Adventures of Grace Quinlan and Lord William Hayden In the Lost City of the Incas (Psyche and Eros Reborn) Volume 3

by Freda, Paula

  Two voices; one male, one female, filtered angrily through the plaster-thin walls. Lord Hayden and Elizabeth were quarreling in their room. Talbot grinned. He looked reverently at the figure. "It begins..." he murmured confidently and lowered his head in obeisance to his Lord.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Frothy mist in several shades ranging from white to turquoise hovered above and about the canyon known as The Urubamba. The Urubamba was not your average mountain climber’s delight; its walls rose steeply, almost perpendicular to the narrow rolling river of the same name that slithered serpent-like along its base. The route outlined on the inside of the armlet that Talbot’s divers had dredged up from the Sacrificial Cenote had led the trio across a rope suspension bridge spanning the river, and up a narrow road that curved precariously about these Mountains. The small party continued to follow the path not listed on local maps. Rocky and uneven, it showed little sign of travel, unlike the one detailed in geographical manuals of the day that wove up two thousand feet to the abandoned Inca city of Machu Picchu.

  Talbot was in the lead, with Lord Hayden and Elizabeth following. Behind them, four local Quechua Indians guided a pair of Llamas laden with supplies. The three archaeologists had replaced the light clothing worn in Yucatan with thermal wear, warm ponchos, head masks worn under hats, and high fur-lined boots to repel the bone chilling arctic cold of the snowcapped Andes. Elizabeth had purchased a Chola Derby that she donned over a colorful wool scarf, following the custom of many of the local women.

  As they plodded slowly upward, single-file, along the narrow road through the thinning air, Talbot pointed to an irregular opening in the canyon wall about a quarter of a mile up that might provide shelter for the night. The lines inscribed inside the armlet, when traced and placed against the map, ended midway across the mountain. Lord Hayden had voiced the opinion that either the artist had tired of his etching and stopped, or knew for a fact that the wearer of the armlet would have previous knowledge of his destination. The mountains in their direct line of vision were honeycombed with fissures. The three antiquarians speculated and argued over the possibilities as they moved upward toward the opening.

  "There are infinite possibilities," Lord Hayden remarked, as they continued footing upward, "even a passageway to the other side. We’re all aware of the numerous valleys which skirt these mountains, many of them unmapped and unknown."

  Withal, Lord Hayden kept a close eye on his partner. For all her enthusiasm and feistiness, she was still new to this type of exploration, a novice to the unexpected dangers that might confront them as the road grew narrower and rockier. With these thoughts in mind, Lord Hayden halted the group and insisted on tying a rope around her waist.

  "Do you really think this is necessary?" Elizabeth protested.

  "Absolutely," Lord Hayden silenced her. There were times that she impressed him as incredibly stuffy and smug. "The height, the thinning air, a dizzy spell, a break in the road," he enumerated, "a slip, any of a number of hazards.

  Twilight had descended by the time they reached the opening Talbot had indicated earlier, a cave, deep and wide with no end in sight. The party set up camp for the night. A comforting fire against the arctic night, canned stew, and more speculating on what lay at the end of the road, occupied the next few hours. At length Talbot said, "I have a confession to make. I’ve been here before."

  Lord Hayden and Elizabeth glanced at him suspiciously. "Why the secrecy?" Lord Hayden asked.

  "I didn’t believe I would have the answers to questions you two might pose, and since I’ve never gone past this point, I thought the information superfluous."

  The man’s deviousness was no shock to Elizabeth. But to Lord Hayden who had taken Talbot at face value, the sudden breach of trust came as a surprise and a disappointment. What else had Talbot not told them?

  Elizabeth was certain of Talbot’s insincerity. Feeling antipathy towards him, she stood up and strode to the cave’s opening to finish her meal. Here and there, the heavy mist about the mountains separated to allow her a glimpse of the dark blue skies, and stars large and close enough to hold in her hands. It seemed that way until she remembered those stars were millions of light years away. Lord Hayden came up behind her and closed his arms around her. He rested his cheek close to hers where the cold breezes had blown silky strands of her red-gold hair. Elizabeth remarked, "You need a shave," and moved out of his arms.

  His features tightened with exasperation. "All right, I’m sorry," he sighed, not certain of the reason for his apology. But at least this time she was not playing a game. She was honestly angry with him. He eliminated the space between them and pulled her back into his arms. She was the one keeping something from him. Nevertheless, if the apology would soften the turf, then to Hades with his pride where the woman he loved was concerned.

  Elizabeth shook her head. "No, you’ve nothing to apologize for." He had no inkling that it was her love for him that had prompted her to remain silent about her mistrust and fear of Talbot so as not to interfere with the expedition. At last, Talbot had begun to show his true character. "I’m sorry too," Elizabeth said, and turned into Hayden’s arms. "And I’m afraid," she rasped.

  "Of what?"

  "Of Talbot. You saw it yourself just now. He’s not what he seems. He’s up to something and using us."

  An hour ago Lord Hayden would have argued that theory, telling her she was letting her imagination run away with her, jumping to conclusions. But after what Talbot had just told them and the shoddy excuse he had used, her opinion did not sound so farfetched. "Is that what’s been bothering you?" Lord Hayden asked, shamefaced.

  "I realize I should have told you before, but I wasn’t certain if what I felt was all in my mind. And I didn’t want to interrupt the expedition. We could be on the verge of a tremendous discovery.

  Lord Hayden kissed her, a gentle kiss, though he ached to hold her tight and make her his own. He felt relieved that her aloofness these past weeks had been no more than what she had told him. "I have learned to trust your intuition," he said. "But I believe that what has been happening may be Agnes’ way of leading us, in an offbeat fashion, to a precious relic. We’ve come too far to go back. But from this point on, we will keep our eyes and ears vigilant, especially with regard to Talbot. For now, let’s get some rest." He drew her with him toward the blankets unrolled a few feet from the fire.

  With dawn, muted sunlight spilled into the fissure like fired chiffon diaphanously veiled by the hovering mist. The Llamas stirred first waking Elizabeth. Lord Hayden, his wide-brimmed hat covering his face, lay beside her. Impishly, she slipped a fingertip under the brim and tipped it back slightly, revealing jaw and stubble. Nudging the hat further up, she encountered a pair of firm lips that tended to pout in slumber. Impatiently, she pushed the hat completely back. Dark eyelids fought not to blink, but Elizabeth noticed. "I know you’re awake," she teased, drawing her fingertip across his eyes. Lord Hayden grasped her hand, startling her. Dark eyes opening, he pulled her on top of him. Elizabeth burst into laughter against his lips, and then she was thrust aside as Hayden stared up, wide-eyed, his mouth parting with a gasp.

  "What?" Elizabeth yelped. She followed Lord Hayden’s gaze and looked up, and screamed.

  An Inca attired in full regalia and flanked by four conical helmeted warriors towered over them. "Talbot," Lord Hayden sneered.

  "Talbot, to you. To my people, I am the Inca."

  Hayden and Elizabeth climbed to their feet and were immediately greeted with the points of spears. The four Quechua Indians that had accompanied them up the mountain had vanished, but Elizabeth noticed their uncanny resemblance to the warriors. Talbot ordered the guards to lower their weapons. He addressed Elizabeth, "It has been a long time, but I knew we should meet again."

  "When... where did I meet you before?" Elizabeth asked, despite the nagging suspicion—no, the knowledge—that sometime, somewhere in the past, she had indeed known Talbot.

  "When it is time, you
will remember."

  Talbot next turned to Lord Hayden. "You were anxious to find the Lost City of the Incas..." He let the statement hang for a moment. "And you will do just that." Once more he motioned to the guards.

  The Inca soldiers raised their spears and prodded the pair to follow Talbot as he disappeared into the dark recesses of the cave.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Despite the lack of light, the guards knew exactly where they were going, and for over two hours, they rudely urged Lord Hayden and Elizabeth along in the darkness. At last, a pinpoint of light shone in the distance. The light grew, strong and unobstructed as the group finally neared the exit. A pile of rocks prevented immediate visual contact with the ground below, but as soon as the party circumvented the rocks, a panoramic view of a forested valley spread magnificently below them. Held in the palm of the valley, a stone citadel nested cozily. Lord Hayden and Elizabeth needed questions answered, but their host had disappeared. The soldiers led them down a narrow path carved into the mountainside, straight into the heart of the city.

  The streets, grey slabbed pavements, were clean and neatly lined with granite dwellings. Further in, toward the center of the citadel, the structures grew larger, more ornate with palaces and temples. Finally, in the very center of the city, a huge pyramidical edifice rose mightily. A series of wide, deep steps in the front led to a columned temple at the top. The sides of the structure were made of large stones fitted smoothly together. It was warm in the valley. The sun shone brightly. The people who came out of their homes or looked down from palace terraces were dressed in togas and sandals according to their stations in life, from simple sleeveless Llama wool shifts to richly embroidered, multicolored motif-decorated tunics and trousers and skirts. Their bodies were the color of dark burnished copper; their hair black and straight and trimmed evenly just below their ears. Lord Hayden and Elizabeth noted that these people did not look Peruvian, per se. Rather, a mixture.

  Lord Hayden remarked to Elizabeth, "Do you remember reading in some textbook in your student years, about the belief that thousands of years ago, Egyptians along with Hebrews crossed the Atlantic. Occasionally archaeologists have uncovered a Central or South American artifact which bares a resemblance to Egyptian and/or Jewish art."

  Elizabeth nodded, but she did not elaborate on the comment, preoccupied with another subject that she preferred not to discuss—Talbot and the nightmare she had experienced after viewing the Stele H while in the Mayan country. Her sight of Talbot in full Inca regalia had connected the two images and she now knew why the sculpture had terrified her. The Stele H had reminded her of a Talbot she had inexplicably known before. There were so many questions, but no answers. When the time is right, you will remember, Talbot had said. Elizabeth moved closer to Lord Hayden.

  The guards escorted them up the steep stairway to the landing at the foot of the temple at the top of the pyramid; then led them through a pair of enormous iron doors into the temple’s main chamber, the altar room. What met the eye first was a giant sacrificial stone. Niches cut into the wall behind it, contained silver and copper figures of several Egyptian deities, among them Maat and Horas. and together formed the shape of a triangle. Above the triangle, etched deeply into the stone, rectangular and austere, presided a gold plated bas-relief full body image of Viracocha, the creator God of the Incas. Worshipped as god of the sun and of storms. he stood in full Inca regalia. He wore the sun for a crown, with spear shaped thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as rain.

  "Well, that proves our theory," Lord Hayden said to Elizabeth, as the guards pushed them through a side door into a corridor and finally into another chamber.

  The guards bolted the heavy iron double doors from without and left Lord Hayden and Elizabeth to wonder what Talbot intended to do with them. "Do you think he’ll have us killed?" Elizabeth asked, a little pale.

  Lord Hayden shrugged. History recorded Incas as using human sacrifices on occasion. But perhaps Talbot needed their archaeological expertise for his own pursuits. "Not yet, at least." He smiled consolingly and drew Elizabeth into his arms protectively. He had no real words of reassurance. They were prisoners at the mercy of the Inca and his people.

  In another part of the Temple, Talbot, holding his ceremonial skirt about his knees to keep from tripping, descended a staircase that led to an underground chamber locked behind another iron door. He removed from his neck a thick gold link chain from which hung a large key and unlocked the massive door and pushed it open. When he had entered the room, he bolted it from the inside, and replaced the chain with the key around his neck. He scanned the chamber to see if anything had been disturbed since his last visit. All was in order. The dirt floor was bare save for the Ark of the Covenant that stood in its center, glimmering with the light from the candles set in sconces about the walls. The flames flickered with the rush of breezes entering through small vents in the corners of the room. Inside a tall niche in the wall behind the Ark, another object glimmered. A tall golden figure of Lanzon, God of Darkness. An obelisk, it was embedded in the niche like an upright dagger. Living mottled snakes slid about the large, impressionistic feline head in a constant caress.

  Talbot advanced a few steps, and then knelt before the Ark. He raised his eyes past the golden cherubim that adorned the Ark’s lid to the figure of the dark lord, the same deity he had worshipped in the hotel room. He focused his attention on the emerald jewels set into the eye sockets under the serpentine brow. He chanted some prayers in his particular native mixture, and then he smiled. "She is here, my Lord. It is almost time. Now your will shall be done, and that which was meant to be mine from the beginning, shall be." The emerald eyes of the idol glinted in the candlelight.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The windows of the chamber in which Lord Hayden and Elizabeth were imprisoned had no bars or glass. A balcony opened on one side of the room, but except for the steps leading up to the well-guarded Temple, the sides were smooth and precariously steep, the stones fitted precisely together, with the drop to the ground below, several hundred feet. Lord Hayden saw no escape for the present. Elizabeth sat quietly and stalwartly on the wide bed, lovelier than she knew against the copious satin pillows of every color imaginable.

  Quiet moments, until a thick rasp filled the room as the guards outside the chamber slid open the iron bolt and entered the room. Elizabeth rose from the bed and hurried to Lord Hayden’s side. But as he placed his arm about her protectively, two of the guards yanked him aside while the other two seized Elizabeth. She screamed and struggled. Hayden snarled as he aimed a fueled right at the man directly in front of him. The unfortunate warrior fell, stunned, to the floor. Lord Hayden then sent the guard at his right sprawling against a wall. He pulled his arm back to deliver a knockout punch. A heavy blow landed against the side of his head. Pain shot through his head. His vision blurred and his reflexes numbed and he fell limply to his knees. The guard, who had come up from the rear, hit him again with the blunt side of his spear. Lord Hayden fell to the ground unconscious, blood trickling down his face. Elizabeth ceased struggling with the remaining guard and watched horror-stricken and grieving, as Lord Hayden was dragged unconscious from the room. The guard flung her on the bed and ran after the others, bolting the doors from without before she could react.

  Lord Hayden was half-dragged, half-carried toward the front of the temple to another room where Talbot waited in full regalia. The guards dropped Hayden at Talbot’s feet and were promptly dismissed. Talbot bent and examined the bleeding wound on his prisoner’s head. He grimaced squeamishly, straightened and clapped twice. Servants entered and at his instructions, they carried Lord Hayden to a stone settee in a corner of the chamber and proceeded to tend to his wound.

  The sun had reached its apex when Lord Hayden awoke. The wound to his temple throbbed mercilessly. He groaned and called out, "Grace... "

  Talbot rose from his seat by the window and approached him. "Here, let me assist you," he said, lending h
is arm to Lord Hayden who was attempting to sit up. Lord Hayden accepted the support only until he sat upright, then he lifted a clenched fist to punch Talbot, but the Inca stepped back. "Hold! I want to help you," he offered quickly. "You’ll have to restrain your anger and let me explain."

  Lord Hayden eyed him darkly, but he realized he had nothing to lose by listening to what Talbot had to say." All right," he agreed.

  Talbot made a placatory gesture. "Relax. Let me see how your head is doing."

  "My head is fine," Hayden lied. "Now, start explaining."

  "Very well. I have a proposition for you. You may not like what I am about to ask you to do, but I think the rewards might interest you." Anticipating Lord Hayden’s contemptuous reply, Talbot added, "I’m speaking of archaeological rewards. Discoveries for which you would give your right arm to unearth." The ensuing silence assured him he had Lord Hayden’s attention. Talbot smiled cunningly. "I’m speaking for instance about the Chalice the Christian Messiah is said to have used at the Last Supper before His Crucifixion—and—Noah’s Ark; not to mention relics of the Egyptians, the Mayans and the Incas that will take your breath away. And answers, Lord Hayden, to certain mysteries that have confounded historians and archaeologists for centuries." Lord Hayden regarded him with blunt disbelief. Talbot continued nonetheless. "Easter Island, Stonehenge, Zimbabwe, and The Ark of the Covenant," he finished smugly.