Machu Picchu (The Old Mountain) - pt 3

[qthebadwolf]

 

*****

I remember the next day's events just as I have told them to over three generations of sick children, lying in my Healing chambers and asking for stories of Mama Quilla's son.

"All the people gathered at the Intihuatana. Everyone prayed for a miracle to stop the rumblings. But only I knew that the Doctor was somewhere far beneath our feet, fighting the Silver Ghosts that were the cause of it all. Marsala raised his blade..."

"...And Pachamama shook!"

"Yes, Pachamama shook!" Here I would tremble and sway as though in an earthquake, and if they were well enough, the children would sway along with me. "Everyone shouted and wailed, but I did as the Doctor told me. I pressed the grey box. All at once there was a terrible noise...like the war-chant of a swarm of every angry bee ever born. The ornaments shrieked and blazed. Then I moved the lever...and the living rock of the Intihuatana began to glow, like a giant ember in the heart of a fire." Little hands would grip the blankets covering them. "And then came the most miraculous thing of all. A blinding rope of light - a blue light, just like the captured moonbeams in the Doctor's wand and Temple - shot up from the Intihuatana and into the sky."

"...And caught Father Inti!"

"Yes! The blue light formed a giant rope, twisting and writhing like a snake on a hot stone. It flew up and enveloped Father Inti, and the shaking of the earth was like nothing the world had ever felt before or since."

"Everyone fell to their knees. Some prayed. But I kept my eyes upon the new star in the sky. And after uncountable breaths...unknowable heartbeats...kaboom!"

I spread my arms wide. "There was a huge cloud of fire in the sky. Everyone pointed and gasped. Some said the gods were finally going to kill us all. But a few moments later...everything was still. Pachamama ceased her rumbling. The rope of blue light snaked back down into the Intihuatana from which it had come. The glow of the living rock faded like embers into ash. The ornaments were silent."

"We were saved."

Sometimes the children would want to know what happened after that - Where did the Doctor go? What happened to the Silver Ghosts? - and I would make something up so as not to disappoint them. But I never told them what really happened the last time I saw my Lonely God.

He is there waiting for me on the Steps that night. I return his box and ornaments, which had fallen off the Sun Stone like dead insect skins after serving their purpose.

His smile is unreadable. "Well done, Acqui. 'The Little Prince'; saving the world like a king. Not bad for a day's work." I do not know how to answer this, but my face is pleasantly warm at his compliment.

"You could come with me, you know," he says suddenly. I look up. I struggle to comprehend what he is offering me. To travel with a god...to help others on such a scale as this...but then I see the faces of my People. The People I have healed...and those I have yet to heal...

The Doctor sees the answer in my eyes. "Fair enough then." He nods to the ground. "Your people need you. Man like you can do a lot of good here." When he looks back up his face is smiling, but his eyes are not. He turns back to enter his Temple...but before he shuts its doors, he leans out to tell me something.

"There will be men coming here, in a few years. Tall people, with pale skin, like me. But they're not gods either. Remember that. They're just men. And Acqui?" I step forward to catch the last words I will hear my pale god say for a lifetime.

"Healing is a great gift. Maybe the most important one of all. Never forget that."

Then he closes the doors, and I hear the cry of the Blue Temple for the second time. It vanishes.

I am alone on the Steps of Heaven.

*****

The Conquistadores came, just as he said they would. And they were not gods. Only men. Greedy men. And a handful of them ravaged our entire Empire while I watched in helpless sorrow. They destroyed my People. My Gods. My spirit.

And it is now - here, on the day I have prepared for my dying - that Mama Quilla's son chooses to return to me.

"You came back," I say. It is a fact, not an accusation. "I gave up hoping long ago."

He does not answer. Only stands behind me until at last I turn to face him. And when I see him again, I know how long I have lived, because my Lonely God now looks like a child to my eyes.

"I have something to show you."

Without another word, he takes me back to his Blue Temple. He closes the door. The Temple comes alive with the noise I heard so long ago, and when the door is opened again, I step out into another world.

It is still my Old Mountain. I recognize it at once. But if the citadel that I just left is a corpse, then these are its bones. Every structure of wood or thatch or cloth; every potted plant and awning; every tiny scrap of life in the place has gone. Only the stones remain.

I gaze upon this new world. There are people walking amongst the bones of the citadel, but it is not their home - they are visitors. And they are clothed like kings; even the children. Some have pale skin like the Doctor. Some do not. Others are travelling in metal beasts that move of their own accord...and when I hear an unfamiliar noise, I look up to see a metal bird leaving a long trail of excrement in the sky.

This is not my world. It is the world of my People's children, and their children's children. Except that my People are not here. The throngs I see have more the look of the Conquistadores about them, and they are here to examine a relic - not to worship.

But the thought brings another into my head. Without waiting for the Doctor, I turn my steps towards a familiar place. I go past the various temples (do these New People even know the gods they once housed?), past the Intihuatana, and by now I am almost running. When I reach my destination my heart is pounding like a drum.

My grandfather's wall.

It is almost completely unchanged. Among these New People, in this world of metal beasts and lost gods...my grandfather's wall is here. I trace the beloved pattern of its jointwork with my finger and press my face up against it. Yes...my grandfather is here. And yet, as the stone's memories pour into me, I feel another presence: a boy; gazing up in wonder as his mother tells him how his grandfather built this structure...a youth; pretending not to look with respect upon this place as he rushes past on important business...a young man; praying to his dead grandfather to help save the pale god that he loves...

I am here too. In spite of the Conquistadores and the death of my world, I am here in this place with my ancestors.

I let the Doctor lead me back to the Blue Temple before the New People can see an old man crying.

*****

I step out onto the ground I just left. No metal beasts; no New People; no ropes binding the Intihuatana like a captive. Only me, my Old Mountain, and the Doctor.

"Your people did amazing things, Acqui," he says as I gaze out over the land. "Future generations will marvel at what you accomplished. But only if you don't let them forget."

I turn to face him. Standing in Father Inti's brightness, he looks less like the moon-god I took him to be...but not quite the mortal I wish he were.

"That girl, in the marketplace. In town." He nods down towards the village I departed from. "She seemed eager to learn. You could teach her things. Keep the old ways alive."

I make a troubled face. "She is a girl. There are things I cannot teach her. She needs a nun."

"Few of those still about too," he urges. The tone of his voice drops. "The world will forget what happened here if someone doesn't remind them. And you're one of the last Old Ones who remember."

I gaze deeply into his eyes. I have thought of him so often on lonely nights, when Mama Quilla's beams bring memories unbidden into my sleep: his broken body, lying on the rocks...his jubilant kiss, delivered only in jest..his pale bare skin against mine as I lifted him onto the mat...

He says he is not a god. But I do not know how else to think of him. I have pledged my life to my gods and my People, but now I am only an old man with no one left to serve.

I put my hand on the back of his head. He does not look away. I touch my lips to his, and he allows it. After a moment, he returns my offering. For the space of a butterfly's heartbeats I am kissing a god, and my sorrow fades away into nothing.

He tastes of emptiness and time.

When I pull away his eyes are bright. His voice is hardly louder than a whisper. "Your People need you, Acqui," he says quietly. "Please don't let them down."

I move to the stone wall at the edge of the citadel...a spot where you could once gaze out over the vastness of our land. Yes, there are a few nuns still in the village. Yes, the girl does seem interested in the old ways. And she is clever...I have seen her outwit the gang of Conquistadore boys who terrorize the village strays. Her younger brother might learn a knack for Pachamama's herbs as well, with enough time and a mountain's worth of luck.

I face the Doctor, and the tears in my eyes change my last sight of him from a moon-god into a shimmering water spirit.

Perhaps it is not quite time to die after all.

*****

The next day I freshen myself with water from the canals and some wild potatoes from the vacant fields. Then I turn my steps towards the village. The descent is much easier with a lighter heart to carry.

Healing is the greatest gift of all, he said. And now I believe him.

I will come back here one day, to my Old Mountain, when it is truly my time to die. When the girl and her brother know enough to get by. Until then I can live under the Conquistadores' thumb, because I know something they do not.

I know they will never find my Old Mountain. I know that their children's children will make pilgrimages to witness its wonders. And I know that someday, I will rest there with the soul of my grandfather, and the memory of the day my Lonely God and I captured the Sun.

                                                           

Comments

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

Oh, god! Just. This is beautiful. I have no words for how amazing this story is. This is one of the best fics I've ever read. Absolutely breathtaking.

[qthebadwolf.livejournal.com]

*blushes pleasantly* thanks. that's wonderful to hear, especially since it gave me such fits trying to write it! hopefully i'll be adding some images to go along with it here within the next couple hours, so watch this space...*goes off to play with photoshopping program*

[neonbliss.livejournal.com]

Aww, I visited Machu Picchu twice now, and this fic made me miss Peru so much!

<333