War God (80 page)

(1)
Tozi
. A witch. Age, fourteen. We meet her amongst the victims being fattened for sacrifice in the women’s fattening pen at the edge of the grand plaza in Tenochtitlan. Tozi never knew her father. Her mother was a witch but was cornered and beaten to death by a mob when Tozi was seven, at which age Tozi’s own training had just begun and her powers were not fully developed. She survived as a beggar on the streets of Tenochtitlan for the next six years until captured and placed in the fattening pen at the age of fourteen to await sacrifice. Tozi has certain magical talents, of which the most important is the ability to make herself invisible. However, at this point of the story she lacks skill and experience, and if she attempts to maintain invisibility for more than a few seconds she suffers catastrophic physical consequences. Tozi’s origins are mysterious. Her mother told her they came from
Aztlán
, the fabled homeland not only of the Mexica but also of the Tlascalans and other related ‘Nahua’ peoples who speak the language called Nahuatl. But Aztlán is a mythical and legendary place, the home of the gods, where masters of wisdom and workers of magic are believed to dwell; although the Mexica say their forefathers came from Aztlán, no one knows where it is any more, or how to find it.

(2)
Malinal
. A beautiful courtesan and sex-slave of the Mexica. Age, twenty-one. Malinal is Maya in ethnic origin and is fluent both in Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica, and in the Mayan language. We meet her in the fattening pen in Tenochtitlan where she, like Tozi, has been imprisoned awaiting sacrifice. How and why she is there becomes clear to the reader as the story develops. When we understand the roots of her intense hatred for Moctezuma and the Mexica, we understand why, when she escapes the fattening pen, she travels to the Yucatán, where Cortés has landed, intending to use him as her instrument to destroy Moctezuma.

(3)
Pepillo
. Spanish, fourteen years of age. An orphan, he was given shelter, reared and taught numbers and letters by Dominican monks, who brought him from Spain to the New World, first to the island of Hispaniola and then to Cuba, where he worked as a junior bookkeeper and clerk in the Dominican monastery. When we meet him he has just been appointed page and assistant to the mysterious
Father Gaspar Muñoz
(POV character number 8) the Dominican Inquisitor who will travel with the expedition of
Hernando Cortés
(POV character number 9) to Mexico – referred to as the ‘New Lands’ – on a mission of conquest and evangelism.

(4)
Moctezuma
. Emperor – his official title is
Great Speaker
– of the Mexica. Age, fifty-three. We meet him performing human sacrifices on the summit platform of the Great Pyramid in front of the temple of the War God Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird). These sacrifices take place in full view of the fattening pen, at the edge of the grand plaza, where Malinal and Tozi are imprisoned awaiting sacrifice. Moctezuma frequently enters a trance state induced by the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in which he communicates directly with the War God – demon – Hummingbird. The demon, whose purpose is to maximise human misery and chaos on earth, urges Moctezuma on to ever crueller and more brutal mass sacrifices.

(5)
Shikotenka
. Battle-king of Tlascala, sworn enemy of the Mexica. Age, thirty-three. We meet him concealed on a mountainside in Tlascala (two days’ march away from Tenochtitlan), spying on a gigantic Mexica army gathering to attack his people. The army is there to capture thousands of Tlascalans as victims for human sacrifice. Shikotenka has a plan to stop them.

(6)
Guatemoc
. Prince of the Mexica. Age, twenty-seven. Nephew of Moctezuma (he is the son of Moctezuma’s brother Cuitláhauc).

(7)
Pedro de Alvarado
. Age, thirty-three. Close friend and ally of
Hernando Cortés
(POV character number 9). Alvarado is handsome, excessively cruel – a charming psychopath. He is also a brilliant swordsman and a notorious lover of gold. When we meet Alvarado he is with
Diego de Velázquez
, the governor of Cuba, who is attempting to bribe him to betray Cortés. Velázquez wishes to remove Cortés from command of the expedition to Mexico and replace him with
Pánfilo de Narváez
, who is more amenable to his will. He seeks Alvarado’s help in this scheme.

(8)
Father Gaspar Muñoz
. Age, late thirties. Dominican friar who has been appointed (by Diego de Velázquez) as Inquisitor on the expedition to Mexico. Munoz has a reputation for burning ‘heretics’ to death on the slightest pretext. He is also a sadistic paedophile and serial killer and exploits his position as Inquisitor to indulge his perverse appetites.

(9)
Hernando (Hernán) Cortés
. Commander of the Spanish expedition to Mexico. Age, thirty-five. A brilliant military commander and political operator, he is clever, Machiavellian, manipulative, utterly ruthless, vengeful and daring, but with a paradoxical streak of messianic Christianity. He hates Diego de Velázquez, the governor of Cuba, whom he has conned into giving him command of the expedition and whom he intends to betray. Some years earlier, Velázquez imprisoned Cortés on trumped-up charges to oblige him to marry his niece Catalina. Cortés went through with the marriage to escape prison, but has been plotting his revenge on Velázquez ever since.

(10)
Bernal Díaz
. Age, twenty-seven. Down-to-earth, honest, experienced Spanish soldier on the expedition to Mexico. From farming stock, no pretensions to nobility, but literate and keeps a diary (even though he self-deprecatingly refers to himself as an illiterate idiot). Admires Cortés, who has recognised his potential and promoted him to ensign rank.

(11)
Gonzalo de Sandoval
. Age twenty-two. From
Hidalgo
(minor nobility) family but fallen on hard times. New recruit to the expedition to Mexico. Promoted to ensign in same ceremony as Díaz. Unlike Díaz, Sandoval has a university education and military and cavalry training but no personal experience of war.

Supernatural characters

Huitzilopochtli
(referred to throughout the novel as Hummingbird), war god of the Mexica. The full translation of the name Huitzilopochtli is ‘The Hummingbird at the Left Hand of the Sun’. Like all demons, through all the myths and legends of mankind, the purpose of this entity is to multiply human suffering and corrupt all that is good and pure and true in the human spirit. He appears to
Moctezuma
when the Mexica emperor is in trance states induced by his frequent consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms. A tempter and a manipulator, Hummingbird deliberately stokes the flames of the conflict between the Mexica and the Spaniards, and ultimately backs the Spaniards because he knows they will make life in Mexico even worse than it has been under the Mexica. It is a historical fact that within fifty years of the Spanish conquest, the indigenous population of Mexico had been reduced through war, famine and introduced diseases from thirty million to just one million.

Saint Peter
, patron saint of Hernán Cortés. As a child, Cortés suffered an episode of severe fever that brought him close to death. His nurse, María de Esteban, prayed to Saint Peter for his salvation and the young Cortés miraculously recovered. Ever afterwards, Cortés felt he enjoyed a special relationship with this saint and believed he was guided by him in all the great and terrible episodes of his adult life. Like Moctezuma, Cortés encounters Saint Peter in visionary states – in his case, dreams.

Quetzalcoatl
, ‘The Plumed Serpent’, the god of peace of ancient Central America. Described as white-skinned and bearded, an age-old prophecy said he had been expelled from Mexico by the forces of evil at some time in remote prehistory, but that he would return in the year
1-Acatl
(‘One-Reed’), in ships that ‘moved by themselves without paddles’ to overthrow a wicked king, abolish the bloody rituals of human sacrifice and restore justice. And as it happened, the year 1519 in our calendar, when Cortés landed in the Yucatán in sailing ships that ‘moved by themselves without paddles’, was indeed the year One-Reed in the Mexica calendar. Whether this was pure chance or whether some inscrutable design might have been at work,
Malinal
would eventually teach
Cortés
how to exploit the myth of Quetzalcoatl. What followed was a ruthless and spectacularly successful campaign to dominate Moctezuma psychologically long before the Spaniards faced him in battle.

Whether in some mysterious sense real, as I rather suspect, or whether only imagined by Moctezuma and Cortés, Hummingbird and Saint Peter played pivotal roles as agents of mischief in the events of the conquest, while the prophecy of the return of Quetzalcoatl was equally fundamental.

Secondary Spanish characters who appear frequently in the story

Melchior
. An African, aged about sixteen. Formerly a slave. Freed by Hernán Cortés and now his manservant. Becomes Pepillo’s close friend and ally.

Diego de Velázquez
. Age, fifty-five. Governor of Cuba. Appoints Hernán Cortés to be captain-general of the expedition to Mexico (which he has jointly financed), but has a change of heart and plots to remove Cortés before the fleet departs from Santiago and to replace him with Pánfilo de Narváez, a man he can manipulate more easily.

Zemudio
. Expert swordsman and bodyguard to Diego de Velázquez.

García Brabo
. Age, forty. Tough sergeant who leads a squad of men dedicated to Hernán Cortés. He does Cortés’s dirty work whenever required.

The Velazquistas
. The name Cortés gives to senior figures on the expedition to Mexico who remain loyal to his enemy and rival Diego de Velázquez, the governor of Cuba. Cortés must either bribe, manipulate, or force members of the Velázquez faction to change sides. They include
Juan Escudero
(ringleader of the Velazquistas),
Juan Velázquez de Léon
, cousin of Diego de Velázquez,
Francisco de Montejo, Diego de Ordaz
and
Cristóbal de Olid
.

Significant allies of Cortés on the expedition
. In addition to
Pedro de Alvarado
(POV character number 7) Cortés can rely on
Alonso Hernández Puertocarrero
and
Juan de Escalante
. An additional figure,
Alonso Davila
, is at least neutral; he does not like Cortés but he does not like Diego de Velázquez either.

Alonso de La Serna and Francisco Mibiercas
. Soldiers on the expedition. Friends of Bernal Díaz (POV character number 10).

Dr La Peña
. Doctor hired by Diego de Velázquez to drug and kidnap Cortés. Instead Cortés captures La Peña and kidnaps him to serve as the expedition’s doctor.

Antón de Alaminos
. Pilot and chief navigator of Cortés’s fleet.

Nuno Guiterrez
. Sailor.

Father Bartolomé de Olmedo
. Mercedarian Friar, a gentle, good-hearted man who participates in the expedition to Mexico. Opposed to forced conversions.

Jerónimo de Aguilar
. Spanish castaway in the Yucatán. Spent eight years as a slave amongst the Maya and became fluent in their language. Rescued by a squad sent by Cortés and led by Sandoval, Aguilar joins the expedition and becomes Cortés’s first interpreter and, later, Malinal’s rival for this role.

Francisco de Mesa
. Cortés’s chief of artillery.

Diego de Godoy
. Notary of the expedition.

Telmo Vendabal
. Keeper of the expedition’s pack of one hundred ferocious war dogs.

Secondary Mexica, Tlascalan and Mayan characters who appear frequently or have prominence in the story

Coyotl
. Little boy, six years old, castrated in infancy. Held in women’s fattening pen with Tozi and Malinal awaiting sacrifice. Protégé of Tozi.

Ahuizotl
. High priest of the Mexica and devotee of the war god Hummingbird.

Namacuix
. Deputy high priest of the Mexica.

Cuitláhauc
. Age, forty-eight. Younger brother of Moctezuma and father of
Guatemoc
(POV character number 6).

Coaxoch
. Age late forties, holds title of ‘Snake Woman’. Second most senior Mexica lord after Moctezuma himself, and the most important general in the Mexica army. We meet Coaxoch leading a massive force of thirty-two thousand men into Tlascala to snatch victims for human sacrifice. This is the force that
Shikotenka
(POV character number 5) plans to destroy.

Mahuizoh
and
Iccauhtli
. Eldest and youngest of Coaxoch’s sons. All four are generals in the Mexica army, but appointed above their skills through nepotism.

Acolmiztli
,
Chipahua
,
Tree
,
Etzli
,
Ilhuicamina
. Commanders in
Shikotenka’s
squad of
Tlascalan
warriors whom we meet as they are about to mount an attack on Coaxoch.

Tochtli
, ‘Rabbit’ (
Shikotenka’s
cousin). Also in the squad that will attack
Coaxoch
.

Shikotenka the Elder
. Civil king of the Tlascalans (
Shikotenka
, his son, is the battle-king).

Maxixcatzin
. Deputy to both
Shikotenka
and
Shikotenka the Elder
.

Huicton
. A spy working to destroy
Moctezuma
. Huicton is in his sixties and passes unnoticed through the streets of Tenochtitlan disguised as an elderly blind beggar. However, he is not blind. He is the mentor and protector of
Tozi
(POV character number 1).