Effigy (32 page)

“So this disgusting ritual was meant to pacify the fears of a paranoid mob?” Derek asked.

Dr. Friedman laughed. “No, no. There was an alternative motive for it, though the priests may not have shared it with the common public. The New Fire Ceremony was just a symbolic way of tracking precession and predicting when the Pleiades would cross the zenith at noon, six months later.”

Eva’s face pinched. “My father never said anything about a new fire, let alone sacrificing someone over such nonsense.”

“I doubt that he would. Even if the old tradition was still with him, I highly doubt he’d follow through with the ceremony.”

“But his killer might,” Lori suggested.

“Indeed.”

Dr. Peet leaned forward. “How can we say the Equinox Killer is performing the New Fire Ceremony when his murders were all during March and May,
not
November? And none of his victims nor their hearts were burned over a fire.”

Dr. Friedman conceded with a nod. “True. But who says the killer isn’t taking variations of the ceremony to create his own sacrifices. They haven’t found Mr. Gaspar’s heart yet, so any assessment we make of the killer’s motives must be reduced to mere speculation at this point.”

Lori sat back in her seat. The more she thought about the New Fire Ceremony the more she began to understand the Toltec view of the sky. The sun and the moon—the ruler of the day and the matriarch of the night. At exactly noon above Chichen Itza, night and day were coming together to finalize their cosmic mating, to complete the gestation of the one conceived by the Pleiades and the zenith sun, to give birth to the new world age of Quetzalcoatl.

Lori’s mind was swimming. For the time being nothing was more interesting than the sun-Pleiades conjunction over an ancient Mayan pyramid. Nothing fascinated her more than today’s solar eclipse. The sky was brimming with life she’d never appreciated before and for the first time, she found something that paled her excitement for Anasazi ceramics. She was thinking like an ancient Toltec and it excited her. Perhaps it was the same feeling Dr. Peet talked about when he said that petroglyphs offered him a glimpse into the Anasazi mind.

As she considered her sudden interest in the fresh waters of archaeoastronomy, she realized the two pyramids in the distance had grown larger, now dominating the windshield and challenging the mountains looming in the distance. Her heart pounded in her chest. They were approaching the origins of the New Fire Ceremony. They had come to the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl and the current world age.

They had arrived at
Teotihuacan
.

Teotihuacán

When Eva stepped out of the car she felt an overwhelming rush of deja vu. Two large pyramids reached for the cloudless sky, one directly in front of her and the other towering at the end of a long, loosely groomed avenue beaded by smaller temple ruins.

She’d seen the pyramids before, though she’d never been to
Teotihuacan
. The massive structures didn’t cast a smooth profile like the Egyptian pyramids, but were instead jagged in huge talud-tablero steps ascending toward the peaks. Eva recognized the cobbled adobe construction from her father’s photographs. She spotted faint traces of stucco catching the sun’s rays above the shadows. It was all too familiar and for a brief moment she felt like a little girl in
Disneyland
who’d finally come to see Cinderella’s castle in person.

Derek stepped in beside her, pulling a strap over his head from which his camera dangled at his chest. The sun glinted off the purple lenses of his designer Oakley sunglasses.

“What do you need that for?” Peet asked, tapping the camera disapprovingly as he stepped by.

“A journalist must always be prepared for a big story,” Derek said. “I’ve already got ideas for my next article in the school paper. The title might read something like ‘Road to the Effigy.’”

“Or ‘Road to Prison,’” the professor snarled over his shoulder. “There won’t be no journalism career for you when they find out you stole the effigy.”

“Maybe, but I wasn’t the one who took it out of the museum in the first place,” Derek shot back, chasing after him.

Eva ignored the rest of their banter as they walked away. She was entranced by the panoramic ruins. “I know this place,” she said.

John Friedman cleared his throat. Until then, Eva hadn’t noticed him standing beside her. “
Teotihuacan
is a popular attraction in central
Mexico
,” he said.

“But I didn’t know this was
Teotihuacan
,” Eva said. “My father always referred to this as the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl.”

Something in Eva’s mood shifted. The magic of Cinderella’s castle faded as she reminded herself that she wasn’t there on vacation. She wasn’t even there to fulfill a childhood fantasy. She’d long grown out of the magic of Quetzalcoatl’s birthplace, despite the mysterious pull it had on her father.

In fact, it was only because of his unwavering fascination that she was standing in
Teotihuacan
now. This was her father’s holy ground—his
Jerusalem
, and even standing there seeing it for herself, she still didn’t understand it.

Were it not for
Teotihuacan
, Eva might have grown up listening to stories of unicorns and dragons. Her childhood fantasies may have been about princesses and castles, not the pyramids of lost civilizations. When she looked at the night sky she may have only found shooting stars upon which to cast her wishes, not mythological monsters and flying snakes. Were it not for
Teotihuacan
, Eva’s father might have been a respected Yaqui leader and she wouldn’t have had to hide in shame from those who scoffed at his outlandish Toltec ideas. As a mother she wouldn’t have felt compelled to protect her own son from the suspicious cult that had grown around them.

And in the end, her father might still be alive.

A hand gently touched her arm, pulling Eva out of her thoughts. “Are you okay?” Lori asked.

Eva smiled. She liked Lori. There was something about the girl she found appealing. She was refreshingly practical, down to earth, and persistently observant. And although she doubted Lori would ever admit it, Eva saw a nurturing side to her that she appreciated. The more she came to know Lori, the more it surprised her that the girl wanted nothing more than to be an archaeologist, to grovel in the wasteland that was human history. Eva couldn’t help but wonder how much better served the world would be if Lori left the past where it belonged and devoted her talents to the present toils of humanity.

Lori was still watching her with that concern churning in her sea-green eyes. Eva forced a smile. “I’m fine.”

It wasn’t until then that she realized the men had moved on toward the Pyramid of the Sun. Peet led the way like a man on a mission. Derek stuck to John’s side, his camera at the ready. Only Lori had stayed behind.

“You seem to be in another world,” Lori pressed.

Eva sighed as she scanned the twin pyramids. Like the imposing volcanic mountains behind them, they rose above the Avenue of the Dead as it cut its arrow-straight path through the valley, a valley patched with desert and crop land and bound together by seams of concrete, food vending stalls and hotels.

I am in another world
, Eva thought.

“I guess I was just thinking about a fairy tale my father told me when I was little.”

She started for the towering Pyramid of the Sun. Lori matched her stride for stride.

“You want to talk about it?”

Eva shrugged. “I’m not even sure I remember all the details,” she said. “It was about this boy—a Toltec boy, of course. Anyway, his father was murdered and the boy was forced to flee the city. He ventured far into the wilderness until he came upon a vast city far greater than anything he had ever seen. A city only the gods could build.”

“
Teotihuacan
?”

“I believe so. When he entered the city it was long abandoned. Starving, and with no food to be found, the boy lay down in front of a temple and resigned to die there. What he didn’t realize was that he was being watched by the gods of the temple. One of them, Quetzalcoatl, saw that the boy’s heart was good and took pity on him.”

They were nearing the open plaza where a loose crowd of tourists were gawking and snapping photographs of the pyramid. Derek and Peet had paused to take in its incredible height. John was already searching along its base.

“What did Quetzalcoatl do?” Lori asked.

Eva smiled. She could still hear her father’s voice telling the tale. “Quetzalcoatl materialized his power through a fire of butterflies and restored the boy’s strength. He then entrusted that power to the boy. Quetzalcoatl even lent him his name and proclaimed him as the keeper of his powers. In return the boy was commanded to build a
new city
, one where he could promote knowledge and peace.”

“That’s quite a story,” Lori said.

“Maybe. I’m beginning to think Father had that story in mind when he brought your artifact here.”

“I suppose that might explain why he didn’t take it to
Chichen Itza
instead.”

Lori shed her white, long-sleeved shirt and tied it about her waist, leaving her spring-kissed shoulders exposed to the hot Mexican sun. A silver Kokopelli pendant hung from a sterling silver chain, dancing to her pulse about the neckline of her sleeveless blouse. She squinted against the sun glaring off the Pyramid of the Sun as she tied a motley bandana around her head, allowing the length of her long blonde hair to spill out the back. With those brief alterations, Lori had transformed from a studious co-ed to a seasoned archaeologist. Eva admired the ease of such a transition.

“Derek thought that Shaman Gaspar brought the effigy down here to be blessed for the New Age of Quetzalcoatl,” Lori said, glancing over the stone-cobbled face of the pyramid. “I guess the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl is as good a place as any.”

Eva shook her head. “Father performed countless blessings over artifacts and junk trinkets. He’d bless a child’s drawing if it looked like Quetzalcoatl. But as far as I know he never brought any of those things to
Mexico
.”

“Why else would he bring the effigy all this way?”

“I think Father believed he’d found the power of Quetzalcoatl.”

Lori tugged at the shirt sleeves knotted around her waist. “Wait a minute. You mean the effigy I found in
Utah
is supposed to be
the
power of Quetzalcoatl?” she asked incredulously. “The power entrusted to the Toltec boy?”

Eva nodded. “Perhaps Father was offering his final gift to the New Age. He was returning Quetzalcoatl’s power to its birthplace.”

Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl

Lori searched the gravel at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun, though she didn’t have a clue what she was looking for. The ground looked undisturbed if she dismissed the hundreds of shoe prints left by earlier tourists and passers-by. The mid-morning sun had a bite to it, producing small flecks of sweat that dampened the handkerchief hugging her brow. It was hard to believe that only three days ago she was huddled within Dr. Peet’s coat and sweater, trying to keep warm in a cold
Rocky
Mountain
rain.