Xibalba

CHAPTER 15

“Bones!” Maddock and Angel shouted, moving toward the spot where Bones had disappeared, heedless of whatever danger lay concealed in the undergrowth.

Bones was shouting too, though the noise of branches rustling and snapping partially drowned him out. The tumult subsided and for a moment there was only an ominous silence.

“Ow,” Bones muttered.

Maddock bent back some of the foliage, searching for his friend. “Bones? You okay?”

“It's cool,” Bones called out. His voice seemed to be coming from ground level. “Watch your step. There’s a hell of a drop off there.”

Maddock let out a relieved sigh, then took the machete from Angel and began clearing the foliage away to reveal an almost sheer cliff-face just beyond the weathered stelae. Bones was standing about ten yards away, the top of his head level with Maddock’s feet.

“It usually takes a bottle of Wild Turkey to make me fall like that,” he said, gingerly rubbing a knee. “I enjoy rolling down a hill as much as the next kid, but there’s a lot of rocks poking out of this one.”

“This isn’t a cliff,” Bell said, standing at the edge of the drop-off. “Not a natural one, at any rate. This is a ball court.”

Maddock peered out across the verdant landscape. Despite the thick jungle cover, he could just make out the undulations of the terrain. The long I-shaped depression like a perfectly straight river valley where Bones was standing, and beyond it, maybe fifty yards, another steep slope rising up. It wasn’t hard to imagine the area cleared of vegetation.

There had been a large ball court at Chichén Itzá —over five hundred feet long, half as wide, with thirty-foot high vertical walls. This court wasn’t quite that big, and the walls had more of a slope, but Maddock could see the similarity.

“The ball game held enormous spiritual significance to the Maya,” Bell went on. “It was an intrinsic part of their religion.”

“So you’re saying they’d be okay with Tebow taking a knee to pray,” Bones quipped.

“Oh, most assuredly,” Bell said, not catching Bones’ mischievous tone. “The ballgame was invented over three thousand years ago by the Olmecs, but it was just a game for them. For the Maya, it was a sort of passion play. The ball represented the sun and the changing seasons, and the players were gods, battling each other to control the heavens. The ball game was a central aspect of the Hero Twins legend, and of particular significance to the Lords of Xibalba. The pyramid will be close.”

He turned toward the north end of the long depression. “It will probably be that direction.”

“Shouldn’t we be able to see it from here?” Angel asked.

“I could climb a tree and take a look,” Bones suggested.

“None of the trees around here will hold your fat ass up,” she retorted. “But it’s an idea.”

Maddock shook his head. “If there’s a pyramid here, I doubt you’ll be able to see it unless you’re standing on it. We’ll just follow the ball court to the end.”

He tied a safety line around the stelae overlooking the ball court, mostly for Bell’s benefit, and then they made the descent, one at a time, to join Bones at the bottom of the depression. The jungle had reclaimed the ball court along with the rest of the city, so forward progress continued at a glacial pace, and before long, Maddock noticed the shadows deepening as the sun sank into the western sky. He knew that base camp was only a short trek away, but making that trip in the dark was patently foolish. They had already had one close encounter with the local wildlife, and snakes were only one of the many creatures that could inflict anything from a painful bite or sting, to a fatal wound. Most of the creatures preferred to avoid encounters with humans, but in the dark, a single misstep could prove disastrous. But of even greater concern to Maddock were the jaguars which roamed the forest; the big cats with their notoriously strong jaws — capable of crushing turtle shells and caiman skulls in a single bite — might not shy away from them but actually stalk them as prey in the darkness. He was about to call for a turnaround when they hit what appeared to be a dead end. Directly in front of them was a solid vertical wall, rising higher than Bones could reach. Maddock scraped away the vegetation to reveal blocks of cut stone.

“This is a structure,” Bell said, stating the obvious. “A courtyard wall, or possibly the base of a pyramid. We have to explore it. There will either be a gate or steps leading up to the next level.”

Maddock checked his watch. The smart play was to head back and pick up again in the morning, but if they were able to actually find the city before dusk, they could continue exploring it by flashlight and, if they located any structures still standing, utilize them for additional cover and protection from jungle predators.

“Keep looking,” he said, handing Miranda his machete. “Bones and I will head back to the LZ and break camp.”

No one registered an objection to the decision, but as he and Bones hiked back down the trail they had cut along the floor of the ball court, Bones voiced a concern Maddock had not previously considered. “Are you sure you want to spend the night in a place called City of Shadow?”

Maddock looked at him sidelong, trying to decide if his friend was seriously spooked or just teasing. “I know. It sounds like the set up for a found footage movie.”

“Dude, you think I’m kidding? City of Shadow? Lords of Death? The Maya who built this place vanished without a trace. Like… ” He made a little explosion with his fingers. “Poof. Whisked away. What if the Lords of Death were aliens? Or trans-dimensional beings? This could have been their… I don’t know, spaceport or portal to the home dimension.”

“You’re just bringing this up now? If Bell is right, we’ve been in the city for the last few hours.”

“Daytime is fine. Bad stuff only happens at night.”

“Who’d have thought you’d be scared of the dark?” Maddock said. “Frankly, I’m more worried about ordinary terrestrial creatures.”

“You mean the Serpent Brothers? You think they know about this place?”

Maddock had not meant that at all, but decided to address the question. “I don’t think anyone’s been here in at least five hundred years. If they know about it, they don’t visit. It’s more likely that they’re just protecting the legend. I think they’re looking for it, too.”

“Which means they could show up anytime.”

Maddock shrugged. Kasey had supplied them with two SIG Sauer P226 TacOps semi-automatic 9-mm pistols, six twenty-round magazines, and a box of spare ammunition. It was more than enough to handle a jungle predator — provided they had sufficient warning — but far from ideal for repelling an assault by a team of gunmen armed with assault weapons. But like it or not, that was the situation. They would deal with whatever happened because that was what they did.

And if they did have to fight, the stone walls of the lost city would offer a lot more protection than the thin nylon panels of their tents.

They packed up the equipment and started the trek, acutely aware of the fact that the sun was now below the treetops. Down in the trough-like ball court, the darkness deepened to the point that Maddock and Bones had to break out their LED flashlights, though this decision had more to do with keeping nocturnal predators at bay than actually illuminating their way. It also served to alert the others to their approach. An answering light from further up the trail guided them in. When they reached the wall, they found Angel and Miranda grinning in triumph,

“The girls look way too happy, Maddock,” Bones said in a stage whisper. “Maybe we should have split them up.”

If either woman heard, they chose to ignore the none-too-subtle jab.

“It is a pyramid,” Angel said, unable to contain her excitement. “And we found a way inside.”