Riley laughed. “You want to tell the others or should I?”
“I’ll go.”
When Decker returned with the rest of the crew, Riley was already well inside the cavern taking a good look around. He had kicked a path through rocky debris on the cave floor which the others now used to catch up with him. They too, were shocked.
Charlie gazed at the chamber, amazed by what he was seeing. “Could there be any more gold in this place? There must be hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth in here!”
“Maybe it was like some kind of ancient Fort Knox,” Decker said.
“No, it’s tribute,” said Atticus, sweeping his flashlight over the treasure and up onto the fierce face of a statue in front of them. “Tribute to him.”
“Who’s that guy?” asked Riley.
“Huracan,” Selena said, stepping closer and bringing her own flashlight up to the face.
Acosta ran his hands over the base of the towering statue. “Yes! Huracan, the God of Storms. We meet at last… here in Xibalba.”
Selena was mesmerized. “This is incredible. This must be where the ancient tribes really thought their Underworld was. In pre-Christian culture, death usually meant the soul going to an afterlife or perhaps being reincarnated, but this changed after the Spanish invasion. The introduction of Christian concepts of the afterlife into Maya culture meant that local tribes began seeing Xibalba as a place of punishment, sort of analogous to our concept of hell. That was here!”
“So we really are in hell?” Charlie said.
Diana shivered. “I don’t like this place at all. It gives me the creeps.”
“Not me,” Riley said. “I love all this Aztec stuff!”
“How many more times do I have to tell you, Riley?” Selena sighed. “This is Maya!”
He scratched his head. “Oh, yeah. Keep forgetting. What’s the difference again?”
“There are many differences. For one, the Aztecs were chiefly concerned with offering the human heart to the gods.” Selena continued to mull around the cavern, lighting objects of interest with her flashlight as she spoke. “They thought this was the ultimate symbol of sacrifice, but the Maya were different. For them, the supreme offering to the gods was human blood. Another critical difference was that Maya used to inflict horrendous torture on their victims before death and often skinned them after the sacrifice so the priest, or chilan, could wear their skin while the worshippers danced.”
“And the victims were alive while the hearts were ripped out, right?” Riley asked.
“Oh, yes,” Selena said casually. “The Maya used to slice a hole in their abdomens and pulled the heart out from the bottom of the ribcage, all while the victim was alive, kicking and screaming.”
“They sound delightful,” Diana said with disgust.
“And it gets worse,” Selena said. “Archaeologists once found a grave with various sacrifice victims in it, including some children as young as three. They analysed the skeletons and found they had been flayed, stabbed and dismembered.”
“I’ve heard enough,” the Portuguese woman said, genuinely upset by what she was hearing.
Riley had also gone quiet. “Yeah, I reckon that’s enough history for one day.”
“So, where’s this notorious doomsday machine?” Charlie said, his voice loud in the quiet cavern. “I mean, that’s why we’re here, right?”
“Right,” Selena said. “So keep looking.”
“Hey!” Acosta called out from the far side. “Come over here! I think I found something.”
20
“What is it, old man?” Atticus said.
“Look inside this alcove.” Acosta lit it with his flashlight. “It’s another series of glyphs featuring what I’m presuming is the Stormbringer.”
Atticus looked closer and saw what looked like a carving of an ancient Maya capstone surrounded by strange golden rays, as if it were the rising sun. “A capstone?” he said, twisting his head back around to his friend in astonishment. “Could it be the Stormbringer was some sort of capstone?”
“I think it might be!” Acosta said. “And not just any capstone – this image clearly represents the main temple at Xunantunich!”
“The missing capstone at Xunantunich!” said Selena. “Of course!”
Amidst the high fives and excitement, Charlie frowned. “Wait. Just what were these capstones used for anyway?”
Selena calmed down and said, “Most of the bigger Maya buildings, especially those used as temples and palaces, were always very complex and intricately designed. They often had parts of the structure with corbelled roofing, and…”
“What sort of roofing?” Charlie asked. “Soldier here, not architect.”
“Sorry. Corbelled roofing means built in arches.”
“Take the classic corbel vault,” Atticus said. “This is an integral part of Maya architecture which they used all the time to support roofs and upper storeys. We see an example of it here inside this alcove. It’s a more basic technique than proper curved arches, but it worked wonders for the Maya.”
“Got it.”
“Anyway,” Selena continued with a proud smile from her father, “the bigger structures like palaces and temples used the corbelled roofing techniques, which involved overlapping flat stones in such a way they would meet up at the top of the arch. This would then be spanned with a capstone. If you’re interested, you can see a wonderful example in the burial chamber of King Pakal.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Charlie said. “But thanks.” s
“I had no idea the Maya were such intrepid architects,” Diana said.
“Oh yes,” Atticus said, rounding on her and removing his glasses to reveal keen eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “They had it all – vaulted roofs, shady colonnades, multi-story towers, not to mention steam rooms and lavatories. Today we think we created everything. We might give a vague nod to ancient Rome, but everywhere else means nothing.”
He stared back inside the alcove and looked once again at the picture of the capstone. “They even had specially carved doorways, often in the shape of a monster’s mouth. These represented portals into different realms.” The ghost
