Curse of the Ancients (19 page)

Lightning lit up the massive storm clouds.

Thunder pounded so forcefully it shook the earth under Dak’s feet.

Everywhere he looked Spaniards were shackling Mayas. The fire roared, all of Izamal’s history quickly turning to ash. He spotted the monk still marching the Ring toward the flames.

“Sera!” Dak shouted again.

K’inich stopped leading him and Riq away long enough to bash the gun against the side of Dak’s head. “Quiet!” he shouted. “I don’t know how you got out, but I will now get rid of you once and for all! No one can stop our mission!”

Sera screamed.

Dak looked up, saw that she had leapt onto the back of the SQ monk who had the Infinity Ring. He elbowed her off and kicked her in the gut.

“No!” Dak shouted.

K’inich smashed him in the ear again. Dak shuddered in pain. He opened his eyes in time to see the monk wind up and heave the Ring all the way into the middle of the raging fire.

Bacab threw down his crossbow and sprinted right into the fire to retrieve it. He disappeared for several seconds, then came racing back out, his hair and clothes in flames, and tossed the Ring to safety. He then dove into the mud and rolled around until the flames were extinguished. He hopped back up, badly burned, and picked up the Ring.

“Watch out!” Sera screamed from the ground.

A Spaniard had stepped out from behind a large boulder, aiming a crossbow right at Bacab. He fired, the arrow burrowing into Bacab’s back.

Bacab dropped to his knees, arching his back and reaching a hand behind himself, trying to touch the arrow.

“Bacab!” Sera shouted, struggling to her feet.

The monk reloaded and fired a second arrow, this one sinking into Bacab’s right thigh.

Dak watched another Mayan man finally pounce on the monk, ripping the crossbow out of his hands. And he watched Sera sprint to Bacab, helping him to his feet, throwing his arm around her shoulder. She started half-carrying him out of the chaotic scene.

More lightning flashed.

Dak was entirely helpless.

K’inich pulled him and Riq behind a hut, and threw them on the ground. He raised the gun at them, shouting, “Now you will die!”

Dak squeezed closed his eyes and waited for the sound of the shot that would end his life.

He heard a crashing sound instead, and when he looked up, he saw María standing over K’inich’s motionless body, holding a large, jagged rock in her hands. Her eyes were full of tears as she looked at Dak and Riq and said, “I will never let Akna’s work be in vain.”

Dak glanced at Riq, then watched María take the gun and keys off K’inich and hurry over to unlock the shackles. She tried several keys before finally inserting the right one and freeing them. Dak flexed his hands for a few seconds, then ripped the SQ codex out of K’inich’s limp hands and raced out from behind the hut, toward the fire.

It was smaller now because the rain was stronger, but Dak knew it would burn the SQ’s lies just the same. As he flung the thing deep into the flames, he slipped in the wet mud. He watched from his knees as the fake codex caught fire. Some of the pages twisted under the intense heat, then shriveled up into brittle red and black sheets, the embers eventually breaking off and lifting up into the stormy sky.

Now the world would never know the lies and propaganda of the SQ’s codex. They’d learn the truth about the Maya instead. Some of it.

Dak breathed heavily as he continued watching the fire.

More thunder pounded overhead and the skies opened up.

Rain poured down on Dak’s head, flooding the ground around him, forcing the few remaining monks to cower and run for shelter. But Dak couldn’t take his eyes off the fire. Yes, they’d fixed the Break, but they’d failed to stop de Landa’s
auto-de-fe
. And Dak was overwhelmed by how much had been lost today. He realized what a vile and violent act it was to destroy a culture’s history. It was almost like murder.

Lightning lit up the dark storm clouds again.

Thunder roared.

Dak sensed someone hovering over him, and when he looked up, he found a drenched Riq standing there, holding out his hand to Dak.

“P
LEASE, JUST
talk to me,” Bacab said to Sera.

Tears were falling down her cheeks, but she didn’t care. Bacab was badly hurt. He said he knew he wouldn’t make it and refused to let her take him to the village medicine man.

“Talk about what?” Sera asked, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“It does not matter, little sister. Tell me about your life. Your family.”

Sera watched the way his entire body shivered in the warm, humid air. She looked out from behind the large ceiba tree they had ducked beneath, trying to figure out what she could tell a dying man. Rain poured down all around them. Large drops sometimes slipped through the thick tree leaves and landed on their heads. She had tried the door to the hut in front of them, but it was locked. And nobody had answered when she knocked, even though she was sure there were people inside.

“Please,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning his head against the trunk of the tree. “Anything.”

Sera squeezed Bacab’s cold hand until he opened his eyes again. “It’s only me and my uncle Diego,” she said.

“No parents?” Bacab asked in a strained voice.

Sera shook her head. “I never knew them.”

The wind picked up, swirling around Sera and Bacab and their tree. The leaves rustled wildly. Sera heard a thick branch snap, but when she looked up she didn’t see anything.

“Tell me more,” Bacab said.

“I had a dream about them,” she said, wiping mud from Bacab’s brow. “My parents. I was in the future. Thousands of years from now, when the world was ending. I went to my uncle’s barn and opened the door. And there they were, sitting in chairs, waiting for me.”

“That’s right,” Bacab said.

Sera wiped the tears from her face again and said, “They came back because they cared about me.”

“Of course they did.” Bacab coughed and reached down to touch the arrow in his thigh. “You will see them again.”

Sera let out a sob and then quickly stopped herself. “I’m sorry, Bacab. This was all my fault. You were trying to help me.”

“Since I was a little boy,” he said in almost a whisper, “I wanted to be a leader of people.
My
people.” He coughed and wiped his mouth. “My father always warned me, though. He said, ‘Bacab, if you want to be someone special you must have strong shoulders.’ I didn’t understand until now.”

Sera’s heart was pounding in her chest. It was exactly what her grandfather had said to her. The one time they’d met. She stared at Bacab, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.

The sky lit up in a massive flash of lightning.

Thunder rumbled directly overhead.

“What about you, little sister?” Bacab asked. “Do you have strong shoulders?”

Sera sobbed again, and this time when she tried to catch herself, she wasn’t able to. She just kept on crying.

“I think you do,” he said, grinning a little. “And I sense things.” He coughed hard and then pulled in a deep breath. “About people.”

Tears streamed down Sera’s face, and she tried for a deep breath, too. But she couldn’t get one. She was too upset. “Bacab,” she said. She wanted to say something important, something meaningful and comforting. But the words weren’t coming into her head and all she could think to do was say his name again. “Bacab.”

When he didn’t answer, she let herself sob into her own hands.

Because she knew.

He was gone.

After several seconds she leaned his head back against the trunk of the ceiba tree and pushed closed his eyelids. “I’m proud to come from you,” she whispered.

Then she leaned her head against the tree, too, and watched the growing storm.

A few minutes later, Dak and Riq were there. Dak gripped the Infinity Ring in his hands. Riq was fiddling with his bracelet.

Sera looked up at them, both soaking wet. She wiped her face and climbed to her feet.

“Sera,” Dak started. But then he noticed Bacab and said, “Oh.”

Riq gently patted her on the shoulder. “Some of the villagers have warned us that the storm will be getting much worse,” he said. “But we can stay here a little longer if you want.”

“It’s a storm,” Dak said. “But I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as they were saying.”

Sera took the Infinity Ring from Dak and programmed in the new coordinates Riq showed her on the SQuare. She looked up at Dak and Riq and said, “If the Maya say a great storm is coming, then a great storm is coming.”

They nodded.

“Better hold on if you’re coming with me,” she said.

Dak and Riq both put their hands on the Ring next to hers, and she pushed the button that would send them warping through time yet again. The Ring began to vibrate, and the liquid inside lit up and swirled. Sera looked out at the blurring Mayan landscape, feeling sad but also incredibly full. She turned to look at Bacab, thinking how the next time someone in school drew her great-great-great-grandmother sitting on a Mayan temple, she would not feel embarrassed. She would feel proud.

Everything around them began to blur. Dak said to Riq, “Show her.”

Riq held up an open locket. Sera expected to see a Mayan glyph in the last second before they warped away. But it was something else altogether.

“Is that . . . Chinese?” she asked.

Just as Dak opened his mouth to answer, they were whisked away into blackness.

Turn the page for your Hystorian’s Guide to the Great Wall of China.

An SQ army is about to attack a deserted section of the Great Wall of China. You need to alert the Chinese army and prevent the invaders from breaking through! This is your strategy guide for staying alive.

Unlock the full game at:

infinityring.com