Gods of Jade and Shadow

Vucub-Kamé visits Xtabay. He can feel his brother’s lingering presence and walks the same path along the floor Hun-Kamé did, wanting to feel their similarities and differences through their shared steps. He chastises Xtabay for failing to enthrall Hun-Kamé. Xtabay remarks that Hun-Kamé is the Lord of Xibalba, putting an extra emphasis on “the,” which reminds Vucub-Kamé “who was the firstborn child and who was the pretender, the traitor” (169).

The words unsettle Vucub-Kamé. He paces the room as he interrogates Xtabay about his brother’s visit. Xtabay reports that Hun-Kamé is turning mortal quickly and that the reflection of Casiopea was in his eye. Disturbed by this, Vucub-Kamé kills Xtabay’s pet bird to read another prophesy. He can no longer his brother’s arrival in Baja California. Instead, he sees a fleeting image of Hun-Kamé upon his throne before also seeing himself as the Lord of Xibalba. The new uncertainty unsettles him. He returns to Xibalba and sits upon his throne, pressing his hands into the stone to reassure himself “it was there, it remained his, it would not vanish” (173).