Middleworld

by J; P Voelkel

  “Good question,” said Hermanjilio. “Lord 6-Dog, perhaps you could check it out for us? As a monkey, you’ll be able to sneak around without arousing suspicion.”

  “I would do so gladly, Lord Hermanjilio, but this stunted body cannot operate the secret door. One of thy number must accompany me.”

  “I’ll go,” said Lola without hesitation.

  “Thou hast the heart of a true Maya warrior,” said Lord 6-Dog.

  “Thank you.” Lola smiled proudly. “So where’s the nearest entrance?”

  “There are many places to exit the secret passageway, but there is only one point of entry.”

  Lola’s smile was fading. “Don’t tell me …”

  Lord 6-Dog nodded. “We must enter through the Pyramid of Death.”

  “Rather you than me,” said Max. Then he felt guilty because he could see that Lola was having second thoughts. “No, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he said. “I mean, it can’t be worse than Chahk or Itzamna, can it?”

  Lola turned to Lord 6-Dog. “Please tell me what to expect.”

  “Tell her the truth, son,” instructed Lady Coco. “Forewarned is forearmed.”

  “It is not possible to arm thyself against the Undead Army, but I will protect thee, Lady Lola, I promise thee.”

  Lola and Max exchanged anxious glances.

  “I don’t like the sound of this,” said Max. “It’s too dangerous. Who are the Undead Army? What are they?”

  “Before Tzelek cast his spell on them, they were the lords of Ah Pukuh, all thirteen generations of them, entombed in their final resting place. Now they are the earthly bodies for the Demon Warriors of Xibalba. They lie sleeping in the Black Pyramid, dressed in battle gear, awaiting the call to arms. They feel no pain; they have no fear; they cannot die, for they are dead already.”

  “But you said they’re sleeping, right?” asked Lola in a small voice.

  “Tzelek cannot awaken them until the rising of Venus—”

  “We better be quick, then,” she said, with a note of hysteria.

  Lord 6-Dog took a deep breath. “Just one more thing …,” he said.

  She looked at him, her face a mask of fear.

  “As thou knowest, the god Ah Pukuh will rule Middleworld in the new baktun. It is possible that he has come to the Black Pyramid to prepare for his coronation. He may be in there at this moment, feasting with his cohorts and planning his reign of terror. I think it unlikely that our paths would cross. As to what would happen if they did, thy guess is as good as mine. But I have sworn to protect thee, Lady Lola, and I will keep my word.”

  It was Hermanjilio who broke the stunned silence.

  “That’s settled, then,” he said.

  “You mean they shouldn’t go?” said Max, relieved.

  “No, I mean Lord 6-Dog will take good care of our precious Lola. Meanwhile, I’ll take a closer look at Landa’s defenses. Lady Coco, please come with me and provide the necessary distractions.”

  “My pleasure,” said Lady Coco.

  “I order thee to be careful, Mother,” commanded Lord 6-Dog. He dropped his voice. “Remember, thou art my most loyal and devoted warrior. I need thee by my side in the final battle.”

  Lady Coco smiled at him tenderly. “Don’t worry about me, son. After a lifetime of waving off the menfolk, I’m ready for some action. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and practice my most entertaining monkey mannerisms.”

  They all got up to start preparing for their various missions.

  “What about me?” asked Max. “What should I do?”

  Hermanjilio put a hand on his shoulder.

  “To you, Max, falls the most important job.”

  “What’s that?” said Max warily.

  “You will stay here and guard the camp.”

  Max could have cried with relief. He could have thrown himself at Hermanjilio’s feet and kissed his battered old tennis shoes. Yes! Yes! Yes! He didn’t have to go inside the Black Pyramid. He didn’t have to go anywhere near Landa’s camp. All he had to do was keep the campfire going and toast the odd tortilla.

  Then he realized that Lola and Lord 6-Dog were listening.

  “That’s not fair,” he said. “Why can’t I go on a mission like everyone else? I’ve trained as hard as anyone. I’m ready to go into battle.”

  “Then take your orders, soldier,” barked Hermanjilio. “You don’t have the skills to move through the jungle without endangering us all. We all have our own tasks in this unit. You’re staying here, and that’s final.”

  Max was so happy he could have danced a jig. He pretended to clench his fists in anger. “Yes, sir,” he replied, in the surliest voice he could muster.

  Lola and Lord 6-Dog shot him sympathetic glances.

  He shrugged as if to say, You go ahead and enjoy yourselves; don’t worry about me. He attempted a brave smile, then turned away quickly so they wouldn’t see it broaden into a grin. No zombie armies for him.

  “Get some rest, everyone,” said Hermanjilio. “You’re going to need it.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  THE BLACK PYRAMID

  Sometime in the early hours, Max was awakened by someone grabbing his shoulder and shaking him.

  “Rise and shine,” said Hermanjilio. “It’s time to get ready.”

  “Ready for what?” slurred Max groggily.

  “You can’t guard the camp if you’re sleeping.”

  Max rubbed his eyes and peered at Hermanjilio. At first he thought he was still dreaming. In the moonlight, all he could see of the archaeologist were the whites of his eyes and the pink of his mouth. The rest of him was covered in black body paint.

  “Great camouflage,” he said. “They won’t see you coming.”

  Hermanjilio put his hands on his hips and turned his head sideways like a warrior on an ancient Maya fresco. “They won’t see me coming,” he said, “because I am the Invisible Jaguar of the Night.”

  Max laughed, then realized that Hermanjilio wasn’t joking.

  “Go get ’em, tiger,” he said under his breath, as Hermanjilio melted into the jungle with Lady Coco scampering at his heels.

  Lola and Lord 6-Dog were getting ready to head off in the other direction. “Art thou ready?” said Lord 6-Dog.

  She nodded.

  Max tried not to show his glee at being left behind. “Good luck in the Pyramid of Death,” he said, trying to sound envious.

  Lola looked at Lord 6-Dog.

  Lord 6-Dog looked at Max.

  “Art thou ready?” he asked.

  Max’s stomach sank into the ground. “But Hermanjilio said …”

  “I do not see him here, young lord, dost thou?”

  Lord 6-Dog tossed Max a blowgun. He dropped it. “But I can’t come with you,” he said. “Who’s going to guard the camp?”

  “It can guard itself, Hoop,” said Lola. “Don’t let Hermanjilio bully you.”

  “Thou wast trained as a warrior, not a night watchman. It is only fitting that thou shouldst join us on this skirmish. It will limber thee up for the main battle tomorrow.”

  “You looked so disappointed when Hermanjilio ordered you to stay behind,” said Lola. Her voice was filled with admiration, and Max savored it for a moment before pulling himself together.

  “The thing is,” he said, “much as I would like to come with you, Hermanjilio is my commanding officer, and I have to obey him. For all I know, this is a test he’s set for me. I can’t put my own selfish desires before military discipline. I have to stay here.”

  Lola stared at him openmouthed. “You’re scared,” she said.

  “Am not,” said Max.

  “Prove it,” she said.

  Max hesitated. What should he do? Save his skin and let a girl think he was scared? Or bluff it out and face the horrors of the Black Pyramid?

  “Ready when you are,” he said, picking up the blowgun.

  Lola slapped him on the back. “Way to go, Hoop!”

  Almost as soon as they s
et off, he stumbled over a fallen branch and sent assorted jungle birds flapping out of the trees in fright.

  “Maybe Hermanjilio was right about you,” whispered Lola crossly. “Watch where you put your feet!”

  “Sorry,” said Max. “Should I go back?”

  “Keep marching, soldier.”

  Nearly an hour later, they approached the base of the Black Pyramid.

  The closer they got, the more forbidding it looked.

  The main pyramid had been excavated, but dense jungle covered the rest of the site and gave them cover as they crept closer.

  “Wait here,” whispered Lord 6-Dog.

  Max and Lola waited. The jungle around them was shrouded in the sinister monochrome of night. Black flowers, gray leaves, vines like industrial steel cables, thorns like barbed wire. There was no buzz of life, and the air was as thick and heavy as molten tar.

  As they stood in tense silence, Max’s heart was in his mouth. It nearly stopped beating altogether when Lord 6-Dog dropped silently out of a tree in front of them.

  “There are two guards on the pyramid. One keeps watch from the topmost platform, one patrols the base,” he whispered.

  “Wait here, Hoop,” said Lola. “Let us deal with them.”

  Max nodded gratefully. He watched them go, then sat down on a log and waited. And waited. Each minute seemed like an hour.

  At last, Lord 6-Dog returned.

  “Follow me,” he said.

  With a heavy heart, Max followed him up the side of the pyramid. It was an easy climb for a monkey, but steep and difficult for a boy. By the time they reached the top, Max was sure someone would hear his breathless panting.

  But they were safe. The guard was crumpled on the floor, a blowgun dart sticking out of his shoulder.

  Lola appeared out of the shadows, and Max helped her drag the sleeping guard beneath the carved skull and into the temple. Max shivered. Evil hung in the air like the smell of fried onions around a hot-dog stand.

  “Light thy torches,” commanded Lord 6-Dog.

  They switched on their flashlights and gasped. The walls were made entirely of human skulls. While Max and Lola gazed around the chamber in horror, Lord 6-Dog pointed up to a particularly gruesome skull.

  “Reach into the eye sockets, young lord,” he instructed.

  “How about we lift you up and you do it?” suggested Max.

  “Art thou afraid of a carving?” said Lord 6-Dog. “These skulls are cut out of the limestone.”

  “They look real to me,” said Max.

  Lola pushed him out of the way and wiggled her thumb and forefinger into the eye sockets of the skull. “I feel something,” she said. “It’s a lever.”

  The walls were made entirely of human skulls.

  “Good,” said Lord 6-Dog. “Now push it down with all thy might.”

  There was a grinding sound, and the wall began to rotate. As one panel of stone covered the doorway, another panel slid away to reveal a small opening in the back wall.

  “Make haste,” ordered Lord 6-Dog, stepping through the gap, with Lola behind him. The gap was getting smaller all the time, and Max slid through just before it closed up completely.

  He looked back. All along the wall, holes were drilled into the rock to let observers peer through a row of eye sockets into the first room. Max wondered what horrors had been witnessed from this vantage point.

  “From this moment, be on thy guard,” said Lord 6-Dog. “The pyramids were always gateways between worlds. But remember that, as the new baktun draws near, they are more alive than ever. Watch thy step and do not deviate from the path. Trust nothing, not even thine own perceptions. Have no fear, or they will use thy fears against thee.” He patted each of them with a gentle paw. “Stay close,” he said.

  The passageway spiraled steeply downward. The atmosphere was damp and musty. With each step, Max felt the air close in.

  He wished he had blinders like a horse so he couldn’t see the walls on either side of him. They were covered from top to bottom in gory frescoes that looked horribly realistic in the dim light. Muscular warriors in jaguar-skin tunics plunged their lances into bulgy-eyed enemies. Cowering captives begged for mercy. A Maya priest held a human heart above the blood-spattered body of his victim. Shuffling past these terrifying scenes, Max found it all too easy to imagine himself as a captive being led to the sacrificial altar.

  They made their way down the passageway for another twenty feet or so, until they came to a dead end.

  “We’ll have to go back,” whispered Max, trying to sound disappointed.

  “Wait,” said Lola, “maybe this is one of those tricks Lord 6-Dog told us about.”

  They were both wrong.

  Lord 6-Dog stared intently at the floor and poked in the dust with his foot until he located some finger holes in one of the flagstones. “Help me, young lord,” he said.

  Together the boy and the monkey heaved up the ancient trapdoor to reveal a staircase disappearing down into darkness.

  “After you,” said Max. Then, almost trembling with fear, he followed Lord 6-Dog and Lola into the unknown.

  The staircase led them into an enormous chamber.

  “There’s another pyramid inside this one!” said Max.

  “They used to build new temples on top of old ones,” explained Lola.

  “Silence!” commanded Lord 6-Dog. “We are entering the burial chamber of the lords of Ah Pukuh. Woe betide the fool who dares disturb their slumber. Touch nothing. Tread only in my footsteps.”

  Max wanted to turn tail and run, but Lola pushed him forward.

  “Don’t look,” she said. “Just follow Lord 6-Dog.”

  They began to work their way down the steep stairs cut into the terraced walls of the inner pyramid.

  Max knew he shouldn’t look.

  He tried not to look.

  He looked.

  On both sides of the steps, reclining on every surface, lay the richly attired bodies of hundreds of dead Maya warriors. Some were nothing but crumbling bones. Others moldered in various stages of decay. But many of them looked fresh, as if they had only just died, their skin still glistening with body paint. All of them wore battle gear, and clutched an arsenal of swords, axes, and spears.

  It was too much. Max made a noise. A sort of muffled scream.

  The eyes of the corpses who still had eyes opened in unison. With a creaking of bones, they sat bolt upright, even the skeletons. Their heads swiveled toward Max.

  This time, Lola screamed as well.

  “They will not hurt thee,” said Lord 6-Dog. “I am sure of it.” He didn’t sound sure. “Only the Black Jaguar can bring them to their feet. But let us hurry.”

  Max and Lola did not need telling twice. They went flying down the rest of the steps until they reached the base of the inner pyramid. From there, more steps led down through a hole in the floor.

  Max plunged through the hole after the other two and into another long, narrow passage. Lola and Lord 6-Dog were already out of sight ahead of him.

  “Wait for me,” he called. In his panic to catch up, he missed his step and fell flat on his face. The impact knocked his flashlight from his hand. He watched in horror as it skidded along the floor, bounced off a wall, flickered, and went out.

  “Lola! Lord 6-Dog! Help me!”

  Only the echoes of his own voice replied.

  He got down on his hands and knees, gingerly feeling around on the dusty floor for the flashlight. Eventually, he found it.

  Please work, he prayed.

  It didn’t.

  “Lola! Lord 6-Dog! Where are you?”

  This time he thought he heard a faint response.

  “Lola! Lord 6-Dog! Come back!”

  “Max? Is that you?” The voice was far away but getting closer.

  “I’m over here! My flashlight’s gone out.”

  Now he could definitely hear footsteps getting closer. He breathed a long and heartfelt sigh of relief. For a moment there, he’d
thought he was a goner.

  Far down the corridor, a light was flickering toward him.

  “Max, where are you?”

  “Straight ahead,” he called.

  Who was that? Was it Lola? It didn’t sound like her. And yet he knew that voice.

  “Stay there, Max! I’m coming!”

  “Mom?”

  The nightmare was over! Here he was, alone in the dark in the Pyramid of Death, convinced he was about to be captured by demons, and who should come along to rescue him but the person he loved most in the world! He was weak with amazement and happiness.

  “Bambino! It is you!” Carla Murphy hugged her only son and kissed his head. “How can this be? I thought you were still in Boston! I am so happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We have so many questions for each other! But all that matters is that we’re together again. Come, let’s go and tell your father the good news.” She took Max’s hand and began to lead him down the passageway. “He’s just down here with his friends. …”

  “What friends?”

  “Oh, they’re such nice people. I can’t wait for you to meet them.”

  What was going on? It crossed Max’s mind that a group of nerdy archaeologists must have got together to watch the rising of Venus from the Black Pyramid. In which case, he had to warn them to get out.

  “Mom,” he said, “it’s not safe in here.”

  “Sì, sì, bambino,” she said absentmindedly as she looked around to get her bearings. “Ah, here we are. …”

  Her candle illuminated a set of ornately carved double doors. She reached out to knock, but before her hand touched the wood, the doors were flung open. Max blinked with surprise as bright light spilled out into the corridor, bringing with it a pungent aroma and a wave of chattering voices.

  A figure stepped out to greet them.

  It was Lola.

  “Hoop!” she cried. “Isn’t this fantastic? I was going to come back for you, but Carla insisted on getting you herself. She wanted to surprise you.”

  “And she succeeded,” said Max.

  Now that he could see his mother properly, he registered that she was wearing a long, embroidered dress with a huge jade necklace and a feathered headdress.