Aztec Blood

by Gary Jennings

  "I will see Don Carlos alone for a moment," the viceroy said.

  When Luis and Eléna had left the room, he dropped his veneer of grace and reverted to an administrator dealing with a problem.

  "Your rescue of Eléna was fortuitous on several counts. You saved my niece from unspeakable horrors and perhaps even death. The debacle of our soldados being without powder and ball to resist the attack will resound all the way to Madrid and back. The alcalde and fort commander will be punished, though not to the extent that the people are crying for. Your daring rescue of my niece has in a small way overshadowed the shame of defeat. The rescue has figured prominently in the dispatch that has been sent to the king. As soon as he receives it, the news will quickly make its way to your home province."

  And when it did, word would fly to Madrid that I was a wanted man.

  "I related the story of your daring in the most compelling language, giving it all the praise it deserved. I also hinted at a matter of youthful indiscretion that must be cleared up. Until we hear from Madrid, I will not know what honor to bestow upon you."

  Or whether to remove my head, I thought.

  "You, of course, will remain in the city until word comes."

  Eh, I was not to leave town. It would take six months to a year for Madrid to sort it all out.

  The viceroy clasped my good hand. "Understand this, young man. In my mind, what you did for my niece makes up a thousand-fold for whatever acts you committed in Spain. But we must move slowly and carefully to ensure that this grand gesture wipes away the sins of the past. If nothing further comes of this, I praise God that the situation has enabled me to convince Eléna to marry one of the finest young men of New Spain."

  Luis was waiting for me when I came out of the viceroy's chamber.

  "I will escort Don Carlos from the building," he told the viceroy's secretary.

  As we walked, Luis asked if the viceroy had given me adequate assurances concerning my "difficulties."

  "He has been most generous," I said.

  "Eléna has suggested that you may wish to meet some of our city's more eligible women. Few places on earth boast women and horses that are as well-bred and beautifully proportioned as in this city. As your own father may have told you, there is a great deal of similarity between how one handles a fine woman and a fine horse."

  I could not suppress a grin. If Eléna could have heard this again!

  "I'm afraid my father never compared my mother to a horse; but perhaps he was not the master of either, which I'm sure your own father was."

  "My father is the master of nothing, not even the cards and drink he squanders his life on."

  Luis's voice had turned hard and angry. His short temper inspired me to provoke him further.

  "Your gracious offer to introduce me to the ladies of your city is most generous. And as soon as my wound has healed, I shall accept your kindness." I stopped and faced him. "You know, señor, I fell in love with the lovely Eléna and had hoped she would return my affection. I was saddened to learn she was betrothed."

  Luis's veneer of civility vanished. For a tense moment I believed he would draw his sword in the viceroy's palace, all of which pleased me greatly.

  "Good day, señor," I said, with a curt nod and bow. I turned my back to him and left, bearing an uneasy feeling between my shoulder blades that a dagger might find its way there.

  ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN

  "You did what?" I directed my exasperation at Mateo in the courtyard of my newly rented quarters. He was not a man who spent his life walking toward the gallows—he ran for the noose.

  Mateo fondled his ever-present wine goblet, an expression of smug self-righteousness on his face. He smiled thinly at me through a haze of smoke. "Do you wish to discuss this matter calmly and quietly or would you rather we trumpeted it to your servants and neighbors."

  I sat down. "Tell me what madness drove you to visit Don Silvestre. Start at the beginning so I will know whether to leave town... or garrote you."

  He shook his head and tried to look innocent, which hardly rang true: His face was a battlefield of those scars that each bore a woman's name.

  "Bastardo, my compadre—"

  "Ex-compadre."

  "I went to the house of your old family friend, Don Silvestre, a fine old caballero. There is snow on his head, his legs are weak at the knees, not to mention bowed from a lifetime on the saddle, but fire still burns in his heart. He is as you imagined him—mostly blind. I made the pretense of asking to examine his eyepiece. Without it, he could not count my fingers a foot from his nose."

  "I hope you broke the glass."

  "Of course not. Would a caballero like myself do that to an old knight?"

  "Not unless it would assist you at a cantina's card table or into a woman's bed."

  He sighed and emptied the goblet with a long drink. He refilled it before he went on with his story.

  "We shall save breaking the old man's eyepiece to another day," he said.

  "Soto's party has been changed to the viceroy's palace. The old man will probably attend."

  "I already know that. He will not just attend, he is riding with us in our carriage."

  "Santa Maria, Holy Mother of God." I got down on my knees and prayed before a stone angel pouring water into the patio fountain. "Save me from this madman, Holy Madre, and have God send lightning to strike him down."

  "Bastardo, you panic too easily. You must face life's setbacks with equanimity, not hysteria. Now get up off your knees. I am not your priest."

  I got to my feet. "Tell me how I am to ride in a carriage to the viceroy's ball with a man who will expose me as a fake the moment he sees me."

  "The old man already believes you are Don Carlos because I have told him you are Don Carlos. You do not have to convince him. What you have to do is avoid un-convincing him. It will be dark when we pick him up. The street boy who spies for you will suddenly rush out of the darkness, grab his eyeglass, and run away. Even if, God forbid, the attack fails, Don Silvestre still will not recognize you. He has to get very close even to see with his eyeglass. Like any old caballero, he is vain about his age and physical condition. He is not only half blind but half deaf. If you speak quietly when you are forced to speak, he will not notice. Also, I will be there to carry the conversation. Don Silvestre does not like you because you have violated the caballero's code of honor. He will not speak to you unless he has to. However, after explaining to him the true circumstance of the crimes in Spain..."

  "Sí, the true circumstance of my crimes. Why don't you let me know those circumstances."

  He nicked ashes off the end of his tobacco roll. "What you did, of course, was protect the family honor."

  "I beat my fiancé's father with a candlestick and stole her dowry."

  "Ah, Bastardo, you believe everything you hear, and so does Don Silvestre. A friend writes him from Spain and says young Don Carlos is a thief and a blackguard. He believes it. But now another friend, me, has come and told him the truth."

  "What is the truth? Will you tell me before I put my sword in my throat."

  "The truth is that you took the blame for your older brother."

  It stunned me. I repeated the words carefully. Than a second time, savoring them. "I took the blame for my older brother—to protect the family name."

  I paced back and forth, feeling the words, getting into the mood of the comedia that Mateo was constructing. "Eh, my brother, the heir to the title and the family fortune, the possessor of our family's good name and honor, is a scoundrel. He violates my bride-to-be and steals my dowry. What is the honorable thing to do? If I kill him, as he so well deserves, the truth will come out, and our proud family name will be ruined. No, there is only one thing for me to do. I am the younger brother, heir to nothing, possessor of nothing. I assume the blame for my brother's foul deeds, save the family honor, and incur the punishment."

  I bowed and saluted my friend with my hat. "Mateo Rosas, you are a true genius. When you t
old me you had constructed a comedia for the don, I saw only disaster. If we presented this play in Mexico City and Seville, we would be hailed as heroes of the quill and paper. This play would gain us the fortune we never acquired—at least legally."

  Mateo tried to appear modest. "Don Silvestre accepted the story as readily as Moses accepted the word of God. It is now chiseled in stone in the old man's mind. He was embellishing upon it as I explained it to Eléna."

  Did I hear him right? Did he just say that he had explained it to Eléna? Did he also whisper it in the viceroy's ear? Amigos, was I correct in my assumption that Mateo would someday get me hanged if I was not duly punished for my own crimes?

  "Bastardo, you better have some of this wine. Your face was the color of death, and now it is turning to fire."

  "When did you see Eléna?"

  "This afternoon, when she came to Don Silvestre's after your meeting with the viceroy."

  "Why did she go to Don Silvestre's?"

  "To talk to the old man about you. She wanted the details of your crimes, to see if she could assist you in gaining pardon."

  "And you told her this tale about taking the blame for my brother after you had convinced the don?"

  "Actually, the inspiration for the tale came when I saw the lovely Eléna. Bastardo, you have supreme taste in women. She is a little delicate and intelligent for me, with a little more above the neckline and a little less below it than I prefer, but her eyes would conquer the soul of Eros himself."

  "Explain exactly what occurred. Do not leave out any details. When I murder you, I want to have no feelings of guilt."

  "This beautiful woman came in. She pled her case before me and the don, telling us in every detail how you had fought off a dozen pirates—"

  "A dozen?"

  "Some number like that. As I listened to her, I realized she loved you."

  "Don't say that; I can't stand the hurt."

  "We must face the truth. We have come back for revenge, but hate is only on one side of life's coin. The other side is love. When I heard the love in her voice, I knew I had to ensure that her love did not go unfulfilled. Did you know that my comedias always had happy endings? Eh, it's the truth. In matters of love, tragedy is so ubiquitous that I wrote only endings in which love triumphed."

  "What did she say when she learned I had taken the blame for my brother?"

  "She cried, Bastardo, she cried from joy and relief. She said that she knew that you were a good and honorable man from the very moment she looked into your eyes."

  "¡Ay de mí!" I sat down and buried my face in my hands. The angel was so blinded by my saving her that she saw a half blood lépero as a man of honor. If she knew the truth about me, she would run in horror.

  "And Don Silvestre? He did not deny the story?"

  "He embellished upon it himself. It caught the old knight's fancy. And come to find out, the older brother was a scoundrel, too. But his black deeds were always washed away to save the family honor. It was right and proper to the don that a younger brother would make such a sacrifice. He got so caught up in the tale, he began to imagine that every black deed Don Carlos stood accused of was done in the name of honor. Your innocence, however, must never be disclosed, not if you are to protect the family name. I did, of course, agree that the viceroy should know. Eléna rushed to tell him the news."

  I groaned. "And Luis. She will tell Luis. And she will tell her maid, who will tell the maid next door..."

  Mateo shrugged. "And in a few weeks we will be gone."

  "But Eléna will be left with the scandal. Today I deliberately insulted Luis by implying I was romantically interested in Eléna. While I angered him, I was no serious threat as the disgraced Don Carlos. Now I am doubly a hero. I sacrificed myself for my brother and almost threw down my life for Eléna. When she tells Luis that I am twice the hero, he will see me as a threat."

  Mateo shook his head. "The viceroy would never let you marry Eléna even if you had repelled that entire pirate attack singlehandedly. You are still the third son of a minor family. Luis will be a marqués when his father dies. Socially, his claim to nobility is as strong as the viceroy's. That's why he is forcing her to marry him. It is Luis's pride that will make him kill you, not the threat to his marriage. Of course, if he finds out you are meeting Eléna, he will kill you sooner rather than later."

  Another knife went into my gut. "Tell me that you have not done something as foolish as setting up an assignation with her."

  He said nothing. I waited until he'd drained another goblet full of wine.

  "What did you do?"

  "Luis is a swine."

  "What did you do?"

  "The girl wishes to talk to you, to beg for forgiveness in ever doubting you. If you handle the matter right, you will partake of her favors before Luis gets the chance."

  "Are you loco? Do you think I would use Eléna to avenge myself on my enemies?"

  "You ask if I am loco? You have come back to New Spain to kill her husband-to-be and perhaps destroy her uncle, who raised her as a daughter. And you think you can do these deeds without damage to her?"

  He got up from sitting on the edge of the fountain. "Bastardo, I will have to work very hard, very hard indeed, to write a happy ending to the tragic-comedia that you have begun."

  ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN

  The meeting Mateo had set up between Eléna and myself was arranged at the house of Don Silvestre's widowed daughter. Mateo said the widow, who was only a few years older than me, rarely used the house; she spent most of her time at the household of her father. The widow had many charms, Mateo told me, alluding to the fact that he would ensure she did not wither from lack of love.

  I was nervous as I waited in the courtyard. An elderly india and her husband appeared to be the only servants at the house. On a small table, they had set out sweetmeats and wine. Darkness had fallen and they illuminated the area around me with candles. Protected by high walls, the location was private. A perfect place for a rendezvous with another man's woman.

  I felt as if I had stepped onto a stage featuring the doomed lovers, Calisto and Melibea, if not an even more tragic comedia called Romeo and Juliet, a play Mateo said was written by an Englishman named Shakespeare. The quandary Mateo spoke of, that I could not destroy the others without harming Eléna, weighed heavy on my heart. The Fates were casting lots for my soul.

  I heard the carriage outside and tensed with anticipation.

  When she came through the gate, I got up slowly from where I had been sitting at the edge of the fountain. She had changed into a black dress and Wore a long, silk shawl over her head and draped down her shoulders. I had half expected her to wear a mask as was so common among the ladies of the city when traveling to an assignation, but no one would have recognized her with the shawl anyway.

  "Doña Eléna." I bowed.

  "Don Carlos."

  To give my hands something to do, I gestured at the table of sweetmeats. "Our hostess is not at home, but she kindly provided a table of delicacies."

  "I have met Doña Teodora. She is a good woman who cares well for her elderly father."

  "I understand you were with the father today."

  She came to me, holding out her hand. "Oh, Carlos, I am so happy you are not the scoundrel others claim you to be. Your sacrifice to protect your family name was that of a martyred saint."

  I took her hand and kissed it.

  "Eléna, I have to tell you the truth"—at least part of it—"I am not the person you think I am."

  "I know that."

  "You do?"

  "Of course. The man I met at Don Silvestre explained about your brother."

  "No, no, it's not just that, it's..."

  "Yes?"

  It was impossible. If I told her the truth, she would run screaming from the house. But I hated living a lie. My entire life had been a lie, and with her I wished to lay my soul naked.

  "There are things about me that I cannot reveal, things that you would nev
er understand, some that would make you hate me. But there is one truth that you may depend upon. From the moment I first saw you, I loved you."

  "And I, you."

  She said it so simply, I was caught by surprise.

  "Did you want me to hide my feelings?" she asked.

  "It's impossible for us, you're betrothed to another."

  I was holding onto her hand. I drew her closer and she pulled away. She walked around the courtyard for a moment.

  "Don't you find it strange," she said, "how we of the higher class of society have less freedom? Our possessions, even our names, entrap us. A man and a woman of common blood can love and marry whom they like." She turned and faced me. "My uncle can make me marry Luis, but he can never make me love him. I do not hate Luis, and I believe he truly loves me. He has refused offers of marriage from families whose daughters have larger dowries and certainly fairer looks. But for me, marriage to him would be a prison. That's why I was willing to go to another type of prison, a convent, where at least I would have had the freedom to read books and write what I have the vanity to call poetry."

  "Your poems are the songs of angels."

  "Fine words, Don Carlos, but I hardly think you have heard of my poems all the way in Spain. My poems have been rarely published even in the colony."

  "You do yourself an injustice. I was given this book to read when I was sailing from Seville."

  I showed her a book of poems I had printed for her.

  She shook her head, her eyes glowing. "I wrote that years ago. There must be a book or two still in existence. And it made it all the way to Seville?"

  "To the whole world. I'm certain there is a copy right now in the queen's boudoir in Madrid."

  "More likely on the Inquisition's evidence table. Who gave you the book?"

  "I don't know the man's name. He was reading a book in a cantina and offered it to me when he learned I was to take a sea voyage." Eh, amigos, do lies flow like honey off my tongue?

  I heard a noise at the wall bordering the street. A head popped into view for just the briefest moment before the man dropped back down. I ran out the gate, but the man was on a horse galloping away before I was able to seize him.