The departure of the Mayans
Episode 1 of Antar
Deldan stood at the threshold of the chamber and took a deep breath; this was thebeginning of a journey, and the end of another. The great priests of Chilan hadfinally proclaimed the departure in the conclave, and with the blessings of Hunab
K’u the gates would be opened today.
He had expected more frenzy at the prospect of leaving everything behind, but thewait had stretched for a long time, the egression had been prophesied close to threehundred years ago and today all the people of the Mayas would step through thegates into the other world.The Mayans had carefully cataloged every bit of the past, present and the futureand put them away in hundreds of protected cells spread across the land.Thousands of sages had sat down to the task of putting every bit of theirknowledge down on parchment- to be retrieved at the time of the return. Deldanwas scared, but there was no point of delaying the inevitable- he gestured towardsthe exit and two retainers stepped forward to pull the heavy brass doors open. The
majestic pyramid of Kukulcan’ looked even more heavenly in the nascent sunlight
of the dawn, built on a huge square platform 30 meters high, 91 steps cut into thestone on each of the four sides led to the final step on top of the platform- a total of 365 gradations equivalent to the length of an year. He had always been a littlesurprised at how everything in the culture of his fathers and forefathers was aboutnumbers, about mathematics, about cosmic harmony, amazed at how the positionof a seemingly random set of stars could mean the difference between war and
peace, but that’s just the way it was
- everything that the Mayans
did
was deeplyentrenched in symbolism.Everyone who lived within a hundred miles of Chichen Itza was here this evening.The Mayans were the purest race in the world, the most astronomically advancedand fluent at matters of worldly affairs; it was thus natural that the responsibility of saving the mankind would have to come down upon them.At this moment people were gathered at hundreds of places across the mainland,waiting for the gates to Elysia to open, only a few more hours remained until theycould leave the impending vagaries of this planet behind them. Pakal II had saidthat there would come a time when man would feast on man and blood would colorthe face of earth, the human kind would descend into the depths of malice whichwere unknown thus far, and just when the contemptible man would be at thebrink-the Mayans would re-enter this world to free it off its chains.
There was a murmur of anticipation as the sun’s rays struck the north wall for the
first time, lights and shadows danced and the serpent appeared. Deldan was
awestruck at the illusion, he knew what was unfolding right now was just a productof the confluence between some uncanny architecture and the dim morning light,
when the sun’s rays fell upon the decorative corners of the north wall
an unmistakable serpent emerged upon the steps of the pyramid.Perhaps Deldan had waited too long, he thought as he hurried to the center of thesquare. Ninety nine protectors were to stay behind, thirty three men and sixty sixwomen, everyone but a very small percentage of the Mayan civilization would passthrough the void today, into a timeless space until the earth was ready for them tocome back. It was a great honor for Deldan to be one of the chosen protectors, thethirty three sets of one man and two women would leave this sacred place too, theywould head out in different directions to make sure that no epidemic or war could
wipe out the rest of what remained in one go. It was Deldan’s responsibility as a
protector to ensure that the knowledge of the Mayans survivedthe perioduntil the
return, his grand children’s
grandchildren would be there to open the gates morethan a millennium from now when the sages would come back down to earth tocleanse it of its sins.The serpent was almost halfway down the steps when he reached the edge of theplatform. The protectors stood in a circle around the huge square, each had a bagslung across their shoulders, there was a little food in there but it wouldn't lastmore than a couple of days, perhaps three if they shared, a large part of the Mayan history was written and tucked away in the temples, every formula theyhad ever devised, every prophecy for the future, every lesson from the past, tonsand tons of parchments had been sacrificed for recording the Mayan knowledge of Astronomy, a small concise part of it was provided to each protector to help themalong on their journey.Choosing each protector had been the toughest part, each of them had to bescholars with an impeccable grasp on the language and Mayan science for it wasimperative that what they had to teach did not get adulterated down thegenerations, they had to be young and fertile- the objective was not to start a newcivilization with the few Mayans that were going to remain, but it would serve nopurpose if the bloodline died. Each protector had to be skilled in the arts of war toprotect their selves in the face of danger, and each and every one of the ninetynine Mayans who were going to remain had to be ordinary enough to vanish in thecities of other men.A huge serpent head had been carved into the stone at the foot of the pyramid, theserpentine shadow had come down to about three-quarters of the way when thechants finally started. The blood from seven beings would be used to feed the greatserpent.
It pained Deldan to think that all that the Mayans had built would be abandonedforever. The jury had been out to destroy all that they would be leaving behind forthe fear that unwelcome others might desecrate the holy city, but none of the greatsages could find it within themselves to destroy their lifes blood.The moment had arrived, the serpent conjoined with the head and the people let outa huge roar, the chants reached high in the air and the sound beat down on
Deldan’s ear drums, it felt as if something was trying to prise apart the very walls
of his head.Nobody knew what to expect and for a moment nothing happened, and then a shortsliver of light appeared at the top of the pyramid. Deldan watched in amazement asdid thousands of others who were there, the sliver slowly widened until it became asheet of light, the doorway kept widening until it stretched to engulf the completelength of the platform.
As if in unison, four hooded monks strode forward. First a goat’s head rolled, thena horse’s and their blood rained down on the head of the holy
serpent now wholefor the first time in a thousand years, a cow with a calf in its womb was sacrificedbefore a mongoose with a dead snake in his mouth was brought forth.A naked couple embraced beneath the head of the snake, their bodies awash in thered of the blood and the golden sunlight as they coupled there before the eyes of
everyone present, their bodies betrayed no sense of any one’s presence as they
worshipped the gods with their bodies and their lust. A sword sliced through the
man’s neck just a
s his body stiffened and he began ejaculating, the woman hadonly a moment longer to climax as the body on top of her convulsed in the mixedthroes of orgasm and the last dying breathes. Six dead bodies littered the platformaround the serpent and a palanquin with the seventh approached.The last was a man who was not a man; it would have amused Deldan had theceremony not left him completely disgusted. Blood sacrifices left him unnerved,the futility of wasting a life, but there was none who could deny the power and theenergy these provided to the rituals. It had been nothing short of an honor for
everyone who lay dead on the platform, to quench the great serpent’s thirst was a
matter of great pride and the purest of the pure had been summoned to the task. Butthe fact that it was necessary did not mean that he had to like it.To finish so strong a mantra with a half formed being made no sense to him, theperson standing in front of the pedestal was carefully undressed by three virgingirls. It seemed as if the chants were touching the clouds themselves as the sky wasfilled with lightning and thunder, in spite of all the activity taking place at thebottom of the steps not one eye had moved away from the doorway at the top of the platform, and now a shadow began to form, light engulfed a physical body as it
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