his amber eyes toward me.

“I’ve protected myself on several occasions,” I began. “Quite
successfully, I might add. Before my brothers ran off to be sailors, they
taught me a few things to defend myself. I’m not helpless, you know.”

Daniel rested his hand on my upper arm. “We didn’t mean to say you
couldn’t take care of yourself. Of course you can, but we need to be extra
cautious. Think about it. You’re a beautiful, young English woman.” He paused
to trace my jaw with his index finger. “A crew, the size of which we don’t even
know, are on their way to take, to kill, to do whatever they want with what
they find in this city. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to
you.”

“Nor I,” Tizoc added.

I narrowed my eyes at them both. “Fine,” I said. “But don’t think your
flattery or your poetic words have made me any less irritated at either of
you.”

“Perhaps it’s our handsome faces that have lessened your annoyance.”
Tizoc shot a charming but quick smile in my direction before he turned to go
into the house. “I have to speak to my father.”

After he left, I looked at Daniel whose gaze was intense. “What?” I said.

“You do realize I would give my last breath to make sure you were safe,
don’t you?” he said. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with trying to be a
man or anything. It has to do with the fact that I love you, Charlotte. More
than anything in this world.”

Stepping closer to him, I took his face in my hands. “I love you,” I
whispered. “We’ll protect each other then.”