A Golden Legend

Chapter 6

After changing her immersion suit by clothes suitable for the jungle, Teresa slowly opened the backpack and extracted the object she had found. When she saw it in detail she could not control a cry of emotion. Despite the slime that covered it, the golden flash was detectable clearly as was its surface carved in bas-relief, where Teresa could discern figures and inscriptions.

The youngster stood up and turned again to the muddy shore of the cenote. She leaned over the quiet waters and proceeded to wash thoroughly the object found. When she was satisfied of the result, she returned to the camp, distant just 15 steps from the water. Up to that time she had repressed cravings to carefully observe the discovery, so now she sat down in her tiny folding chair, and then dried the object with a cloth, observed it carefully: it was a disc of about eight inches in diameter, thicker in the center than at the edges and undoubtedly made of gold. The circle was not perfect but pretty close. A circular sector, actually a strip about half an inch wide circled the disc, almost completely covered with glyphs. The central section of the piece presented a figure which, at first sight, Teresa interpreted as that of a warrior with his head covered by a headdress, perhaps consisting of feathers, and with his extended legs in a curious position, culminating with the soles of his feet facing each other

The spirit of the researcher had already submitted the first juvenile excitement. Mentally she compared this piece with others with which she had been I contact with, either directly or through illustrations during her studies or previous research. The woman carefully observed the relic with a magnifying glass of high gain, analyzing in particular the worn inscriptions. Then she photographed it and took notes with a precise description of the artifact. She finally proceeded to document the location of the cenote where she had submerged and the likely route that she had traveled under water. So it took her about one hour without noticing the passing of time, as the excitement gave. Finally, fatigued by the permanent mental concentration, looked to her around. The site in which the camp stood was charming, with trees growing within short distance of the cenote, but allowing the passage of a filtered light by foliage, the murmur of a nearby stream, the singing of birds and the outbreak of colors surrounding it competing for imitating a painter palette. The idyllic view gave way to the physical fatigue caused by the prolonged immersion in the underground river. She opened the travel cot and stretched on it; overcome by fatigue she was immediately asleep.

She awoke slowly, gradually recovering the senses. Teresa was surprised to hear human voices in off, which still came in a dream. She finally opened her eyes and turned her head toward the sound source. She saw a group of armed men in some sort of military clothes reviewing her little camp. That image caused her a great shock and she issued a sharp scream. When she tried to stand up she noticed that her hands were tied to the cot and the same happened with her legs. As she checked her state of helplessness her heart began beating rapidly. One of the men realized that Teresa was awake and approached her; observing closely his appearance the anguish of the young girl grew even more. Teresa had already been in contact with people of dubious appearance on her voyages to isolated spots, but this character seemed sinister. His sallow complexion and wavy hairs of the beard and hair that showed under the hat denoted some African blood, different from the population of Mayan origin common in the area. Teresa assumed that the men would be narcotics traffickers, although she had no news that the peninsula of Yucatán was inside the route that led from Colombia to the border with the United States through the Caribbean Sea and Mexican territory.

“Have you awakened at last?” Asked unnecessarily the man with a clear Cuban accent “So you are Teresa Cifuentes?”  added while he held a personal document of the young woman in the hand “ By the notes that you have written I understand that you are doing historical or anthropological research, or something like that” Teresa saw papers  scattered on the ground all around her tent, and felt doubly outraged to find that the men had been reviewing them. Gradually she realized that the subject, who introduced himself as Camilo, had a cultural level above the one she had assumed by seeing him; however, this finding did not reassured her.

“What do you want?” asked the girl breaking her silence “There are no valuables, take whatever you want and get out” Her tone, result of the growing desperation, rang however as imperative.

The man smiled, took the chin of the woman in their dirty hands, which caused Teresa an involuntary gesture of disgust….

“So you think you are in a position to give orders?” His voice now sounded different “I will show that you are wrong.” However, his tone was not threatening, but rather reflected security, no doubt provided by the armed escort.

At that moment one cry of another of the outlaws came to his attention, and he walked away from the woman. When he returned, Teresa could see that he was holding between his fingers the piece that had she found in the cenote. She had completely forgotten the finding, but as she saw it again she lamented that the outlaws had found it as they stirred among her belongings. Camilo addressed to her:

“Well, well, now you'll immediately tell me where you found this.”

Teresa was sufficiently scared and had no intention to let her finding jeopardize her integrity. Anyway she knew that her captors would hardly leave the object in her possession, and she was already resigned to losing it. Therefore she answered but without giving details on the opportunity and the meeting place. The Cuban appeared meditative, went back on his steps and returned after a few minutes with another character that had remained in the background until then. It was a man of between forty five to fifty years, very pale skin, blond hair cut to snuff, of strong German or Slavic appearance.

The newcomer turned to Camilo in a language that sounded like Russian to Teresa. Surprisingly, the Cuban replied in the same language, and then approached her again.

“Why are you working on this area?” he asked imperative.

“It is a scarcely explored area, while there are myths about several Mayan cities of the classic period, which have not yet been found.”

“What does the piece that you found represent?”

“I did not have time to analyze it yet, let me go and I´ll do it.” said Teresa in a challenging tone.

“Were you looking for a piece in particular?”  Camilo ignored the haughty response the young woman had given.

“No” replied Teresa.

“Then you were not looking for the pectoral?” insisted the Cuban.

“What pectoral are you talking about?”

The man hesitated before showing his cards.

“The Ix Chan Ahau piece” said finally.

Teresa was surprised by the response. She had vaguely heard of the legendary Mayan Queen, daughter of a god, and therefore a semi divine figure herself. What was striking for her was that the legend belonged to a pre-classic period, when it was presumed that the Matriarchy still reigned and the Queens-goddesses dominated the pantheon.

“A mythological character would hardly own a real pectoral” responded Teresa with an involuntary pedantry.