Why a stairway into the ground? Where could this lead?
Pulling off one of her gloves, she lightly ran her hand over one of the blocks in the wall. It was scratchy with lichens, too bumpy to feel any signs of possible carvings. She shined her light across the block at an angle, using the shadows to help look for a change in relief on the surface, for any sign of a glyph or some other sort of carving.
Further back, on the next block down, there was an area less coated and crusty. She took another step and pushed aside more vines, grazing the surface again with her flashlight beam.
There!
Her heart picked up speed.
She could see a faint relief of something carved into the stone.
She ran her fingertips over the area, closing her eyes as she felt the stone underneath. KuTu’s words about the outer stone wall not “singing” replayed in her head. Was there energy in these stones? Were they singing? It was hard to tell. She spread her palm out on the rock, listening with her touch as well as her ears. Silence. Under her hand, the block of limestone held steady, no vibrations that she could feel, although the surface was surprisingly cool for so hot a day.
Her fingers grazed a small change in the relief. She followed the indented line in an arc that led to another arc going in a different direction. That was definitely not Mother Nature’s handiwork. Someone had carved something into the stone.
She opened her eyes, shining the light on the rest of the block. Unfortunately, with all of the lichen covering the remaining surface, it was going to take some time to see if there were glyphs waiting underneath or simply a carving depicting a scene that might further define where the stairs led. Better yet, an explanation of what the purpose of the whole site might be. Wouldn’t that be a lucky find?
Maybe she should bring Daisy down here to have a look around.
She shined her light farther along the wall.
What about the next block?
Her blood pounded in her ears, the ringing blocking out the sounds of the forest. Her focus locked onto the piece of limestoneabout head-high. In the light, she caught sight of something under the lichen covering. She took another step down, shining the beam on the block from below. There was something carved there, she was certain, but she couldn’t tell what for sure.
The next block farther down was half clear, only seeming to be covered in dirt. From where she stood, she could see there were carvings on it, too. She took a step closer, reaching out to touch it.
Just a little farther …
She started to take another step down, but someone grabbed the back of her shirt, stopping her in her tracks.
“Not so fast, boss lady.” Quint yanked her back into him. He shined his flashlight over her shoulder toward several vines that draped down the wall not three feet in front of her.
As she watched, one of the vines twisted slightly in mid-air before sliding down onto a slight rock ledge. The snake turned toward the light, its forked tongue darting in and out. It opened its mouth slightly, hesitating as it stared their way.
“That’s a pit viper,” he whispered, slowly pulling her backward along with him. “They like to jump, remember?”
“Jesus,” she whispered. “Look at the fangs on that thing.”
As soon as they were safely out of the snake’s range, he let her go. “That was too close, woman. You got my ol’ ticker pounding hard there for a minute.” He wiped his face with his shirt sleeve. “Do you always have to touch everything?”
“I couldn’t help it.”
She pulled her glove back on, her heart pounding hard, too. Had Quint not stopped her, she’d have allowed her curiosity to lead her into trouble. Damn it, she knew better than that.
“Thanks.” She squeezed his arm. “I was so focused on finding out what was carved on the blocks that I didn’t even see the snake.”
“You do tend to have a one-track mind when it comes to Maya glyphs, sweetheart.” His wink took any sting out of his words. “And kings’ tombs and limestone mines and …”
She lightly backhanded him on the shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, Parker. I get obsessed. You’re starting to sound like my father.”
He shined his flashlight down the stairs, angling around the tree in the middle. The snake was either gone or hiding in plain sight. Angélica didn’t want to see if it was the latter.
“You think that leads under the outer wall?” he asked. “We can’t be more than fifteen feet away from it here.”
“Maybe, unless it is just a root cellar sort of room, in which case it might have another cache filled with something interesting.” Something even more exciting than old weapon parts and pieces.
God, she really wanted to see what the story on the stairwell walls told. Those carvings were the first sight of any sort of communication from those who were here at Site 5 long ago.
