Aztec Autumn

They instantly and meekly lowered their blades. Such creatures, I surmised, must be like the frailest of women—easily cowed when they hear a real man's voice of command.

'This vile pretender is dead,' I told them, giving the body a disdainful kick—I did that only to heave Yeyac over onto his face, so that they should not see the hole in his front and the bloodstain spreading from it. 'I regret that I had to invoke the gods' assistance so suddenly. There were questions I would have asked. But the wretch gave me no choice.' The four stared glumly at the corpse, and took no heed when I made a beckoning gesture back toward the trees, to summon Tiptoe forward. 'Now,' I went on, 'you warriors will take orders from me. I am Tenamaxtzin, nephew of the late Lord Mixtzin, hence, by right of succession, from this moment on, the Uey-Tecutli of Aztlan.'

But I could think of no order to give them, except to say, 'Wait here for me.' Then I sloshed back through the rain to intercept Tiptoe, as she came leading all our horses. I intended to tell her, before she joined us, to hide the arcabuz that she had so timely and so accurately employed. But when I got close, I saw that she had already prudently stowed it away again, so I said only, 'Well done, Pakapeti.'

'I was not too impetuous, then?' She had regarded my approach with some anxiety in her face, but now she smiled. 'I was afraid you might scold me. But I did think that this one, too, was a beast attacking you.'

'This time you were right. And you did splendidly. At such a distance, in such poor light—your skill is enviable.'

'Yes,' she agreed, with what I thought rather unwomanly satisfaction. 'I have killed a man.'

'Well, not much of a man.'

'I would have done my best to kill the others, too, if you had not waved to me.'

'They are of even less account. Save your man-hatred, my dear, until you can start killing enemies really worth the killing.'

The sky's tlaloque were lustily continuing their clamor and downpour as I commanded the four warriors to sling Yeyac's cadaver across one of my packhorses—thus he was still facedown, the wound in his front invisible. Next, I ordered the four to accompany me as I rode, two each on either side of my horse; Tiptoe brought up the rear of the train as we proceeded onward. When there came a pause in the thunder rumblings, I leaned down from my saddle and said to the man trudging alongside my left stirrup:

'Give me your maquahuitl.' He meekly handed it up to me and I said, 'You heard what Yeyac told me—of the several convenient deaths that so fortuitously promoted him to Uey-Tecutli of Aztlan. How much of what he said was true?'

The man coughed and temporized, 'Your great-grandfather, our Rememberer of History, died of old age, as all men must, if they live to be old.'

'I accept that,' I said, 'but it has nothing to do with Yeyac's marvelous quick elevation to the status of Revered Governor. I accept also that all men must die, but—I warn you—some must die sooner than others. What of those other deaths? Of Mixtzin and Cuicantzin and Kauritzin?'

'It was just as Yeyac told you,' the man said, but his eyes shifted just as Yeyac's had done. 'Your uncle and mother were set upon by bandits—'

He got no further. With a backhanded swipe of his own obsidian sword, I took his head off his shoulders, and both pieces of him toppled into a rain-running ditch beside the trail. In the next interval between thunderings, I spoke to the warrior at the other side of my saddle, who was goggling fearfully up at me like a frog about to be stepped on.

'As I said, some men must die sooner than others. And I do dislike to invoke the aid of Tlaloc, who is presently being very busy with this storm, when I can kill as easily myself.' As if Tlaloc had heard me, the storm began to abate. 'Now, what have you to tell me?'

The man stuttered for a moment, but finally said, 'Yeyac lied, and so did Quani.' He gestured back at the pieces in the ditch behind us. 'Yeyactzin posted lookouts around the far outskirts of Aztlan, there to wait patiently to espy the return of Mixtzin and his sister—and yourself—from that journey to Tenochtitlan. When the two did return... well... there was an ambush awaiting them.'

'That ambush,' I said, 'of whom did it consist?'

'Yeyac, of course. And his most favored favorite, Quani. The warrior you just now have slain. You are fully avenged, Tenamaxtzin.'

'I doubt that,' I said. 'No two men of this One World, even striking cowardly from ambush, could have overwhelmed my uncle Mixtzin.' And I slashed again with the maquahuitl. Separately, the man's head flew and his body slumped into the sodden brush on that side of the trail. I turned again, and spoke to the remaining warrior walking on my left.

'I am still waiting to hear the truth. As you must have noticed, I do not wait long.'

This one, almost babbling in his terror, assured me, 'The truth, my lord, I kiss the earth to it. We were all guilty. Yeyac and we four laid the ambush. It was all of us together who fell upon your uncle and mother.'

'And what of Kauri, the co-regent?'

'Not he nor anyone else in Aztlan knew the fate of Mixtzin and Cuicantzin. We cajoled Kauritzin into joining us on a bear hunt in the mountains. He did indeed, by himself and most manfully, spear and slay a bear. But we, in turn, killed Kauri, then employed the dead animal's teeth and claws to maul and tear at him. When we took his body and the bear's carcass home, his widow, your cousin Ameyatzin, could hardly dispute our story that the beast had been responsible for his death.'

'And then? Did you dastardly traitors kill her, as well?'

'No, no, my lord. She lives, I kiss the earth to that. But in seclusion now, no longer regent.'

'Why? She would still have been expecting her father to return and resume his proper place. Why would she have abdicated her regency?'

'Who can say, my lord? Out of grief at her widowhood, perhaps? Out of deep mourning?'

'Nonsense!' I snapped. 'If the deeps of Mictlan's oblivion yawned before her, Ameyatzin would never shirk her duty. How did you make her do it? Torture? Rape? What?'

'Only Yeyac could tell you that. It was he alone who persuaded her. And you have put him beyond the telling. One thing, though, I can tell you.' He said most haughtily, and with a fastidious sniff, 'My lord Yeyactzin would never have sullied himself by raping or otherwise toying with the body of a mere female.'

That remark infuriated me more than had all his comrades' lies, and my third slash of the obsidian sword cleft him from shoulder to belly.

On my other side, the sole surviving warrior had prudently sidled out of reach of my weapon, but he was also prudently eyeing the no-longer-raining but still ominously dark sky.

'You are wise not to run,' I told him. 'Tlaloc's forks are much longer than my arm. But be at ease. I am sparing you, for a time, at least. And for a reason.'

'Reason?' he croaked. 'What reason, my lord?'

'I wish you to tell me of everything that has occurred in Aztlan in the years since I left there.'

'Ayyo, every least thing, my lord!' he said eagerly. 'I kiss the earth to it. How shall I begin?'

'I already know that Yeyac befriended and colluded with the white men. So tell me first: are there any Spaniards in our city or its outer domains?'

'None, my lord, not anywhere in the Aztlan lands. Yeyac and we of his personal guard have frequently visited Compostela, true, but no white men have come north from there. The Spanish governor gave oath that Yeyac could continue his rule of Aztlan, undisputed, on only one single condition. That Yeyac bar any native marauders from making forays into the governor's lands.'

'In other words,' I said, 'Yeyac was prepared to fight his own people of The One World on behalf of the white men. Did that ever come to pass?'

'Yes,' said the warrior, trying to look unhappy about it. 'On two or three occasions, Yeyac led troops whose loyalty to him personally was unwavering, and they... well... discouraged this or that small band of malcontents marching southward to make trouble for the Spaniards.'

'When you say loyal troops, it sounds as if not all the warriors and inhabitants of Aztlan have been overjoyed to have Yeyac as their Uey-Tecutli.'

'That is so. Most of the Azteca—and Mexica, too—much preferred to be ruled by Ameyatzin and her consort. They were dismayed when the Lady Ameyatl was deposed from her regency. They would, of course, be even better pleased to have Mixtzin back again. And they still expect his return, even after these many years.'