“What about the new ones? Take me to them.”
“They have been sent ahead.”
“What? Why?”
“Other lights, many lights, are in the valley. They are headed this way. Fires burn behind them. You must go now, Keeper, before it is too late. Some of my men will go with you. Others await you at the river. They will guide you to our village. Hurry. Fill your bag and go.”
“I cannot find my way in the dark.”
Amid more screams pouring into the darkened space, Citali heard the echo of rocks hitting together and saw a trail of sparks. A pungent odor filled her nose. More sparks leapt up and then a flame ignited. It quickly spread along a soaked cloth wrapped around a stick, illuminating a man whose body was covered with designs painted in gold. He handed her the torch.
“Go!”
Crouching down, Citali entered a tunnel at the back of the cave. As she moved deeper into the mountain, the sounds of the skirmish outside the cave began to fade. Ahead, she could see the spot where the tunnel began to widen into a sculpted chamber with an arched ceiling.
Even at a distance, she could see the painted murals that filled the left wall of the shrine and the seashell mosaic that graced the wall to the right. But her eyes soon focused on the stone blocks at the rear of the chamber. The skin beneath her necklace began to warm and prickle.
She passed into the shrine and slotted the torch into a holder just inside the entrance. She bowed before the mosaic, her hands touching the sacred symbol formed by the seashells. In a whisper, she recited the pledge and then stood to face the wall of blocks. The tiles of the necklace began to vibrate as she approached.
A panicked voice echoed down the tunnel. “Quickly! We must go! Others have started up the trail. They do not walk. They run.”
Her heart sank as she listened to his words. She stared at the wall and sighed.
It is too late, then. May the fathers forgive me.
Citali slipped a Sound Stone from her bag. Moving closer to the neatly cut and placed blocks, she raised the bottom of the bowl-shaped stone to her lips and began to hum.
Dust filled the chamber as stone blocks shattered and the ceiling gave way. The tumbling of rock shook the floor with the force of an earthquake. Through the deafening sounds, Citali heard the man’s voice again.
“Keeper! What has happened? Are you—”
“Stay back,” she called out.
What was left of the chamber descended into a brief darkness. Then a dim light flickered through clouds of dust. Citali turned and spied the sputtering torch lying on rubble. Retrieving it, she wedged it into a mound of rock and then scrambled atop the fallen blocks.
Averting her eyes from looking into the dark hole beyond the debris, Citali hummed on the Sound Stone. Sweeping it to and fro over the debris …
…moments later, Citali emerged from the tunnel. Her body caked with dirt, she coughed, wiped her eyes clear of grit and handed the torch to the man. His face displayed a petrified expression.
“What has happened, Keeper? Where are the given—”
“They are safe. Now, go. I will follow.”
Citali watched him exit the cave and then turned toward the tunnel. Out came the Sound Stone again. She touched it to her lips and began to hum. Shortly after, down went the entrance to the tunnel. The man returned to protest, his eyes horror-filled.
“Keeper, what have you done?”
“Honored the pledge.”
Pushing past him she exited the cave and dashed along the ledge. Bodies of fallen attackers and defenders littered her way. Citali reached the gap and climbed the step-like stones to reach the trail. Seconds later, the gold-painted man scrambled up the gap and came to halt beside her. “Why do you pause? We must go.”
“Start down the mountain. Do not look back.” Citali pointed at a small group of men crouching at the junction where the path to the cave met the switchback trail. “Tell them the same. No matter what you hear, no matter how bright the sky lights up, do not look back. Do you understand me? It is forbidden.”
“But, Keeper—”
Turning to face the overhang protecting the ledge, Citali commanded the man to leave. As she dipped her hands into the bag again, she heard the pounding of his feet on the trail and his shouts to the men at the junction.
She looked down at the two stones in her hands, one that was cone-shaped, the other a small cylinder. After whispering another plea for forgiveness, she began to grind the bottom of the cone against the other stone. They began to glow. Citali intensified her grinding until the heat from the stones burned her palms.
Yanking them away from each other, she pointed the tip of the cone at the overhang and smashed the cylinder against the bottom of the cone. A bolt of light shot forth, lighting up the chasm. The ground trembled. Rocks at the receiving end of the beam chunked loose from the overhang. A large crack formed. She pulled the stones apart and smashed them together again, this time grinding them with all her might as a new bolt leapt at the crack.
The flash of light that followed lit up the waters in the lake below. The boom accompanying the disintegration of the overhang rattled the mountainside. She lifted her eyes and stared at the lights in the valley and the small dots lining the trail beside the lake.
“You will never take what was hidden!” Citali screamed. “Never!”
One last time, she slammed the glowing stones. This time, she aimed the beam at the small channel where the lake fed into the river. The ground rumbled again. She ground the stones together until she heard the channel begin to break apart.
Dropping the throbbing stones over the side of the mountain, she listened with satisfaction as the channel gave way and water gushed through the widened gap. Gazing through the darkness toward the valley in the distance, she saw thousands of lights scatter in all directions. Many would perish beneath the inescapable torrent of water. She prayed the evil bitch would be among them.
No matter. Whether she dies or lives, she will never touch what was hidden. Not now.
Citali smiled as she turned and headed for the switchback, her singed hand sliding inside the bag to touch each of the orbs. The smile vanished as a wave of disgust churned her stomach. She dropped to her knees and began to retch.
CHAPTER 21: SLEEPLESS IN AYACUCHO
Restaurante Nino
Churcampa, Peru
September 28
It took several seconds before Pebbles could see through her watery eyes. It took a few more to remember where she was and recall the names of the people with worried stares seated around her, two of whom propped her up in her chair.
Well, at least I’m not on the floor this time.
As Pebbles endured a flurry of questions about her wellbeing, Anlon handed her a bottled water. After downing half of the bottle, Pebbles placed the container on the table. Her eyes drifted to the napkin spread out in front of Mereau.
“What the heck is that?” she asked.
Mereau pushed it across the table. “You don’t recognize it? You drew it.”
“I did?” She lifted the napkin and studied the drawing.
“We presume it shows the children, the new ones, mentioned in your previous visions.”
Pebbles pointed at the necklaces. “Those are the same symbols on the Candelabra.”
“It appears so,” Mereau said.
“The same symbols on the wall of seashells in the cave…” Pebbles’ voice trailed off as the memory of Citali kneeling before the mosaic came back into her consciousness.
“You’ve seen a vision of the cave?” Anlon asked.
She nodded, her mind still half focused on the mosaic memory. As it faded into the recesses of her mind, Pebbles turned to Anlon. “There’s no point in exploring the cave. Citali destroyed it…well, made it impassable. Even if we can get into it, it would take months to clear a path to what’s left of the Maerlif.”
“So, there was a Maerlif!” Anlon turned to Mereau. “You were right.”
“P
ebbles, you said she destroyed it? How?” Jennifer asked.
“She had a Sound Stone in her bag…and a Flash Stone.” Pebbles stared off in the distance. “She purposely caved in the Maerlif wall and tunnel leading to it with the Sound Stone. Blew up the overhang and ledge with the Flash Stone.” Pebbles paused and then focused her gaze on Jennifer. “And then frickin’ used it to empty the lake into the valley.”
Jennifer frowned. “I thought you said she didn’t have any of the Munuorian stones.”
“I know. Apparently, I was wrong.”
Pebbles provided them with a full description of the vision ending with the part where Citali fell to the path and vomited. “I think she was grossed out by what she had done. She kept begging for forgiveness.”
“It’s an understandable reaction,” said Anlon. “She was charged to protect what was in the Maerlif, and instead she destroyed it.”
“That’s what’s confusing,” Pebbles said. “She knocked down the Maerlif wall, but I don’t think she actually destroyed what was inside. I remember seeing a black space behind the rubble of the wall, but the weird part is she never went in it.”
“Didn’t you say she took some pieces from the rubble?” Cesar said.
“Uh huh. I didn’t see them in the vision, but I could tell she was using the Sound Stone to search for something in the rubble. Then, after she left the cave, I felt them when she reached into her bag. They were kind of oblong. Smooth, orb shapes about the size of big pinecones.”
“Aha!” Mereau said. “That’s it! Now I understand her purpose. Citali was as clever as her forebearers.” He paused. Pebbles watched a smile spread across his face. “She didn’t destroy the Maerlif. She knocked down the wall to take the beacons…to prevent Muran from finding the crypt. And then for good measure, she sealed the tunnel and rendered it inaccessible by destroying the only way she could reach the cave.”
As he spoke, Pebbles replayed what she recalled of the vision. Mereau was right. Citali had used the Sound Stone to search for the beacons in the rubble. But, if that was the case, why had she been so remorseful? Why had she begged forgiveness? Pebbles posed these questions to her friends.
“I think I have an explanation,” Sanjay said. “I feel badly I did not think of the possibility earlier but, as Mereau has observed, Citali was clever. She has deceived us. She has deceived you.”
“What?”
“She has manipulated us to feel sympathetic toward her. She has used her visions to justify her actions. It is a common defense mechanism used when we feel guilty about our actions.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Pebbles said. “Guilty about what?”
“Citali let loose the lake. While she no doubt rejoiced in killing her adversaries who got caught up in the deluge, she also likely killed hundreds of innocent people in villages in the valley and others along the course of the river.
“My guess is, as she started down the switchback, she noticed the lights in the village, the ones she had seen during her hike up, were no longer visible. I imagine it only took her a few more seconds to realize the full scope of implications.”
Sanjay lifted up the napkin drawing. When Pebbles grasped the meaning of his gesture, she shot from her seat and ran outside. Dropping to her knees, she bent over and vomited on the sidewalk.
How could you! What were you thinking?
The new ones, the children who were to be the next generation of Seers, had been sent ahead. That was what the gold-painted man had said. They would have been too little to trudge through the mountains. They would have gone by boat.
En route back to Santa Rosa Hotel
Ayacucho Valley, Peru
It was a quiet ride back to Ayacucho. Pebbles slept most of the way, her head resting against Anlon’s shoulder. Cesar sat up front with Jennifer, switching places as driver about halfway through the valley. Sanjay and Mereau occupied the third row, whispering back and forth so as not to wake Pebbles.
Anlon spent most of the trip looking out the window but he could not remember a single thing he had seen. During the ride, his mind had cycled question after question. Some for Pebbles, others for Sanjay and yet more for Mereau and Cesar.
It would have been easy to shut his mind off, endure a sleepless night and rise early to check the flight schedule from Ayacucho to Lima. But there were questions that still needed answers, the most important of which was: how do we get Citali’s memories out of Pebbles’ mind?
He had hoped that by chasing the clues to find out what had happened to the items Citali had been charged to protect, the answers might have soothed her restless spirit and her psychic energy would have passed away. Such an outcome, he now realized, was more wishful thinking than anything else.
But what the hell good would it do now to go any farther? He doubted Sanjay would recommend a confrontation between Pebbles and Citali, and chasing any more clues was a waste of time. All they would be doing is playing into the hands of Citali’s guilty conscience.
From a historical preservation perspective, Anlon was sure Cesar and Mereau would ultimately want to return to the mountain and excavate the cave, find the Maerlif and see what Citali and her family had promised to protect. But the exercise would take months. And there was no guarantee they would find anything. The waterfalls or the stream inside the mountain might have washed away all the artifacts centuries ago.
Even if they did discover some archaeological evidence of importance, how was it going to help Pebbles? Citali’s memories would continue to haunt her unless Sanjay could find a way to expunge her from Pebbles’ mind. And Anlon knew Sanjay would say such a feat was impossible. If you cannot force a living human mind to come to grips with trauma, how could anyone hope to force the same from psychic remains of a mind that died eighteen hundred years ago?
Room 302
Santa Rosa Hotel
Ayacucho, Peru
Wee hours of September 29
Just as Anlon had predicted, his mind refused to sleep. Trying desperately to sneak out of bed without waking Pebbles, he moved in slow motion. All that did, however, was accentuate the length of the time the bed creaked.
As he pulled on his clothes in the dark, he heard Pebbles’ voice. “Where are you going?”
“Can’t sleep. Didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Don’t worry, I can’t sleep either. Come back to bed.”
“You sure?”
“Uh huh.”
Anlon dropped his pants and slid back under the covers. Pebbles curled up to him and said, “Pretty much a FUBAR situation, huh?”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“I can’t believe she wasn’t honest with me. I mean, we’re sharing the same brain, for cripe’s sake.”
“I guess if you can’t be honest with yourself, you can’t be honest with someone else.”
She took hold of his hand and kissed it. “That’s very prophetic. Sounds like it ought to be on a greeting card.”
Anlon laughed. So did Pebbles.
For several minutes, they cuddled together in silence. Finally, Pebbles pulled away and hopped out of bed. “I could use a stiff drink. How about you?”
“More like a stiff bottle.”
“That works too. Come on, let’s go see what we can scare up.”
After throwing on their rumpled clothes, they crept down to the lobby. It was just after two a.m. They were both surprised to see the lights in the hotel restaurant still on. Their surprise jumped up a notch when they found Sanjay, Cesar, Mereau and Jennifer seated at a table with shot glasses, a half-empty bottle of Tequila and the stack of Pebbles’ dream journals and sketch pads. Jennifer looked up and said, “Pull up a chair. Join the ‘Sleepless in Ayacucho’ party.”
Anlon looked around the empty restaurant. “How long have you been down here?”
“Since we got back,” Jennifer said.
“They kept the restaurant open for you?”
“Yeah. Cesar sweet-t
alked them into it. We’re supposed to let the front desk know when we leave so they can lock up.” Jennifer rose from her seat. “You guys want a drink?”
“Make mine a double,” said Pebbles.
Jennifer snagged two more shot glasses from behind the restaurant bar and returned to the table. As she poured drinks all around, Sanjay asked Pebbles how she was feeling.
“Numb. Lost. Angry. Embarrassed.”
“Why embarrassed?” Jennifer asked.
“Because I got suckered. Because I pulled you all into a wild goose chase.”
“No one pulled us, Pebbles,” said Cesar. “We came because we wanted to come.”
“Yeah, well, I appreciate that. You’ve all been super supportive. I’m just sorry it ended up the way it did.”
“Ended?” Mereau said. “You do not wish to continue on? See inside the cave? Visit the Three Sisters waterfall?”
“Why would I want to do that at this point?” Pebbles said. “More importantly, why would you want to do that?”
“We’ve spent the better part of the night discussing the reasons…and we see many. For you and for us,” Cesar said.
“Yes,” Sanjay said. “We all seek closure of one kind or another…including Citali.”
“Citali? Why should anyone care about closure for her?”
“She carries a heavy burden, Pebbles. One that was powerful enough to allow her spirit to find its way into your mind. We have the opportunity to ease that burden.”
“Why should we ease her burden? She lied to me. Everything in the dreams, the visions, everything she showed me was all about protecting what was in her damn bag. It was just a sick kind of spin to hide what she did.”
“There is no arguing the fact that she was manipulative,” said Sanjay. “But I believe she deserves our compassion. It cannot be an easy task for a mother who killed her own children to readily confess her sin to a stranger.”
Pain sliced through Pebbles’ chest. She stared at Sanjay, her lips opening to speak. Finding it impossible to form words, she shook her head.
Priestess of Paracas Page 25
