Fourteen-year-old Peter Collins cannot help but wonder if it was all just a dream. Even though it has been two years since he traveled back in time to ancient Mexico with his friend, Rosa Guzman, two questions continue to haunt him: Why hasn't Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent who guided Rosa and him through their time travels, returned as he had promised? Who is his real father? Peter knows the secret will be revealed once he passes his final test. When Quetzalcoatl finally shows up, the boy cannot help but feel a little anxious about his most important mission to date. After Peter and Rosa travel back in time once more to the last days of the Aztec Empire, they are taken to Lord Montezuma, who declares that Topiltzin, the incarnation of Quetzalcoatl, is returning to reclaim his throne. When he hears hostile warriors are advancing toward the capital, Montezuma is convinced their leader is Topiltzin and decides to welcome him to avoid a war of all the gods. But unfortunately, Montezuma could not be more wrong. In the exciting conclusion to the Tollan Trilogy, two teenage adventurers must create peace between the conquerors and the people of ancient Mexico-before the future of America is changed forever and Peter's past is finally revealed.
The Halls of Montezuma
Book Three of the Tollan TrilogyBy Michael CantwelliUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Michael Cantwell
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4759-5847-8Chapter One
W
as it all a dream? Peter Collins, teaching himself to shave, looked hard in the mirror and wondered. It had been two years since he'd traveled in time to ancient Mexico—that is, if it hadn't been just a dream. Yet, dream or no dream, those travels had changed his life. He was no longer a nerd, a wimp shunned by his schoolmates. He was captain of his high school freshman soccer team, getting good grades in his classes, and making friends.
Yet, aside from the question of whether it all had been a dream, two questions continued to haunt him. First, if all those things that had happened to him and Rosa in ancient Mexico had indeed been real, why hadn't Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent who had guided them through their time travels, returned as he had promised? It had been two years ago today, at the appearance of the morning star, that Quetzalcoatl had last come for them. Whenever the planet Venus appeared as the morning star, Peter was out of bed, looking through his telescope, hoping to see a sign of the flying serpent flitting across the moon and skidding down a ray of starlight aimed at Peter's bedroom window.
And the big question, the one that had gnawed at Peter's heart for as long as he could remember, the question that had led him to take his chances with Quetzalcoatl in the first place, remained unanswered. Who was his real father? Peter would be fourteen tomorrow, and he still didn't know. His mother had yet to tell him, and the serpent had given no hints. Okay, the serpent had said the secret would be revealed after Peter passed all three tests laid out for him. Well, he had passed two of them. On their first visit to ancient Mexico, he had solved the secret of the Smoking Mirror, thereby defeating the evil lords of Tollan I. On their next trip, six weeks later, he'd won the sacred ball game in Tollan II. Rosa passed her tests, bringing her the confidence and the respect of fellow students in school. One test remained. Peter was eager to take it, but he'd been waiting two years.
Standing now in front of his bathroom mirror, Peter thought about how he and Rosa had discussed their adventures in ancient Mexico together many times and in great detail, Rosa sometimes reminding him of things he'd forgotten. If their time travels had happened only in dreams, it was hard to believe they had just happened to have the same dreams. But how did you explain two years with no sign of Quetzalcoatl?
With all these questions hanging over his head, Peter went downstairs for breakfast. He found his mother sitting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee and smiling up at him. Yes, she was still as beautiful as the great goddess of Tollan I.
"Good morning, birthday boy," she said. "You'll be fourteen years old at exactly five-thirty tomorrow morning. What a lovely young man you are growing up to be! I'm so proud of you!" She got up to pour coffee into his waiting cup. His breakfast of sliced fruit and yogurt was set beside it. "Yes, tomorrow will be a big day," she went on. "I have a big surprise for you—something very special just for your birthday."
Peter was stunned. Something special just for his birthday? Was she going to tell him who his real father was at last? He had never summoned the courage to ask her straight-out, fearing it might embarrass her. But she had to know it was on his mind.
His mother sat down, folding her hands over her stomach and smiling. "Ben is coming home tomorrow!"
"Ben?" Peter shuddered.
"Yes, Ben is coming home from the mental asylum. He's coming home for good. Isn't that wonderful?"
"Wonderful?" Peter wanted to cry out in protest. But he knew his mother would be offended. One of the reasons he'd been feeling better about himself lately was that his stepfather had been away. He'd been a patient in Back to Reality Hospital for two years. It was Ben who had made him feel so bad about himself, telling him time and time again that he was a wimp, afraid of his own shadow, not made of the right stuff. And it was Ben who had wanted Peter put away in the hospital.
His wife had agreed on the condition that the whole family would be given examinations. As it turned out, Peter had passed his with flying colors while Ben had been found to be in dire need of mental treatment. Having been exposed to her husband's wild mood swings, Peter's mother had signed a paper to have him put away. Peter knew she was unhappy about it and feared that Ben would never recover and that the home life she'd once shared with him was gone forever. Not that it had been much of a happy home life the last few years. But looking back, it seemed to Peter his mother's marriage with Ben had been a fairly good one years ago. The trouble really had begun with his own coming of age, the problems he had started to have at school, trying to grow up—problems that had led Ben to decide he wasn't born with the right stuff.
Whatever the cause, Peter dreaded the thought of having to live with Ben again. Whenever his mother dragged Peter to the hospital on visiting days, he was exposed to the same old insults. Luckily, he had avoided going to the hospital for over six months now, inventing one excuse or another: soccer practice, special events. No, he couldn't live with Ben again, even to please his mother.
His only hope lay in a potential birthday present from Quetzalcoatl, a visit in the morning. Last time, Rosa had received a sign of his coming. He decided to ask her if she knew anything.
Chapter Two
Peter and Rosa were both in high school now. Although they were still friends, they no longer shared classes. In fact, recently, Peter had found himself avoiding her again. Back in middle school, Rosa had been a skinny, obnoxious pain in the butt. She had been a sourpuss most of the time and hadn't been able to get through a single day without arguing with somebody. But now, Rosa was in possession of poise and confidence. And she was doing well in her classes. All these things won her the approval of teachers and fellow students.
And she had blossomed physically as well. Her figure was filling out with curves that made Peter's heart turn upside down whenever they met. He could not understand the new feelings he was having for her and had no control over them.
For this reason, he found himself avoiding her more often than he had when she was a mere pain in the butt. So it was with mixed feelings that he approached her now in the schoolyard.
"Rosa, I need to talk to you," he said.
"I think I know why." Rosa smiled her stunning smile. Then it struck Peter. Her smile was more evidence that it couldn't have been all just a dream. Her front teeth had been crooked until two years ago when a quetzal bird had straightened them for her. No one received dental work in dreams.
"Rosa, I find myself wondering—"
"Peter, I have news for you. A little bird came to visit me last night, the same bird who straightened my teeth. `Pack your things,' he told me. `Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, needs you. Big things are happening in old Mexico, things that will change the world forever. He wants you to help him set things right. Be ready when the morning star arrives tomorrow. It should appear in the sky just before dawn.' So get ready, Peter. And by the way, happy birthday!"
Chapter Three
When Peter woke up the next morning, rays of light were streaming through his window. The clock on his...
