Ahem.
Ronya
The beauty of this man-made product is enhanced by natural wear and tear.

The vault door closed behind them.

"Hey!"

"What happened?"

"Where are we?"

"It's dark in here!"

"Here, Zia. Take my arm."

"Oh-thank you."

Suddenly the tunnel was lit as a torch was struck.

"Oh!" exclaimed Esteban. "We're in a sort of tunnel!"

"Yes," Tulazema replied. "In here we can go anywhere in Tenochtitlan without being detected. Only certain Aztecs know of these. Not even Montezuma is privy to them--in this way, he gives nothing away to the Spaniards that we do not have." She winked. "Not to worry--we have guarded our secret well. Even Marinche doesn't know about them--she is not of our nation. And we would never tell her. She has befriended Cortes the Snake." She raised the torch and her eyes narrowed. "Here we are under the Great Temple of the Sun."

"Excellent!" cried Tao. "That's exactly where we need to be."

The other Aztec boy struck another torch, and looked to Zema. "This is my brother, Jubal-Cec," Zema introduced. "But let's hurry. We are safe enough for now, and can talk along the way."

"Agreed!" said Esteban, and the children turned to follow her down the passge.

"Harrumph," Tao grunted.

"What is it, Tao?" Zia asked as they hurried.

"My sphere." He frowned. "I have to go back and get it!"

Esteban stopped, wide-eyed. "But Tao, there's no time!"

"No, Tao," Zia contributed. "And didn't you hear Cortes? They'll kill us!"

"They won't kill me," Tao replied defiantly, but he knew he was defeated.

Zema shone her torch back at them. "We must hurry," she urged.

"Yes. We should get to the temple first," Jubal-Tek added. "Then we can devise a way to recover your sphere. There will be more people there. We will have allies."

"Come," Zema directed them to another tunnel leading upward. "This is the entrance to the temple. Be careful--it is steep."

They began to climb, but halfway up it was apparent that Tao was out of shape. He dropped the floor on his knees, and was grateful that the floor was slanted so that he did not have far to place his hands for support. Unfortunately he began to slide.

"Tao!" Esteban, forming the end of a chain which included Zia and Jubal, reached out for him.

"Aaaaaa!" Tao cried out as he scrabbled for a handhold to stop his descent. A few feet away, he came to a stop.

Suddenly Zema perked up. "Oh--listen!"

Everyone stopped. There came the sound of metal on stone.

"No!" Jubal cried in dismay. "They are breaking through the wall!"

Tao's eyes widened at this. Immediately he began to rejuvenate his attempts to climb back up the steep stone-dirt slope.

Zema reached the door, and setting her torch in a holder, took hold of her brother's torch arm to join the chain, careful not to burn herself.

"You can do it Tao!" Esteban encouraged as he kept his hand out for his friend. Zia, Jubal and Zema each stretched out themselves out as far as they could.

"Quickly! If they find us here they will know exactly which way we went. We have to get behind the door so that it will becomke a dead end. Those Spaniards aren't too bright. Dumb with directions."

With one last push upward, Tao luanched himself at Esteban--and Esteban grabbed his hand.

"You would think with all the traveling we do that you would be in shape, Tao,"

Zia admonished, eyes twinkling. Tao growled at her as he was pulled up the chain of children.

Zema picked up the torch again and lit a bit of string that poked out beyond the door. The flame disappeared underneath. From behind them there came a scraping sound. Not far below where Tao had stopped his slide, two huge slabs of stone came together, shutting off the tunnel behind them. At the same time, the door in front
of them began to slide open.

"Like--like a-an--AIRlock," Tao mused to himself as they entered the Temple. Zia heard him and couldn't help smiling. Tao was always thinking. The group stood around, dusting themselves off from their climb through the musty tunnels.

"Zema," said Esteban, "you said my medallion looked like something you saw here. Can you take us to it?"

"Yes of course," Zema replied. "Please, follow me."

Silently they started up the hallway--up, because it was slanted upward as well, though not as severely as the one which had given poor Tao so much trouble.

"Will they find us since that door has been shut?" Zia wanted to know.

Jubal-Cec spat. "Those Spaniards are too stupid. They have been through a smilar passage dozens of times, underneath the Temple of the Moon. They still haven't discovered how it branches off. Cortes is not as brilliant as he seems."

"Where does Cortes live?" Esteban wanted to know.

"In the royal palace, with Montezuma."

"Ah! Right in the same place?" Esteban was astounded.

But Tao had a small grin on his face. Zia was sure he was planning something, but she decided not to ask--just yet.

"Yes," Zema answered. "This next I say, I speak with upmost respect for our ruler--but Montezuma--May He Live Forever--treats the Snake as if he were a god.That is why we call him the Snake--Montezuma seems to believe Cortes is the reincarnation of the FLying Serpent, a god who helped to create us, then sailed away, promising to
someday return. Cortes, we UNDERGROUND people believe, is a serpent indeed--a snake. Crafty, conniving, mischeivous. Always with something up that puffy sleeve of his. We don't trust him for a second. He is greedy."

ZIa frowned. "In our culture, we have the same legend," she mused. "Our creator god sailed away on a boat. He too was represented as a flying serpent, but we called him Viracocha. And in the old Mayan cities, we saw more statues of a flying serpent. The Mayas must have worshipped him too."

Zema came to a stop in front of the doorway to a small room off to their left. "This is the place I mentioned. It is one of our burial places. It is to incur the wrath of the gods should anyone but a priest enter." Hurriedly Esteban caught Tao's sleeve and pulled him back from the doorway just in time.

"Honestly, Tao! You've become as curious as Sancho and Pedro!" Esteban offered, hands on hips.

"I saw something on that far wall!" Tao declared hotly. "It had the same design as one on the sphere. On the wall. We have to go back and look at it."

Jubal-Cec looked at his sister for direction with his eyes up-raised in question. Zema shook her head. "That is what I wanted to show you, but we can't go inside. That's desecration to our people. We can look at it from the doorway though," she conceded hastily at Tao's growing black glare.

Tao grinned from ear to ear and Esteban and Zia joined him at the doorway, hoping to help out. Esteban held a torch up high as they searched the far wall. A whole panel of engraved gold designs stood out.

"Oh!" Zia cried, hand to mouth in surprise. "That's not an Aztec design! That's is an Incan design. It is the representation of Viracocha himself!"

"What?"

"It can't be!"

"But what does that mean?"

"Is this--is this--"

"No! It isn't Viracocha! He was a god!" ZIa was adamant. "Perhaps it was an Incan merchant who died here. Couldn't that be true? Or maybe this person was a friend to the god. See?"

"Yes!" said Esteban. "But what's it for?"

Zia shrugged disconcertingly. "I don't know," she gave in.

"Hey, Tao!" Esteban pulled his friend, leaning at a dangerous angle from his tiptoes into the sacred room, back into the doorway. "Careful."

"Look there." Tao was very quiet as he took a torch from Jubal. "See? In the eye? That's the design of Zia's medallion." Zia held it up for all to see, and it was true. "And there--couldn't that be the design of a condor?" Tao pointed off to the far right top of the panel. 'And those gigantic lines we found in the desert--there. And the map to the first city of gold. See the Olmec Mountain? the village of the Mayas of the New Sun?"

Esateban turned to Zema. "Zema, we have to go in," he stated. "I don't believe this is a burial room. I think it was here for us to find. It's disguised as a burial room. You see that panel? Everything Tao has just described is everything we've found. The condor, those lines, the Burning Shield--"

"The what?" Jubal-Cec interrupted.

Esteban sighed. "The Olmec Mountain," he explained.

"Yes," agreed Zia. "Whoever designed this panel or had it made knew all about the cities of gold. That's why we ought to go in. There may be more clues for us. The way to the second city of gold."

The siblings looked at each other, then Zema nodded. "Whatever we can find to get there before Marinche and the Snake," she affirmed. "But Jubal-Cec and I will remain here. You three do as you wish. We will watch for more of our people."