Thieves Till We Die (28 page)

‘In a quarter of an hour or so you'll feel so much more relaxed,' Honor assured her.

Tye discreetly pushed the pill up between her teeth and her cheek, and hoped she could spit it out before too much had dissolved.

‘All right, we need to shift the rubble here to get inside,' Traynor told his priests. ‘We'll work in rotation again. Proceed slowly and with caution – there
may be defences we need to bypass.'

Tye stared at him hatefully. ‘This is like one big field trip to you, isn't it?'

‘It's the culmination of plans I've been nurturing for almost ten years,' he said. ‘Now, here, the dream becomes a reality. I shall speak to Her.'

‘Fluent in Aztec, are you?'

He shook his head. ‘The Mesoamericans spoke in many tongues – Nahuatl, Tarascan, Mixtec, Zapotec … She understood them all.' He smiled smugly. ‘Speech is simply the manifestation of thought. She will know the strength and truth of my words.'

The bodyguards were already piling into the rubble, hefting great slabs of sandstone away between them. Tye watched them worriedly. ‘Say this presence does exist, say it
can
give you secret knowledge and power – what are you going to do? Dress up your followers as Aztec warriors and attack the White House?'

Traynor's gaze turned on her, hard and unblinking. ‘When my biological agents start killing millions in key cities all over the world, then people will listen to me. Then people will respect the old gods.'

Tye felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, and stared at him with disgust. ‘You're going to blackmail the world into worshipping Aztec gods? You'll kill them if they don't?'

‘I won't have to,' Traynor said triumphantly. ‘I'm about to prove that what the Aztecs deemed a deity was something far greater than that. A living entity. A presence.' He half laughed. ‘There'll be no need for faith in this world any longer. The presence
exists
– measurable and definable. It tried to give the ancients
power, only their minds were too primitive, they had no ears to hear. But I am ready to listen, and when I present absolute proof that the gods exist … when I become a
spokesman
for the gods … who will not listen? The world shall follow me.'

Tye shook her head. ‘You're totally mad, aren't you?'

‘No. I am simply
right
. And now I must prepare.'

‘Got to put your make-up on? Look your best for the old goddess?'

‘I must show respect for the old traditions. Demonstrate that I understand them. That I am truly worthy.'

Worthy of a straitjacket
, Tye thought miserably as he walked away. She saw Honor smirking to herself, watching the rest of the priests as they worked.

Tye shivered, and looked around her. She suddenly felt as if she was being watched by someone – or something – from the trees close by. Imagination? Paranoia?

Or waking spirits?

Whatever, she couldn't afford to keep this pill in her mouth a minute longer. She pretended to wipe her mouth, then dropped it on the grass. No one seemed to notice, no one spoke or shouted. She wondered how much she'd ingested.

Maybe it didn't matter. Watching the pitch-black entrance to the temple grow slowly wider as the debris was cleared, like a mouth opening to swallow them all, Tye couldn't imagine ever sleeping again.

Tye stood beside Ramez just outside the temple entrance. The way inside had been cleared.

Not that Ramez seemed to even notice. He stood swaying slightly, docile, his eyes glassy. An Aztec eagle warrior helmet had been placed over his head – it looked as if his sweaty face was peering out through the bronze beak of an enormous bird – and a tabard had been placed over his shirt, covered with bright blue feathers. He looked weird, beautiful and pathetic, all at once.

Tye's vision kept drifting in and out of focus – the drug they'd tried to give her was clearly strong stuff. While acting dazed and droopy herself, she was secretly pinching the skin on her arms, hoping the pain would help to keep her alert.

Suddenly she jumped as Traynor loomed up in front of her, the strip of ochre make-up smeared across his mouth once more. He wore a loose-fitting jaguar-skin robe that looked stained with blood, and an incredible feathered headdress in turquoise and blue. Behind him the rest of his priests were assembling, all in their own Aztec gear: jewelled wraps, skirts with geometric prints, zigzagged cloaks, sandals
laced with gold thread. Honor looked striking in her white knee-length silk skirt and a blouse decorated with suns and birds. On her head she wore a golden crown enhanced with a plume of short, stiff orange feathers. Tye saw how uncomfortable she was feeling, how impatient she was to get on.

‘We're going in,' Traynor announced simply. He turned to the bodyguards. ‘Take the girl in first – ahead of you.' He smiled across at Honor. ‘If there are any traps in there waiting to be sprung, she'll be the one who pays the price.'

Tye blinked sleepily, all the time wishing she could rake her nails down Traynor's face. So this was why they'd kept her alive. As for how long she'd stay that way …

The biggest of the two bodyguards shoved her forwards into the temple's entrance. Tye knew she had to pretend to be drugged and drowsy. But the truth was, she was terrified. The darkness inside was absolute, and it was fiercely cold. Her skin was already rising with gooseflesh. No one had set foot in here for centuries. She wanted to turn and run out into the warm sunshine.

But she knew there could be no going back.

‘Take a candle,' Traynor instructed, his voice sounding boomy and dead in the freezing passage. ‘No flashlights. I want nothing out of place in here.'

An oily yellow light spilled on to the sandstone. In the gloom she saw two bundles of sticks stood in a skull-shaped holder carved into the passage wall.

‘Somebody light those torches,' snapped Honor.

The bundles of sticks ignited into pale, smoky flame
as soon as the bodyguards set a candle to them. Now Tye could see more of her surroundings. The passageway was wide and paved with flagstones. A few metres ahead stood a large archway.

Tye was shoved forwards, and stumbled on reluctantly towards the archway, the flickering light making it seem that weird, misshapen shadows were reaching out all around. The shuffling steps of the people coming in behind her sounded like strange creatures woken by the light, shifting about, resentful at the intrusion. The corridor grew danker, the air staler as she reached the archway.

It was the gateway to an inner chamber. The bodyguard with the torch came closer behind her so she could see more clearly.

Not a good thing.

The room was a labyrinth of stone pillars stretching up into the darkness. At least a dozen stone biers were arranged around the chamber, flanking the pillars. A body lay on each, clad in fine regalia. She heard the bodyguard swear under his breath, the first words she had ever heard him say.

‘A crypt,' Traynor announced. ‘These are the bodies of Coatlicue's attendants.'

‘Where will the treasures be stored?' Honor asked.

Cut to the chase, why don't you
, thought Tye.

‘Perhaps the spirits of Coatlicue's attendants remain here to guard them,' Traynor said reverently. ‘Perhaps the treasures are stored in the chamber beyond.'

Tye peered into the inky blackness, trying to see the entrance.

And caught a glimpse of movement.

‘There's something there!' she hissed and pointed dumbly into the shadows, starting to shiver.

By the flickering light of the flames, Traynor cautiously explored the area. ‘There's a door,' he reported. ‘And there are steps leading up. Nothing else.'

‘With that pill we gave her, I'm surprised she's not seeing pink elephants,' joked Douglas feebly.

Xavier crossed to join Traynor at the wooden doorway and peered at the pictograms carved there. ‘Yes, look. This is where the treasures have been stored. Waiting to be recovered.'

‘Can we see?' asked Honor quickly.

Traynor cautiously tried the door, but it did not budge. ‘There'll be a secret hinge. It may be booby-trapped.' He nodded to himself. ‘We'll leave it for now.'

‘Surely, we should –'

‘That treasure isn't going anywhere,' said Traynor. ‘And anyway – wouldn't you sooner be invited to go inside?'

‘Of course.' Tye saw Honor put on her meek act, while Traynor took a torch from the bodyguard and crossed confidently through the sinister mausoleum to the stairway. ‘Coatlicue's dwelling place will be on the highest level,' he announced. ‘The priests would have wanted as few barriers as possible between temple and sky, so as the Fifth Sun extinguished, the great goddess could escape to the highest heaven.' He looked around at his followers, his smile almost satanic in the red, flickering light. ‘My friends, this is what we've all been waiting for. Let's go.'

The other priests pushed past Tye and her bodyguard, eagerness overtaking their initial caution now. Ramez was pushed along in the grip of red-mouth and yellow-mouth. Even though he'd been drugged, they were clearly taking no chances.

‘Thought I heard something behind us,' said yellow-mouth.

Red-mouth shook his head. ‘You're just jumpy.'

Yellow-mouth looked at Tye. ‘What about her friends? Both those kids got away.'

Tye blinked sleepily back at him, though her heart started racing. So Jonah
and
Patch had escaped? Could they have somehow followed her, could they be coming to the rescue right now?

‘Relax,' said red-mouth, who peered back down the passage towards the daylight. ‘There's no one there.'

Tye felt a bitter disappointment – then gasped as she was hauled along up the stone steps by her bodyguard, the clatter of shoes and sandals up ahead creating weird echoes all around her.

‘Tread softly,' Traynor hissed. ‘Have some respect.'

As they reached the next level of the temple, an old, rotting smell caught at Tye's nostrils. In the flickering torchlight she caught phantom flashes of more stone biers, of shields and clubs and swords, of skeletons clothed in animal skins and feathers. Dead warriors, brought here to guard Coatlicue's living spirit. Or maybe to nourish her – wasn't she supposed to feed on the dead?

Whatever, Tye guessed that if there'd been time to linger, she'd find every one of those skeletons' rib cages had been cracked clean open, so the priests
could tug out the hot, slithery heart inside. A horrible image of Ramez lying on one of the biers flashed into her mind.

Traynor had already marched on, though Honor was looking nervously back down the stone steps.
Guess she's freaked out too
, thought Tye, traipsing along behind her as they scaled the next flight of stone-flagged steps.

The steps gave on to a long, narrow, claustrophobic landing where Traynor and the others had already gathered in silence. His smoking torch illuminated a cluster of macabre skull-carvings, marking the edges of a dark entrance crafted in the shape of a giant serpent's head.

‘This is it,' breathed Traynor. ‘The holy place. Where Coatlicue's attendants communed with the Presence.'

Honor turned to Tye's bodyguard. ‘They may have left traps for the unwary,' she said. ‘Put the girl inside first.'

The other priests made way and Tye was pushed through the dark entrance. It was freezing cold in here. Behind her someone held their torch up, but its light grew pale as the flames waned and flickered. An instinctive feeling of dread enveloped her. The chamber was large and circular. Seven stone pillars formed an inner circle, ranged around a gigantic, terrifying statue.

It was the goddess Coatlicue, but depicted more vividly and nightmarishly than any image Tye had ever seen. The eyes of the two serpents coiling out from the severed neck seemed fixed upon her, as their
heads met in profile to form a face. Huge, pointed claws tipped her slab-like hands and feet. The tangle of snakes that formed her skirt seemed to writhe in the flickering light of the torch, and as smoke blew across the chamber it seemed to animate the hands and hearts carved into the statue's broad chest, making them twitch and pulse as if with a power of their own. Tye found herself praying to the voodoo spirits for protection.

Xavier's voice floated eerily out from behind her. ‘No traps that I can see.'

‘Keep the girl and Ramez at the back for now,' Traynor instructed the bodyguards. ‘No unbeliever must be allowed to step inside the inner circle.' One of them walked uncertainly up to her, gripped her arm and steered her towards the shadows in the back of the room. Tye found that his big hand on her arm was actually something of a comfort.

She watched, a sick feeling slowly building in her chest, as the Sixth Sun devotees filed into the dark, smoky chamber. No longer did they seem jokey and out-of-place in their weird get-up. This dank, sinister world was one where they could move freely and in comfort. They did not talk, or smile, or even look at each other. They simply took up places around the temple with the ease of well-rehearsed actors finding their marks.

Two of the priests, Douglas and one other, produced a steel flight case and removed small glass phials from within. Tye shuddered – they had to be the biological agents, Traynor's chemical weapons.

‘See? Just as the craftman's drawing showed us.'
Traynor's voice was rapt. ‘These indentations ranged round the statue aren't as deep as I'd imagined but … Well, thirteen of them, it's
perfect
.'

‘Destined to be,' Douglas agreed happily.

‘Place one phial in each.' Carefully, the two men began to do so, and Traynor cackled. ‘This truly
is
our destiny, my friends.'

‘Thought you said nothing out of place in here?' Tye burst out – then bit her lip. She was supposed to be drugged, and hastily added a long, drawn-out yawn.