Aztec Autumn

into the space between the corner stone and the street's cobblestones. I glanced at the guard; he was paying me no attention; nor was anyone else on the crowded street; so I stood up and sauntered on my way. I had gone at least a hundred paces before I heard the bellow of the blast. Even at that distance, I also heard the whizzing of the flying shards, and one of them actually tapped me lightly on my back. I turned and looked, and was gratified to see the commotion I had caused.

There was no visible damage to the building, except for a black, smoking blotch on its side, but two people were lying supine and bleeding near it—a man in Spanish dress and a tamemi whose yoke lay beside him. From out of the barracks came scampering not only the sentry but also numerous other soldiers, some of them only half- dressed, but all carrying weapons. Four or five of the indios on the street began running, from sheer terror at this unprecedented occurrence, and the soldiers went pelting after them. So I casually returned, to join the numerous others who stood about and gawked, obviously innocent of any involvement.

The Spaniard on the ground writhed and moaned, still alive, and a soldier brought the barracks medico to attend him. The unoffending tamemi, however, was quite dead. I was sorry, but I felt sure that the gods would regard him as having fallen in battle, and would treat him kindly. This had not really been a battle, of course, but I had struck a second blow against the enemy. Now, after two such inexplicable happenings, the white men had to have realized that they were suddenly beset by subversion, and they had to be disconcerted, perhaps even frightened, by that realization. As I had promised my mother and uncle, I had become the worm in the coyacapuli fruit, eating it from within.

During the rest of that day, the soldiers—every one in the city, I think—fanned out among the colacion neighborhoods, searching houses, market stalls, the bags or bundles carried by native men and women, even making some of those strip off their clothes. But they gave that up after only the one day, their officers probably having decided that if illicit polvora existed anywhere, it could easily be hidden (as I had hidden mine), and that the polvora's separate ingredients, if any could be found, were totally innocuous and easily explainable. Anyway, they never got to our house, and I simply sat back and enjoyed the white men's discomfiture.

The next day, however, it was my turn to be discomfited, when a messenger came from the notarius Alonso—who knew where I lived—bidding me to appear before him at my earliest convenience. I dressed in my Spanish attire and went to the Cathedral and greeted him, again trying to look stupid and inoffensive. Alonso did not return my greeting, but gazed morosely at me for several moments before saying:

'Do you still think of me every time you use your burning-glass, Juan Britanico?'

'Why, of course, Cuatl Alonso. As you said, it is a most useful—'

'Do not call me 'cuatl' any more,' he snapped. 'I fear we are no longer twins, brothers, even friends. I also fear that you have shed all pretense of being a Christian, meek and mild, respectful and obedient to that creed and to your superiors.'

I said boldly, 'I never was meek or mild, and I never have regarded Christians as my superiors. Do not call me Juan Britanico any more.'

Alonso glowered, but held his temper. 'Hear me now. I am not officially involved in the army's hunt for the perpetrator of certain recent disturbances of the peace of this city. But I am as concerned as any decent and dutiful citizen should be. I do not accuse you personally, but I know you have a wide acquaintance among your fellows. I believe you could find the villain responsible for those acts as quickly as you found for us that goldsmith when we needed one.'

Still boldly, I said, 'I am no more a traitor to my own people, notarius, than I am obedient to yours.'

He sighed and said, 'So be it, then. We once were friends, and I will not directly denounce you to the authorities. But I give you fair warning. From the instant you leave this room, you will be followed and watched. Your every move, your every encounter, every conversation, every sneeze will be monitored and noted and reported. Soon or later, you will betray either yourself or another, perhaps even some person dear to you. If you do not go to the burning stake, be assured that someone will.'

'That threat,' I said, 'I cannot abide. You give me little choice but to depart from this city forever.'

'I think that would be best,' he said coldly, 'for you, for the city and for all who have ever been close to you.'

He dismissed me forthwith, and one of the Cathedral's tame indio servants made no attempt to be unobtrusive as he trailed me all the way home.

XII

I had resolved to quit the City of Mexico even before Alonso so coldly recommended that I do so. That was because I had despaired of ever raising an army of rebellion from among the city's inhabitants. Like the late Netzlin—and now Pochotl—the local men were too dependent on their white masters to want to rise up against them. Even had they wanted to, they were by now so enervated and unwarlike that they would not have dared to make the attempt. If I was to recruit any men like myself, resentful of the Spaniards' domination and bellicose enough to challenge it, I must retrace my journey hither. I must go again northward, into the unconquered lands.

'You are more than welcome to come with me,' I told Citlali. 'I truly have treasured the blessing of your nearness, your support and—well, everything you have meant to me. But you are a woman, and some years older than I, so you might find that I set too brisk a pace on the road. Especially since you would have to be leading Ehecatl by the hand.'

'You are definitely going, then,' she murmured unhappily.

'But not forever, despite what I said to the notarius. I fully intend to come back here. At the head of an armed force, I trust, sweeping the white men from every field and forest, every village, every city, including this one. However, that cannot be soon. So I will not ask you to wait for me, dear Citlali. You are still an exceedingly handsome woman. You may attract another good and loving husband, aquin ixnentla? At any rate, Ehecatl is old enough now for you to take the child with you when you tend the market stall. With what you earn there, and with the sum we have put by, and without my being an extra mouth to feed—'

She interrupted, 'I would wait, dearest Tenamaxtli, however long. But how can I hope that you will ever be back? You will be risking your life out there.'

'As I would, Citlali, even if I stayed here. As you have been risking yours. If I had been caught in the crime of experimenting with the polvora, you would have been dragged to the stake along with me.'

'I risked that because it was a chance we were taking together. I would go anywhere, do anything, if only we did it together.'

'But there is Ehecatl to consider...'

'Yes,' she whispered. Then, suddenly, she burst into tears and demanded, 'Why are you so determined to pursue this folly? Why can you not resign yourself to recognize reality, and bear with it, as others have done?'

'Why?' I echoed, dumbfounded.

'Ayya, I know what the white men did to your father, but—'

'That is not reason enough?' I snapped. 'I can still see him burning!'

'And they slew your friend, my husband. But what have they done to you? Tenamaxtli, you have suffered neither injury nor insult, beyond those few words spoken long ago by the meson friar. Every other white man you have mentioned, you have said only good things of him. The kindness of the man Molina, the other teachers who gave of their knowledge, even that soldier who started you on your quest for the polvora...'

'Crumbs from their table! The richly laden table that used to be ours! Whether my tonali dictates that I shall succeed in restoring that table to our people, I do not know. But I am sure it bids me try. I refuse to believe that I was born to settle for crumbs. And I am wagering my life on that.'

Citlali sighed so deeply that she seemed to shrink a bit. 'How much longer will I have you by me? Or how little longer? When do you plan to go?'

'Not immediately, for I will not slink away, like a techichi dog, with its head hung low and its tail tucked under. I want to leave something for the City of Mexico—for all of New Spain—to remember me by. And what I have in mind, Citlali, is one final crime that you and I can commit together.'

I cannot refute what Citlali had said: that I myself had never had pain, deprivation, imprisonment or even indignity inflicted on me by the Spaniards. But, during my years in the city, I had met or become aware of a