The Adventurers

Chapter 18

Chessery sat with her arms folded over her knees and her head on top. The ordeal in the arena inside the temple had shaken her to the core. Krena and Luna were huddled off to one side, the young girl shaking with fear and sobbing. Jed tried to comfort them but it was futile.

Sax sat with the two natives and tried to calm their fears, explaining that their captors were just people, nothing more. No matter what they practiced, they were just people subject to the same fears they were eager to spread.

"Will they be all right?" Chessery asked when he came to sit beside her.

"Will you?"

"That was ghastly. How could anyone—particularly a white man—condone something like that?"

"Does the holocaust ring a bell?" He answered, annoyed at the naiveté.

"That was cheap."

"Well don't pigeonhole types or races, we're all capable of travesties."

She looked at his grim jaw and sighed. "A truce? I'm just upset."

"We all are. The thing is what are we going to do about this mess ?"

"Can't we talk to that guy somehow? Explain that we just followed a damn map; we had no idea that we'd be trespassing on their domain?"

"The fact that we didn't get to take part in there might bode well, we'll just have to see."

They stopped talking as one of the warrior types that first captured them came and stood over Chessery.

"Woman come."

"Where are you taking her?" Sax started to rise but was clubbed back to the ground by the man's shield.

"Don't!" Chessery quickly stood and motioned the man back as she nodded her agreement. Looking back at Sax, she saw he was all right but very angry and she gave him a tiny wave.

"What's going on ?" Jed crawled alongside, watching them walk away.

"I don't know, and apparently I wasn't supposed to." He rubbed the side of his head with his knuckles.

Chessery walked unsteadily in front of the native, his spear shaft nudging her in the correct direction when she faltered. They turned around the corner of the huge jaguar statue and up a set of steps hewn out of the rock to a small platform where the white leader sat comfortably beneath a large, red silk tent canopy.

Looking closely, Chessery saw that it was made from a parachute and she began ticking off ways it might have come to be in this remote part of the jungle.

"Come and sit." He commanded from his place in the shade.

"Please, have something to eat and drink," he offered when she settled on the seat near him.

"What about my friends?"

"What about them? I have invited you here to sit with me." His voice took on an edge and she bit back her temper, nodded and accepted the offer.

The liquid was warm and slightly sweet but it didn't make her thirsty and the strange chunk of what resembled bread was nicely textured and tasty. Unable to resist she gobbled the first piece down and took a second.

"Nice, isn't it? The women here have a real knack with making flour from stuff out the jungle. Don't ask me what, I haven't a clue. I just eat it and thank my lucky stars I haven't starved."

She stared at the man wearing the silly headdress and took in the lightly tanned skin, the bright blue eyes and the sudden lapse into regular English instead of the halting style used in so many movies.

"Who are you? How did you get here?"

"I am, Xtopalitum, or Sky God, according to my best translation, Ruler of this tribe."

Chessery set her cup down. "You're a pilot."

He gave her a surprised look and then leaned closer. "Where did that come from, do you speak this language?"

She pointed to the tent. "That was a parachute. You dropped in here by accident. What happened, your plane crash?"

He sat back again, a look of doubt crossing his face. "Who are you, how do you know about my plane?"

Chessery laughed and relaxed. "I don't but it's not a stretch to figure it out. How long have you been," she made air quotes with her fingers, "The Sky God? Where's the wreck?"

"I asked you who you were." His voice had definitely hardened.

"I told when you captured us, and I told you why we were here. We did not know this place was actually occupied."

"What's this about a treasure?"

She took another piece of the bread like substance and chewed thoughtfully, watching how her behaviour affected him. He shifted on his chair and licked his lips.

"I asked you—"

"There is supposed to be some kind of treasure hidden in this place." She dusted crumbs from her hand and waved it around the area.

"You don't know what or where?"

"Nope."

"Then I guess we're done." He lifted a hand and the native who brought her grabbed her by the arm and started pulling her away.

"Hey! Wait a minute. What's going to happen to us?"

"This is the month of sacrifice, figure it out for yourself."

"You creep! You bail out of a plane and land here and become big mucky muck and think you can treat people like this!" She struggled in the native's grip and her shrill accusation brought several others into the shade of the tent.

He laughed and waved the group back, then said something to the native and Chessery was dragged away but not back to the others, instead it was inside a doorway chopped out of the rock wall behind the tent.

* * *

Le Clerque drifted across the top of the small rise in a crouching lope, his eyes on the small party huddled at the edge of the river below. He found a handy spot to watch from and stripped off his pack and hat, flopping down behind a cluster of bushes and rocks.

The men below seemed to be studying the ground and pointing across the river and he knew they were debating what happened to the woman's party It brought a chuckle to his lips when he considered his deal with the Father for sixteen opponents now that he was down to a total of twelve with only two accountable to him.

He also found it interesting that the natives that took the woman's party hadn't made an appearance for Pazzo's little group. The sun was sinking lower and while he still felt the heat the temperature had dropped slightly and a light breeze now hurried across the plane.

He pondered whether or not to eliminate Pazzo and his men or to see if they could create a better situation for him to find the mysterious treasure. The latter appealed more and he shifted over on to his back, picked up his hat and placed it over his face, closing his eyes and with a brief prayer, slept.