Chitam had always known that the office of the ruler of Mutal was a lonely one, one reason why he had wished his father a long, healthy life. He hadn’t expected, however, that this loneliness would manifest in this brutal way. It was very depressing.
Chitam suppressed his desire for large quantities of chi. That would be the easy way, combined with the wonderful excuse of getting intoxicated to gain a vision of the gods who should give him direction. But Chitam found that the gods had intervened enough and had little to say to him, if he had attracted their displeasure. Inugami may not be a messenger of the gods, but his mere arrival and existence was tolerated by the heavenly powers. And if they gave him the victory over Saclemacal, it was clear that Chitam’s fate unfortunately played only a very minor role for these higher beings.
So what was there to do?
Chitam got up. Soon he would leave and fight. If he was lucky, fate would solve the problem for him. A spear, a blow from a mighty warrior, no matter, a quick end that would relieve him of all melancholy. A clean solution that ended all worries.
He felt that even this hope wouldn’t be fulfilled. But the upcoming fight helped him concentrate. He was supposed to solve a task. After that, he would continue watching.
But he already made a decision.
Two hours later, when he was on his way to Saclemacal on foot, to prove his friendly ways with the warriors and because the exercise helped to occupy his mind, he was almost in a good mood. His wife and two daughters were also traveling. They would get shelter with their clan, fake fatigue and fear of another attack on the palace, move into a beautiful villa on the outskirts, out of focus, then head off to one of the smaller vassal villages once the soldiers were even further away from any public attention and thus, Chitam hoped, far from any further danger.
He didn’t know if that would be enough. But it helped him to regain some inner peace.
33
“It’s not quite what I expected.”
Dame Tzutz Nik, Queen of Mutal, looked anxiously at Une Balam. There was cause for concern in many ways. Her husband had sent her and her daughters away, and that had made her more unbalanced than she wanted to admit. She understood Chitam’s motivations, knew about his fears and the consequent helplessness. That didn’t mean that she agreed to be taken out of the line of fire by her husband. She hadn’t wanted to cause him any additional trouble and accepted his decision without complaint. But the words had been on her tongue.
This made her current situation even more difficult because she had to encourage Une Balam to something she didn’t want to do herself. Therefore, her words lacked convincing power. And Queen or not, her husband’s youngest sister always had been remarkably stubborn. This stubbornness became visible down especially when it came to someone else pretending to make decisions for her. Even if she actually agreed to this decision …
Which was not the case this time and made the discussion even more difficult.
“I’m sorry I didn’t meet your expectations, sister-in-law,” Une replied, not at all snappy. That made it difficult for Tzutz to be really angry with her.
“Your brother is worried.”
“He is the King. That’s what he’s supposed to be.”
“You should really accompany us. It is for your benefit.”
“My well-being is in good hands.”
“Une …”
“Did my brother say my name?”
Tzutz sighed. “He said the closest family.”
“He didn’t call my name?”
“Don’t you belong to the closest family?”
Her husband’s sister grimaced. “Sometimes this family is like a curse on me. I wish father was still alive.”
“That’s because he always fulfilled all your wishes.”
“I don’t deny that. My sister-in-law, I certainly appreciate my brother’s concern. And I even believe you, that he has considered me in his directive. Under other circumstances, I would obey this request.”
“What’s stopping you from doing it now?”
Une said nothing, looked down, and seemed to think carefully of her answer. “There are many reasons, sister-in-law. I’m by no means as in danger as you are. I’m an unmarried relative, not a woman of power. I have the impression that the messengers regard women even less as influential as our own men.”
“That is possible. But the danger is only a bit smaller for you. You shouldn’t feel too safe, that could be deceiving.”
“There is someone among the strangers who will most probably protect me any time.”
Tzutz’s eyes widened. “Une! What are you telling me?”
The Princess laughed. “You are not so naive, are you? My brother himself has repeatedly emphasized to others that he wouldn’t mind if I looked at the representative of Inugami, the man named Aritomo Hara. He thinks he is more accessible than his master.”
Tzutz shared her husband’s assessment. “You tell me that you succeeded?”
“Absolutely not. I have never exchanged more than a few words with him.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“He surely is nice. I take him as being quite closed up. Too much work for me, with little chance of a quick success.”
“Une!”
The Princess shrugged. “I took the man whom the other messengers call the Gaijin. Lengsley. A smart man but not too smart.” She hesitated, smiling thoughtfully. “He has other advantages.”
Tzutz decided not to press for details now. Maybe later, but now other topics were more urgent.
“Does Chitam know about it?”
“I haven’t told him yet. But it’s not a big secret either. Lengsley has been my guest once or twice, and we have not only dined or improved our language skills. I have no great faith in the ability of the palace servants to maintain discretion. I think Chitam or you could have known about it if you were really interested in my whereabouts.”
No reproach in her voice, a simple statement.
“Good,” Tzutz said. “Or not so much. Lengsley seems to me to be somewhat isolated among the messengers. He looks different. He speaks differently. He doesn’t seem to have many friends. I often see him in the company of Aritomo Hara. Maybe your preferences are not so far away from your brother’s wishes.”
Une smiled. “That wasn’t my main motivation.”
“Of course not.”
“Can he protect me? I think so. His work is appreciated. He has a lot of knowledge. I was allowed to convince myself of that.”
“Une!”
“Your imagination is your problem.”
Both women shook their heads, albeit for different reasons.
“It’s too dangerous,” Tzutz muttered.
“Tell Chitam, if he should ask, who is better at getting secrets from an important man than a beautiful woman holding his balls in her hand?”
“Une!”
“Why was I supposed to give Aritomo advances at Chitam’s behest?”
“Une!”
“My brother will understand what I mean.”
Tzutz looked outraged at her sister-in-law. “Une, let me remind you that my husband has no secrets from me!”
The sister-in-law looked appraisingly at her, her eyes finally fixed on her hands. “You have strong fingers.”
“Une!”
Tzutz realized that they wouldn’t come to any conclusion in this. She got up. Time was pressing. Her own departure approached. She couldn’t try to persuade her stubborn sister-in-law forever. In the end, Une would always do what she thought was right. The women hugged each other, short but firm and tight. They might not agree on everything, but, no matter how annoying it sometimes could be, they were family. And a special family too.
“All the best and a good trip,” said Une Balam in a husky voice. “Watch my nieces above all else.”
“And a safe stay,” the Queen replied. “Look afte
r yourself and disappear if Chitam’s fears prove true. Don’t say that these are only doom shots. I’m convinced that there is a real danger.”
Tzutz had withheld from her sister-in-law one piece of information about the history of the arson attack on the palace. Chitam didn’t want that to go round. Tzutz had had to use her strong fingers with great skill to get that fact out of him last night.
Of course, although she had played the indignant, she knew exactly what her sister-in-law was talking about.
They finally parted.
Tzutz left the building where her sister-in-law was housed, accompanied only by two servants. There were still a few things to pack for her although she would only move to the outskirts of the city. She was in thought, planning and brooding, and when she arrived at the house she currently occupied after the fire, she immediately gave her instructions. Satisfied, she realized that everything had already been well-prepared. There was not much work for them anymore, which was a stark contrast to the hectic activity of the last few hours. She could actually rest until she left, but she found no relief, walked around, monitored, commented, and, in short, annoyed everyone except that no one dared to tell her.
Her activity, however aimless, hindered everyone not only through the fact that her involvement disturbed more than helped but also led her servants to overlook another important detail: that one of them disappeared for a moment, crossed the street, and gesticulated to a man. He wore the clothes of a peasant, with a hat drawn low in his face. But on closer inspection, one might have noticed that this man had a striking resemblance to one of the two bodyguards of the young prince the messengers carried along.
This knowledge would’ve given her a lot to consider.
34
Inugami looked through the binoculars and took his time. Regardless of his well-groomed confidence in showing everyone that he had everything under control, that he always knew the right answer to all questions, and that the situation always developed as he saw fit, he didn’t fool himself: He wasn’t an infantryman. Like all Japanese naval officers, he had enjoyed a general basic training that hadn’t been restricted to maritime aspects. But then he had specialized quite quickly, and when it became clear that the submarine fleet would be his area of responsibility, this specialization had taken on even greater proportions. Inugami knew, theoretically, how to wage war in the countryside. But it was just a theory. To be honest with himself – and he did that more often than others sometimes trusted him to do –, he also knew maritime warfare only from theory. The submarines on which he had served had never been sent to battle, apart from a brief engagement in the Russo-Japanese War, which hadn’t contributed much to the glory of this part of the navy. And here weren’t even the weapons at his disposal whose use and installation he had once learned. And the soldiers he commanded here neither spoke his language nor were they …
Inugami searched for words.
What he lacked and what made it so terribly difficult to understand in these Maya was hard for him to express. They were in some ways incomplete people. Yes, they had an impressive architecture, and their absurdly stupid religion had a certain complexity. But they ruled only cities and their surroundings, their language sounded strange and inaccessible to Inugami’s ears – although he forced himself to learn it –, and their whole culture, their food … everything was unbearably different.
And so he thought to change, to educate, to civilize these savages.
He wanted to make real people out of them.
To do that, he had to make them forget everything that had previously kept them from true civilization, and he had to teach them what it meant to be a refined person. The prerequisites for this lesson were obedience and submission to a superior will.
His will.
However, to gain ensure their loyalty, a victory was required, and many other victories to follow.
That was Inugami’s big challenge.
He didn’t understand the Maya. He didn’t want to understand them. That was meaningless to him. He wanted to control them and mold them to his will. It was a big project, and maybe he wouldn’t finish it in his lifetime. But as a descendant of an ancient culture with a strong sense of history, the officer was able to think in epochs. He started a new era. That was his mission and his vision. What he lacked in understanding, he had to make up for through dynamism, through brilliant example, through fame, and rapid wealth. The Maya understood the basic concepts of power and influence very well. They linked them to strange and obscure religious beliefs whose purpose Inugami was alien to – in fact, he was absolutely sure that they basically didn’t contain any.
He had to take all this and smash it in order to reshape it. Just as he had taken the prisoners of war, smashed their origins and their old loyalties, and reshaped them as a unit. They represented the prototype of the empire he intended to found, and they were also the instrument he was planning to use for that purpose.
And this fight against the city of Saclemacal had to set the tone, to represent the first step. The victory had to be perfect, the triumph absolutely. Not a bit less than the perfect military attack. After the successful defense of Mutal, Inugami had to prove that he was able to beat an opponent completely without the holy vessel in the background. His superiority had to be so overwhelming that any potential criticism of his ability to win – and thus to establish the empire he had set himself as a goal – became silent.
Not only with the Maya, with troublemakers like Chitam, who apparently still believed in his own grandeur while it had already shrunk significantly. Even among those in his own crew whose enthusiasm he missed or seemed faked. Unfortunately, there were very intelligent and capable men he relied on. Aritomo Hara was at the top of the list, and he worried Inugami. Lengsley, the Briton, was an unsure companion by its very nature alone. Sawada was old and prone to over-indulgence, which was far from appropriate in such a situation. One or the other name came to Inugami. What worried him greatly was that the young Prince was evidently not overly excited about becoming an emperor, as Inugami had intended for him. The Prince was, Inugami dared to formulate this thought, so far a veritable disappointment. Here the officer was in a deep dilemma. His great reverence for the imperial family, trained in his earliest years, was in clear, irresolvable contradiction to his estimation of the Prince’s potential. How was he supposed to deal with this question?
Inugami tried to concentrate on the task at hand. From the hill, he had an excellent overview of Saclemacal. The city lay peacefully at dawn. Of course, the deployment of troops from Mutal hadn’t gone unnoticed. But what should the inhabitants of the city do? Most of their soldiers had been killed or captured in an attack on their neighbors. Some of them now returned as Inugami’s soldiers, and they would have to excel in order to dispel any suspicion of lack of loyalty. Everyone who betrayed him was dead. That had been unmistakably communicated to the troops.
The Lord of Saclemacal might have a reserve force, and some of his warriors had escaped from the turmoil of the Battle of Mutal and returned home. But that could never be enough to effectively defend the city. But had other cities left men in Saclemacal because they expected exactly what Inugami intended to do? Did the alliance of the three cities go so far as to be mutually supportive in defense?
The march directly southward hadn’t taken too long. They had reached not only the city but also the great lake in its vicinity – Saclemacal was of interest to Inugami mainly because it was a port city. This made it a potential access point to open up new transport routes. From here, the road to the west was also under control, to Holtun, from where the traveler easily reached a western group of Mayan cities – Topoxte, Yaxha, both located on a smaller lake, and the larger metropolises Nakum and Maxam. The latter city was of particular interest to Inugami, as it was regarded as quite powerful and a direct competitor to the rulers of Mutal, more suitable opponents than the small Saclemacal, which could hardly defend itself.
; But one after the other.
Inugami lowered the binoculars and turned around. Ahk sat next to him. The man was a good ten years older than Inugami and had been proposed to him by Chitam as a kind of general. Although the King was among them and formally had supreme command, he left the subtleties of tactics and organization of the troops to the nobleman, who had already served his father as warlord. The man with the weather-beaten face, who had used the binoculars without further hesitation and who seemed to be particularly pleased with the prospect of fighting against the traitors of Saclemacal, had proved to be uncomplicated. He seemed to be able to submit to the leadership of Inugami without any problems and was also ready to deploy the official army of the city in close coordination with Inugami’s janissaries. He also knew the area well – much better than the Japanese – and shared his knowledge generously.
Inugami coped well with such people. They were almost real people for him.
He looked at him encouragingly.
“I have seen no one,” said Ahk, appearing so relaxed in the presence of the messenger as though he had never done anything but talk to a celestial minister about military issues. “I don’t think there are more than a handful of ready-to-fight men there. I also assume that we won’t fight a battle and we’ll shed no blood. We should march open and force the king of the city to surrender. It would be helpful. We save men for the really important opponents.”
Both agreed that at the latest Yaxchilan would prove to be a much tougher nut. Inugami was on a fast campaign. He didn’t want to leave Mutal in Aritomo’s hand for too long. He had to keep an eye on things himself. The question therefore was: continue to Tayasal and attack the next city, or return and enjoy the triumph and use it politically?
The captain was still undecided. A quick win without a fight would, of course, suggest an immediate continuation of the campaign. It would be expected of him, it was a matter of credibility. Inugami acknowledged that, despite his power, he began to be guided by external expectations and influences. That was probably called politics. He would have to get used to it, for as much as he looked down on the Maya and their primitiveness, he needed the appropriate human material to make his plans come true.
The Emperor's Men 7: Rising Sun Page 27