Aztec

friend Mole here.'

'I said be silent! When the flower garland is around your throat, you will dearly regret every breath you have wasted. And his name is Fetch!'

'Is it, now? It fits.' His slitted eyes slid to me, and the way they glittered was not at all friendly. My laughter subsided. 'But the letter clearly says, my lady, for me to be here at this hour, and wearing this ring, and—'

'Not wearing the ring!' she shrieked, most imprudently. 'You sneaking old pretender, you even pretend to read. The ring was to be carried concealed! And you must have flourished it through all Texcoco... yya ayya!' She ground her teeth, and swung again to me. 'Do you realize what your joke may have caused, you unspeakable lout? Yya ouiya, but you will die in the slowest of agonies!'

'How is it a joke, my lady?' the bent man asked. 'According to this invitation, you must have been expecting someone. And you came running so joyfully to greet me—'

'You! To greet you?' screamed the girl, throwing out her arms as if she were physically throwing away all caution. 'Would the cheapest, hungriest waterfront whore in Texcoco lie with you?' Once more she turned on me. 'Fetch! Why did you do this?'

'My lady,' I said, speaking for the first time, and speaking the hard words gently. 'I have often thought your Lord Husband did not sufficiently weigh his words, when he commanded me to serve the Lady Jadestone Doll, and to serve her without question. But I was bound to obey. As you once pointed out to me, my lady, I could not myself betray your wickedness without disobeying both you and him. I had to trick you, finally, into betraying yourself.'

She took a step back from me, and her mouth worked soundlessly, while her angrily flushed face began to pale again. The words took a while to come. 'You—tricked me? This—this is no joke?'

'Not his joke, at any rate, but mine,' said the hunched man. 'I was at the lakeside when a well-dressed and oiled and perfumed young lord debarked from your private acali, my lady, and boldly made his way hither, with this ring highly visible and recognizable upon the little finger of his big hand. It seemed a flagrant indiscretion, if not a transgression. I summoned guards to relieve him of the ring, and then of the letter he carried. I brought the things in his stead.'

'You—you—by what authority—how dare you meddle?' she spluttered. 'Fetch! This man is a confessed thief. Kill him! I order you to kill this man, here and now, that I may see.'

'No, my lady,' I said, still gently, for I was almost beginning to feel sorry for her. 'This one time I disobey. I think you have at last revealed your true self to another observer. I think I am released from all bonds of obedience. I think you will kill no more.'

She spun swiftly and yanked open the door to the corridor. Perhaps she meant to flee, but when the sentinel outside turned to face her, blocking the doorway, she said sharply, 'Guard, I have here one thief and one traitor. That beggar, see, he is wearing my stolen ring. And this commoner has disobeyed my direct command. I want you to take them both and—'

'Your pardon, my lady,' the guard rumbled. 'I already have my orders from the Uey-Tlatoani. Different orders.'

Her mouth fell open.

I said, 'Guard, lend me your spear for one moment.'

He hesitated, then handed it to me. I stepped to the nearby alcove housing the statue of the gardener Xali- Otli and, with all my strength, drove the spear point under the thing's chin. The painted head broke off, it hit the floor and rolled, its baked clay shattering and crumbling. When the head bounced to a stop against a far wall, it was a bare, white, gleaming skull, the cleanest and most honest face of man. The brown beggar watched its progress without expression. But the immense pupils of Jadestone Doll's eyes seemed now to have engulfed her eyes entirely. They were liquid black pools of terror. I gave the spear back to the guard and asked, 'What are your orders, then?'

'You and your slave boy are to remain in your apartment. The lady queen and her serving women are to stay in this one. You will all remain under guard while your chambers are searched, and until further orders come from the Revered Speaker.'

I said to the cacao man, 'Will you join me in my captivity for a while, venerable one, to take a cup of chocolate perhaps?'

'No,' he said, wrenching his gaze away from the exposed skull. 'I am bidden to report on this night's events. I think the Lord Nezahualpili will now command a more extensive search—of the sculpture studios and other places.'

I made the gesture of kissing the earth. 'Then I bid you good night, old man, my lady.' She stared at me, but I do not think she saw me.

I returned to my own chambers to find them being ransacked by the Lord Strong Bone and some others of the Revered Speaker's confidential aides. They had already discovered my drawings of Jadestone Doll and Something Delicate in embrace.

* * *

You say you attend today's sitting, my Lord Bishop, because you are interested in hearing how our judicial processes were conducted. But it is hardly necessary for me to describe the trial of Jadestone Doll. Your Excellency will find it minutely set forth in the archives of the Texcoco court, if you will trouble to examine those books. Your Excellency will also find it in the written histories of other lands, and even in the folktales of the common people, for the scandal is still remembered and related, especially by our women.

Nezahualpili invited to the trial the rulers of every neighboring nation, and all their tlamatintin wise men, and all their tecutlin of every least province. He even invited them to bring their wives and court ladies. He did it partly to make public demonstration that not even the highest-born of women could sin with impunity. But there was another reason. The accused was the daughter of the most powerful ruler in The One World, the ill-tempered and bellicose Revered Speaker Ahuitzotl of the Mexica. By inviting him and every other nation's highest officials, Nezahualpili sought also to demonstrate that the proceedings were conducted in absolute fairness. It was for that same reason that Nezahualpili sat to one side during the trial. He delegated the questioning of defendants and witnesses to two disinterested parties: his Snake Woman, the Lord Strong Bone, and a tlamatini judge named Tepitzic.

Texcoco's hall of justice was crowded to capacity. It may have been the greatest gathering of rulers— friendly, neutral, inimical—until then convened in one place. Ahuitzotl only was absent. He could not expose himself to the disgrace of being ogled and pitied and derided while his own daughter's shame was inexorably revealed. In his stead, he sent the Snake Woman of Tenochtitlan. Among the many other lords who did attend, however, was the governor of Xaltocan, Pactli's father, Red Heron. He sat and endured his humiliation, head bowed, throughout the entire trial. The few times he raised his sad and bleared old eyes, they fixed on me. I think he was remembering a remark he had made long ago, when he had commented on my childhood ambitions: 'Whatever occupation you do undertake, young man, you ought to do it well.'

The interrogation of all persons involved was lengthy and detailed and tedious and often repetitive. I recall only the more pertinent questions and replies to recount to Your Excellency.

The two foremost of the accused were, of course, Jadestone Doll and Lord Joy. He was called first, and came pale and quaking to take the oath. Among the many other words put to him by the examiners were these:

'You were seized by the palace guards, Pactlitzin, on the grounds of that wing of the palace allotted to the royal lady Chalciunenetzin. It is a capital offense for any unauthorized male to enter, for any reason or on any pretext, the premises reserved for the ladies of the court. You were aware of that?'

He gulped loudly and said feebly, 'Yes,' and sealed his doom.

Jadestone Doll was next called and, among the numberless questions put to her, one elicited a reply that made the audience gasp. The judge Tepitzic spoke:

'You have admitted, my lady, that it was the workers in your private kitchen who slew your lovers and prepared their skeletons for the process of preservation. We think that not even the most debased of slaves could have done such work-except under extreme duress. What was the persuasion you applied?'

In the meek voice of a little girl, she said, 'For a long time previous, I posted my guards in the kitchen to see that the workers got no food at all, that they did not even taste what they cooked for me. I starved them until they agreed to—do what I commanded. When they had done it once, and thereby had been full fed, they required no more persuasion or threats or watching guards—'