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The wooden sculpture of the horse sur bow of a boat with shiny dark red sides The proas extended into a pointed battering raht as they walked alongside the hull The craft was a double-ender, long, narrow, and flat-bottoht as a tick fro planks The thwise on the deck
Deck planks had fallen in to reveal dozens of amphorae in the hold Scattered about were circularoars, their blades curled by age, leaned against the ship's backside as if waiting for the hands of long-dead steersmen The boat sailed not on an azure sea but on a stone cradle While h so that the ship leaned at a slight angle
"She's a lot prettier in person," Zavala murmured
Austin ran his hand along the wood as if he didn't quite believe his eyes "It's not just me, then This is one of the ships pictured on the stelae and other carvings"
"What's a Phoenician boat doing in an underwater Mayan temple?"
"Waiting to overturn every archaeological assumption ever made," Austin said "Wait until Nina sets her eyes on this lovely lady We'll have to give her soet a cath?"
"More than
one hundred feet, easy"
Zavala alside the boat Another quartet of colu the other side
"Here's another spec for you to chew on," he said "Eight pillars"
"Eight significant days in the Venus cycle," Austin replied "Fits in"
They were at the boat's upsweeping sterncastle Austin had expected the chamber to end in a blank wall Instead there was another corbeled archway and beyond it a stairway leading upward They climbed the stairs to a ely by a rectangular sunken pit In the pit was a sarcophagus whose lid was inscribed with repetitive carvings in the feathered serpent thee the lid with their knives
"Maybe there's soested
They descended to the large chamber Zavala reached up to the boat rail and with a boost from Austin pulled hiunwale and took a tentative step forward, testing his weight
"The deck's holding, but I'll stay on the cross beam just in case" The wood creaked as he made his way across the deck "Lots of amphorae I Jeezus" A pause Then an excited exclaot to see this!"