“Fantastic.” Caitlyn said. “Carved by the elements.”
“It sure is stunning,” Healey said. “See how the whole landscape rolls.”
“Not only that,” Crouch breathed. “It is our ‘rocks of waves’.”
Caitlyn smiled. “The first landmark. Though I guess it’s not exactly definitive.”
Alicia studied the many-hued chutes, marveling at their permanent yet eternally fragile appearance. This was the wild earth revealed in all its splendor, a dramatic piece of isolated beauty.
“Once you’ve experienced something like this,” she said. “How will Oxford Street ever look good again?”
Russo eyed her. “Somehow you don’t strike me as a girl that shops on Oxford Street.”
Alicia narrowed her eyes. “Nah, but I might actually strike you.”
“Next, the Shield Arch,” Caitlyn said. “Which is more of an Aztec reference don’t you think?”
Crouch picked his way carefully through the small canyon. “I agree, since their shields were quite distinctive. Let’s keep moving. We couldn’t do better now than to get this landmark at our backs to help throw Coker off our scent.”
Continuing past the phenomenon and down the far canyon the group resumed their march. Time passed, measured only by the sound of their own breathing. The night began to wane, giving way to the early beginnings of a superb sunrise. By now the canyons and washes were beginning to blend in to one another, but Crouch kept them on as straight a course as possible. Arches did indeed grace the surrounding landscape, but none that resembled a shield, and none even close to Crouch’s planned route. Down a scenic canyon they walked, stopping to drink from a trickling spring situated to their right. After that Crouch pointed out a fault-line crack in the canyon and matched it to the plotted course on his modern map.
So far, their route matched the one originally taken by the old Aztecs.
More fault lines passed. If this were rainy season they’d be walking downstream, or worse. Other canyons branched into their own and at each one Crouch took a good look around, searching for the next landmark.
Eventually, he paused.
“So this is Paria Canyon,” he said. “Which makes that—” he indicated an open seam to their right “—Wrather Canyon.” He stared toward its extremes. “Do you see that?”
Alicia peered hard as the sunrise made a heady blush of the horizon. Not far, possibly no more than a slight kink away from Crouch’s hand-drawn line, stood a high arch. Alicia squinted.
“The Shield Arch?”
“It’s the closest yet to the shape of an old Aztec shield and the only one on the right path.” Crouch nodded. “The Wrather Arch I believe it’s called.”
“Is it on our route?”
“Within a hair’s breadth, I’d say. Either way it’s the only arch on their route so far that’s shaped like a shield.”
“Wait.” Caitlyn had advanced further into the canyon and was peering hard around its natural curve. “There’s another. And another. In fact, they all pretty much look the same.”
Crouch moved to her position. “All right,” he said in a rather lackluster voice. “Let’s take a look.”
Arches were common to this part of the world, Alicia soon realized. Caitlyn soon pointed out several more as they gained a higher position.
“The Wrather Arch is still my favorite,” Crouch said now that they stood beside it, gazing up at its truly amazing formation. He motioned back toward the trail. “And only a moment’s walk from our trail.”
“How can you be so sure the trail stays so perfectly straight?” Healey asked.
“In truth, I can’t,” Crouch admitted. “Except for the expertise of the Aztecs themselves. If they wandered through this desolation, we’re lost. But then so would they have been. Making their route arrow straight worked in more ways than one, including as a form of backward navigation. I repeat — the Wrather Arch is the closest to our trail — I say we count it as a clue.”
Despite the doubt, Alicia felt the excitement creep into her gut. “What’s next?”
“But heed our warnings to the mushroom rock.”
Alicia peered ahead. “So what the hell are we waiting for? Treasure this valuable doesn’t just find itself.”
TWENTY FOUR
The canyon soon began to widen, Crouch marveling at the emerging layers of sandstone that continued to make a miracle of the surrounding rock. The miles lay behind and before them, but despite their lack of rest none of them complained of weariness. Yes, the treasure had been waiting five hundred years, and no it could not wait a moment longer. Crouch kept in touch with their benefactor via satphone, carefully arranging their protection and cover for, if and when the find was made — another secure measure in place to negate the effects of Greg Coker and his trailing band of mercenaries.
They negotiated some large boulders that had all but blocked the canyon at some time in the past; an obstruction that might put off all but the most ardent of explorers. Beyond the boulders the slight trail grew into the closest thing yet that resembled a path, twisting away from the broken walls of the Paria and on into the distance. The path turned and bowed but always came back upon itself, following Crouch’s line closely enough that he didn’t feel the need to call a detour. Canyon walls rose and fell to each side; buttes and washes dotted the way, natural springs burbled along time-bled stitches in the rock.
Alicia saw the mushroom-shaped rock first. She stopped and pointed to the right and at the same time Crouch gestured to the left.
“Is that—” Alicia began.
Crouch stared. “A mushroom shaped hoodoo!”
The formation stood hundreds of yards off their track, spiraling up through the wilderness. Nevertheless, a side canyon slid through the rock towards it. Both Healey and Russo started down the narrow ravine, but a few words from Crouch stopped them.
“It’s not right.”
Caitlyn frowned. “Because it doesn’t follow your path?”
“Exactly.”
Now even Alicia felt a touch of frustration. “Michael, it may not be arrow straight. The hoodoo is exactly what we’re looking for. Let’s check it out.”
Crouch wrestled with the problem, a dozen emotions crossing his face. “Damn. All right. Let’s take a look.”
The team threaded their way through the high rock walls, Russo taking the time to watch their backs. “Coker’s men could trap us down here, guys, if they wanted to. It’s a great place for an ambush.”
Alicia grinned. “Sure, John Wayne. Just lead on.”
It took almost a half hour to reach the hoodoo, the shape lengthening and rearing up higher with every step they took toward it. The narrow canyon gradually widened, its walls spreading out as its floor lost much if its steepness.
“Bloody hell,” Crouch moaned. “We’re nearing the valley floor.”
“If that’s the hoodoo,” Caitlyn pointed out. “Then where’s the ‘warning’?”
Alicia recalled the poem. Heed our warning that leads to the mushroom rock.
The team stared into the extensive wilderness, so great that all four directions blended into one gigantic expanse. Alicia circumvented the bulky spire, studying its rocky surface and the floor to all sides. If there had been other boulders or twisted formation close by, she would have examined them also, but the hoodoo stood in its own splendid isolation.