From a hidden location, the priests "laid and watched them".

The priest laid the blade point against the man's cheek.

The priest had laid the obsidian blade against the man's right cheek.

The priest lay on his back, blood trickling from his mouth.

But it was too late, the priest lay dead in a pool of his own blood.

The high priest lay in a stupor at the far side of the upper dais.

The priest lay as he was left, sucking air down like a cardiac victim.

A priest lay on the stone floor in his own excrement and vomit.

The taller priest laid a single flat stone on her belly.

He stood back, and the second priest laid another similar stone on her chest.