As he fell forward into the water, he sucked in a desperate breath. The air, full of smoke and dust, burned in his lungs. He knew it would be his last breath for a while… maybe the last breath he would ever take. The water however was an instant relief, cool and embracing, quenching the heat and soothing his burned skin.
The fires above lit up the depths like daylight, revealing the underwater cave at the bottom of the pool, almost directly under the crashing waterfall. Maddock dove deeper, pulling himself toward it. Then the current caught him and he was sucked into the cave, swallowed by the darkness.
He could feel the sides of the submerged passage rushing past, scraping against him, and knew the most immediate danger was of being knocked senseless by a rocky protrusion, so he curled into a fetal ball, letting the river take him wherever it chose.
Time lost all meaning. Under normal circumstances and with adequate preparation, he could hold his breath for well over two minutes without discomfort, but the miasma he had breathed last in Xibalba was an unknown quantity. He could feel the acid burn of too much carbon dioxide in his bloodstream, and the spasms of his body demanding he exhale and replace it with fresh, oxygen-rich air. He fought the urge as long as he could, tried every trick he knew to fool himself into believing that he could hold out a little longer, and then, when he could fight no longer, he opened his mouth and blew out the foul breath in a final silent shout of defiance.
“Maddock!”
The shout brought him most of the way out of the dark void of unconsciousness. The slap did the rest.
He opened his eyes and found Bones staring back at him, so close their noses were almost touching. Drops of water were falling from Bones’ hair like raindrops, landing on Maddock’s cheeks and running into his eyes.
“If you were your sister,” Maddock mumbled, “I’d kiss you.”
Bones grinned. “Angel. He’s asking for you.”
Maddock blinked the water away and sat up… tried to sit up. A spasm of pain gripped him like a giant’s fist.
“Easy, partner,” Bones said. “You’ve probably got some bruised ribs. I know I do. That was some ride, huh?”
Maddock took a couple breaths and then tried to sit up again. He could see rough stone overhead, the ceiling of a cave, but the air was too fresh to be the trapped atmosphere of a closed environment, and the light was too bright to be from any artificial source. When he finally managed to bring himself to an upright position, he saw that the reality was something in between. They were in a cave of sorts, an open-air grotto where the subterranean river that had carried them out of Xibalba broke from the earth and spilled out into the Guatemalan rain forest.
He found Angel, sitting with Kasey and Miranda nearby. All three were shivering, probably coming down from their adrenaline high. For a long time, no one moved or spoke.
Bones finally broke the silence. “I’m afraid we ducked out before the credits rolled. What the hell happened?”
“I’m not really sure. There was an explosion. I don’t know what caused it.” He glanced over at Kasey.
Kasey shook her head. “Wasn’t me. I never got the chance. It must have been Isabella. I wonder why she changed her mind.”
“Maybe she realized what was at stake,” Maddock said. “I guess you can report back to Tam, mission accomplished. Any idea where we are?”
Bones shook his head, but the question prompted him to stand. “Wherever it is, we’re gonna have to walk out of here. It’s going to be dark soon, so we should get moving.”
Maddock stood as well, ignoring the groans of protest from his battered body. He reached out a hand to Angel, helping her up first, then turned to Miranda.
Her blond locks were plastered to her face, giving her a haunted, desolate look, like a war refugee, but when she gazed up at him, he saw no trace of anger in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said, offering his hand.
“I know.” She took the hand, letting him draw her up. “I heard what you said to Scano. I think my father figured it out, too. He knew he was sick and that there wasn’t a cure. He was telling us to leave him.” She took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh.
“He was right about everything,” Maddock said, hoping she would find some comfort in that. “The City of Shadow. Xibalba. At least he got to see it before… ”
She nodded and managed a wan smile. Then, she turned to Bones and with no warning whatsoever, threw her arms around him, pressing her cheek against his chest.
“Whoa!” Bones’ look of surprise quickly became a grin of mischief. “Hey, I didn’t think you liked me that way.”
“Bones!” Angel hissed in a stage whisper. “For once in your life, shut up.”
“Thank you,” Miranda murmured, still holding him. “For trying to save my father. After everything. I can’t excuse what he did, but I’m glad he got to see Xibalba before it was over.”
Bones’ grin softened. Maddock thought he actually looked a little embarrassed. “Oh, sure. I mean, he didn’t really… ”
“Shh,” Miranda whispered. “Listen to your sister. She’s a smart girl.”
EPILOGUE
The rural folk lived simply, as they had for countless generations, ever since the Shadow scourge brought the great empire of their ancestors to its knees. The Spaniards had come with their steel and their new God, but the people never forgot the old ways. From time to time, they would gather in the shadow of the ancient cave, the doorway to the Underworld, and remember anew. Over the centuries, the story had grown and changed with each telling, but none doubted that something both terrible and wonderful slumbered in the depths of the earth beneath them.
So, when the ground shook and a cloud of bats rose from the smoking jungle, the people of the land knew the ancient beast was stirring.
They had all had heard the noise of the great helicopter arriving earlier, and the sound of battle, and knew that the outsiders had done something to anger the spirits of the Underworld. They quickly gathered offerings of food and trinkets, and hurried up the road to assemble in the shadow of the living cave where they lit fires and danced around them, chanting prayers to the old gods and playing flutes to lull the ancient beast back to sleep.
And then, at almost exactly the same moment that the sun descended into the Underworld, their prayers were answered.
A low murmur rose across the cavern as the word spread, and all eyes turned to the forbidden balcony at the rear of the cave — the threshold of the passage into the depths.
A figure stood there, a woman so streaked with mud that she resembled one of the gods’ failed experiments from the dawn of creation.
The murmur became a jumbled cacophony of awe and confusion. Was this one of the outsiders who had blasphemed the sacred paths into the Underworld? Or was it perhaps one of the Lords of Death, come to unleash the ancient Shadow scourge, the promised cleansing at the end of days?
One old man dared to approach, bowing his head reverently, just in case the latter proved to be true.
“Have you come from the Underworld?” He spoke in the old tongue, testing her.
She stared back at him for a moment, her dark eyes full of pain and confusion, then spoke a single word. “Yes.”
The old man let out a wail of dismay and dropped to his knees, terrified. The woman was no outsider. She had understood him. She knew their language.
A hush fell over the crowd.
The woman gazed out at them for a moment, then took a deep breath and spoke again, louder so that her voice filled the cavern. Her speech was different than theirs, but it was similar enough for them to understand her words.