Woman of a Thousand Secrets by Barbara Wood

Author:Barbara Wood [Wood, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-312-36369-7
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2008-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

39

Kaan slashed at vines and creepers when suddenly, out of the mist, a man rose before him on the trail.

Kaan brought his people to a halt. As he took the measure of the silent sentinel that barred his way, he saw eyes made of stone, a face partially broken away, and one hand missing. The statue had been carved centuries ago, Kaan realized, and now was claimed by the jungle.

He sent for H’meen to see if the markings were significant. They had encountered many of these upright stone slabs—called stelae—at Tikal and other places, erected by kings to mark territory or to record momentous events. While H’meen had been able to read most, on this one she could interpret only a few of the glyphs, as the engravings had been weathered smooth. “It says his name was King Rabbit, but his accomplishments, listed here, are too decayed to decipher. Whoever he was, his memory has been lost in time.”

“Does this stela mark a city’s boundary?” Kaan asked, squinting ahead through the silent mist, seeing only ghostly trees and phantom shrubs.

“It does, honorable Kaan. We have arrived.”

At last, the fabled city of Copan.

Kaan gave the signal and the trek resumed, at a quicker pace now, with people talking excitedly among themselves. Surely the red flower was near at hand!

In the forty-two days since they had left Ixponé in Quatemalan, the great crowd that followed Kaan and Tonina had continued to shift, reshape, and grow, like a living organism. Six people had died en route; four babies had been born. Some original members decided to settle in peaceful villages, while new hopefuls took their places. Mayans left, members of other races joined. Couples married and divorced. Families broke up, new families were formed, and because the people looked to Kaan to administer justice, he had reluctantly sat in judgment on six accusations of theft, one of rape, three of adultery, five of wife-beating, four of cheating in games of chance, one of murder, and two of blasphemy. He had meted out punishments while H’meen had recorded the proceedings, adding new laws to the growing list.

Hairless, the hirsute giant, was now a widower. Three days out of Ixponé, his wife had dropped into an unseen sinkhole, with a dead log falling in after her, crashing down on her head. When the men hauled her out, they found that her neck had snapped, separating her skull from her spine. Amazingly, she was still alive—skin, muscle, and spinal cord were undamaged. But she could not control her head, so that it fell every which way until Hairless devised a wooden brace to prop it up. But even though she could breathe and talk, she had lost the ability to swallow, and so she died a few days later. With her wits fully about her, sitting upright, she said good-bye to her friends. She then asked Hairless to remove the uncomfortable brace. He tearfully did so, and her head fell back so that it rested between her shoulder blades and she looked up at the sky.

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