As powerful as it is mysterious, the golden disc of Venus, with its double-headed serpent holder and golden chain, not only healed injury and prevented aging in its lord and king, but it also offered healing throughout the village. Manipulating it triggered transference to the Maya underworld, Xibalba, and thus, a vanishing: invisibility in the earthly world.
In The Venus Disc, the first book in The Tale of the Venus Disc, the ancestors, needing a ruler for their Yucatan village of Witz Balam, "Jaguar Mountain," attracted a wanderer on a vision quest. They selected him as the first Lord of the Disc and named him King Smoke Jaguar. Virtually immortal, the king ruled for centuries until disaster struck, leaving him and his priests and nobles, crushed, trapped, buried at the foot of the great temple pyramid.
Now, after a millennium, an illegal drug processing operation has taken over the site. With the only access by small plane, pilots are hired. Carter Boyle is one of them. A likable rogue of dubious values, he gets caught in a betrayal and is locked up at the ruins. Though wounded and miserable, he gets lucky. In an escape attempt, he uncovers a subterranean passage under the rotting floor of his cell. Exploring the passage, he stumbles onto the ancient—yet still living—King Smoke Jaguar. Spotting the Venus Disc and seeing only gold, Boyle rips it free and throws it around his neck—not realizing that in doing so, he becomes its new lord. After a vicious fall down the passage's damp steps, the disc's healing magic saves him from certain death. He soon learns its invisibility trick along with the often-horrifying consequences of manipulating it.
While it is true the disc wards off death, it also enhances the traits of its lord. In an enlightened king, that can be extraordinary. Not so with Carter Boyle. The artifact reinforces his corrupt moral code and enables him to become a silent, unseen killer bent on revenge.
Eventually, Boyle faces off against protagonist Hector Perez, Smoke Jaguar's 24-times great grandson and now the disc’s rightful owner. When Hector learns he is heir to an ancient throne, he fights to claim the disc and renew Witz Balam, which has since become the archeological dig of the century.
The Noble Disc, the second installment in The Tale of the Venus Disc, is in editing. Look for it later this year. It carries on the action immediately following the mercenary assault on the archaeological excavation occupying ancient Witz Balam's ruins. Even in death, Thomas Brighten reaches out for the death of Carter Boyle!
The Venus Choice, book 3, is in outlining. The action takes place 17 years later in 2012, which is the Maya baktun, occurring every 394 years. Some consider the baktun a time for renewal, others, the end of time. In Witz Balam, which will it be?
The Venus Disc by Christopher Hunt