She also knew she was completely alone.
* * * *
The jungle sky was black, devoid of stars or any other kind of illumination as the thick, tangled trees edged closely against the cobbled stone square where she stood. The only source of light in the area came from the swirling mist that bit at her bare feet and ankles with a chill that felt like she stood on a thousand graves.
Danielle watched with fascinated horror as the wispy tendrils began to form shapes all around her position, taking on size and coordinated movement. She knew she was seeing it all through the eyes of the mask, but she could not feel any weight or obstruction on her face, and when she attempted to raise her hands she was alarmed to discover they did not respond.
The sentient fog coalesced into several bipedal figures that moved all around her with some kind of purpose. As she studied the forms they solidified where she concentrated the most, the depth of the ethereal material evolving into a scene before her that boggled her mind. A bustling marketplace developed all around the square, filled with primitive, yet beautiful people in the stark shades of grey which gave them the illusion of dimension.
They seemed oblivious to her presence as they passed by, some with finely woven baskets on their hips, some lingering with delight over a stand of exquisite jewelry, their shadowy expressions all full of the life that Danielle knew they could not possess.
She tried to call out, to speak to them, but could not find her voice behind the mask.
Help me find my way, she silently begged the graceful, beautiful people who glided through the square without pause.
Her chest constricted with hope when she spied a darkened speck in the distance, more solid than the others appeared, and for one brief moment she thought it might be her man in the golden mask.
She knew she was mistaken almost immediately because the approaching form did not radiate the light she had experienced before, but even without it she did not feel fear as he approached.
She noticed his clothing first. Not only was the modern style out of place among the wispy market goers, but his sandy colored camouflage pants and tan T-shirt marked him from a very different era. His black hair was cut extremely short, in military fashion, though his soft, large brown eyes portrayed a gentle side.
He looked hauntingly familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite grasp the reason, and as he stepped directly in front of her, she found she was able to speak to him.
“Where am I?” Danielle’s first thought escaped her lips. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded to her respectfully. “You’re in between. I don’t think you’re supposed to be here right now, though.”
“And why are you here, then?”
“I’m sure I was looking for something.” He hesitated as his face clouded with uncertainty. “I can’t remember what it was, but when I saw you at first you looked familiar and I suddenly knew where you needed to go.”
He turned his head to the right and nodded, his dog tags flashing for a moment as a memory nagged at the very edge of her awareness before the ancient pyramid became clear in the distance.
“You have to go back the way you came.”He walked to the base of the awesome structure and she found she was able to follow his trail through the mist, and suddenly the path was so clear she was surprised she hadn’t seen it before.
“Will you come with me?” she asked, half turning to thank him as she stepped onto the first darkened stone.
Her answer was met with silence, and she realized the moment she touched the base of the pyramid he was already gone.
* * * *
A foreign, agonizing scream shot through her being, and she stood paralyzed, her mind still reeling from the vision she had just experienced as the heavy figure of the village doctor fell at her feet. His eyes were wide, and she thought at first it was shock, but then she came to realize his gaze was filled with fear and wonder.
“The legend is true,” he breathed his final words at her feet, and an icy shiver flew up her spine for their possible meaning.
A series of bone chilling cries from outside the tent froze her in place. The firelight whipped around wildly inside the ring of stones that contained it, and it played a horrifying shadow show of twisted figures against the wide vinyl panel of the doctor’s tent.
Her vision of the market square still gripped her with cold fingers and every time she wore the ancient artifact it became more and more difficult to shift back into reality. She felt with overwhelming certainty there was something she needed to do, something vital, and the mask was a key part of her journey.
Danielle gingerly stepped over the contorted body of her former enemy to reach the tent flap and entered the ring of firelight at the center of the camp, where all of her captor’s associates had apparently met the same fate. It was unnaturally quiet in the clearing, and she noticed right away the normal sounds of the night had not resumed after the bizarre occurrence in the camp.
Alvaro immediately ran from the shadows, greeting her as he flung his arms around her waist like a small child.
“How did you save me?” she asked him gently and pulled his arms away so she could look at his face, surprised to see he was trembling as she held him back with her hands.
“They save you.” The boy gestured to the edge of the clearing, and the only thing Danielle could see was the firelight reflected in the dark eyes of strangers. “I only call them in the old way, I call the Shadow Walkers to save you and they came.”
Alvaro collapsed at her feet, crying tears that no words could stop.
Danielle looked with alarm at each form in the darkness, and every one of them bowed when her gaze fell upon them. The fire illuminated their figures for a brief moment when they inclined their heads, and she was able to catch a fleeting glimpse of their fair skin and light-colored hair before they faded away.
“Don’t cry, please.” She rested her hand on the weeping child’s head, but he refused to look up at her again and continued to press his face against her leg. He had been through much more than a young boy should ever suffer in just one night, and there wasn’t much she could say to make it better because she didn’t know what had really happened herself.
“The Shadow Walkers are legend for my people.” He finally looked up at her with red rimmed eyes. “My father always say in a thousand years they never come, would never come, unless The Balance could be complete.”
Chapter Thirteen
As much as Danielle had disliked the slow and bulky oxen with their creaking cart, she regretted the fact they were forced to leave them behind to fend for themselves in the wilderness.
She felt an initial pang of guilt as they unhooked the pair of animals from their harnesses and led them to the nearby stream. Alvaro assured her they would wander back along the path, taking their time to dine on the plentiful scrubby brush before they eventually ended up back at the village.
She never would have agreed to release them if Jake had not come around when the sun crested the mountain top and convinced her he felt completely capable of going forward on foot. She let him talk, but when it came to her turn to explain, she found she was unable to recount the happenings of the evening before
Jake did his best to convince her, thinking the main reason for her silence was a feeling of guilt that lay with the abandoning of the animals. “These Oxen are going to slow us down a lot more than I will by walking on my own. The terrain gets very rough from here and we know Britton isn’t too far off. In fact, every minute we stand here arguing loses us time we desperately need to make headway.”
Alvaro noticed her reticence to speak about the happenings of the evening before and shyly gave Jake some of the events in Spanish, though the boy himself appeared to be a bit unsure of the details near the end of the tale.
“Danielle, I owe my life to you and Alvaro.” Jake rose to meet her, and he gently took her wrists in his hands where they were noticeably scraped. You don’t have to tell me anything you don�
��t wish to, but I hope that one day you will be able to tell me everything you feel. You are the most amazing woman I have ever met, but it truly shocks me to think you don’t know that.”
Without any verbal agreement, the small party of three wandered around the camp and retrieved only their belongings. The professor stood on shaky legs to help them gather their things, though they insisted they could manage between the two of them. They took the few items they had originally packed in the cart and their own dry food rations, though there were many supplies left behind by the doctor and his cohorts.
The fish was still warm on the fire and though they were all ravenous, none of them could bring themselves to eat any of the dead men’s food.
The vision she had in the tent was still overwhelming her senses, and her lightheaded movements could have been attributed to that, but she kept telling herself it was the lack of decent food that had her dizzy and disoriented.
Those vaporous figures she had witnessed on the stone square were so elegant, so out of place in the wilds of South America, but not more so than the young man with the luminous brown eyes who had helped her find the way.
Why did he seem so familiar to me? She racked her brain for an answer, but she couldn’t come up with any connection that might exist between them. She was so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed Alvaro had gone to check on the oxen one last time, and Jake stood very near, with a look of concern on his face.
“I am so sorry for everything that has happened to you, Danielle.”
She didn’t respond to his words right away, and he reached out a hand with a gesture of comfort.
“If I hadn’t allowed you to come with me, your life never would have been put in danger like it was last evening. I knew I should have left you at the Hotel in Miraflores, but God help me, I couldn’t let you go. You have every right to be angry with me, and I understand. I’ll make sure Alvaro takes you back to the village before I go on. Father Alejo will care for you and see that you return safely to the States.”
His words startled her, and she instantly searched his face for meaning. He thought her silence was punishment for all that had transpired that evening, but he couldn’t be more wrong! If anything, it was a sign of strength, because she was gathering her experience and tucking it under her belt, so to speak.
“You can’t possibly think I’m going back now.” She looked into his eyes, still so filled with pain, and their emerald color that she loved was pale in the faint light of dawn.
“And you can’t possibly think I’m going to put you at risk for one more minute because of my desire to be near you.”
“You…desire me?”
“That won’t work with me, this time,” he growled under his breath as she came very close to his stern figure, smiling up at him with her arms behind her back. One more inch and she’d be pressed against his hard chest, feeling his heartbeat. Her lips parted at the thought, and she licked them in anticipation.
“I think it’s working.”
“It’s quite possible you are going to drive me crazy,” he whispered, and she could see he was reconsidering his stance despite his previous statement.
“I can’t drive you somewhere if you’re already there!” she teased, dancing away before he could react to her words.
He sighed, and she could tell he was still very weak from his bout of sickness. At least she was certain the medication he’d been given was legitimate, because the doctor had been very clear about the fact he was worth much more alive.
“I think we should go now,” Alvaro spoke from the edge of the camp site, hovering over their baggage. His eyes shifted repeatedly from the couple by the fire to the direction of the small town they had left behind the evening before.
“Listen to me carefully, my young friend.” Jake walked purposefully to the spot where the boy waited nervously. “I want you to escort the young lady back to Father Alejo in the village. Make sure he takes care of her so that she gets back home safely.”
Alvaro cocked his head to one side and looked at him with confusion.
“How you gonna carry all these things by yourself? I put the ox down the trail already.”
“I’ll manage just fine, if you can do this one thing for me.”
“Father Alejo say that I make sure she stays with you. He say you need her.” Alvaro crossed his arms, clearly unwilling to give any ground, and Danielle said a silent prayer of thanks for the good Father back in the village.
“Your English sure has improved since we last met,” Jake looked suspiciously at Danielle. “I don’t suppose you’ve been keeping more refined company? Or hanging out with certain people who might convince you they need to go along on this journey?”
“How many times have you needed me so far?” Danielle’s voice was clear and strong, enough so he didn’t need to answer her question. He knew perfectly well that he would probably be unconscious, or even dead, in the twisted bowels of the catacombs right now if it hadn’t been for her assistance.
“Alvaro’s right about one thing. We can’t stay here and discuss this all day.” He held out his hand to her again, and this time she took it as he used it to pull her close so she could see the expression on his face.
“Promise me if you want to leave, at any time, you will tell me immediately so that I can arrange it.”
“I can promise I will never want to leave you,” she answered, searching his eyes for a response to her candid words.
“I hope that will always be the case.”
* * * *
The trail grew steep so gradually that she barely noticed the incline until she looked behind their position at the progress they’d made in the handful of days since she’d last donned the mask.
It was difficult for her to sleep at night. The air was cold and thin at that altitude, and the ever present wind buffeted the one tent they all shared, so it made strange noises and tricked her into thinking someone was always lurking outside.
A campfire might have kept away the local wildlife, but they were forced to put it out when darkness fell because it might have given their location away.
No one really knew how far behind them Britton Majers could be, but it was only a matter of hiring a guide for him to quickly close in on them. He must have been close that first night at camp, but they all hoped he would have been forced to turn back once he met that dead end. With any luck, he would have been set back a day or two, but somehow that information didn’t do much to ease the feeling of worry and constant looks she felt compelled to cast over their shoulders. Something nagged at the back of her mind, something she felt was important, but for the life of her she couldn’t recall it.
She only hoped it didn’t end up costing them all of their lives when she finally remembered.
* * * *
“Are we there yet?” Danielle panted as they climbed a particularly steep trail one morning after a fresh breakfast of Tapeti Rabbit, which Alvaro had caught the night before in a handmade trap. She had read Watership Down enough times that it bothered her to see him clean it, but her stomach soon put her sensibilities in check when the fresh meat began cooking on the fire as they packed up the tent. After a few days of learning how to bury the campfire after they were done, she was barely able to tell they had stayed overnight in the spot they were abandoning.
“Very nearly so.” Jake squinted through the sunlight at a Mountain peak which never seemed to get any closer no matter how far they walked.
“You said that yesterday morning.”
“I feel much better today, thank you for asking,” he teased her with an obvious attempt to change the subject.
Alvaro, on the other hand, woke each morning filled with an unusual amount of excitement and energy. If Danielle hadn’t known any better, she would have thought they were heading straight for Disney World.
“Our little friend here will see his parents for the first time in two years,” Jake explained to her, speaking fondly of the boy who sprinted up the trail and e
asily outdistanced them while she huffed and puffed her way along.
“You mean he’s from this mythical village that we may or may not be traveling to any time in the future?”
“Indeed, the village is difficult to access, but upon occasion a stray missionary or two will wander through in an almost fabled attempt to make contact with the tribe and spread the word of whatever faith they subscribe to.”
“How did you find them, if they are so hard to locate?” She tried to keep the sharp tone out of her voice, because she felt a little like he always kept a small bit of information just out of her reach.
“They found me, actually, after one of my expeditions. It was during the visit that gave me this fever, whatever it is, and though modern antibiotics seem to stem the acceleration, the rumor is that only the leader of the tribe can cure me. Unfortunately, I could never stay at the village long enough to complete his treatment, and I didn’t have all the uh, necessary components to succeed.”
“How long are you supposed to stay? I really recommend it, you know. I wouldn’t exactly buy a timeshare here or anything, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sure I could manage a few days of rest and relaxation if a psychopath wasn’t hot on my trail.”
“I would be required to stay for one full cycle of the moon, along with my bride, to complete the cure.”
She carefully regarded his expression, and his face was serious to a fault as he kept his eyes level on the path ahead, offering no more information than that.
“Um, am I missing something? Am I busting my butt to get to a village with you in the middle of nowhere, only to discover your future bride is waiting to challenge me to a fire pit jumping contest or something to win your affection?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he casually responded. “How high can you jump, anyway?”
Danielle slapped him smartly on the arm, a lot harder than she had intended and made a face at his astonished reaction.
Through Ancient Eyes (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 14
