Mayan Lover (10 page)

The sun was high and he could hear the people
working the other sites, but Gwen’s sat empty. Enrique jumped
up when he approached. “Gather equipment. Concentrate the dig
to the spot I pointed out. I’ll meet you shortly.”

Enrique smiled. “Glad to have you back,
uncle.”

Arka returned the smile and lightly rapped on
the door. Maggie opened it; he could tell he had woken her. She
opened the door wide for him to enter. Gwen lay sleeping. Her brows
were furled, lips pursed, the bruises at her throat vivid against the
purity of her skin. “Maggie, I’d like a moment alone with
her.”

Maggie rubbed her eyes and yawned as she stepped
down the step and softly closed the door behind her. Arka sat next to
Gwen, drinking in her beauty. He brushed the stray hair from her
cheek and she sighed. Careful not to disturb her, he lightly touched
his forehead to hers. Rather than just hearing her thoughts, he found
himself in the pitch black of her dream. Gwen’s lonely despair
hammered into him. He could feel her pain.
“Gwen.”
He called out into the darkness of her dream.

Like a moonbeam she lit up. She was sitting on
the ground with her legs clutched to her chest, rocking. Her eyes
held a mixture of sadness, heartbreak, confusion and …
tentative hope.
“I’m so sorry—.”

He squatted down and pressed a finger to her
ruby lips.
“The past is gone, Gwen.”
For both of
them he added to himself.
“Will you be my wife and mate for
eternity?” S
he hurled herself into his chest, knocking him
to his back. He chuckled, loving the feel of her against him.

“
Did you mean it when you said you love
me?”
The vulnerability in her eyes made him love her even
more.

Her startled gasp trailed into a giggle as he
rolled her beneath him.
“Need you ask? I love you with all
that I am, Gwen.”

She lifted her head till their lips were a
hairsbreadth apart.
“I love you, too.”
Her lips
met his and he felt his soul meld with hers.

His loincloth and her gown vanished with a
thought, leaving them bared to one another in every way. He sunk into
her heat slowly. It went beyond a psychical coupling. This was
spiritual. She met him stroke for stroke. Their tongues tangled. Her
need for release matched his. They cried out in unison as her inner
walls milked his seed. The light of the sun and the moon bathed them.

He opened his eyes and met her alert gaze.

“Oh, my God, did that just happen?”
The awe in her voice mirrored the awe he felt.

“Gods.” He corrected. “And
yes. It did.”

She bit her bottom lip and grinned. “What
was that?”

He grinned back. “A spiritual mating. Our
shaman told tales of them happening between gods.”
My son.
He’d always known about Gwen, yet he’d never suspected
that he too might come from the essence of a god.

He lay on his back and she straddled his chest
his with crossed arms. “So you think you’re a god now?”

“Gwen, I am not
named
after the
Journeyer … I
am
Arka the Journeyer,” he began.
She crinkled her brows with confusion. “I have lived
twenty-five cycles of the seasons just like you. I was born the same
instant you were. We have been linked by destiny from birth. Only my
birth took place more than twenty-six hundred years ago. The Journey
I was destined to take brought me to this time … to you.”

He could see the disbelief in her eyes. “Do
you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”

Her mind was closing down. Arka took a deep
breath, nodded, and pushed on. “In the Mayan tiles it speaks of
the White Woman.” She nodded. “You are the White Woman,
Gwen. You are the human essence of the Moon Goddess, Ixchel. Her
daughter. You are the Goddess of Moonlight.”

“I have parents … human parents.
Gods are myth, folklore. They aren’t real. These types of
conversation are the reason you never put an evolutionary theorist in
a room with the Pope.” She gave him an exasperated glare.

Arka felt the scientist in her trying to debunk
what she was hearing. He changed his tactic. “Gwen, how many
images exist in the history of the world depicting celestial beings
in one form or another?” Her lips pursed adorably, and Arka
struggled to stay on focus rather than kiss her. “According to
the books Enrique gave me, the oldest human account of a single god
only began a few thousand years ago. Before that, every civilization
worshiped many individual gods. It seems to me that modern man
recognizes only the supreme goddess of the universe regardless of
what they use as an icon. They have turned away from her god
offspring. Those gods and goddesses exist whether people worship them
or not.”

“Arka, I respect your religious beliefs.
It’s the whole ‘we are gods’ and ‘I Journeyed
through time’ assertion that doesn’t jibe.” She
straightened her elbows and lifted from him. “I have a really
good therapist …”

He grasped her cheeks and pulled her forehead to
his.
“You believe in this … believe in me.”

He felt her reserved nod of consent.
“I’ll
listen, Arka. That’s all I can promise.”
He could ask
nothing more of her than to hear him out.

He released her and she settled back to his
chest. “I’ve always known you. I’ve worshiped you
all of my life. It wasn’t until today that I learned I am the
essence son of Kinich Ahau.”

“Okay … what equates to an essence
child? Are you a self-proclaimed prophet kind of time traveler?”
Sarcasm tinged with cynicism dripped from her words. At least she
hadn’t tried to leave … yet.

The fact that Gwen was coming to the conclusion
that Arka had a religious delusion was becoming more apparent. “I
was taught by shaman that gods are the essence of energy. Gods use a
piece of themselves—their essence—to create a new god at
a spiritual level. When the universe dictates, that spirit is given
to a child upon conception. Your parent are your parents
biologically, the same as mine were … the Moon Goddess is the
mother of your soul.”

The tapping of her fingers against his chest was
the only outward sign of agitation. “You’re saying I am
the Goddess of Moonlight and you are the God of …”

“Sunlight.” The tile the artisans
had finished mere hours before he embarked on his Journey suddenly
made sense. He’d been so wrapped up in the ceremony to come,
he’d never bothered to ask about the new god image. The
knowledge that he, too, was a god was still difficult to grasp, but
his union with Gwen made it undeniable. “I traveled through
time under the stellar-aligned Universe with the guidance of the Sun
and Moon.”

She reached over and grabbed a book from her
table, flipped through the pages to the legend of the Journeyer.
“That is you?” She pointed at the image of the tile. He
couldn’t help it—he grinned. Whether Gwen wanted to
believe or not, he’d piqued her interest. She flipped to
another page and pointed to the tile he’d barely glanced at on
his departure day. “And that’s you?” He looked at
it closely and nodded. Bending the pages she looked at the two images
side by side with that of the Sun God. “Holy shit. Dr. Hanson
is going to have a field day when he finds out these images are
connected.”

With disappointment, he realized she thought he
had presented a theory that could be proved scientifically, not that
he was who he said he was. He moved her hand to the tile next to his
Journeyer. “That, Gwen, is you.”

“The White Woman and the Moon Goddess
Ixchel are the same person,” she justified.

“Look at them closer. They are mother and
daughter.” He balanced between being frustrated and amused at
her. Maybe he should have waited till the skull was found.
The
skull
. “Let me show you something.” He reached
for the bag he’d set at his feet.

The door to the trailer yanked open. Enrique’s
eyes looked about to pop out of his head. “We found it! It was
exactly where you said you buried it.”

“What is that?” Gwen ignored Enrique
completely.

Arka met Gwen’s gaze. “What do you
feel?”

Her eye’s widened. “It feels like an
earthquake. Can’t you feel it?”

Arka slung the bag over his shoulder and scooped
her up, then carried her out of the trailer. “You are being
summoned, Goddess.”

At the center of the hole, Maggie knelt with a
brush, sweeping dirt from the top of the rich amethyst crystal. She
looked up with excitement. “You gotta see this, Gwen.”

Arka held her by the wrists and lowered her feet
into the hole. His heart pounded with excitement. He grabbed a
full-sized shovel and jumped down. “Move.”

Maggie crab-crawled back. Gwen held up her
hands. “You can’t use that! We need to take pictures,
uncover the crystal slowly.”

“Did the ground stop shaking?” He
set the shovel to the ground. Gwen hesitantly shook her head. “Then
we can’t wait. The Moon Goddess wants you now.” He dug
the shovel in and the skull popped out, covered in hard-dried clay
dirt. It rolled against the incline of gravity to Gwen’s feet.
She stared at it with a look of amazement and pulled her feet away.
The skull rolled to her again.

“Gwen. Only a divine being may touch it
until claimed by its god … er, goddess,” Enrique called
from the edge of the pit.

Maggie stood and stepped over. “Oh, for
hell's sake,” she snapped and reached for the skull. It
vanished before she could touch it and reappeared in Gwen’s
lap. Maggie's hand went to her mouth and Gwen gasped.

Arka tossed the shovel and scooped Gwen with the
skull on her lap into his arms. Her arms clutched at his neck while
her eyes, huge with fear, stared at the dirt-encrusted skull. He
awkwardly climbed the wooden ladder. The bag with his skull caught on
a step, yet the amethyst skull never dislodged.

“Wait! Where are you going?” Maggie
called to him as he headed toward the forest. Arka looked back at
Enrique.

“I got this. Go.” Enrique waved him
off. “So, Maggie, I’ve got one hell of a story to tell
you.” The trees swallowed the rest of what his nephew said.

“Arka, I’m totally freaking out.
This
thing
is vibrating,” Gwen whispered.

Arka never slowed his step. “I know how
frightening it is to face your destiny. I’m frightened too, but
you must meet your mother, Goddess.”

“What!” Gwen snapped. “How?”

Arka kissed her forehead. “You must answer
Ixchel’s summons, my love.” He gave her a reassuring
smile.

“When this is over you
are
going to
therapy with me.”

He had no idea what she meant by therapy but
could tell it had something to do with her residual disbelief. She’d
believe soon enough. “Agreed.” He placated her …
for now.

They reached the top of the waterfall, where
there was an unimpeded view of the sky. Arka looked to the west where
the sun dipped low in the sky. He looked east to see the moon rising.
“Wash it, quickly.” She hesitated. “Please …
trust me.”

She took the skull in her hands and let out a
long, exasperated sigh. He set her feet to the ground. She bent to
dip the skull in the river and carried it back to him tucked under
one arm. “Now what?” He’d pulled his skull from his
bag and knelt on folded legs in front of it. She bent with an indrawn
breath and set her hand to top of it. “It’s the biggest,
clearest, most perfect quartz crystal skull I’ve ever seen.”

Arka laughed. He didn’t mean to, but he
couldn’t help it. Gwen glared at him. “Look at what
you’re holding.”

She withdrew the amethyst from under her arm and
held it out with both hands facing her. Her mouth gaped open and she
slowly sank to a cross-legged sitting position. “It’s
beautiful.” The wonder in her eyes as she looked at the gift
he’d crafted for her and her Moon Goddess mother by hand meant
more to him than he could ever express. Her eyes turned deep purple,
and without his prompt, she leaned her forehead to the skull. Her
eyes fluttered shut and snapped back open as she yanked her head
away. Awe returned to her expression.

“Do what I do, Gwen. Don’t be
afraid; just let yourself go to the stone.” Arka
demonstrated—with arms extended, he touched his forehead to the
stone in front of him.

Her swallow was loud and she took a deep breath
and held it, then let it out slowly. She placed the skull to the
ground and tucked her legs beneath her. “You’re sure
about this?” she asked, her eyes never leaving the sacred
object.

“She’s your mother, Gwen,”
Arka encouraged.

“I haven’t had the best relationship
with the mother I already have,” she muttered as she leaned to
the skull, squeaking adorably. Her body relaxed against it.

Despite his reassurance, Arka hated the thought
that her spirit had left her body. “Please watch over her,
father,” he whispered to his skull. A ray of light shot through
his skull and winked at him. He felt his head drawn back down. Gwen
wasn’t the only one whose audience was being requested. He
surrendered to the crystal of his father.

Gwen felt herself fall into a black tunnel,
where stars zoomed past her with trails of light. She landed on her
butt in a softly glowing room. A woman with long, snow-white, softly
waved tresses shimmered into view. Her milky skin glowed softly …
like the moon. Everything Gwen knew was instantly ripped to shreds.
Nothing she’d ever read or studied had prepared her for this
moment.
Holy shit, this is not happening.
Her mind struggled
to accept what her eyes were seeing, chaotically groping for some
kind of scientific explanation … to no avail. A quote by
The
Search For Lost Time
novelist Marcel Poust roared through her
mind:
The voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new horizons,
but in seeing with new eyes
.