Jungle Crossing (6 page)

"The prisoners escaped and ran to another Lord, who kept them alive as slaves," the guide said. Maybe Fiona would allow me to survive missing mini-camp if I carried her books, did her homework, folded her laundry, or cleaned her room (wait ... I did that once). Grace Williams hadn't thought of that! She once brought cookies to share during lunch, but Fiona called them "oh-so store-bought" and ignored her.

The guide continued. "One, Gonzalo de Guerrero, pierced his nose, lips, and ears and tattooed his hands. He married a Mayan woman and had many children. When the Spanish arrived, he refused to leave with them."

That's what Maya-obsessed Barb would do. Or was that what
I
was doing—trying so hard to fit in? I touched my short hair, which Fiona had told me to cut in a layered bob because it would be "oh-so matching" if we all had the same hairstyle. I had liked my long hair, but I cut it anyway to belong to the group.

"De Guerrero stayed with the Mayans and helped them to fight against the Spaniards. The other man, Gerónimo de Aguilar, helped Cortés conquer the Aztecs and Mayans by acting as an interpreter." The guide stopped and looked around at each of us before Barb broke the silence and asked about pirate treasure.

Staying with the group was a good thing, right? But then I felt confused. Which guy stayed with his group? The Spanish guy who betrayed the Mayans? Or the guy who betrayed the Spanish and lived Mayan?

We walked over bumpy limestone to the castle, which was built near the edge of the water, like a movie star's mansion. The guide talked about how the buildings were designed to show the cycles of the sun and Venus. Turns out the Mayans were pretty good at math too. Barb peered over the cliff at the narrow beach below while I watched a pair of iguanas chase each other over the rocks into a group of stunted palms. When I looked back, Barb was gone.

"Do you see my sister?" I asked the English girls, Gemma and Anna.

Gemma pointed to the cliff. "I think she might have gone exploring."

Way, way down, Barb jumped off a large gray rock onto the sand and picked up something.

"Barb!" I yelled. "Come back!"

Rock outcroppings surrounded the beach. Barb reached up to the big boulder and tried to pull herself up, looking so tiny as she threw her hands in the air. She shrieked as a wave curled around her ankles.

I started down the steep path, thinking Barb must be part mountain goat to get down this thing. I slipped in a sandy section, scraping my hand on a sharp rock. Finally I got down near the beach and jumped off the huge boulder.

Barb held up a bottle cap. "It glittered like gold from up there."

"Thousands of people walk through here every day," I said. "You're not going to find any treasure. You'd be lucky to find a seashell or an interesting rock."

I walked over to the big rock. "Let me give you a boost." I shoved her onto its stony surface, but I couldn't get back up: too short. A big wave splashed around the cuffs of my shorts. I reached with my hand and tried to find a hold for my foot, but my legs were too stubby. I plopped back on the sand just in time to be soaked by another wave. I really was going to be killed in a rip tide! And that wasn't even
on
my list of reasons.

Dante ran down the path, jumped onto the sand, cupped his hand, and nodded to me. I put my soggy shoe in his hands and gripped the rock.

"Thanks so much," I said.

People up above cheered, even the flower-shirted tourists. Several snapped photos. Great. I'd be the loser tourist in some stranger's scrapbook.

I scrambled up the path as quick as I could, with Dante following right behind, getting a great view of my wet butt. At least I had something exciting, not to mention true, to put in my next postcard to Fiona: Rescued by Hunky Blond Belgian. I didn't have to say it was because of my silly, treasure-seeking sister and my excessively short stature.

"Strong legs," Dante said before racing up the last few feet to meet up with Monique. I totally blushed, lost my balance, and slipped, getting sand all over my wet shirt.

Alfredo set up the picnic lunch in the field where the craftsmen had lived. Everyone snacked on fruit while he talked about the big trading canoes landing between the cliffs on the wide beach that came right into the city. Why hadn't Barb spotted gold twinkling on that actually accessible beach? I brushed more sand off my drying shirt.

"Nice going, wet one," Talia said to me before turning to Barb. "You okay, cutie? I would've rescued you."

Barb started telling Talia about the sunken pirate treasure, so I walked toward the water, pulled off my wet shoes, and waded in the surf to a flat rock. I took out my journal and added new reasons to my list. Number 43: beaches where you can get stranded and nearly killed; number 44: being the loser tourist in some stranger's scrapbook. Next to a drawing I'd started of Muluc, I quickly sketched a comical tourist photo of myself, but then Nando walked toward me, so I stashed the journal back in my knapsack.

"Have a tortilla," he said. "My mother made them."

"I'm not hungry." My stomach rumbled, but I wasn't going to let Nando be nice because he pitied me. New reason, number 45: inspiring pity from even the meanest (see number 40) tour guide.

Nando glanced at my stomach. "Try it."

I dangled my feet in the water, letting an incoming wave splash my legs.

"Okay." I bit into the soft, fresh tortilla. "This is actually pretty good." I spent only a fraction of a second worrying that Nando was trying to poison me, and then I devoured the rest of it. Nando handed me another one.

"
Mi mamá
makes the best," he said.

Barb ran over to us with a stack of tortillas and some fruit.

She leaned forward. "Tell us what happens to Muluc."

***

T
HE
D
AY
11 L
AMAT

Dragon, Sign of the Planet Venus—the Great Star

Muluc and the other prisoners from Cobá walked all night through the jungle. The animal and spirit sounds frightened Muluc as much as her captors did. When someone fell or slowed down, the warriors whipped them with vine rope. As she began to feel weak, her hands still tied with vines, Muluc concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other and watching her step. She'd seen a girl ahead of her fall, bloodying her whole face and knocking out her front teeth.

"Leave her," a warrior said, "She's no good now—the gods won't want her, and neither will the Lords."

Muluc had looked back at the girl, obviously a commoner. The girl's pitiful whimpers made the hairs on Muluc's arms stand up straight, but she walked on, holding her head high, wondering how the warriors would treat a member of the elite class. Should she tell them? They would likely re-lease her.

In the morning, sun filtered down through the leaves, drying the blood on Muluc's cheek until it felt tight and itchy. Above, a howler monkey bounced on a branch, waiting for its mate to swing over from another tree. Yesterday she had felt as free as one of them, Muluc thought, blinking away burning tears.

Soon the group left the thick grove of trees and found themselves on a vast wasteland of sand. Muluc stumbled, falling once, but scrambled to her feet before anyone noticed. Some of the smaller children had fallen and lay bawling.

Muluc recognized a boy she'd seen fishing with his father in the lagoon. He worked his hands up and down to free them from the vines. Moments later she saw him sprint away from the group. One of the warriors ran after him but gave up after a brief chase. Muluc wished she had the spirit and strength to escape, but she wouldn't be able to find her way back anyway.

At the edge of the sand, Muluc saw the biggest water she had ever seen: it roared toward the shore, lashing out at the sand, retreating, and lashing out again. She did not walk any closer. Others stopped behind her, and children cried out. The warriors laughed and shoved the people toward crudely built cages near the water.

"Girls here," said a warrior with blue streaks painted on his cheeks. "Men who can work, here. Keep the elite separate."

Muluc started to announce her elite status, but she stopped as the man with blue streaks grabbed her bound wrists and looked at her. "You're attractive for a commoner," he said. "With the right clothes you'd almost make a princess." Muluc flushed hot with shame under his leering gaze. From behind, someone shoved her shoulder.

"Get in the cage," a voice said. Muluc turned and saw a tall man with a tattoo of a feathered snake wrapped around his neck. His long hair, tied up on top of his head, was studded with jewels. A rod of jade pierced his nose, and he wore a loincloth with an embroidered serpent climbing the World Tree. Muluc stumbled in the sand and staggered into the cage before he could touch her again.

The sun left the sky to return to the Otherworld, and the stars sparkled brightly. Muluc huddled with the other girls as a breeze cooled the sand and her bare arms.

"I'm hungry," a small girl said.

"Quiet," another whispered.

Muluc's stomach rumbled with hunger. At last she slept.

All night the blue jay squawked at her in her dreams. Sometimes the bird spoke to her in her mother's voice: "You disobeyed me. You disobeyed the king." Other times it pecked her scalp until she bled. "Listen. Listen. Don't ignore me," it screeched.

***

T
HE
D
AY
12 M
ULUC

Water, Thunder, and Jade

The door opened, waking Muluc as a skinny girl with long, matted hair and tattered clothes entered the cage. Muluc had never seen such a girl at Cobá—so poor-looking, bony, and unclean. The girl carried a gourd and handed it to each of the captives, letting them drink for a moment. Muluc's mouth watered just thinking about the rich taste of chocolate. She drank a big gulp, choking on the cold, watery gruel made from the coarsest cornmeal—the kind saved for pigs! She made an effort to swallow the gritty, bland liquid without gagging.

The sun rose from the Otherworld, warming the cold sand. Soon flies buzzed around the cage. Several of the girls had wet themselves, and the air reeked. Muluc walked to the corner, squatted, and peed, trying not to get her clothes wet. She wanted to weep at such humiliation, but didn't dare draw attention to herself.

The warriors divided the men and boys into groups, putting them into large canoes, bigger than any the fishermen had on the lakes of Cobá. Among the men she noticed a few with royal markings—one looked like Parrot Nose's brother! Three men wearing royal capes kneeled on the sand. The warriors painted them with black and white stripes, whipping them with thorny vines when they didn't cooperate. Muluc felt her heart beat fast. Had the warriors made it into the city, to the royal compound, to her father's compound? She searched the faces of the captives for her family. Most of the captives looked like commoners: strong-bodied men, young boys, and girls. No elders. The warrior with the snake tattoo came over to Muluc's cage, but she avoided his eyes; acting common might keep her safe.

"Come," he said, pulling girls up by their wrists. "Dunk them in the sea," he said to the boy with him. "They stink."

The boy led the girls into the angry water; they screamed as the foamy waves splashed over their bodies, almost knocking them over. The boy grabbed Muluc.

"I'm not dirty." She pushed the boy away, so he chose a younger girl who had a yellow stain on her skirt.

The warrior with the snake ordered the girls placed in his canoe. Squeezing into the tight spaces between jars and baskets, the girls sat down on the rough wooden bottom. Many whimpered with fear.

"Don't touch anything," Snake said. "It's all more valuable than any of you."

Muluc huddled low next to a large basket that smelled sweet, like the incense her mother burned at the family altar. She buried her face in her hands and cried, just like the common girls with urine-soaked clothes.

When the sun burned high above them, the men shoved the canoes into the rolling waves. Muluc watched the shore grow distant, but the rhythm of the boat rocking in the water and the heat of the sun soon put her to sleep. She dreamed of nothing.

"Wake up." Snake jabbed Muluc with his foot. "Here."

He placed a piece of coconut in her mouth, then gave her a sip of water from a gourd. The coconut tasted sweet, like home. Snake studied Muluc, handing her a second chunk of coconut.

"You have a long forehead for a commoner," he said. "Pretty stone in your lip too."

Muluc looked down.

"They found you outside the city?" Snake asked.

"Yes," Muluc said.

"You're certainly dressed like a commoner." Snake paused. "I should get a good price for a girl like you anyway." As Snake moved away, Muluc shivered despite the warm sun.

Fear darkened Muluc's mood as clouds darkened the sky. Had they entered the Otherworld? She feared they were taking her to the edge of the world to dump her as a sacrifice to the gods. With the sharp end of the vine that bound her hands, she pierced her lip and let the blood drip onto the floor of the canoe as an offering. She prayed to the water gods that she would survive and find her family again.

That night, the canoe tossed in the dark sea. Water splashed over the sides, soaking the captive girls. Some cried, others screamed. One girl stood and tried to jump out, but Snake tied her down.

"Stupid girl," he hissed, pressing his foot into her back.

Muluc's mouth ached with thirst, so she licked the water droplets off her arm. Salt! The fresh cut on her lip stung as she hunkered down to avoid the cold spray. A bolt of lightning lit the sky in a brilliant flash. Girls shrieked.

"The gods are already pleased with us," Snake said.

Muluc knew the gods were angry. Lightning struck the sea again and again as the thunder gods called her name. If she survived this night, she could be strong. A wave washed over her, tipping the canoe at an angle. A small girl stood up, screaming for her mother.

"Sit down!" Snake yelled.