Author's Notes
(as included in the original email to the mcogold list)

"Just what do you think you are doing?" Tao demanded as Gaspard tweaked him along with his sword.

"Arr! Keep your mouth shut and keep walking!" growled Gaspard. "I'm not going back to that palace!"

"I never thought I would see the day when Gomez and Gaspard disagreed!" Zia frowned as she hurried alongside Tao keeping her arms crossed.

"When I want your opinion, I'll give it you! Now do as I say and--"

"--Keep walking!" Tao finished exasperatedly. "We know!"

"But where are we going?" Zia wanted to know.

"As far away from that place as possible!" Gaspard roared and poked Tao in the butt with his sword. Tao squealed and jumped.

"You watch where that thing goes!" he turned to threaten the soldier. Tensely, the two squared off, the huge mercenary bending at the waist to stare into the Heva boy's face. They spoke at the same time.

"Now you listen here, you--!"

"Oh, you'll listen all right!"

At that moment Zia started, and running forward with all the momentum she could gather, bumped Gaspard off the path and into the forest.

Tao laughed with delight. "Excellent thinking, Zia! I couldn't have done it better myself!"

Gaspard's head flopped as he fell and hit the trunk of a tree.

"Oh, not now!" Zia cried. "While the two of you are fighting, Esteban and Mendoza are still in danger! We must return to the palace!"

"You're right," Tao said soberly. "I'm sorry, Zia."

From behind a swath of tall grass, Gaspard sat up, dazed, rubbing his head. "Argh..." he cried out.

Tao looked down, and there was Gaspard's sword. He leaned down and picked it up. "I'll be needing this," he told Gaspard. "I hope you don't mind." He and Zia looked at each other and laughed as they set off back the way they had come.

Gaspard sat, trying to get his eyes into focus. There was something interesting on the rock next to him. He squinted. It had eyes--yellow ones that seemed to watch him intently. Movement sounded to his right. Gaspard wondered what was crashing through the brush, and struggled to get up. The animal to his left hissed. There was an accompanying, much louder hiss from the right. Suddenly a lizard poked its nose through the grass right next to Gaspard's broad face. Gaspard's eyes went wide with terror. The lizard's head was twice as big as his own.
A hiss from the left--and Gaspard saw now the animal sitting on the rock was also a lizard, much smaller than its mate. It took flicked its tongue at the mercenary.

"Monsters!" Gaspard got out. "Boots!" he threatened them. "Cloaks! Hats! Belts!" The lizards were not amused. The larger one snaked in closer. Its tongue flicked out and smacked the end of Gaspard's nose. "Ahhhh!" Gaspard screeched, and seemed to recover his mobility. "I'm getting out of here!"

Tao and Zia, hurrying along the path, heard Gaspard's cry and chuckled.

"Do you think he's all right?" Zia asked Tao.

"He's gotten out of plenty of scrapes before," Tao reassured her. "Just how, I'd like to find out someday."

Zia smiled. "I was talking about Esteban."

Tao chuckled too. "I never thought I would say this, but I would be worried if he wasn't with Cortes. As much as we can't trust him, Cortes wouldn't dare to hurt the Child of the Sun. And Mendoza will protect him."

"I hope you're right," Zia replied. Suddenly she pulled on Tao's arm. "Tao! Your sphere! It's glowing!" They looked at each other in horror, remembering the last time the sphere had glowed--with disastrous results.

"Not again!" Tao yelped. Both children's eyes were wide as Tao suddenly fumbled with the sphere, jigging it from hand to hand as he tried to catch hold of it to throw it before the explosion came. Zia turned and ducked as Tao finally heaved it down the path. He huddled down beside Zia and they waited, eyes squinched shut, fingers stopping ears.

"Now Cortes' soldiers will know exactly where we are," Zia observed mournfully. Tao said nothing.

And they waited. And waited.

Nothing.

They took their fingers out of their ears and opened their eyes and looked at each other, each confirming that the other hadn't heard anything either. Slowly they stood up. Zia's eyes popped wide open in surprise and she ran to where the glowing sphere rested at the side of the path, a little ways off.

"Come and see, Tao!" she called as she picked it up. "Look!"

Tao frowned, puzzled, as he came to stand next to her. "Ah! Only certain letters are glowing!" It was true. As they watched, one glyph after another lit up, then died out. "The light seems to be coming from inside the globe," Tao said, too involved to notice his redundant remark.

"And see," Zia continued, "only one at a time light up. Not all of them, though--only certain ones. Like a pattern. It's trying to tell us something!"

"Yes, but what?" Tao cried irritably. "My encyclopaedia doesn't contain all of the glyphs on the sphere."

"But look, Tao," Zia pointed, "isn't this one the 13-Rabbit glyph? The date? It's glowing."

Tao looked closer. "Ah! And see that one next to it? That is the glyph for Quetzalcoatl!"

"But who is Quetzalcoatl?" asked Zia. Tao was already frowning, deep in thought.

"From what I can see," Tao said carefully, "I think Quetzalcoatl must be a god. I heard Zema and Jubal-Cec talking about him. Montezuma thought Cortes was Quetzalcoatl..."

Zia bit back a sarcastic remark, in light of the Emperor's death. "How could he think such a thing...unless...wait, Tao!" The forest echoed with their voices. Day was dawning around them, but neither child saw fit to notice at the moment. "Remember the riddle?" Zia asked her friend. "The part about the Messengers of Quetzalcoatl? And remember our own legends about Viracocha? This glyph--" she pointed to it again-- "looks to me like a feathered serpent. A Flying Serpent."

Tao hit himself on the forehead. "Of course! Why didn't I see it before? Zia, you're fantastic!"

The sphere had not stopped glowing. From below them, near their feet, they heard a voice.

"If you want to save your friends, know about Quetzalcoatl, and stop Cortes, you should come with us."

Zia and Tao looked down, sphere momentarily forgotten. Jubal-Cec and Zema peeked up at them from underneath a rock in the forest floor.

"You must come with us," Zema urged, "and quickly! For Marinche has persuaded Cortes to kill Mendoza."

"How--what--" But there was no time for Tao's questions. Zema and Jubal moved aside. Zia knelt down and peered into the hole her friends stood inside. She looked up at Tao. "It's a tunnel!" she reported.

"Quickly, Tao, we must hurry!"