by Zoe Saadia
“I’ll call the maid to bring us hot chocolate. And some octli.”
“Tell them to bring the chocolate. But no octli. I’ll never touch that drink again.”
Later on, as they drifted between sleep and reality, touching and loving and going to sleep again, the maid peeked in. “Master, the messenger from the Palace is on his way.”
“Make the bath ready,” he ordered.
Sakuna cursed softly. “One day, one single day!” she muttered into the blankets.
He gathered her into his arms. “I’ll be back before darkness,” he promised, whispering into her hair.
He sprang onto the warm tiles of the floor, and she watched him, so nicely built – wide-shouldered and muscular, with not even a little fat burdening his flat stomach, his calves those of a man used to walk great distances. A few more days in bed and it might have changed, she thought, chuckling.
“Make sure you let them know that I am allowed to go wherever I please. They all, including your children, take what you say way too seriously.”
He winked. “I’ll think about it.” His eyes twinkled. “You can use some time at home, resting and all.”
She straightened up. “I’m serious, Tecpatl. Tell them!”
His smile widened. “Calm down. I already have.”
“What about Atolli?” she asked before he was gone. “I trust his troubles are over?”
“For now they are.” He grinned crookedly. “But he’ll get himself into another bunch of trouble soon enough. He is an interesting boy, you know? I never knew him well, and I’m sorry about that.”
“Will he serve under you?”
“No. I want him to find his own way. He is not a man to thrive under the shadow of his father.”
How perceptive he was, she thought, laying back and closing her eyes. His Uncle and the Emperor’s dead brother had been correct. Tecpatl was deeper than he cared to display, much deeper.
He would have made a great emperor, she thought amusedly, drifting off to sleep.
Afterword
But Tecpatl’s Uncle was correct in more than his judgment of his Nephew’s character.
While, through the late 14th century the Tepanec Empire was expanding, gaining control over almost all of the Mexican Valley, the Aztecs, tucked into their swampy unimportant island, did not remain idle. They dried and expanded their piece of unwanted land, enlarging it as the city of Tenochtitlan grew, developing advanced agricultural systems to feed the growing population.
A causeway was built to connect the city to the mainland, and the ten-mile-long embankment, to keep off the brackish waters of the Great Texcoco Lake, was planned, along with two large aqueducts to provide the city with a constant supply of fresh water. They acted humbly, just another tributary of the mighty Azcapotzalco, but were they content with their position?
We know the answer to that. The Spanish conquistadors, arriving about a century and a half later, did not meet the mighty Tepanecs. The lands they had found were ruled by the Aztec’s empire and the Aztec’s Empire alone. So what had happened?
More answers are in the second book of the Pre-Aztec Trilogy, “The Jaguar Warrior”.
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“The Young Jaguar” is the first book in the Pre-Aztec Trilogy:
At Road’s End (prequel)
The Young Jaguar
The Jaguar Warrior
The Warrior’s Way
More on the later history of the region, and on certain characters appearing in these books, can be read in “The Rise of the Aztecs” Series:
The Highlander
Crossing Worlds
The Emperor’s Second Wife
Currents of War
The Fall of the Empire
The Sword
The Triple Alliance
Table of Contents
Copyright
Table of contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Afterword
Other Books