Xibalba- a Dane Maddock Adventure by David Wood

Author:David Wood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action adventure, pulp adventure, men's adventure, women's adventure, mystery, thriller, maya, mayan, lost city, ancien mysteries, xibalba, dane maddock, brock stone, jade ihara, myrmidon
Publisher: Gryphonwood Press
Published: 2016-12-21T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

The rope went taut, halting Maddock’s fall mere inches above the sea of scorpions, but he had to throw his arms out wide in order to keep from spinning and face-planting into their midst. One glistening black stinger filled his vision, so close that he had to go cross-eyed to bring it into focus.

“Bones,” he said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. “Pull me up. Very. Slowly.”

Nothing happened. Bones and the others were too far away to hear him.

Yet, in the moment or two it took him to figure this out, he realized something else as well. The scorpions weren’t moving.

“Not real,” he breathed, letting out a sigh of relief.

That wasn’t entirely accurate though. The arachnid bodies covering the floor beneath him weren’t actual scorpions, but they weren’t the product of his imagination, either. They were amazingly life-like reproductions, each one the size of his hand, and carved out of a glossy black substance that reflected the light and revealed edges sharper than the blade of a razor.

Obsidian.

When he had settled his weight on the stone square at the center, it had triggered some kind of pressure-sensitive mechanism, which had in turn caused the carved scorpions to spring up out of the recessed area in the floor, creating the illusion of a living swarm. The little statues were everywhere, covering the floor so densely that there did not appear to be any space large enough to step, let alone ease himself down gently.

But he couldn’t stay like this for much longer.

Moving slowly so as not to become unbalanced, he twisted his body sideways and caught the rope. From this vantage, he could make out the square of bare stone—his original intended landing area—just below his outstretched legs. The block had sunk into the floor, but only to a depth of about six inches. Just enough to throw him off balance at that crucial instant. Gripping the rope, he lifted his upper torso, tilting his legs back until his feet finally made contact.

He braced himself in anticipation of some other elaborate booby-trap, but nothing else happened. The stone floor remained solid beneath him as he brought himself to an upright position. He pulled the rope free of the carabiner he had been using as a rappelling device and shouted up to the others, “I’m down!”

The chamber was filled with echoes.

“You okay?” came the slightly muffled reply—Bones, shouting into the serpent’s mouth.

“Yeah. Triggered some kind of booby-trap. About a million carved scorpions just popped out of the floor.”

There was a pause, and then a fainter voice—Charles Bell—floated down to him. “Did you say ‘scorpions’?”

“Yes. Why? Is that important?”

“In the Popol Vuh, the road to Xibalba crosses three rivers. The first is filled with scorpions.”

“Great,” Maddock replied. “What’s in the other two?”

“Blood and pus.”

Maddock gave an involuntary shudder. “I’m sorry I asked.”

“Be very careful where you step,” Bell went on. “They may only be carvings, but I would hazard a guess that their stingers are tipped in poison.”

Maddock nodded, probing the forest of poised stingers with his light.

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