“The Maya civilization existed, in one form or another, for three and a half millennia, so as you can imagine, their society underwent some dramatic evolution, and unfortunately, our knowledge is woefully incomplete. We know that the civilization reached its peak during the Classical period, from 250 BCE to 900 CE, but then abruptly collapsed, particularly in the south where entire cities were abandoned.
“You’ve probably heard people say that the Maya civilization vanished without a trace, or something to that effect. That’s an exaggeration of course, but something unusual happened in the tenth century that undid a thousand years of progress. The Maya certainly didn’t disappear though. Over the next five hundred years or so, they regrouped, particularly here in the Yucatan, and while they never regained the full glory of the classical days, they were doing quite well right up until the Spaniards came knocking.
“The Popol Vuh is generally thought to be a symbolic account of how one of those Post-Classical Maya cultures — the Kiche Maya — defeated rival societies, whom they subsequently vilified as demons. If that’s true, the so-called Lords of Xibalba may have been the all-too-human rulers and priests of a rival society.”
“But you think there’s more to it than that,” Maddock finished.
“I do. And this… ” He patted the disk. “This is going to help me prove it.”
“How?”
“This artifact is from the Classic Maya period. The Maya people comprised many different language groups. The dominant language was a form of Ch’olti — we call it Classic Maya. It was probably used throughout the Maya territory as a lingua franca, or possibly just by the educated class. We know a great deal about spoken Maya languages because of the work of Spanish scholars who recorded a phonetic alphabet, and because many of those languages are still spoken today, but the study of Maya written language is more problematic because there are only a few surviving examples, and not all of them are in the same language.”
“Sort of like how English and Spanish use the same alphabet?” Maddock said.
“Exactly. But thanks to some recent discoveries, we’re making progress. And because this disk uses a Classic Maya form of written language, we know that it predates the rise of the Kiche Maya possibly by hundreds of years. It confirms that some aspects of the Hero Twins myth were known before the collapse.”
Bell tapped the figure in the center of the artifact. “This is a representation of the Maya Lightning-Dog. We don’t know the names of deities from the Classic period, but the iconography is ubiquitous across Mesoamerica. The Aztecs called him Xlotl. He was the god of lightning and storms, but is also associated with the cardinal directions. A guiding deity, and the escort for the souls of the dead, showing them the way to Mictlan, the Place of Shadows. In the Popol Vuh, the twins sacrifice a dog belonging to the Lords of Xibalba—”
“They killed a dog?” Bones interjected. “Not cool. You never kill the dog.”
“Didn’t the Cherokee eat dogs?” Maddock said, grinning.
Bones glared at him.
Bell smiled. “They brought it back to life to show their power over death itself, an action that ultimately enabled them to defeat the Lords of Xibalba. But I believe that myth, like all the others, is a symbolic description of real events. A real journey to Xibalba.
“The prominence of the dog icon tells me this disk is a map. A guidestone, pointing the way to what I call the City of Shadow.”
“If it’s not meant to be the literal afterlife,” Maddock pressed, “then what is it?”
“Perhaps it refers to a rival civilization, unknown to history, which caused the collapse. We’ll know for certain when we find it.” Bell shrugged. “I can only translate part of it here; the rest is fairly complex. But I’m certain that we’re on the right track.”
“It still seems like a bit of a leap,” Maddock said.
“I say we go for it,” Bones said. “We've followed fainter trails than this.”
“True enough.” Maddock said. “I can see why treasure hunters and tomb raiders might want to find this place, but why is Tam Broderick interested?”
Bell spread his hands in a gesture of ignorance. “You would have to ask her. I can only surmise that she is privy to some piece of vital classified information.”
Maddock knew from experience that Tam would play her cards close to the vest, revealing only enough to get them started. She probably had what she thought were good reasons for secrecy, but it was aggravating nonetheless.
He nodded. “I guess we’ll have to figure it out once we find the City of Shadow.”
“Yes,” Bell agreed. “Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to finish deciphering the guidestone without some help.”
“We need to go somewhere civilized,” Miranda said. “Somewhere with cell reception and Internet.”
Bell shook his head. “The kind of help we need isn’t available online. There's only one person who can help us. Tony Griego at the National Institute of Anthropology and History. He’s the definitive authority on translating Mayan glyphs and the site administrator at Chichén Itzá. It’s just a couple hour’s drive from here.”
“Tomorrow,” Maddock said. “Right now, we could all use some rest.”
Bell conceded with a shrug and resumed inspecting the artifact, but Maddock suspected the older man was grateful for the respite.
He turned to Bones. “Flip you for first watch.”
Bones dug out a peso coin and balanced it on his thumb. “Call it.”
Angel cleared her throat. “Unless that’s a three-sided coin, you’re going to need to come up with a better system.”
“Four-sided,” Miranda added, stepping forward.
Maddock grimaced but tried to play it off. He turned to Angel. “Well, I was hoping you’d keep me company for my watch.”
Bones grinned at Miranda. “Tag team it? You know… wrestling?”
“You can keep dreaming,” she replied, caustically. “And you,” she pointed at Maddock, “should know better. Angel and I don’t need supervision.”
Maddock threw up his hands. “My bad. Everybody gets a shift. Do you want to make the schedule, or will you at least trust me to do that?”
Miranda shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”
Bones chuckled, then threw himself down on one of the beds. “Just wake me up when it’s my turn.” He laced his hands behind his head and immediately began snoring.
Maddock nodded to Miranda. “You want first watch? Your dad might appreciate the help translating that disk.”
Miranda nodded. “Sure. But I won’t be much use to him. He’s the expert. I just do the heavy lifting.”
The admission caught Maddock by surprise. “I thought you were… ”
“An archaeologist?” She shook her head. “Not me.”
“It’s not too late,” Bell called out. He laughed, but broke off in a fit of wheezing.
Miranda gave a tight sad smile. “He should be home,” she said in a low voice. “Teaching classes. Not out here in the middle of nowhere looking for lost cities. But try telling him that.”
“Why isn’t he?” asked Angel.
“Remember a couple years back how the world was supposed to end?”
“2012. The Maya apocalypse.”
“Yeah. Didn’t happen, right? Well, a couple years before that, Dad co-wrote a book with this New Age guru all about how the end of the Maya calendar wasn’t going to be the literal end of the world, but the beginning of… well, a new age. The other guy made all the wacky claims. Dad was just supplying the scholarly stuff. The book deal was supposed to pay for his retirement. It sold pretty well for a couple months, right up until January 2013, then… pffft.”