Page 145 of The Lost Guardian

Her scream echoed for far too long.

“Damn,” Torres muttered in the same tone one would use when finding a stain on a favorite shirt. Like Garcia’s horrific demise was no more than an unfortunate inconvenience. “It seems not all of the platforms are stable.”

Great. So it was like a giant game of Russian roulette, then? Each platform either a blank or a bullet.

“How on earth am I supposed to know which ropes and stone steps are safe and which will send us down there?” he shouted, motioning helplessly toward the gaping chasm.

“Maybe the answer isn’t found on earth at all,” he heard Ali say.

Santiago’s head snapped up, and he found her watching the spinning objects intently, a small crinkle between her brows. Under other circumstances, he would have kissed it.

“They’re planets,” she said, mostly to herself.

“What?” Santiago asked.

“They’re planets,” she repeated louder. “There were only five planets visible to the Inca. Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. Five.”

Santiago’s gaze shot back to the orbiting contraption, seeing it again in a new light. “Of course!” he gasped. “You’re brilliant.”

Ali motioned to the five spheres. “The smaller objects around them must be nearby stars,” she added.

“How does that help us get across?” Torres asked.

Irritation overwhelmed Santiago’s fear in that moment. The audacity of the man to thrust him into imminent danger, order him to figure out how to get everybody out of it, and then demand answers along the way.

Santiago did his best to swallow his resentment and focus on the problem at hand.

“I don’t know,” Ali confessed, looking closer at the obstacle in front of them.

“You’d better hurry up and figure it out,” Torres said. “If not, I’ll send you ahead of us, and quite frankly, my dear, you do not look like you have the strength to survive the crossing.”

Santiago’s hands clenched into fists. He wouldn’t let that happen. He was the Guardian, after all. He was meant to do this. It was in his blood.

But Torres was correct about one thing. He did have to hurry, and not only to save Ali. Time was running out. For everyone.

They needed to reach Atahualpa’s tomb before the entire continent was lost.

50

Santiago and Ali watched the rotation of the spheres, as well as the individual platforms, to see if there was any hint or clue they could derive from them.

They all seemed to spin at the same speed, and Santiago could not see anything else in their motions that would aid him. He scanned the walls and what little of the floor had not given out, searching for etched instructions or anything else that might have paved their way.

Like a big button with the word “stop” labeled on it, Santiago thought.

Sadly, that was a dead end as well. He scratched his head.

“I am losing my patience,” Torres warned them. Santiago whirled on him, feeling flames rise behind his eyes.

“We’re working on it,” Ali snapped.

“Work faster!”

Santiago forced himself back to the rotating shapes in front of him, tracking their sluggish pirouettes. As he did, he noticed something atop one of the spinning steps.

It moved away from his position before he could examine it further, but Santiago was sure that he had seen something. He strained his eyes, focusing all of his attention on the next platform that drew close to him.

There! On the step was a symbol. A drawing of…