The Seven Serpents Trilogy (29 page)

We arrived the next day at dusk to find a throng gathered at the sea wall and bonfires burning in the streets, word of our victory having reached the city by canoe and fast runners.

Subdued not at all by his hours in the dank cubbyhole, Don Luis demanded that as warlord of a sovereign country he should be permitted to ride ashore seated upon his stallion.

“I lack spurs and a proper Spanish saddle,” he said, “but I'll not require them.”

Nor would he, being a horseman of exceptional skill. However, I did not give him the chance to display it. Mounting Bravo, I led the procession through the firelit streets, followed by Don Luis on foot, a cohort of his warriors, and a long line of hostages.

The dwarf had gone ahead with a squad of cannoneers, and upon reaching the plaza, which was filled with a cheering crowd, I was greeted by a round from our lombards.

Still believing that this thunderous sound was the voice of the stallion, the people fell silent. But not for long. As soon as I passed, they set up an unearthly din that lasted through the night and beyond.

“They have had little to celebrate,” Ah den Yaxche said the next morning as we sat down at the breakfast table.

A crowd had gathered in the meadow not far from the palace and was beating wooden drums. The old man raised his voice above the roar.

“Not since the raiders from Cempoala were turned back has there been such a time. But then only sixty-one prisoners were taken. A small victory. Most were sac rificed when you became the god Kukulcán.”

“I remember the day,” I said. “It shall never be forgotten.”

“Now you have twelve hundred prisoners to think about.”

“Not to sacrifice.”

“The people will demand it.”

“I intend to put them to work in this ruinous city of rubble.”

“Long ago, fifty
katuns
ago,” Ah den Yaxche said, one
katun
being the Mayan word for twenty years, “the city flourished and was great in the world. It has lain in ruins for a long time. You cannot put it back the way it was in one day or in two. You will be forced to sacrifice most of the prisoners.”

“Old man, honorable sire, we shall see.”

Flushed by my success at Tikan, I spoke in full confidence that I would send only a token number to the sacrificial stone, a dozen perhaps, no more. I did not count upon the forces ranged against me.

I saw that the prisoners were rested for a day, fed well, and though kept in a stockade, had a warm place to sleep.

The
bacab
in charge of the city streets, Lord Xacanatzin, was given instructions to divide them into two working squads and to put one at work cleaning up the plaza and the Temple of Kukulcán. The second squad was sent to the palace to store away the stones that littered the corridors and throne room.

I found an artist in this group, a man who had spent his life painting animal life on vases he sold in the market. He was put to work painting out the mural that filled one end of the room—a horrible scene of the two-headed earth goddess, with arms shaped like serpents and a feathered skirt embroidered with skulls.

Remembering that Ceela Yaxche possessed a modest talent as an artist, I called upon her to assist him.

Since she was familiar with the cross I had built, I instructed her to limn, as best she could, a picture of the scene around it, including the rocky headland, the sea stretching off into the distance, and the cross itself under a sunny sky, dominating all with its message of redemption.

She had already started in the school for nobles, studying ritual dance, cultivation of the speaking and singing voice, and the painting of glyphs. The class in Spanish was delayed because the dwarf had been occupied with the
Santa Margarita
and the war against Tikan. Now that he was free of these responsibilities, he had new ones—conveying my messages to the
bacab,
Xacanatzin, and seeing that they were carried out.

Believing strongly in the value of Spanish to the children of noble families, I called upon Don Luis de Arroyo to take over the role of teacher.

Don Luis was not pleased to be teaching a roomful of girls and boys (this was the first time that the school had allowed males and females to study in the same room), but he preferred it to spending his days behind wooden bars.

He was brought to the palace each day under guard, spent two hours teaching, and then was returned to his cage. I saw nothing of him during the first week of the class, though he made several attempts to arrange a meeting. Nor did I encounter Ceela Yaxche, who still fled at the sight of me.

In addition to Spanish, I thought it important that the young should learn Nahuatl, the language of the Azteca.

This people, whom the nobles and priests feared and spoke of with awe, lived in the mountains far to the west, but sooner or later we would need to deal with them, either as friends or as enemies. The only man among us who spoke Nahuatl was Chalco, the high priest. Like Don Luis, he was reluctant to take on the duties of teaching and taming a roomful of wild young Mayans.

“These offshoots of noble families barely speak their own language,” he said. “They speak the words as if they were a mouthful of hot pebbles. How am I to teach them the beautiful words of the Azteca?”

“Try,” I said. “You're a resourceful man. And I hope you can find the time to teach me also. Perhaps one hour in the evening we could talk Nahuatl.”

At the close of our first evening together, Chalco brought up the subject of the Tikan prisoners.

“The festival day of Xipe Totec,” he said, “is two months away. But I am preparing for it now. How many slaves have you given me?”

“None,” I said.

His jaw tightened. “We used up all we had, Lord of the Evening Star, when we celebrated your return. There are none left, except two cripples. We cannot honor the mighty god of spring with creatures that lack arms and legs.”

He was wearing the mask of a jungle bird with a long beak. It had tipped back on his head, and he paused to slide it into place.

“Unless the god of spring is generously honored, when the seeds are planted they will not sprout. There will be no harvest and the people will starve.”

“How many slaves do you wish?”

“Fifty is a good number.”

“I'll give it thought,” I said, “and speak to you tomorrow about it.”

The two squads of prisoners had accomplished wonders in the short time they had been working. They had stored away the broken columns that littered the great plaza, cleaned the debris from the palace and the Temple of Kukulcán. But there was much more for them to do. I had projects for a thousand more, two thousand. To give up fifty workers was out of the question.

“Ten slaves,” I said when we met again the next evening. “No more.”

“May I select those I want, the tallest ones? The Tikans tend to be small.”

“Select as you wish, but no more than ten.”

Chalco was wearing a monkey mask, which, after the bird and jaguar masks he usually wore, gave him an almost human look.

“With ten,” he said, “there'll be a poor harvest.”

“Ten,” I said.

“You could capture more slaves now that you have the big canoe with wings. There are many villages to the north. And there are places inland where you could gather up many, like Palenque and Uxmal.”

“Ten,” I said.

“Your people will complain when they hear that it is only to be that small number.”

“Let them,” I said.

These were ill-considered words.

 

T
HE CITY GREETED MY VICTORY WITH THE WILDEST ACCLAIM

For a week the populace chanted night and day, the temple drum never ceased to boom. The elders were praiseful. Even the three high priests had praiseful words, though Chalco, lest I think that I had gained a victory over him and the stars, was prompt with an ex planation.

“It was the fault of Xelba, my assistant,” he said. “Xelba, a dull fellow, committed mistakes and confused the month of Yaax with the month of Quej. In that way a wrong prediction was born.”

Suddenly the big drum that shook the bones, the trumpets that pierced the ears, fell silent. Cantú brought word that people had begun to ask questions.

“What was to be done with the Tikan slaves?” they asked. “Why had they not been sacrificed?” “Was Kukulcán saving them for the festival of Xipe Totec?”

It was true that the plaza sparkled. For the first time in centuries the temple was clean. My palace had been saved from ruin. But when, the populace wanted to know, would the many slaves climb the steps to the god house and give up their hearts to the hungry sun?

Cantú brought word that they had learned that only ten of the slaves were to be sacrificed in honor of the spring god, Xipe Totec.

Seeds would die in the ground, it was said. There would be no harvest.

To silence the grumbling, I had three crosses made of black, tough fibered wood, twice my height. One was placed at the harbor, where it could be seen from the strait and by all those who entered or left. The second cross was placed on the terrace, where the priests would have to pass it on their way to and from the god house and where the crowds below would see it. The third cross was set above the palace door, so that it caught the sun and cast shadows throughout the day.

A picture of the Virgin Mary, painted by Ceela using a model she found in the palace kitchen, with blue eyes and golden hair and a shimmering halo around her head, was hung from a ceiba tree in the center of the plaza.

I went there at evening for a week and told the people about the Mother of Christ, and who Christ was and how He had died on a cross and why He had died.

My words were much like those I once had spoken to Ceela Yaxche. And like those words, they fell upon ears of stone.

Oh, yes, the plaza overflowed with Indians. They pressed in upon the guards who were there to protect me from being trampled beneath adoring feet. They lis tened, not in silence but with murmurs of approval—
ayec, ayec
—and sighs of contentment. They fell to their knees when I fell to mine. They stayed after I had sung the Ave Maria and, striking up their drums, chanted my name.

These services did nothing, however, toward an swering the question of the slaves. If anything, the com plaints increased. The loudest came from the band of nobles.

In Seville, most of the nobles belonged to a secret so ciety that cared for the poor and the sick and buried the friendless dead. Through the Council of Elders I formed a similar society in the city and thus dampened some of the grumbling.

The farmers were subject to soldierly duties, but had much time on their hands between harvest and planting. Again through the elders, I passed a decree that they should give one day of work each week to the city, to be used as the
bacab
, who took his orders from me, saw fit.

This helped to suppress the complaints but did not end them.

The dwarf suggested that we start a
poc-a-tok
tourna ment.

“The season comes later, when the rains settle the dust,” he said. “But we could start the games now and thus give the people something else to think about.”

I was certain that Cantú's suggestion arose partly from his enthusiasm for the contest, but I also remem bered from readings in history that Nero had successfully diverted trouble by furnishing entertainment, cir cuses, and athletic games for his subjects.

“Where is the game played?” I asked him. “Who plays it? Who watches?”

“The
poc-a-tok
court is the only edifice in the city that's been completely restored,” he said. “It seats a thousand spectators. That is, the nobles and their fami lies sit.”

“And the commoners stand?”

“Yes, at both ends of the court. But everyone bets, those who sit and those who stand. The nobles bet houses and jewels and gold. The rabble bets a handful of beans.”

The game, as Cantú described it, was played by two teams of heavily padded men, their object being to put a ball through hoops set high in the opposite walls, not using their hands, only hips and shoulders.

“It's a war,” Cantú said. “Many are injured and some one is always killed. At the end there's a celebration for the victorious team. The captain is invited to go into the stands and demand from the nobles whatever he sees that he covets. The captain of the defeated team is bound and tied to a post. Then archers range around and shoot arrows at him until he looks like a pincush ion.”

“It sounds bloodier than the sacrificial altar,” I said, and without further comment gave up the idea of the
poc-a-tok
tournament.

From Ah den Yaxche I learned of a town on the mainland coast some twenty leagues to the north. It was called Zaya and was thought to have a straggling popu lation of two or three hundred.

Forthwith, I summoned the
nacom
and with a ship load of warriors set sail for this nearby port.

It developed that Zaya was not a port at all, but a stone fortress located on the very edge of a cliff, with waves pounding the rocks below and sea spray rising against its gray walls. Since it could not be reached from seaward, we fired one shot and sailed north to a beach, where we landed and doubled back.

The fortress enclosed a small temple and a nest of black-robed priests whose hair was so caked with dried blood that it looked not like hair but more like dark-painted wood. The people, who lived outside the walls on small farms of an acre or less, were gaunt and seemed to be starving.

We gathered them up, three hundred and ten in all, counting women and children, and though they pro tested, got them aboard the
Santa Margarita
and sailed for home.

Among the gathering were two stonemasons, a quarryman, and a farmer who owned a piece of crystal half the size of his hand that he used to focus the sun upon dried moss or shavings, thus saving the arduous labor of turning a drill stick until it struck fire.