I knew, without needing to look at them, that Lily and her father would feel the same way as well. They were merchants, but beneath that, they were Aztecs.
‘How do we know we can trust you?’ I asked cautiously.
I heard that harsh, cackling laugh again. ‘Yaotl, I’m not so naïve as to think for one moment that you’ll ever trust me! But you don’t need to. Remember those rumours I told you about. Just go to the marketplace in Tetzcoco and ask any visitor from Mexico. You’ll soon learn that I’m not making it up. Are you going to abandon your family to a monster?’ He did not wait for an answer. ‘This is the deal. If you do as I say then I’ll promise to leave you and Lily and her father alone. It’s not much I ask: just come back to Mexico, let people see you – no skulking in shadows – just until the otomi takes the bait. And we’ll be watching over you, of course.’
‘And if I don’t?’
My former master grinned nastily before turning to his young cousin. ‘And if he doesn’t, Maize Ear?’ he purred.
The young king looked down, apparently taking a sudden interest in his knees that were drawn up together in front of him. ‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘But it seems that you will no longer be my guests.’
‘And where will you go then?’ My former master asked. ‘Even if you’re prepared to leave your family to their fate, Yaotl, do you really want to go wandering among barbarians? Tarascans, Zapotecs, Mayans, scum like that? ’ He grinned once more. ‘Don’t make things any more difficult for yourself than they have to be. I want you alive, at least for the time being. I may have further uses for you!’
2
It was early for breakfast, but the king insisted we eat, ordering his attendants to fetch tortillas for us from the palace kitchen. The bread was delicious, still warm from the griddle, but apart from lord Feathered in Black, who devoured his ravenously, talking all the time, nobody appeared to have much appetite. Kindly, Lily and I nibbled politely and in silence until the chief minister’s flow of palace gossip and his meal were both finished.
My former master excused himself abruptly after that, remarking that wealth and power were no protection against the afflictions of old age. Two of his bearers were summoned from the palace to help him out of his seat. As soon as he was gone, the king stood up.
‘I think,’ he said ruefully, ‘that means we are all dismissed! Come, I’ll walk with you to the end of the causeway.’
We walked in silence for a few moments, while the waters of the lake lapped gently around us. There was too much anger and resentment for the peace to remain undisturbed for long, however.
‘That – that bastard!’ I burst out. A tiny stone lay on the carefully swept path in front of me. I aimed a kick at it with my bare foot, sending it into the water to vanish without so much as a ‘plop’. ‘He has me brought up here, convinced I’m going to have my heart cut out, but oh no, even that’s not good enough for old Black Feathers. It’s too much trouble for him, I suppose, so I’ve got to arrange my own death by going one-on-one with the otomi. I’m even expected to find the bugger myself, because our ever-vigilant chief minister’s managed to lose him!’
Kindly peered curiously at me through his filmy eyes. ‘What are you complaining about? We’re in this too, and we didn’t do anything to offend the old man in the first place. Besides, you’re still alive, aren’t you?’
‘I don’t care!’ I cried irrationally. ‘And I won’t do it. I’m not going back to Mexico to face that madman. I’d rather lie in wait for old Black Feathers and throw him and his litter down the hillside.’
‘I’d like to see you try it!’ Kindly laughed. ‘I wonder what odds I could get on your chances?’
Turning to the king, Lily said sharply: ‘You promised to protect us!’
‘Not forever,’ the king said. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not free to do what I want, any more than you are. Lord Feathered in Black’s spies told him where you were almost the moment you arrived here. This hill must be crawling with them, and I didn’t even know! How long would I last if I defied him now?’
‘Your father wouldn’t have let old Black Feathers push him around!’
‘Things were different in his day,’ Maize Ear replied bitterly. ‘My father didn’t have a brother with his eyes on the throne and half the kingdom loyal to him, and the Aztecs didn’t rule most of the world then either.’ Then he smiled grimly. ‘No good will come of it, though. For all their chief minister and my uncle the emperor can do, the Aztecs have angered too many people. One day their enemies will combine against them, and Mexico won’t be a good place to be then. You might want to think about going to live among barbarians after all!’
Kindly laughed again. ‘I’m too old! No, I’m for going home. I’m going to sit in my own courtyard with my patolli mat and a gourd full of sacred wine, and if our enemies or avenging gods do come then I expect I shall be past caring.’
The king looked at me. ‘Apart from mugging your chief minister on his way home,’ he asked, ‘What do you intend to do?’
We had reached the edge of the lake by now. I turned and stared moodily back at the palace, but there was no sign of my former master. Having made his wishes plain, he had presumably lost interest in
