"5 Stars!...Remarkable for its well-researched and carefully designed framework. The twenty-day cycle, each with a patron god and element, and Quetzalcoatl's historical challenges, provide a delightfully fantastic background. The carefully designed 'symbology' is remarkable, as Quentin finds himself surrounded by the Knights of the Ocelot...This stunning tale of betrayal, passion, and dreams will hold the reader's attention until the end. The balance of legends and their modern counterparts will delight lovers of the Mayan Pantheon, and enthrall all readers. With a male charm, T. K. Sheils presents a novel of passion and vision, of depth and detail worthy of a master."—Cindy Penn, WordWeaving

"T. K. Sheils has obviously researched the Mayan-Aztec pantheon in vast and intensive detail, and uses that information to craft an exciting and erotic thriller. The merging of ancient legends with their modern counterparts is well done, and the climax is both ambiguous and believable. The erotic scenes throb with intensity, and there are various subplots that are wrapped up—or are they?"—K. G. McAbee, Sharpwriter.com

...The encroaching vines and moss covered the walls of the room, hiding all traces of human construction except for the floor and making it seem more like a small cave than a room. But it did provide shelter, if not comfort, for the rain was now coming down in torrents. “Look,” said Toma. “You see that jungle-covered hill beside our car? That’s the other side of the Temple of the Moon. If this were not flat land, Altun-Ha would never have been discovered.”

And the side of the temple that now faced us did, indeed, seem only to be a natural hill, except that there were no natural hills.

Abruptly, the rain ceased.

Toma stepped outside our shelter and looked up.

“The rain has stopped for now. But the cloud has not moved. It is strange for the season, but I’m afraid it will start again. I think, perhaps, we should leave while there’s a break. I’ll bring you back tomorrow. No extra charge. There is much to explore. What’s the matter?”

I was barely listening to him, for my attention was riveted on the golden road that ran from the center of the temple we were in, to the foot of the Temple of the Moon. Why had I not noticed the road as we walked across? We were either on it or beside it as we came from the car.

A strange urgency clutched my stomach as I stepped outside and looked to left and right. To the right of the temple was a silver road, running off to the south, while a red-paved road ran straight north until it was lost in the encroaching forest. Though I could not see it, I was convinced that an emerald blue road ran off to the west from behind the temple. Just as in my dream.

“What are those roads? Why didn’t I notice them before?”

Toma froze.

“What roads?” His voice was a low whisper.

“That one, there, leading to the Moon Temple. And that one, there. And over there.”

“Gold…and…red and…silver, yes?” His voice was hesitant.

“Yes. Then you see them, too?

There was an emotionless urgency in his voice as he looked me in the eye.

“No, I do not see them. No man has ever seen them. You must leave now.”

Just as surely as his voice urged that I leave, I knew I could not. This was it. This was the place I had to be, to find whatever it was I had been searching for.

“No,” I said firmly. “I cannot.”

Toma was not about to stay longer to persuade me.

“Then I will go alone,” he said. “And may the gods pity you.”

And he slipped and skidded down the sodden steps, and raced down the golden road to his car. And the skies rained down, heavier than before, so that his hasty departure was lost in a curtain of water.

I turned from the entrance and retreated as far as I could into the small cavelike room to avoid the rivulets of water that crawled in toward me through cracks between the limestone tiles of the floor. Instinctively, I crouched, hugging my knees to my chest, as if, in making myself smaller, I could somehow avoid the encroaching water. I pressed my back against the moss-covered stones of the room’s back wall.

And, with a sudden crack, the wall gave way, sending the stones plunging inward and downward, while I clung to a vine in the side wall and tried to gain my balance. As I did so, the vine pulled away from the wall, and writhed in my hands, coiling around my wrist. Violently, I turned around and flung the serpent-thing into the darkness where the rear wall had been.

Shuddering suddenly with cold and damp, I collapsed in a heap on the sodden floor.