Page 86 of The Shadow Crosser (The Storm Runner 3)

“It’s complicated,” the god said. “But all destinies are connected to time and space, and K’iin is time and space, which tells me the calendar is close. Your essences attracted your destiny strands. Got it? Good. I really hate repeating myself. Just keep your hands to yourselves.”

Everyone stood staring in silence, as if each of us were waiting for the other to ask Itzamna to read what was written on the ribbons. Believe me, I considered it, but I didn’t ask. Not because I didn’t want to know my future—I just didn’t want to know my entire future.

A loud grinding sound drew our attention.

“Uh, guys,” Ren said, pointing to the middle of the floor. “What are those?”

A row of six stone statues rose up from the sand. They were massive, like twenty feet tall, and had their backs to us.

“Are they alive?” Louie wheezed, craning his neck to see. The rest of us hurried over to check out the fronts.

“They look like…some of the gods,” I said. I quickly identified them in order: Nakon, Chaac, Ixkakaw, Kukuulkaan, my dad, and Ixtab.

“Ixkakaw’s nose is much more refined than that,” Itzamna critiqued. “And Chaac has much buggier eyes!”

Seeing my dad’s face, even in stone, made my insides cave. Had he, Ah-Puch, and the other gods already been devoured? No. I couldn’t…wouldn’t think about that now.

“Why would my mom make statues of gods who exiled her?” Ren frowned. She glanced up at me. “Not your dad and Kukuulkaan, of course.”

“Are they holding blue eggs?” Louie stalked closer.

Each statue held a basketball-size blue orb in its cupped palms.

“K’iin must be inside one of those,” Itzamna said.

“The calendar is in an egg?” Louie said.

“They aren’t eggs,” I told him.

“They sure look like it,” he muttered.

“But which one has it?” Alana said.

Shaking her head, Ren said, “It has to be Kukuulkaan or Hurakan, right? My mom wouldn’t trust K’iin to any of the other gods.”

“Unless she’s like my aunt and wanted to be ironic,” Alana said with a huff.

“It’s too obvious, Ren,” I said. I’d learned a long time ago that when it came to Maya gods, expect the unexpected.

“Just try them all,” Louie said, “so we can get out of here. This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies.”

“Except to get to the orbs we have to climb the gods,” Alana said. “And in case you haven’t noticed, Louie, we don’t have a ladder or wings.”

Brooks would have really come in handy about then. I thought about summoning and throwing Fuego before I remembered I couldn’t use its magic in that place. Besides, with my luck, my spear would shatter the orbs, destroy the calendar, and stop time, which would totally suck.

; “Got any ideas, Itzamna?” Ren said, ducking away from her destiny ribbon.

“How good a climber are you?”

“I thought you were supposed to be helpful,” I growled.

“I am being helpful,” the god argued.

Louie stepped back, looking up as he pointed to the orbs. “Wait! I think the eggs have something written on them. Look.”

The spheres were rotating slowly. I walked down the row of gods, and as the orbs came full circle, I saw that there was a single Mayan word etched into each. Then, like in the SHIHOM library, the words floated up in the air and came back down in English. “‘Choose. The. Right. Fate. Wisely. Trespasser,’” I read aloud.