Lily laughed; she too had entertained the same thoughts. Other than the bridge, she hadn’t seen any signs of human presence since they’d left Yaxchilan yesterday, yet like always, Otomi knew the way.
“Are we nearly there?” she asked.
“Yes.” Otomi began climbing the stairs.
Following him, she recalled how many times he’d said the same thing during her very long taxi ride to Corozal. Based on that, she resisted getting her hopes up.
The dense moss had made the rock wall its home, covering nearly every inch in its green blanket. Lily trailed her hand up the rocks as she climbed. The top of the stairs revealed more overgrown jungle. Hopes of being near Agulinta were crushed as Otomi set off yet again into the sea of green.
For what seemed like hours, they weaved over the jungle floor. Lily’s hunger pangs howled like a pack of dogs by the time they reached another set of steps. These, however, were in a much worse state of decay than those prior.
Lily had a feeling they’d arrived. If she was right, at the top of these stairs was an ancient construction that only a handful of people had witnessed firsthand in thousands of years.
The stairs were steep and the risers high; each one was a mammoth effort to climb. She counted as she went, forcing her mind away from her burning thighs. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. When she finally reached the top, a bolt of light pierced the tree canopy and caught her eyes, forcing her to squint against the glare.
Otomi tugged back a few enormous leaves, and when her eyes adjusted, although the carved stone was losing its battle against the robust vines threatening to consume it, she saw the sculpture depicted in her father’s journal. An overwhelming sense of emotion gripped her, and she fought it until tears stung her eyes. Lily stepped the short distance to the circular gateway and placed her hand on the statue. Its warmth gave her a weird sense it was a living, breathing thing.
“We’re here.” The lump in her throat made it difficult to speak.
“Yes. We here.” Otomi nodded, stepped through the heart of the structure, and headed toward crumbling blocks barely visible in the distance.
“We made it.” Carter placed his hand on her shoulder.
She nodded and blinked back tears, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
“Are you okay?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Just a bit emotional. You go on ahead.”
He touched her arm, surprising her with his tenderness. “You sure?”
She nodded a second time, unable to speak.
“Okay. Well, I’ll be in the temple if you need me.” With one last glance her way, he stepped over the center of the circular statue and ploughed through the thick plantation toward the ruins about a hundred feet away.
The donut-shaped structure was so high she couldn’t reach the apex. She tugged away a few of the creepers to view the carvings in the stone. Centuries of weather had taken their toll, however some of the intricate carvings were still visible. Lily dropped her heavy pack, sat down on a large rectangular block at the base of the statue, and pulled her water bottle from her hip. She drank the warm liquid and dabbed the sweat from her forehead and neck with her wrist cloth. With her emotions subsiding, she opened her pack and freed her father’s journal from within.
She turned the pages to the drawing that’d caught her attention nearly a year ago and held the sketch up so she could compare it to the actual sculpture.
Over the centuries, robust vines had made the stone their host. When the plants died, new ones had taken their place, which meant the statue itself was almost completely concealed. Only random scatterings of the original stone were still visible.
She stood, put the journal down, and tugged the vines away from a section at eye level on the left-hand curve of the circle. The plants were as sturdy as wire and impossible to move. Reaching into her backpack, she removed the pocketknife her oldest brother had insisted she take with her. Flicking out one of the blades with her thumbnail, she cut away a portion of the stranglers to reveal one whole lintel.
The ancient sandstone was stained olive and black, and numerous small chunks had crumbled away, but the fine craftwork was still evident. The carving showed a person—it was hard to tell if it was a woman or a man—dressed in an elaborate robe, and kneeling down. Weaving up the left-hand side of the lintel was a giant serpent. Its head was poised above the person and its mouth was wide open, ready to swallow the human whole.
The carving was intricate. It obviously told a story, and more importantly, her father’s drawing of the lintel, and the entire structure itself, were exactly the same. She had no doubt he’d drawn it from seeing the real thing—which was confirmation that her dad had been here before he’d met her mom thirty years ago.
“What were you doing here, Dad?” Dozens of questions whizzed through her mind, but she had answers for none of them. She flicked her gaze from the drawing to the statue, in a desperate search for resolution.
Her emotions spun like a roulette wheel. The joy she’d felt at actually reaching the statue was quickly replaced with awe over the ancient spectacle. That shifted to curiosity over her father’s need to keep it a secret, and finally she conceded she was no closer to getting answers, and frustration set in.
The grueling hike up here was all for nothing.
Lily grabbed a stick and pegged it at the statue. It glanced off the stone and disappeared into the bush beside it.
Inhaling deep breaths to simmer her anger, she decided to think outside the box. Was her father an explorer? She nearly chuckled aloud at that thought. He’d often got lost in shopping center parking lots.
Was he a treasure hunter? That too seemed ludicrous. He’d placed no value on objects.
Was it cursed? That thought did make her laugh. Her dad had been a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He’d always laughed at her mom’s obsessive superstitions, like spilled salt and walking under ladders. So, no, Lily couldn’t imagine any talk of ancient curses scaring her father into silence.
But why did he keep this a secret then? She tried to imagine what would make her keep something like this hidden. The only answer that made any sense would be if someone’s life was in danger should it be revealed. But even that didn’t help.
Whatever the reason, it had to be a good one. Why else would he have resolved to keep that secret for over thirty years? The sound of footsteps had her shoving the journal into her pack just before Carter emerged from the bushes.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Yes. Yes.” She tugged her ponytail into place. “I was just writing down some things.”
He glanced around, maybe looking for her notebook, then he cocked one eyebrow. “You seemed pretty emotional when we arrived. Want to talk about it?”
Carter’s concern was unexpected, and she felt she owed him some explanation. “It’s just I never thought I’d actually get here. So many people tried to talk me out of it.”
A smile lit up his face. He raised his camera. “Well, how about we show all those negative bastards exactly how good you are?” He clicked off a few photos. “Move closer to the statue.” He stepped back and adjusted the lens. Click, click, click.
Lily pointed at the section of the statue where she’d removed the vines. “Can you zoom in on this, please?”
“Sure.” He walked back a foot or two and turned. Once again, he fiddled with the long lens. “Smile.” She did, and he snapped several shots.
“You ready to see the rest? It’s amazing.”
“Yes, love to.” She hoisted her pack onto her shoulders, stepped across the heart of the large stone structure, and followed Carter through the shoulder-height vegetation.
Halfway across the divide a glimmer of hope had her contemplating that the answers she sought might actually be inside the temple. Her spirits lifted, putting energy back into her legs.
After a few minutes
battling through the vegetation, she arrived at the base of the ruins. Otomi was in the high grass to her right and looked to be creating a fire. She hoped that meant food would be ready soon.
The ancient construction was small in comparison to the ones they’d seen at Yaxchilan. This one was pyramid shaped, with a series of steps that rose up from the jungle floor at an approximate forty-five-degree angle and reached about sixty feet high. Only the very tip of the structure, an area that looked to be about two feet square, was exposed to the sky. Almost every inch of the ancient building was covered in green. The jungle camouflage was extremely effective.
Without Otomi’s guidance, it would’ve been easy to miss.
“It’s a miracle it was ever discovered, hey?” Carter said.
“I agree.”
Halfway up, a dark arch in the center of the front façade looked to be a doorway. She pointed to it. “Did you go inside?”
Carter beamed. “Sure did. Come on, I’ll show you.” He plucked a flashlight from his pack on the ground, hiked up the dozen or so steps to the opening, and turned to wait for her. Lily dropped her pack, grabbed her own flashlight, notebook, and pen, and followed him up the giant blocks. She had to duck her head to enter, and followed their light beams down the narrow stone passage.
The flat blocks were motley shades of green and sandstone, and the walkway had a steeple roofline, rather like the architecture of a simple church. The passageway opened into a large hexagonal room. Light streamed in from dozens of openings dotted around the sides and roof.
“Oh wow. This is magnificent.” Lily eased up to one of the walls where stone lintels were carved in intricate detail. The pictures were in a row that traversed all six walls of the room.
Carter clicked away with his camera and Lily opened her notebook to write about her first impressions of the breathtaking site. Using her flashlight to examine the carvings more closely, she quickly noticed a common theme to the pictures. They featured a man with a heavily decorated robe, and Lily assumed he was the king. Glancing from one intricate carving to the next, she sighed as she realized she was no closer to finding answers to her father’s mysterious drawings.
A dark shadow crossed the room, matching her growing anxiety, and it took her a moment to realize clouds had covered the sun.
“How lucky are we?” Carter approached her side and the sun pierced through the roof again, raining sunlight over him and capturing the bronze flecks in his green eyes.
Dragging her gaze away, she turned her attention back to the wall and ran her finger over one of the stone carvings. “I want to pinch myself, make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“It’s a bit like that. I’ve seen a few Mayan temples, but people had been traipsing all over them for decades. This . . . this is special.”
“Oh.” She turned to him. “Where else have you been?”
He raised his camera, aimed it at the opposite wall, and clicked off a few shots. “Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Lamanai, Palenque, Ek Balam, and now Yaxchilan and Agulinta.” He rattled off the names of the ancient ruins like they were items in a pantry.
“Wow . . . how long have you been in Mexico?”
He shrugged. “Hmm . . . about eight months.”
“Really? So where do you live?”
He turned to her and his eyebrows knotted together. “I don’t really live anywhere.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been traveling the world.”
“So when do you go home?”
“Don’t have plans to go home yet.”
Lily tugged a wayward hair from her lip. “When were you last home?”
He looked upward as if trying to work it out. “About four years ago.”
“Four years? What about family?”
“I check in whenever I can.” He peered through his camera lens.
Lily stared at him, trying to comprehend a lifestyle like that. She had six older brothers who seemed intent on knowing her every move.
“You know that’s rude, don’t you?” He grinned.
She snapped her eyes away. “I’m sorry. I just can’t imagine not seeing my family. If I didn’t go home a couple of times a year, my brothers would come get me.”
“How many brothers do you have again?”
“Six.”
“Shit. That’s a big family.”
“That’s only the beginning. They’re all married with kids.”
“Not you?”
She wriggled her unadorned left hand. “Except me. What about you? Not married either?”
He raised his camera at another lintel, and clicked a few photos. “No.” The way he said it, gave her the weird feeling he was lying.
“Food ready.” Otomi’s voice echoed down the passage.
“Oh marvelous, I’m starving.” Carter strode from the room.
She followed behind, wondering what would prompt him to lie.
Chapter 8
Their lunch, as expected, consisted of rice and beans. Carter would happily pay a hundred bucks for a steak right now. Hell, he’d pay a thousand. Between the strenuous exercise and the lack of meat, his queasiness dominated his focus, and they still had to get off the mountain. He had no idea how Lily was coping. From what he’d seen so far, she sure enjoyed her food, though he doubted she’d complain of any weakness, no matter how bad she got.
He couldn’t deny that he was worried about her. Not that he didn’t think she was capable, but more that she wouldn’t admit when she wasn’t. He’d learned from experience that denial could be hazardous. He watched her chatting with Otomi. Her energy was electric. Her beauty breathtaking. So much so, that as he’d already discovered, just one glance her way could arouse his libido. It was a whole new world for him and as far as he was concerned, it was dangerous.
Lily was dangerous. And the sooner he got off this mountain, the better.
After lunch, Carter spent the rest of the afternoon photographing every aspect of the Agulinta ruins. He caught Lily sneaking glances at him several times, and was fairly certain she’d picked up on his lie. But the last thing he wanted to do was explain his marriage situation. Especially when in two days’ time, they’d go their own ways and never see each other again.
By late afternoon, after he’d taken an abundance of photos, he found a shady spot under a tree and lay down to stretch his back muscles. High up in the canopy, the leaves shimmered in the afternoon breeze. He closed his eyes and inhaled the perfumed jungle. His eyes snapped open at a different noise and he searched overhead for its origin. It happened again; a combination of clicking and purring. He was fairly sure it wasn’t a monkey.
Movement caught his eye, and there it was. A toucan. The bird’s large beak was a rainbow of red, blue, and green. He reached for his camera, careful not to scare the bird. Zooming in, he focused on its black eye, nestled within a bed of tiny green feathers. Carter took about fifty photos as the bird tipped its head from side to side, like it was dancing to imaginary music.
“Hey, what’re you doing?”
Carter jumped at Lily’s voice. He glanced from her to the tree, but the bird had gone. “I was taking photos of a toucan.”
“Seriously?” She looked up into the branches. “I don’t see it.”
“That’s because you scared it away.”
She cocked her head, possibly disbelieving.
He clicked the replay button on his camera. “Here, take a look.”
“Wow. It’s magnificent.”
“Yeah, it was.”
She handed the camera back. “Wish I’d seen it.”
“Well, if you hadn’t romped in like a herd of goats, you would’ve.” He chuckled at his own joke.
Her jaw dropped. “I’m not like a herd of goats.”
Carter sat up and ran his hand down his beard. “Well, you weren’t as delicate as
a butterfly.”
She rolled her eyes, turned on her heel, and sashayed away.
“Lily, come back . . . I’m joking.”
Too late, she was gone. He watched her long legs stride away and decided keeping her at a distance was a good thing anyway.
After a brief check in the branches, where he didn’t find anything else of interest, he put the lens cap back on his camera, climbed to his feet, and went in search of Otomi.
Their guide sat on the ground with his back up against the ruins. Smoke from Otomi’s cigarette trailed from his nostrils and drifted over the three-thousand-year-old blocks. At his feet Pompa pecked at the ground. Carter paused to take a few photos, feeling Otomi’s sense of contentment. For the umpteenth time, Carter contemplated how the simple things in life could provide the most pleasure. He put the lens cap back on, and upon his approach, their guide glanced his way, then butted out his cigarette.
“Hey, Otomi, this’s been excellent. Thanks for bringing us here, mate.” Carter held his hand toward the chubby guide, and as their palms met, Otomi showed off a toothy grin. Before this trip was over, Carter hoped he’d capture that genuine smile in a photo.
“Do we camp here tonight?” Carter took a spot in the shade too.
“No, we still have few hours ’til sunset. We go other place where is flat ground.”
“Okay, perfect.”
“You ready?”
“I am. I’ll go see where Lily is.”
Using his flashlight, Carter entered the temple again and walked down the passage, expecting to find her in the hexagonal room. She was. His feet crunched over the dirt, and she snapped her leather-bound journal shut on his approach.
That was the second time she’d done that, and he wondered what she could possibly be hiding. “We’re going soon. Are you finished?”
Glancing up at him from her cross-legged position on the floor, she sighed. “I could be here a month and not be close to finishing.”
Out of Reach Page 8