Page 162 of Empire of Shadows

Halfway up thesteps of the pyramid, Adam stopped to wait for Dawson to catch up. The professor climbed slowly, pausing frequently to wipe sweat from under the band of his hat and mutter complaints about the weather.

Staines shifted awkwardly behind Adam. He held the rifle, but didn’t look particularly ready to use it. Adam’s guard was becoming a bit complacent—the sort of thing that was bound to happen after days of guarding someone who refrained from doing anything worthy of being shot for.

That was good, because Adam was pretty sure the time was coming for him and Ellie to cut their losses and make a run for it.

Ellie was going to hate the idea. God knew, Adam hated it too. Now that he’d seen the jaw-dropping extent and complexity of the ruins, the idea of leaving it all to the likes of Dawson and Jacobs made him want to break something… but his conversation with Jacobs on the ridge had left him with a bad feeling in his gut.

Adam had a lot of respect for his gut. Listening to it had saved his skin more times than he could count.

Jacobs didn’t buy that Adam was interested in taking over Dawson’s job. Adam wasn’t sure how Jacobs could be so certain about it—surely he wasn’tthatbad a liar—but he hadn’t made it this far in life by ignoring his instincts.

Dawson and Jacobs needed him to help find the artifact they were after. Once that was done, he and Ellie would be toast.

Adam had already set the wheels in motion for an escape. He just had to play the game for a little while longer, and then seize the first moment he could to get the pair of them out there. Ellie would be furious with him—but he’d take her being mad at him over being dead.

The two Caulker Caye kids, Pacheco and Lopez, lingered behind Dawson as he caught his breath. Adam caught the pair of them exchanging whispered commentary behind the professor. Pacheco rolled his eyes.

“On we go, then,” Dawson finally said, casting another greedy look up at the temple.

At the top of the pyramid, Adam made the mistake of turning around.

The city sprawled out below him in wild, overgrown luxury. Columned houses and towers flashed through the gaps in the trees as far as he could see. The settlement had to fill most of the low, flat bowl of the valley which lay between the ridge and the mountain that rose up at his back.

The place was a miracle—and it was possible that he was going to be sick.

Adam pressed himself back against one of the columns which lined the facade of the temple, hoping that the solid feel of it under his back would stop his head from spinning.

Why exactly had the people of Tulan decided that the most important place in their damned city needed to be so high off the ground?

The ground was perfectly nice as far as Adam was concerned.

Staines frowned at him with concern. Adam hoped his guard couldn’t tell that he was about to either lose his lunch or fall over.

He could try turning around, but knowing that there would be just a little ledge of stone and then a whole lot of very high nothing behind him was even worse. Instead, Adam stuck himself to the column like a barnacle and waited for a well-dressed looter to haul his way up the stairs.

The very steep, very long stairs.

Dawson finally reached the top, pausing to pant.

“My,” he exclaimed breathlessly. “Quite a climb. Shall we?”

He didn’t wait for Adam to answer. Instead, he stepped between the columns to enter the shaded interior of the temple.

Adam followed and immediately felt some relief.

The arches he had been clinging to framed a long, shallow chamber, backed by a wall of the same pale stone that made up the rest of the city’s structures. The broad, flat surface was covered in another bas relief mural. Adam recognized some of the same god-like figures that he had seen on the carving in the pass. They were depicted standing on the platform in front of the temple. Smaller people kneeled below them in positions of worship.

One of the rulers held out an offering of maize. Another clasped running threads of water. A third extended a clenched fist that dripped with blood.

The carvings were richly detailed and full of life as though at any moment, they might step off the stone and expose themselves to the dying sunlight.

Dawson glanced quickly up and down the chamber.

“There’s nothing here,” he concluded. “But it looks like there’s another room.”

He hurried toward a gap between the stone mural and the far wall.

Adam’s irritation flashed. Dawson clearly expected him to follow along in his wake like an obedient dog.

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