Curse of the Ancients (15 page)

“I’ve never heard of anyone named Kisa,” the short woman said. “Or a King Itchik for that matter. Have you?” she asked her friends.

“Never,” they both said.

The taller woman glanced at the box behind her. Then she turned back to Riq and lowered her eyes. He saw that she had a large birthmark on the right side of her face.

Riq nodded. “Thanks for your help —”

“Where are you from?” the woman with the birthmark said, cutting him off.

“Me?” Riq said. He didn’t quite know how to answer. “Well, I’m from . . . a faraway village.”

The woman continued staring at him. “And what is the name of this village?”

Riq leaned against the wall behind him and said, “Oh, it’s very small. Most people have never heard of it.”

The other two women were looking at the woman with the birthmark.

“Anyway,” Riq said, pushing off the wall, “I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”

The women remained standing in front of their boxes until Riq left the room.

He hurried back up the stairs and out of the observatory, trying to forget about the cryptic message inside the locket and the women and the fact that there may be additional lockets inside those wooden boxes they were hiding. Right now he needed to concentrate on finding the boy Bacab had asked him to find.

Riq started up the dark path, toward the cave, when he collided suddenly with someone hurrying back down the path.

They both tumbled into the bushes.

Riq, slightly dazed, raised his head to find a boy lying in the bushes beside him. “Okib?” he asked hesitantly.

The boy sat up and looked at him.

Riq remembered his robe and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not a real monk. But is it really you, Okib?”

The boy shrugged and looked around.

Riq scrambled to his feet and leaned down over the boy. “A man named Bacab asked me to find you. He’s in the village holding cell with two of my friends, and he claims you’ll know what to do.”

The boy stood up. He looked about Dak’s age. “I knew it!” he cried.

“Knew what?” Riq asked.

“There was nothing left in the cave.” The boy wiped a hand down his face. “They took it all. Everything.”

“Someone stole from you?” Riq asked.

“The monks did,” the boy said. “Why won’t they just leave us alone? We’re not hurting anyone.”

Riq felt the injustice in his chest. “Come,” he told the boy. “I’ll take you to Bacab.”

“No,” Okib said. “My brother says I must always wait until deep into the night, when everyone has fallen asleep. Then I will bring him the key.”

Riq looked out over Izamal. For the first time since they arrived in this new time period, he wondered about the Break they needed to fix. He’d been moping around long enough. It was time to get back to his life’s work: being a Hystorian. “Follow me,” he told Okib, with a new sense of determination. “We can wait inside the observatory. You tell me when the time is right to free your people, and I will come along to assist you.”

Okib looked up at him, nodding.

They started back down the path together, Riq gripping the locket pieces in his satchel and promising himself he would remain absolutely focused for the remainder of the mission.

D
AK WAS
half-asleep and completely aware that he was dreaming, but the dream was a good one so he kept his eyes closed and followed along with the story. He was at Sera’s birthday party, just outside her barn, and her uncle had just blindfolded him and handed him a stick. He spun Dak around several times and then let go, saying, “Let her rip!” Dak staggered a little, dizzy, then started hacking at the swinging piñata, which he knew was somewhere in front of him.

He missed twice, then connected on his third try.

On his fourth swing, he reared back and whacked the piñata with all his strength, feeling the side cave in. He could hear the candy start pouring out.

When Dak ripped off the blindfold, he saw that it wasn’t candy at all. It was blocks of high-end cheese. All different kinds and sizes. They looked beautiful streaming out onto the thick summer grass. The other kids were already converging with their empty pillowcases, scooping the cheese blocks up with two hands and shoving them inside, and Dak shouted, “Hey, wait for me! I have to get my pillowcase!” But he couldn’t find his pillowcase, not anywhere, and all the while more and more kids raced past him, pouncing on what was left from the piñata
he
broke open.

“Wake up,” he heard Sera whispering in his ear.

“But they’re taking all my cheese,” he told her.

“Dak, wake up!” she whispered louder this time.

He opened his eyes, and he saw all the imprisoned Mayas quietly filing out the open door of the prison cell. Sera pulled him to his feet and they joined the line, and soon they were sneaking past two sleeping monks, ducking out of the building, and hurrying into the night.

Dak followed Sera over to where Riq was standing. Riq pointed toward the towering observatory, and without saying a word, the three of them split off from the others and hurried through the village in that direction.

As they ran, Dak kept looking all around, worried someone might hop out of the bushes and snatch them up. He saw several monks milling around in the square, though it was too dark to see what they were doing. He saw a giant wooden cross leaning up against one of the huts. He saw storm clouds gathering in the distant sky.

Riq opened the observatory doors, ushered Dak and Sera inside, then led them to the far corner of the large room where Dak glanced up at the open roof. The three of them stood there for several quiet seconds, hands on knees, trying to catch their breath and looking all around them.

Sera was the first to straighten back up. She took in a deep breath and said to Riq, “How’d you know the answer was
friendship
?”

Riq took his hands off his knees, too. “A conversation I had with Kisa,” he said, linking his fingers on top of his head and taking a few more deep breaths.

Dak pulled the SQuare out of his breechcloth and said, “Dude, that was almost a thousand years ago. How could it possibly apply to today?”

Riq shook his head. “Trust me, I was just as surprised as you guys.”

Dak powered on the SQuare and brought up the latest riddle — which Riq had yet to see. “Before we look at this I just want to say something, okay? It seems like something really messed up is happening here. Something other than the Break.” Dak looked at Sera. “Once we fix what we’re supposed to fix, if you guys want to help these people in some other way, I’m totally open to that.”

Sera gave him a small smile and said, “Thanks, Dak. Let’s concentrate on the Break for now. We can discuss everything else later on.”

Dak realized it was the first time he’d seen Sera smile in a long time. “I just know it’s important to you,” he said.

“It is.”

Riq cleared his throat. “I wanted to say something, too. It was wrong of me to just wander off like that. I apologize. I also want to assure you I’m as committed to our mission as I’ve ever been.”

“We know you are,” Sera said.

Dak patted Riq on the shoulder. “It’s cool, dude. Just remember, love is a tricky game —”

“Moving right along,” Sera said, pointing at the SQuare in Dak’s hand.

“Oh. Right.” Dak turned the screen around so Riq and Sera could see. “We were thinking you might be able to help us with this second riddle, Riq.” Dak silently reread the words upside down:

To save the reproduction of the treasure’s truth, do the following:

Seek the help of those who follow “the most important thing in the world”

Then dig deep, deeper, deepest, unlocking a long-locked door

It will take a polyglot to understand the wisdom of the glyphs

and the forgery of the curse

“So, we’re supposed to find people who follow friendship,” Riq said.

“Apparently, we already did,” Dak said. “Everyone in the holding cell knew the answer to that question. Well, everyone but Sera.”

“Ha-ha,” Sera said, rolling her eyes. “All of the Mayas in the cell had been in the cave earlier, too. Which means they’re proud of their Mayan roots, right?”

“Exactly.” Dak turned to Riq and said, “We learned from Bacab that the monks have caused a split among the Mayan people. Some are embracing the Spanish influence. Others want to remain loyal to ancient Mayan ways.”

“So, this Break,” Sera said, pointing at Dak, “has to center around something they have stashed in that cave. Most likely —”

“Pacal’s codex,” Dak said.

“It’s not in the cave anymore,” Riq said. “According to Bacab’s little brother, everything’s been cleared out. He told me the monks confiscated it all.”

Dak smacked his own forehead with the heel of his hand. “Dude, I just realized something. Did you guys see the monks in the square on the way over here?”

Riq and Sera both nodded.

Dak turned to Riq. “Back in the cell, Bacab explained that every hut with a secret friendship sculpture out front was storing ancient Mayan artifacts. The problem is, over the past several weeks they’ve been transferring everything up to the cave. They thought that would be safer.”

Sera’s eyes grew big. “They’re piling everything into the square!” she shouted. “They’re planning to burn it.”

“Bingo,” Dak said. “And that bonfire, my friend, is what’s otherwise known as an
auto-da-fe
.”

They all just stared at one another, mouths hanging open in shock, until Dak said, “We have to stop it. Pacal’s codex has to be preserved. That’s gotta be the Break, right? Which means the one that has survived history is a fake!”

Sera took the SQuare out of Dak’s hands and held it out to Riq. “Do you understand anything else in the riddle?”

“A
polyglot
is someone who can speak or write multiple languages,” he said, looking up at Sera.

“Like you, dude,” Dak said.

Riq nodded.

“So, we need Riq’s language ability,” Sera said, “in order to understand the wisdom of the glyphs and the forgery of the curse.” She patted Riq on the back. “We’re sure glad you came back.”

Dak sensed Riq might be feeling a little too good about himself. He opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but just then he heard someone entering through the front door of the observatory. Dak snatched the SQuare from Sera and shoved it back into his breechcloth.

“Quick,” Riq said. “Follow me.” He pulled a candle out of its holder on the wall and started toward one of the doors.

Dak and Sera followed Riq through the door and down a narrow staircase. Then the three of them crept slowly through a dark hall, Riq leading the way with his candle. Dak wasn’t sure the basement was the best idea until he spotted an open door at the opposite end.

Riq stopped right in front of it, waiting for Dak and Sera to catch up. Then the three of them looked inside. There was a tall Mayan woman sitting in a chair, holding a wooden box in her lap and grinning. Dak saw she had a birthmark on her cheek.

“I’ve been waiting for you three,” she said.

Dak let Riq and Sera take the two empty chairs and he stood behind them, studying the Mayan woman and the wooden box in her lap. There were a number of ancient Mayan artifacts inside — including several lockets that resembled the one he’d given to Riq. The woman got up to close the door, and then sat back down and said, “I’m just going to come out and ask: Are you from the future?”

Dak, Sera, and Riq all looked at one another, then Dak turned back to the woman and said, “We are, ma’am.”

The woman covered her mouth, and her eyes turned glassy. “I knew it,” she said, pointing at Riq. “As soon as you showed up earlier this evening, in that ill-fitting robe, I had this strange feeling in my stomach.” She shook her head and said, “Wow. I did not expect to be having
this
conversation tonight.”

“My turn to ask a question,” Dak said. “Are you a Hystorian?”

“I am.”

“What about those two other ladies?” Riq asked. “The ones you were sitting with earlier.”

“No, it’s just me now.” She covered her mouth again, briefly, then took a deep breath and said, “Forgive me. I just . . . I never thought I’d actually live to see the day.”