Chapter Nine #2
Her father had practically drooled upon hearing about this mapping possibility, and grinned like a kid in a candy store for most of the afternoon. Then again, he’d been working with Daisy for part of that time, so his elation could be in part due to her sunshiny charm.
Angélica could understand why her dad was so fascinated with the LIDAR images and software.
This technology offered incredibly enlightening views of what was hiding under the jungle—views her dad hadn’t been able to experience this early on at a dig for most of his career.
The days of looking at a site and trying to determine if there might be anything hidden under mounds of vegetation and debris were mostly in the past.
“Just give me an idea of what you think this ancient weapon looked like,” Quint said, still focused on his notes. “It’s too hot for me to walk all of the way over to your dad’s shade tree.”
She rested her elbows on her knees. “Well, I’ve seen some recreations of the macuahuitl that were three to four feet long and about three inches wide.
Dad theorizes they were probably personalized on the broad sides with carvings of past battles or something showing the number of kills.
Maybe even the warrior’s name.” She held out her hand. “Let me see your pencil.”
He handed it over. She leaned over his page and made a rough drawing of a macuahuitl. “I’m no artist, but this should give you some idea.”
“Hmm. Reminds me of a cricket bat with razor blades.”
She handed him the pencil. “They were mostly used in close combat.”
“Was it used like a bat or a sword?”
“Both. While they could use it to slice an opponent, similar to a sword, the end was blunt and could be jammed into the enemy with a force that could break rib bones or crush a throat.”
“Nice, a multi-use weapon.”
“Exactly. Some believe that the warriors preferred this weapon because they could injure their enemy, rendering them immobile, but leave them alive to be sacrificed later to Buluc Chabtan.”
His hazel eyes met hers. One dark eyebrow crept upward. “With a name like Buluc, I’m guessing he wasn’t the god of cute puppies and kittens.”
She grinned. “Buluc Chabtan also known as God F, the ancient Maya deity of war, sudden death, and violence.” She fanned her shirt. “Oh, and gambling, too.”
“Gambling is up there with death and violence? Huh. So, let me get this straight. A warrior would severely maim their enemy with this razor-studded cricket bat and then offer the poor sucker up to the god of war?”
She nodded. “Better him to be sacrificed than you.”
“Damn, it was hard to be a Maya hero.” Quint wrote in his notebook for a few seconds while she continued to fan her shirt.
“You know, boss lady, I may complain now and then, but I’m glad to be here now, sweating my ass off while beating back bugs and an occasional snake.”
“Are you really, though?” she teased.
“Hell, yes.” He looked up at her. “Better this than living back when someone was always wanting to stab me, stick me, or yank out my heart while I was still alive, and then offer it to some invisible deity who probably wouldn’t appreciate the beating organ as much as I had.”
She chuckled. “The indoor plumbing we have these days is more preferable, too.”
“It is nice to shower without worrying about stepping on a scorpion or centipede.”
A lizard darted over the rubble near her boots, racing from one shady crack to the next.
“Or a lizard,” she added. “Initially, scholars thought that the macuahuitl was an Aztec weapon, but there are carvings of it in Chichen Itza that are believed to pre-date the Aztec empire. So, the vote is still out on what civilization came up with it.”
He shoulder bumped her. “What do you think?”
“I’m no expert in ancient weapons, but there is plenty of evidence that people take ideas from civilizations that came before them.
Unfortunately, there haven’t been any macuahuitl found intact due to them being made of wood.
There are only drawings and carvings that remain, many of which are linked to the Aztec.
But the carving showing up at Chichen Itza does make me wonder if this weapon came from a different civilization all together.
One that precedes both the Aztec and Maya. ”
“Like the Olmec?”
“Maybe. We know from several excavated and studied sites that the Olmec got around. They didn’t just sit in one area, sowing crops and keeping track of the moon’s whereabouts in the sky, so there is plenty of reason to suspect the macuahuitl has been around for a very, very long time.”
“But you said the name is from the Aztec language.”
“Right, it’s Nahuatl, which was spoken in south-central Mexico, especially by the Aztec. Keep in mind that much of the history and words we know now have come down through Spanish monks and scribes traveling with the conquistadors.”
“And what does that mean to you in this case?”
“How can we know what is Olmec or what is from even before their time?” A drop of sweat trickled and tickled down her spine. She fanned her shirt at her back. “If only I could time travel to find out how the civilizations unfolded.”
Angélica had heard her mother make a similar wish many times over the years while she was trying to find answers amongst the ancient works and derelict sites beaten down by time. A window to the past was an archaeologist’s dream.
“If you figure out how to time travel,” Quint said, “I’m coming with you.”
“You’d leave modern plumbing behind for me?”
He looked her over, south to her boots and then back up to her eyes. “Sure. You’d look fantastic in a loincloth. Maybe we should roleplay Tarzan and Jane when we get home.”
She grinned. “I’m game, but you have to let me do the jungle call some of the time.”
“Deal.” He pointed at the sketch she’d made of the weapon. “How long again?”
“Probably three to four feet, but nobody is certain.”
He pondered that for a moment. “But the longer it gets, the slower it would swing, and you don’t want to be sluggish in close combat.”
“True, but have you seen some of the weapons they’ve unearthed from the Viking era? The Maya warriors probably had muscles upon muscles.”
“Of course, manly men. Reminds you of me, right?”
She laughed. “Anything else you need from me, superstud?”
He just grinned at her, his eyes sparkling. “Well, I’m still thinking about a loincloth bikini …”
“I meant for note-taking purposes, Parker.”
He glanced down at his field notebook, flipping back through the last few pages. “I don’t think so. I listed all the items you rattled off and your answers to my questions.” He flipped another page and then stopped, frowning toward Daisy.
“There is one other thing,” he said in a quieter voice.
“What?” Angélica whispered, glancing at Daisy, who was sketching away.
“What’s key-me?”
She turned back to Quint. “What’s what?”
“K-e-y-m-e,” he spelled out.
“I have no idea. Why?”
He leaned closer and quietly told her about the exchange he’d had with Daisy prior to the discovery of the cache.
“What does that mean? Death is smeared all over you?” she asked, recoiling from a wasp that hovered by her head for a moment to check her out. She shooed it away. “Like covered in bug guts type of smear?”
His forehead lined. “That’s not the important part.”
“Uh, I think it is. Nobody wants to be smeared with death. That just elicits all sorts of horror-movie images.”
“I’m more concerned about what Daisy meant when she said that there are too many whispers here and called me key-me?” He gently touched her arm. “Did your mom ever use that as a nickname? Or did she know someone by that name?”
Angélica stared down at his hand for a moment while waiting for the sudden tightness in her throat to ease. Would she ever fully get past her mother’s death? So many years had passed, yet … She sighed. Would the time ever come when thinking about her mom didn’t spur a twinge of heartache?
She looked over at Daisy. “You think she was channeling my mom again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It happened before, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again.”
“Could you actually see my mom this time?” She turned back to him.
He shook his head. “I only saw Daisy.”
“Was there a bright or blurry aura surrounding her?” Angélica had wondered if she’d see any sort of ethereal signs of her mom in advance if Marianne ever chose to visit her again.
“No.”
“A wispy, ghostly form floating nearby?”
“Only Daisy with her eyes closed.”
“Repeat what she said after telling you about the whispers and calling you that name.”
“Key-me,” he repeated. “She wanted to know if I could hear the whispers. Then she started talking about the ancestors speaking to their guardian, but she got distracted by the smell of death, which was apparently smeared all over me.”
Key-me. Angélica repeated the name a few times under her breath. What would her mom mean by …
“Dr. Angélica,” Raul called out from the side of the small building with the cache. He and Fernando were carefully clearing away any non-structural stones and debris on that side, while keeping an eye out for any carvings or glyphs.
“Yes?”
Raul waved her over. “Fernando wants you to see this.” The tone of his voice was higher than normal. Excited maybe. Or afraid.
“Is it a stela?” she asked, rising from the rock.
Raul shook his head. “He says it looks like a passageway.”
“What?” Quint asked, standing now, too.
“A passageway,” Raul repeated. “It heads into the ground.”
“Coming!” she told Raul, then turned to Quint. “Let’s circle back to this Daisy stuff later when we’re alone.”
“Can do, boss lady. Let’s go see what the boys found.”
Quint led the way over to where Raul waited for them with a wide smile while practically bouncing on his heels. The dig-deeper bug seemed to have bitten the park ranger, too.