The Machu Picchu Mystery Read online

  “I reckon it’s because the lunar cycle’s all over the place down here,” Colin said with a yawn over breakfast.

  They’d been shepherded down to the main hall to eat, and Trixie and Gloria were enjoying bowls of cereal and sticky toast covered in jam. Colin had settled for a boiled egg and instantly regretted it.

  “Did anybody else disappear last night?” Trixie whispered across the table.

  Maria shook her head and said, “I don’t think so.” They’d had to move one of the long benches out of the way to make room for her four legs at the table. Even so, she was still taller than everyone else. Xavier was trying to cheer Colin up by eating as much as he could and showing him how it looked when he swallowed it. Colin wasn’t cheering up, but it was making Trixie and Gloria feel sick.

  Once breakfast had been finished, they all congregated at the entrance to the hall. All of the Monstacademy children were ferried around by Miss Brimstone in full mother-hen mode. A handful of Escuela de Monstruos children were signed up to tag along as guides. Trixie and Gloria were excited to find out that Maria and Xavier had put their names down.

  Diego shuffled over to them all as soon as everybody had turned up. His mood didn’t seem to have improved overnight. “Follow me, you lot,” he said. There was something about the way he said the last word that worried Trixie.

  “How long have you worked here?” she asked him politely.

  He grunted a reply that she didn’t hear and pushed towards the front of the line.

  “Rude,” Gloria said, probably not as quietly as she thought.

  “Diego’s not bad,” Maria said. “Most of the monsters tease him endlessly. They set traps and leave horrible notes.”

  “Oh, some children do that to Grimsby at Monstacademy,” Gloria said. “He always laughs at it, and he’s always quick to sew back anything they chop off.”

  “This is different,” Maria said darkly. “They do it because he’s not really a monster. They don’t like having a non-monster in school.”

  Trixie shot a glance at Gloria and shook her head. She mouthed the words ‘I’m a witch’ and winked. Gloria nodded in understanding. Colin went to say something but suffered from a sudden case of foot-against-shin.

  “What was that for?” he said angrily, shooting Gloria a look of his own. “Oh, right,” he mumbled as he recognised her look.

  Diego led them back along the labyrinthine tunnels to the stone door. Every pair was told to find a younger monster to walk with, mainly to keep them safe and to stop them from wandering off. Trixie was happy to be given a young Elf called Emily, who she’d seen floating around Monstacademy. Gloria joined up with a Bogey called Sebastian. Much to Colin’s annoyance, he was paired up with a squeaky and excitable young cyclops.

  “Hi my name’s Devon I’m a cyclops it’s so nice to see you I can’t believe we’re going to get to see the ruins!” she squealed without any threat of punctuation entering the conversation. Trixie and Gloria couldn’t stop laughing.

  “I hope she doesn’t fall in love!” Gloria said with a sly wink. Colin punched her arm and threatened to eat her during the next full moon.

  Miss Brimstone and Madam Garcia led them from the stone archway on a long hike through towering cloud forests and slowly down the mountain towards the citadel below. Small birds darted through the foliage like effervescent jewels; their endless chatter added to the overall noise of the forest. Somewhere hidden, a frog was calling out mournfully. Insects buzzed past Trixie’s head with alarming speed.

  “It’s perfect,” she whispered, mainly to herself.

  A monkey leapt from a branch high in the canopy and skittered away into the dense greenery that sheltered them from the already hot sun.

  “I know, isn’t it amazing?” Gloria said. Even Colin seemed to have cheered up. He was busy chasing Xavier through the trees, trying to trip each other up on the enormous roots that rose from the leaf-litter like humpback whales. Emily and Sebastian seemed content to walk in silence, but Devon hadn’t stopped talking to Colin since they’d left. Trixie wasn’t sure she’d actually taken a breath yet. She passed the time watching Colin try to hide from Xavier only for Devon to give him away with her high-pitched waffling.

  By the time they reached the ancient ruins, the sun was pinned to the sky like a...well, like a burning ball of gas. Trixie was grateful for her wide-brimmed hat, but she could tell that they were in for a hot day. They stepped down into the citadel and set off in groups to explore. Trixie and Gloria, along with their first-years, headed towards a long, low wall on the western side of the citadel. Colin and Xavier raced away towards the far end of the ruins.

  “Probably going to chase each other’s tail,” Gloria said and tutted.

  “This is the Temple of the Three Windows,” Maria said as they clambered up a short set of stone steps and stepped into an open plaza. “Look behind you,” she said, turning them around to see the large, square windows in the wall behind them.

  Trixie stood on her tiptoes to see through one of the holes. The view took her breath away. She hopped from window to window, and each one framed something entirely different, but they all captured a mountain in the distance.

  “This is the Sacred Plaza. It was a very special place for the Inca when they built Machu Picchu.” Maria stared at the mountains with a far-away look in her eyes. “They believed that when the world was still very young, a flood destroyed everything. It is said that four brothers emerged from the mountains in front of you. They were called the Ayas Brothers, and they fought between themselves to be the strongest. Each of their actions created the world we live in today, and the strongest became the first emperor of the Incas.

  “These windows were built to look out over the place where those brothers arrived. Peru is a very beautiful place, but it is filled with mystery and superstition. For us monsters, there is a lot of fear. There are myths in these mountains that should be remembered.”

  “Like the pishtaco,” Gloria said and clapped her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It is okay,” Maria said. “Out here in the open, it can do no harm. The wind will carry it away.”

  Suddenly, a red-faced and panting Colin came striding up the steps and wheezed to a stop, his hands on his knees. “It’s happened again,” he panted.

  “You’re embarrassing yourself, Colin,” Gloria said. “Stop bothering us with your silly games. You’re always creating some sort of drama where there isn’t any.”

  “I’m not. This is serious. We...me and Xavier...were messing around just outside the citadel—”

  “You went outside the citadel?” Trixie could tell Gloria was incandescent. “You are in so much trouble.”

  “That’s not important.” Colin had gathered himself together and caught his breath. His face remained scarlet. “We were just having a laugh, and suddenly everything seemed really quiet. That’s when I realised she’d gone.”

  “Who had gone?” Maria said. Trixie noticed that the Centaur’s hooves pawed at the floor when she was nervous. They were kicking up a cloud of dust now.

  “Devon. She’s been kidnapped. It’s the pishtaco!”

  “Hello, children. Up to no good, as usual?” Miss Brimstone appeared from the steps, moving silently across the stones.

  “Devon’s been kidnapped by the pishtaco,” Colin blurted out. The redness in his face was beginning to rise again, this time with embarrassment.

  “I think you’d better start at the beginning,” the banshee wailed with her usual put-upon voice.

  Between them, they told her the myth of the pishtaco and how children had been disappearing for years. According to Colin, Devon had followed him and Xavier outside the walls and had been talking nonstop as normal. Desperate for some peace and quiet, the two boys had raced away and disappeared behind some of the stone walls. When they’d looked back to see where the Cyclops was, she was nowhere to be found.

  “I’m sure she is somewhere,” Miss Brimstone said, although Trixi
e could tell that she wasn’t confident.

  “Honestly, miss, we checked everywhere. It’s that horrible monster that’s been kidnapping everyone.”

  “I highly doubt that there is a monster back from the depths of time stealing away children. However,” she turned to Trixie and Gloria before continuing, “I have doubted you two in the past, and it has left me with egg on my face. There is something odd going on here. I can feel it. You don’t get to live to be nearly three hundred years old without being able to sense when something isn’t quite right. If Madam Garcia says there is nothing wrong, then I can’t very well go sticking my nose in.”

  “But, miss, you need to do something,” Colin wailed. “It’s partly my fault. I mean, it’s mainly hers, Xavier’s really if anyone’s. But I am probably a bit responsible.”

  “Mr Curlyton, you are entirely responsible. As I said, I can’t go sticking my nose in. It would be unprofessional. On the other hand, I can’t be watching the monsters in my care all of the time, and if some of them were to start prying...” She let the sentence trail off.

  “Yes? What would happen if they did?” said Colin, winning the gold medal in the slow-on-the-uptake race.

  “Preferably ones who know what they are doing,” Miss Brimstone said with a sigh and a scowl in Colin’s direction. “We never had this conversation.”

  “What conversation?” said Trixie, her voice dripping with innocence.

  “The confusing one we’ve just had,” Colin said, throwing in an entry for silver as well.

  “Goodbye, children,” Miss Brimstone said, and disappeared down the steps as silently as she’d arrived.

  Rumours Spread

  By the time they’d hiked back to the standing stones and made it to the common room, the whole school was buzzing with news of another disappearance. Devon hadn’t turned up anywhere. Madam Garcia had rounded up every child and had them searching every nook and cranny of the citadel. Miss Brimstone had even flown around the valley in case she had slipped and was lying forlornly at the bottom of a crevice. In the end, Madam Garcia had reassured everybody that Devon had probably got fed up with Colin and Xavier ignoring her and had headed back to the school. No doubt she would be found alive and well soon enough.

  None of the monsters believed her. “It’s definitely the pishtaco,” was the word on everyone’s lips (and fangs).

  That afternoon’s class was Ancient History with a young minotaur. “My name is Señor Puntiagudo,” he said in a gruff, almost animal-like, voice when they had all taken their seats. They were all sat on long benches that formed a horseshoe in the middle of the classroom. The half-bull-half-man strutted around in the middle like a circus performer. His heavy hooves kicked up sparks on the stones whenever he grew animated. “I am going to be teaching you all about Ancient History. Don’t worry if I sound a bit Greek, to begin with...” He trailed off and raised his eyebrows, seeming to wait for some sort of recognition from the class. “Never mind,” he continued, “you will get it in the end.”

  The teacher strode to the front of the class, sparks threatened to set fire to the ornate tapestries with each step. “Monsters have been around since the dawn of time. When the first person stepped out of the trees and peered into the shadows, there was a monster there. Those first monsters were a bit small, though, so they probably ran away. We’re talking your fairies and sprites and probably a hobgoblin or two. Nothing like you get now.”

  A few of the smaller, winged members of the class looked annoyed at this, but the teacher didn’t seem to notice. He was enjoying the sound of his own voice far too much.

  “Why were they so small?” a werewolf asked.

  “Monsters have always been human creations. The power of belief is very strong. If people believe in something enough, it can become real. It is what gives the gods their strength, and it is what created monsters in the beginning. Those first men had enough to fear from each other and the animals that hunted them. In time, they grew stronger, and soon all they feared was the shadows. And so they gave those shadows a name.”

  “Is that really true?” Gloria asked. “Did humans really create monsters?”

  “Honestly? I do not know. Much of ancient monsterlore is shrouded in myths and legends. Many human stories are filled with monsters and the terrible things that they did. Are they true, or are they just a way of explaining things that go bump in the night? We will never know. But it is important to always think about the power of belief. It is a very potent force. It can conjure evil from the past if you are not careful.”

  “Like the pishtaco? It’s back, you know. We all saw it snatch Devon and fly away with her! It had horrible teeth and black, leathery wings,” said a squeaky vampire sat next to Gloria.

  Gloria muttered something under her breath but kept quiet.

  “The pishtaco is one of the darkest monsters in our history,” Señor Puntiagudo said solemnly. “The legend did not say when he took his first victim, but when the Conquistadors came to Peru in the 1500s, many people started to disappear. He was also known as the Kharisiri. Whatever name he went by, he would take our people and devour them and their souls. Many people think he came over on the Spanish ships, others say he came down from the mountains. We do not teach about this evil in school. Some shadows are too dark.”

  “I told you he was real!” the hysterical vampire squealed.

  “I never said he was real,” the minotaur said. “There are many legends that are nothing more than ways of explaining bad things that happen.”

  “But he’s back. That means those poor monsters have been eaten!” The vampire’s friends were crowding around her, giving her the attention that Trixie secretly believed she’d been aiming for.

  “You mustn’t say that,” Señor Puntiagudo shouted and kicked up another large spark. “Remember what I said about belief? Well, a rumour is as bad. What you need to do now is listen to your teachers and do as you are told. These children have gone home to avoid the trouble that we get every year at the Fiesta. If you want to be worried about anything, worry about those humans in the village who want to see this school closed.” He rested his fists on his hips and took a deep breath.

  “Listen, the pishtaco is nothing more than a bedtime story to scare little monsters into doing what they are told,” Señor Puntiagudo continued, more calmly now. “He is not real. And he most certainly is not back to take children from this school. You aren’t in any danger, just do as you are told, and this will all die down once the Fiesta is over. Nobody else will disappear, I guarantee it.”

  A loud knock on the door broke his spell over the class. A small boy, by the looks of it a goblin, raced bow-legged across the classroom and pressed a piece of paper into the minotaur’s hand. That simple task completed, he turned and scurried back out without saying a word. Señor Puntiagudo unfolded the note and read it under his breath. A mixture of confusion and anger spread across his face.

  “Well,” he said, turning to face the class, “that is bad timing.” The colour drained from the minotaur’s face. “Oh, how foolish I am!” he wailed, inconsolably. Gloria and Maria put an arm around his shoulders and gently led him away to a corner to calm down. Colin and Xavier took the opportunity to read the note.

  “Somebody else has been kidnapped!” Xavier said excitedly to Trixie.

  She’d wandered over to the note with the two boys, figuring she’d be more useful there than trying to console their teacher. The rest of the class were buzzing around spreading definitely true information that they’d just heard from somebody else in the class who’d made it up entirely. So far, there were several pishtaco flying around above the mountains, and they’d all been seen drinking the blood of the poor first-years. Trixie had to admire the way a rumour could laugh in the face of logic and run laps around good honest truth.

  “Does it say who?” she asked Xavier.

  “No, but there is a ransom note. Tomorrow is the open day to the public, and the pishtaco wants it to be cancelled.”
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br />   “What’s the open day?”

  “Well, the people in the villages are very scared of us. One day every year we put on a party for them to come and mix with us. We show them that we are only here to learn, that we can be trusted.”

  “Do you think it will be cancelled? Will they listen to the ransom note?”

  “I do not know,” Xavier said. “I hope not.”

  “It must be nice to show everyone how nice you are,” Trixie said kindly.

  “It’s not that,” Xavier said with a wide grin. “The food is amazing!”

  Intruder In The Night

  The open day went ahead, much to Xavier’s delight. All of the monsters in the school dressed and ate breakfast as normal, before heading back out to the ruins of Machu Picchu.

  “We don’t hold it in the school,” Maria said as they hiked back through the cloud forest. “We sometimes get protesters, and it’s best if they don’t know where the school is. Just in case.”

  “That’s sad,” Trixie said but thought back to her own thoughts about Monstacademy before she joined. She’d been terrified of the monsters up on the hill and had been worried about all sorts of things. She’d soon realised it was all nonsense and that the monsters were just like her. Except for Heston Gobswaddle. He had tried to take over the world, after all.

  Trixie was taken aback when they climbed the final stone steps and emerged into the citadel. “There must be a thousand people here,” she whispered. “Are there normally this many?”

  “I told you, the food is amazing!” Xavier said with another broad smile.

  “Look over there,” Maria said, pointing to a group of people waving cardboard placards and chanting something that Trixie couldn’t understand.

  “What are they saying?” Gloria asked.

  “They want us gone. They have heard about the pishtaco returning. Some monsters are feared by everyone.”

  “Can’t somebody tell them it’s not true?”

  “You have seen how some of the children are. They are hysterical and spreading fear and rumours. The people are no different. If we tell them it isn’t real, they won’t believe us. Or worse, they’ll think we are helping it.”