The sun continued to set, and the seven travelers walked the other way. Huitzil flew overhead, dipping up and down as he scanned the horizon every few seconds. Metnal trotted at the front of the group, shoveling the dirt with her nose. First the rocks and foliage began to thin out, and then the trees followed. Most of the ones left were covered with gashes from teeth and claws, and some were only ragged stumps. Soon each footstep came with the sound of a faint crunch; it was the bones that lay scattered across the ground, large and small, worn and forgotten. Gabriela trudged on through them, while Vicente brushed them aside with his feet to make a path for Ofelia.
Huitzil finally swooped back to earth. "I can't see anything!" he said, panting.
"You won't be able to from where we are now," Metnal answered.
Gabriela frowned. "But I thought you said this place wasn't far away."
"That I did." The coati beckoned the rest of the group onwards. "Pax and his warriors would not build their city for any traveler to stumble across. It's hidden to eyes looking upon it from the outside."
Eventually they found themselves walking alongside the base of a tall cliff, and they came to the base of a tall, wide waterfall. The roar of the current drowned out any other sound, and the water created a veil of mist and foam as it crashed against the brown jagged rocks lining the bottom of the fall. A few flat slabs lay in their midst, tucked just behind the curtain of water; Metnal jumped from the riverbank on to the closest of these and waited for her friends to follow. None of them saw the muddy footprints preceding their own as they jumped between platforms, trying to shield themselves from the water. Running down the cliff face was a deep fissure, parting the rock to reveal another narrow pathway, and this the travelers squeezed themselves into.
Vicente shuddered at the lack of space between the two walls; there was barely enough room for them all to walk single-file. "So now what?"
"We're past the barrier," Teoxi answered. "Now we'll arrive soon enough."
The corridor came to a sudden end, pushing its occupants out through another fissure and on to a wide, rocky plateau bathed in light. When the children could see again, they gasped at what lay before them.
They were standing on a ledge overlooking a long plain, at the top of a worn staircase carved out of the cliffside. It sloped down and formed a wide stone avenue that cut across the tall grass, reaching out into the heart of the jungle. Tall pyramids, crumbling and covered with thick vines, lined the main road like tombs in a graveyard. Rotting, swinging bridges criss-crossed the flat summits. Water poured down from fissures in the gray stones, cascading down the pyramid steps to form small lakes or simply flood the streets. The very ground of the city bulged and heaved in places under all the weight it was carrying; it seemed that perhaps the whole place was sinking deeper into the earth.
"Is this that place the jaguars were talking about?" Ofelia asked, suppressing a shudder.
"Tehuantepec?" Metnal said. "Yes, it is."
"Will Mama and Papa really be down there?"
"If they've managed to find their way this far," Teoxi answered. "Only one way to find out."
Ixa looked back in the direction from which she and the others had come. "Did you hear that?" she asked her husband.
Joaquin's grip on his sword tightened when he heard her. "Hear what?"
"A voice, I think. Like an echo." She shook her head. "Perhaps it was nothing."
"Don't mention it, then," he said. "This place already gives me the creeps."
They had dutifully followed the course of the river to the point marked on the map, and then ventured behind the waterfall as the conquistador's journal had told them to. On the other side they had found this dismal field of overgrown, falling-apart temples. No jaguars in sight, though. Not any living soul. But the pack had been trying to take Ofelia here, hadn't they? If they'd managed to find her again, then this was where she would be.
Manolo wanted to believe it, and yet the thought made him shudder. "Mija?" he called out, cupping his hands around his mouth. The sound echoed off the temple walls and faded away without an answer.
Maria grabbed his arm and placed a finger to her lips. "Not so loud. They might hear."
I hope they do, he thought. If they had returned here to lick their wounds, then he could finish off Pax. No, not yet. Ofelia first. He nodded to his wife, unsheathed his sword and set off down the main path towards the center of the city.
The jaguars would be hiding her somewhere until the time was right, no doubt. Pax wouldn't want to risk her escaping again. What sort of place, though?
Something in the corner of his vision abruptly shifted, and he turned to look. At the foot of one of the smaller structures, a pile of loosely stacked rocks covered up what had once been a doorway. One had tumbled down; through the hole it left behind, Manolo could see specks of light wildly glinting.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Joaquin asked him as he started pulling the rest of the stones aside.
"Come help me!"
The four of them were able to clear the pile in a few minutes, revealing the low, dark passageway. Manolo ducked his head and went in first; a moment later, he drew back when something crunched underneath his foot. Grabbing the flashlight that Joaquin held out to him, he switched it on.
They all gasped at what they saw – dozens of skeletons, perhaps hundreds, lying curled up and packed together on the pyramid floor. Weapons and armor littered the ground as well. Most were rusted breastplates and shields, ridged helmets, lances and muskets. Scattered amongst them were clubs, axes, obsidian spears and blowguns.
"What is all this?" Maria said.
Ixa looked around. "It must be where those who fought here last buried their dead." Her hand went to the journal tucked in the pack slung over her shoulder.
Manolo held up the flashlight and ventured deeper into the room, stepping around the bones. "Something's back there."
"Can you see what it is?" Maria asked.
"I think it's a sword?"
"Leave it, then!"
He shook his head. "This one doesn't look like the others."
It did on the surface, perhaps. An ancient rapier lying in the grasp of a long-dead conquistador, its blade covered in dried blood and rust. Yet the surface had not quite gone dull; a faint golden light seemed to be emanating from the metal. A rosary hung from the other end, carefully tied around the sword's handle; it held fast when he pulled the weapon out from between the dead man's fingers.
The others gave him strange looks when he emerged from the cavern carrying the sword. He shrugged, as though anticipating their question. "Maybe we'll have a reason to use it."
Joaquin touched the rosary. "What'd they do that to it for?"
"They might have known something we don't about those things."
Maria looked at the sword, and then up at the sky. The moon had begun to rise, casting its deep red light across the jungle. "Then if we're going to use it, we need to hurry."