“No, I’m just wondering about his source.”
“When I asked where he heard it, he said, ‘In the wind,’ and walked away.”
“Nice and cryptic. I’d expect nothing less of our favorite shaman.”
She turned back to the platform structure. “Mom believed that anecdotes like these were merely tall tales meant to scare away looters. To keep others from looking for this place, since there would undoubtedly be some top-level jade sculptures if it were a religious sanctuary. Maybe even some of that elusive Maya gold the Conquistadors were determined to find no matter how much death followed in their wake.”
Quint shook his head. “Those greedy, no-good, small-pox spreading sons-a-bitches.”
“Now that’s my kind of sonnet. Sing me more, minstrel.”
He looked down at her with one raised eyebrow. “What do you believe, boss lady?”
“I honestly don’t know, but my mother’s curiosity about this place is contagious.” Enough so that Angélica had been willing to forgo a romantic vacation with Quint and risk derailing their developing relationship.
He blew out a breath, fanning his shirt. “Dig deeper,” he said under his breath.
“What?”
“That was something Dr. Hughes used to say when I was working with him decades ago at the other site.”
Dr. Hughes had been a mentor of sorts to Quint. “Dig deeper?”
“Yep. Whenever he didn’t have the answer to these sorts of ancient Maya mysteries, he’d tell me we’d just have to dig deeper.”
“Literally or figuratively?”
“Both.” He pulled his machete from the sheath on his belt. “Shall I get back to whacking a path for you around the temple, my queen?”
She started to nod, but a movement off to her left caught her attention.
Over where thesacbecontinued into the overgrown mess of thorn scrub and vines and fronds stood KuTu, frowning at them—or rather at Quint in particular. In his armygreen camouflage uniform, the jungle specialist almost blended into the forest. Where was the orange vest he’d been wearing when he left them to go scout ahead?
“Did you find anything?” Angélica asked the guard.
KuTu dragged his gaze away from Quint, frowning up at the sky for several silent seconds before locking onto her. Was he weighing his answer or debating on telling her the truth?
Or maybe, since Quint was standing beside her, KuTu was struggling to come up with the words in English, which she’d found out last night was his third language after Maya and Spanish. She’d told KuTu he could use either of the other languages with her, but like her father, he’d dug in his heels and kept bungling his way through short English sentences.
Rather than answer, Kutu held out his hand toward her, palm up but fist closed.
Crud. She’d meant for him to look for structures, not trinkets. Small items needed to be left in place so she could note their exact location at the site and the surrounding context before collecting them to be taken back to INAH’s headquarters for further analysis.
She stepped closer to him. “What is it?”
KuTu opened his fingers.
“What the hell?” Quint joined them. “Is that a tooth?”
Chapter Four
Note to self—Angélica suggested that I look up if there were ancient Maya dentists and what tools were used in teeth decorating. Research curative efforts relating to cavities and infections.
Quint gaped at the tooth KuTu had dropped into Angélica’s open palm. A small green bead filled a hole bored in the center of what looked like a front upper incisor.
He’d heard about the ancient Maya and their eccentric fashions, from attempting to shape a baby’s head into a cone in reverence of the maize god to dangling an object in front of the kid in hopes of crossed eyes—a sign of beauty and intelligence. But this was the first time he’d actually seen a tooth with a gemstone still intact outside of a museum.
Angélica pointed at the bead. “That’s jade. The owner of this tooth liked to be chic.”
