“How can there be a water at the end of the world,” Ipa said, “when water is everywhere? Is the water at the end of the world in the sky? Surely, there is no land in the sky. Or is it nearer to Pachamama’s heart, Lake Titikaka? Nothing is clear, so who is to say where the world ends and the water begins?”

“I have seen the water at the end of the world,” Yana said. “In a dream the gods showed me a magical river flowing underground.” But where underground? Yana has only an ancient legend to guide her.

And what of the boy, Topa Inca? If the heir to the throne of the Inca Empire does not drink of the water at the end of the world soon, he will surely die, and with him will die all hope of freeing Yana’s brother from prison.