Cursed Sight

by T. G. Ayer

  Athena made the jump smoothly and landed beside Allegra before slipping past to lead the way. They continued until they found a space where they were able to drop down onto the next step.

  “I would have expected an even ledge, a proper stepped pyramid.”

  “The rulers adjusted their pyramid build through the ages. They countered for how easy it was to scale a pyramid by using longer drops between the steps, then added features to make it even more difficult to get into. This is one of the easiest to climb.”

  Allegra lifted her eyebrows. This was easy? She was soaked through with perspiration and the muscles of her upper arms burned with the effort. She felt like she’d been doing pull-ups for hours. But they had managed to descend more than half way down.

  They’d reached a window similar to the one that had led to Allegra’s cell and the two women flattened themselves against the cantilevered balcony, then shuffled forward to peer over the edge and down into the space.

  The wide balcony was empty but the sounds of humming and chanting drifted toward them.

  “This is the nearest exit. The other one is on the other side of the pyramid,” whispered Athena.

  Allegra nodded and watched as Athena somersaulted over the edge swinging backward to drop into the balcony. Allegra, though tempted, didn’t follow suit. Instead, she sank into a crouch, held onto the ledge and swung herself down, landing in a crouch facing Athena who stood at the doorway staring inside.

  Again, Allegra stared at her bracelet praying Max had picked up the signal. She glanced out over the balcony and stared out at the jungle, trying as hard as she could to see between the trees.

  Then she shook her head. If they came then it would be good, but she wasn’t going to wait around for them. She went to stand beside Athena and found they were on a narrow balcony, with a view to a large ceremonial hall below.

  Not a ceremonial hall, Allegra corrected herself.

  A sacrificial chamber.

  Chapter 43

  Allegra watched the ceremony, her mouth open in shock at the sight. Torches blazed all around the room and more than a dozen people stood in a large circle, their heads covered in terrifying masks, their bodies bared and glistening. They wore loincloths, but Allegra could tell almost half of them were women, their oiled breasts glinting in the light.

  At one end of the hall on a raised dais, a tall priest held a dagger over the supine body of a young man who lay on a large stone table. The victim stared up at the ceiling, chanting words unfamiliar to Allegra.

  She swallowed a gasp as the priest drove the knife deep into the man’s chest and made a long incision. The victim continued to chant though his pitch had taken on a pained resonance.

  After a few strokes with the blade the priest reached into the chest of the victim and tugged hard. Blood spurted, splashing the wall beyond him, as well as coating the floor around him.

  He turned and held the still-beating heart of the victim in his hand, shouting out more words Allegra couldn’t understand.

  She glanced over at Athena who pulled her back onto the balcony.

  “That’s not what I expected to see,” she whispered.

  “What?” asked Allegra both horrified and curious at the bloody sacrifice.

  Athena tipped her head at the scene and both women crept back to their vantage point.

  The high priest lowered the heart which was beating its last, and bit into it with gusto while the gathered worshipers continued to chant.

  Blood ran down the sides of his mouth and dribbled across his chest. His hands were red too, covered in the blood of the victim. And as Allegra studied the rest of the scene she swallowed a gasp.

  The blood seeping from the wound of the victim ran from the sacrificial table onto the floor, filling a series of cracks on the ground. From where they stood it was clear the channels had been deliberately carved in order for the blood to reveal the image of an ancient god.

  “Which god is it?” she asked softly.

  “Pillan,” Athena responded, her tone filled with horror. “No,” she whispered.

  “What’s wrong?” Allegra asked, then wanted to laugh hysterically. What was wrong? A man had just ripped out the beating heart of a sacrificial victim and had just eaten it before her very eyes.

  “Pillan. He’s the god of the Underworld. Of destruction. Of earthquakes and floods. He’s the most powerful of all the gods. Storms, disease, war. You name it, he is in charge.”

  “That is so no good.”

  “It is worse. The ceremony is to bring him to life in a mortal form.” Athena pointed. “The glow is his power slowly coming to life.

  Allegra studied the green, almost emerald glow shimmering within the cracks as if coming from beneath the bloody lines.

  “Right. That is worse.” Allegra took a breath and watched as the priest descended to stand in the very center of the room, raising his hands to the dark ceiling above as he yelled out his chant. “Maybe we should get out of here. Call the authorities.”

  Athena nodded. “I’ll get them out here as soon as possible.”

  Allegra felt awful for the victims. “That poor man. I wish we could have stopped it.”

  “There isn’t anything you can do. They will keep sourcing victims. This ritual is one in which the sacrifice must be willing. And there are many who would feel honored to be on the table.”

  “Surely not,” Allegra said, not wanting the demigod to be right.

  Athena pointed to the dais, at the sacrificial table. “Look beyond the table. Within the shadows.”

  Allegra followed the direction in which her finger was aimed and pulled away from the doorway fast. She let out a soft cry, glad she’d hidden herself before the sound had escaped.

  She blinked, wishing she could unsee the horror. Beyond the table, hidden in the shadows were piles of bodies. At least a dozen dead men and women had been sacrificed in this place, probably only minutes before Allegra and Athena had arrived.

  She blinked as she took a breath. Athena came to stand at her side. “Are you going to be all right?” she asked.

  Allegra nodded. “Yes. It’s just . . . It all makes sense now. The vision. The destruction of the city. This summoning is going to go very wrong very fast. If we allow them to complete the ritual the entire city of Qusqu will sink into the earth and disappear. All that will be left will be a hole in the ground.”

  “This sounds very much like the actions of Pillan. The consequences of bringing him to this world. The price of resurrecting a god is often too much to pay.” The goddess stared at Allegra for a moment and then nodded. “We need to stop them.”

  The two women moved slowly to the edge of the balcony and studied the gathering. Allegra was about to ask Athena if she felt the high priest resembled Qhapaq when her attention fell on one of the priests. His skin was pale, his belly a bit pronounced. Allegra was almost certain he was Langcourt.

  Was this what he had been summoned for?

  But before she could mention to Athena that she knew the man, a disturbance at the entrance to the hall below drew her attention.

  For a moment, Allegra’s heart thundered as she wondered if it was Max they were bringing into the sacrificial chamber. She found herself relieved to see their next victim was not Max, although his identity sent a ripple of shock through Allegra’s bones

  Ambassador Liam McIvor.

  Chapter 44

  The worshippers surrounding McIvor and the priest began to sway and then move anti-clockwise, chanting louder and louder. McIvor’s eyes were round, terrified as he stared at the people encircling him. Allegra’s beat fast and she whispered, “I feel like I’ve seen this before.”

  Athena gave her an odd look, then turned her attention back to the proceedings. But Allegra couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity.

  Flashes of images, people walking back and forth, tall men and women in headdresses, chests bared and oiled. Firelight flickered beyond what she was able to see, the light dancing and refle
cting against long iron tipped spears.

  Allegra suppressed a gasp. “I have seen this before.”

  She stared at the spears remembering how much the sight of them had impacted her. Hand-carved metal spear-heads, ancient spears she’d seen twice now in her visions, first at the ball when they had pierced McIvor’s skull, and second when she’d witnessed the vision while touching Elana.

  McIvor was on the floor, kneeling, hands tied in front of him, exactly as he was in Elana’s vision.

  Elana.

  Allegra scanned the room looking for the most likely position she’d find Elana. But she couldn’t see any hooded captives. All she saw were bare-chested priests. Two were female, and one male, and neither looked like they were terrified to be there.

  McIvor shivered with terror, sweat gleaming on his skin.“Wait,” he shouted, staring around at the people surrounding him. “You can’t do this to me.”

  The high priest turned to face the ambassador. “Of course we can. You swore your loyalty. You promised your life in payment for any form of betrayal.”

  “I didn’t betray anyone. I’m loyal. I swear. I am. I’m loyal,” McIvor shrieked, his voice breaking as terror overcame him.

  Allegra shook her head. The scene was the same, exactly as she’d seen it in her vision of Elana’s abduction.

  McIvor shook his head and stared at one of the women Allegra had considered as possibly Elana. She was tall and slim, her waist tapering in gently, pink nipples hardened and gleaming in the torchlight.

  Could she be Elana?

  Allegra shook her head, unsure of what she was seeing. Logic told her one thing but she couldn’t believe it.

  “Why?” he cried, his voice plaintive. “Why are you doing this to me?” As Allegra listened she began to understand what was happening.

  She heard the grief in his voice and realized that when she’d heard it in Elana’s vision, she’d believed he was upset at the high priest for abducting his wife.

  He’d been so traumatized and Allegra had believed it was because he feared for his wife’s life.

  Maybe that was not the case.

  On the dais, the high priest began to chant again and Allegra’s heart began to race. The green glow of the carving beneath their feet began to throb, growing stronger each passing minute.

  Reaching into the dark beyond the sacrificial table, the high priest retrieved the spear Allegra had seen in her vision. Its sharp point glinted all the more dangerously when seeing it in reality.

  He lifted the staff, and moonlight reflected on its sharp tip, calling Allegra’s attention to the ceiling. In her vision she’d been impressed at the crisscrossing patterns of moonlight, but now it only made her want to throw up.

  Now, she watched as the two priests on either side of Elana took her arms and led her forward.

  Allegra had felt so much pain for Elana.

  A flash of light pulled Allegra back to the scene and she watched as another priest pointed the spear at McIvor’s right ear. The man squealed just as he had in her vision, only this time she felt the sound reverberate in her bones.

  “We need to do something,” Allegra whispered.

  “I’ll get closer,” Athena said, hurrying down the corridor. As she hurried off, Allegra blinked and found herself staring at the hindquarters of a jet-black jaguar.

  Movement above her head drew her attention now and she made out the shape of a man silhouetted at one of the windows letting in the moonlight. Narrowing her gaze, she let out a sigh of relief.

  The tracker had worked!

  Max put a finger to his lips as he produced a coil of climbing rope in his hands. Although Allegra craned her neck to check for backup she found she could only see Max.

  He’d come without backup?

  She shook her head and ignored him. Perhaps he hadn’t been able to obtain support fast enough, but it made no difference now.

  She watched below as Elana took the spear from the priest at her side, watched as the high priest drew closer, a sharp short sword in his hand, watched as the Elana raised the weapon and aimed it at her husband’s head.

  McIvor was quiet now, as if he’d accepted his fate.

  The green glow throbbed as Elana pulled the spear back preparing to plunge the deadly sharp point into her husband’s head. Pillan was growing stronger, waiting for the sacrifice to be completed, for blood to be spilled so he could walk the mortal earth.

  Allegra’s heart raced. She had to do something. Allegra grabbed her dagger and without thinking, threw it straight at Elana’s raised hand.

  At the same time—out of the corner of her eye—she saw the jaguar spring at the high priest, and heard two gunshots followed by a thud in the stone two inches from her face.

  She watched as Elana fell to her knees, Allegra’s blade embedded deep into the muscles of her forearm, blood from her wound staining her arm and her breasts. She screamed in pain, pulling at the mask and headdress until they fell at her side.

  The green glow beneath them flickered and began to fade, and Allegra felt a wave of relief wash over her.

  McIvor merely stared at his wife, his eyes flat and emotionless.

  Only then did Allegra study the scene. The high priest whose neck was ravaged, his mask askew, the two dead priests beside Elana with bullet-holes in their foreheads, and the rest of the gathering scattering out of the two exits.

  And the faded green glow at last sputtering out.

  Allegra watched as Max slid down the long rope and landed beside McIvor. Athena appeared at his side, fully clothed now as she spoke quietly in his ear.

  Max glanced up and stared at Allegra for a moment before moving around McIvor and looking down at Elana. The woman was still crying but her tears reflected only anger as she spat answers to his questions.

  Elana looked up and glared at Allegra, the look sending shivers down Allegra’s spine. Without warning Elana grabbed the hilt of the dagger and pulled hard. She stumbled back with the momentum then steadied herself.

  Still holding Allegra’s gaze, Elana lifted the knife and, with a defiance and fury that was almost palpable even across the room, she slashed the blade across her neck and slit her throat.

  Elana fell to the ground, fresh blood spurting across her breasts, Allegra’s dagger clattering on the stone beside her.

  The hall faded in Allegra’s vision and she gripped the low wall in front of her to steady herself.

  She wasn’t sure what she’d expected Elana to do, but it wasn’t to slit her own throat.

  Elana had made her stand, she’d taken the power out of everyone else’s hands and killed herself. But Allegra wasn’t sure what the woman had hoped to gain from it.

  And perhaps that was one thing Allegra would never know. And she was okay with that.

  The aftermath was mayhem, but Allegra’s heart continued to race as her gaze fell upon the high priest. His mask had shifted, baring more than half his face to her view.

  General Qhapaq.

  Why was Allegra not surprised?

  He’d been behind it all along, been the one who’d wanted to raise a god to the mortal world, had interrogated Allegra to find out if she’d seen anything in her visions that could thwart their grand scheme.

  And now he was dead for it.

  And so was Pillan, consigned back to whatever realm he lived in. Until of course, some other madman decided to resurrect him.

  Humanity was insane.

  Allegra scanned the hall for one last face, already knowing she wouldn't see him.

  Langcourt had participated in the ritual, and had fled during the mayhem.

  And for that Allegra was more disappointed.

  Her kidnapper was in the wind again.

  Chapter 45

  Allegra took a sip of the chocolate and relaxed against the back of the sofa. She sat on the balcony of their hotel room in Qusqu, staring out at the beautiful blue sky.

  The summers here were beautiful and she wished she’d come on a holiday instead o
f an investigative trip that had turned into something so macabre that she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to make it up.

  She looked up as Athena entered the room, ushered in by Max who looked about as drained as Allegra felt.

  “How are you feeling, my Lady?” Athena asked, smiling softly as she took a seat beside Allegra.

  “Sore and tired. You put me through my paces, you know?”

  Athena tilted her head and studied Allegra’s arms. “You did a very good job. Not many people would have been up to that type of physical exertion even in times of stress.”

  Allegra shrugged. “I have to thank you, though. For coming to my rescue.”

  Athena waved a hand. “It’s my duty and my pleasure.”

  “Your duty?”

  “Not as Chief Inspector. As a deity of a pantheon that is slowly dying out. I’m a minor demigod, but I still take my responsibility seriously.”

  “Well, for that I thank you. How did you know I needed help?”

  “I’ve been following you for most of your stay in Qusqu.”

  Allegra stared, her mouth open. “It was you all along? Outside the embassy and at the ambassador’s ball? And the hut above the city when we were on the run?”

  Athena nodded. “A good thing too. They abducted you even though you were supposed to be safe. What do you think that means?”

  Allegra squinted at the demigod. “They have a mole?”

  “Yes. But contrary to what I had originally believed—which was the leak was somewhere within my office—I received information from a reliable source that the mole is too close for comfort.”

  Allegra’s eyebrows rose. She had to admit she was too tired for word games and something in her expression must have told Athena that.

  Athena nodded. “Celestra Avesta. She’s your mole.” When neither Max nor Allegra responded, Athena asked, “Not surprised?”

  Allegra shook her head. “Not really. I knew something was going on.”

  “Well, you’d best get to the bottom of it because she’s dangerous.” Athena got to her feet.