by David Wood
The floor held up. He reached the other side in mere seconds, savoring the relative cool of the dark passage beyond, despite the overwhelming stench in the air. The odor stung his nose and brought tears to his eyes.
“I’m across,” he shouted back into the cave. “The floor is thin. I don’t know how much weight it can hold, and I don’t think we want to test it. There’s no trick really, except haul ass and watch your step.”
Behind him, in the darkness, there was a strange chattering sound, and despite the heat, Maddock felt a chill shoot down his spine.
He turned away from the passage and slowly turned his head to illuminate the cavern he had just entered.
Just past the entrance, a flight of irregularly carved steps descended down into a vast, stadium-sized chamber. The floor of the cavern was covered in a substance that looked like dark mud. To get through, they would have to wade through a sea of the stuff, but that was the least of their problems.
He tilted his head back, shining the light up at an angle. Wherever the light touched, the ceiling rippled like a field of wheat being stirred by a stiff breeze.
Bones’ voice echoed across the glowing chamber behind him. “Looks like I’m going last again.”
The chattering got louder and the rustling grew more feverish, as if the ceiling were alive...which in fact, it was.
He had come to the sixth and last house of Xibalba.
CHAPTER 30
After hundreds of years of silence, the Lords of Death were again playing deadly tricks on those foolish enough to enter their dark realm.
Alex had lost two more of his security men. One had fallen victim to a trap in the room Carina had called Blade House. Razor sharp obsidian blades had sprung out of the floor, slicing up through the unlucky man’s boots, turning everything below his knees into bloody chunks. Without legs to stand on, he had promptly fallen over and been impaled on the blade points. The second man had slipped on the icy threshold of Cold House and disappeared into the freezing mist at the bottom of the chasm.
That was when Alex had decided to let Carina’s men take point.
The Serpent priestess clearly wasn’t happy about having to risk her men’s lives, but it was simple math. Alex was down to just four men now. Carina had twice that many, and if the old gods started talking to her, telling her that the gringo intruders weren’t worthy to enter their sacred realm, the odds were stacked against Alex and his surviving men.
And if Carina didn’t actually know how to get them safely through the subterranean death maze, what point was there in keeping her around anyway? So far, Maddock’s expedition was doing a better job of showing them the way forward.
“What’s this place called?” he asked, rubbing his arms to warm them up after the arctic zip-line ride.
“Jaguar House,” Carina replied, not looking away from the rows of statues.
“Uh, huh. What are we supposed to do here?”
She frowned. “I’m not sure. In the old stories, the house was full of captive jaguars. But these are just statues.”
“I doubt very much that they are just statues,” Alex said.
“True.” She turned to her warriors, chose one of them. “You.”
Despite his fierce appearance, the man went pale. He glanced to his comrades as if looking for moral support, but none would meet his gaze.
“Go,” Carina commanded. “Show us the way.”
“You should be the one to go,” the man hissed. “Or are you afraid to face the Lords of Xibalba? Maybe you are not fit to lead us.”
He started to raise his war club, but at that instant, all four of Alex’s men brought their assault rifles up, aiming them at the man’s chest.
Alex laughed. “Is this going to be a problem, Carina?”
Carina moved like lightning, drawing her obsidian dagger and pressing it to the warrior’s throat before he could even blink. She leaned close to him and whispered, “It is an honor to be sacrificed to the gods of heaven and earth. Or would you rather I spill your blood like this?”
“You never liked me,” he spat. “That is why you are sending me to die.” His eyes flicked to the side. “She will sacrifice all of us, brothers, and give the Shadow to this outsider.”
“If the gods will it, you will pass safely through the jaguars of Xibalba.” Carina lowered the blade and eased away from him.
The warrior bared his teeth and shook his club, but then turned away from her and started across the floor of the cavern toward the rows of stelae.
Alex pretended to follow the man’s progress but he was far more interested in the silent power struggle going on between Carina and her warriors. Underneath their tattooed savagery, they were cowards. Cosplay warriors, ready to kill, but afraid to die. Carina would not be able to maintain her control of them for long if—
There was a loud snick and a blur of motion right in front of the advancing scout. One of the carved figures had spun completely around, and as it turned, a score of sharp, obsidian blades—each at least three feet long—had shot out from holes in its body.
A haze of red mist filled the air around the warrior, and then he collapsed onto the stone floor.
In pieces.
“Ouch,” Alex said, wincing a little. He faced Carina but continued to watch the other warriors. “Next batter?”
Carina’s expression was more confident now. “He was a coward and the gods demanded his blood. But his sacrifice has appeased them. I know the way, now. Follow me.”
Without waiting for anyone to acknowledge, she turned on her heel and started out across the floor.
None of the warriors moved.
Alex shook his head in disbelief. This woman had more balls than any of her men, but courage alone wouldn’t guarantee her safety.
She reached the bloody chunks of the fallen warrior and turned left, moving along the row of statues until she reached two that looked like mirror images facing each other. Without hesitating, she stepped between them.
Nothing happened.
“I didn’t understand at first,” she called out, without looking back. “But then I remembered why el Guia appears to us in the form of the Lightning Dog. The jaguars kill, but the dogs show the way.”
“Guide dogs,” Alex muttered, hurrying to be the first to follow in her footsteps. “Of course.”
Bones was still twenty feet from safety when the floor under his left foot split apart with a resounding crunch. He stumbled forward, hitting the floor face down, and triggering another loud crack. Jagged fracture lines, like red lightning bolts, shot out from underneath him.
Maddock’s breath caught in his throat and his hands curled into claws, as if he might, through sheer willpower, keep the floor from collapsing and delivering his friend into the volcanic fury below.
Willpower or not, the floor remained more or less intact.
“Don’t move,” Maddock hissed, mindful of what might happen if he raised his voice any louder.
“Easy for you to say,” Bones called out. His words were fast and clipped. “Now I know why bacon makes that noise on the grill.”
“Don’t try to get up. Keep your weight spread out evenly.”
“Can we give the fat jokes a rest?” Bones said through clenched teeth as he reached forward, placing his palms flat on the superheated surface, and began pulling himself forward. He had let Miranda take the heavy pack with the SCUBA equipment across, but even without it, he was still the heaviest of the group. Maddock wanted to crawl out and lend a hand but knew that any extra weight on the already damaged floor might cause it to fail completely.
After several excruciating minutes, his hands and legs blistered and raw, Bones reached the doorway. “Holy crap. That was—”
Angel and Miranda shushed him in harmony.
He stared at them in disbelief. “No, it’s okay. I’m fine. Just second-degree burns.”
“Shhh!” Angel hissed again, pointing up at the ceiling. “Bat House.”
Despite the obvious pai
n he was in, Bones brightened. “For reals?” He looked past the others, shining his light out across the cavern floor. “This isn’t at all what I expected. If I don’t see Anne Hathaway in about ten seconds, I’m officially calling shenanigans.” In response to Miranda’s look of confusion he added, “Catwoman? Because we’re in the Bat Cave? Jeez. Tough crowd, tonight.”
“Sorry. She doesn’t really do anything for me,” Maddock kidded.
Bones’ eyes went wide in shock and he clutched his chest as if having a heart attack.
Maddock grinned. Bones had to be in a lot of pain, but his sense of humor remained indomitable.
“Bats are a good sign, right?” Angel whispered. “They have to be able to get in and out, so there must be another entrance nearby.”
“There better be,” Bones said. “No way am I going through that again.”
“We’re lucky they’re just ordinary bats,” Bell said. “The Popol Vuh describes a house filled with giant Death Bats that have blades for wings.”
“Lucky is one word for it,” Maddock said. “But if they get spooked, it’s going to get ugly in here.” He shone his light down onto the cavern floor below. “We’re going to have to get across that.”
“Smells like the world’s biggest litter box,” Angel said, wrinkling her nose.
“Close,” Miranda replied. “It’s guano.”
“Bat droppings are rich in nitrates,” Maddock said. “That’s got to be the source of the ammonia refrigerant. There must be channels in the floor that shunt the liquid ammonia away to another cavern under the Cold House.”
“The Maya figured out how to turn bat crap into a refrigerator over a thousand years ago, but they never invented the wheel.” Angel shook her head. “That’s insane.”
“It’s batshit crazy,” Bones agreed.
“Clean up your act,” Angel said, “or I’ll tell Grandfather.”
Bones rolled his eyes.
“Getting across that guano field to the other side isn’t going to be easy,” Maddock said. “It’s probably several feet thick. The fumes are almost certainly toxic, but if we stick to the perimeter of the room where the accumulation is thinnest, we should be able to make it through without breathing too much.”
Even as he said it, he realized that what he was suggesting might be too much for Bell, but the archaeologist just nodded. “I’ll manage.”
“That’s probably where we’ll find the door to...” He looked at Bell again. “What’s left?”
“I can’t say for sure, but Bat House was the last of the six Houses.”
“So we should be close to whatever it is we’re hoping to find.”
“I just hope we’re close to a way out,” Angel said. “What about the bats?”
“If something disturbs them, just hit the ground and let them fly on by.”
“The ground that’s covered in bat crap. I’m sorry I asked.”
“Better that than having a rabid bat get caught in your hair.”
“Rabid?”
“Kidding,” Maddock said quickly. He took the heavy pack from Miranda and slung it over a shoulder. “But let’s just try to avoid spooking them. It will be easier all around.”
He started down the steps, walking heel to toe, moving even more quietly than their whispered conversation.
At his first tentative step, his boot sank ankle deep into the guano, which was thicker and drier than the mud at the bottom of the shaft through which they had entered, but a lot more disgusting. The accumulation probably went down several feet. He could feel it compacting underfoot with each step, like powdery snow.
He could now see another staircase rising up on the far side of the cavern, less than fifty yards away if they abandoned the original plan, but the guano was heaped higher in the center, and getting through it would be messy and dangerous.
For a few minutes, the rustling noise above continued, but as the bat colony grew less restive, Maddock became aware of a different sound that was, in its own way, even more ominous. It was the sound of bat urine and feces hitting the guano-covered floor, a veritable shower of excrement raining down all around them. And on them.
He decided to pick up the pace a little. They were just halfway across when a piercing shriek tore through the quiet.
Maddock froze. He didn’t think the noise had come from any of them. It was loud and high pitched, but distant, like the whistle of an approaching train, and lasted only an instant, but that was long enough to send the bats into a frenzy.
Bestial screams, accompanied by the sound of ten thousand pairs of leathery wings unfurling, filled the cavern with noise. Motes of dust and vapor swirled in the air as those tiny wings began stirring the air.
At first, the tumult was mostly confined to the upper reaches of the cavern, but he knew that as the creatures’ panic intensified, they would soon begin swooping lower, forcing the team to duck and cover.
Disregarding his own earlier advice, Maddock shouted over the din. “Run!”
He stepped to the side and began motioning for the others to go ahead. Angel sprinted ahead, looking uncharacteristically desperate. Miranda came next, holding her father’s hand, urging him to move faster, but Bell was clearly struggling even at a jog.
“I got this!” Bones roared, scooping Bell off his feet and throwing him over one shoulder. The archaeologist choked out a curse but there was little else he could do as Bones charged forward, outpacing even Angel. Miranda stared after them, frozen in disbelief, so Maddock grabbed her hand and pulled her along.
Something flashed in front of his face. He made a reflexive swipe at it with his free hand. The bat veered off at the last instant, but two more took its place, and then the air in front of them was filled with the rustling of wings. The weird clicking chirp of echolocation, multiplied a thousand times over, was an assault on the senses, vibrating through every nerve of Maddock’s body.
Miranda stumbled, her hand wrenching free of Maddock’s grasp, and went down, plowing a furrow in the guano as she skidded forward. Maddock leaped after her, looped a hand under her arm and dragged her to her feet as small furry bodies began slamming into both of them.
On a rational level, Maddock knew there was little risk of injury. With rare exceptions, most bats weighed less than an ounce, had very small teeth and zero interest in attacking a human or anything else larger than a mosquito. That was little comfort in the midst of the storm, however.
There was also a very real danger of getting lost and stumbling into some ever greater peril. He was already disoriented. With an opaque cloud swarming around them, it was impossible to tell which way to go. He couldn’t see the far stairwell or the lights of the rest of the group.
He turned in the direction he thought would take him to the cave wall and, still holding Miranda’s arm, started toward it. The carpet of guano seemed to grow thicker underfoot, so after five steps, he turned to the left and tried again.
This time he found the wall.
The swarm was a little less intense near the edge of the cave, where the bats had less room to maneuver, allowing him and Miranda to move at a near run. He kept his free hand in contact with the wall at all times, while maintaining his grip on Miranda’s hand so they would not become separated. After a few minutes, or maybe it was only seconds, he saw flashes of light directly ahead through the haze and heard a familiar voice calling out to him.
“Dane!”
He veered toward the light. “Angel. I’m here.”
Suddenly she was there, throwing her arms around him. She was streaked with filth and clearly terrified, but seemed otherwise unhurt.
Now he could see more lights, Bones and Bell, climbing the steps to safety. The swarm was thinning, the majority of the bats probably fleeing the cavern by whatever hidden route they used to reach the outside world.
“We’re almost there,” he promised, taking Angel’s hand. Now that he could see the way to safety, there was no need to grope along the wall.
A few hundred
bats were still flitting about overhead, but Maddock ignored them as he cut the last corner and kicked through the guano pile to reach the stairs. He let go of Miranda there, letting her charge ahead, but kept his grip on Angel. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as they mounted the steps.
As soon as they cleared the passage, the first thing Maddock did was take several deep breaths. The stink of guano still clung to him, but the air seemed a little clearer here, the ammonia fumes slightly less overpowering.
Then the rest of his senses caught up.
This new cavern was magnificent, easily twice the size of the cathedral-like entrance at the surface, but its size was only the beginning.
In the distance, along the far edge of the cavern, water spewed from the rock wall, an underground river spilling out in a waterfall hundreds of feet high. The water splashed down into a large round pool, and then ran away in several directions down what seemed like perfectly straight canals. There was little question that the canals were man-made since they ran parallel to paved streets, lined with structures—pyramids and temples like those he had seen only as ruins in Chichén Itzá , Copán, and the City of Shadow.
That he could see any of this was the most remarkable thing about the cavern. The sheer size of the place should have left most of it hidden in shadow, but he could make out the distinctive outlines of the buildings and the spray of the waterfall because the cavern was aglow with pale blue phosphorescence, most of which seemed to be concentrated in the sprawling city complex.
Much closer, he saw Miranda walking down a broad staircase that descended toward the hidden city. The steps ended in a long box-like courtyard that looked eerily familiar. At the far end of the courtyard, dominating the center of the cavern, stood an enormous pyramid, easily as big as El Castillo.
