My stomach flipped and I knew my search had ended.
As the tour moved to the king’s quarters, I lingered and wedged my body between two rocks, down into the pit where priests had stayed, knowing I must hide until the park was deserted to look for Chassan.
From my hiding place in the priest’s darkened quarters, I watched the sun dance its way across the sky. Each hour scattered the light more diffusely through the square window on the west side of the structure. When the light burned out, I waited still, holding my breath as a pair of guards walked the streets with flash lights to be sure no stragglers remained once the park closed.
When I was certain they were gone, I shimmied from between the rocks and made my way over to the Condor’s altar.
All afternoon I had struggled with my decision as I lay hidden in the rocks. But, I knew what sacrifice I had to make if the condor god was going to answer me.
According to Rhea, gods required gold.
With shaking hands, I unfastened the clasp of my bracelet—the clasp I hadn’t known existed until it had fallen off days ago. Cradling the golden circle to my chest, I thought of him. Remembering the curve of his dazzling smile and the gleam of his emerald eyes, the way my life had never seemed right until he came into it, and how it seemed suddenly perfect when he placed the bracelet on my arm. It seemed a small gift, but it was all I had to offer the gods.
It was everything I had.
If it meant finding my way back to the only life that mattered, it was worth it. Wiping a tear from my cheek with the back of my hand, I placed the golden bracelet gently on the rock, the barely there moonlight caressing the fat wishing pearl in its rays. Kneeling, placing both hands on either side of my offering, I began to pray. To whom I’m not really sure. Maybe to God, maybe to Dayne, maybe to whoever was listening to a lost girl on a mountain top in the middle of a strange country.
I asked for my life to come back to me. For Dayne to come back. In that most holy of places, with no one around to see me, I finally let the tears I had been holding back fall. Tears of fear for where I was and what I was doing. Tears of loneliness for the life and love I had lost. Tears of hopefulness, that maybe, just maybe, I had finally found a way to bring it all back.
“Chassan, if you can hear me, come to me. Please,” I sniveled, wiping at my nose and then sitting back on my heels, still staring down at my bracelet on the stone, bathed moonlight.
Nothing.
I’m not sure how long I sat there. Still as death, shivering in the chill of a mountain evening. The moon was high in the sky when my legs had officially ceased working and turned to numb stumps beneath me. Hope drained from my body, quickly replaced with cold desperation.
I hung my head in my hands, shaking it back and forth in defeat. How could I have been so wrong, again? This is where Ceila told me he lived. Why wasn’t he here?
Slowly, I rose on legs pricked with pins and needles and limped from the Temple of the Sun, out into the abandoned streets to clear my head. Was I missing something? What had I done wrong or misunderstood? As I stood there in the darkness an eerie scraping sound began to emanate from the temple. A sound of boulders being rolled away after centuries of rest. Stealing my way along the outer wall of the temple, I found a small window cut into the stone, a peep hole just big enough for me to see.
Moments passed before a thunderous clap of splitting rock echoed over the Andes, ringing around the neighboring peaks and boomeranging back to the city. My ears thrummed with the sudden clash of sound, quickening my pulse and causing my breath to come faster and shallower. Once again, hope sang in my limbs.
This was it, Chassan was answering my call.
Quietly, I felt my way along the stone wall to the entrance of the temple. What I saw peering out from the darkness when I next focused on the condor’s altar made my stomach lurch up my throat in fear before it crashed to my heels to hide.
Sitting in the moonlight on the stone altar was a great bird, my bracelet clasped between two of its razor sharp talons. Hot chills raced over the length of me. Condors were massive birds, that much I knew. But, this bird was easily the size of a small commuter jet.
Feathers as black as the night wind he had stolen in on. A shock of smaller golden-white plumes ringed its head and neck. A strangely hooked bill perfect for tearing into flesh and feasting on the dead. And his eyes! Sinister orbs of hollow nothingness...the color of the sun...glowing ominously orange against a black sky.
I gulped in cold fear, hoping his massive topaz eyes didn’t find me as they ticked all around, like two staccato marbles bouncing from stone to stone. His head jerked with the motion of his eyes as if it was connected to his body by rubber bands. When they finally came to rest on me, my throat twisted so tightly I could neither breathe nor scream. I was paralyzed with fear, but he was my only hope.
I swallowed and called on every bit of strength my body possessed, spurred on by the sight of my bracelet in his grasp.
Cautiously stepping into the temple’s tiny circle, I approached him, my hands out to my sides as if to tell the beast I meant him no harm. His eyes blazed hot fire, recoiling from me as if my presence alone were defiling him in some way. He fluttered his massive wings, creating a mini tornado inside the temple with their awesome power.
Another breath later, he lifted off the altar, taking to the air, his powerful wings pumping, sending wind whirling over Machu Picchu so violently the llamas bleated and scatter in fear.
“Wait!” I called out, slapping a hand over my mouth when my voice shattered the silence. I rushed after him, running from the temple and through the grassy streets in the darkness as he began to gain altitude over the city.
With every dipping flutter of his wings he rose higher, higher, higher still. My heart exploded in my chest when I caught the glimmer of my bracelet still clasped in his talons. The cold fear that had consumed my body turned to burning rage.
No way! I screamed in my mind, teeth clenched so tightly my jaw ached. If he wasn’t sticking around to answer my questions, he certainly wasn’t taking off with my bracelet. Flying wasn’t something I could do just yet, but I knew I could run, and I knew I could jump.
Every cell in my body turned on at that moment, running after my bracelet as it called to me from his clutch. Faster and faster my feet hit the ground, running through the city, leaping stone walls, tracking his course from the ground in a way that was pure instinct and not a bit of sight. I wasn’t losing the only thing I had left. Grim Reaper or not, this beast wasn’t taking my bracelet!
In mere seconds, my toes touched the last speck of dirt in Machu Picchu. With superhuman strength I pushed off, leaping into the air, soaring higher and higher, arms outstretched, reaching for his talons to snag my bracelet back.
I must’ve caught him off guard.
When my hands closed around his massive, tree trunk legs his flight pattern dipped and swirled, nearly sending me careening into the river that flowed 8,000 feet below. I held on for my life, because if I fell there would be no one to catch me.
Peering at me between his legs with a glare that turned my blood to ice water I almost let go, but self preservation or anger took over, keeping my fingers securely clasped—one on my bracelet, one on his leg.
With a great sweeping dip, he circled in the air and turned his course back to the city. As he lowered his body to the ground, my feet found grass again and I began running, still holding onto the bird, refusing to let go.
An instant later, an engulfing flash of bright light burned my retinas and the world went dazzlingly white. I fell to the ground, clutching my eyes and trying desperately to wipe the blindness away.
As the world slowly came back into focus, a great hand circle my neck. Icy fingers closed around my throat and jerked me up to a standing position, my feet dancing wildly to keep up.
With his hand alone he could have easily killed me. A flick of his wrist would have snapped my neck and he’d be done with it. His shirtless arms bulged and quak
ed with the restraint he was obviously forcing himself to hold onto. By the look in his eyes, I could tell his hold was slipping.
“Please, Chassan,” I whimpered with the last bit of breath my lungs held. At the sound of his name, his eyes flinched, and his fingers immediately released. I fell to the ground, gasping and choking, rubbing my throat to coax breath back into it.
Stealing peeks at him from behind my lashes when I could, I was floored by what Ceila had failed to tell me.
She had prepared me for the Grim Reaper. A ghastly bird, or a macabrely cloaked man at best, stalking death from the shadows. Never, had I ever expected to find a Dayne like god living with death in the mountains of Peru. Yet, that’s exactly what he was.
His hair was cut closely to his scalp, sticking up in a halo of spikes that covered his regal head in a soft golden helmet. Tiger-like eyes, flashing the color of caramel and molasses, swirled into an alarming mess of raw umber. His skin was tanned to the cafe-con-leche perfection of the natives, either from a lifetime in the sun or stained by the murky waters of the Urabamba River that flowed beneath Machu Picchu.
I bit my lip as I steadied my breath and took him in with disbelieving eyes. Never once, did his unsettling glare leave me. Unflinchingly, he stared at me with two fathomless, empty pools that should have been eyes. Not a single muscle moved, as if he were a statue carved from a bar of gold bullion.
Where Dayne’s skin glowed with soft moonlight whispers of blue-white, Chassan radiated a near constant shade of copper, much like the sun during a solar eclipse.
“Well!?!” His hiss demanded in the darkness. “You called me from the rocks. What is it you seek?” He jaw clenched resolutely into place when he finished speaking. Down the length of his long nose he held me in a contemptuous glare, enjoying my struggle for words.
“I...I need…” I needed so much, but at that moment my words were failing me. “I need help,” I finally blurted out. It was the least complicated thing I could think of to say.
“Trust me when I tell you that is obvious.” He crossed his ripped arms over an equally hard chest and continued to stare at me. “I take life. I do not save it. Consider yourself lucky I spared yours tonight and be on your way.” With that he turned on his bare heel and began to leave.
“No!” I shouted at his back, finding my feet and running after him, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him back. The force of his motion as he spun around slammed me against the rock wall to my right, causing me to drop his arm instantly.
I groaned and staggered to keep my feet. Instead of apologizing like most normal people his hands went out to his sides and he hunched low as if he were ready to fight.
My hands instinctively covered my face in self defense, cowering against the jagged rocks at my back.
“Please, Chassan. I need your help. I don’t have anyone else to turn to,” I pleaded with tightly shut eyes from behind my shaking hands. When I failed to hear the continued sounds of him preparing to attack, I peeked through my fingers. He stood ram rod straight, fists curled at his sides, staring at me with a look that was equal parts anger and irritation. Relaxing my defensive posture, I stood and looked into his cold, compassionless eyes.
“My magic is very new. I need to learn how to use it, or I will lose everything I love,” my voice sounded way stronger than I felt at that moment.
Chassan continued his icy glare, like we were in some morbid staring contest. He swallowed once, a knobby Adam’s apple climbing his throat and then sliding back down. Still, not a single ounce of emotion registered on his stone mask of a face. I bit at my lip, fearing there were no pleading words in the world capable of swaying this monster of a man’s heart.
“You already possess all you need to save what you love. The question is, are you willing to lose all you have to save what you love?” Even in a hushed whisper, his voice boomed like thunder.
“Absolutely. I’ve risked my life to find you,” I babbled as he turned into the night and began to walk down the grassy street. I kept a few steps behind him, fearing his temper may switch at any moment and I would be too close to the danger once again. “I would do anything to get him back.”
At the word “him” Chassan stopped in his tracks and I nearly collided with his broad back.
“Him?” He spit the word from his mouth. “Then why hasn’t he shown you how to use your powers?” Chassan asked as he spun toward me. I immediately backpedaled, shaking my head and feeling the tears well up in me as he followed me step for step. When my back hit the stone wall again the force knocked a few sobs from my throat and I turned my head to the side, trying to hide my tears. I said nothing.
I could feel Chassan watching me, listening to my jagged breaths, the tiny whimpers that came with each one, partly sobs of sadness, partly sobs of pain from the jagged rock in my back.
“What’s in it for me?” he asked, resting an arm beside my head and finding my eyes the moment I turned back to him. I gasped at his proximity, fearing his touch as I did.
“My bracelet is all I have,” I searched his face for sympathy, knowing I had no more gold to offer. His eyes roved over my face as he thought.
“Not good enough,” he shook his head and straightened, walking into the darkness again.
I sighed desperately, my mind racing frantically. He couldn’t leave. I was so close. Everything I needed was right before me, and I couldn’t let him disappear.
Sprinting past him, I turned, blocking his path so he had no choice but to stop.
“If you won’t help me, then you might as well kill me. I have nothing left to live for,” I knelt down in front of him, clasping my hands at my chest in what I hoped was a convincing act of desperation.
His eyes flared wild and dangerous.
“Get off you knees!” he growled, his jaw working overtime. “I don’t want your blood on my hands.” His giant hand circled around my arm and jerked me to my feet. He lingered for a second as if he wanted to say something more, but stopped himself, breezing past me instead.
My latest plea seemed to get the most reaction out of him yet. A lightbulb went off in my mind. It was the riskiest plan I had come up with yet, but it was the only one I could think of, and time was running out.
“Fine then!” I shouted. “If you won’t do it, I will!” With that I took off running into the darkness. I was on a mountain top for crying out loud, if I could dodge all the stone buildings, it wouldn’t be too long until I came to a cliff.
Just as one came into sight, my mind began to reel. I was going way to fast to stop, and if he wasn’t behind me, I was just a fool. But I was too committed to my plan to stop. My toes left the earth without their normal force. Instead of flying into the air, I was falling, down into the darkened cloud bank that circle the Andean peaks.
Arms and legs flailed wildly at my sides, searching for something to save me, but found nothing. Air rushed by me as I picked up speed, falling faster and faster into the cold nothingness of the 8,000 feet between peak and base. I closed my eyes, wishing for all the world I had booked the ticket to Clonlea instead of Cusco.
In an instant, the whooshing wind stopped assaulting my ears. My arms found something solid to grasp onto and the sensation of falling was gone. Chassan’s eyes glared murderous, looking as if he wanted to drop me just as badly as he wanted to save me.
An instant later the ground returned beneath my feet and he released me from his arms.
“You are a fool!” He spit the words through clenched teeth. “That was your second chance. You don’t get a third.”
“Then help me,” I argued back, steeling my face to match his, and punching my hands to my sides. I leaned into him, letting him know I didn’t fear death from him or anything else at that moment.
We toed an invisible line between us. The night as black as our moods, our eyes locked on one another in hostile rage, neither backing down. My breath sped up as my heart hammered in my chest, more from adrenaline than fear.
“Hey! Whose there?
You can’t be in here!” A voice boomed from the terraces above us. Neither one of us moved. A flashlight’s beam began to bob and weaved as it jostled down the stairs in our direction. The two guards from earlier were running our way. Still we didn’t move. A few seconds more and they would have us, but I kept still, staring at him just as coldly as he stared at me, a deadly game of chicken. His eyes narrowed and he grabbed my hand, dragging me further into the darkness.
“I hope you aren’t scared of heights,” he hissed and leapt from the mountain side, pulling me behind him as our bodies were engulfed once more by the weightless fall from Machu Picchu.
Chapter Twelve
Legends
I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know whose body was being consumed by the funeral pyre I stood helplessly watching. Tears choked high in my throat, causing that annoying wheezing sound I always make when I’ m trying not to cry.
As smoke billowed higher from the funeral pyre, flames began to lick the blankets where a body lay. A small, soft cough echoed in my ears, and the form beneath the rich red and blue blankets stirred ever so slightly. Whoever was lying lifelessly over the flames was still alive, but not for long if I didn’t do something.
I tried to run to it, but something held me back. Something that was not physical, but mental. A loud voice inside me shouting, Wait! Not Yet!
A piercing bird shriek echoed down the length of the mountain slope to where our group was gathered. Eagerly waiting for the flames and smoke to consume the life atop the pyre.
In my mind, the word GO! rang through me and my feet instinctively began to run. Into what, I wasn’t sure.
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