Charlie's Crystal Skull by Renee Wehrle

Author:Renee Wehrle [Wehrle, Renee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Rodrigo grabbed one end of the canoe and motioned for Wolf and Charlie to grab the other end. “We need to lift this out of the water, so it doesn’t float away.”

“Don’t we need to keep going down the river to get to Xibalba?” Wolf asked. He helped Charlie heft their end of the canoe out of the bloody, pus-filled liquid. Charlie made a gagging noise.

“You are already deep into Xibalba. You’ve managed to live through four levels of Xibalba as a matter of fact,” said Rodrigo. He smiled his toothy, mustached grin and turned toward the jaguar house, hands on his hips.

Charlie and Wolf set their end of the canoe down and stared in disbelief at one another, giant grins spread across their faces.

“Ha-ha, honestly, I don’t think I had comprehended what we have been doing all this time!” Charlie said. She laughed gleefully with Wolf, who patted her on the back for a job well done.

“Don’t get too cocky. We are only halfway there, and the challenges will keep getting harder.” Rodrigo took one of the saddle packs from his shoulder and handed it to Charlie. “You’ll want to put the crystal skull in the shoulder bag and strap it on, because you’ll tire out carrying that in your hands. Best to be hands-free from here on out. We have much treachery to evade.”

Charlie eagerly accepted the bag, gingerly placed the skull inside, and strapped it across her shoulder. “Where to next?” she asked, feeling more prepared with a safe place to stash the crystal, and having a moment to breathe and take in all that they had evaded so far.

“We go through the house of jaguars,” said Rodrigo. He pointed to a doorway in the middle of all the squares where the jaguars were perched. The entryway was made from stacked human skulls several feet deep.

When did that morbid structure appear? Charlie hadn’t noticed the doorway until now. Of course, things had been a little crazy up until this point.

“Are you sure we won’t reawaken the jaguars?” Wolf peered up at the now slumbering beasts. Their velvety pelts rising and falling with each eternal breath of slumber.

“When the king of the jaguars brushed against you and stared you in the eyes, that was his approval that you may enter the house of jaguars. He deemed you worthy of the spirit of the jaguar. If he hadn’t, you would both be cat chow by now,” said Rodrigo, nodding matter-of-factly. His nonchalant behavior unnerved Charlie at times. She hoped he really was on their side.

“Fair enough,” Charlie said, and shivers ran down her body at the thought of becoming cat chow by gnashing jaguar fangs.

Rodrigo grunted and proceeded to march through the macabre doorway. Charlie and Wolf followed. The doorway led to a hallway lined with more human skulls. Some had holes and cracks in them as if they had a tragic and violent death, some had elongated craniums from the intentional wrapping and reshaping of their heads as ancient Mayas were known to practice, and some were just plain small—possibly children.

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