SERA CONTINUED down the hill beside Riq, overcome with guilt about leaving Dak’s side. Her best friend still hadn’t regained consciousness, and she wanted to be the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. And who knew what crazy potion that mystic might try without her supervision? But when Riq had stirred her from a restless sleep, he reminded her of Dak’s last words about the people inside the observatory. The least they could do, he reasoned, was honor their friend’s wishes by checking it out.

So here Sera was.

Trekking down to the observatory.

The guilt tightening like a noose around her neck with each step she took away from the cave.

“I mean, just look at it,” Riq continued. “It’s incredible what Kisa was able to do without the help of modern tools.”

“Wow, it really is,” Sera said, rolling her eyes. Riq hadn’t stopped talking about Kisa and his new bracelet since they started their walk. He’d already explained his theory about her being the snake charmer from the riddle. He believed she might hold the key to discovering the Break they needed to fix. He described for Sera the deep conversation he’d had with Kisa, which had lasted into the morning. Now he was obsessing over the artistic merits of the bracelet she’d given him. Riq was so caught up in Kisa talk, he didn’t even seem to notice all the storm damage they were passing. The thick tree branches strewn all over the dirt path. The massive reddish brown puddles and blown-off roofs. The smaller huts on the outskirts of the village that had been completely flattened.

“And it’s surprisingly comfortable,” Riq said, spinning the bracelet around his wrist for Sera to see. “I never thought of myself as a bracelet-wearing kind of guy, but this thing’s a different deal. I really dig it.”

“I’m sure you do.” Sera hadn’t known Riq long, but she was willing to go out on a limb and say he was acting out of character. Not that she had time to worry about Riq’s character at the moment. Her focus was on getting to the observatory, finding out whatever it was they were supposed to find out, then getting back up to the cave to check on Dak.

When Sera looked up a few minutes later, her eyes grew big and she stopped in her tracks. The observatory.

Riq turned around. “I bet Kisa would make you something, too, if —”

“Look!” Sera interrupted, pointing ahead of them. Yesterday the observatory had been nearly as tall as the temple. Now Sera was staring at a heap of rubble.

“The storm,” Riq said under his breath.

Sera’s body went cold. Most of the roof had been stripped away. The walls were folded in on one another and crumbling near the base. A dozen men, including Itchik, were standing on top of the wreckage, calling out names and carrying debris away, stone by stone.

Sera and Riq took off running down the hill.

Sera quickly learned that there were three elders trapped inside: Cocom, Kan Boar, and Pacal. They were the reason everyone was working at such a frantic pace. Itchik kept calling out their names and digging through the rubble, trying to determine the location of the voices that occasionally echoed back. Sera and Riq worked right alongside the Mayas.

Initially, there were a dozen Mayan men helping out. Then two dozen. Then three. All of them hoisted boulders nearly as big as their own bodies. Women started pitching in. Older children. By late afternoon there were over two hundred people milling around the observatory wreckage, carrying away rocks. Those too young or old to lift debris ladled fresh water from buckets into cups and passed out fruit to those who’d been working since morning and refused to take a break. Nearly every face Sera had seen in the cave the night before was out here now, helping to dig the elders out from under the debris.

Soon the sun started to set, but that didn’t slow the Mayas. So it didn’t slow Sera either. She lifted as many smaller stones as she could manage, carrying them to one of several piles of rubble near the temple. Riq did the same, Kisa now working at his side. Sera occasionally scanned the crowd for Dak, hoping he’d woken up and demanded to join the rescue efforts. She knew that’s exactly what he’d do.

But there was no sign of him.

“Cocom!” Itchik continued to roar. “Kan Boar! Pacal!”

“Who are these people anyway?” Sera asked Riq and Kisa as she tossed two grapefruit-size rocks onto the pile of rubble.

“Wise men, right?” Riq said, turning to Kisa.

Kisa wiped sweat from her brow and nodded. “They are the scribes of our village.”

“Why were they in the observatory during the storm?” Sera asked as the three of them started back toward the wreckage site.

“Only Itchik knows for sure,” Kisa said. “Though many believe they were working on a secret project to be studied by the men of Yuknoom the Great, king of Calakmul. His men will be visiting our village in a few days’ time.”

“I still can’t believe Itchik is a king,” Sera said, recalling what Riq had told her on the way down the hill. “He never even let on last night.”

“He is our king,” Kisa said, “but more important, according to Itchik himself, he is a father and husband and uncle.”

Sera nodded, but she was having trouble wrapping her head around these Mayas compared to the Maya she’d read about. Itchik didn’t set himself apart from everyone. She thought that’s what all kings did. And it moved her to see everyone pitching in to help rescue the trapped elders.

When Kisa broke off to get a cup of water, Sera took Riq by the arm. “Did you ask her about the riddle?”

He nodded. “In a roundabout way. Apparently, when she was little she survived a bite from the deadliest snake in the lowlands. Her uncle said she needed to honor the snake for not taking her life. That’s the reason she works snakes into her jewelry. Seems weird for it to just be a coincidence. I’ll keep working on it.”

Sera let out a defeated sigh. “What are we doing here, Riq? Dak’s hurt, and the Ring is malfunctioning, and we aren’t getting any closer to understanding the riddle. I’m so confused.”

“I am, too, Sera. We just have to keep searching.”

Sera saw Kisa approaching with two cups of water. At least Riq had made a friend, she thought. Which made her think of poor Dak, laid up in a dingy cave, alone.

Kisa handed a cup to both Riq and Sera, and they thanked her.

As Sera finished her water, she heard a small commotion building on the other side of the rubble. She set down her cup next to Riq’s and Kisa’s, and the three of them hurried around the wreckage, toward a gathering crowd.

“What’s happening?” Kisa asked a stocky Mayan woman.

“They’ve spotted the scribes underneath the wreckage,” the woman said excitedly. “They’re alive!”

Sera pushed her way around several people to see for herself.

Itchik was right up front calling out, “Pacal, remain calm! We will get you out of there!” He turned to the group of men next to him and said, “It’s a miracle they’re not harmed. Now let’s hurry.”

It took another hour to clear a wide enough tunnel for the scribes to climb out of. Sera watched them emerge, one by one, dirty but otherwise unscathed. The last man who came out was carrying a large tablet of bark-colored paper, which was filled with strange-looking glyphs and paintings. He handed the tablet to Itchik, who looked it over, saying, “How did you survive, Pacal?”

Pacal pointed back at the tunnel. “We huddled next to the wall with the ceiba tree. It saved our lives.”

Itchik smiled and nodded, looking back and forth between the three filthy men and the tablet. “It is our good luck charm as always,” he said.

“While we were trapped, I decided I will paint the tree onto the first and last pages of the codex,” Pacal said. “I believe it will be a worthy addition.”

“Yes, absolutely.”

Sera couldn’t believe what she was seeing. An actual Mayan codex. She ducked down so she could peer into the narrow hole. It was dark inside, but once her eyes adjusted she was able to make out the large tree painted on the wall. She got goose bumps and quickly turned to Riq. “The riddle!”

“I was thinking the same thing,” he said.

It was late by the time Sera made it back to the cave and Dak’s bedside. He was still unresponsive, though Jasaw seemed to think his condition had improved. Sera wasn’t so sure. If anything, Dak’s injuries looked worse. There was a lump the size of a softball on the back of his head. The backs of his arms and shoulders were entirely black and blue.

“He looks awful,” Sera said.

“It is not important how he appears on the outside,” Jasaw said, waving more incense over Dak’s bare chest. “It is his insides that matter. And there is no longer a danger of his brain swelling.”

Sera stared at Dak. She was beginning to trust Jasaw a little more, though she still wished he could back up his claims with an MRI.

Once Jasaw left, Sera pulled out the SQuare and powered it on. She and Riq had ducked behind a huge tree outside the village to study the riddle before trekking back to the cave. But even knowing that the symbol of the ceiba tree was part of this local codex, they were just as lost.

The riddle came up, and she read it aloud to Dak, over and over, hoping something would jump out at her:

A snake charmer and a clown

A treasure that never was

A gift from the deity Itzamna: from 9.10.5.10.7 to 11.17.2.13.10

Trace the symbol of the ceiba tree toward the truth of the curse

Sera read each phrase a dozen times, but they still didn’t add up to anything. And Dak just lay there, unmoving.

Next, she booted up the Ring. She had been able to get the display working again, but something was still wrong. The Ring wouldn’t accept any new data. Every time she input new coordinates, she got an error message. It was deeply troubling.

Eventually, she shut off both machines, curled up on the ground next to Dak’s cot, and closed her eyes. She pushed Dak and the riddle out of her mind, and instead focused on her trip to the Cataclysm. She remembered the flooding streets. The bloodred sun. But as soon as she saw herself reaching for the doorknob of her house, things went blank.

Again.

What had she seen that was so awful her mind wouldn’t let her remember?