Curse of the Ancients

by Matt De La Peña

  “It looks like the one you lost!” Dak shouted. “I thought maybe you’d want it!”

  “Thanks,” Riq said, slipping it into the bag hanging off of the rope belt of his robe.

  “Why are you here?” a woman shouted at Riq. “Haven’t you people done enough for one night?”

  Several other Mayas began peppering Riq with questions, too, until Bacab shouted, “Silence!”

  The entire cell went quiet.

  “Thank you,” Bacab said. “Let me ask the boy our question before we proceed any further.” The Mayas nodded and made a path for Bacab to get to the window. As he wrapped his hands around the bars, he looked up at Riq and said, “What is the most important thing in the world, young man?”

  Sera watched Riq look to the ground, confused. She was about to move toward the window so she could explain that they weren’t from around here, when Riq suddenly raised his eyes to Bacab and said, “Friendship.”

  All at once the Mayas looked at one another, nodding, and began reaching their arms through the bars to shake hands with Riq.

  Sera turned to Dak, who was already staring at her with a puzzled look on his face. He motioned toward Riq and said, “What the . . . ?”

  Sera shrugged and told him, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

  AS RIQ hurried away from the subterranean prison cell, he kept repeating in his head the name of the boy he’d just been asked to locate, the boy that Bacab claimed would have a key to the cell: Okib. Okib. Okib.

  He couldn’t allow himself to forget.

  But at the same time he was also thinking about the ancient locket Dak had handed him through the prison bars. It was the only reason he’d been able to answer Bacab’s strange question. In a conversation with Kisa, he remembered telling her that the most important thing in the world was having friends. So he threw it out there to Bacab. But he was completely shocked that he’d gotten it right.

  Riq pulled the locket out now as he moved through the village looking for the boy. It was rusted shut, the metal on both sides dull and badly dented. There was no way it was the locket Kisa had tried to give him before he warped away with Dak and Sera. Even if it was, would he actually want it? The girl had done nothing but confuse him. One minute she seemed so excited for him to stay. The next minute she was ordering him out of her village.

  Riq was tempted to boot the locket right into the bushes.

  He didn’t, though.

  He slipped it back into his belt’s bag and continued repeating the boy’s name in his head: Okib. Oki. Okib.

  Riq had been walking around for a half hour before he spotted a small group of Mayan boys playing on a ball court. He called down to them, “By any chance, is one of you guys named Okib?”

  The boys all looked at one another, shaking their heads.

  “You sure?” Riq said. “I’m not a real monk, I promise. And I have an important message from Bacab.” He wished he could ditch the Franciscan robe he was wearing. It was making the kids nervous.

  “He might be getting stuff out of the cave,” one of the boys offered.

  “Did something bad happen?” another boy asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Riq said, not wanting to alarm them. “Bacab just asked that I find Okib.”

  “You should try the cave,” the first boy said.

  Riq thanked them and started in the direction of the path that would lead him to the cave. He looked down at his robe, feeling entirely out of place. When he left Dak and Sera earlier, he had ducked into the church to be alone and saw the robe hanging over a chair. He’d changed into it without much thought . . . other than he no longer wanted to be wearing the clothes he’d worn when he knew Kisa. A new outfit, he had told himself, might help give him a fresh perspective.

  It didn’t, of course. He left the church feeling just as confused as ever.

  Kisa must have realized something truly awful about him to change her mind so quickly. Riq pulled the locket out again. He just needed to get rid of it. All it did was remind him of what happened.

  Instead of hurling it into the bushes, though, he fired it at the ground, as hard as he could. Then he sat down on a boulder and looked up into the sky. The moon and stars were out, and he thought how it was the same moon and stars that had hovered over Izamal almost one thousand years ago. The sky didn’t need a time machine to witness all that went on in the world, which included the time he’d spent with Kisa.

  The air was warm and humid. Far off to the east he saw storm clouds. He watched them for a few seconds, trying to determine how quickly they were approaching, then he shifted his attention back to the locket on the ground.

  He was surprised to see that it had broken into two pieces.

  He walked over and picked them up, and stared at the inside of the back half where a single glyph had been written: observatory. The handwriting reminded him of the message Kisa had carved into the boulder when she’d left him the snake bracelet.

  Riq got chills as he looked up at the tall observatory.

  Could it really be Kisa trying to send him a message?

  The path that led up to the cave was just past the observatory. If Riq hurried, he could take a quick look inside before heading up the hill.

  He shoved the locket pieces back into his bag and took off running.

  The two monks near the front entrance didn’t pay Riq any mind, most likely because of the robe he was wearing. He was able to duck right inside the huge observatory and check things out. It was quite old though still functioning. Parts of the walls were peeling and cracked. The center of the ground floor was flat, and the roof was open at the very top so that Riq could see the sky. All around the main part of the observatory were doors, maybe a dozen of them.

  Riq knew what he was doing was insane — trying to figure out the meaning of a single-glyph clue written almost one thousand years ago. Or maybe it wasn’t a clue at all. Maybe it had been written by someone other than Kisa. Or what if Kisa had left the clue for someone else? This version of the observatory didn’t even exist yet when she’d tried to hand him the locket.

  Another question started circling through his head: Why would a girl give a clue to someone she didn’t even want around?

  Riq moved around the interior of the observatory anyway, opening every door, peering inside. They were mostly small rooms with new desks and chairs. Three of the doors were locked. One led to a staircase. Riq took the skinny stairs all the way up to the ceiling and looked back down at the ground floor, trying to figure out what might be significant about an observatory. But it was all so ordinary.

  There was a thin walkway up near the dome. He stepped out onto it, moved carefully around every inch looking for some other kind of clue. But it was just a walkway. Nothing more. He eventually climbed back down the stairs, passing the ground floor and ducking into the basement. He opened the door and felt his way down the dark hallway, sliding his hands against the wall. He tried a door along the way that was locked. Then he saw that there was an open room at the far end of the hall . . . with what looked like candlelight flickering within.

  Riq walked faster through the darkness and peeked inside. There were three women sitting on simple wooden chairs, sorting through wooden boxes. One looked up at Riq, her eyes growing wide with surprise. “Who are you?” she demanded, dropping what looked like another locket inside the box. “And what are you doing in here?”

  All three women picked up their sewing and stood up, kicking the boxes behind their feet.

  “We’ve been cleared by Brother de Landa to do our embroideries in here,” the shortest of them said.

  “They’re for the church,” the first woman added.

  “Don’t worry,” Riq told the women, “I’m not a real monk. I was just looking for a girl.” It was clear they weren’t doing anything for the church.

  “A girl?” the shor
t woman asked. “No one is allowed to be down here but the three of us with our embroidery.”

  “A woman, I mean,” Riq corrected himself. “She lived a long, long time ago. Her name was Kisa.”

  The women all looked at one another, shaking their heads.

  “Her uncle was King Itchik,” Riq added. “I believe he was responsible for building this observatory.”

  “I’ve never heard of anyone named Kisa,” the short woman said. “Or a King Itchik for that matter. Have you?” she asked her friends.

  “Never,” they both said.

  The taller woman glanced at the box behind her. Then she turned back to Riq and lowered her eyes. He saw that she had a large birthmark on the right side of her face.

  Riq nodded. “Thanks for your help —”

  “Where are you from?” the woman with the birthmark said, cutting him off.

  “Me?” Riq said. He didn’t quite know how to answer. “Well, I’m from . . . a faraway village.”

  The woman continued staring at him. “And what is the name of this village?”

  Riq leaned against the wall behind him and said, “Oh, it’s very small. Most people have never heard of it.”

  The other two women were looking at the woman with the birthmark.

  “Anyway,” Riq said, pushing off the wall, “I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”

  The women remained standing in front of their boxes until Riq left the room.

  He hurried back up the stairs and out of the observatory, trying to forget about the cryptic message inside the locket and the women and the fact that there may be additional lockets inside those wooden boxes they were hiding. Right now he needed to concentrate on finding the boy Bacab had asked him to find.

  Riq started up the dark path, toward the cave, when he collided suddenly with someone hurrying back down the path.

  They both tumbled into the bushes.

  Riq, slightly dazed, raised his head to find a boy lying in the bushes beside him. “Okib?” he asked hesitantly.

  The boy sat up and looked at him.

  Riq remembered his robe and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not a real monk. But is it really you, Okib?”

  The boy shrugged and looked around.

  Riq scrambled to his feet and leaned down over the boy. “A man named Bacab asked me to find you. He’s in the village holding cell with two of my friends, and he claims you’ll know what to do.”

  The boy stood up. He looked about Dak’s age. “I knew it!” he cried.

  “Knew what?” Riq asked.

  “There was nothing left in the cave.” The boy wiped a hand down his face. “They took it all. Everything.”

  “Someone stole from you?” Riq asked.

  “The monks did,” the boy said. “Why won’t they just leave us alone? We’re not hurting anyone.”

  Riq felt the injustice in his chest. “Come,” he told the boy. “I’ll take you to Bacab.”

  “No,” Okib said. “My brother says I must always wait until deep into the night, when everyone has fallen asleep. Then I will bring him the key.”

  Riq looked out over Izamal. For the first time since they arrived in this new time period, he wondered about the Break they needed to fix. He’d been moping around long enough. It was time to get back to his life’s work: being a Hystorian. “Follow me,” he told Okib, with a new sense of determination. “We can wait inside the observatory. You tell me when the time is right to free your people, and I will come along to assist you.”

  Okib looked up at him, nodding.

  They started back down the path together, Riq gripping the locket pieces in his satchel and promising himself he would remain absolutely focused for the remainder of the mission.

  DAK WAS half-asleep and completely aware that he was dreaming, but the dream was a good one so he kept his eyes closed and followed along with the story. He was at Sera’s birthday party, just outside her barn, and her uncle had just blindfolded him and handed him a stick. He spun Dak around several times and then let go, saying, “Let her rip!” Dak staggered a little, dizzy, then started hacking at the swinging piñata, which he knew was somewhere in front of him.

  He missed twice, then connected on his third try.

  On his fourth swing, he reared back and whacked the piñata with all his strength, feeling the side cave in. He could hear the candy start pouring out.

  When Dak ripped off the blindfold, he saw that it wasn’t candy at all. It was blocks of high-end cheese. All different kinds and sizes. They looked beautiful streaming out onto the thick summer grass. The other kids were already converging with their empty pillowcases, scooping the cheese blocks up with two hands and shoving them inside, and Dak shouted, “Hey, wait for me! I have to get my pillowcase!” But he couldn’t find his pillowcase, not anywhere, and all the while more and more kids raced past him, pouncing on what was left from the piñata he broke open.

  “Wake up,” he heard Sera whispering in his ear.

  “But they’re taking all my cheese,” he told her.

  “Dak, wake up!” she whispered louder this time.

  He opened his eyes, and he saw all the imprisoned Mayas quietly filing out the open door of the prison cell. Sera pulled him to his feet and they joined the line, and soon they were sneaking past two sleeping monks, ducking out of the building, and hurrying into the night.

  Dak followed Sera over to where Riq was standing. Riq pointed toward the towering observatory, and without saying a word, the three of them split off from the others and hurried through the village in that direction.

  As they ran, Dak kept looking all around, worried someone might hop out of the bushes and snatch them up. He saw several monks milling around in the square, though it was too dark to see what they were doing. He saw a giant wooden cross leaning up against one of the huts. He saw storm clouds gathering in the distant sky.

  Riq opened the observatory doors, ushered Dak and Sera inside, then led them to the far corner of the large room where Dak glanced up at the open roof. The three of them stood there for several quiet seconds, hands on knees, trying to catch their breath and looking all around them.

  Sera was the first to straighten back up. She took in a deep breath and said to Riq, “How’d you know the answer was friendship?”

  Riq took his hands off his knees, too. “A conversation I had with Kisa,” he said, linking his fingers on top of his head and taking a few more deep breaths.

  Dak pulled the SQuare out of his breechcloth and said, “Dude, that was almost a thousand years ago. How could it possibly apply to today?”

  Riq shook his head. “Trust me, I was just as surprised as you guys.”

  Dak powered on the SQuare and brought up the latest riddle — which Riq had yet to see. “Before we look at this I just want to say something, okay? It seems like something really messed up is happening here. Something other than the Break.” Dak looked at Sera. “Once we fix what we’re supposed to fix, if you guys want to help these people in some other way, I’m totally open to that.”

  Sera gave him a small smile and said, “Thanks, Dak. Let’s concentrate on the Break for now. We can discuss everything else later on.”

  Dak realized it was the first time he’d seen Sera smile in a long time. “I just know it’s important to you,” he said.

  “It is.”

  Riq cleared his throat. “I wanted to say something, too. It was wrong of me to just wander off like that. I apologize. I also want to assure you I’m as committed to our mission as I’ve ever been.”

  “We know you are,” Sera said.

  Dak patted Riq on the shoulder. “It’s cool, dude. Just remember, love is a tricky game —”

  “Moving right along,” Sera said, pointing at the SQuare in Dak’s hand.

  “Oh. Right.” Dak turned the screen around so Riq and Sera could see. “We
were thinking you might be able to help us with this second riddle, Riq.” Dak silently reread the words upside down:

  To save the reproduction of the treasure’s truth, do the following:

  Seek the help of those who follow “the most important thing in the world”

  Then dig deep, deeper, deepest, unlocking a long-locked door

  It will take a polyglot to understand the wisdom of the glyphs

  and the forgery of the curse

  “So, we’re supposed to find people who follow friendship,” Riq said.

  “Apparently, we already did,” Dak said. “Everyone in the holding cell knew the answer to that question. Well, everyone but Sera.”

  “Ha-ha,” Sera said, rolling her eyes. “All of the Mayas in the cell had been in the cave earlier, too. Which means they’re proud of their Mayan roots, right?”

  “Exactly.” Dak turned to Riq and said, “We learned from Bacab that the monks have caused a split among the Mayan people. Some are embracing the Spanish influence. Others want to remain loyal to ancient Mayan ways.”

  “So, this Break,” Sera said, pointing at Dak, “has to center around something they have stashed in that cave. Most likely —”

  “Pacal’s codex,” Dak said.

  “It’s not in the cave anymore,” Riq said. “According to Bacab’s little brother, everything’s been cleared out. He told me the monks confiscated it all.”

  Dak smacked his own forehead with the heel of his hand. “Dude, I just realized something. Did you guys see the monks in the square on the way over here?”

  Riq and Sera both nodded.

  Dak turned to Riq. “Back in the cell, Bacab explained that every hut with a secret friendship sculpture out front was storing ancient Mayan artifacts. The problem is, over the past several weeks they’ve been transferring everything up to the cave. They thought that would be safer.”

  Sera’s eyes grew big. “They’re piling everything into the square!” she shouted. “They’re planning to burn it.”