a dozen warriors moved in, forming a semi-circle around the leader.
“What do you mean you’ve been here before?” Betty asked.
William turned to face her. “This place… these are the ruins of Dzibanche… not far from the Cenote Azul. We’re standing in the Temple of the Lintels.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“The carvings on the support beams are the same,” he said, pointing at the ceiling near the entrance. “But these aren’t ruins anymore. There should be a freaking parking lot down there!”
“How can that be?”
“Betty, I have an idea about what’s happening here, but it’s gonna sound crazy.” He paused, becoming distracted by the events in the clearing.
The leader stood atop his litter with his hands raised high. All the warriors dropped to one knee, their spears still aimed up. As they continued to chant, the leader reached into a basket at his feet and pulled out a severed head, holding it by the hair. He displayed it proudly, resulting in an immediate cheer from the warriors. The leader placed the head back in the basket like a precious gift, and he began to speak to his men.
William looked back to Betty. “He’s saying something about an important victory.”
“You speak Mayan?” Betty whispered.
“A little… you know, from my mom. I spent lots of summers down here. It sounds like Yucatec-Maya.” He strained to listen. “But the accent is a little different.”
Rowdy cheers, spears thumping, and boisterous chanting accompanied the leader’s long speech. When he finished his sermon, he gave a signal to one of his men, who blew into a large seashell that sounded like a low- pitched blast from a tuba. With the timing of a chorus line, the warriors stood and shifted their spears to their left hands before resuming their collective thump of spears against the floor.
“What’s going on?” Betty asked.
“The victory is somehow internal to this city. I heard
“Nice family.”
A gap opened in the crowd, where a group of men were dragged in by the ropes tied around their necks. William felt sorry for the unfortunate captives, as they were whipped along their backs and legs to prod them forward. One of the captives seemed much shorter than the others… he was just a boy! William bit his lower lip, fighting back the urge to yell out when they hit him.
With the captives gathered in the center of the courtyard, they were forced to their knees. They all kept their heads down, except for the boy; he glared at the leader with a hatred that was visible from the top of the pyramid.
Another bellow from the seashell trumpet signaled the warriors to kneel again. The leader raised his hands and spoke like a priest blessing his congregation.
William cupped his hand behind his ear to hear better. “He’s saying something about a division in the royal family. That on this day the Gods will conclude, or…” He paused, thinking for the right word for
“What?” Betty asked.
“He’s telling the captives how their sacrifice will empower the kingdom.”
With a final seashell blast, the prisoners were taken away. The leader and his entourage took a different path out. Another man stepped forward, snapping orders, and the remaining warriors dispersed in various directions.
William turned back to Betty with a frightened look.
“Well, what is it already?” she asked. “What’s going on here, William?”
He looked up, thinking back. “That tunnel with the lights… it got us out of the cavern, but…” He stared into Betty’s green eyes.
“What?” she demanded.
“I think it brought us back to the time of the ancient Maya.”
Betty’s jaw dropped, and she was left speechless. William stood frozen in his own thoughts as well, gazing out into the setting Yucatan sun.
Chapter Three
As the night sky descended upon the land, a single bright star drew the attention of several oddly dressed men in the courtyard; their elaborate feathered wardrobes made them look more like freakish bird creatures. William thought they might be ancient Mayan astronomers, based on how they pointed to the star amidst their heated discussions.
After studying the star for a time, William realized it was actually Venus. He had, of course, seen the planet countless times throughout his life, and he never gave it a second thought. Yet something about its location in the sky troubled the Mayan stargazers. One of the men became agitated and yelled something that William understood to mean a bad omen. He said it was the wrong night for the ceremony, but their leader wouldn’t listen. The man flapped his arms in such an animated manner as he spoke that it seemed he might take flight in his feathered costume at any moment. Instead, he stormed off with the other men following close behind him.
Soon thereafter, servants lit torches around the bottom of the pyramid and in scattered locations around the clearing. William and Betty ducked back inside, hiding in the darkened corner of the chamber, as torches flamed at points along the stairway and around the platform at the top of the pyramid.
Betty let out a big sigh after the torch lighters left. “We have to get out of here,” she said.
“I know,” William agreed, his blonde eyebrows furrowing in thought. He looked at his watch. “It’s nightfall here, but for us it’s more like three in the morning. I think we should try to sleep a little, and then sneak out in the middle of the night.”
“I don’t think I can sleep in this creepy place. What if someone comes?”
“We’ll take turns,” William said. “You go first. I’ll wake you in an hour or so.”
She agreed, lying down on the hard stone floor in the corner of the narrow room, practically falling asleep the moment her eyes closed.
William crept over to the chamber’s entrance and looked around the corner. Groups of peasants passed near the base of the pyramid carrying baskets of food, as they hurried toward the sounds of the festivity off in the distance.
“Oh crap,” William grumbled, noticing twenty or more guards standing around the perimeter of the courtyard. He wondered if they would be standing there all night, and he contemplated ways to sneak around them. While he considered the options, the scent of cooking meat drew his attention. His stomach growled, and he suddenly craved for his mom’s cooking.
Tears welled up in William’s eyes when images of his mom entered his mind, imagining the pain she had to be going through, thinking that he had drowned. He wondered if his girlfriend would even care that he was missing. When they moved from California, she was supportive at first. But he hadn’t seen her for over five months… since his dad died. He even had to finish his junior year through an online program. Her emails and calls had become distant, and less frequent.
William shook his head, deciding it was stupid to worry about those things right then. It wouldn’t matter if his head ended up on a stick on the outskirts of town! All he could do was try to survive. He moved back into the shadows beside Betty to wait for nightfall.
William woke up Betty by holding his hand over her mouth, to keep her from making any noise. “Everyone’s down there,” he whispered. “I think the whole freaking town is right at the bottom of these steps.”
“What’s happening?” Betty asked, rubbing her eyes as she stood.
“They’ve been preparing for some kind of ceremony over the last couple hours… chanting, banging drums, waving incense… all kinds of nonsense. The warriors… they’ve been herding all the people into the clearing. There’s obviously something they want everyone to see here.”
