Free Jungle Crossing by Sydney Salter Page B

warriors rampaging through her family compound filled her mind, but she stopped herself from completing those thoughts as the door swung open again, filling the hut with light.
    Snake shoved Muluc and another girl outside. As her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight, Muluc noticed that the other girl also had a long forehead and a stone in her lip, proving that the warriors had raided another elite compound. Muluc made hand motions to get the girl's attention, but she stared ahead with wide eyes as Snake led them to a canoe loaded with jars of glittering salt and baskets of jade that gleamed like the green lakes of Cobá. Muluc touched the necklace hanging beneath her dress. What had been traded for the jade around her neck? Cotton? Cocoa beans? Turtle oil? Girls?
    After Muluc and the other girl had been packed amid the cargo, Snake went to a small hut on the sand and brought out several male captives, including Parrot Nose's brother. Muluc gasped when she saw the deep, festering cuts on the side of his face and the bruises up and down his arms. The canoe rocked in the shallow surf as Cobá's elite climbed in front. Crouched next to a bundle of damp-smelling feathers, Muluc pressed her face into her bent knees and cried, wanting nothing more than to be home in her mother's compound, fixing chocolate for her father.
    As the canoe drifted from shore, Muluc saw that tall trees arched over the middle of the island. One tree blossomed with those long-legged pink birds.
    ***
T HE D AY 3 B EN
    Maize God, Protector of Growing Corn
    When the canoe reached land again, Muluc, the warriors, and the traders walked along a rough-cut trail into the jungle. Muluc feared she would collapse from thirst; all she'd had to drink was a bit of corn gruel that had started to sour. Her feet ached and bled from walking on such a rough path, so unlike the smooth white roads of Cobá. Rocks jabbed her feet through the dry dirt, and the sun seared through the thin covering of leaves. The jungle did not grow so lush in this foreign place—weedy vines struggled to grow among the short trees and stunted bushes. All the dust in the air tickled Muluc's nose with a sneeze. She'd heard people talk of other lands, but they always seemed more like stories than anything real. The center of the world was Cob´, wasn't it? A man stumbled ahead of her; the pot he carried cracked, spraying crystals of salt on the road.
    "Stop!" Snake glared at the man who had dropped the container. "You will lose your share of salt." He untied Muluc and the other girl. "Pick it up."
    Kneeling, Muluc plucked salt from the dusty ground. The other girl met her eyes, her face red with tears. Muluc tried to smile at her, but the girl absent-mindedly scraped her finger through the dirt. One of the warriors came up behind her.
    "Faster," he said, nudging the girl with his foot. "I haven't seen my family since the last new moon."
    The girl started sobbing. Muluc blinked away her own tears and concentrated on picking up the salt: one handful, two, and three, filling the basket with salt, salt, salt. Tears choked her throat. Salt.
    "See, she's a good worker," Snake said, much to his men's amusement. "And she's strong. Watch her carry the salt."
    Muluc's arms grew weak as they walked; she felt dizzy and unsteady on her feet. Ahead of her, the path looked hazy, and she shivered even in the hot sun. Pain pounded her head with every wobbly step. The scent of dust filled her nose, and its dryness blanketed her mouth. No shade. The trees grew too short. The road stretched too wide. The other girl stumbled and fell, but Muluc held the basket of salt upright.
    "Weak girls!" Snake snatched the basket from Muluc's hands and dribbled water into her mouth.
    The world went black.
    Muluc woke in darkness. Howler monkeys screamed in the shadowy trees, like angry spirits haunting the woods, but Muluc concentrated on the sound of her breath, her heartbeat. Was she still alive or had she descended