Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

The top of the mountain was covered with darkness, like the shadow of a great vulture in flight.The noise at the bottom of the mountain has gradually subsided and gradually faded away.The shouts and groans were no longer so shrill, and the explosion stopped.Anna Maya finally regained her composure.She adjusted the long gown that wrapped her cold body. "I was wondering, where did Vera Omar go?" she said. Kadari thought for a moment. "Maybe escape to the holy chamber underground, curse us for defeat, fulfill his prophecy..." "I thought he would go back to Manco's camp and join the war."

"He has long been overwhelmed by anger and locked himself on an isolated island forgotten by the world." "To me, he was once the wise man..." "He's human too. After all, he didn't understand why the great Vanya Kapak didn't tell him what the Son of the Sun knew, but chose to tell this strange girl with blue eyes..." Anna Maya thought back. "To me, he will always be wise." Kada laughed in response, his voice echoing softly in the night. "why are you laughing?" "For a long time, I have been trying to find the little girl who came to Vanya and King Kapak in Kamaken Keya. I finally met her for the first time just now."

This time it was Anna Maya who smiled. "Why did you give me this stone key?" "One day when all the signs appear one by one, we will eventually separate. I will return to the lake where all things originated, and you will return to..." She put her finger to her lips and interrupted him. "I beg you, don't say that name." "You will need this key to open the stone for you." "How do I know?" "You'll know." The night wind blew gently, blowing away the noise of human voices.The strange thing is that Anna Maya doesn't feel cold anymore.

"What about him?" she asked herself. Jia Boye saw that the water suddenly rose and submerged the plain, reaching the position of the horse's belly.The horses moved sluggishly, as if sinking into an ocean that would overwhelm them.A cavalryman struggled to pump water with his arms, twisting his arms constantly in an attempt to float himself up, and tried his best to get rid of the heavy armaments on his body. As night gradually covered the sky, the sound of the Spaniards retreating became more and more distant to Jia Boye.Only occasionally did the Incas sound a horn or beat a drum when they caught one or two enemy troops too late to escape, or overturned a horse.

He felt an infinite sense of fatigue over his body and limbs.He no longer struggled, but suddenly he felt old, like an old man covered in scars and walking slowly.He closed his eyes, and the Incas and the Spaniards appeared in his mind at the same time. The former was riding a white horse, and the latter was walking on foot, each holding a long sword and a sling... It was like an illusion, and he couldn't break free from it, and he would rather let it go. The illusion engulfed him, and he felt like a soldier struggling to survive after a war, but because of the exhaustion deep in his heart, he eventually fell to the ground.

Manco came and pulled the reins of the horse, which was splashed with mud.He looked at Jia Boye without saying a word, his black eyes were shining with pride, and he was still intoxicated by the taste of victory in the war.Victory - the most powerful narcotic, stronger than chicha, more addictive than a thousand coca leaves. Then, Manco handed over the reins to Jia Boye, and walked towards the courtyard without looking back, like a tired victor. Jia Boye walked behind him. The road is extremely steep and there are several places where the stones are piled very irregularly, so going down the mountain at night becomes very dangerous.

Anna Maya and Kadari walked steadily and regularly, relying on the moonlight on the one hand, and the instinct of walking at night on the other, so they were able to walk safely. As they approached the banks of the Wilcamayor and the springs, they heard the songs of victory, already chanting the heroes of the war.The earth is still dripping with blood, and the rivers wash away the bodies of drowned and dead.On the bank of the river, Anna Maya first saw the face of a dead woman, still holding her husband's clothes tightly in her hands, apparently following her husband all the way, fighting for this unknown reason.The woman's eyes were white, looking blankly beyond the Four Square Empire.

As soon as they entered the square courtyard, they saw people with shaky feet.Some lay on the ground, vomit mixed with mud, still chanting indistinctly triumphant songs about the Incas' victory over the gods on the other side of the ocean.In a blink of an eye, the foreigners became the protagonists described in the songs, and their songs also included the moon, and how the invincible Centaur's swordsmanship was so precise that people's heads fell to the ground, and the flaming copper sticks in the foreigners' hands.But the songs sung by the Inca warriors, intoxicated with victory, also tell of the Incas who fought against these foreigners. It was Viracocha himself who was incarnated from the rock and helped the Inca warriors regenerate their severed arms so that they could call the wind and rain... …

When Anna Maya and Kadari got closer to the path of the square courtyard, the rumors spread more and more—everyone talked about it, even the innermost courtyard was full of rumors, even It's the woman roasting Indian wild boar around the fire, and you and I scramble to praise it.Everyone was talking about the hero who was the first to throw a stone and break a horse's leg, and about the success of Patakangsha's water diversion strategy.Everyone rustled and chattered like arrows and stones whizzing down from the air, and they circled the horses, tripped them up, and threw their bodies into the river.All were talking non-stop, as if no words were enough to express the joy of this exhilarating victory.

Anna Maya felt numb in her heart. Jia Boye was not there, and she couldn't help searching for his face in the dark.But she tightly closed her lips, not daring to ask anyone.foreigners?Better disappear in hell, yes, that's what everyone expects. The guards were stationed on both sides of the trapezoidal gate of the city wall outside the Manco Quadrangle. When the guards finally stepped aside, Annamaya was already furious. The Inca king was surrounded by generals, iron cloth shirts over long robes, and spears resting on the ground.Manco made a gesture towards the general reaching out his hand. What Anna Maya saw was still muddy and bloody hands; tears and mud ran down two traces on his cheeks, and pride and hatred shone in his eyes.And every face around him was full of smiles. In addition to respecting the courtesies due to the king, his actions also showed the brotherhood of compatriots sharing weal and woe.When Anna Maya and Kadari entered, everyone fell silent.

"I said, Kamakenkeya, my father definitely forgot to tell you about the victory, that's why you stayed away from us, and it took so long to show up..." Manco made a gesture, and the two women immediately took a jug of chicha wine and poured a little into the beautifully carved gold goblet.Manco drank the glass slowly and said: "As for you, Kadari, are you going to the top of Pingchiluna to join us in throwing stones?" Neither of them said anything.Drunkenness flushed the face of the Inca king; his eyes were blazing. "They don't speak," he said, facing the general and minister, "Is this contempt, or shame..." "We have begun to pile up rocks to build a new temple," Kadari said, "that will honor our ancestor, your father King Wanya Kapac in the future." Kadari's tone was calm and fearless.The murderous look in Manco's eyes disappeared instantly.Then he pointed to Anna Maya and said: "I captured a beast in the war." The anger in his tone was much less, "Now, I will hand him over to you." "What beast is it?" she asked Manco gently. "Puma. They say you are inseparable from him." Manco's hand drew a circle and pointed in the shadows.Jia Boye was caught by two soldiers, and he walked out with a blank expression. "Now I give him back to you, Ana Maya, and he's yours." Annamaya resisted moving, even though her whole being, her whole heart wanted to run to him immediately, and hugged him tightly with her arms wide open. "But your puma can only survive under one condition." Anamaya's blue eyes looked at Manco, who didn't even blink. "Tomorrow morning, when Andi shines the first rays of light to illuminate our victory, he must disappear, do you understand?" Anna Maya remained silent.She let the tired Jia Boye approach her unsteadily.But they didn't touch, they just faced Manco side by side, and then walked through the inner courtyard in full view.Everyone parted to make way, but she glimpsed the hostility and desire for revenge in these people.They longed to quarter him... As they stepped over the lintel carved with the great vulture, they heard Manco's last voice. "Remember before sunrise." Manco said the words sonorously. And there was no trace of drunkenness in his voice. They left the quad and disappeared into the night. She led him across the springs and along the Wilcamayor River to the Sanctuary of the Great Condor. For a long time, they neither talked nor touched.They have only been separated for a few hours, but they must first adjust their breathing and calm their heartbeats before they can exchange words. The night was so nice and cool that all fear and dread of war seemed to fade away as they walked the path.There is no distinction between victory and defeat, no cry of excitement, roar of hate, or cry of victory. When they approached the rock, Anna Maya stopped, and Jia Boye also stopped.She took his hand and made him lie flat on the low wall by the river.Both of them closed their eyes, forgetting all the violence brought about by the war, and wholeheartedly let the mind and body go away slowly with the sound of the water. Then she pulled him up and walked to the river together, she gently took off his clothes.His sweaty gown slipped to the floor.The river was so icy and cold that he almost cried out.But Annamaya led him without fear to the middle of the river, where there was a flat black rock.He spread himself out on the rock, half submerged in the water, and Annamaya slowly washed his tiredness away with her hands.Flowing water, slender hands... He couldn't tell whether it was the flowing water or Anna Maya's hand, but he just let the deepest fatigue in his heart go with the water.Slowly, those lingering images gradually disappeared, and he didn't resist at all, allowing the bits and pieces of what he had lived to fade away from his body bit by bit.When Annamaya helped him back to the shore, he felt a great pleasure, even the feeling of desire. She put a long gown for him under the cloak, which was made of extremely soft wool, and it felt like a gentle touch on the body. The two of them left the low wall and started on the road again.Above their heads can be seen the sanctuary of the great vulture. "I don't want to leave." Jia Boye said. "I know." She replied. They talked in low tones in the silence of the night, not for fear that the walls had ears, but to create an atmosphere in the darkness, as if the two had taken refuge in a cave.They talked about everything, but they never mentioned the fact that they were about to part, and they didn't think about how to spend this night, even though the moment of parting was coming, even though the night stood still as if it would never disappear. "I thought that I should share the joys and sorrows with them. I didn't want to fight against your people. I hoped that I would also fall on the grass trampled by the horses, get hurt, and let them look at me... I even had a feeling at that time Weird feeling that I had to see the red feathers on that damn bastard Enando's helmet. Yes, I'm ashamed that I should feel some kind of affection for him. But I can't help myself. I know they will Losing the war and standing on top of the mountain felt like a traitor." "A voice tells me you're not going to die, but a voice tells me you'll be trampled to pieces by horses. A voice tells me we'll meet again, but a voice tells me I'm going to lose you." "You've always been by my side. When I saw Sebatian and Gandhia galloping towards me on horseback, I just wanted to go back to you and tell you..." She laughed, and asked solemnly: "Are they both alive?" "I don't know. I hope they're still alive... I recall a time when stones and bows and arrows fell like hail from the sky and my first thought was to rush over and ask for the one who protected me at the Battle of Sacsayhuaman I prayed in my heart to all the gods, your gods and ours, and I said to them: 'Whoever you are, and whether I believe or not, save my two friends !Don't let them die now!'" "So they've been alive." "Do I have such supernatural power?" "The power exists. Come on!" Through rock after rock they climbed up to the sanctuary.Jia Boye had a new understanding of the Inca beliefs, and saw something trembling there.He didn't speak, just followed Anna Maya across the rocks one by one. Finally she stopped, and in front of her eyes was a large rock a few feet high, protruding in shape, without any traces of chiseling, or traces of anyone walking by.In the distance, hidden in the night, there should be a mountain in the shape of this rock. "Here we are," said Ana Maya. Jia Boye's heart almost stopped beating. Anna Maya was startled when she heard what she said, and stopped.She said what she just said almost without thinking, as if the words jumped out of her mouth by themselves.The fear she still had in her heart was gone now: the secret she had kept for so long had followed him ever since, and she thought he knew it too. "It's this place," she said, "although it's near and far away, this place has to be kept a secret. Besides me and Kadari, everyone from Oyantaytambo has been there... Kadari is on the rock Carved a shape of a mountain that no one knows, and erected it over there, above our secret sanctum. That side of the mountain..." Jia Boye let Anna Maya speak without attempting to understand her words.Her words seemed to penetrate every pore in his body and leave a mark on him. "...a face appeared there. The face of a cougar." After Anna Maya finished speaking, Jia Boye took some time to understand that she was talking about him.Then he explored that rocky shape uncertainly in the dark.But he didn't recognize it. "You can't see it," she said, "but it's there. Kadari told you that your fate was written on the rock, and now you are literally before the rock." Jia Boye suddenly felt a hot current in his body, a unique feeling, neither the smell of gunpowder in the war that makes blood rush, nor the sweet taste of love that makes people passionate, but a trembling that runs through the whole body, he Feel yourself and the world become one, and your body is full of familiarity like never before. "I know where it is," he said, "I can see it." The protruding places on the rocks of the puma are like fangs, as if they are gnawing and tearing their prey at any time.But Jia Boye was not afraid at all, he was immersed in a kind of indescribable, indescribable happiness, beyond any tears and smiles.He thought to himself: "Finally, I'm finally here."