Aztec Autumn

same name, sheaves of sheaves of years ago. And you did exactly as she did—fomented dissension among the populace, set comradely warriors at odds, turned brother against—'

'Hold now, Tenamaxtli,' she interrupted. 'G'nda Ke is not guilty of every wrong done hereabouts in your absence. It must have been years ago that your uncle and mother returned from the City of Mexico, and were ambushed by Yeyac, a crime still unknown to almost everybody else in Aztlan. How long he waited to dispatch the co-regent Kauri, G'nda Ke does not know, or how much more time went by before he so cruelly banished his own sister and claimed the mantle of Revered Governor. G'nda Ke knows only that all those things had occurred before she arrived here.'

'At which time you goaded Yeyac into collaboration with the Spaniards at Compostela. The white men I have sworn to exterminate! And you lightly dismiss your meddling as 'mere mischief.' '

'Ayyo, entertaining, to be sure. G'nda Ke enjoys meddling in men's affairs. But think, Tenamaxtli. She has in fact done you a valuable favor. As soon as your new cuilontli—'

'Damn you, woman, to nethermost Mictlan! I do not consort in intimacy with cuilontin. I spared Nocheztli from the sword only so he could expose all of Yeyac's other followers and fellow conspirators.'

'And when he does, you will weed them out—warriors and civil folk alike—the traitors, the unreliables, the weaklings, the fools—everyone who would rather obey a Spanish overlord than risk spilling his own blood. You will be left with a smaller but better army, and with a populace wholeheartedly committed to supporting your cause, the cause for which that army will wholeheartedly fight.'

'Yes,' I had to concede, 'there is that aspect to appreciate.'

'And all because G'nda Ke came to Aztlan and made mischief.'

I said drily, 'I should have preferred to manage all those ruses and intrigues on my own. Because, when I have, as you put it, plucked Aztlan clean of weeds—ayya!—you will be the one person remaining whom I dare not trust.'

'Believe me or do not, as you will. But insofar as she can be to any male person, G'nda Ke is your friend.'

'May all the gods be with me,' I muttered, 'whenever you become otherwise.'

'Come, set G'nda Ke a task of trust. See if she performs it to your satisfaction.'

'I have already set you two. Dispose of every domestic now serving in this palace. Seek and summon those loyal ones who departed. Here is another. Send swift-messengers to the homes of all the members of the Speaking Council—Aztlan, Tepiz, Yakoreke, and elsewhere—bidding them convene in the throne room here at midday tomorrow.'

'It shall be done.'

'In the meantime, while I do my winnowing of that army outside, you stay indoors and out of their sight. There will be many men in that square who will wonder why I did not kill you first of all.'

Downstairs, Pakapeti was waiting to inform me that Ameyatl was clean, fresh and perfumed, that she had eaten ravenously and finally was sleeping the sleep of the long-exhausted.

'Thank you, Tiptoe,' I said. 'Now, I would like you to stand with me while I review all those warriors out yonder. Nocheztli is supposed to mark for me the ones I should get rid of. But I do not know how well I can depend on him. He may take this chance to settle old grudges of his own—superiors who denied him promotion, perhaps, or former cuilontin lovers who discarded him. Before I make pronouncement in each case, I may ask you for a woman's softer-hearted opinion.'

We crossed the courtyard, where those field slaves were still minding the horses but not looking much more comfortable in that job, and stopped at the open portal of the wall, where Nocheztli waited for us. Some ten paces distant from the wall, the rest of the square was packed with the ranks and files of the warriors, all in fighting garb but unarmed, and every fifth man holding a torch so that I could see every individual face. Here and there, one held aloft the banner of a particular knight's company, or the smaller guidon of a lesser troop led by a cuachic, an 'old eagle.' I believe the city's army there before me totaled about one thousand men.

'Warriors—stand tall!' Nocheztli roared, as if he had been commanding troops all his life. The few men who had been slumping or fidgeting instantly stiffened erect. Nocheztli boomed again, 'Hark to the words of your Uey-Tecutli Tenamaxtzin!'

Whether obediently or apprehensively, the crowd of men was so silent that I did not have to shout. 'You were summoned to assembly by my order. Also by my order, the Tequiua Nocheztli here will now go up and down your lines and touch the shoulder of certain men. Each of those will step forward from the ranks and stand against this wall. There will be no dawdling, no remonstrance, no questions, no sound until I speak again.'

Nocheztli's process of selection took such a long while that I will not recount it step by step and man by man. But when he had finished with the last, farthermost line of warriors, I counted one hundred thirty and eight standing along the wall, looking variously unhappy, ashamed or defiant. They ranged from rankless yaoquizquin recruits upward through the ranks of iyactin and tequiuatin to the cuachictin under-officers. I myself was ashamed to see that all the accused miscreants were Azteca. Among them was not a one of the old Mexica warriors who had long ago come from Tenochtitlan to train this army, nor were there any younger Mexica who might have been the sons of those proud men.

The highest-ranking officer against the wall was a single Aztecatl knight, but he was only of the Arrow order. The Jaguar and Eagle orders confer their knighthood on true heroes, warriors who have distinguished themselves in many battles and have slain enemy knights. The Arrow Knights are honored merely because they have become skilled at wielding the notoriously inaccurate bow and arrow, whether or not they have felled many enemies with those weapons.

'All of you know why you stand here,' I said to the men at the wall, and loudly enough for the rest of the troops to hear. 'You are accused of having sided with the unrightfully Revered Governor Yeyac, though all of you knew that he seized that false title by assassinating his own father and affinal brother. You followed Yeyac when he made alliance with the white men, our One World's conquerors and oppressors. Pandering to those Spaniards, you fought with Yeyac against brave men of your own race, to stop their resisting the oppressors. Do any of you deny these allegations?'

To their credit, none of them did. That was to Nocheztli's credit, as well; obviously he had acted honestly in singling out the collaborators. I asked another question:

'Do any of you plead any circumstance that might mitigate your guilt?'

Five or six of them did step forward, at that, but each of them could say only words to this effect: 'When I took the army oath, my lord, I swore to obey the orders of my superiors, and that is what I did.'

'You swore oath to the army,' I said, 'not to any individuals whom you knew to be acting against the army's interests. Yonder stand some nine hundred other warriors, your comrades, who did not let themselves be led into treachery.' I turned to Tiptoe, and quietly asked her, 'Does your heart feel compassion toward any of these deluded wretches?'

'Toward none,' she said firmly. 'Back in Michihuacan, when we Purempecha had the rule of it, such men would have been staked out on the ground—and left there until they became so weak that the scavenger vultures did not even have to wait for them to die before beginning to eat them. I would suggest you do the same to all of these, Tenamaxtli.'

By Huitzli, I thought, Pakapeti had become as bloodthirsty as G'nda Ke. I spoke again aloud, to be heard by all, though I addressed the men accused:

'I have known two women who were more manly warriors than any of you. Here beside me stands one of them, who would merit knighthood if she were not a female. The other brave woman died in the act of destroying an entire fortress full of Spanish soldiers. You, by contrast, are a disgrace to your comrades, to your battle flags, to your oath, to us Azteca and every other people of The One World. I condemn you, without exception, to death. But I will, in mercy, let you each decide on the manner of your dying.'

Tiptoe made a murmur of indignant protest.

'You may choose one of three endings to your lives. One would be your sacrifice tomorrow on the altar of Aztlan's patron goddess, Coyolxauqui. Since you would be going not of your own free will, that public execution would shame all your family and descendants to the end of time. Your houses, property and possessions will be confiscated, leaving those families in destitution as well as shame.'

I paused, to let them think about that.