Page 111 of Empire of Shadows

“Oh?” the priest casually prompted—maybe just a littletoocasually, Adam thought.

“Maybe you’ve heard about them,” Adam continued. “They’d be about three days’ walk from here. You head north toward the next tributary of the Belize, and then dogleg to the west. There’s something about a…River of Smokebeing nearby,” he filled in, pulling up the memory of the final landmark on Ellie’s map.

“So you are on a treasure hunt,” Kuyoc returned.

Adam suppressed a wince as he thought of the looted cave that they had passed through earlier.

“No,” he replied firmly—firmly enough that Kuyoc looked over at him with a little surprise.

“Ellie’s a scholar,” Adam continued purposefully. “She thinks whatever’s there could be important for understanding the history around here.”

He stopped again as he realized how that might sound to a man whose ancestors could very well have been part of thehistoryhe and Ellie were looking for.

“She’s not going to take anything,” Adam quickly declared. “She’s… she’s not like that. Whatever she finds there, she’ll want to protect it.”

Kuyoc’s response was uncharacteristically serious.

“Protect it from whom?”

Adam opened his mouth to answer—and realized he didn’t have one. Of course, he was sure that Ellie meant to protect her finds from guys like the ones who had rifled that cave… but what about the colonial authorities, or the academics who wrote all those fancy journal articles? Those were the people who’d end up coming here to excavate everything… and then carry it all back to some storage room under a London museum.

At least in the storage room, any artifacts would be safe from the black market, Adam reminded himself… and yet somehow— as he looked out over a village of actual, living Mayans—that didn’t feel like enough.

Still, finding out if the people here knew anything about the ruins could save him and Ellie a hell of a lot of time wandering around in the bush. It’d also minimize some very real risks.

“You—ah—heard anything about a place like that?” Adam pressed awkwardly.

Smoke bloomed over Kuyoc’s head like a fading ghost.

“I know of the area you are describing,” he said at last.

Adam perked up.

“You do?”

“Sure,” the priest replied easily. “It’s the realm of the k’ak’as ba’alo’ob.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know that one,” Adam admitted.

“It means evil spirits,” Kuyoc said cheerfully.

“Evil… huh?” Adam echoed dumbly.

“The hungry spirits of the restless dead and their monstrous servants,” Kuyoc explained. “They suck the living souls out of anyone foolish enough to trespass on their land.”

Adam was momentarily speechless. He’d pegged the priest for more of a rationalist, but here the guy was casually sharing stories of soul-sucking evil dead as though they were talking about lousy weather.

“Right,” Adam returned carefully.

“We’ve all heard the stories, of course,” the priest continued with a casual wave of his cigar. “How there are great, black beasts that haunt the night, driving their fangs into the skulls of anyone reckless enough to go wandering there.”

“That’s… vivid,” Adam said.

His gaze involuntarily dropped to the finger-length, wickedly pointed tooth that hung from the other cord around the priest’s neck.

“Is that where you got your—er…” he began.

“This?” Kuyoc replied, lifting the pendant. “Naw. This is just a bit of antler.”

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