The Mistery of Belicena Villca
Such a question puzzled Lito , who turned to cross a look with his relatives . He thus discovered the eyes of Violante de Tharsis , unrecognizable as a Lady under her Dominican habit , and he suddenly understood everything . Hitting the forehead with the palm of his hand he said smiling :
– You are undoubtedly referring to my cousin Violante . But you are right Noble Elder : She is a Princess of Tharsis ! – And he right away lowered the hood and revealed the beautiful face of the Lady . When the old man saw her , and the ten Amautas , smiled in turn and beat their foreheads with the palm of their hand , imitating the gesture of Lito de Tharsis .
The old man was one of the Atumurunas , to whom the phrases in Quechua , uttered by Lito de Tharsis had invoked . But who were the Atumurunas ? According to the old man , who after the reception narrated became as sparing and laconic as the Amautas , the Atumurunas belonged to a Family : they were members of the House " Inga Kollman "; " Inga ", meant " descendant ", that is to say , that the Atumurunas were the " descendants " of Kollman .
That was understandable , Lito explained to the Stone Men , for the particle " ing " means descendant in Germanic languages , as in Merovingian or Carolingian ; but who was Kollman ? The old man refused to respond by claiming that his relatives would explain it to them “ when they got to Koaty , the Island of the Moon ”. Where was the " Island of the Moon "?: " in the lake Titicaca , to which they would arrive after a week of walking ”. " The side path that drives from the Road of the Gods to Cuzco days ago was left behind ; they were now in a region not yet explored by the Spanish ; but they had to hurry because the ' Ingas ' had news that an expedition to the South was preparing ; the white Huancaquilli arrived just at the last moment , when the Atumurunas were already desperate for the warning of the Gods to be fulfilled ”. And nothing more than this could be taken from the elder Atumuruna .
Seven days later they saw a colossal stone fortress in what shoud be the southern end of the Road of the Gods . The Road , indeed , ended in front of the fortress , and this one , whose walls were shaped like a half moon , was silhouetted against a mountain of unprecedented height . However the Road was not totally interrupted : a secret exit , only suitable for Hyperborean Initiates , allowed to cross the obstacle . They stayed there overnight and were persuaded by the old man to leave the animals and luggage , since they couldn ' t transport them to the Island . The next day they passed through the secret exit , prior libation of the mysterious concoction by the four Catalans and the fifty warriors who now accompanied them : the Lords of Tharsis , instead , just had to stand in front of the Stone and listen to the Vrunes of Navutan in the Language of the Birds ; they indicated what strategic movements should they do to correctly approach the secret exit and pierce the Veil of Illusion . On the other side of the mountain they found themselves only five leagues from the shore of the lake , in the direction of the port of Carabuco . It was then June 1535 .
Boarding the cattail pirogues was an original experience for the Spaniards , although the distrustful Catalans feared that they would sink in any moment . However , six hours later they arrived without problems on the Island of the Moon . They went down on a small beach , no more than ten Castilian feet wide , bordered by a prominent cliff 200 rods high : a narrow and visible zigzag path allowed to climb to the top of the cliff , from where the habitable surface of the Island extended . According to the Amautas ' explanations , on Koaty Island there was a fortified town and a Temple . But they weren ' t going to the surface .
When everyone had descended on the beach , the Atumuruna revealed to them that they were to go through another secret entrance , which was right there in the cliff wall . Again , the Men of Stone located the Vrunes and the Catalans had to be drugged . Beyond the Illusion of the Cliff , there was a shadowy tunnel , entirely lined with stone blocks , which declined in a ramp and sank into the bowels of the Island . For twenty minutes they continued to descend , until the tunnel stabilized and led them to the threshold of a door guarded by two Amautas of the Black Bonnet : seeing the newcomers , one of them struck a huge silver gong with a mace that he carried in his hands . An
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