Olmec Obituary Read online

  Olmec Obituary is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  To Smokey, my constant companion and heart’s keeper for so many troubled years. I will love and miss you all of my days.

  Without waiting to be asked whether it was his or not, the fellow cried, ‘That’s mine, that’s mine,’ and stretched out his hand eagerly for the prize.

  Mercury and the Woodsman, Aesop’s Fables

  Prologue

  One Year Ago

  Al-Fayum Oasis, Egypt

  Pinpoints of light studded the inky sky, taunting Dr Elizabeth Pimms with their stubborn persistence. The distant pyramids were dark triangles of nothingness, made conspicuous by an absence of stars. Sitting cross-legged atop a sand dune, breakfast laid out before her, Elizabeth willed the day to begin.

  The cacophonic call to prayer that had woken her for the past two weeks echoed throughout the valley. At first, she thought she would never get used to the bewildering, invasive sound. Now, she couldn’t imagine starting the day without it.

  Roused every morning by that eerie wailing she had quickly developed a routine: kiss Luke’s rumpled hair, crawl from their tent, then begin her predawn rituals of impatience. She was washed, dressed and fed before anyone else even stirred. How could they bear to waste a single moment of their time here?

  As she picked through boiled eggs, soft cheese and fresh fruit, a hint of apricot appeared on the horizon. Then, a blush of pink. Finally, a faint blue announced the approach of the rising sun. Why did dawn have to take so long?

  There was just enough light to make out the glyphs on her cherished cartouche necklace. As she had a thousand times before, she traced the silver pictographs with her finger: Amun, the Sun God; Tut, an image; Ankh, the Waters of Life. She imagined how Howard Carter must have felt the very first time he spied the wonders of Tut-Ankh-Amun’s tomb through a tiny crack in the wall – fantastic!

  Just like her hero, Khaenweset the Restorer, fourth son of Ramesses the Second and Egypt’s first celebrated archaeologist, Elizabeth was bent on a life of uncovering lost treasures. It was her all-consuming passion. After twenty years of yearning, planning, and dedicated study, she was finally here, following in Khaenweset’s footsteps. Now a skilled archaeologist and knowledgeable Egyptologist, Elizabeth was ready to make her mark.

  Dawn inched closer. Elizabeth had learnt the hard way that she must wait for the sun to be fully over the horizon before attempting the descent into the excavation’s trenches; she wouldn’t risk another twisted ankle.

  Shafts of gold played on the edges of the pyramids as the sand around her grew warm. More than three thousand years ago, Khaenweset had excavated these very same pyramids…

  Finally! The bottom edge of the sun was visible. She could start her day’s work.

  Elizabeth grinned, retrieved her provisions, and slid heel-first down the sand dunes to her tent at the edge of the camp. She moved as quietly as possible, gathering her hat and toolkit, receiving a protesting groan from Luke. The rest of the team also cursed her early morning starts. Honestly, how could they stand to sleep in? There were ancient puzzles to solve, long-forgotten stories to tell and groundbreaking research to publish. Come on, people!

  As she hurried to the trenches, Elizabeth savoured her recent triumphs. She recited them every day, like a personal mantra of joy: earning her doctorate, joining this dig, winning Luke’s heart. Rapture. She missed her family, of course, but Dad was able to look after Matty without her now. By filling her days with gridlines and trowels, then sorting finds in the evening with Luke, she was bound to discover something momentous – she just knew it.

  Kneeling next to her section in the sand, meticulously unpacking her brushes, Elizabeth recalled the first time she’d seen Luke. Just eight short years ago, in Archaeology 101, her very first class at university. There he’d been sitting in the front row, dazzling. Part of her mind had daydreamed of kissing him as she’d devoured the lecture on archaeological hoaxes, Egyptology and the Neanderthals.

  She couldn’t have predicted that, only three weeks ago, she’d be standing in Khaenweset’s actual tomb, clutching Luke’s hand. Pure bliss.

  Okay, enough daydreaming, woman, time to concentrate on work.

  —

  At mid-morning a skinny arm stuck a glass of apple tea under Elizabeth’s hat, breaking her concentration. Elizabeth peered into the pedlar’s face. It was Ḫālid. Although she never accepted drinks at the markets, she trusted the regular site visitors not to drug her.

  ‘Shukran.’ Thank you.

  Sipping the piping-hot sweetness, Elizabeth picked over the scarab carvings she had uncovered that morning. She looked forward to cleaning and sketching them tonight. She thanked Ḫālid again, and handed back the glass with a little baksheesh.

  Elizabeth returned to her square to brush away the next layer. She revelled in her fellow diggers’ chatter, the blazing sun on her back, and her deeply fulfilling labours. Life as an archaeologist was everything she had imagined it would be.

  —

  That afternoon, beneath a brilliant blue sky, Elizabeth watched Luke’s head bob towards her over the dunes.

  As he drew nearer she could see that something was wrong. He was ashen, expressionless. She felt a chill.

  ‘Lizzie, I’m so sorry,’ he sputtered. ‘It’s…your…it’s your dad.’

  Time slowed.

  ‘What? What do you…What?’

  Silently, Elizabeth begged him not to answer.

  ‘He’s…A message came. It could be wrong,’ Luke pleaded. ‘I’m so sorry, Lizzie, but, it said he’s dead.’

  In the space of a single breath Elizabeth’s father, and her new life, were gone.

  The world went cold. Grey.

  She had to go back.

  Chapter One

  Olmec date 4.15.9.17.17 5 Kab’an 5 Muwan (21 March 1231 BCE)

  The Tok’s ceremonial city, near Lord Ajaw’s lands, ancient Olmec (central modern Mexico)

  Two women drew aside the umbilical cords covering the cave’s entrance. A man in skull make-up emerged from the cave, a limp child in his arms.

  Kat screamed. ‘He’s dead! He’s dead!’

  Ix remembered her own terror the first time she saw the Great Birthing Ceremony. She laughed and pulled four-year-old Kat onto her lap, then pointed at the ceremonial platform opposite their seats. The drooping child in the man’s arms began to struggle.

  ‘Look, Kat. It’s all right. The maize child lives…and it’s a boy.’

  Ix jigged Kat on her knee, making her giggle. ‘The Lord of Maize’s fire is hot.’

  The Lord of Maize held the child aloft, triumphant. The crowd around Ix and her family roared.

  ‘Mother, what’s he doing?’ Kat asked.

  ‘Celebrating being A Man Who Has Fathered Sons,’ said Tzikin, squeezing Ix’s leg. Ix appreciated her twin sister answering Kat’s question. Despite Tzikin’s reckless spirit, she had always been kind.

  ‘Mother! Mother!’ Ix’s three other daughters squeezed through the throng. ‘Can we go and get another pink maize husk? Can we? Pleeease?’

  Ix huffed. Her daughters had eaten three days’ worth of maize already, and the sun had yet to reach its zenith.

  Tzikin nudged Ix. ‘Go on, let them.’

  Tzikin’s youngest five girls emerged from the crowd. ‘Us too. Us too.’

  Ix and Tzikin’s mother, Imox, rattled her token bag from her seat beside Tzikin.

  ‘I may have enough to buy one more for each of you.’

  All nine girls squealed with pleasure. ‘Grandmother, Grand­mother, thank you
.’

  ‘But,’ their grandmother continued, ‘all your sisters and brothers must have one. Go and find the others and tell them to come here. You can only have treats if everyone gets one.’

  ‘Yes, Grandmother!’ Chimalmat, Ix’s eldest, turned and clambered down the stands as fast as she could, tripping over bags of food and blankets as she went.

  ‘Hello, hello.’ Kimi and her brother Kej settled beside Ix’s family. Ix smiled: she liked the old midwife and her brother. They had both been very kind to Ix since she joined Lord Ajaw’s household, helping to shield Ix from Lord Ajaw’s more extreme demands.

  ‘Kimi, Kimi, look. Another tooth!’ yelled Kat, pointing at her own mouth.

  ‘Kat, shhh,’ Ix said. ‘Don’t shout.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Kimi, hauling Kat onto her lap. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small gourd. ‘Here, Ix, more medicine for the girls’ headaches.’

  ‘Thank you, Kimi,’ Ix said, accepting the flask. ‘You’re so good to us.’

  ‘It’s no trouble,’ Kimi replied.

  ‘How are you?’ Imox asked, squeezing the older woman’s arm.

  ‘Good,’ Kimi said. ‘I just checked on Iqchel, gave her a strengthening potion. The poor girl, she’s pregnant again. I hope this one’s journey is uninterrupted.’

  ‘May the Lords of Maize hear your prayer,’ Ix said. ‘How many has she lost now?’

  ‘Three.’

  ‘What do you mean, Kimi?’ Kat asked, her eyes wide. ‘How can you lose a baby? Did Iqchel leave them in the jungle and forget where she put them?’

  ‘No, Kat. Sometimes…’ Kimi’s eyes sought Ix’s. Ix nodded. ‘Sometimes a maize child doesn’t finish forming properly in the womb, Kat. Or it loses its fire before it reaches this world, because the fire isn’t hot enough.’

  ‘Unlike the Lords of Maize,’ Ix said, ‘who will burn you up if you don’t be quiet. Now shush, Kat, and watch the ceremony.’

  ‘And the rest of you,’ Tzikin pointed at the children gathered around the seated women and Kej, ‘stand here in front of me and stop wriggling. The fire is coming!’

  On the platform above the Great Ballcourt, the Lord of Maize shot a ball of fire from his loins, lighting the torch in front of the womb-cave.

  Like everyone else, Ix knew that a maize child began when a man sparked a fire in a woman’s womb. If the man continued to add his fire, and it was hot enough, the maize child became a boy. If his fire was too cool, it became a girl. A man with very hot fire could even build two children at once, as Ix and Tzikin’s father had in their mother, Imox.

  The Lord of Maize re-entered the womb-cave, ropes of Sky Mother’s umbilical cords trailing behind him. The crowd chanted encouragement as he disappeared from view. He re-emerged from the gloom with another boy and the crowd cheered.

  Ix sighed. She wanted so much to make her husband, Aqabal, A Man Who Has Fathered Sons.

  Tzikin poked Ix in the ribs. ‘Stop thinking about it. You have four beautiful daughters, and Aqabal loves you. Enough.’

  ‘Easy for you to say,’ Ix countered.

  Tzikin’s husband was renowned through all the villages as the man with the hottest fire. In just fifteen years of marriage he had built three sets of twin boys, two sets of twin girls, and one set of triplets in Tzikin’s womb.

  ‘Ix, you’re lucky to have had any maize children at all,’ said Tzikin. ‘We all thought you were going to die after you took that ball to the stomach.’

  ‘But the Lords of Maize heard my prayers, and you survived,’ Imox added.

  ‘I still won that game!’ Ix said.

  ‘Yes, you did,’ Imox smiled. ‘My jaguar girl of fire.’

  Ix stroked the pouch around her neck. It contained the ballplayer figurine created to commemorate her historic win: the first female ever to score two goals in one game, right here on the Tok’s Great Ballcourt.

  The crowd roared again as the women beside the womb-cave cut the umbilical cords from Sky Mother, freeing the maize children to run from the platform to the Great Ballcourt below.

  Chimalmat reappeared, trailed by the rest of Tzikin’s children. Ix looked at Tzikin’s six boys and suppressed another sigh. Tzikin had so many sons, and Ix only wanted one. The Lords of Maize could be deaf sometimes.

  As Imox distributed a token to each of her seventeen grand­children, Kej leant forward.

  ‘Ix, Tzikin, may I buy each of the children a butterfly toy as well?’ he asked.

  ‘I want a crocodile.’

  ‘I want a toad.’

  ‘I want a water lily.’

  ‘Don’t be so rude!’ Tzikin admonished her sons. She turned to Kej. ‘That’s very generous, but there’s no need. Another pink maize husk each is plenty!’

  ‘I have no children of my own to spoil, so it would be my pleasure. How about I take them all to the stalls?’

  Ix and Tzikin glanced at each other.

  ‘Yes, Kej, thank you,’ Ix answered for both of them. ‘Leave Kat here with us, though. She will be happy with a butterfly.’

  Kej patted Kat’s head as he passed Ix. The older children trailed him down the stairs.

  ‘Your brother is so generous towards my grandchildren,’ Imox said to Kimi.

  Kimi shrugged. ‘As he says, he has no children of his own, or grandchildren, so he likes to take care of his friends’. I think he feels less lonely this way.’

  On the platform opposite Ix and her family, the Great Birthing Ceremony concluded. The opening dance of the Ballgame began as hundreds of dancers poured onto the Great Ballcourt below the womb-cave. The Hero Twins – the Divine Ballplayers – ran onto the court, sending large rubber balls bouncing with enormous swings of their hips.

  Red, yellow and orange feathered headdresses swayed in time to the drumming. Lost in the whirl of colours and movement, Ix failed to notice Lord Ajaw’s approach until he was just two steps below her in the stands. She nudged Tzikin, who tapped Imox and Kimi in turn. All four women sat quietly, and Kat grew still.

  Lord Ajaw sat beside Ix. His second son, Aqabal’s brother Tijax, trailed him up the stands and sat next to him.

  ‘Good day, Lord Ajaw,’ Imox said. ‘May the Lords of Maize hear your prayers.’

  ‘Thank you, Woman Who Has Borne Children.’

  ‘And good day to you, Lord Tijax,’ Tzikin said.

  Tijax stared at the ground as he replied, ‘Good day, wife of A Man Who Has Fathered Sons.’

  Kat burrowed her head into Ix’s armpit and grabbed on to the pouch around Ix’s neck that contained her ballplayer figurine.

  ‘How are you today, Lady Ix?’ Lord Ajaw asked.

  Ix wished Aqabal were here. ‘Well, Lord,’ she answered her father-in-law.

  ‘Have the Lords of Maize heard you yet?’ Lord Ajaw looked at Ix’s stomach. ‘Will you make my son A Man Who Has Fathered Sons?’

  Ix tensed. It would be much easier for Aqabal to build a maize son in her if only Lord Ajaw would stop sending him away to work on Ajaw’s great new ceremonial city. Ix prayed daily to the Hero Twins to keep Aqabal by her side.

  ‘I pray to the Lords of Maize every day,’ Ix said. ‘I beg them to hear me.’

  ‘Good. Continue to pray,’ Ajaw replied.

  On the Great Ballcourt below them the opposing teams took their starting positions. From his platform, the skull-faced Lord of Maize threw a rubber ball into the centre of the Great Ballcourt and the game began.

  The fire in Ix’s blood burned as she remembered the fierce joy of competition. With the raw, wild power of a jaguar in her veins she’d won every game she’d played. Facing a single opponent, or as part of a team, it didn’t matter. She was always surprised afterwards to discover she had injuries, be it broken ribs or a deeply bruised hip. Only the pain of a ball to the stomach, which had almost killed her, had registered while she’d been playing.

  One of the women on the court bounced the ball high with a swing of her hips, falling to the ground afterwards. Ix knew the padding a
round the woman’s hips would cushion her against most of the impact, but she groaned in empathy nonetheless.

  The ball flew near the vertical hoop, hitting the rim. The crowd sighed. No-one would ever surpass her record, Ix crowed silently to herself.

  Kat poked her mother in the chest. ‘That ballplayer is like you,’ she whispered.

  ‘Yes,’ Ix whispered back.

  ‘When will I play?’

  Ix glanced at Lord Ajaw beside them.

  ‘You won’t, Kat. You belong to Lord Ajaw’s household. Noble women don’t play the Ballgame.’

  ‘But you did. And Father did.’

  ‘Yes. Noble men and ordinary women may play, but not noble women or ordinary men.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because the Lords of Maize say so,’ Lord Ajaw said, inter­rupting.

  Kat drew back from his smile. ‘But Mother is noble.’

  ‘I am now,’ Ix said, desperate to end the conversation. ‘But only because your father was kind enough to marry me. I started as an ordinary woman.’

  ‘Like Grandmother?’

  ‘Yes.’ Ix glanced at Imox. Her mother appeared to be fully engrossed in the Ballgame, but Ix knew she would be concentrating on every word Lord Ajaw said.

  ‘What about Chimalmat, Eb and Aqmaq?’ Kat listed her sisters. ‘Are they noble? Am I noble?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Kat touched the side of her head. ‘Is that why our heads are different?’

  ‘Yes. Now be quiet and watch the game. No more questions.’

  As the Ballgame continued Ix recalled her many triumphs on the Great Ballcourt. She was a child of the jaguar, and she could do anything she put her mind to. Her determination made her a champion, which in turn had made her famous enough for Aqabal to marry her.

  With that same fire Ix would build a son for Aqabal in her womb. Even if Aqabal’s seed was cool, with help from the Lords of Maize and the fire from her own blood, she would do it.

  Chapter Two

  Now

  Canberra, Australia

  Sitting in Addendum, a cafe at the Mahony Griffin Library, Dr Elizabeth Pimms stared at the surrounding stained-glass windows. As a child, she had been mesmerised by their marvellous colours and patterns. Today, besieged by driving rain, the windows seemed dull, lifeless.