Page 17 of Explorer's Revenge
“Be careful.” I jerk Logan back as he steps onto the entrance of a structure. “The wood might be rotten. We don’t need you falling through and breaking an ankle or something.”
“Yes, Daddy,” he teases, but he heads inside one of the homes anyway. Rolling my eyes, I scan the area. There’s a clear space where they cooked and had fires, the homes circling it. There are even some posts where a fence may have been, and I swear I even see planks up in the trees.
“It’s a village,” Aiy says, appearing from behind a hut.
I nod in amazement. “It is.”
“Not just a village. You guys need to check this out,” Rick calls from somewhere beyond the last home. We follow his voice and come upon a bigger, wider building with a huge awning covering the entrance.
Inside is a wooden table with figurines on it, and as I spin, I take in all the drawings on the wall. “Is this a temple?”
“It looks to be,” Wilder murmurs. “Or at least a place of importance for them.”
“Hey, check out these drawings,” Logan murmurs. We follow him over to the wall. Some of them make no sense, but I get what he means.
They are . . .odd.
There is a depiction of a hole in the ground and somebody being thrown inside, and next to it are large shapes coming from the hole, chasing people. There are more images of the village and shadows surrounding it.
“It almost looks like there’s an animal that haunts them or this place,” he murmurs.
“The curse?” I shrug. “Could be a myth or simply a tale. The shapes are black, so maybe a jaguar?”
“Maybe,” Wilder says as he looks around. “Whatever it is, they believed in it enough to build a temple to ward it off.”
Nodding, I wander around and look at the drawings. There are more of humans running and more shapes than I can count, but never a clear image of what.
“We shouldn’t touch anything,” I warn with a glance around. “I feel their ghosts haunting this place. We don’t want to disrespect or disturb them.”
“I agree,” Rick replies with a shiver. “I can feel them watching us. We shouldn’t be here.”
“Then let’s keep moving,” Wilder orders, and we file out of the temple and back into the jungle, leaving the village to be claimed by nature.
Whatever they feared, it has to be long gone.
Right?
FOURTEEN
LOGAN
We made good progress today. We didn’t cover as much ground as we would have liked, but we got some amazing footage that Ajax will be happy with, and we are deep in the jungle now. If the lost city is anywhere on this island, it has to be in the middle.
At least, that’s what Wilder thinks, and we agree with him as we swiftly and efficiently set up camp, falling into our usual routine without needing to be ordered or asked. It’s one thing that works well for us. We have been together so long, we know and can anticipate each other’s needs.
I help Aiyaret string up our hammocks in a circle around the fire, where Wilder is preparing food while Way and Rick clear the edges of the camp and filter our water. When we are all sitting, tucking into our metal tins, we fall into a companionable silence.
The jungle is alive around us, the fire crackling between us.
It’s how we like it out here in the middle of nowhere, be it sand, snow, or jungle. It’s just us and nature and nothing else. We are free of expectations, pressure, and the horrors that press down on us from our memories.
“You think it’s actually here?” Rick asks as he leans back, resting his head on Wilder’s shoulder. “The city, I mean?”
“We’ll find out,” Wilder mutters, always the practical one.
Leaning forward, I grin mischievously at Rick. “I think so. I think it will be dripping with gold, and we are going to be the first to find it. Can you imagine what it will be like when we go back? We’ll be famous, maybe given some sort of award—hell, the best part will be shoving it in Carter’s face.”
“I’d like to shove something else in her face.” Rick wiggles his eyebrows as Wilder shoves him off, making him fall back with a laugh. Rick loves to wind his brother up about Maeve Carter, especially since the two hate each other after he rejected her as one of us.
