I was beginning to find this interesting, in spite of myself. ‘How long’s it been like this?’
‘I think things were better under the old king, Hungry Child. At least, I’m told they were — I wasn’t here then, naturally.’
‘But there wasn’t a war on then.’
‘That’s right. He gave all that up, you know.’
‘I heard.’ To an Aztec, the idea of renouncing war took some getting used to. It was not just eccentric; to some, it would have seemed downright blasphemous, depriving the gods of their favourite nourishment: the hearts of captive warriors. ‘What made him do that?’
‘Who knows? I mean, he was supposed to have foreseen some great disaster which meant whatever our armies did would come to nothing in the end.’
‘You don’t believe that?’
‘No, I think he just lost interest. He’d seen his son executed and lost his favourite concubine…’
‘You mean Prince of Willows and the Lady of Tollan?’
‘Yes, that’s it.’
I recalled Lily’s description of the affair. ‘What was that all about? Were they really just swapping poems?’
‘So I heard.’ He leered knowingly up at me. ‘But what was in the poems, eh? That’s the question! And we’ll never know the answer to that one. But then on top of that there was that business with Queen Chalchiuhnenetl.’
‘Who’s Chalchiuhnenetl?’ The name was familiar, although that may have been because it was relatively common: it meant ‘Jade Doll’.
‘You never heard about it? Amazing! Considering it nearly got us into a war with your people, on account of her being your Emperor Axayacatls daughter — Montezuma’s sister, no less. I thought everyone knew the story. Let me tell you…’
‘Go on, then.’
Jade Doll wasn’t much more than a child when she came here, so the King — who had plenty of concubines, but wasn’t into anything kinky — had her housed in her own apartments and left her alone. Big mistake, because she grew up a lot faster than he bargained for. Amazing girl. She seems to have shared her sleeping mat with half the young men in Tetzcoco before the King found out about it.’
‘I’d have thought that was difficult. Wouldn’t someone have said something? It must have looked a bit suspicious, a procession of men leaving her apartments in the morning.’
He chuckled. ‘Sure it would, but her trick was, they didn’t leave! She usually had them for one night and then promptly had them killed. She had little statues of them made afterwards as souvenirs, though, so I guess she was quite fond of them really.’
‘Oh, come on,’ I said sceptically. ‘Someone would have said something. What about their families, her servants, the sculptor who made the statues?’
‘As I heard it, no one dared say a word. Is that surprising? Her household and the sculptor were all in on it, of course, and when Hungry Child found out they couldn’t expect him to be much happier with them than with her. As for the families — well, naturally, she’d disposed of the bodies, so they had no evidence, and if they happened to know where their relations were going, that would have made them accomplices too, wouldn’t it? You’re the lawyer!’
‘Um — I suppose so. Didn’t the King start to wonder what all the statues were for, though?’
‘Sure. She told him they were idols. Everybody knows you Aztecs are a bunch of religious fanatics, so he had no trouble believing it.’
‘How did she get caught?’
‘How does anybody get caught? She did something stupid. She sent one of her young men a ring the King had given her, her way of summoning him to her sleeping mat. It was a really distinctive thing, apparently. Of course, the stupid bastard was seen wearing it, and that was that. The King had her strangled, along with a lot of other people, naturally.’
A tall limestone statue caught my eye as we walked past it. It was of Hungry Child looking down from an alcove into a small courtyard with a pool full of water lilies. None of them was in flower now, but it looked like a pleasant place, quiet and away from the bustle of the busier parts of the palace. I wondered whether the statue showed the King as he had looked in life, staring into the water and reflecting bitterly on his misfortunes. ‘He didn’t have much luck with his women, did he?’ I said. ‘It doesn’t sound like it,’ my guide conceded. ‘But after all, he had plenty of others to console himself with!’
He sounded envious, but what struck me then, making me break my stride while he walked on, oblivious to the fact that I was no longer following him, was not some lascivious notion of what I might do I were a King with my own harem, but the recollection that Lily’s present troubles were all on account of one of Hungry Child’s concubines.
Mother of Light lived in the palace, I presumed. If I could find her, then it was just possible that she could tell me enough about Hare’s message herself that I would not need to meet the Otomies after all. It was a forlorn hope, but not much more forlorn than trying to deal with my sworn enemies. I thought Mother of Light must know at least what sort of message she was expecting.
My first impulse was to ask my escort about her, but I suppressed it. It was obvious that hers was not a name to be bandied about with anyone who knew my name or could connect me with Lily. I had to get rid of him and find a total stranger instead.
I swore loudly.
The dwarf stopped
