Feathered Serpent waits for them, the morning sun bright on his golden armour. I stand at his right shoulder, his thunder lords behind me.
The leader of the Cholulans steps forward, touches the ground and his lips in formal salutation and makes his greeting.
"He says his name is Angry Coyote," I tell my lord in a loud voice.
I hear Alvarado whisper to Jaramillo and Sandoval, "He looks more like a slightly aggrieved duck," and there is laughter.
My lord silences them with a stare. "Thank him for his greeting," he says to me. "Tell him we have come in the name of his most catholic majesty Charles the Fifth to bring news of true religion and put an end to the devil's works in this country."
I turn to Angry Coyote and tell him, in words he will understand: "Feathered Serpent has returned to rest in his city. He has been sent by Olintecle, father of all the gods, to reclaim his throne and bring an end to human sacrifice."
Angry Coyote's face betrays nothing. His reply appears to me to be carefully rehearsed.
It is just as I expected. These people are such hypocrites! They feign devotion to their god, and yet, when he finally returns to them, as he promised, they do not even recognise him! What kind of religion is that?
"What does he say?" Cortés asks me.
"He says you are most welcome in their city. They are happy to receive you. Quarters have been prepared and food will be provided." I hesitate, wondering how to tell him the rest of it. "He says they will be most interested to hear all you have to say. But he also insists that you must not upset their other gods, who already provide them with everything they need."
Laughs at Women, in his rough maguey cloak, approaches one of the Cholulan senators and is fingering his mantle acquisitively. It is made of a beautiful dyed cotton of a quality his own people cannot obtain because of Tenochtitlán's embargo. The nobleman who is the object of his attentions looks uncomfortable and tries to shuffle away. Laughs at Women holds on, leering at him.
Angry Coyote turns back to me. "If this Lord Malinche has come in friendship, why has he brought such a large army of our enemies with him?"
"Angry Coyote is frightened of the Texcaltéca," I tell my lord. "They and the Cholulans are traditional enemies."
"Tell him they are accompanying me on my journey to Tenochtitlán. They intend no harm to him or his people."
I pass this on, but Angry Coyote is not mollified. He demands that when the Spaniards enter Cholula they leave the Texcaltéca outside the city.
"Never," Alvarado says when he hears this.
"It's a trick," Sandoval says.
I wait, wondering what my lord will decide.
Cortés shrugs. "If I were Angry Coyote and strangers appeared with my sworn enemies ... the French, for example ... I should also ask that they remain outside my city."
"Caudillo," Alvarado hisses, "we cannot agree to this!"
"I am aware of the risk." He looks at me. "Tell him we accede to his request."
Suicide, I think. Once again, he behaves exactly like a god, with complete arrogance.
"Feathered Serpent agrees to your request," I tell Angry Coyote, "but he warns you not to test his patience. He is able to read men's minds and will know everything you plan."
Angry Coyote gives me a look of sweet contempt. "I do not see Feathered Serpent here."
"Revered Speaker has seen him," I answer. "He has sent him a mountain of gold and jewels in tribute."
My lord interrupts our exchange and demands to know what is being said.
"It is nothing. He was just being insolent."
I see Alvarado and Sandoval exchange a glance. It is clear they do not like me conducting private conversations with the naturales. But my lord does not seem concerned. "Tell him we shall look forward to being received in his city," he says.
After Angry Coyote and his retinue have left my lord takes me aside. "Should I trust them?" he whispers.
"Only if you wish your army to be destroyed, my lord."
"As I thought."
He walks away, joins the other thunder gods. Later I see a wild rabbit dash across the path from the bushes. It is an omen. Something bad is about to happen.
Chapter 49
Huge crowds greeted the Spaniards as they marched into the city. Young women threw bouquets of flowers, acrobats ran in front of their column turning somersaults, priests ran alongside blowing conches and flutes and beating drums. But there was a sense of unease among Cortés’s men.
The major part of their army, their fierce Texcálan allies, were still outside the city, camped at the river bed.
Benítez saw Norte struggling to keep pace on foot, his arm still in a sling. Rain Flower hurried along beside him. She looked up and shouted something at Benítez.
"What did she say?" he called to Norte.
"She said enjoy your fame while it lasts. They are going to kill us all tomorrow!"
✽ ✽ ✽
An eerie silence as they crossed the temple court, the echo of their boots on the stones and the metallic chink of their steel swords the only sounds to be heard. The crowd parted for them.
Cortés led the way up the stepped walls of the pyramid. It was a long climb and a steep one, and they were all wearing heavy armour. When they reached the summit they were all panting for breath and their faces were streaked with sweat. The priests, dressed in cloaks of white and red, huddled together, watching them.
Cortés marched past them into the shrine. Benítez followed.
It took some moments for his eyes to grow accustomed to the light. Benítez realised he was staring at a giant coiled serpent carved from stone. It was dressed in a mantle of white, emblazoned with red crosses, similar to the garb they had seen on the priests outside. The snake's body was studded with jade stones but its head was not that of a snake; it was instead, that of a man with long hair and a beard.
"So this is Feathered Serpent," Cortés said.
Benítez felt his flesh crawl. He could make out the visceral gleam of fresh, dark blood on the sacrificial stone. The smell of death was everywhere.
The caudillo's eyes shone strangely in the gloom. He looked as if he had drunk too much wine. He turned to Alvarado. "Some of these people think I am Feathered Serpent." He vaulted onto the shrine beside the bearded idol so they could make comparison. "Do you think he looks like me?"
Alvarado spared a glance at Fray Olmedo. This might be construed by some as blasphemous.
"It is the Devil," Fray Olmedo said.
"The Devil? Oh, I rather think it looks like Aguilar," Sandoval said and laughed. "Or maybe Pedro," he added, looking at Alvarado.
"You should not say such things," Alvarado muttered.
Benítez put a hand to his sword. He did not like the way the priests had crowded around the entrance, blocking their retreat. "Let us leave now," he said. He was worried that Cortés might incite them further. He had become dangerous and unpredictable of late, certainly not the same man who had left Santiago de Cuba seven months ago.
Cortés turned to Fray Olmedo. “Father, you shall be my witness. Today I vow to throw down every idol in this kingdom and scrape every drop of blood from these walls! For there is no god but God and I am his servant. Amen."
"Amen," Fray Olmedo echoed.
Cortés leaped down from the statue and strode towards the entrance. The priests backed away. Benítez and the others hurried after him, eager to be away from that accursed place.
Malinali
I wander the marketplace, Flores and a handful of my lord's soldiers following behind, as escort. I am dazzled by this place. Everything is for sale here; stone and lime and wooden beams for building, cooking pots, obsidian mirrors, kohl for darkening the eyes, herbs for curing sick children, feathers, salt, rubber, bitumen. Merchants haggle over cacao and maize, porters with tumplines across their foreheads carry wicker panniers of mantles or embroidered skirts or fibre sandals; a prostitute raises her skirts to prospective customers, displaying her tattooed legs.
Old women squat on the ground beside the corn cobs and strings of peppers laid out for sale on reed mats. I can smell the savoury aroma of tamales, and gourd seeds toasting over braziers.
The crowd ahead of us parts for a woman in a beautifully embroidered cloak, her wrists and throat and fingers adorned with onyx jewellery. She is surrounded by a coterie of slaves. I recognise her at once from the arrival celebrations; it is Bird in the Reeds, the mother of Angry Coyote.
Bird in the Reeds waits while one of her slave girls barters for a hundred sheets of bark paper. The price is finally set at a hundred and twenty cacao beans.
I tell my escort to wait and approach her courteously, lowering my eyes, showing her proper respect. She glares back at me imperiously.
"I need to speak with you, Mother."
"What would we have to discuss?"
"I need your help."
This declaration brings a change to the woman's demeanour. Her expression softens. She spares a glance over my shoulder in the direction of my lord's soldiers.
"It is quite safe, Mother. None of those dogs have the elegant speech. They cannot understand a single word we say."
"What is the matter, child?"
"I have to get away from these devils."
Bird in the Reeds seems alarmed, but not surprised, as if she had anticipated this predicament. "You are a slave?"
"I have royal Mexican blood in my veins and I was the daughter of a great and noble lord until some specks of dirt kidnapped me from my home in Painali. Now I am enslaved to these bearded monsters. Will you help me?"
Another furtive glance at the soldiers. "Not here. Tonight. At my house." She walks on, her entourage trailing behind her.
Chapter 50
"For the second day running there has been no food brought to us," Alvarado said. "The men are hungry. What are they to eat? The promises of the Cholulans?”
Benítez leaned both hands on the table. "Norte has spoken with the Totonacs. They say they have found pitfalls in the roads leading out of the city. They are lined with sharpened stakes that will impale any who fall in them. They also say there are stones stockpiled on the flat roofs of the houses, ready to be hurled down on any trying to escape through the street below. We have been lured into a trap."
Just three days after their carnival entrance in Cholula and the feasting on turkeys and maize was already a distant memory. Now, instead of bouquets of welcome, they got only sneers and murderous looks.
Their discussion was interrupted by the blast from a conch shell, from the temple close to the palace where they were quartered. Another sacrifice, another heart offered up to Huitzilopochtli.
The sound of it sent a chill through the room. None of them spoke for a few moments.
"They have evacuated all the women and children," Jaramillo said. "I saw hundreds of them leaving this afternoon, heading towards the foothills."
"We should go back to Vera Cruz," de Grado said.
Ordaz folded his arms and grunted to show his contempt for this remark.
"You were one of those who called loudest for our return a few months ago," de Grado reminded him.
"Since then I have seen the gold piling up in the wagons and our caudillo has brought us victories and fame I did not believe possible. Besides, we have been through this many times before. We cannot go back."
"Then we should have brought the Texcálans into the city with us," Alvarado said.
Cortés had been oddly silent through this debate. Now he stirred. "They may not love us, as the Texcálans do, but I am yet to be convinced that they intend to betray us." He turned to Malinali. "Well, Doña Marina? What do you think?"
✽ ✽ ✽
The moon fell below the hills. A shadow down in the street hurried inside a darkened doorway. A servant answered the timid knock and escorted the visitor across a wide patio and into a torch-lit audience chamber.
The house was silent; the city slept.
"Did the Spanish devils follow you here?" Bird in the Reeds whispered.
"I was very careful, Mother. I waited until the guards were asleep."
Bird in the Reeds made space for her visitor beside her on the reed mat. Another servant brought foaming cups of chocolatl. Malinali's hands shook as she took the hot spiced drink in its earthenware cup.
The girl is terrified, Bird in the Reeds decided. Those barbarians! They dare to come here with those murderous Texcaltéca, their leader masquerading as Feathered Serpent! Death is too good for them.
She studied her visitor closely. She was thin but that was not unexpected after her tribulations. Her features were not displeasing to the eye. But there was the danger that she might carry these barbarians' seed in her. That might be a problem.
"Tell me about yourself," Bird in the Reeds said.
Malinali kept her eyes respectfully on the floor. "I was born in Painala, a day's march from Coatzacoalcos. My mother was Mexica, the daughter of a great nobleman, a descendant of Lord Face in the Water, Montezuma's grandfather. My father was a chilan, a priest and a soothsayer of much reputation.”
Bird in the Reeds felt her heart leap. She had been right to trust her instincts. If this Malinali had royal blood in her veins - and that could be verified - she would be a great asset as a wife. The only hope for advancement in the royal court these days was to be a proven blood relative, however distant, of the current emperor.
"I was kidnapped from my village and forced to live with the Maya at Potonchan. I was sold to these Spaniards, as they call themselves, and they forced me stay with them against my will. When they discovered I had the elegant speech and knew also the animal grunts of the Mayans, they kept me as their interpreter. They forced me to learn their barbarian language also, so I could communicate with them directly."
"What of this Malintzin who professes to be Feathered Serpent?"
"I confess I believed the legend was true when I first saw him. He has some physical resemblance and his men have magical powers, like their firesticks and the iron serpents that breathe fire and smoke. But I have since learned that they are mortal, as we are. They want only to steal our gold and chocolate and jade."
"I knew it!" the old woman said, "I knew he was not a god!" She took Malinali's hand. "You must have suffered greatly."
She nodded. "If I try and run away I am afraid they will kill me. I don't know what to do."
"Perhaps I can help you. You are a pleasing looking girl and you have been well educated. With your Mexican blood you could attract a good husband. You deserve a kinder fate."
"First I have to escape these Spaniards."
"I could hide you here."
"They would not rest until I was found. It will only make trouble for you."
Bird in the Reeds wondered if now was the right time to speak. But she could not contain herself. "They will not be able to make trouble for me, little Malinali, because they will all be dead."
"Dead?"
"I should not be telling you ..."
"What can you not to tell me? What is going to happen?"
Bird in the Reeds hesitated. She had been sworn to secrecy but what could she do? Why should a fine daughter of the Mexica die with the rest of these devils? It was her duty to save her. And if they could verify her bloodline, one of her sons might soon find himself among the elite of Tenochtitlán.
She lowered her voice, as if there were eavesdroppers in every corner of the empty room. "My husband and other senators have been communicating secretly with Montezuma. Our Revered Speaker wants the strangers killed. They are to be starved out of their quarters and slaughtered as they try and leave the city."
Malinali gaped at her.
"Why should you die with them? I have a son and he is of an age to marry now. Provided you do not have a monster in your belly from these Spaniards you can knot your cloak to his and learn to live like a Person again."
"I wish that I could, but it is hopeless. You cannot beat them. They defeated the Texcaltéca even though they were greatly
outnumbered. They are devils."
"They may be devils on the field of flowers, but when they are marching in single file through our city streets and are trapped there, they will not be such formidable enemies."
Malinali leaned forward eagerly, and her hands clutched at the old woman's. "I shall dream of that moment, Mother. But how can I get away? What should I do?"
"For now you must do nothing. We shall wait until the last moment, for we do not wish to raise their suspicions. As soon as they make preparations to leave you must hurry here and I will hide you until it is all over."
Bird in the Reeds laid a hand on her arm.
"Did they hurt you? Did they make you do many terrible things?"
"I really thought they were gods," she said. "I have been such a fool." She wept.
Bird in the Reeds held the girl in her arms. Poor, dear child.
✽ ✽ ✽
The next day Cortés sent a message to the two caciques of Cholula, the Lord of the Here and Now and the Lord of Below the Earth, to advise them that he was leaving the city the next morning. He asked for food for the journey as well as porters to carry these provisions and one thousand warriors as protection. He also requested that they and all the chief lords of the city attend him in the court of the temple of Feathered Serpent for a ceremonial farewell.
Malinali
Almost two thousand Cholulan warriors and porters shuffle into the broad court, led by their most senior chiefs and senators. When they are all inside, the Spanish soldiers close and bar the gates behind them.
These Cholulans look around at the black maws of the iron serpents, at the thunder gods with their firesticks on the steps of the pyramid and the ramparts of the walls. The silence is terrible.
My lord rides out on his great warhorse, and I follow behind him on foot. He stops a few paces from the Lord of the Here and Now and the Lord of Below the Earth, and they wilt in his presence. He addresses himself first to me.
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