Uncharted

by Robyn Nyx

  “I thought you said you didn’t want it easy?”

  Rayne poked Chase in the chest. “You misremember what I said. I asked you if you wanted it easy.” Rayne crossed her arms and peered over the cliff top. “I like easy.”

  Chase shrugged. “Whatever you say. I still have to go down there and retrieve the final artifact.” Chase dropped to her knees and began to pack the tools she needed into the smaller bag, as before. The snakes had been surprisingly easy, but this one would require even more concentration and the strength of Rayne and Pablo. Chase could definitely have used the tank twins right about now, but they were otherwise engaged as Turner’s prisoners. Not for much longer, she hoped, but she and Rayne had yet to figure out how they were going to free them, get the treasure, beat Turner, avoid death, and make it home.

  “And you think this one will be made of maize somehow?”

  “Yeah, it makes sense.” Chase tugged her pack closed and began to unravel the three-hundred-foot climbing rope. “The Mayans believed the gods had three attempts at making mankind. Wood, clay—”

  “And maize.” Rayne picked up one end of the rope and looked around for a tree to secure it to.

  “Exactly. The first tree yielded the chunk of wood, the gods’ first material to fashion humans. The second tree contained the clay pot, their second material. Logically, this tree will give up something made of maize or corn.” Chase joined Rayne in checking the trees closest to the cliff edge. They needed something strong and tall with not too thick a trunk to wrap the rope around. Unfortunately, those kinds of trees didn’t seem to grow around here.

  They’d brought three ropes with them, and if they could’ve connected them together, that wouldn’t have been a problem since the taller trees were only fifty feet away. But the tank twins had been carrying the other two. With them gone, they only had one rope, and Chase knew it wasn’t quite long enough to reach the tree. In the absence of a laser measure, there was only one way to find out.

  “But the map doesn’t give any clue as to how we’ll need to use the three objects to access the cave or the Trinity?” Rayne hugged a tree to the left of the lupuna tree location then gave it a shake. “This one seems like the best of them.”

  Chase pushed at it and blew out a heavy breath when it moved easily. “I hope you two are feeling strong. I don’t want to trust my life only to the steadiness of this tree.”

  Pablo flexed his skinny arm. “I am stronger than I look.”

  “I hope so,” Chase muttered under her breath, “because your limbs look like dried twigs.” She looked back at Rayne who was still waiting for an answer. “Sorry, no. The symbols on the map match the ones on the wood and clay, but I can’t see anything else other than directions. I expect we’ll have to figure it out when we get there. Like you said, they’ve not made it easy for us.”

  Chase’s mind drifted to the old woman and what they’d said about protecting the Golden Trinity from Turner. “Their disappointment will lead to destruction.” Did they mean that if Turner didn’t get what he wanted, if they somehow managed to stop him from getting to the treasure at all, that he’d go berserk and try to destroy…what? The tribes were safe and the treasure would be out of his reach. The rain forest? Even with the logging machines at his disposal, the authorities could stop him before he managed to do too much damage.

  Rayne placed her hand on Chase’s shoulder. “We could wait until Turner catches up. The rope isn’t long enough, is it?”

  Chase took up the other end of the rope Rayne was holding. “It’ll be long enough.” She avoided prolonged eye contact and began to wrap the rope around the tree and knot it. She didn’t want to wait for help from Turner and his men, and who knew what condition the tank twins would be in after a couple of days in Owen’s company. She could do this. They could do this.

  Chase stood, gathered the remaining rope, and casually dropped it over the edge of the cliff. She didn’t want to look to see how short the rope was in relation to the tree just yet.

  “You’re not securing yourself to the other end?” Rayne didn’t look impressed.

  “Nope.” Chase pulled the carabiner and brake bar from her pants pocket. “I’ll use these to rappel down.”

  Rayne shook her head and began to pull the rope back up. “No. No, you damn well will not. There’s no need to make this any more dangerous than it has to be.”

  Pablo smirked. “You should do as Ms. Rayne commands.” He motioned toward the ravine. “An angry woman is more dangerous than any fall from a cliff.”

  Chase stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Yes. Yes, you will be fine, because you’re going to do it properly.” Rayne held out the end of the rope when she’d finally pulled the length of it back to the top of the cliff.

  Chase took it and fashioned a swami belt around her waist. Rayne was right of course, and Chase was begrudgingly glad for her insistent intervention. She’d gotten carried away in a macho moment and suddenly the rope was over the cliff.

  Rayne came closer and tugged at the knot, checking its tightness. “It’s taken me a while to get back to you. I’m not losing you to an unnecessarily heroic stunt, do you hear me?”

  Chase wrapped her hand around Rayne’s neck and pulled her in. Her lips tasted salty but the sweetness of the kiss was succor for Chase’s soul. It felt good to allow herself to be cared for in this way. “Okay. Whatever you say,” Chase said. Rayne would know that was the closest she’d get to saying Rayne was right.

  “That’s right. Whatever I say.” Rayne stepped away, before pulling some utility gloves from her pack and telling Pablo to get his.

  Chase checked the knots around herself and the tree once more. She strapped her pack of tools tightly to her back, stood at the edge of the cliff, and put on her gloves. “Ready?”

  Rayne took up the rope slack and wedged herself with her feet against the tree. Pablo picked up the rope behind Rayne and secured his feet against another tree.

  “Ready.”

  Chase leaned backward into the arms of nothingness until she was at a ninety-degree angle, her feet flat against the rock. “Lower me down.” Nice and steady.

  Chase walked down the cliff with relatively large strides, and the end of the line came faster than she’d expected. She heard Rayne shout, “That’s all there is,” from above. She looked to her right. The tree was ten feet away. She’d have to unravel the rope harness to gain an extra three feet. The side of the cliff was made up of the roots of the trees above ground and small rocky outcrops. Chase walked her feet down to get closer to the cliff face and fixed her toes onto a rock to hold her weight. She thumbed out the dirt around a root and gave it a pull.

  It held firm. She looked at the remaining distance between herself and the first decent sized branch of the lupuna. She could do this. Chase began to untie the knot around her waist with one hand, holding tight to the exposed roots with her other hand. With the harness unraveled, Chase climbed down the extra few feet the rope allowed. She threaded the end of it through a root to keep it from swinging once she let it go.

  Chase looked down at the raging water and jagged rocks beneath her. One wrong move, one weak root, and her life would be over in seconds. She straightened up, kiss-close to the cliff, and worked a second handhold. One hold at a time. She lifted her right boot to the next rock, felt for stability, and pulled herself along. Progress was slow, digging out each handhold tedious, but Chase resisted the temptation to rush and make a mistake.

  Chase pushed off her right foot to reach for a rock handhold. The ground crumbled beneath the pressure, she lost her footing, and her right hand gripped fresh air. Her body swung out and away from the cliff, jarring her left shoulder as she held on with just her left hand. Plumes of rock dust invaded her eyes and mouth. The roaring of her blood rushing around her head was louder than the racing water beneath her.

  “Shit.” Chase steadied her body and caught hold of a jutting rock with her right hand and eased the pre
ssure from her left shoulder. She found holds for her feet and stayed there, eyes closed, prone and spread-eagle for a few moments, steadying her breath and heart.

  She opened her eyes and kissed the root her left hand was hooked into. “Thank you.” Chase continued cautiously, triple-checking each foothold and handhold before relying on it fully and applying her body weight. Finally, the lupuna tree was within reach. Chase grabbed hold of a branch with her right hand. Content it was strong enough, she leaned across the cliff face and grasped it with her left hand. Her right foot followed onto a lower branch, and lastly her left foot. She traversed her way along the branches to the trunk and gave the tree a quick embrace. “And thank you.”

  Chase made her way down the trunk to its base and the strange piece of cliff it was stranded on. There was no way this tree was ever there accidentally. It had to have been deliberately planted years before the Mayans hid the secret path to the Golden Trinity. That fact alone destroyed current understanding that Mayans were barely in Brazil. Chase wondered if they were only here to keep their treasure safe, hundreds of miles away from rival tribes and eventually, the Spanish conquistadors.

  Chase quickly located the scarred wood circle, prepared her tools, and began the task of retrieving the final puzzle piece needed to enter the cave of the Golden Trinity.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Rayne lay on her belly with her head peeking over the edge of the cliff to watch Chase’s progress. Her heart had jumped up from her chest and out of her throat to dive into the ravine when Chase had slipped. That was the only thing stopping her from screaming out, which was never helpful in any situation.

  “It is a good thing her arms are strong, Ms. Rayne. That slip would have snapped my body from my shoulder.” Pablo lay beside her, also looking down.

  Rayne nodded, her voice still playing hide-and-seek. Fatigue had kicked in, and she’d almost fallen unconscious with exhaustion while Chase cut into the tree, but sheer bloody-mindedness kept her eyes open. She convinced her body that there was no way she could fall asleep right now.

  “I’ve got it.”

  Chase called up from below, but her words were barely whispers on the wind. Rayne couldn’t see what she held up from so far away, but as long as she had something, it had been worth the risk…or maybe not. Was anything worth the risk of losing Chase now that she finally had her?

  A tug on the rope beneath her body alerted her to Chase’s positioning. She looked down to see Chase had already secured a harness around her waist and was ready to begin what would be a steady and slow ascent to rejoin them. “She’s ready to come up,” Rayne said to Pablo, and they resumed their positions against their respective trees to take up the slack. Rayne tugged twice on the rope to indicate they were ready.

  As the rope slackened, she and Pablo pulled it up, ensuring that if Chase were to lose her footing again, they’d hold the tension. The climb seemed to take hours, but in reality, was probably only sixty minutes or so. Every now and then Chase would call up to say she was okay, and each time, Rayne was glad to hear her voice sound louder and thus, closer to the top of the cliff.

  Rayne heard a noise that sounded like Darth Vader on steroids and glanced behind her to its origin. “Oh, fuck!” An anaconda emerged from the water and dived toward her. Rayne jumped backward and released her grip on the rope. Pablo cursed and threw a rock at its head, and the snake turned on him, hissing and rising, ready to attack. It launched itself at Pablo, wrapped around his chest, and locked its jaw onto his face. He let go of the rope, and Rayne heard Chase’s exclamation as the excess slack tumbled over the cliff. Rayne jumped to the right to avoid being caught by it and pulled over the edge.

  “What the hell’s happening?”

  Relief flooded through Rayne as she heard Chase’s voice so close, but she was unable to help her. The anaconda had slid around Pablo’s chest, beginning to crush him. He clutched at it, but it wasn’t giving him up easily. He screamed out as the snake continued to encircle his chest and neck, and there was easily another twenty feet of it not yet attached to him.

  Rayne withdrew her machete and looked for a point of attack. If she sliced it too low down, it could loosen itself from Pablo and launch at her. She had no idea how agile they were, and given its size, it should be rather cumbersome. But its attack on Pablo had been impressively fast.

  Come on, Rayne. She was wasting time. Pablo was losing consciousness.

  “I’ll grab its head.” Chase rushed past Rayne. “You slice through its neck.”

  “Okay.” Rayne raised her machete and slowly approached the snake while Chase came around the back of it. In milliseconds, Chase had grabbed both halves of the beast’s open mouth.

  “Now!”

  Rayne brought her machete down on its neck, chopping halfway through it. The rest of its ridiculously long body writhed and thrashed, catching Rayne and sending her thudding to the ground.

  “Babe, get up. Finish the job,” Chase yelled, still hanging onto its head as it struggled.

  Rayne jumped up and began to hack at the snake’s neck. Its blood splattered all of them with the force she struck it with, and she continued until she’d finally chopped its head off. Chase pried its jaws from Pablo’s face and neck and tossed it aside before beginning to loosen its considerable length from around his body. Pablo had passed out, and it was only now that Rayne saw that the snake had bitten into his cheek and neck. His blood soaked his tank top.

  “Get the first aid kit.” Chase removed her scarf, bundled it, and pressed it against Pablo’s neck to stem the bleeding.

  Rayne emptied her pack hurriedly all over the ground and plucked the kit from it. She turned just as Pablo opened his eyes.

  “That was a…big snake…Ms. Rayne.”

  He held out his hands, and Rayne dropped to her knees in front of him and clasped her hands over his. “You saved my life,” she whispered, then looked at Chase and the scarf she was holding to Pablo’s neck. It was already crimson and sodden with Pablo’s blood.

  Chase took hold of one of Rayne’s hands and held it to his neck. “Apply pressure.”

  Chase opened the kit and pulled out a chunk of gauze. She returned to Pablo and removed Rayne’s hand, along with the scarf. Rayne gasped at the size and number of puncture wounds in his neck as Chase tried to stem the blood pulsing from all of the holes from the snake’s teeth.

  Pablo squeezed Rayne’s hand. “Now we are even, Ms. Rayne…Now I go…to see my family.”

  “No.” Rayne shook his hand. “Not yet. It’s not your time.”

  Pablo smiled weakly, his face becoming paler by the second.

  “It is…okay, Ms. Rayne. I can see my family.”

  He released her hand and reached out as if he were reaching for something or someone beyond Rayne. She looked at Chase. “Do something. Please.” Rayne took another piece of gauze and held it on the many other teeth wounds on Pablo’s check. As it soaked up his blood, she saw how badly his flesh was torn, and she could see his teeth through the gaping hole.

  Chase shook her head slowly. “I’m so sorry, Rayne.”

  “No…No. Fix it, Chase. Fix him…You can do it. I know you can.”

  Rayne followed Chase’s gaze to settle on Pablo. His eyes, usually so full of life and mischief, were vacant and glassy. Rayne’s chest heaved, and she fell backward onto the giant length of the snake’s body. “No…” Her scream eviscerated the silence of the jungle. She picked up her machete and chopped wildly all around her. Her blade sliced the snake’s flesh and stuck inside it. She pulled the machete from it and continued, wanting the wet slapping noise to drown out the words in her head. But Rayne still heard them whispering, It should have been you. It was your time.

  Chase’s arms around Rayne stopped her manic hacking. Her grip was firm as she circled Rayne.

  “Baby, stop,” Chase whispered.

  Rayne dropped her machete to the ground and her knees gave way. But Chase held on and didn’t let go. As Rayne’s breathless co
nvulsions evolved into body-racking sobs, Chase’s embrace held firm.

  Rayne let herself go. All of the pain. All of the hurt. All of the regret. The consuming grief. The overwhelming feeling that she hadn’t done enough. She released it all and knew, in that moment, Chase would catch her as she let herself fall, not just physically but emotionally.

  “I’ve got you,” Chase whispered and brushed her hair, wet with tears, gently from Rayne’s face.

  Rayne didn’t hold back. Any time before this, she would have “pulled herself together” as constantly commanded to do by her parents every time she fell, physically or metaphorically. She didn’t try to hold back her emotional response to the loss of Pablo, as strange as that was to do. She didn’t hide the pain deep in the recesses of her heart and mind for fear of ridicule, of being seen as weak and vulnerable, easy prey. She made no attempt to withhold the tears, the physical proof of her grief, for the sake of appearances. She had nothing to prove to Chase. She released the screams, although their intensity and volume bounced painfully around her head.

  “I’ve got you, baby.”

  Chase’s repeated phrase settled in Rayne’s conscious this time, and she realized, completely, that Chase was solid and true. Her support wasn’t conditional or fickle. Her words weren’t uttered just for something to say; they were honest and meaningful. As Rayne allowed Chase to guide her to the ground, her embrace never faltering, Rayne opened herself up to the possibilities of a life with Chase beyond this adventure. She glanced at Pablo and wished with all that she was that he did get to be with his family again. All Rayne wanted was to be here, in Chase’s arms, feeling like she was cocooned in the safest place in the world.

  Chapter Thirty

  Rayne sorted through Pablo’s pack, taking what they might need from it. Somehow, it felt wrong, like they were stealing. Chase didn’t want to be a part of it so she excused herself and began to wash out her scarf in the stream. As Pablo’s blood colored the river before disappearing and becoming part of the murky brown water, Chase thought of the impermanence of life. They’d expected to finish this adventure together. The danger should only have been in the form of Turner and Owen. Pablo’s life wasn’t supposed to end that way. She shrugged and rubbed the material hard between her fists. Who decided how a life was supposed to end anyway? She glanced across at Rayne and shuddered. She couldn’t lose her. She couldn’t let anything happen to her. She had to stop Owen, no matter the cost.