Invisible City by M. G. Harris Page A

another interpretation.”
    She watches us closely, to make sure she has our full attention. “From astronomy. The Maya were really crazy forastronomy,” she continues, almost conspiratorially, “and no one really understands why they paid so much attention, or knew so much about what goes on in the sky. The Maya believed that you could see
Xibalba be
in the sky. Astronomers know it as the ‘Great Dark Rift’ in our galaxy: the Milky Way.”
    I’m impressed. This is much deeper than we’ve gone.
    â€œHow about ‘Heart of Sky’?”
    â€œWell,” muses Camila, “the Mayan creation myth says that the world was created by the Heart of Sky and the Plumed Serpent. But there are scholars who say that it’s also an astronomical thing, that ‘Heart of Sky’ could mean Polaris—the Pole Star.”
    Two astronomical terms together.
    â€œCould that be some kind of astronomical event?” Ollie suggests. “The Great Dark Rift meeting Polaris?”
    â€œIn the Calakmul letter,” says Camila, “it says ‘it will be destroyed.’ Doesn’t that sound kind of like a prediction of some cataclysmic event?”
    I feel a ripple of energy pass through me. The hairs on my arms prickle. What if the 2012 doomsday scenario is real?
    â€œThirteen Baktun,” she continues gravely, “December twenty-second, 2012—the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar. Even nowadays it’s thought that our galaxy will be aligned in a special way on that date. Maybe the Ix Codex describes what will happen then. And what if it’s not some harmless shift in thecollective consciousness, or whatever these new-age types would like to believe, but a
real end
, some terrible event?
It will be destroyed
. What? The whole world?”
    â€œMaybe not,” I point out. “The Calakmul letter mentions this ‘healer of worlds.’”
    â€œSure, that’s also interesting,” Camila muses.
    â€œWhat does it mean?”
    â€œWell … what if it’s a reference to something that could reverse the cataclysm, or protect people, something like that?”
    â€œWhat, like a spell or something?”
    Tyler makes a tutting sound of disapproval. “What’s wrong with you? That’s crazy, man!”
    Camila shoots him a withering look.
    I compromise: “Or something.”
    â€œâ€˜In the Moon it walks,’” she quotes. “Now
what
does that mean?” mutters Ollie.
    She’s got a point.
    â€œOkay,” admits Camila, “I don’t have all the answers. Who knows—maybe I’ve interpreted everything completely wrong! But I do know this: Andres believed that the Ix Codex is a true document, that it contains a Mayan prophecy about the end of the world. The Calakmul letter—it’s giving only a hint of what’s in the Ix Codex.”
    â€œI knew it,” Tyler says, half angry, half smug. “This Mayan prophecy—it’s for real, man!”
    â€œSomeone believes it,” says Camila. “Someone believesthat codex is worth killing for. Someone with the power to murder Andres and frame my husband.”
    â€œCarlos Montoyo,” I breathe.
    Camila seems thrown. It’s clear that, to her, Montoyo isn’t a suspect. “Who, the archaeology teacher from Yucatán University?”
    â€œDad was supposed to be meeting him. He knew all about the Ix Codex. He warned Dad off.”
    â€œAndres did meet him—in Guatemala,” says Camila, shrugging. “He didn’t seem suspicious of Montoyo. In fact, Montoyo gave him some useful information. About a small ruin not far from here, where Dad found some new emblem glyphs.”
    â€œEmblem glyphs?” I ask. “He found some new city names?”
    â€œYou’d better believe it! He was really excited.”
    â€œAnd that’s all that happened with Montoyo?”
    â€œYeah. That was