“I don’t like the idea of leaving you out here.”
“I’ll be right behind you after I talk to him. The walk back will do me some good.”
I patted Sally on the rump to tell her to go ahead and she took the lead for George to follow her. I waited until George was well on his way back, then I slipped the safety off in plain sight of the person sitting against the tree and cradled the rifle in the crook of my left arm.
I walked toward the tree where the person had now stood and was watching me approach. I stopped about twenty yards from her. I could clearly see the person was a woman and she looked old as Methuselah. She held her staff in her right hand.
“Where’s the jaguar?” I asked her in my mind. That would tell me soon enough what I was dealing with. I had been able to speak to the spotted jaguar through my thoughts.
She didn’t reply. She just stood there as if waiting for me to speak. That was good, I told myself. There was no mental connection and I didn’t have to wonder whether I was crazy or not.
“Where’s the jaguar?” I said again, this time out loud.
“He is cooling himself under a ledge in the creek.”
“Did you kill that man up by the ranch house?”
“Kukulcán killed him. The man tried to harm me.”
“Who was he?”
“A man who walked with me from the last city on my journey here. He said he knew where the jade death mask was hidden and he would take me to it. He lied.”
Okay, so the dead man wasn’t someone I had to be worried about legally. He was a transient.
“Several years ago, I knew a young Mayan girl. She also had a jaguar with her; a spotted one. Did you know her?” I asked.
The woman clutched at the cloth near her heart and slid down against the tree. She laid her walking staff across her lap. “What did she want from you?”
“She never told me. Who are you?”
“You are the owner of this land, yes?”
“That’s right, and you’re trespassing. Tell me why you’re here; you were looking for me, the caretaker said.”
“I am a gatherer, cursed to wander this land until I find the Mask”
“What mask?” I asked, knowing which mask she was talking about.
“The Death Mask of Lord Wak-Chan-K’awill ruler of Tikal.”
Well, shit! Hannah was right. “I also knew a young boy from Tikal, or so he said. He was trapped in a jaguar’s body. And the young Mayan girl I mentioned, she wanted me to take her and her jaguar to Tikal.”
The woman suddenly looked confused. I’d seen people like her wandering the streets of Austin, dazed and confused, dirty, homeless, and wanting someone to help them through the day.
She sighed and struggled to stand up using the tree as a brace. “A child would not be a gatherer, like me. She was a seeker for Itzamná.”
“What was she seeking?” I asked.
“The gods do not walk among our people. They stay in the otherworld. They only know what is going on above the sacred place of our ancestors from the people who serve them. She was seeking information.”
I’d certainly had my suspicions about Angelina. I also knew nothing good could come from this woman showing up on the Pape Ranch. The one relationship I’d had with a Mayan Indian, even as young as Angelina was, had not gone well. My intuition told me to be careful with this woman. Not only had she killed another man, but she was already messing with my mind and I was buying into her story way too easily.
“Jaguar,” I said loudly. I heard the growl of the big cat reverberate off the walls of the limestone creek bed. “Come here, so I can see you.” There was another growl from the creek and it didn’t sound as if the big cat was happy at being disturbed.
The black jaguar sprung from below and landed on the edge of the limestone that the creek had cut a path through over the centuries. I could see he was younger and bigger than the spotted jaguar, Buster.
The jaguar twisted his head upward and then to the side and snarled at me, before walking to the woman. The woman under the tree stroked his head. “This is the man, Gabor. I know it now. Do you think he is wise enough to listen to me?”
“No, listen to me, Jaguar. I speak to you from my heart. Be careful of your instincts. I do not wish to harm you, but I will shoot you if you threaten the people on this ranch or any land I own.”
The woman acknowledged me with a dip of her head. “My name is Magali. Where is the death mask of Lord Wak-Chan-K’awill? Tell me and you will have a long life with the blessing of Itzamná.”
The woman bent down and laid her staff on the ground. I swear I could see it wavering and I strained to watch it when I caught the jaguar out of the corner of my eye. The jaguar crouched into a hunting stance as if ready to spring at me. I quickly lifted the rifle, but kept it in front of me, ready to shoulder it if I had to. The jaguar growled again, as if he was more put out with my presence than afraid of me, but he did not challenge me for dominance. Instead, he got up, stretched, then turned and went back to the coolness of the dry creek bed.
I told myself that despite what I imagined was going on; this woman obviously had mental problems. I didn’t want to get involved with her. I would call Sheriff Molina later and report her presence on the ranch. He could handle it. She left her staff on the ground after the jaguar left and eyed it as if she was thinking about something.
“This is my ranch and you’re trespassing. You can’t camp here. I’m gonna have to call the Sheriff.”
“If you give me the Death Mask there will be no trouble and I will leave, never to return.”
My instincts told me not to engage this woman. I had told her to move on, straight up. I needed to turn and walk away. “Why do you think I have the mask?” I asked her and felt like the old fool that I was. I never learned to let a sleeping dog lie.
“I can feel that it is near. Gabor says you know where it is.”
“I don’t think it’s here. Maybe at one time it was buried here, but I do not know where it is now.”
“I must trust Gabor’s instincts. You will find it. Keep looking.” The woman held onto the trunk of the tree to ease herself back to the ground. “It is here,” she said and pointed to the ground.
I felt the need to take a load off too, but I wasn’t going to sit on the ground with her; not with a jaguar in the vicinity. I figured I might be giving more credence to this poor woman than she deserved, but I wasn’t stupid.
“If it’s here, I don’t know where it is. Did you destroy the stone in the cistern?”
“Yes, for Gabor. It was his stone. The stone does not matter now. Bring me the Death Mask.”
“It matters to me. Why did you destroy the stone?”
“Bring me the Death Mask.”
“Look, I don’t have the Mask. But if I found it, why should I give it to you? It could be very valuable to me.”
“It would not bring you wealth, only death, if you keep it. Give the Mask to me and Itzamná will spare you.”
That did it. I was never good at taking a threat from anyone. “You need to be off my property by sundown or I’ll be back with the Sheriff. I don’t have the Death Mask.”
“I am of no significance; a mere gatherer who carries a message for you. I have been cursed to wander this land until I retrieve the death mask of Lord Wak-Chan-K’awill. It is here. I cannot leave without it, now. Know that if you find the Death Mask and do not give it to me, the curse of Itzamná will be upon you.”
“If I see you again on my property, I’ll have you arrested and I will shoot the jaguar if I have to.”
The woman turned her eyes to the ground. There was a humongous coiled rattlesnake in front of her now and flicking it’s tongue at me. How had I missed that? I turned in an about face and started walking back to the ranch house with a little more stride in my step than usual. I really needed to talk with someone about these Mayans who keep showing up. It was getting to be more than my old brain could handle.
I needed t
o talk this out with someone. The question was who?
Chapter 17
Like most things in life, if you’re exposed to it long enough, it becomes ordinary, I told myself as I walked along the trail back to the ranch house. Being able to communicate with the dead, be they human or animal, was not a new experience for me and it didn’t make me now nearly as afraid as the first time it happened. I was more concerned about the threat to my family and the people on both ranches that the Mayan woman and her animal spirits posed. I was a pragmatic man by nature, though, I tended to overthink things, and what I had just experienced was what it was; no matter whether someone else believed it happened or not. My memories of my brother Bryan and my wife Barbara were always with me and speaking to them was as natural as breathing. I believed what the Mayan woman, Magali, told me and I was concerned for the safety of those around me.
Just before I reached a turn in the trail to the ranch house compound and would lose sight of the woman, I stopped and turned to look back at her. I should have asked her more questions about Angelina. The woman was no longer sitting beneath the tree.
After walking a while, I heard the company truck off in the distance. It sounded like a piece of junk and it was only three years old. Shane was a hard man on the vehicle. I made a mental note to have Clete take a look at it. When I could see the truck, it was throwing up a big cloud of dust behind it with its speed. I stepped off the trail, as the truck came to a sliding halt. Shane was driving and George was in the passenger seat.
“You okay?” Shane asked.
Hannah stepped out from the seat in back of the crew-cab. “What happened?”
“You got any water?” I asked. “I’m dry as dirt.”
“There’re some bottles behind the back seat. Grab one for him, Hannah,” Shane said.
“You get it. Come on, Max, get in the cab out of the sun,” she said and took my arm to guide me over to the back door of the cab.
It was one of those quandaries that men my age faced. I liked the attention of a pretty gal, but I sure wasn’t ready for any sympathy because I was old.
“I’m okay and I’ll get my own water, thanks.”
I tilted the seat back and found the remnants of a case of bottled water. I pulled out a half liter bottle and drained it. “Ah, that’s much better,” I said. “Come on, you cayuses, I want to get something to eat. I’m starved.”
“Are you going to tell us what happened?” Hannah said.
“Might,” I said and winked at her. “Depends on who buys lunch.”
Once Shane had turned around and we were headed back toward the ranch house, I asked, “Where’d you leave the horses?”
“We tied them off at your truck. They’re not going anywhere,” Shane said.
“George, here’s another rule for a horse; always take care of him, first. He expects you to do that for him.”
“I think we were more concerned about you,” George replied back.
“Didn’t matter about me. You left them tied up and unable to fend for themselves.”
“Sorry,” George said.
“They’re okay, Max. We haven’t been gone more than thirty minutes,” Shane offered.
I was suddenly outdone with the three of them. It wasn’t really about the horses and I knew it. I was angry at their youth; their cluelessness about life in general; and, the fact that I had so few years left in my own life. My meeting the Mayan woman had left me in a bad mood. Angelina had the same effect on me when she lived on the ranch with us.
How did I explain to the three of them that there were things in life that had no reasonable explanation and it would require the suspension of their beliefs to comprehend? Before Angelina had left for Guatemala, I came to view my relationship with her as a struggle within my soul between good and evil. I wasn’t so sure of that egocentric view any more. This seemed now to be about something bigger than just Angelina. I decided I needed to talk to the woman, Magali, again.
“Stop the truck,” I said.
As soon as Shane stopped, I got out of the truck. “You guys go take care of the horses and get something to eat. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“We’ll wait for you,” Shane said.
Shane kept a twelve gauge pump loaded with double-ought buck shells behind the seat of the crew-cab truck. It was a better gun to have with you in the brush and heavy cedar of the Hill Country than a rifle. I decided to take it, instead of my rifle.
I leaned back inside the cab and removed the shotgun from behind the seat, along with another two bottles of water. “How many shells are in here?” I asked Shane.
“I didn’t reload it after the last time I fired it. There’s three, I think, and a couple of slugs in the box of shells.”
“Max, this is crazy. What’s going on?” Hannah said and climbed out of the truck.
“I need some more answers from a woman trespassing on the ranch. Get back in the truck, Hannah. I’ll talk to you guys later.”
“No. I’m not leaving you out here by yourself. I’m going with you.”
“Alright,” I said. The girl had grit and I appreciated the gesture. And, I needed to tell her about my theory on Tikal. Shane had the good sense not to try and talk her out of what she was doing. Instead, he got out of the truck too.
“”I’m going with you, Max. George, you go check on the horses. Unsaddle them and then water them,” he said.
George opened his mouth to protest, but Shane cut him off. “When you get that done, come back out here and pick us up.”
After he was satisfied he wasn’t going to change our mind, George drove off. I waited until he was well on his way before I smiled at Hannah. She was a good kid and this was as much about her now as it was about me. The devil may have come back into my life, but I wanted to make sure she had her eyes wide open; Shane, too, if he was up to it. My intuition told me that their lives would never be same after they met Magali.
“Come on,” I said and handed Shane the two bottles of water. I checked to make sure a shell was in the chamber and the safety was on, then we headed back to where I’d seen the woman.
The future of the Pape Ranch wasn’t necessarily in the hands of Hannah McCoy or Shane Wagnor, because I would sell it soon. But they would have a future in what happened to it after I sold it, if I had any say in it with the new buyer. I could try to explain to them what had just happened to me, but I doubted if they would believe me. With the appearance of Magali, I no longer believed this was about the good or evil of her child. I had misjudged Angelina. She was too young to understand what was happening or even understand the powers she possessed. And as far as Hannah and Shane were concerned it was just better to expose them to the reality of it all and let them make up their own minds.
“Woman, I need to speak with you and the jaguar again. I will not hurt either of you. Meet me where we spoke before. I’m bringing two people with me,” I said as loudly as I could without shouting.
“I want you to do some online research for me on the death mask, when we get back,” I said to Hannah in a quieter voice as we walked. “This is all about the Mayan city of Tikal.”
“How can I do that without knowing who it belonged to?”
“The woman told me who it belonged to. I don’t remember what the Mayan name was. We’ll ask her again.”
“Who is she?” Shane asked.
“I could explain it to you, but I’d rather have her tell you.”
“Where are we going, Max?” Hannah said.
I could sense the apprehension in her voice.
“It’s okay, Hannah. We’re going to the dry creek just around this bend in the road. That spring fed pool is the only source of water around here and the likely place on the ranch for the woman to make a camp. The mesa provides her the ideal place to keep an eye on what’s happening on the ranch.”
“Come on, Max, give it up. Who is this woman?” Shane said.
“She said her name was Magali. She’s a gatherer for some Mayan god whose n
ame I can’t pronounce. And, she’s dead; cursed to wander the Texas Hill Country in search of the Death Mask. I think it’s the same one in the Journal.”
“Are you serious?” Hannah demanded. She stopped and looked at me in disbelief.
I could tell by the expression on her face I had made a mistake. She thought I was crazy and she would probably quit as soon as we got back to the ranch house. She looked at me, then Shane, then me again.
“That’s what she told me. You’re free to believe her or not.”
The woman was waiting beneath the shade of the tree where we had spoken before when we rounded the bend in the trail. I didn’t see the jaguar, but I did see her walking staff in her right hand.
“Keep your eyes on that walking stick, Shane. Jaguar, come out. I won’t harm you,” I said in a normal voice, but loud enough for him to hear me.
We saw the big cat suddenly leap from the creek bed onto the ground above it and walk over to the woman. His tail was high and twitching. Every few steps he would turn his head to keep an eye on us. I stopped about thirty feet from the tree and waited a moment for him to settle down. She bent over with some effort and placed her walking staff on the ground.
“Oh, my god, Max,” Hannah said and grabbed my arm.
I could feel her nails digging into my flesh. “It’ll be okay, Hannah. Stay calm,” I said and pushed the safety off with a finger from the hand that was holding the shotgun. I held it up so the woman and jaguar could see it, then I lowered it and kept the gun down by my side. We walked toward the woman and the jaguar. Hannah still hadn’t loosened her grip on my arm. “I think you can let go of my arm, now.”
“Oh, sorry,” she said and loosened her grip. She gathered my shirt sleeve in her hand, and dug her other fingers in to Shane’s arm instead and stayed between us as we walked.
“That is close enough,” the woman said. “Do you have the Mask?”
“No, I’ve already told you I didn’t have it. There was nothing in the cistern when we explored it.”
“It’s true. The vault below the capstone was empty,” Hannah said.
The Turbulence of Butterflies (Max Howard Series Book 6) Page 22