Publisher's Synopsis
This is a story about love and adventure and the love of adventure. It's a story about the dedication people can have for each other and for their belief in themselves and their partners and even for people they have never known. It's a story of unselfish sacrifice of the things that people can hold closest to their hearts for the benefit of others. The year is 1910 and the story begins with an expedition being led by Henry Fitz-Stuart, a 38 year old English explorer, along with his young Inca partner, Cocohuay or Coco as she is commonly known, carrying out a dig around the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, officially in order to protect and safeguard the artefacts from an impending and dubious expedition due to take place the following year. Unofficially, they are also trying to discover the viability in the belief of the Golden Staff of the Inca that Sinchi Roca allegedly carried when the Inca nation was founded. If it exists then it must be protected at all cost from the impending foreign expedition, the leader of which has the Quistas, descendants of the Conquistadors, as allies. Along with them are Henry's brother, Courtney and his Inca partner Illapa a conservationist and archaeologist. Also with them is Pach the infant son of Henry and Coco. The expedition is plagued with Quista spies determined to take the Golden Staff for themselves. The staff is found but hidden again before the lives of Henry and Coco are lost to the Quistas but not before Courtney and Illapa escape with Pach. Ten years later Pach is a twelve year old boy living with his uncle Courtney and Illapa on a country estate in central southern England. Pach believes that his parents were killed in an accident during an Inca expedition in Peru when he was 2 years old. Pach is unaware that he is a descendant of Ayar Manco and Mama Ocllo, founders of the Inca nation, and that this would make him probably the most powerful Inca for nearly four hundred years and if he had the Golden Staff the power he would have over the Inca people would be unimaginable. They are found by the Quistas who are determined to take possession of the Golden Staff whatever the cost. The Quistas despatch an evil spirit to England to seek its location. After confronting the evil spirit Courtney, Illapa and Pach journey to Peru to find and rescue the Golden Staff only to be confronted by the Quistas. They retrace the last movements of Henry and Coco and are joined by the ancient spirits of the Inca. The two sides meet each other at the site of the Golden Staff but only one can come away with the Staff.
