Cowboys & Dragons

Part 5

After the dark corridor and a secret door that opened on silent hinges, the group found themselves in a world that was the stark opposite of the stinking sewers they had just climbed up from.

They found themselves in the beating heart of El Dorado.

Strange sounds and smells greeted them. The air was hot and dry and smelled faintly of rotten eggs, and they could hear chanting echoing down the corridor. There was a torch every ten feet down the wall, and together they illuminated more riches than Eddy had ever seen in his life. Gold and precious stones had been worked into the floor, walls, and even the ceiling to create intricate geometrical patterns of marvelous craftsmanship. There were also stone reliefs with gold highlighting scenes of Incan history, and others depicting their pantheon of gods, scenes of war, and what seemed to be human sacrifices.

They told a story that was as old as it was cruel, yet Eddy had little interest in their intellectual worth. He was more interested in the practical value. He had labored in gold mines, so he had seen his fair share of gold veins; none of them came even close to the amount of wealth that shone all around him.

Confronted with the riches and nobody in sight to stop them, the soldiers tried to pry off some gems and gold inlays from the walls, yet a hiss from their master jerked them back like dogs on a leash. There would be time enough to loot once he had what they came for, he promised. Like good dogs, the soldiers obeyed. Eddy was about to object, yet a slight shake of Azrael's head convinced him otherwise. He sullenly did as he was told.

Following Isabella's lead as she nimbly and silently moved from shadow to shadow, they soon found the Corridor of Golden Corpses, a broad passageway with gold statues that lined both sides of the wide corridor like silent guards.

The detail that went into the statues was astonishing; they looked so alive that Eddy had to touch one to be sure it was not. They all depicted humans, apparently Incas of importance: warriors with swords and spears in their hands, priests with golden tablets, even kings. Almost all of them were unified by one thing, however. Agony was etched into their faces, mostly suppressed, sometimes openly visible.

All gave Eddy the shudders.

"This is it," murmured the Marquis as he saw the statues, his eyes bright with a hungry gleam. "The Alley of Tormented Souls, the Corridor of Corpses my ancestor rambled about. It will lead us to a gallery right above the temple. There we will find the Black Diamond."

Eddy found the fervor in his voice a bit unnerving, even by his standards. He was about to comment on it to Azrael as they suddenly found themselves confronted with an Inca that came round a corridor in front of them. He seemed positively shocked to see their little raiding party and froze in his tracks. He was young, not older than twenty, and wore little more than a loincloth and two necklaces around his throat.

His eyes went wide in surprise, his mouth following quickly after to give voice to it, but no sound ever left his lips. A stiletto suddenly appeared in his throat. Isabella's stiletto. It had been hurled so quickly that, to Eddy's eyes, it appeared as if it had materialized from thin air. The Inca gurgled, blood gushing from the wound in his neck and from his mouth, and then he went down on his knees, dropping a small sack he had been carrying.

Azrael surged forward, getting beyond the collapsing Inca and covering the corridor from which he had appeared.

The outburst of violence passed as quickly as it came and left Eddy with a bad taste in his mouth.

"A messenger, maybe," said the Marquis, giving the heel of the Inca a small kick. "Hide him in the shadows. We had best not be here when somebody starts missing him."