Ten Years of Silence Yoaat Balam's time has come. It's his turn to step into the role of Ahaw, Lord of his city-state of Siyah Chan, a role he has been training for all his life. He must now put aside his work on star charts and inscriptions to lead his city and provide for its welfare. Yet his name was never recorded for posterity in the inscriptions of any ancient Maya city. Mayan scholars call it the "Cinter-regnum"-a ten-year period with very few inscriptions of dated events after the death of the aged Lord Itzamna Balam in 742 AD, and there is no mention of a new lord. What happened during Yoaat's reign? Assisted by his mother, the great and holy Na K'abal Xook, his three older sisters, and his two half-brothers, Yoaat struggles to organize his people to face a series of elemental challenges: flood and drought, hunger and sickness. Then news from the north brings new threats as their allied city Waka is overtaken, and Yoaat sends his half-brother Yaxuun with warriors to the aid of endangered northern towns that are under Siyah Chan's protection. At home Yoaat institutes new rituals to appease the gods and comfort the people. Through it all an insidious treachery looms, bringing a horrific event that can never be told, lest Siyah Chan go down in infamy.