After a few moments, however, she vanished from my view—having decided, I imagined, to go back to the citadel and carry out her duties there. We continued on our journey up to the mysterious temple.
Along the path we went. Nine men—Renco, myself and the seven Incan warriors—surrounded by the pack of rapas.
We came to the mountainside, to a narrow passageway set into the rockface. One of the Incan warriors told Renco that the temple was to be found at the other end of this passageway.
Renco doused the idol once again. It sang loudly, its high- pitched tone cutting through the early-morning air. Then he entered the passageway, the cats trailing close behind him like children following a schoolteacher.
As we walked down the narrow passageway by the light of our flaming torches, one of the Incan warriors foolishly attempted to stab one of the entranced rapas with the point of his spear—but just as he was about to drive his weapon into the beast's flank, the rapa turned on him and snarled ferociously, stopping him in mid-lunge. The big cat then just turned forward and resumed its enraptured pursuit of the singing idol.
The warrior exchanged a glance with one of his companions.
The rapas might have been entranced, but they were not totally defenceless.
Now it was that we emerged from the narrow passageway into a wide circular canyon of some kind. As the chieftain Vilcafor had said, a most incredible finger of stone shot up out of the middle of it, soaring high into the night sky.
A path was cut into the canyon wall to our left—the escape path Vilcafor had ordered his people to build. It curled around the circumference of the cylindrical canyon, spiralling up and around the finger of stone in its centre.
Renco mounted the path, stepping slowly upward, holding the wet idol in his hands. The cats followed him. The Incan warriors and myself walked slowly up the path behind them.
Up and up we went. Round and round, following the steady curve of the path.
At length we came to a rope bridge that stretched out over the canyon, connecting the outer path to the finger of stone in the middle of the great canyon.
I looked out across the ravine at the stone tower opposite me.
On top of the tower, surrounded by some low-cut foliage, I saw a magnificent stepped pyramid not unlike those found in the lands of the Aztecas. A box-shaped tabernacle was mounted atop the imposing triangular pyramid.
Renco crossed the bridge first. The cats followed him, one by one, bouncing with supreme surefootedness across the long swooping bridge. The warriors went next. I crossed last of all.
Once I had navigated my way across the bridge, I mounted a series of wide stone steps which opened onto a clearing of some sort. At the head of this clearing lay the portal to the temple, the entrance.
Wide and dark, square and menacing, it yawned open as if daring all the world to enter.
With the wet idol in his hands, Renco approached the portal. 'Warriors,' said he and firmly, 'man the boulder.'
The seven warriors and my humble self hurried over to the boulder that stood to the side of the temple's yawning entryway.
Renco stood in the mouth of the portal, dousing the idol with rainwater, causing it to continue its melodious song.
The cats stood before him, staring at the singing idol, hypnotised.
Renco took a step inside the temple.
The cats followed him.
Renco took another step down and the first cat went inside after him.
Another step.
A second cat, then a third, then a fourth.
At which stage Renco tipped as much water as was left inside the llama's bladder over the idol, and then— after taking a final solemn glance at his people's most prized possession—he hurled it down into the dark depths of the temple.
The cats leapt inside the temple after it. All twelve of them.
'Quickly, the boulder!“ Renco cried, hurrying out of the temple's entrance. 'Push it back into the portal!'
We pushed as one.
The boulder rumbled against the threshold.
I leaned on it with all my might, straining against the weight of the great stone. Renco appeared beside me, also heaving against it.
The boulder moved slowly back into the portal. A few more paces to go.
Almost there…
Just a couple.., more…
'Renco,' a voice said suddenly from somewhere nearby.
It was a woman's voice.
Renco and I turned together.
