The Goldsmith's Daughter (25 page)

Sunrise?

How could it come? With no priests to let their blood, no hearts burning on altars to nourish the god? This night would not cease. It could not. Perpetual darkness would now reign. Mictlan was come to earth. The fifth age was ended. We would perish.

Eve whined. I said nothing to Francisco, but he too felt my fear. He gathered me to him and held me tight.

“It will come,” he promised. “Dawn will come. Be sure of it.” But his own voice trembled with doubt. This was not his land. His god had no power here.

It was long past the hour of the dawn, of that I was certain, and yet still the sky was dense and black.

But then I felt the weight of it lessen. Perceived the slightest lightening of its gloom. I blinked. Once. Twice. Rubbed my eyes lest it prove to be a cruel trick played by the gods.

But no. In the distance was a line of grey. As I watched, it broadened. And as I stared, my teeth began to chatter. I started to shake uncontrollably.

“Do not be afraid,” Francisco murmured.

When the first ray of sunshine pierced the horizon, I shook still. I could not cease. Yet it was not with fear, but with bitter fury. And with burning excitement.

The sun was rising. No priest drew his own blood to make it happen. No living heart was plucked to feed it. No conch blast called forth the dawn.

Yet it came.

They were wrong. Priests. Wise men. Soothsayers. Emperors. They had always been wrong. So many people had been slaughtered for a false belief! So many had climbed the temple steps to gain life everlasting.

Paradise. Mictlan. Both melted away like mist as the sun climbed higher. It warmed my flesh and my heart beat faster. The blood thrilled in my veins.

For if the priests had been so wrong in their teachings, then perhaps they had been wrong about me too. Disaster had come to my city but I was not its cause. I was not ill fated. I was not cursed. The chains slipped from me and in that one radiant moment I knew myself free.

I stood, dazzled, light-headed with joy. “Let us go.”

“Where?” Francisco was aghast. “Not to my people?”

“No. And not to mine. We will go to your forest. Your paradise. Your Eden. There we will live.”

“In the jungle? Like beasts?”

I smiled. “Like beasts. Yes. With no priests. No gods. We answer for ourselves alone. You and I, Francisco – together we shall make a new world.”

The book is based on the history of sixteenth-century Mexico, but while the broad sweep of events is accurate, I've taken liberties in order to make the plot work, altering the sequence of some incidents, ignoring others, and relocating one or two things from Peru and the Caribbean to Tenochtitlán.

While Montezuma and Cortés both existed, I've been fairly free in my depictions of them. In actual fact, Cortés wasn't in Tenochtitlán at the time of the spring festival massacre – his deputy, Alvarado, was responsible for that. To serve the story I have fused these two Spaniards into one character.

Itacate and her family, Francisco and the golden madonna are all inventions; but the dog, Eve, is based on a real hound who was found in the jungle by one of Cortés's men.

Although this isn't necessarily a historically precise book it evokes how it might have felt to live at that time, in that society, with those beliefs, and experience world-changing events at first hand.

T.L.

Primary Sources

Baquedano, Elizabeth:
Aztec
(Dorling Kindersely Eyewitness Guides, 2006)

de Fuentes, Patricia:
The Conquistadors
(University of Oklahoma Press, 1993)

Leon-Portilla, Miguel:
The Broken Spears
(Beacon Press, 1992)

Phillips, Charles:
The Aztec and Maya World
(Lorenz Books, Anness Publishing, 2005)

Phillips, Charles:
The Mythology of the Aztec and Maya
(Southwater, Anness Publishing, 2006)

Salariya, David:
How Would You Survive as an Aztec?
(Watts Books, 1994)

Thomas, Hugh:
The Conquest of Mexico
(Pimlico, 2004)

Wood, Michael:
Conquistadors
(BBC, 2003)

Additional Sources

Bezanilla, Clara:
Aztec and Maya Gods and Goddesses
(The British Museum Press, 2006)

de las Casas, Bartolome:
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
(Penguin, 1992)

Diaz, Bernal:
The Conquest of New Spain
(Penguin, 1963)

Prescott, W.H.:
History of the Conquest of Mexico
(Phoenix Press, 2002)

A
PACHE

 

I was in my fourteenth summer when the Mexicans rode against us. Twelve moons later, I took my revenge.

And though Ussen has drawn visions of a terrible future in my mind, I will not be vanquished. I belong to this land: to the wide sky above my head, to the sweet grass beneath my feet. Here must I die.

But first I will live, and I will fight. For I am a warrior. I am Apache.

“Magnificent … a disturbing but exhilarating experience.”
The
Independent

“This novel is a masterpiece… It deserves to become a modern children's classic.”
Books for Keeps

“Truly remarkable… It's like Cormac McCarthy for kids – brilliant.”
Venue

B
Y
T
ANYA
L
ANDMANA

 

Tanya Landman is the author of many books for children.
The Goldsmith's Daughter
is her second novel for teenagers, following
Apache
.

Of
The Goldsmith's Daughter
, Tanya says, “I was intrigued by a society that was so cultured and yet so cruel – where the letting of blood was vital to nourish the sun. How did it feel to live in perpetual fear of the sun failing to rise? To have your destiny decided by the priests at the moment of your birth? If you were born under an ill-starred sky would you accept your fate meekly? Or would you try to step aside? And if you did, what might the gods do to you?”

Tanya's titles for younger children include three stories about Flotsam and Jetsam; the young novel
Waking Merlin
and its sequel
Merlin's Apprentice;
and
The World's Bellybutton
and its sequel
The Kraken Snores
. Since 1992 Tanya has been part of Storybox Theatre, working alongside her husband Rod Burnett. She lives with her family in Devon.

You can find out more about Tanya and her books by visiting her website at
www.tanyalandman.com