Evil Star

"I have read the signs in the sky and on the land. The birds fly where they should not fly. There are too many stars in the heavens at night. A terrible disaster is a heartbeat away, and perhaps all our hopes will come to nothing. One boy will stand against the Old Ones and alone he will fall. Maybe he will die. This I do not know.
    "But not all will be lost. Five defeated them at the dawn of time, and Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star five will defeat them again. That is the proph-ecy. This boy is one of the five. This boy also." He pointed first at Matt, then at Pedro. "The others will follow and when the five come together, they will have the strength to defeat the Old Ones. Then the last great war will take place and the new world will begin."
    He fell silent.
    “You say the gate will open three days from now," Richard muttered. "Do you know where it is?"
    The Inca shook his head. "We have searched for it. We have never found it."
    "Then where do you suggest we go next?" Richard hadn't meant to sound rude, but he was aware that he had been. He flinched, wondering if he was about to find out what it felt like to have two meters of golden spear in his back.
    But the Inca didn't seem offended. His face hadn't changed. He gestured at Atoc, who took out a sheet of paper and laid it in front of them. Matt recognized it at once. It was the page that Pedro had taken from the photo-copier. It had been in the back pocket of his jeans. He wondered when Atoc had taken it.
    "This the only clue," Atoc said.
    "What does it say?" Matt asked. He had been wonder-ing about the strange verse ever since Pedro had found it.
    Atoc translated the words out loud and Matt felt his heart sink.

    On the night when the white bird flies
    Before the place of Qolqa,
    There will the light be seen,

    Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star
    The light that is the end of all light.

    And below that, the two words — INTI RAY Ml — and the blazing sun.
    The sheet of paper had obviously been important enough for Salamanda to want to copy it. But why did its message have to be so complicated? Matt had thought the lines would tell him what he needed to know about the gate. They told him nothing at all.
    The old amauta shook his head. "Inti Raymi ... "he said.
    "Inti Raymi is the most important day in the Inca calen-dar," the prince explained. "It is the time of the summer solstice when the sun is at its farthest point south of the Equator. June twenty-fourth.
    Today is June twenty-first."
    "What about the place of Qolqa?" Richard asked. "Do you know where that is?"
    The amauta glanced at the Inca ruler but he knew the answer already. "Qolqa is a Nazca word," he said.
    "They were talking about Nazca," Matt said, excitedly. "Salamanda and the others. They said they were looking for a platform in the Nazca desert."
    "The pictures on this paper would very much indicate the desert,"
    the Inca agreed. "But that is on the other side of Peru, back where you've come from. We must give seri-ous thought to what we do next. This page may have told Salamanda what he needs to know, but if so, it can tell us, too. There is a professor who lives in Nazca and who has made many studies of the area. If there is anyone in the country who can make sense of this, she can. I will speak with her Horowitz, Anthony - [Gatekeepers 02] - Evil Star tonight."
    "Are you on the phone here?" Richard asked.
    Huascar smiled for the first time. "This is an ancient city," he said.
    "We are very remote. But this is still the twenty-first century. We have mobile phones and we even have a satellite connection to the Internet. Please, try not to think of us as primitives."
    He stood up.
    "My people wish to see you," he said. "The fact that two of the five are with us is a cause for celebration, no matter what the future may bring." He raised his hands. "Let the feast begin."

    ************************************
    Night had fallen once again and the stars had come out in their millions. The entire city of Vilcabamba was filled with lights and music, the thin wail of the panpipes echoing above the deeper beating of the drums. Several bonfires had been lit and there were pigs turning on spits, chickens and lambs baking in clay pots, great chunks of pork on skewers, and bubbling cauldrons of stew. The air carried the smell of burning fat and the sparks leaped up and crackled.
    There were at least five hundred people — men, women, and children — in the sacred plaza.