Chapter 1
I had come to a dangerous place, eagerly and with abandon fully latched to my soul. Stepping out of the mud-splattered jeep, I mentally cursed the wretched thing for the banging and jostling I had received on my way up through the trees. After a quick check that I had my knife and packs, I walked into the treacherous mysteries of the Vale do Javari.
The Amazon rainforest was vast, many portions of it unexplored, this place least of all. The ground was sodden and soft, rain-soaked leaves licking my pants as I passed. The possibility that it could have been thousands of years since humans had lived here thrilled me to the point of such utter disbelief that I didn’t hear the person behind me, at first.
“Olivia, are you listening to the man?”
I tore my eyes unwillingly from the vine-laden trees, branches twisting toward me like they were reaching for me, beckoning me to explore their depths.
Sighing sharply, I glanced over my shoulder at Kelby. He was the newbie on the team and, in my opinion, took too much stock in precautionary measures. No doubt the Brazilian official standing near his shoulder had been touting exactly that .
My silence giving him answer enough, Kelby shook his head. “He warns us that the area is heavily populated with an unusual amount of jaguars and to be cautious.”
Grinning, I touched the knife hanging on my belt. It was a beautiful number, eight inches with a mahogany handle worn from use. “Jaguars are nothing Chaucer can’t handle.” I slid the knife out a few inches, the cold steel still gleaming like moon-kissed glass after so many years. “Besides, those cats aren’t what I’d worry about. The Brazilian wandering spiders are harder to spot.”
Kelby knew this, and I probably shouldn’t taunt him, but I was eager to continue, and I didn’t need to be lectured on local wildlife, however dangerous.
The man beside my team member began speaking in Portuguese, and I raised my eyebrows. I had known, of course, that there were a couple of other teams that had been granted the rare and one-time opportunity to traverse this vast and largely untouched wilderness. I just thought that my team would have been here first. Upon further inspection, my eyes caught the slightly trampled underbrush and a narrow path leading to the very recently discovered ruins that had brought me to the Amazon.
Thanking the man in Portuguese, I hurried down the trail, leaving the rest of my team behind to gather their equipment. I caught snippets of conversation as I neared the dig site, my steps quickening. The massive trees and dense wall of plant-life broke open, and I paused at the shaded edge to take in the reason I was here.
A wide open space was patterned with squares of grass rimmed with carefully set stones, smoothed with age. Already, another team seemed to have found a way in as a man disappeared into a gap near the edge of one of the squares.
Not as grand of a discovery as Machu Picchu or La Ciudad Perdida, but I was still itching to get into the depths of the ruins before me .
Slapping a mosquito, I stepped into the full sunlight, a rare thing this far into the rainforest, and farther into the ruins where I could get a full view of the other two competing groups.
“Late to the party, eh, Perez?”
I had never favored the man leaning on the small folding table several yards away, grinning like a boy who had set bait out for a mouse. Who favors competition, anyway?
Raising my voice so he could hear me across the expanse of grass and rock, I said, “Shouldn’t you have your head buried in the sand somewhere, Williams?”
“I left Egypt as soon as I’d caught wind of this. No more dusty bones for me.” He rubbed his thumb and fingers together.
Greedy ass. He was more ‘careless treasure hunter’ than ‘esteemed archaeologist.’
True, I couldn’t honestly deny the thrill it gave me at finding something rare and wondrous, but I also didn’t take my findings immediately to the highest bidder. For me, it was more than the shiny at the end of the finish line. Of course, I wouldn’t even be in the race if I didn’t get started.
My team arrived behind me, complaining mildly that we should have been the first here. I agreed but kept my thoughts to myself. Archeology was a more cutthroat business than most people knew, and it would get us nowhere to whine about being last in line.
“Where to, Liv?” Sarah asked. She was the only member of the team I actually enjoyed being around on occasion. She didn’t jabber on needlessly like some or pelt me with question after question.
I scanned the area and jerked my chin to a spot dappled with shade a few yards away. “Let’s set up there.”
As the others set up the table and equipment, I resumed my study of the surrounding area. The two groups who had arrived before us seemed to have claimed the only point of entry into the ruins beneath our feet, with Dave Williams’ group having first dibs. That made us third, and I hated to wait.
Continuing my study of the ruins, I pursed my lips. This had been no residence, or even a temple. If I was correct in the guess forming in my mind, these were tombs. The ancient indigenous were sun-worshipers and would have their temple, and their treasures, closer to where the golden rays would reach.
I glanced at the carpet of grass, then back at Dave still poring over what may have been a map spread across the surface of the table. If I was correct, he had left behind dusty bones across the world only to unearth more here. Sure, he may manage to nab a trinket or two clinging to the time-weathered remains, but not the goldmine he was after.
Stepping in a slow circle, I scanned the dense trees, and as I faced west, something hit me. It was a subtle sort of feeling, like a feather brush across my heart. Dehydration was easy to find, even in a place that was constantly dripping with moisture.
I shook off the uneasy feeling and reached for my canteen, but it wasn’t at the usual place on my hip. I must have left it back in the jeep.
As I headed to the table on our claimed spot, the unusual sensation hit me again, and I peered back toward the west.
A reckless idea pulled up the corners of my lips. I managed to catch Sarah’s eye and gave her a small jerk of my head to the western wall of trees, then looked meaningfully at the other teams. She rolled her eyes but nodded. This wasn’t the first time I had decided to sneak off and hope I wasn’t noticed.
Leaving behind the other archeologists, I pushed my way into the waiting jungle, intuition carrying me forward. The massive trees stretched toward the sky like sentinels of life long forgotten by the rest of the world. My entire surroundings were deemed to keep out trespassers bent on disturbance, corruption, and thievery, so I would need to be cautious.
Though it was early morning, sweat was already trickling down my spine, wisps of loose hair clinging to my brow. Monkeys howled in the distance, letting every creature within a mile radius know about our intruding presence. A cacophony of birds warbled and trilled, the din as comforting and welcoming to me as a mother’s song. Moisture dripped from everything, and the ground gave easily under my soft and quiet steps.
I steadily made my way up to higher ground, away from the lowlands and up to where the sun would have shone brighter. It wasn’t an easy trek. A few times, I found the path so entangled with vegetation that it was impassable, and I had to stop and backtrack.
Branches broke to my left, and I jerked around, hand going to my knife. A group of spider monkeys, with long limbs and agile tails, moved swiftly across looping vines and twisting branches. I watched them for a moment before I continued on my way, still following that strange sensation that seemed to be leading me exactly to where I wanted to go.