
"It is my great pleasure to announce that the TARDIS has materialized," Dr. Smith said authoritatively.580Please respect copyright.PENANA43HblWrPBO
"Where are we now?" asked Penny, Dr. Smith's fifteen-year-old niece.580Please respect copyright.PENANAC0JPs85KBJ
Dr. Smith moved around the central control deck of his marvelous, though, at times, quirky, time/space ship to the digital time/place orientation printout and pressed the correct button. Alas, nothing happened.580Please respect copyright.PENANArOkssUzAOa
"Well?" Penny arched her eyebrows. 580Please respect copyright.PENANAM3rYSBv7qQ
"West, hand me a screwdriver," Dr. Smith said testily.580Please respect copyright.PENANAA4O4Eg3JRd
Don took one from the toolkit, and gave it to Dr. Smith, remarking that with any luck they were on Earth during the 1990s in an aerospace factory where the TARDIS could be thoroughly overhauled. Dr. Smith was not amused and he began furiously unscrewing the front panel of the printout.580Please respect copyright.PENANAXksArlsS8e
"We could always stick our heads outside the door and look," Ann MacGregor suggested.580Please respect copyright.PENANAWVZDbpmH98
"And be devoured by a dinosaur, or dictated to by a Dalek, perhaps?" Don added.580Please respect copyright.PENANAVk18DxZMsp
"Let's check the atmosphere," Penny said.580Please respect copyright.PENANACvrLujZeM9
"Good idea." Don turned to Dr. Smith. "May I?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAU3Wz6z3ydf
The only reply was a grunt which Don took to mean "yes," so he switched on the atmospheric sensor. A display screen gave a breakdown of the gases outside. Don studied it for a moment and then said that it appeared that they were on Earth, but the air was stale.580Please respect copyright.PENANAcYkSu11WLN
"Stale?" Penny echoed.580Please respect copyright.PENANAzuqzABxKa2
"That means breathable but musty."580Please respect copyright.PENANAagfkD0Vs6l
"Then we can take a peek," said Ann. "Are you coming with me?" she asked Penny.580Please respect copyright.PENANAp2J60iqpRl
When Penny asked her uncle if she could go, he waved one hand rather vaguely at her and told Don to help him to remove the panel. When it was off, the Doctor began poking at the electronics with his screwdriver, making the 28-year-old scientist wince with despair.580Please respect copyright.PENANA1u8vTZg0GL
Cautiously, Penny and Ann opened the door and peered out. Apart from the light inside the TARDIS, they were in total darkness.580Please respect copyright.PENANAZQ3WowMZAy
"Where do you think we are?" Penny whispered.580Please respect copyright.PENANAtw9ooaYC8X
Ann shook her head, but as the light from the TARDIS diffused and their eyes got used to the gloom, they stepped outside and looked around.580Please respect copyright.PENANAQV6FBH656u
They were (apparently) in a large tomb, and in the middle was a raised stone slab on which lay a superbly cloaked skeleton with a magnificent gold mask covering the skull. On the floor around the slab were earthen bowls and jugs, as well as ornaments, statuettes, bracelets, ear-rings, and brooches, all of them made of jade. 580Please respect copyright.PENANAlh6KiL4zmp
But it was the cloak, geometrically woven with silver and golden threads, and the superb mask that fascinated Barbara.580Please respect copyright.PENANA6fnaeIUEzw
"Look at that, Penny," she murmured.580Please respect copyright.PENANAIUEITvlHhQ
"I am," Penny shuddered with a sense of foreboding, anticipating the evil to come.580Please respect copyright.PENANADoM33OqNzr
"It's an Aztec mask of Quetazcoatl, the Sun God, who was driven into exile by Huitzilipochtli, the God of Darkness," Ann looked down at the skeleton again. "He must have been a High Priest." Beside one skeletal hand was an oblong rod of carved jade with six beaded threads of silver, each about six inches long, attached to one end. Ann picked it up and smiled. "Do you know what this was?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAMg8wXnlNvw
"No."580Please respect copyright.PENANAgKAuU1YSgF
"His personal fly-swatter."580Please respect copyright.PENANAhPyl1FzQAj
Penny giggled. Since the Aztecs were Mexicans, the TARDIS must definitely be on Earth. "But what year is it?" she asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANAWMbbzBkdDH
"I can tell you when he died." Ann pointed to the objects strewn on the floor. "About 1430. These things all come from the Aztecs' early period." She picked up a gold bracelet shaped like a coiled snake that lay on the slab above the mask and turned it over in her hands. This indicates that after he died he was revered as a god."580Please respect copyright.PENANAJRLqMaMIF5
"You really do know your subject," Penny exclaimed. Ann smiled and admitted that when she was in college she had been particularly interested in the Aztec Indians and their civilization.580Please respect copyright.PENANAN7odhXhsRC
"What little I know about them doesn't make me feel very well disposed towards them," Penny replied with a grimace. "They used to cut out people's hearts while they were still alive, didn't they?"580Please respect copyright.PENANA97M5FZQPEY
Ann picked up the razor-sharp knife hewn from stone which lay at the skeleton's feet. "They did it with this," she said. "It's called an obsidian knife. But there was another side to their nature----a highly civilized one."580Please respect copyright.PENANAfmCXdDJNo4
"The Spanish didn't think so when they came here."580Please respect copyright.PENANAVBKoi5iV2Q
"Hernando Cortez and his conquistadores saw only wealth for themselves and barbarous acts of savagery by the Aztecs," Ann replied. "That was the tragedy of the race: their civilization was totally destroyed, the good as well as the bad." Ann put down the knife and picked up the bracelet again.580Please respect copyright.PENANAIo8LKeNCtN
"The Spanish landed in the early 1500s, didn't they?" Penny asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANALEnYCIOVhW
"1519, to be exact." Still holding the bracelet Ann pointed to the wall behind the head of the slab. A colored fresco depicted an eagle clutching a coiled snake in its claws, surrounded by warriors in loin-cloths, cloaks, plumed headdresses and sandals, who held shields, spears and short-swords slung from their hips. From their mouths cam bubble filled with hieroglyphs. Ann studied the fresco and, almost without realizing it, slipped the bracelet onto her wrist.580Please respect copyright.PENANAvosOkD8WJo
"They're just like cartoon strips," Penny remarked. "But they're all the same. What does it mean?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAs8WHNhhPdR
"That the warriors will protect the High Priest's spirit until he rejoins his people."580Please respect copyright.PENANAoY8TfVJ27w
"Did the Aztecs believe in reincarnation, then?" Penny sounded surprised.580Please respect copyright.PENANAnJLX3TcXtL
"Oh, definitely." Ann moved closer to the wall. "This painting has hardly faded at all." 580Please respect copyright.PENANAfN3ZgOPysf
She touched the mural, then quickly withdrew her hand.580Please respect copyright.PENANA3yqj8oCqAz
"What's wrong?" Penny asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANAiRHSu0Q0P9
"It may be my hyperactive imagination at work," Ann replied, "but I think the wall moved when I touched it."580Please respect copyright.PENANAtLuAJJwRtj
"Let's both push it and see."580Please respect copyright.PENANAHNoiPqLVzt
They put their hands to the wall and started to push. The wall swung slowly outwards and upwards. Light trickled into the tomb and then flooded in as the wall rose higher and higher. Both of them blinked as their eyes adjusted to its intensity.580Please respect copyright.PENANAEFP54IqQ0b
"This tomb is part of a temple," Ann whispered.580Please respect copyright.PENANAwdzZXO4XUM
"Hadn't we better go back to the TARDIS?" Penny asked nervously.580Please respect copyright.PENANA4edgzDsyEv
"No, it's all right," Ann replied, "there's nobody here."580Please respect copyright.PENANAh16s1qk5lA
"I think I'd better fetch uncle and Don anyway," Penny said and ran back into the tomb.580Please respect copyright.PENANA6TWJqWKReU
Ann left the tomb, walked to the middle of the temple and looked around. The temple itself was not large---about fifty square feet. Three sides were painted in white and blood red, decorated with sculpted skulls and coiled snakes, and hung with elaborately woven brocade curtains. The fourth side opened onto a terrace, in the middle of which stood the sacrificial altar. Ann shivered involuntarily as she approached the terrace to see what lay beyond it.580Please respect copyright.PENANAhEw12nD62A
"Woman!"580Please respect copyright.PENANAdtBIZv1X8o
The man's voice was firm and Ann spun around to face him. He was in his mid-fifties, just like Dr. Smith, with a craggy face and long, gray hair. He wore a loincloth, a cloak similar to the one that enveloped the skeleton in the tomb, sandals and a head-dress of multi-colored plumed feathers. In one hand he carried a posy of flowers. "How came you here?" he asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANA5lPoX6WiOV
Ann looked towards the entrance to the tomb in the back wall of the temple, but it had swung closed.580Please respect copyright.PENANAscnnrUo5wl
"This temple is sacred to the memory of the High Priestess Nenetl," the man said. "You trespass, and you shall be punished for it. Warriors, guardians of Nenetl's tomb," he called out. Four young Aztecs, who Ann thought bore an uncanny resemblance to those on the mural, emerged from behind one of the curtains. "Take her!" They advanced towards Ann who backed away to the closed entrance. It was only when she reached it with her arms outspread that the man saw the coiled-snake bracelet on her wrist.580Please respect copyright.PENANAJniMi2o7L2
"Wait, warriors!" he cried out with an expression of incredulity on his face. "Wait!"580Please respect copyright.PENANA9F7dD3Fmx8
Dr. Smith and Don had just finished replacing the front panel when Penny burst into the TARDIS and told them excitedly where they were. The Doctor pressed the digital time-orientation button and the number 1507 lit up.580Please respect copyright.PENANAldUrJsqxIH
"Cortez isn't due for another twelve years," Dr. Smith observed. "But the Aztecs have some rather gruesome habits, and the sooner we collect Ann and move on, the better." The three of them went out into the tomb.580Please respect copyright.PENANASsw69XGsKb
"The wall's closed," Penny exclaimed.580Please respect copyright.PENANACDxprvM6kx
"Which wall?" Don asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANAcWx7yi8fij
"The one with the mural," Penny replied.580Please respect copyright.PENANAsshjI6KqbL
"I can't see anything," Dr. Smith complained, and went back into the TARDIS to fetch his pencil-flashlight. When he came out again he switched it on, but the beam of light was too narrow.580Please respect copyright.PENANAftSKx20ZUE
"I still can't see anything," he grumbled.580Please respect copyright.PENANAziLQ93EfmZ
"Give me your hand, Uncle Zachary," Penny said and led him past the raised slab.580Please respect copyright.PENANAeYHh28ffgJ
"What's that?" Dr. Smith asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANANih4n2ZDFQ
"According to Ann, he was a High Priest now revered as a god," Penny replied.580Please respect copyright.PENANAflKs2zsmZZ
Dr. Smith snorted.580Please respect copyright.PENANAEdhJypaTtL
"We push it up," Penny explained when they reached the wall, and a few seconds later they were standing in the temple.580Please respect copyright.PENANAq7gkvzSKKx
"Ann's not here," Don said.580Please respect copyright.PENANAmomDzFui1a
"But----she was here when I came to fetch you," replied Penny defensively.580Please respect copyright.PENANAdHmjgYnY1h
Don called out Ann's name. "There's no sign of her now," he said, "unless she's out on that terrace." He walked to the sacrificial altar and glanced down either side of the terrace. "She's not here." Then he looked down. "Good Lord, Doctor, come and see this," he exclaimed.580Please respect copyright.PENANA2E51BhK2nw
Both Dr. Smith and Penny went to Don's side. As they passed the altar the Doctor muttered that they had better find Ann soon as he didn't fancy being carved up on it by some Aztec High Priest of Sacrifice, concluding his statement with his inevitable "Oh, the pain, the pain."580Please respect copyright.PENANAaiftKIoMek
"Just look at the city," said Don. The temple was on the top of a pyramid and the city lay two hundred and fifty feet below them, patterned like a chessboard, with broad avenues between the squares of houses. There were gardens, irrigation aqueducts, and several markets.580Please respect copyright.PENANAuDEjBI11pr
"The Aztecs knew how to build as well as kill," Dr. Smith observed dryly. "We must find Ann and leave." He looked back into the temple and saw the wall sliding back into place. "The wall, West! Quick! The wall!" he cried, and Don raced across the temple in a vain attempt to reach the wall before it shut them out. Dr. Smith and Penny hurried after him.580Please respect copyright.PENANAla130ACc8h
"I was too late. There was nothing to grab onto." Don felt ashamed at his failure.580Please respect copyright.PENANA9jj6RR2iEy
Penny looked perplexed. "But it must open somehow, Don."580Please respect copyright.PENANAwZxXCAjlOA
"It does, my dear," Dr. Smith said with a shrug, "you push it from the other side. Tombs like this were designed to stop grave-robbers, not help them."580Please respect copyright.PENANAonu2Y13hMs
"But how shall we return to the TARDIS?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAPbF9QKfgM2
"That, Penny, is a very good question."580Please respect copyright.PENANAcPDbjzQKVH
Don cleared his throat. "Dr. Smith, we've got company," he murmured.580Please respect copyright.PENANAdgyZjzNwOk
The man whom Ann had met and the four Aztec warriors were standing by one of the brocade curtains. The man raised in salute a hand which held a posy of flowers.580Please respect copyright.PENANAujoFrADZuj
"I, Tetzal, High Priest of Knowledge, most humbly greet the servants of Nenetl," he said, while the four warriors bowed reverently.580Please respect copyright.PENANA5lPvwtSkpH
Dr. Smith glanced at Don. "The servants of what?" he asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANAFedRrPPrHx
Don shook his head and looked at the High Priest. "Where is Ann?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAPygmeH8lKz
"Of whom do you speak?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAbUvPBj60tK
"The young woman who was here a few minutes ago."580Please respect copyright.PENANAMMCIfJdeKb
The High Priest smiled at them. "In due course, you will meet Nenetl again. But first, grant us our courtesies. Be assured that we harbor no evil towards you in our hearts. Indeed, we honor you."580Please respect copyright.PENANAUzREQMj5RS
Dr. Smith looked at Tetzal for a moment. "Er, what did you say your name was?" He sounded suspicious.580Please respect copyright.PENANA9zGy4vfw5B
"Tetzal."580Please respect copyright.PENANAuhGftNT8uu
"And you're the High Priest of Knowledge?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAnEyzD2P8Ed
"I serve as such."580Please respect copyright.PENANAGB605Yeu86
"Do you know where we came from?" Dr. Smith persisted.580Please respect copyright.PENANAAigEJ0PDEb
"Nenetl's tomb."580Please respect copyright.PENANA2ZYv7rJMg8
"How does one enter it from the temple?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAOUogFRgcA0
"One cannot. It is sealed." Tetzal gestured toward the four warriors. "Go now with these attendants and soon you shall see the coiled serpent of Nenetl again."580Please respect copyright.PENANASCpl6G9C4u
Dr. Smith scratched his head. "I don't know what he's talking about," he said as they crossed the temple to where a warrior held aside one of the curtains.580Please respect copyright.PENANAOe5TSYKLcU
"Ann, I think," Penny hissed. "I'll explain when we're alone."580Please respect copyright.PENANAYbWxIpeYvE
Just before they reached the drawn curtain, the deformed figure of a powerfully built man limped into the temple from the entrance. He was younger than Tetzal and far less elaborately dressed. He wore a priest's loose-fitting robe which at first glance seemed to be caked in mud, but a second look told Penny it was dried blood. The plumes on his head-dress were splattered with it and his long hair was matted. He had a hard, thin, almost lipless mouth. But it was his eyes that commanded the attention----they were jet black, piercing, and totally fanatical. He stared at Dr. Smith, at Penny and at Don, then bowed curtly to them and limped to the back of the temple where Tetzal stood.580Please respect copyright.PENANAoo4y8d2qsM
"You know who he is, West," Dr. Smith said as they were escorted from the temple.580Please respect copyright.PENANAatbvD5tC8C
"The local butcher, by the look of him," Don replied.580Please respect copyright.PENANAntTymJpMgy
"Exactly."580Please respect copyright.PENANAJbPdBtapWD
Tetzal waited until they had gone before he spoke.580Please respect copyright.PENANAzvsJx8I9fx
"You have seen her, Ollin?" he asked.580Please respect copyright.PENANAzhoezHB2O0
"A vision is with us, Tetzal," Ollin replied and, turning away, he limped back to the sacrificial altar. He looked up at the sky. "When does it rain?"580Please respect copyright.PENANAwXvCmowhvT
Tetzal came halfway along the length of the temple and looked with disgust at Ollin's back. "This day when the sun's fire first touches the horizon to the west," he replied.580Please respect copyright.PENANAKbc1GV6Fzh
"At that moment we shall present her to the people. A vision shall stand before them, and I, in supplication to Tlaloc, the Rain God," Ollin stretched out his left hand over the altar, "I shall offer human blood. And the rain will come. No more talk of Tlaloc being angered by us and bringing drought to the land. There will be ra n," he exulted, "and all power shall be ours again." Facing the altar, Ollin raised both hands and shook his clenched fists to the heavens.580Please respect copyright.PENANAFWbiAUHpYY
"I tell you, O' High Priest of Sacrifice, there will be rain," Tetzal spoke gently and hesitated before continuing, "...with or without human blood."580Please respect copyright.PENANAB9clSaqmnq
Ollin spun around, his eyes ablaze. "Does the High Priest of Knowledge serve only Quetzalcoatl, the banished God, and not Huitzilopochtli who has made us strong?"580Please respect copyright.PENANA6pGz5JEZOR
"I serve the same god as you," Tetzal's voice was even.580Please respect copyright.PENANAh5ZSOohlyS
"Then, above all else, honor him. He demands blood," Ollin shouted, "and blood he shall have!"580Please respect copyright.PENANA6joKEgmWVq
Dr. Smith, Penny and Don were in an antechamber below the temple. The walls were covered with colorful tapestries; the stone floor was carpeted; there were three couches to recline on, and a legless table laden with food and wine. Penny and Don sat down while the Doctor paced up and down.580Please respect copyright.PENANAOf6xq8YOKz
"So you think Ann may have been wearing the bracelet when she went into the temple, is that it, Penny?" Dr. Smith didn't stop to look at her.580Please respect copyright.PENANAy6ULbwN6u7
"I know Ann picked it up and I have a feeling she may have put it on," Penny replied half-apologetically, "but I can't be sure, Uncle Zachary, it was dark in the tomb."580Please respect copyright.PENANAtEon9LaJ4w
"If she were wearing the bracelet and came out of the tomb then that fellow Quetzal...."580Please respect copyright.PENANAU7cMqA1PxD
"Tetzal," Don corrected him, and was ignored.580Please respect copyright.PENANAvGTuH4OTJh
"....must associate Ann in some way with that skeleton, Yentl."580Please respect copyright.PENANAMt0JVwz9jo
"Nenetl."It was Penny's turn to put him ri ght.580Please respect copyright.PENANA9kSRWLXneu
"Oh, the pain," Dr. Smith muttered.580Please respect copyright.PENANAE6RtpNiR7k
"Well, they've treated us all right so far," Penny said brightly.580Please respect copyright.PENANA0V0D012TgD
Dr. Smith stopped in his tracks and glared at her. "The Aztecs always showed the utmost courtesy to their intended victims," he observed icily and continued pacing the room.580Please respect copyright.PENANAgEeFMCslSP
580Please respect copyright.PENANA8sS9sXkRV7