Curse of the Ancients

by Matt De La Peña

  He slipped the bracelet onto his wrist, feeling a wave of excitement pass through his body. He lifted the piece of jewelry up to his eyes to study the details of the metallic snake — and then a thought suddenly occurred to him.

  What if Kisa was the snake charmer from the riddle?

  SERA CONTINUED down the hill beside Riq, overcome with guilt about leaving Dak’s side. Her best friend still hadn’t regained consciousness, and she wanted to be the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. And who knew what crazy potion that mystic might try without her supervision? But when Riq had stirred her from a restless sleep, he reminded her of Dak’s last words about the people inside the observatory. The least they could do, he reasoned, was honor their friend’s wishes by checking it out.

  So here Sera was.

  Trekking down to the observatory.

  The guilt tightening like a noose around her neck with each step she took away from the cave.

  “I mean, just look at it,” Riq continued. “It’s incredible what Kisa was able to do without the help of modern tools.”

  “Wow, it really is,” Sera said, rolling her eyes. Riq hadn’t stopped talking about Kisa and his new bracelet since they started their walk. He’d already explained his theory about her being the snake charmer from the riddle. He believed she might hold the key to discovering the Break they needed to fix. He described for Sera the deep conversation he’d had with Kisa, which had lasted into the morning. Now he was obsessing over the artistic merits of the bracelet she’d given him. Riq was so caught up in Kisa talk, he didn’t even seem to notice all the storm damage they were passing. The thick tree branches strewn all over the dirt path. The massive reddish brown puddles and blown-off roofs. The smaller huts on the outskirts of the village that had been completely flattened.

  “And it’s surprisingly comfortable,” Riq said, spinning the bracelet around his wrist for Sera to see. “I never thought of myself as a bracelet-wearing kind of guy, but this thing’s a different deal. I really dig it.”

  “I’m sure you do.” Sera hadn’t known Riq long, but she was willing to go out on a limb and say he was acting out of character. Not that she had time to worry about Riq’s character at the moment. Her focus was on getting to the observatory, finding out whatever it was they were supposed to find out, then getting back up to the cave to check on Dak.

  When Sera looked up a few minutes later, her eyes grew big and she stopped in her tracks. The observatory.

  Riq turned around. “I bet Kisa would make you something, too, if —”

  “Look!” Sera interrupted, pointing ahead of them. Yesterday the observatory had been nearly as tall as the temple. Now Sera was staring at a heap of rubble.

  “The storm,” Riq said under his breath.

  Sera’s body went cold. Most of the roof had been stripped away. The walls were folded in on one another and crumbling near the base. A dozen men, including Itchik, were standing on top of the wreckage, calling out names and carrying debris away, stone by stone.

  Sera and Riq took off running down the hill.

  Sera quickly learned that there were three elders trapped inside: Cocom, Kan Boar, and Pacal. They were the reason everyone was working at such a frantic pace. Itchik kept calling out their names and digging through the rubble, trying to determine the location of the voices that occasionally echoed back. Sera and Riq worked right alongside the Mayas.

  Initially, there were a dozen Mayan men helping out. Then two dozen. Then three. All of them hoisted boulders nearly as big as their own bodies. Women started pitching in. Older children. By late afternoon there were over two hundred people milling around the observatory wreckage, carrying away rocks. Those too young or old to lift debris ladled fresh water from buckets into cups and passed out fruit to those who’d been working since morning and refused to take a break. Nearly every face Sera had seen in the cave the night before was out here now, helping to dig the elders out from under the debris.

  Soon the sun started to set, but that didn’t slow the Mayas. So it didn’t slow Sera either. She lifted as many smaller stones as she could manage, carrying them to one of several piles of rubble near the temple. Riq did the same, Kisa now working at his side. Sera occasionally scanned the crowd for Dak, hoping he’d woken up and demanded to join the rescue efforts. She knew that’s exactly what he’d do.

  But there was no sign of him.

  “Cocom!” Itchik continued to roar. “Kan Boar! Pacal!”

  “Who are these people anyway?” Sera asked Riq and Kisa as she tossed two grapefruit-size rocks onto the pile of rubble.

  “Wise men, right?” Riq said, turning to Kisa.

  Kisa wiped sweat from her brow and nodded. “They are the scribes of our village.”

  “Why were they in the observatory during the storm?” Sera asked as the three of them started back toward the wreckage site.

  “Only Itchik knows for sure,” Kisa said. “Though many believe they were working on a secret project to be studied by the men of Yuknoom the Great, king of Calakmul. His men will be visiting our village in a few days’ time.”

  “I still can’t believe Itchik is a king,” Sera said, recalling what Riq had told her on the way down the hill. “He never even let on last night.”

  “He is our king,” Kisa said, “but more important, according to Itchik himself, he is a father and husband and uncle.”

  Sera nodded, but she was having trouble wrapping her head around these Mayas compared to the Maya she’d read about. Itchik didn’t set himself apart from everyone. She thought that’s what all kings did. And it moved her to see everyone pitching in to help rescue the trapped elders.

  When Kisa broke off to get a cup of water, Sera took Riq by the arm. “Did you ask her about the riddle?”

  He nodded. “In a roundabout way. Apparently, when she was little she survived a bite from the deadliest snake in the lowlands. Her uncle said she needed to honor the snake for not taking her life. That’s the reason she works snakes into her jewelry. Seems weird for it to just be a coincidence. I’ll keep working on it.”

  Sera let out a defeated sigh. “What are we doing here, Riq? Dak’s hurt, and the Ring is malfunctioning, and we aren’t getting any closer to understanding the riddle. I’m so confused.”

  “I am, too, Sera. We just have to keep searching.”

  Sera saw Kisa approaching with two cups of water. At least Riq had made a friend, she thought. Which made her think of poor Dak, laid up in a dingy cave, alone.

  Kisa handed a cup to both Riq and Sera, and they thanked her.

  As Sera finished her water, she heard a small commotion building on the other side of the rubble. She set down her cup next to Riq’s and Kisa’s, and the three of them hurried around the wreckage, toward a gathering crowd.

  “What’s happening?” Kisa asked a stocky Mayan woman.

  “They’ve spotted the scribes underneath the wreckage,” the woman said excitedly. “They’re alive!”

  Sera pushed her way around several people to see for herself.

  Itchik was right up front calling out, “Pacal, remain calm! We will get you out of there!” He turned to the group of men next to him and said, “It’s a miracle they’re not harmed. Now let’s hurry.”

  It took another hour to clear a wide enough tunnel for the scribes to climb out of. Sera watched them emerge, one by one, dirty but otherwise unscathed. The last man who came out was carrying a large tablet of bark-colored paper, which was filled with strange-looking glyphs and paintings. He handed the tablet to Itchik, who looked it over, saying, “How did you survive, Pacal?”

  Pacal pointed back at the tunnel. “We huddled next to the wall with the ceiba tree. It saved our lives.”

  Itchik smiled and nodded, looking back and forth between the three filthy men and the tablet. “It is our good luck charm as always,” he said.

 
“While we were trapped, I decided I will paint the tree onto the first and last pages of the codex,” Pacal said. “I believe it will be a worthy addition.”

  “Yes, absolutely.”

  Sera couldn’t believe what she was seeing. An actual Mayan codex. She ducked down so she could peer into the narrow hole. It was dark inside, but once her eyes adjusted she was able to make out the large tree painted on the wall. She got goose bumps and quickly turned to Riq. “The riddle!”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” he said.

  It was late by the time Sera made it back to the cave and Dak’s bedside. He was still unresponsive, though Jasaw seemed to think his condition had improved. Sera wasn’t so sure. If anything, Dak’s injuries looked worse. There was a lump the size of a softball on the back of his head. The backs of his arms and shoulders were entirely black and blue.

  “He looks awful,” Sera said.

  “It is not important how he appears on the outside,” Jasaw said, waving more incense over Dak’s bare chest. “It is his insides that matter. And there is no longer a danger of his brain swelling.”

  Sera stared at Dak. She was beginning to trust Jasaw a little more, though she still wished he could back up his claims with an MRI.

  Once Jasaw left, Sera pulled out the SQuare and powered it on. She and Riq had ducked behind a huge tree outside the village to study the riddle before trekking back to the cave. But even knowing that the symbol of the ceiba tree was part of this local codex, they were just as lost.

  The riddle came up, and she read it aloud to Dak, over and over, hoping something would jump out at her:

  A snake charmer and a clown

  A treasure that never was

  A gift from the deity Itzamna: from 9.10.5.10.7 to 11.17.2.13.10

  Trace the symbol of the ceiba tree toward the truth of the curse

  Sera read each phrase a dozen times, but they still didn’t add up to anything. And Dak just lay there, unmoving.

  Next, she booted up the Ring. She had been able to get the display working again, but something was still wrong. The Ring wouldn’t accept any new data. Every time she input new coordinates, she got an error message. It was deeply troubling.

  Eventually, she shut off both machines, curled up on the ground next to Dak’s cot, and closed her eyes. She pushed Dak and the riddle out of her mind, and instead focused on her trip to the Cataclysm. She remembered the flooding streets. The bloodred sun. But as soon as she saw herself reaching for the doorknob of her house, things went blank.

  Again.

  What had she seen that was so awful her mind wouldn’t let her remember?

  RIQ STOPPED pacing and looked over Sera’s shoulder as she continued tinkering with the Infinity Ring. He sensed her frustration, and he wished there was more he could do to help. But she was operating on a level of physics that was simply beyond him. They’d been huddled behind the cave like this for several hours already, and it didn’t seem like they were any closer to a solution. She’d gotten the screen to come back on, but all it did was flash a series of error messages.

  Riq resumed his nervous pacing. He needed to get down to the village and find Kisa. During another sleepless night he had decided to ask for her help with the riddle. It went against every Hystorian principle he’d ever been taught, but he was going to show it to her. Maybe she’d be able to decipher something that he and Sera weren’t seeing.

  Sera placed the Ring onto the thick grass and clenched her fists. “I’ve figured out what’s wrong,” she said. “But you’re not going to like it.”

  “What is it?” Riq asked.

  “Basically, the Ring rebooted when it hit the ground. Everything is still operational . . . except the Ring ‘forgot’ what the date is. It doesn’t know when we are. And if it doesn’t have that data, it can’t warp us out of here. It doesn’t know what our starting point is.”

  “That’s not so bad,” Riq said. “We just have to figure out the date?”

  “Think about it,” Sera said. “The Maya have a calendar system, sure. But it’s different from ours. The Ring’s programming is all based on a European calendar. And the Mayan people have had no contact with Europeans.”

  “We’ll get it, Sera.” Riq figured it was a good idea to put a positive spin on things. “Even if we have to cross the ocean to do it.”

  Sera shook her head, staring at the Ring.

  After a long silence, she picked it back up and resumed her tinkering. Riq watched, knowing he couldn’t tell her the other thing he’d been thinking about all night. How he wouldn’t mind being stuck here for another day or two. There was something genuinely special about this place.

  And while he knew their mission was crucial, Riq wasn’t exactly in a hurry to return home.

  He hadn’t told the others yet. Maybe he never would. But their visit to 1850 had cost Riq a great deal. He had been forced to interfere with his own family tree, and that meant he was pretty sure he had no family left in the present day. It also meant he could cease to exist if he ever returned to the twenty-first century. He wasn’t sure which possibility scared him more.

  He was doing a good job of keeping his emotions in check, but all the uncertainty had hit him the previous afternoon, while he and Kisa were helping clear debris from the site of the observatory. Suddenly, these thoughts had hit Riq so hard he had lowered himself into the mud and covered his face with his hands.

  Kisa had knelt beside him and patted him on the back and asked if he was okay. But that was it. She didn’t press him for details. She understood that there were things about him she would never understand. And she accepted it. And wasn’t that what true friendship was all about?

  Riq realized two things in that moment:

  One: Not counting his fellow time travelers, he’d never had a real friend before — other than his grandma.

  And two: If Kisa was a real friend, then he should be able to trust her with the riddle.

  Sera threw her hands in the air. “I have no idea what else to try, Riq. What if we’re stuck here forever?”

  Riq paused a few seconds, thinking about this. How would he feel if they were stuck here forever? The idea didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should. “Look,” he said, forcing himself to focus, “why don’t we forget about the Ring for now and concentrate on the riddle? If we go down to the village, we can ask Itchik about the ceiba tree. And I have a few questions for Kisa, too.”

  The worried look on Sera’s face made Riq feel guilty. He’d never seen her so distraught.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she said, slipping the Ring back into her satchel. “Let me check on Dak and then we can go.”

  They stumbled into Itchik as soon as they’d made it into the village. He was standing at the foot of the fallen observatory, laughing.

  “Itchik?” Riq said.

  Itchik turned to look at Riq and Sera, his grin falling from his face. “How is your friend? His condition is improving, I hope.”

  “Jasaw claims he’s getting better,” Sera answered. “But he’s still unresponsive.”

  Itchik nodded. “My entire family owes him a debt of gratitude. That was my youngest daughter he pushed out of the way.”

  “What are you doing out here?” Riq asked. It seemed more than a little odd that a king would be laughing at his own fallen observatory. “Everything okay?”

  “Oh, yes.” Itchik turned back to the rubble and said, “I was just thinking about how long it took us to build. Many years. The entire village pitched in. We made many important discoveries about the world from inside these walls.”

  “Why were you laughing, then?” Sera said.

  “My scribes were not harmed,” Itchik said. “And I believe one’s greatest misfortune is also his greatest opportunity. We will build a new observatory now. One that is bigger and better. One that will not fall, no matter how hard the
wind blows.”

  Riq wished he could have this kind of attitude about life, too. But it was easier said than done. He looked all around the village, at the series of storm-damaged huts people were already attempting to rebuild, the towering temple, the muddied white road. There had to be a reason Riq, Dak, and Sera had come here. It couldn’t be a random mistake. What if they’d come here specifically for Riq? So he could meet these people and see how they live and hear what they believe?

  Riq looked up when he heard voices. He spotted a group of children hurrying down the path toward them.

  “King Itchik!” they called in unison. “King Itchik!”

  Itchik and Sera looked up, too. Riq saw that there was a smaller group trailing behind the children. Older kids. Teens like him. One of them was Kisa.

  “King Itchik!”

  “Yes, children, what is it?” Itchik asked.

  A boy at the head of the pack spoke. “The men have arrived from the jungle!” he said, out of breath as they reached the foot of the fallen observatory. “King Yuknoom’s men. From Calakmul!”

  “They’ve come days earlier than expected,” Itchik said. “Where are they now, children?”

  “The north ball court,” the biggest Mayan boy said.

  Itchik turned to Riq and Sera. “I must go greet the great king’s men,” he said. “They have come to appraise our learning. You are welcome to meet them, too.” He started following the children back the other way.

  Riq and Sera looked at each other. “I’m going with him,” Sera said. “Maybe I can find out more about the codex.”

  “I’ll meet you there later,” Riq said.

  Sera nodded and hurried to catch up with the group heading toward the ball court. Riq moved toward Kisa. Before he could even open his mouth to ask to speak with her, she took his arm and told him, “Come with me.”