Curse of the Ancients

by Matt De La Peña

  “He has no idea he’s waving around a fake codex,” Sera said.

  Dak held up the reproduction of Pacal’s codex. “We have to make the switch. Without him knowing, of course. Because he’d never trust us.”

  “I’ll do it,” Riq said. “I’m the only one dressed like a monk.”

  A shot rang out.

  Dak spun around, saw one of Bacab’s men fall to the ground, holding his chest and choking on his own blood. Another shot was fired. Another man fell.

  “They’re shooting people!” Sera shouted.

  Bacab and the rest of his men scattered, taking cover behind trees and boulders and nearby huts. The scene grew louder with weapons being fired and people yelling and thunder pounding in the sky.

  Dak turned back to his friends. “Listen to me!” he shouted. “Riq, same plan as in 638! You hide this one in your robe. I’m going to swipe the one de Landa’s holding. You chase me down like you’re one of them and we’ll switch, okay?”

  Riq nodded.

  “They’ll shoot you, Dak!” Sera cried.

  “It’s far too dangerous!” María shouted.

  Dak looked up when a light rain started to fall. “Kisa did her part,” he told them. “Now it’s time to do ours.” He winked at Riq and moved out from behind the tree.

  Thunder crashed overhead as Dak snuck closer to de Landa and the fire. He could already feel the heat seeping into his skin. As soon as de Landa turned his back, still ranting about the devil, Dak darted toward him.

  One of the Spaniards shouted at Dak. Another turned and fired an arrow that whistled past Dak’s left ear. De Landa turned around just as Dak got to him, but Dak acted quickly, knocking the codex out of his hand, scooping it up, and sprinting away.

  Two more arrows whizzed past his head.

  Then he heard Riq shouting in Spanish over the commotion, “I’ve got him! I’ve got the little thief!”

  Riq leapt onto Dak, not only knocking him over but driving his face into the mud near the fire. “You will pay for what you’ve done!” Riq screamed in his ear, while at the same time slipping Pacal’s codex out of his robe. He traded with Dak on the sly, still screaming at him, and then he slugged Dak right in the jaw.

  Dak lost his senses for a few seconds, and when he came to he was holding his face and shouting back at Riq in English, “Dude, that wasn’t part of the plan!” But then he looked up and saw three Spaniards aiming arrows at his head.

  Riq threw Dak into a tight headlock and ripped Pacal’s codex out of his hands. “I have it!” he shouted at the other monks. “Here! Take this back to Brother de Landa! I’ll see that this thief pays with his life!”

  One of the Spaniards reached for the codex and started toward the preaching man. The other two turned their attention elsewhere.

  As Riq aggressively led Dak away, they both snuck glances behind them until they saw that de Landa had possession of Pacal’s codex and had resumed his preaching.

  “You didn’t have to hit me in the jaw,” Dak said to Riq.

  “It was the only way,” Riq told him. And then he glanced down at Dak, grinning slightly, and added, “Oh, and I’d prefer you didn’t refer to me as ‘Lover Boy.’ ”

  Dak rolled his eyes, then ordered Riq to guide him closer to the fire so he could torch the SQ codex. “No one will ever read these lies again,” he said.

  They only made it a few steps closer, though, before getting bowled over. Dak pulled his face from the mud again and looked up. It was K’inich, who shouted, “I saw what you just did!”

  The SQ codex had fallen out of Riq’s robe, into the mud, and the three of them wrestled for it. “Give it to me!” K’inich shouted. “Now!” He punched Riq in the side of the face and reached for the loose codex, but Dak was too quick. He pounced on it, clutching it to his chest and curling his body into a ball. K’inich slugged him in the kidneys and the back of his head, and then Riq wrestled K’inich’s arms behind his back.

  The rain fell harder.

  Thunder exploded directly over their heads.

  Dak squeezed the codex to his chest as Riq and K’inich fell on top of him, ripping and clawing at each other’s faces.

  A monk suddenly hurried over with a raised gun, shouting, “Stop! Stop! Get off him!”

  Dak relaxed some, assuming the monk was ordering K’inich to get off Riq, but when he looked up, he saw the monk cracking Riq in the back of the head with the butt of his gun.

  K’inich scurried to his feet and handed over the Infinity Ring, shouting at the monk, “Throw it into the fire! I’ll take care of the codex!” He took the gun from the monk and stuck it into Dak’s ear, shouting, “That’s right! The SQ has men on both sides!” He shackled Dak’s and Riq’s wrists and began pushing them away from the square.

  As they were led away, Dak turned and watched the monk hurrying toward the fire with the Ring.

  “Sera!” Dak shouted.

  She was beside Bacab now, who was aiming his crossbow at de Landa. He fired an arrow that narrowly missed. Two monks converged on de Landa immediately, pushing his head down and leading him toward a nearby hut. Dak saw that de Landa was still clutching Pacal’s codex.

  Lightning lit up the massive storm clouds.

  Thunder pounded so forcefully it shook the earth under Dak’s feet.

  Everywhere he looked Spaniards were shackling Mayas. The fire roared, all of Izamal’s history quickly turning to ash. He spotted the monk still marching the Ring toward the flames.

  “Sera!” Dak shouted again.

  K’inich stopped leading him and Riq away long enough to bash the gun against the side of Dak’s head. “Quiet!” he shouted. “I don’t know how you got out, but I will now get rid of you once and for all! No one can stop our mission!”

  Sera screamed.

  Dak looked up, saw that she had leapt onto the back of the SQ monk who had the Infinity Ring. He elbowed her off and kicked her in the gut.

  “No!” Dak shouted.

  K’inich smashed him in the ear again. Dak shuddered in pain. He opened his eyes in time to see the monk wind up and heave the Ring all the way into the middle of the raging fire.

  Bacab threw down his crossbow and sprinted right into the fire to retrieve it. He disappeared for several seconds, then came racing back out, his hair and clothes in flames, and tossed the Ring to safety. He then dove into the mud and rolled around until the flames were extinguished. He hopped back up, badly burned, and picked up the Ring.

  “Watch out!” Sera screamed from the ground.

  A Spaniard had stepped out from behind a large boulder, aiming a crossbow right at Bacab. He fired, the arrow burrowing into Bacab’s back.

  Bacab dropped to his knees, arching his back and reaching a hand behind himself, trying to touch the arrow.

  “Bacab!” Sera shouted, struggling to her feet.

  The monk reloaded and fired a second arrow, this one sinking into Bacab’s right thigh.

  Dak watched another Mayan man finally pounce on the monk, ripping the crossbow out of his hands. And he watched Sera sprint to Bacab, helping him to his feet, throwing his arm around her shoulder. She started half-carrying him out of the chaotic scene.

  More lightning flashed.

  Dak was entirely helpless.

  K’inich pulled him and Riq behind a hut, and threw them on the ground. He raised the gun at them, shouting, “Now you will die!”

  Dak squeezed closed his eyes and waited for the sound of the shot that would end his life.

  He heard a crashing sound instead, and when he looked up, he saw María standing over K’inich’s motionless body, holding a large, jagged rock in her hands. Her eyes were full of tears as she looked at Dak and Riq and said, “I will never let Akna’s work be in vain.”

  Dak glanced at Riq, then watched María take the gun and keys off K’inich an
d hurry over to unlock the shackles. She tried several keys before finally inserting the right one and freeing them. Dak flexed his hands for a few seconds, then ripped the SQ codex out of K’inich’s limp hands and raced out from behind the hut, toward the fire.

  It was smaller now because the rain was stronger, but Dak knew it would burn the SQ’s lies just the same. As he flung the thing deep into the flames, he slipped in the wet mud. He watched from his knees as the fake codex caught fire. Some of the pages twisted under the intense heat, then shriveled up into brittle red and black sheets, the embers eventually breaking off and lifting up into the stormy sky.

  Now the world would never know the lies and propaganda of the SQ’s codex. They’d learn the truth about the Maya instead. Some of it.

  Dak breathed heavily as he continued watching the fire.

  More thunder pounded overhead and the skies opened up.

  Rain poured down on Dak’s head, flooding the ground around him, forcing the few remaining monks to cower and run for shelter. But Dak couldn’t take his eyes off the fire. Yes, they’d fixed the Break, but they’d failed to stop de Landa’s auto-de-fe. And Dak was overwhelmed by how much had been lost today. He realized what a vile and violent act it was to destroy a culture’s history. It was almost like murder.

  Lightning lit up the dark storm clouds again.

  Thunder roared.

  Dak sensed someone hovering over him, and when he looked up, he found a drenched Riq standing there, holding out his hand to Dak.

  “PLEASE, JUST talk to me,” Bacab said to Sera.

  Tears were falling down her cheeks, but she didn’t care. Bacab was badly hurt. He said he knew he wouldn’t make it and refused to let her take him to the village medicine man.

  “Talk about what?” Sera asked, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

  “It does not matter, little sister. Tell me about your life. Your family.”

  Sera watched the way his entire body shivered in the warm, humid air. She looked out from behind the large ceiba tree they had ducked beneath, trying to figure out what she could tell a dying man. Rain poured down all around them. Large drops sometimes slipped through the thick tree leaves and landed on their heads. She had tried the door to the hut in front of them, but it was locked. And nobody had answered when she knocked, even though she was sure there were people inside.

  “Please,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the trunk of the tree. “Anything.”

  Sera squeezed Bacab’s cold hand until he opened his eyes again. “It’s only me and my uncle Diego,” she said.

  “No parents?” Bacab asked in a strained voice.

  Sera shook her head. “I never knew them.”

  The wind picked up, swirling around Sera and Bacab and their tree. The leaves rustled wildly. Sera heard a thick branch snap, but when she looked up she didn’t see anything.

  “Tell me more,” Bacab said.

  “I had a dream about them,” she said, wiping mud from Bacab’s brow. “My parents. I was in the future. Thousands of years from now, when the world was ending. I went to my uncle’s barn and opened the door. And there they were, sitting in chairs, waiting for me.”

  “That’s right,” Bacab said.

  Sera wiped the tears from her face again and said, “They came back because they cared about me.”

  “Of course they did.” Bacab coughed and reached down to touch the arrow in his thigh. “You will see them again.”

  Sera let out a sob and then quickly stopped herself. “I’m sorry, Bacab. This was all my fault. You were trying to help me.”

  “Since I was a little boy,” he said in almost a whisper, “I wanted to be a leader of people. My people.” He coughed and wiped his mouth. “My father always warned me, though. He said, ‘Bacab, if you want to be someone special you must have strong shoulders.’ I didn’t understand until now.”

  Sera’s heart was pounding in her chest. It was exactly what her grandfather had said to her. The one time they’d met. She stared at Bacab, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.

  The sky lit up in a massive flash of lightning.

  Thunder rumbled directly overhead.

  “What about you, little sister?” Bacab asked. “Do you have strong shoulders?”

  Sera sobbed again, and this time when she tried to catch herself, she wasn’t able to. She just kept on crying.

  “I think you do,” he said, grinning a little. “And I sense things.” He coughed hard and then pulled in a deep breath. “About people.”

  Tears streamed down Sera’s face, and she tried for a deep breath, too. But she couldn’t get one. She was too upset. “Bacab,” she said. She wanted to say something important, something meaningful and comforting. But the words weren’t coming into her head and all she could think to do was say his name again. “Bacab.”

  When he didn’t answer, she let herself sob into her own hands.

  Because she knew.

  He was gone.

  After several seconds she leaned his head back against the trunk of the ceiba tree and pushed closed his eyelids. “I’m proud to come from you,” she whispered.

  Then she leaned her head against the tree, too, and watched the growing storm.

  A few minutes later, Dak and Riq were there. Dak gripped the Infinity Ring in his hands. Riq was fiddling with his bracelet.

  Sera looked up at them, both soaking wet. She wiped her face and climbed to her feet.

  “Sera,” Dak started. But then he noticed Bacab and said, “Oh.”

  Riq gently patted her on the shoulder. “Some of the villagers have warned us that the storm will be getting much worse,” he said. “But we can stay here a little longer if you want.”

  “It’s a storm,” Dak said. “But I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as they were saying.”

  Sera took the Infinity Ring from Dak and programmed in the new coordinates Riq showed her on the SQuare. She looked up at Dak and Riq and said, “If the Maya say a great storm is coming, then a great storm is coming.”

  They nodded.

  “Better hold on if you’re coming with me,” she said.

  Dak and Riq both put their hands on the Ring next to hers, and she pushed the button that would send them warping through time yet again. The Ring began to vibrate, and the liquid inside lit up and swirled. Sera looked out at the blurring Mayan landscape, feeling sad but also incredibly full. She turned to look at Bacab, thinking how the next time someone in school drew her great-great-great-grandmother sitting on a Mayan temple, she would not feel embarrassed. She would feel proud.

  Everything around them began to blur. Dak said to Riq, “Show her.”

  Riq held up an open locket. Sera expected to see a Mayan glyph in the last second before they warped away. But it was something else altogether.

  “Is that . . . Chinese?” she asked.

  Just as Dak opened his mouth to answer, they were whisked away into blackness.

  Turn the page for your Hystorian’s Guide to the Great Wall of China.

  An SQ army is about to attack a deserted section of the Great Wall of China. You need to alert the Chinese army and prevent the invaders from breaking through! This is your strategy guide for staying alive.

  Unlock the full game at:

  infinityring.com

  In this Break you’ll be going up against an entire army — but don’t let that scare you. I know that you’ve got the wits and guts to get the job done.

  Here’s the scoop: A Manchu army, led by the SQ, is about to attack a poorly guarded section of the Great Wall. You’ll need to alert the Hystorian and the Chinese army so that together you can prevent the invaders from breaking through.

  If they manage to get past your defenses, the wall won’t be the only thing to fall — the Ming Dynasty will also come crashing down!

  — Arin
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  An SQ army is trying to break through the Great Wall of China! Play as Dak, Sera, and Riq as they race to keep the wall — and the country — from falling.

  Log on now to save China from the invaders.

  Fix the past. Save the future.

  infinityring.com

  The golden age of Baghdad is a time of magic and wonder. But it is coming to a quick and tragic end. Can Dak, Sera, and Riq fix the next Great Break before the kingdom falls?

  Includes an all-new, top secret Hystorian’s Guide — which unlocks the next episode of the Infinity Ring game.

  Turn the page for a sneak peek!

  infinityring.com

  Below is a sneak peek from Infinity Ring Book 5: Cave of Wonders by Matthew J. Kirby.

  THE DESERT wind whipped around them, stirring up sand. Dak shielded his eyes and used his shirt to cover his mouth to keep from breathing in the grit. Sera and Riq did the same. They were standing in the middle of a dusty road, the three of them having just warped from the Great Wall in Ming-dynasty China. For Dak, the prickling, sickening disorientation of having his body squeezed through time and space like a basketball through a keyhole hadn’t faded yet . . . and neither had his excitement.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  This was their twelfth warp together. You’d think by now, Dak would be used to it, but that question still thrilled him.

  Where are we?

  What would they see and do? Who would they meet? So far, Christopher Columbus, Vikings, King Louis with his wonderful gooey cheese, Harriet Tubman, the ancient Maya. People and cultures Dak had only read about in books before now.

  Sera checked the Infinity Ring before tucking it away in her satchel. “Coordinates are right. We should be near the city of Baghdad on January 27, the year 1258.”

  “Good.” Dak reached to pull out the SQuare. “Let’s figure out the Break we’re supposed to fix here.”