I feel like staying. I couldn't find the right words, so I said nothing. Neither did she. We simply looked at one another beneath that endless sky while the desert stretched black and silent around us. And somewhere inside that silence, something beautiful began to take root.
Something none neither of us had expected to find. Hope. On the third day, we reached three rocks. The place looked exactly the way it had on the map. Three enormous stone formations, each nearly the size of a house, rose from the open ground and formed a rough triangle across the plane.
This is it, Seiya said as she climbed down from her horse. I dismounted and stared up at the towering rocks. So what now? I need you to look at the map again. We left the horses behind and found a shaded place between two of the formations.
Seiya removed her blouse and turned her back to me. What I saw stopped my breath. The map had changed. Before the markings had seemed still and orderly. Now in the center of her back a new symbol had appeared.
An arrow and it was pointing toward one specific place. "Do you see it?" she asked. "It's showing us the way." I carefully ran my fingertips across the lines. They felt warm beneath my touch. almost too warm, as if something beneath her skin were alive and beating. The arrow points there, I said, indicating one of the huge rocks.
Then that's where we go. We walked toward the formation. Once we drew close, I noticed something most men would have passed without ever seeing. A narrow crack almost invisible between the stones. There, I said.
Seiya stepped forward and reached into the opening. Her fingers closed around something. She pulled out a small object. It was an old leather pouch dried hard by time and cracked along the edges. She opened it carefully.
Inside was a yellowed sheet of paper covered in writing. Old Spanish. Can you read it? She asked. I took the page from her and read the words aloud.
Whoever seeks the gold of the sun must cross the valley of shadows where the water lies still but life blooms. There the entrance to the second trail will be found. Seiya frowned. The valley of shadows, water that does not move, life that blooms. It's a riddle, I said.
But what does it mean? I thought about the riddle for a few moments. The valley of shadows could be a canyon, I said. Someplace so deep the sun barely reaches the bottom, and water that doesn't move could mean a lake or a still spring. Where would we find a place like that?
I reached into my saddle bag and pulled out my own map. Nothing mysterious, just an ordinary map of the surrounding country. I spread it open in front of us and studied the nearby landmarks until something caught my eye. here," I said, tapping one spot with my finger. "Dark Canyon is about 2 days west of us. I've heard travelers say there's a small lake hidden inside it." Seiya nodded slowly.
"Then that's where we go next. We were just getting ready to leave when a distant sound froze us both in place. Hoof beatats. A lot of them. Hide, I whispered.
Seiya pulled her blouse back on as fast as she could. We ducked behind one of the massive rock formations, and only moments later, the riders came into view. There were five men. Every one of them was armed, and they carried the hard look of men who wouldn't lose a minute of sleep after pulling a trigger. Riding at the front was a tall man dressed entirely in black.