Kare led me straight to his room. Candlelight flickered in its dark corner and shown on the altar to Quetzal. Against the wall beside his bed was a platform set on four black volcanic rocks. Parrot feathers, dried palm leaves, and seashells framed a three-foot high carving of Quetzal the Plumed Serpent; a dark red mahogany snakehead with the body of a bird, flame-tipped wings spread as if landing.

A four-inch gold cross intertwined by a feathered serpent hung from a silver chain from the statue's eagle-like neck. Blood red rubies were set in the snake's eyes.

Here was the conquistador's cross that Kare had taken from the skeleton of the conquistador Gabriel Ayala.

Even inside, the air had grown unnaturally hot and muggy. Rain drummed against the boards on the roof and splashed against the windowpanes. If this did not work, how long before the log cabin was beaten down by the rain and covered by the rising lake?

"Present the box to Quetzal." Kare pointed at the foot of the auburn bust.

I hesitated. The idea of giving up the box was as grievous as being asked to cut off my hands.

"Do not wait," Kare shrieked. "It will only grow harder to do what you must. For everything you hold dear, save the world, Du."

An insidious rebellion rose in my thoughts. This was not my world. In the new World of Water, I would be a deity.

A bolt of lightening struck a tree not fifty yards outside the window.

Shraaaaaa!

The corpse of a dead pine burst into flames. I shrank to the ground, breathless, shivering with fear. Kinchel the Avenger would never let me live long enough to be a god.

"Hurry Du, there is not much time. Tell Quetzal you will serve him."

I rotated an eye and kept it on Kare as an anchor to keep me from being swept away by the Xucha magic. Holding the vessel of the destruction of the Age of Man, I knelt before the image of the Plumed Serpent.

The witches' response to my betrayal was to increase their chanting.

Cruuuuu.

Cruuuuu.

"Save us, please save us," I babbled and dropped the box. As soon as my physical connection with it was broken, I fell backwards to the floor. I groaned, my forehead and underarms wet with clammy sweat.

Nothing happened. The sound of rain beat on the roof like the fall of approaching steps. I rose to a crouch and looked at Kare expecting to see disappointment. I had done something wrong, had not known the correct way to contact his god.

But Kare's unwavering stare remained on the statue. I followed his gaze and gasped. On Kare's alter, the ruby eyes of the Serpent glowed. A stream of red and yellow gas streamed from the carved snake head's pearl nostrils.

I shrank toward the door. Numbing, trembling fear caused my eyes to bulge.

As I watched, the wooden body transformed into a living, vibrant presence. Quetzal's golden reptilian head turned; his magenta eyes followed me. The silver breast expanded. Long feathers spread behind him in a tail of wavering color.

If this was what was going to protect me, the ally seemed no less terrible than the enemy. Kare blocked my escape or I would have fled in blind terror to the bottom of the lake. The serpentine form horrified me. I saw myself in the reflection of his lambent eyes--my round lower jaw hanging limply in a stupid and confused expression.

Quetzal's hollow voice echoed inside my brain with a distinct courtly, Spanish accent. Either through my newly increased empathy or through his charisma, I felt appreciated and protected by him.

You understand. We can help each other. Our common good is the good of the many.

Cruuuuu.

The witches screamed for my attention, for my devotion. But I could not take my eyes off Quetzal.

Together we will save the Age of Man. Take the box. Inside are two of the Jewels of Life. Carry them to Manoa. There you will find the Cocatamia, the Staff of Life. Imbedded in the Staff are the two remaining Jewels of Life. Only when you possess all four Jewels will you be able to stop the rain. Only then will you be able to free me.

Either by Quetzal's magic or through the strength of my newly empowered empathy I saw a vision of the Cocatamia--a baton composed of a silver staff wrapped in golden fascia upon which rested a golden casting of the head of Tatya-Masi. In its eyes were two small translucent jewels that reflected light in bright flashes and at the same time emitted their own internal emerald glow.

How...? The thought barely formed and the Serpent responded, his voice quietly urgent. Find your Mother. Give her the tunjos. She will guide you to Manoa. Beware. Kinchel seeks the destruction of the tunjos and your defeat. Do not wear the tunjos. The Assassins of Fire are near.

Even under the intoxication of Quetzal's envelopment of my will I could not imagine finding my way to Manoa. How was I supposed to reach a mythical city in Latin America when I was not certain if I could find my way to the nearest town?

Curratta hovered between me and Quetzal. "Do not heed the lies of Fire," she entreated in a high-pitch voice that cackled with rage.

Quetzal grew until he filled the room.

The bald shaman ignored the Serpent, watching me with eyes set above her cheeks so similar to mine.

Be strong, Tatya-Masi. Open the box. Unite with those who revere you.

Cruuuuu.

The chorus of female voices vibrated the air.

Like his father Kinchel the Avenger Lord of Fire, Quetzal the Plumed Serpent became a dragon whose head reached as high as the ceiling. Red flames flared from the tips of his wings.

The spiritual armies formed ranks around the box.

The Plumed Serpent spread his wings, and disappeared into a gaseous stream that flowed back into the nostrils of the statue.

The vision of Curratta flickered and faded as if the two opposing forces had negated each other.

Alone with Kare, in the familiar four-room log cabin, the box on the dais seemed the most dangerous object on the planet.

Kare knelt and reverently removed the conquistador's cross from around the statue and lowered the necklace over his head. He sighed deeply as if reuniting with an elemental source of well being. The translucent eyes in the cross's serpent glinted and then grew placid.

I inhaled deeply with the first breath that seemed my own and not squeezed from me by the pressing spirits. "Take it," Kare said. "You must carry the box."

He had been the one who had brought the box to California from Colombia--who had worshiped Quetzal all these years. Even as I tried to convince myself I was not to blame, everything I knew about Kare told me he was too small and weak to have been any but the servant of the Plumed Serpent. The hellish spirit had lain waiting all these years for the moment that I would find the box. But what then? "I can't," I whined. "There must be some other way. You carry it."

"No human can be trusted with its powers."

No human. Then what was I? One thing I knew certainly, human or not, I could not bear the burden of the fate of mankind.

Craaack!

Shraaaaa!

Kinchel was near, waiting for me to hesitate.

Kare pushed me toward the dias where the box lay. But I resisted.

He powerfully gripped me by my shoulders. I pushed against him trying to reach the door. "No," I cried.

When I was small, Kare had taught me how to wrestle. I knew what was coming before I had time to counter his move. "Obey Quetzal!" Kare grunted, wrapping his leg behind mine and using my own weight to spin me around and throw me onto his temple.

With a heavy crash, the shrine collapsed beneath me.

"Hold me," the spirits of box pleaded.

Craaak!

Kinchel's thunder shook the house.

My hand fell on the box. All feelings of weakness disappeared. I could do anything!

I rose up so strong I could throw Kare from here into the lake if I wanted.

"Good. Good," he said as if sensing my transformation. "Quetzal will protect us if you do as he says. We must hurry. The Assassins of Fire are coming."

Who or what were the Assassins of Fire? Despite my new strength, I did not want to find out. "Come. Come." Kare was leading me through the living room.

We were going now. To find my mother, to Manoa.

"Wait." My own voice awoke me from the dream. "What about Edgar? We can't just leave him."

"He has served his purpose. There's no time." Kare's cocked his head and looked toward the lake as if sensing someone or something approaching.

"I have to see Edgar."

Kare did not dare try to stop me, but followed close behind me as I entered my bedroom. I stopped in the doorway; the box, the fate of the world forgotten.

Edgar lay still on the bed, an arm fallen limply over the side.

Kare stared over my shoulder.

No. Please, no. No, no, I prayed and knelt beside the bed. Lifting Edgar's stiff arm, I knew the only one who cared for me in this world was dead.

"Come," Kare put his hand on my shoulder. "We must hurry. Come. Come."

"Edgar?" I called hesitantly, as if he might just be asleep. I ignored Kare and looked down at my friend and mentor. A suffocating lump rose in my throat. Tears hung on the edge of my lids.

"Hold me."

Yes, there was a way. The Jewels of Life of life gave the holder immortality. Inside the box was a power that could resurrect Edgar. If I opened the box...

I held the engraved container over my friend's corpse.

"What are you doing? Du! No! Don't do it!" Kare implored.

The same words I had said last night in desperation came now in certainty. "I am Tatya-Masi, Bringer of the Sixth World of Water. Heal him!"

Cruuuu. Cruuuu.

Beams of energy shone through the emerald eyes of the raised image on the lid of the shell, focusing straight into my irises, opening my mind, exposing me to the power within the box.

With a sound like wind gusting through a crack, the cover lifted. A verdant fog billowed from the center of a shimmering halo casting off flares of sparkling balls of light. The timbre of voices modulated from mournful to joyous.

Cruuuuuu.

I was amazed, but not fearful; thrilled, but not surprised when the swirling cloud cleared enough for me to see on a cushion of colorful woven fabric, a small gold statuette half as big as the palm of my hand. The head, feet, and legs--every detail--was a perfect representation of me.

The eyes of the tunjos glowed with an awakening power, a power that would end the Age of Man.

The cloudy three-foot-high form of Curratta hovered over the box filling the space between the upper and lower beds. Her skeletal arms extended toward me from billowing sleeves. Her whining voice filled my head.

Inti K'anchay! Khuyakzk!

Qhapak kay! Willaka chzray.

No warning, or memory of the Serpent could stop me from reaching for the heavy gold necklace.

"No!" I was vaguely aware of Kare exclaiming in the background. "Don't pick it up. Don't!"

The talisman spun slowly to face me. The energy of the Jewels of Life projected into me. The magnification of my senses became a thousand times greater than when holding the box. I was aware of dimensions I had only suspected existed...time, memory, transformation of matter. Life was a web through which I felt the tremble of every strand.

Cruuuuuu.

The chant surrounded me.

I could see through Edgar's chest the arteries and muscles, to his still heart. I saw the sickness as a multiplying mass that had spread through his liver and taken his life. Heal, I willed.

Charged particles flowed from the tunjos and surrounded Edgar's body like a sputtering fire.

His eyes shot open, transformed; split--the witches' green on the top, Edgar's blue on the bottom.

Cruuuu.

Edgar's bifurcated eyes bulged over his sunken cheeks.

"What have you done?" Kare wailed. "Quetzal warned you. He cannot protect you now. The world! The World of Man. What will become of the World of Man?"

Cruuuu.

A wind rushed from behind me.

Edgar's body flew out of the bed. "Cani wa satay Tayta-Masi yaswa Awkanakuy-Hauakuy!" he screamed in the voice of the box.

"¡Brujas! Aiiee, the tunjos!" Kare turned and fled.

Edgar chased him, eyes shining like nightmare lanterns, a vengeful specter calling out incantations in the dead language that inconceivably I understood. "With the power of Tatya-Masi and the Warrior-Brother I banish the spirits of Fire."

The sight was so shocking, I dropped the tunjos and box on the bed, and hopped into the living room, knocking a stack of Edgar's scores from the piano onto the floor.

A crackling beam of energy flashed from Edgar's finger into Kare's room. The statue of Quetzal exploded.

Edgar flew after Kare through the kitchen and into the backyard. I chased him and saw Edgar's body fall to the ground beside the entrance to his garden.

I hopped out and knelt beside Edgar.

Kare scurried down the dock as if pursued by the hounds of hell. And for all I knew, he was. He gunned the motor, not waiting to untie the line and pulled until the cleat yanked from the boards.

Even if I had jumped, I couldn't have swum fast enough to catch the speeding craft disappearing into the gray haze ahead of a widening wake and a rope dragging the skipping cleat.

Death was not strange to me. I had lived in the wild all my life; I had seen the drop of an eagle, the final shudder of a chipmunk in a king snake's coil, the decomposing remains of the animals of the forest and lake. But this was death beyond death. I had wasted the chance to bring Edgar back to life and misused a power I could not control. I had condemned the world to drowning and broken my pack with Quetzal. Guilt and anguish pulled at me. Who or what would protect me now from the vengeance of Kinchel the Avenger Lord of Fire?

I gently put my arms under Edgar's body and cradled him to my chest. He had never been a large man. But now he weighed no more than an armful of books. Rain pasted his pajamas to his emaciated body.

He stirred in my arms. I gasped and my lungs felt pricked with sharp ice. Was he coming back to life?

I dared not evoke the power of the necklace again.

The spirit that had infested him would not allow him even a final word to me. The reptile eyes flashed open.

Shamefully, I dropped his body and leaned away in horror.

Curratta's voice spoke through his unmoving, breathless mouth. "This is the World of Fire, born of the World of Earth. You are the Caller of the Earth of Water. The tunjos is your weapon. You must wear the tunjos."

With that final effort, the host could no longer accommodate the parasite. The bulging, unnatural eyes closed. I studied Edgar's body for a moment, then leaned forward to regather him in my arms.

What did I care about new worlds? Let this world drown in a thousand deluges. Only end this pain. A trembling, pitiless loneliness swallowed me. I rolled back my head and wailed at the stormy sky.