The Curse of the Viper King by Russell James

Author:Russell James [James, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2018-09-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-three

Marcos scooped a shovelful of dirt from the earth. In the jungle humidity, sweat streamed from every pore and every labored breath felt thick. He launched the shovel’s load up and out of the hole. The huge stone block over his head shifted. The thick post holding up the hanging end creaked as more weight shifted to it.

Finalmente, he rejoiced.

He maneuvered around the post, and climbed up the side of the hole using exposed roots as hand and footholds. Yesterday he’d managed to get over six feet down and almost as far under this base stone in the old Aztec pyramid. With the few feet he’d just added, it appeared that he’d dug enough.

He wiped his hands on his shorts and then mopped the sweat from his brow with his t-shirt sleeve. A mosquito buzzed his ear and he slapped it dead.

He’d been right about the old Aztec roadway. He’d been able to expose sections of it in the jungle and it had led him to his prize. Though now on the outside it did not look like much of a prize at all. Centuries had allowed the jungle to reclaim much of the old pyramid’s surface. Fifty meters high and three hundred meters long on each side, in its heyday, the stair-step pyramid had been a wonder. It now appeared more like an overgrown hill. Trees sprouted from cracks between the stones. Strangler fig vines crisscrossed the exterior and green algae transformed the tan, stone surface into a riot of greenery. But it was what was inside that mattered.

Marcos had only cleared the surface around the one stone he’d been digging beneath. The hieroglyphs along the edge included the image of a giant snake and an inscription about the king buried within. This stone was the key, the final one put into place after the corpse of the Viper King had been interred within. This was the only way in.

Marcos had thought himself quite clever. Unable to move the stone, he opted to let it move itself. By supporting one end and excavating the soil out beneath it, when there was more stone suspended than resting on earth, all he needed to do was pull the supporting pole. The weight that thwarted him would now work in his favor. The stone would fall away and leave the passage to the interior open.

He grabbed the end of the rope, drew it tight, then dug in his heels and pulled. The post ground against the base of the stone, then fell away into the hole.

The block didn’t move.

Marcos cursed under his breath. The idea of going back under and shoveling out more dirt from beneath the sagging stone seemed like courting death. Maybe if he put the post back in place first…

The end of the block dipped. A cascade of earth tumbled down beneath it. Stone ground against stone and, as if in slow motion, the block slid away and down into the hole. It hit the bottom with a thud.

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