Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst
Kayla sighed. She hated being maneuvered into things. She’d rather be the one doing the maneuvering, preferably from a nice distance. But Selena was, as always, right. Kayla couldn’t walk away from this. Daniel and his intense, wounded-puppy eyes would haunt her. “Fine. But I still want more info. Search her name and the Maya.”
The result was instantaneous. Dr. Sanders had written several papers on the Maya, both ancient and contemporary. It took more searching to find accessible versions, and Kayla and Selena spent the next hour huddled together on a beach towel, reading through them, as the sky darkened and the stars poked through. Most of the papers detailed Maya rituals, comparing them to similar rituals in other cultures. They referenced various stellae and murals from sites in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. But one discussed unsolved ritualistic glyphs and was, unlike the others, dedicated to her son, Daniel. None of the other papers were dedicated to anyone. One paragraph in particular caught Kayla’s eye. “Wait. There.” She pointed at the screen and read.
Inside the Temple of the Great Jaguar in Tikal, there were several tiny glyphs carved high up in a shaft within the inner tombs, completely inaccessible to archaeologists. They’d only been viewed remotely by camera, and translation was near impossible due to the layers of dust on the stones. Because of the shape of the tunnels, no one had been able to maneuver a tall-enough ladder to examine them closely in person, but a few archaeologists believed the glyphs marked the location of a small hole, perhaps with valuables inside. One of the minor mysteries of Tikal was why and especially how they were put there. The only consensus was that they were installed when the pyramid was built, around AD 700. Kayla tapped the laptop screen. “That’s it. The stones are there, behind the glyphs.”
“Seriously? Centuries-old mystery, and you read a few papers and solve it? Way to take the wind out of my sails.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad. It’s not obvious, unless you’re me.” She felt a bubble of excitement inside her. She was sure this was it.
Selena frowned as she reread the paragraph. “Yeah, I still don’t see it.”
“Someone like me put them there.” A telekinetic could have carved those glyphs or placed them in the shaft. No ladder necessary. “Queen Marguerite said the stones were hidden by Fire Is Born’s descendants. A royal tomb could have seemed a pretty good hiding place. Slightly more permanent than under your mattress.”
Selena pursed her lips into an O. “You might be right. At the very least, I think you should go there and check it out. He needs images, right? I’ll send some to your phone. Just … be careful, okay?” For an instant, there was a flash of worry in Selena’s eyes, but it faded before Kayla could answer. “Bring me back a souvenir.”
Kayla slapped her alarm. Five o’clock. “I hate him,” she muttered. She rolled off the futon and stumbled through the cottage to the bathroom. It was dark outside, but the birds were beginning to twitter and chirp, which made Kayla want to wring their feathery necks. “Stupid birds. I hate birds.”
She showered and dressed in the dark in a tie-dye-camouflage tank top and khaki shorts, the kind with lots of useful pockets, plus sneakers. She stuffed her lighter in one pocket, a razor blade that she wrapped in tinfoil in another, and a spool of thread in a third. She grabbed her cell phone and put on her various amulets. Sitting on her futon, she untangled her hair by concentrating on the strands. It soothed her to separate the hairs and lay them flat. On the other side of the curtain, Moonbeam let out a groan. “Kayla?”
“Go back to sleep,” Kayla whispered.
“Are you okay?”
“Sunrise date.”
“Humph. And he thinks this is romantic?”
Kayla flopped back on her futon. “It’s not.”
“Definitely not.”
“I plan to mention that.” With a groan, she levered herself out of bed again and, after a moment’s thought, took the emergency backpack that she’d tucked under her bed, as well as her hoodie. She then tiptoed out, past Moonbeam’s futon. She heard the sheets rustle as Moonbeam sat up.
“Wait. Don’t go.” Reaching out in the dark, Moonbeam caught Kayla’s hand. She clasped it tightly, her multiple rings biting into Kayla’s skin. “Tell that boy another time. I don’t want to fall back asleep and wake without you here.”
Kayla extricated her hand. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”
“Do you have your cell phone? Charged? Your amulets? Why couldn’t you have stayed a baby? I’d sit you in the middle of the floor, and you’d stay there. It was miraculous. And at night, I’d put you into your crib, your baby cage. Why is it socially unacceptable to put teenagers into cages at night? I’d feel much better if you were in a box.”
“That’s the kind of thing you shouldn’t actually say out loud,” Kayla said.
“You know I love you, right? I say it every day, but I wonder if you hear it. You are the smartest, funniest, sweetest, prettiest, most wonderful girl, and I’m lucky to have you in my life. Every day I am grateful that you are here and safe and with me.”
And this was why no one should ever try to have a conversation before their brain was as awake as their mouth. “Go back to sleep. I promise I’ll be careful.” She wondered if that was another promise to her mother that she was going to break. For an instant, she wished she’d told Daniel flat-out no and then dealt with the repercussions. “I think you’re great too, Mom.”
Moonbeam lay back in bed. Kayla scooted out of the house before her mother could truly forbid her from going. She locked the door behind her and then bit back a shriek as someone touched her shoulder. She spun around.
Daniel, in black again, stood inches away. His face was shadowed in the predawn, and as shallow as she knew it was, she was struck again by his gorgeousness. He looked as if he’d walked off a darkened movie screen, full of angst and danger. It was, she had to admit, a little bit thrilling that a guy like this sought her out, that he needed her. No one had ever needed her power before. It was refreshing to meet someone who didn’t want her to repress it, to repress herself.
She wondered if he’d been waiting for her or if he’d simply appeared. She supposed it didn’t matter. “I think we should look in Tikal, specifically in the main temple.” Kayla described what she and Selena had discovered, and then she pulled out her phone and showed him the photos of the Maya temple. She didn’t have any of the interior, but there were plenty of the site itself. “Unless you have any better ideas?”
Daniel flipped through the photos. She expected a little discussion, but he tightened his grip on her shoulder, and then everything flashed white, then black, then sunlit dark green. The humidity felt like a bucket of water had been poured over her head. Her lungs contracted, and she gasped like a fish. Daniel kept his hand on her shoulder, steadying her, as the green and gray resolved itself in front of her and she faced the Temple of the Great Jaguar.
Chapter 7
The Temple of the Great Jaguar rose in front of her, a gray shadow against the achingly bright blue sky. Moss and grasses stained the gray rocks. It looked as if the green wanted to devour the stone. Beyond the temple was the rain forest. Kayla heard birds she didn’t recognize and a shriek that could have been either a monkey or a pissed-off parrot and … oh God, she was in another country! She was breathing air that tasted nothing like California air. It was thick with the scent of plants and so heavy with humidity that it felt like broth in her throat.
It was simultaneously so overwhelmingly real and unbelievably surreal.
Shielding her eyes from the blazing sun, Kayla squinted at the temple—a pyramid with a crownlike structure at the top. About two hundred steep stone steps led up the face of the ruin to a black doorway in the center of the crown. Other ruins were clustered nearby, including one shorter pyramid directly opposite the jaguar temple. Some of them had wooden staircases strapped to their sides. One staircase swayed as if it was going to break from its support beams and topple into the rain forest at any second. A few people climbed thos
Don’t lie to yourself, Kayla thought. You just want to climb it for the view.
Kayla glanced at Daniel. His profile was severe and hard to read. He didn’t seem as impressed with this place. Maybe it was old hat, compared to all the places he must have been. She tried to imagine what it must be like to be able to come and go wherever, whenever. That kind of freedom … It made her ache thinking about it. And yet here was Daniel, nonchalant, taking it all for granted. He wasn’t even careful.
“You’re lucky you don’t get shot on sight, appearing out of the blue,” Kayla said.
“The only people who notice are little kids. Adults like to come up with their own explanation for why they didn’t see me before.” He did seem to be right. There were other people—tourists, workers, and archaeologists—scattered across the plaza, as well as climbing the steps of various temples, but no one seemed to have noticed their sudden appearance.
It was decidedly unfair. Kayla was so careful about hiding her power. “So you just don’t worry about it? Assume no one will think you’re a witch and burn you at the stake?”
“People don’t do that anymore.”
“Yeah, until they discover the magic boy, and then it will be all, ‘Bring the torches and pitchforks!’ ” Kayla drew in a breath. Shake it off, she told herself. She was here now, and it was more incredible than she’d imagined. Leaving him in the middle of the plaza, Kayla started walking toward the jaguar temple. “God, this place is amazing!”
He caught up to her. “Hey, where are you going?”
“Up, of course. And then in.” She’d never thought she’d see the inside of a Maya temple. Or that she’d be only a few hundred feet from an actual monkey-filled jungle. She could hear the howler monkeys, even if she couldn’t see them.
“Why not find a ground entrance?”
“Because there’s one right there.” She pointed up at the shadowed doorway. “Come on, Daniel, aren’t you dying to see what’s inside?”
“It’s a long way up.”
Kayla halted and gawked at him. “You’re fine with popping into view in the middle of a plaza with people all around, but you don’t want to climb a set of stairs? Are you scared of heights or something?” His face flushed red. “You are. You’re afraid of heights. But we were on a roof in Santa Barbara.”
“I’m not afraid of heights; I simply don’t like the idea of falling. That roof was new and sturdy. Those steps are, by definition, ancient. Look how many rocks have already fallen.” Daniel pointed to the clutter of stones that buried half the bottom steps. “They could crumble under our feet.”
“So then you teleport us to safety.”
“I can’t jump if I’m convinced I’m going to break my neck. It requires confidence.”
“Can you jump us to the top?” She’d rather climb up the steps herself, like the Maya, but at least she’d get her view. “We have to get inside the temple. That’s where the stones are.”
“You don’t know that doorway leads into the temple. It could be for a shrine at the top of the pyramid. Makes much more sense to look for a ground entrance first. It will be safer and faster.”
“But since we’re here …”
“If you want to play tourist, feel free. I’m not going to waste time arguing with you. You climb up and see for yourself, while I scout for an actual entrance. We’ll meet back here in a half hour.” He tapped his watch.
“Uh-nuh, lousy idea. You’re my ticket home. Besides, every horror movie begins with two idiots splitting up. You leave me alone, and I guarantee I will be eaten by a jaguar or used as a virgin sacrifice.”
His mouth quirked into an almost-smile.
“Or you’ll be the virgin sacrifice.”
“You don’t know that I’m a virgin.”
“Of course you are. You haven’t the faintest idea how to talk to girls. Bet you’ve never even kissed one.” Kayla lifted her face, daring him. She was sure he wouldn’t. Almost sure.
He held her eyes for a half second longer than usual, and in that instant, Kayla thought maybe he would. She noticed the softness of his lips and the steadiness of his breath. Then she pivoted to face the temple. She didn’t even like this jerk. What on earth was she doing talking about kissing him? Especially when they had ancient Maya ruins to explore and two evil stones to find and steal. “Forget it. Meet you back here in a half hour.” She added, “Chicken.”
She strode toward the temple. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw only the empty plaza. He’d vanished again in plain sight. Idiot, she thought. He could see the danger in a few stone steps but not the danger he posed to himself. If he wasn’t more careful, he could be caught by evil people with world-domination plans and forced to commit atrocious acts of atrocity. Or sent to a government research lab to be tested and dissected. Or forced to appear on TV talk shows. Moonbeam might be obsessively paranoid, but that didn’t mean she was wrong. Daniel had a phenomenally rare, precious ability, and he was far too casual with it. Not that she cared. She didn’t. After this was over, she was done with him. Except, wow, to be able to travel to places like this … She should just enjoy it while it lasted.
Deliberately pushing him out of her mind, Kayla hiked across the plaza. After a few minutes, she had to stop and stuff her hoodie into her backpack. She was starting to sweat, and she hadn’t even begun to climb yet. Putting her backpack on again, she looped her thumbs through the straps and felt like a real tourist. She tried to commit every detail to memory so she could treasure it later when she was home and stuck on the same few streets day after day: trees draped in vines, thatched-roof shelters, broad stone steps like bleachers along the plaza, stone tablets deeply embedded in the ground on the walk to the temple. Most of the stellae had been worn smooth, but a few had remnants of glyphs that looked halfway between Egyptian hieroglyphs and bubble graffiti. How amazing would it be to know what they said? Maybe they were clues to the spell stones. Or directions to the fountain of eternal youth. Or a recipe for the world’s best smoothie.
Reaching the steps, she looked up … and up and up. It was steep. And tall. Looking back over her shoulder, Kayla scanned the plaza for Daniel. He might have had the smarter idea. Then again, how often did one have the chance to scale an ancient monument that was the symbol of an entire civilization? Kayla could attest it didn’t come up often within a ten-mile radius of her house.
She started to climb.
At first, the steps were narrow. Rocks had tumbled down to cover most of the stairs, but unlike what Daniel had implied, they seemed to have fallen decades ago, maybe even centuries. All the fallen rocks were coated in moss, making them look as if they’d decayed. A quarter of the way up, the steps broadened and steepened. She had to lean into the pyramid and use her hands to climb. The stone was slick, worn concave from centuries of feet. She was glad she’d worn her sneakers. Selena always said appropriate footwear made a world of difference. It was practically her life code. Here, it was true. With the sun soaking into her back and shoulders, and wearing the right shoes, Kayla felt like a proper explorer.
The sky was full of noise. She heard shrieks, cries, and calls from a dozen different kinds of birds and animals. “¡No subir!” one of the birds seemed to call. “¡No subir!”
Halfway up, Kayla stopped and looked down. A man was at the bottom of the steps. He wore a khaki button-down shirt and shorts, and he was waving his pudgy arms in the air. “¡Baje ahora! ¡No subir!” he shouted up at her. Oops, not a bird, she thought. He switched to English. “No climb!”
She gazed across Tikal. She was even with the tops of the trees. Other temples poked through the thick green canopy. Mist curled around them. In the distance, she saw gray-green mountains. Pretending she didn’t understand what the man meant, she climbed higher and faster. Sweat coated her shoulders underneath the backpack straps, and the back of her
Calves aching, she stopped to catch her breath about three quarters of the way up. Really, it hadn’t looked like such a long climb when she’d called Daniel “chicken.” Now, she was wishing for an elevator. Looking down, she noticed a man was climbing too—not the same man who had yelled at her to come down. This man wore a hat like Indiana Jones’s that shielded his face entirely. The man who had yelled was at the base of the temple, with a cluster of people. From their gestures, they looked as if they were arguing. Maybe the man in the hat had been sent to bring her down. Or maybe he was another renegade tourist. Regardless, she couldn’t let him catch up to her. Feeling exposed, Kayla climbed faster. Where was a helpful teleporting boy when you needed one?
At least she was almost there. She saw the doorway above her, wide as an open mouth. With a burst of fresh energy, Kayla scurried up the last few steps and ducked inside. She was instantly swallowed by shadows. She waited for her eyes to adjust.
It was a small room. A shrine. There was a stone altar in the middle, its surface scratched and stained. Carvings, faded and chipped, covered the walls. But what caught Kayla’s attention was a black grate on the floor, locked down with a large combination lock.
She knelt next to it. Beneath the grate were stone steps, headed down into the temple. “Bingo,” she murmured. “And I win a day of ‘I told you so’s.’ ” She reached for her phone to tell Daniel what she’d found—and realized they’d never exchanged numbers. Stupid, she thought. But too late now. It wouldn’t take long for the man with the hat to finish his climb too. If she wanted to explore without interference, this was her chance.
Kayla concentrated on the lock for a moment. Pressing with her mind, she engaged the three cams inside, and the lock snapped open. She loved combo locks. So straightforward.