by Zoe Saadia
She beamed at him. “See how appreciated you are!”
He shrugged once again. “We’ll see if he means it.”
“Of course he means it. Why wouldn’t he? He will carry on his father’s policies and edicts. And he will appreciate his faithful leaders and advisers, most of all - his Chief Warlord.”
“And that’s why I don’t want my son serving Xicohtli in Coatepec.” He measured her with a glance. “I’ll talk to you later about it.” His fleeting smile made her understand he didn’t think their main set of rooms was private enough.
Satisfied, she busied herself with rearranging the plates. “Your meal is getting cold,” she said finally, having nothing else to move about. “You can think and eat at the same time, can’t you?”
He smiled and swallowed a spoonful of beans. “They are hot this morning,” he commented, smiling. “The cook must be fond of the spiciest of our chili sauces. Is it someone new?”
She tore off a piece of tortilla. “Yes, the previous cook got sick and died. Not that I let him near our kitchens when he was ill,” she added.
“What? Your potions didn’t work on him?”
“The stupid man wouldn’t try any. He said my herbs were good for savages. He said a civilized man should seek his medicine among the temple’s priests and not among uncivilized witches.” She tried to sound light, but her anger was difficult to contain.
“Most stupid of him.” Tecpatl shrugged, not noticing any of it.
“Nopalli asked me to come over this afternoon,” she said, changing the subject once again.
“Umm, another of those chocolate-drinking women parties?”
“Her youngest son is feverish since yesterday morning. She tried everything, but he remains hot and sleepy all the time. She fears for him and asked me to come and see what can be done to cure him.”
He frowned. “Why would she drag you there in person? You are not a healer or some other working commoner. Why don’t you just send her a potion or a relevant herb?”
She looked at him, surprised. “She wants me to help her. As a friend. We women also form friendships, you know. She fears for her son, and she appreciates my skills. There is nothing wrong with that.”
He smiled with half of his mouth and raised his eyebrows, looking skeptical and suddenly unbearably arrogant. “Your skills may be wonderful, but don’t make a mistake of thinking that this woman values your friendship in any genuine way. Not this one. The members of my Uncle’s family, all of them, are snobbish frog-eaters who think they are better than the Emperor himself. Nopalli is no different. If she is nice to you now, she wants something from you. Maybe it’s really because of your healing skills, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that she feels you are her equal and don’t trust her too much.”
She glared at him, her fingers crushing the remnants of the half-eaten tortilla.
“Oh, don’t take it personally,” he said, eyes still twinkling, still amused. “I know you’re good with those herbs and all. I appreciate your skills myself, when I get sick. Didn’t I take a whole pack of those herbs with me last time when heading for Culhuacan? Send her a similar pack with a slave. But don’t go yourself like a common healer. You are better than this.”
Her fingers crushed the last of the tortilla as she watched him resuming his eating, amused and elevated from his previous gloomy mood.
You are the arrogant frog-eater yourself, she thought hotly. You are not taking me seriously, but I’m not a girl anymore, and I’m not just a wife. My skills matter to people!
Unperturbed, he finished his meal and beamed at her. “I love when you get that angry. I loved arguing with you even before I fell in love with you, you know? It’s good you didn’t lose any of your fighting spirit.” He laughed into her eyes, making the matter worse.
“I hated the way you argued, even if I loved you otherwise,” she said through her clenched teeth. “And you didn’t change. You are more arrogant than the people you are accusing of arrogance. Don’t you ever mistake that!”
He was still laughing as he got up. “I wish we could go on, but I have to be back at the Palace. The rituals for anointing our new Emperor will be resumed at high noon.” He winked at her, smiling innocently. “Tonight we’ll discuss my arrogance further if you wish it to. And if you decide to poison me with some of your herbs, make sure it is something that would not affect my virility.”
He was gone, laughing to himself, happy about his last joke.
I really should put something in his food, she thought, half amused now. Something that would make him have to sit over the chamber pot for a whole night long. In the public latrine would be even better.
***
Climbing over the low walls of his friend’s house was a much easier task than scaling the high, well guarded wall surrounding the Palace. It took Atolli a long time to slink around the marketplace and the adjacent grounds, trying to locate the relatively deserted parts of the royal enclosure behind the Great Pyramid.
Panting, he climbed it as swiftly and soundlessly as he could, landing on the swept grounds of the tropical garden, sweating and scratched.
The elegant pathways between the densely planted trees and flowerbeds looked deserted by the last of the sunlight. He brushed the dust off his loincloth. Now what?
He looked around. Had Mecatl been right, telling him it was a crazy idea? How many walls had he climbed since overhearing his father this morning?
Well, the stone partitions of his parents’ spacious dwelling were not really a challenge. He had had no difficulty jumping over it.
Then, sneaking onto Mecatl’s parents’ gardens – another easy feat, familiar from his childhood. He had climbed onto the roof right above his friend’s room, relieved to discover the bulky figure sprawling on the floor, playing a bean game with one of his numerous younger half brothers.
“What’s your news?” Mecatl did not make an attempt to get up, his voice empty and indifferent.
“Lots of things. Take a break from the game.”
“All right.” Atolli’s friend glanced at his sibling. “Get out.”
The boy pulled a face, but went away without an argument.
“A nice cub,” commented Mecatl thoughtfully. “Keeps me company while the rest of the family hates my guts.”
“When did they let you out?”
“Only this morning, curse their stinking eyes. Would you believe that? The gall!”
“Listen, I may have a solution for us. Even better than enlisting as commoners.”
“Well, I really would like that. My father just beat me and said he would not help me out. Although he can, you know? How difficult is it to ask some of his friends to take me as a shield bearer?”
“My father was not happy about doing this either. It hurts their pride, you know. But listen, how would you like to get into fighting with no shield bearing at all?”
“Impossible!”
“I know, unless it is not in Azcapotzalco itself.” He related his meeting with the haughty princess. “She is so full of herself, I could strangle her. Yet, she may be able, and willing, to help us. Her father seems somewhat anxious to get as many promising warriors as he can, before being kicked out of the capital, you see? So he wouldn’t care for our troubles as long as he gets our loyalty and skills. I guess he foresees enough wars in that part of the world.” He paused, letting the information sink in. “And now I overhear my father telling my mother that the mighty Xicohtli himself asked for me by name. She was fast, this princess, wasn’t she?”
Mecatl was sitting upright now. “Well, yes. She actually kept her word. Unbelievable! After making so much trouble for us, the filthy cihua did actually try to amend the matters.”
Atolli winced, embarrassed by his own irritation. “She is all right, I guess. She probably just panicked back in the temple.”
One pointed eyebrow rose. “She is all right, eh? Do I notice some feeling in there?”
“Shut up! I would never touch her, even i
f promised to be made a jaguar warrior on the spot. She is annoying and unbearably arrogant. She tried to tell me to talk to her nice or else. What a thought!” He snorted. “But we can let her get us out of this mess, can't we?”
Mecatl chuckled. “All right, all right, you can relax now.” He frowned. “Coatepec is such a hole though. For how long will we have to stay there?”
“I don’t know. Would you rather go along with the common warriors plan?”
“Well, I wasn’t offered Coatepec yet, you know? You were the one who was asked for by name.”
“That’s the thing. I thought about it when I heard my father this morning. I have to find a way to talk to her again, to let her know we are coming together or not at all.”
“And how do we do that?”
“We try to talk to her.”
Mecatl’s laughter rolled between the plastered walls. “Just send her word, eh? Hello princess, would you care to meet us somewhere around the marketplace, so we won’t have to walk too far? It’s been a long day.”
“She may be back at her temple by now.”
“Not likely. She’ll be preparing for the journey. The royal folk don’t travel as lightly as a simple troublemaker like yourself.”
He hadn’t thought of that possibility. So, she will be leaving for Coatepec too. Aware of a twinge of excitement, he frowned, saying hurriedly, “Then we’ll have to try to find her in the Palace.”
“Just walk in there and ask for an audience with the First Daughter of the First Son of the deceased Emperor. Why didn’t we think of that right away?”
But he was already full of ideas, picturing her by the same secluded pond, throwing flower petals in the water, waiting idly.
“We can get into the Palace; it’s very secluded around the gardens and ponds. No one will notice. Then, if she is not there, I’ll find that slave of hers… the one she sent to call for me yesterday. It can be done.”
Mecatl’s face lost any trace of its usual cheerfulness. “Atolli, tell me you are not serious! To break into the Palace’s grounds after the temple incident? You will make matters so much worse by doing that. They may actually execute you. No one climbs the Palace’s walls, no one!”
“We did it once, remember?”
“But we were children! Now we are grownups with all this trouble on our hands for doing just that – climbing walls we should not be climbing. Get it out of your head!”
But he wouldn’t listen. And now, sneaking behind the trees of the artificial grove at the deepening dusk, he began thinking that his friend might have been right. What would he tell them if questioned? How had he gotten here and for what purpose?
The muffled voices reached him, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. A man was talking, calmly, reassuringly.
Afraid to breathe, Atolli froze behind the thick trunk of a kapoc tree.
“There is no need to hurry,” said a deep, slightly familiar voice.
A grunt was the man’s answer. Atolli peeked carefully.
By the same pond he had remembered the slender form of a girl, sat yet another cloaked figure, rigid and stiff, his back to the talker, facing the water but not tossing any flowers into it. The second man stood behind, relatively at ease, but with a certain amount of deference.
“It all will be ready in good time,” repeated the standing man. “There is no need to hurry such events.”
The cloaked man grunted. “It’s good for you not to hurry, staying in Azcapotzalco.” The hooded head turned sharply. “How can I be sure of anyone, even you?”
“You can be sure of me and my people, Oh Revered One. Azcapotzalco will see you back in a very short time.”
“How short?”
“Two moons at the most.”
“It is a long time to be away.”
“Not with your faithful people working diligently to have you back.”
The cloaked man turned away once again. “How many will be siding with us?”
“Many.”
“Then why not now?”
“Such a move has to be prepared. The sudden death of your Revered Father caught us unprepared.”
“You are sloppy.” Irritably, the cloaked man picked up a pebble and tossed it into the water. “How could my father leave me with such a forsaken province? Me, the First Son!”
“He was very ill in the end. He would never do this otherwise.”
In the middle of the pond another pebble landed with a splash.
“How many of the advisers will side with me?”
“More than half.”
“What about the warriors’ leaders?”
“We’ll make sure they do not object.”
“And the Chief Warlord? He may prove difficult. He seems to be pleased with our new Emperor.” The voice of the sitting man shook with disdain at these last words.
“He will not be a problem.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“He is my nephew, he will obey.”
Sweat coated Atolli’s back, making him cold in the heat of the late afternoon.
“Make sure of him, the sooner the better.” The man turned away once again. “When do I leave?”
“I would stall for a market interval or two.”
“Why?”
“So as not to make our new Emperor suspicious. He should know you have resigned yourself to the wishes of your Revered Father, but not too readily. He knows you are not happy.”
“You are a devious man, you know?” The cloaked man rose, and Atolli sank deeper into the shadows. “I warn you not to play any of your tricks with me.”
As the threatening voice began melting away, he dared to breathe once again. Grateful for the deepening darkness, he closed his eyes.
What was that all about? he asked himself helplessly, knowing that whatever it was, it could be no good. And it had something to do with his father.
He could hear his heart pounding in his ears. The trees loomed around him, dark and threatening.
Absently, he began making his way back toward the high walls. Father had to know about this conversation. What would his father’s Great Uncle force the Chief Warlord to agree to? The conversation made it clear it would be something Atolli’s father would not approve of. What? What did the first emperor’s son want? And would he still go out to rule Coatepec?
Oh, mighty gods, please let Xicohtli go to Coatepec as planned. He is my way out of this mess. I need it so!
He stopped in his tracks. Chictli! He had to see her. He had come here to see her, to tell her he wanted to join, whatever his father’s answer would be. Listening to her father’s schemes, he’d forgotten all about it.
He looked around. How would he find any of her slaves in the thickening darkness?
Careful as a warrior closing in on the enemy, he slunk past the pond, searching the trail he had walked yesterday, following her slave.
Chapter 7
Sakuna knelt before the straw mat, eyeing the child who had laid there - a pitiful mess of matted hair, sticky with sweat, the blankets wet and smelly from the medicine he had vomited up, along with the remnants of his food.
She examined the small chest and watched it rising and falling, less rapid than before. The blanket under the disheveled head was now darker, soaked with sweat. Good! The child’s face shone with perspiration.
She brushed damp strands of hair off the small forehead, her palm lingering, feeling it. Yes, he was definitely cooler now. Still hot, but not burning with fever as badly as before. What a relief! The root of chichipilli, left in a boiled water for a while, was of a great help, as usual.
The women in the room held their breath. There were four of them present – three slaves and the Mistress of the House.
“Is he any better?” Nopalli’s voice shook as she moved a pace, hesitating, as though afraid to come nearer.
“Yes. He is sweating, and it’s a good sign. Some of the heat has gone.” Sakuna got up. “Clean this mess and put him on another mat,” she said, addre
ssing the servants. “Wrap him in a clean blanket. Actually, I would move him to another room or even out into the gardens for a while,” she added as an afterthought. “Let him get some fresh air.”
Nopalli looked appalled. “He will catch a cold!”
“In summer?”
“No, no. He will stay here until he gets better,” said the Mistress of the House decisively. “He will be safer here.” She glanced at the women. “What are you waiting for? Do what Sakuna says! Clean up this mess and bring a new blanket and another mat.” She took Sakuna’s arm and led her out of the small room, rolling her eyes as she walked. “You wouldn’t believe how stupid, inept, inefficient those slaves are! Are your slaves any good?”
“Some of them,” muttered Sakuna.
She didn’t like talking about slaves. She could have been one of them, had things turned out differently. She knew there was more to life than the noblewomen of Azcapotzalco would ever dream. “I’m so glad he did drink the potion after all!”
“Oh, he is a stubborn one, even when sick.” Nopalli sighed. “But I really feared for him this time. With the outbreak of the summer disease, one can never be sure, can one? I hate this season. It’s so hot and humid, and so many people get sick and die.” The young woman shook her head as if trying to banish the gloom. “He did get me worried, this child. I can’t believe he would not swallow the medicine!” She laughed and led the way toward the spaciousness of her inner rooms.
“It’s really very bitter. I can’t blame him.”
Nopalli giggled. “I am prepared to bet ten cocoa beans it was not as bitter as the drinks I was made to swallow while birthing him.”
“No!”
They laughed, and the stocky, talkative hostess clapped her hands. “Tell the cook to send us chocolate drinks and refreshments,” she said to the servant. “We deserve a snack even if it’s not the best time of the day to eat, don’t we?”
Sakuna shifted uncomfortably. “I should go home soon. It’s getting dark.”