“How did you get here?” the king asked.
“By raft,” said Jack, “from Cozumel.”
The older king picked up the travel guide from the floor. “What is this?”
Oh, no! thought Jack. He’d forgotten to put their book back in the bag! The king turned the book upside down and sideways. He stared at the back and the front.
“It’s a travel guide,” Annie said helpfully.
“A travel guide?” the older man repeated. His face was lined with wrinkles, and his eyes were bright and alert. He opened the book and stared at a page. Pointing to a photo of a plane landing at the Cozumel airport, he looked puzzled.
“That’s a plane,” said Jack.
“It flies,” said Annie. She moved her hand through the air. “Like a bird.”
The older king looked at the younger king and shrugged. He ruffled the pages, and the book fell open to a photo of a cruise ship.
“That’s an ocean liner,” said Jack.
“It carries thousands of people across the ocean,” said Annie.
The king turned to more photos: one showed a water-skier, and another showed an underwater tourist boat.
“Speedboat,” said Annie. “Submarine.”
The king turned the page and stared at a photo of skyscraper hotels. On the opposite page was a photo of a guest room with a girl working on a computer and a boy watching a football game on TV.
Neither Annie nor Jack tried to explain.
As the king turned more pages in the book, Jack glanced around the room. He caught the gaze of the young girl. She was the only person smiling.
Finally the old king closed the book and looked at Jack and Annie for a long time. He handed the book to Jack. Then he turned and nodded to the younger ruler. The two kings and the girl walked out the door back into the night. The women followed, and then the warriors.
One of the warriors left his flaming torch in a stone sconce. Then he closed the door, leaving Jack and Annie alone again in the dimly lit room.
“I wonder what they were thinking,” said Annie. “Are we their prisoners or their guests?”
“I don’t know,” said Jack, shaking his head. This dream vacation had turned into a nightmare.
“Should we eat the food?” asked Annie.
“I’m not hungry anymore,” said Jack.
“Me neither,” said Annie. “I just thought it might be polite.”
“I guess we’d better learn more about ancient Mayans,” Jack said. He opened the guide and found a section titled Mayans. By the light of the torch, he read aloud:
Today many Mayans live in Mexico and other parts of Central America. Long ago, before Columbus discovered the “New World,” Mayans had their own civilization. They created their own calendar and a special form of picture writing. They were skilled farmers, astronomers, and architects.
Before Jack could read more, the door opened again. The girl with the bangs and shiny black braids slipped into the room. She closed the door and smiled at Jack and Annie.
“Hi,” said Annie. “What’s your name?”
“Heart-of-the-Wind,” said the girl.
“That’s a beautiful name,” said Annie.
“Thank you,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “My father meets with his council now.”
“Who’s your father?” asked Annie.
“My father is the Great Sun,” said the girl. “He rules the kingdom of Palenque. It is many days from here, in the jungle.”
“Was the Great Sun the one who looked at our book?” asked Jack.
“Yes,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “He has been traveling the land to find his true heir. Weeks ago, we stopped here, in the City of Dawn, to visit with the king and rest. My father did not know that this would be the place where he would find what he was looking for.” She smiled at Jack. “Do you understand?”
“Um…I’m not sure,” said Jack. What am I supposed to understand? he thought.
“My father believes that you are the one he has been searching for,” said Heart-of-the-Wind.
“Me?” said Jack.
“My father just told me that he believes the gods have sent you to be our next king,” said Heart-of-the-Wind.
“Jack?” said Annie. “Your next king?”
“Jack,” the girl said, nodding. “I am my father’s only child. He has no sons. So he has decided to take Jack back to our kingdom and prepare him to be our ruler.”
“Me?” Jack said again.
“Yes,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “You will be the next Great Sun of Palenque.”
Annie gasped, then burst out laughing.
Heart-of-the-Wind laughed, too. “Yes, it is wonderful news! I am glad it makes you happy,” she said. “When the sun rises tomorrow, we will leave the City of Dawn and start the long journey back to Palenque. It will take us many moons to get there.”
“But—but why me?” asked Jack.
“My father believes you are the answer to his prayers,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “He can see you have many things to teach our people.”
“No, no I don’t,” said Jack. His words spilled over each other. “I don’t know how to farm, I’m not an astronomer or a pyramid builder, I don’t know anything about your Mayan calendar—” He stopped to catch his breath.
“My father will teach you these things,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “And you will teach us about the wonders in your—what did you call it?”
“Travel guide,” said Annie.
“Yes,” said Heart-of-the-Wind, “the wonders in your travel guide.”
“No, I can’t,” said Jack. “I don’t know how to make any of those things myself, like planes, submarines, skyscrapers, or computers. We live in a world with lots and lots of things, but we have to go to school and study for many years to understand how they work.”
“Besides, my brother and I really need to go back to our own parents in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania,” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind looked confused. “Would your mother and father not think it a wonderful honor for Jack to be the next Great Sun of Palenque?”
“They might,” said Annie, “but they would miss us too much if we came to live with you.”
“That’s right,” said Jack. “We do lots of things with our parents. We have dinner and play games and read books.”
“And talk and laugh,” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind lowered her head. “I have lost my own mother,” she said. “We talked and laughed together, too. I miss her very much.”
“So you understand?” Annie said softly. “We would miss our parents terribly. And it would break their hearts if we left them alone. We have to go back home.”
The Mayan girl looked at Jack and Annie for a long moment. Then she nodded. “Yes. You must go back to your true mother and father,” she said. “But I fear my father will not understand.”
“So could you help us get back to the cove on the beach?” asked Jack. “So we can cross the sea back to Cozumel? And then go home?”
“To our mother and father,” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind took a deep breath. “Yes, I will help you. I will take you to the shore,” she said. “Even though it will make my father sad.”
“Thank you!” said Jack.
“At this time, there are watchmen on the wall,” said the Mayan girl. “But I have discovered a hidden way to get to the sea. In the weeks we have stayed here, I have often slipped away at night to explore the forests or swim in the waves.”
“Wow, you’re brave,” said Annie.
“I like the freedom of the dark,” the Mayan girl said. “I can lead you wherever you want to go.”
“That’s great!” Jack said.
“There are still guards outside the door,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “I will hold their attention while you climb out the window. Wait for me at the wall where we first met.”
“Got it,” said Annie.
“Stay in the shadows,” the Mayan girl said. “Be as quiet as cats.” Then
she slipped out the door, closing it behind her.
“Let’s go!” said Annie.
“Wait,” said Jack. “Let’s take off our shoes. They make too much noise.”
Jack and Annie pulled off their flip-flops and stuffed them in the bag. Barefoot, they stepped to the window. Annie climbed out first. “Take this,” Jack whispered. He dropped the bag into Annie’s waiting arms. Then he jumped silently to the ground. He could hear voices coming from the other side of the stone building: Heart-of-the-Wind and the guards.
Jack and Annie crept away from the House of Columns, moving through the shadows. The night was eerily still, as if everyone in the City of Dawn had disappeared until sunrise.
When they reached the break in the stone wall, they crouched down and waited for Heart-of-the-Wind. Jack saw the silhouettes of the guards standing on top of the wall. He counted four watchmen with bows and arrows facing the sea.
The Mayan girl suddenly appeared before them. Jack hadn’t seen or heard her approach. “Follow me,” she whispered, and she led the way through the narrow opening in the wall.
Once they had all squeezed through, Heart-of-the-Wind surprised Jack by turning away from the sea and heading down through thick vegetation growing on the northern slope of the bluff. Jack and Annie followed her down the hill. Prickly bushes and shrubs scratched Jack’s bare legs and feet, but he didn’t stop. He wanted to be as fleet as Heart-of-the-Wind.
At the bottom of the hill, the Mayan girl waited for Jack and Annie to catch up. “To return to the beach, we must first travel through the Forest-of-Walking-Trees,” she said.
“Forest-of-Walking-Trees?” said Annie. “That sounds cool. But sort of scary.”
“Do not be afraid,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “They are very kind trees.”
Jack laughed. “I like kind trees,” he said.
“Me too,” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind led Jack and Annie to a moonlit swamp. As they sloshed through shallow water, Jack heard the hum of insects and the rustling of night creatures. The air smelled of salt water and rotting wood.
“Whoa, those trees do have legs!” said Annie, peering into the shadows.
“Those are just roots,” said Jack. He’d seen pictures of tropical mangrove trees with their roots rising aboveground.
“No, those trees have legs,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. “But they walk only at night. Hello!” she called in a whisper. “May we pass by?”
The wind blew, and the trees waved their branches. Their leaves rustled, whispering, Yes, yes, yes.
“Come,” said the girl.
Jack and Annie followed Heart-of-the-Wind deeper into the watery forest, careful not to trip over roots and bushes. Jack jumped when something prickly darted between his ankles. He shuddered when something with lots of tiny legs ran down his arm. But he tried not to make a sound. He wanted to be like Heart-of-the-Wind. Nothing seemed to bother her as she moved silently and smoothly through the swamp.
Suddenly a raucous howling ripped through the darkness.
“Yikes!” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind laughed. “It is only the Ones-Who-Tell-the-History-of-the-Forest,” she said.
“Cool,” said Jack. He knew the sounds came from howler monkeys, the loudest monkeys in the world. He’d learned about them on a nature show, but he preferred the Mayan girl’s name for them. Maybe in their language, the monkeys really are telling the history of the forest, he thought.
“Come along,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. As they started through the darkness again, a different sound came from nearby—a deep, ominous growl.
“Whoa!” whispered Jack.
Heart-of-the-Wind held up her hand. “Silence,” she said, keeping her voice low. “He is watching us.”
“Who?” whispered Annie.
“He-Who-Kills-with-One-Leap,” the girl said.
“Oh, just him,” whispered Jack, trying to make a joke.
Heart-of-the-Wind laughed softly. “Yes. Him. There,” she said, pointing.
In the moonlight, Jack could see yellow eyes and spotted fur. A jaguar! he thought. “Um…should we go another way? Maybe?” he said.
“No. I will send him peaceful thoughts,” said Heart-of-the-Wind.
“Good idea,” whispered Annie.
She and Jack were silent as the Mayan girl stared for a long moment at the jaguar. Then she took a deep breath. “He says we may pass his way.”
“He does?” said Jack.
“Cool,” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind led them past the tree where the jaguar crouched on a limb. Clutching his bag, Jack barely breathed as he slipped past the huge cat.
“Good night!” Heart-of-the-Wind called back to the jaguar.
“Thank you!” called Annie.
The cat growled again.
“He said, Sure, no problem,” said Jack.
Heart-of-the-Wind laughed at his joke, and Jack laughed, too. Despite the danger, he was having a good time.
Jack and Annie followed Heart-of-the-Wind as she forged on through the forest, climbing over tangles of roots and wading through knee-high water.
“She’s like an Eagle Scout,” Annie said to Jack.
“I was thinking more like a Navy SEAL,” said Jack.
The Mayan girl came to a halt. “Do not go near that log,” she whispered, pointing to a fallen tree trunk.
“Why not?” asked Jack.
“It lives,” she said.
“It lives?” said Jack.
Heart-of-the-Wind broke off a twig and tossed it at the log. The log moved. It was the snout of a crocodile! Its huge mouth opened and closed.
Jack and Annie jumped back. They laughed at themselves and then followed Heart-of-the-Wind as she led them away from the crocodile. “He is called Earth-Monster-of-the-Underworld,” she said.
“Good name,” said Annie.
“To get to the sea, we must travel through the Underworld,” said Heart-of-the-Wind.
“Um…and what’s that exactly?” asked Jack.
“The home of the ancestor spirits,” said the girl. “My father’s warriors will not enter the Underworld. They are frightened by what they cannot see. But I am not afraid.”
“Me neither,” said Annie.
“Nope. Not one bit,” said Jack, and he meant it. As long as they were with Heart-of-the-Wind, scary stuff didn’t seem all that scary. At that moment, he wasn’t afraid of anything.
“Soon we will enter the Underworld,” said Heart-of-the-Wind. She led Jack and Annie through the mangrove forest until they came to a river hidden by trees and vines. As the leafy branches swayed in the breeze, moonlight danced on the silvery water.
“This is the Sacred Well,” the Mayan girl said. “Our journey to the Underworld begins here.” She stepped over to a hollowed-out log canoe at the water’s edge. She picked up a wooden paddle lying beside the boat.
As Heart-of-the-Wind pushed the canoe into the Sacred Well, Jack turned to Annie. “Remember how the travel guide mentioned sinkholes filled with water?” he whispered. “This must be one of them.”
“Sacred Well sounds way better than sinkhole, doesn’t it?” whispered Annie.
“Definitely,” said Jack.
Heart-of-the-Wind slipped down into the dugout canoe and picked up the paddle. “Please, climb in,” she said.
Jack and Annie carefully lowered themselves down into the rough interior of the boat. Jack held their bag on his lap.
Heart-of-the-Wind began paddling through the waters of the Sacred Well. As she shifted her paddle from side to side, the log canoe glided over the shimmering river. It curved down a shadowy passageway between rocks and then arrived at the yawning mouth of a cave.
“Now we enter the Underworld,” said Heart-of-the-Wind.
Moonlight shimmered on the underground river as the canoe glided in and out of light-filled passageways and tunnels. Water dripped and trickled down the cave walls. Soon one of the tunnels opened into a huge chamber that had a giant
hole in the ceiling, letting in the full light of the moon.
“Oh, man,” breathed Jack.
Huge columns of white rock stretched down from the ceiling of the cavern. The columns looked as if they were made of gleaming ice, and thousands of tiny icicle-like strands covered the craggy walls.
“What are those?” Annie asked.
“Stone sculptures made by the Rain God,” said Heart-of-the-Wind.
Jack knew from a geology book that the formations were called stalactites. They were made by centuries of dripping and trickling water in caves. But he liked Heart-of-the-Wind’s answer better.
The Mayan girl carefully steered the canoe around the gleaming columns. “Look there,” she whispered. She pointed to a ledge in the chamber.
On the ledge was a platform that held carved wooden statues. Some looked like snarling jaguars, others like coiled serpents. The largest was a statue of an angry king with a terrible scowl. “They guard the Underworld and protect the ancestor spirits,” Heart-of-the-Wind explained.
“Cool,” said Annie.
Heart-of-the-Wind steered the canoe around a corner and into another cave tunnel. This tunnel was completely dark, without a trace of light. The air was cold and clammy. The canoe bumped against the rock walls. Jack reached out and felt the slippery, drippy stone. He pulled his hand back and shuddered.
As Heart-of-the-Wind paddled on through the black tunnel, Jack clutched his bag and tried to still his racing heart. The Underworld frightened him a little now: the tireless drip-drip of water, the strange statues of serpents and jaguars, and now the dank utter darkness of the tunnel.
“Where are the ancestor spirits?” whispered Annie.
“They are all around us,” Heart-of-the-Wind whispered back. “They are watching everything we do.”
Oh, man, Jack thought. No wonder the king’s warriors were afraid to enter the Underworld.
“Do not be afraid,” said the Mayan girl, as if she had read his thoughts. “I will protect you.”
“Thank you,” whispered Annie, sounding a little nervous herself.
Heart-of-the-Wind paddled through the twists and turns of the Underworld, until finally the canoe emerged onto a glistening pool that was open to the moonlit sky.
Shadow of the Shark Page 4
