Evil Star (25 page)

"So where are we?" Matt asked.

"This city is called Vilcabamba." Richard shook his head in wonder.

"It's one of the great legends of Peru, which is to say it's not even meant to exist! It's a bit like El Dorado. A whole lot of explorers have looked for it. Some of them thought they'd found it. And here we are, right in the mid-dle of it! Amazing!"

Richard had taken Matt to the small, stone-built house on one of the upper terraces of the city, where he had been living. They were sitting in the main room, a single living space with two beds, a sofa, and a multicolored rug spread out over the stone floor. Two of the walls were lined with windows. These were strangely shaped, narrower at the top than at the bottom, like cut-off triangles. Matt had seen the same design all over Cuzco. There was no glass, no electric-ity, no running water. At night, it would be lit by candles.

There was a fast-flowing stream, a tributary of the River Chamba, on the other side of the city. The toilets and bath houses were all located here.

The two of them had been given lunch: a large bowl of something called
locro,
a mixture of meat and vegetables somewhere between a Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star soup and a stew. They were on their own. Pedro had gone off with Atoc — presumably to rest in one of the other houses. Matt was glad to have a bit of time with Richard. Just being with him reminded him of the normal life he'd once had.

Matt told his story first, beginning with his meeting with Pedro, his time at Poison Town, the escape from Salamanda's hacienda. Then there was the journey to Cuzco, the chase through the streets at night, and finally his arrival here. The two of them had been given a jug of beer — the same stuff that Matt had tried in Cuzco. Richard had drunk it all by the time he had finished.

"So this boy, Pedro, is one of the five," Richard said.

"Yes."

"And you talk to him in your dreams."

"That's right."

Richard sighed. “You know what really worries me? I believe you!

Six months ago, if anyone had told me all this, I'd have laughed in their face." He thought for a moment. "Does Pedro have . . . you know . . . any special powers? Can he see into the future or anything like that?"

"No. He's very ordinary. And he doesn't want to be involved."

Richard's story was more straightforward. After being seized on the way from the airport, he had been taken to a room in Lima where he had come face-to-face with his kid-nappers. Matt knew who they were by now. One was Atoc. The other had been Micos.

"I was feeling pretty pleased with myself because you'd got away,"

Richard said. "I figured they wouldn't be inter-ested in me and they'd just let me go. But then they explained to me that they were on our Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star side. They'd tried to intercept us before we walked into a trap. The police were at the hotel."

"I know." Matt shivered. "I met them."

"Atoc and the others always knew we'd come to Peru. They were waiting for us from the very start. The trouble was, so were Salamanda and his people. The Incas had to try the kidnap thing because that was the only way they could get hold of us. Of course, they weren't too pleased that you'd got away. In fact, they've been looking for you ever since. They've had people out all over the country. As for me, they took me by car to a private airport, then by plane to Cuzco, and finally by helicopter to the middle of nowhere.

Just like you. I got bitten to death in the cloud forest and I nearly threw up coming down into the canyon. Did I ever tell you that I don't have a head for heights?"

"No."

"Well, I've been here ever since. They've looked after me, and the food's good. But like I said, I've been worrying about you. I couldn't believe it when they told me they'd found you in Cuzco. I'd love to have seen that secret pas-sage. One day maybe you can show me.

Perhaps on the way out. . ."

"Who are they, Richard?" It was the one thing Matt still didn't understand. "They say this is the lost city of the Incas. But there aren't any Incas anymore, are there?"

"There aren't meant to be. Most of them died out." Richard lifted the jug of beer, realized it was empty, and put it down again. "These people are the only survivors, the descendants of the tens of thousands killed all those years ago. And this city is like their secret headquarters. Did you notice the path along the edge of the canyon?

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star They have a way of making it disappear after you've walked down it. No planes can fly over here because of the surrounding mountains and the weird air currents. Nobody knows about this place apart from the people who live here — and you and me, now that we're their guests."

"And they want to help us."

"That's right. You've got Diego Salamanda on the one hand. At least this time we know who the bad guy is. And you've got the Incas on the other."

"Why can't they stop him?" This was something Matt didn't understand. "They know who he is. They know where to find him. ..."

"What do you want them to do, Matt? Murder him?"

Matt shrugged. "It doesn't seem like a bad idea."

"They'd have to get to him first, and he's well pro-tected."

"They could go to the police."

"He owns the police. Diego Salamanda is one of the most powerful men in Peru. What does he call his com-pany? Salamanda News International. He should call it Salamanda International News because that would spell SIN, which sounds right to me.

Salamanda's worth billions, and if he went out of business, half the country would go with him. News, telecommunications, software . . . only last week lie sent an enormously expensive satellite into space, paid for out of his own pocket. He plays chess with the pres-ident. They do it over the telephone, and Salamanda is the one who put in the direct line."

"If Salamanda is so rich and so successful, why does he want to Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star open the gate? What's in it for him?"

"I don't know, Matt. Maybe the Old Ones can shrink his head back to normal for him. Maybe they can give him eternal life. Why did the last lot want to open Raven's Gate? If you ask me, they're all mad."

Richard fell silent. Someone had begun to play pan-pipes outside the house. The notes hovered eerily in the air. Matt looked out the window, across the canyon. He had forgotten how high up they were. The ground fell away forever.

“You said the Incas were waiting for us," he said. "How did they know we were coming?"

"Yes. I asked Atoc about that. I wish I could tell you they read about it in the newspapers, but it's a bit more compli-cated. The Incas know more or less everything that's happening in Peru. They've got people everywhere. But there's something else. They use magic."

"Magic?"

"They have these people — they call them
amautas.
They're like sorcerers ... a bit like dear old Miss Ashwood. They know about the Old Ones. And they know about you. You may meet one of them later. He's an old chap. I've spent a bit of dme with him. I think he's about a hundred and twelve."

It took Matt a moment to absorb all this. "They knew I was coming,"

he said. "But so did Salamanda. Who do yon think told him?"

"I've been thinking about that. I'm afraid it looks as if it was someone in the Nexus."

"That's what I thought. I rang Mr. Fabian, but the police arrived before he did."

Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star

"Well, I don't have any real idea, but if it was anyone, Tarrant's the one I'd most suspect. Do you remember him? He was the policeman who gave us the false passports. That's what caused half the trouble.

Having fake passports turned us into criminals . . . and they were his idea."

"So what happens now?"

Richard thought for a moment. "We can't get in touch with the Nexus again, that's for sure. We can't trust them. So it looks like we're on our own."

"Again . . ." Matt yawned, suddenly tired.

“You'd better get some sleep," Richard said. “You must be exhausted. Then you'd better wash and change those clothes. I have to say, I hardly recognized you when I saw you just now. You look ridiculous!"

"Thanks."

"And then you can introduce me to your friend, Pedro. We've all got to be in the main square at sunset." Richard smiled. "The Incas are having a party and we're invited!"

************************************

Matt slept until the middle of the afternoon. When he woke up, Richard took him to the bath house — a series of wooden cubicles in a stone building with a jet of water pouring through a hole in the wall in a nonstop stream. The water was ice cold but sparkling clean.

It couldn't wash off the dye, so Matt felt he came out looking much as he had when he went in. But he was certainly refreshed.

He had been given new clothes to wear. The Indians who lived in Vilcabamba wore clothes that were a strange mix of the ancient and Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star the modern, with brightly colored hats and ponchos above and jeans and sneakers below. When he came out of the shower, he was given his own poncho — a deep red with a green diamond pattern around the border. The strange thing was, he didn't feel self-conscious wearing it. Perhaps he had changed so much in the last few days that he no longer had any idea who he really was.

Then he and Richard were taken to a grand building, twice the size of any of the others, at the very heart of the city. All around them, there were Indians preparing the feast to come, setting up wooden tables, building fires, and carry-ing out trays of food and drink. The sun had turned red and was already below them, sinking fast behind the moun-tains. It was a new experience for Matt to see the sun this way. Normally he would look up at it. Now he seemed to be above it and he could actually see it slipping over the edge of the world.

The building they were entering was a palace. Matt knew it without being told. There were two guards, bare-legged, ceremoniously dressed in tunics and carrying golden spears — one on each side of the door. More guards lined the passageway inside. And there, in front of them, was a throne, mounted on a platform, and on it a man wearing a long robe with a headdress and golden discs attached to his ears. He wasn't much older than Richard, but there was a sense of confidence and seriousness about him that made him look somehow ageless. Matt stopped and bowed. The Incas, it seemed, had a prince. And this was surely him.

“You are welcome, Matteo," the man said, speaking in perfect English. He had the same accent as Atoc: foreign, but not Spanish.

In fact, his first language was Quechua. It was what his people had spoken before the Spanish arrived. "My name is Huascar and I am very glad to meet you at last. I have been waiting for you a long Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star time. My people have been waiting even longer. Please, sit down."

There were four low stools set out in front of the throne. Richard and Matt sat down. A moment later, Pedro and Atoc entered through a side door. Pedro had also been given fresh clothes. His poncho was a soft blue. He bowed to the Inca prince and took his place beside Matt. Atoc sat on the fourth stool.

“You are also welcome, Pedro," Huascar continued. He was still speaking in English for the benefit of Richard and Matt, but Atoc whispered quietly in Pedro's ear, translat-ing. "We have very little time remaining to us and there is a great deal to discuss."

He raised a hand, and servants stepped forward carry-ing four golden goblets of red wine that they set down on the floor in front of the guests. The Inca drank nothing himself.

"Five hundred years ago," the prince resumed, "one of the mightiest empires ever built fell and died. With the coming of Francisco Pizarro and the conquistadors from Spain, everything my people had created was destroyed. Our cities were burned down, our gold looted, our temples desecrated, my ancestors ruthlessly killed. So began for us the time of the great darkness.

"Today the glory of the Inca world is almost forgotten. Our cities are ruins, the broken pieces laid bare for tour-ists. Our art is locked away in museums. Only this place, Vilcabamba, remains undiscovered. Only here can we live as we once did. We are the last of the Incas."

He fell silent. Atoc whispered for a few seconds more, then stopped.

Pedro nodded.

"But we haven't lost our strength." The Inca looked Matt in the eyes.

“You have seen only a small part of our secret world, a fraction of Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star the gold we hid from the Spaniards. We do not live here all the time.

We cannot hide from modern life. But we have come here from all over Peru and South America to show ourselves to you. Because, when the final struggle comes, you must know that you can call on us.

"This is more than a new millennium. We are on the threshold of a new world and we believe that one day we will be able to regain our rightful place. The Incas will live again with our own laws, our own justice, our own peace. But we will have to fight for it — and our enemies today are more deadly than the conquistadors ever were.

We know about the Old Ones. We've
always
known about them.

They mean to destroy the new world before it is even born. And they are here in Peru."

Again, the Inca raised his hand. At once, another man entered the throne room, walking with the help of a stick. He was wearing a poncho that was as gray as he was. His entire body was hunched over. His arms and legs were all bone. Richard nudged Matt. This was the
amauta
he'd been talking about.

"Tell them," Huascar commanded.

"Before the sun has risen and set three times, the Old Ones will break through the gate that was created in Peru before the world began," the
amauta
said in English. His voice was surprisingly strong. "I have read the signs in the sky and on the land. The birds fly where they should not fly. There are too many stars in the heavens at night. A terrible disaster is a heartbeat away, and perhaps all our hopes will come to nothing. One boy will stand against the Old Ones and alone he will fall. Maybe he will die. This I do not know.