CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AMBROSE LEBRUN was pressing his signet ring into the wax seals on the last message scrolls as Clarence helped him into his jacket.
“Your travel kit is already on board, sir. You can refresh your makeup once in flight.”
“Of course, our makeup must be perfect in the face of disaster.”
“We are Egyptians, sir.”
LeBrun smoothed his collar and buttoned the jacket. “We are, Clarence.” He put the seal into its pouch and slipped that into an inner pocket. “No word from Cornelius?”
“No.”
“Let us hope he survived the battle at Ollantaytambo.”
Clarence gathered up the scrolls, piling them carefully on the silver tray. “Fly high, sir,” he said quietly as LeBrun picked up his walking stick and gloves from the desk.
LeBrun strode away, pulling on his gloves.
Clarence took a deep breath to steady his hands, then hurried out to the aviary. Golden censers looked surprised without their veil of sacred smoke, and the silence in the empty halls filled him with dismay.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
USQHULLU DID not appear until mid-dinner, and she did not come in to join them.
Oken noted the marked change in her appearance, a simple cotton dress with the house hold emblem on sky blue. She looked as magnificent as ever, but something in her was different, calmer.
Usqhullu explained that General Blestyak was resting from the wounds he sustained in the battle at the Qurikancha. “He is a remarkable warrior.”
Natyra laughed fondly. “He is also as thickheaded as a stone wall!”
Usqhullu looked at Natyra with a mysterious smile. “He is. Has he always been so?”
Natyra shrugged eloquently, and the two women smiled at one another.
“How severely was he wounded?” Viracocha was once more sleekly attired in a silk suit, his hair oiled and sleek, his makeup impeccable. The deprivations of the last days showed only in the looser fit of his elegant clothes. His posture, his stance, showed he had accepted and understood the role thrust upon him.
“Not so much as he would wish to brag about,” His sister said.
Her quietly spoken words to her brother revealed much: “My husband-to-be has a request of you, a request of the Inca, actually.”
Natyra said nothing, smiling around at the men as she took in their surprised looks.
“Really, Hulla,” Viracocha said. “So quickly?”
The merriment shining in the princess’s eyes told much of the story. Usqhullu smiled at her brother without answering, then shrugged. “I am no less impetuous than you.”
Viracocha stood up from the table put his arms out to her, and brother and sister hugged. He kissed her forehead fondly and said, “What does your next husband request of Inca?”
“Sanctuary.”
“Sanctuary? From whom?”
“Victoria.”
“This queen has much to answer for. Why does he need sanctuary from her?”
“He has been loyal to her and a spy for her most of his life. I told him he had to choose between her and me.” Pride and happiness glowed in her face. “I won.”
She and Natyra looked at one another with the eternal understanding of women, as Usqhullu said to Viracocha, “It is important to him that he ask you in person.”
“Of course.”
She turned to the rest of the men. “I think having you gentlemen as witness will reassure him.”
The men agreed.
Usqhullu thanked her brother with a quick kiss and went out, returning a few minutes later with Blestyak, who was wrapped in one of Prince Viracocha’s crimson robes. Without his uniform, he was quite changed, as though he had shaped himself within its confines and was only just released. His great bulk was the same, but the stolid, untouchable uprightness of the man had crumbled. He leaned against Usqhullu like an old man. The paleness of his face made his blond hair and mustache as bright as gold. He lookedat the floor, , unable to meet anyone’s eye.
Usqhullu led him to Viracocha, who spoke first. “I am in your debt, my friend. You were wounded in our defense. I thank you from my heart for keeping my lady safe.”
Blestyak was taken aback by this, and he glanced around anxiously at the other men, then at Viracocha, and at last found his courage to speak. “Glorious One, I beg sanctuary of you, that I might remain here within the safety of your empire.” His voice was breathy and weak.
Viracocha’s voice was genuine, enfolding the man in front of him with his warmth. “My friend, on one condition—my future brother-in-law must never again call me ‘Glorious One’! You are welcome here.”
As though this had taken his last strength, Blestyak sagged against Usqhullu. “Thank you!” he whispered; then he coughed, gasping.
“Back to bed, my love,” Usqhullu said to him. “Now.”
Oken was too fascinated by this turn of events to pass up the opportunity to observe more, so he stepped forward and gently took Blestyak’s other arm, to help support him. The man looked at him with bleak dismay.
Oken said, “Let me help, General Blestyak.”
Blestyak nodded, and they took him back to his room. His room was Usqhullu’s room, her bed, his bed. The sleek opulence of the suite spoke eloquently of her style and sensibility. It also made clear her love of horses. How fitting, Oken thought, for now she had an officer of the Czar’s stables.
Blestyak sat down on the bed and thanked them with breathy words.
Oken stood back, observing the gentle way that Usqhullu held a glass of water out for him, watching him while he drank it, then helped him to settle back against the pillows. She smoothed his hair with her palm, smiling down at him. He took her hands in his and kissed her fingers and her palms, then lay back with a sigh and closed his eyes. She kissed his forehead. “Sleep now, my love. The healer will check on you in a moment.”
Usqhullu took Oken’s hand and led him out. Once in the corridor, she said, “He was struck in the chest by a spear. His lung was damaged, but not punctured. He will recover with rest.”
“Not so much as he would brag about,” Oken said, repeating her words. “The general is a very lucky man.”
“He is a most beautiful creature!” Usqhullu whispered happily, “And he is all the more beautiful to me for being a wounded creature. I will have much more fun with him than I did with my first husband.” She winked at Oken. “Someday I’ll tell you that story!”
“I look forward to it, my lady.”
Usqhullu considered him with that clear-eyed expression of intense regard he had seen on several women’s faces in the New World. “The general told me about how he met you.” She touched the scar on Oken’s cheek with a warm fingertip. “This is from him?”
Oken nodded.
“Natyra came here to follow you?”
Oken shook his head, a smile touching his lips. “To run away from me,” he said solemnly. “I am trouble, or so she told me.”
Usqhullu nodded, also smiling. “You are, the finest kind. Did you know that I shall be Natyra’s lady-in-waiting, when Lucky is Inca. Isn’t that wonderful? I know all the names—and all the secrets!”
Oken was surprised by the delight with which she announced this. “You are the daughter of Inca, my lady Wildcat!” he said in protest. “Surely, lady-in-waiting is too simple a title for you?”
The expression on her warm, lovely face was one of those great rewards for Oken’s gift of memory, an expression to keep and to savor. “Oh, my!” she said merrily. “There will be nothing simple about the way I play that game!” She sighed happily and took his arm, leading him back to the dinner around the table of the moss agate landscape. She was humming softly to herself, a tune of hoofbeats and wings.
CHAPTER THIRTY- FOUR
AMBASSADOR AMBROSE LeBrun arrived in a sleek, official Quetzal, a little black crow that driftedup to his mooring post alongside Mixcomitl’s giant gilded condor. Mr. Qusmi escorted LeBrun to the breakfast room,
to join Prince Viracocha and the rest at their meal.
Neither the brilliant, sunlit room with its view of the mountains nor the sunny delights of Mama Kusay’s remarkable food could brighten the dark news LeBrun had come to tell them.
“On the morning of the Tlachtli games, Pachacuti sent orders to his men in every major city—foreigners in the empire are to be seized, and executed.” LeBrun kept running his hands through his hair, as though smoothing it could smooth his distress. “The embassy at Chan Chan is under siege, and there is fighting in the streets. Pachacuti’s soldiers are on the highways, and we cannot contact them to change their orders.”
Viracocha pushed his breakfast plate aside, his eyes sharply focused on LeBrun’s familiar face. “I must stop this.”
“The embassy has initiated full evacuation across the country,” LeBrun said. “Every Quetzal we can commandeer is in flight, to get people to safety, but thousands are in danger. This will become a massacre of Egyptians if we cannot stop Pachacuti’s men.”
“They’re soldiers,” Natyra said with an offhand shrug. “Change their orders.”
Oken immediately liked her suggestion and spoke up in support. “ ‘From the top to the tip of the country,’ remember?” he said to Viracocha. “You’ve got the fastest ship in the fleet— and you’re in charge now, like it or not.”
Viracocha nodded thoughtfully. “Mixcomitl and I can change their orders. Yes, I must do that— at once.”
He looked at Natyra, and his face changed; his eyes took on a different kind of sharpness, a greater light. “You will come with me?” he said to her.
“Of course, I will—my wardrobe is still in Qusqo.” She laughed, and kissed his cheek. “We have to impress the troops, don’t we?”
Oken could well imagine the effect. The combination of golden Mixcomitl with Natyra’s instinct for dramatics and Viracocha’s powerful voice, trained by the wind, would have just the right impact.
“From what you told us about the imperial troops,” Mabruke said to Viracocha, “They should find it all quite romantic, don’t you think.”
“Indeed!” Viracocha said. “Romantic. Yes, Mixcomitl and I will talk to them,” he said. “That is the Egyptian way, isn’t it?”
“That’s right,” LeBrun said. “The talk-to-me nation. Conversation is more enduring than battle.”
Captain Hanaq Pacha folded his napkin, set it aside, and stood from the table. “I will begin flight preparations at once, Glorious One.” He bowed to his prince. Viracocha nodded agreement, and Hanaq Pacha left.
Runa watched him go, her brow furrowed in thought; then she ran after him.
“We will have a conversation about a new treaty between Tawantinsuyu and Egypt when I return,” Viracocha said to the ambassador as he rose to his feet. “Nothing like the old.”
Ambassador LeBrun was greatly cheered by this announcement. “Actually, we could talk on board Mixcomitl, if you wish.”
LeBrun suggested to Zaydane and Mabruke that they should take his embassy Quetzal to Port Zulia, and return to Memphis from there. “The Pharaoh and the Queen must learn of these developments before the story hits the international newspapers,” he said to them.
“I do not want you to leave,” Viracocha said to Oken and Mabruke. “But Egypt needs you more than I do. Ambrose is here to guide me.”
He put his hand out to Natyra. “And you, to guide me,” he said to her. “You are an empress now.”
“Yes.” Natyra took Viracocha’s hand, drawing herself up gracefully beside him.
“I would say, then, that you are in good hands,” Mabruke said to Viracocha and Natyra, blessing the couple with his radiant smile.
“I do not kiss you good-bye,” Natrya said to Oken. “We did that before. I kiss you the next time we say hello.”
Oken bowed his head to her in ac knowledgment; then the new Inca and his empress left, to save their country from further bloodshed. Ambassador LeBrun and his assistant followed them out.
“We can go as soon as our luggage is on board the embassy Quetzal,” Oken said.
Mabruke looked down at the dishes on the table, lovingly prepared by Mama Kusay, and sighed with dismay. “Can we finish eating first?”
EPILOGUE
IHHUIPAPALOTL LEANED forward, perched tautly on the edge of his seat. The haeka-glass wall was the only bright light in the control room. A double row of gauges and toggles on the control panel readouts flickered softly in the shadows behind him. He was totally focused on the view in the glass, a wide expanseof red desert soil, packed hard and baking in the African heat. At the far edge of the field was a black-charred gantry, a ceramic and steel tower. Resting inside the webwork of the gantry stood a proud, shining arrow-shape, a single design- gesture of Egyptian engineering and New World ingenuity, a vision of pure eagerness for flight.
The Sun himself seemed entranced by the importance of the moment, watching from the sky. Ignition was called, and great jets of fire poured out of the rocket’s engines, powered by the same noxious brew that burned in Mama Kusay’s ovens, grown in swampy vats of compost. Vapor poured away from the gantry and out across the hard desert.
Ihhuipapalotl could not breathe. The silver, shining Moon-rocket hung impossibly still over the billows of flame, then shot skyward. The brighter light of the upper air made the entire rocket glow like gold; then it was gone, vanished in the heavens, a white line of vapor marking its clean ascent.
The cheers were deafening then, men and women dancing wildly about, and laughing, crying, giddy with relief and joy, a dozen languages shouting happily together.
Ihhuipapalotl sat very still, gazing at the white trail piercing the sky. Quietly, he whispered to the soul of his poor old Inca, Osiris Yupanqui, whose lifelong dream of reaching the Moon had been perverted by his mad son. Yupanqui’s dream was, at last, a reality.
“This launch, Glorious One, did not fail.”
Pronunciation Guide
Aklya Kono (Ak-LEE-yah KOH-noh) Quechua for “Virgins of the Sun.” Vestal Virgins of Tawantinsuyu.
Blestyak (Blest-YAK) General Vladimir Modestovich Blestyak of the horse-guardsmen from Rusland.
Chocolatl (Chock- LOT’l) Quechua for the hot cocoa drink native to the southern continent of the New World.
Hanaq Pacha (Hah- NOCKPah-CHAH) Quechua for “The highest, watery heavens above.”
Hara’wi (Hah-rah-WEE) Quechua for “Sacred music.”
Hukuchasatil (Hoo-koo-chah- SAH-teel) Quechua for “Mouse Face.” Commander of Pachacuti’s private guard.
Ihhuipapalotl (Ih-HWEE-pahpah- lotl) “Feathery-Winged Butterfly.” High Priest of Qurikancha Temple Complex.
Ka Egyptian concept of the outer persona, character, charisma, reputation—you as only others can know you. (As contrasted to ba, your point-of-view on reality, your experience of yourself. Ka is outer; ba is inner.)
Kuchillu (Koo-CHEEL-loo) Quechua for “Slashes with a Knife.” Childhood name of Pachacuti.
Mabruke (Mah- BROO-kay) Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke, professor of alchemy, and board member of the Guild of Pharaoh’s Special Investigators.
Mama Kuna Quechua for the guardian “house mother” of the Aklya Kono.
Mama Kusay (MAH-maKoo-SAY) Quechua for “Queen of Chefs.” The head of the Queen Mother’s kitchens.
Maracuyá (Mar-ah-KOY-ah) Quechua for “passion fruit.”
Mixcomitl (Meesch- kohMEET’l) Quechua for “Cloud Vessel.” Flagship of the Imperial Quetzal fleet, and Prince Viracocha’s private transport.
Natyra Arkadyena Solovyova (Nah-TEAR-ahAr-kad-YAIN-ah Soh-LOV-yo-vah) Dancer from Novgorod, a celebrity known around Europe.
Nayture (Nature) Egyptian name for the eternal forces, the gods and goddesses, divinity.
Oken (OAK-en) Lord Scott Oken, fourth son of the Spate Arch of Mercia, Britannic Isles. He is a trained memoryman, and personal assistant to Professor-Prince Mabruke.
Ollantaytambo (Oh-lahn- tay-TAHM-boh) “The Resort Palace of Ollantay.” Valley
of the Imperial Palace, formal residence of the Inca and his Inheritor, as well as his concubines and guests.
Pachacuti (Patch-ah- KOO-tee) Quechua name of the current Inheritor of Tawantinsuyu.
Pachamama (Patch-ah-MAH-mah) Quechua for “Mother Earth.” The dimension of space/time.
Pharoman (FAIR-roh- man) Generic for the Egyptian Empire founded by Pharaoh Gaius Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra.
Ptah- Sokar (p’TAH Soh-KAR) Egyptian divinity of the art of the tomb and the silence of the grave.
Quillabamba (Kweel-ah-BAHM-bah) Quechua for “City of the Eternal Summer.” Home of the Queen Mother’s estate, as well as the non-inheriting offspring of the Inca.
Qurikancha (Kwoor-ee- KAHN-cha) Quechua for “The Temple of the Sun.”
Qusmi (KWOOZ-mee) Quechua for “Smoke.” The Queen Mother’s butler.
Qusqo (KOOZ-koh) Quechua for “The Navel of the World.” Mercantile capital of Tawantinsuyu.
Quy (Koo- EE) Quechua for guinea pigs. “Wheek” is the sound they make when excited.
Quyllur Misi (QWEE-lur MEESee) Quechua “Star of the Cat.”
Ra (RAY, as in “ray of light.”) Egyptian divinity of conscious self- awareness, the eternal source of all consciousness. Ra is the Sun in your mind, lighting your internal world.
Rawray unquy qura (RAW-ray oonk-kwee KOOR-rah) Quechua for “fever herb.”
Rimaykullayki (Ree-may-kool- LAY-kee) Quechua for “Greetings.”
Ripuy (Ree- POO-wee) Quechua for “Go now!”
Sakhmetical (Sakh-METI-kall) Egyptian medicine, from Sakhmet, goddess of the healing arts (together with Isis and Thoth).
Satiltzoj (Zah-TEELT-zoj) Quiche for “Face of the Bat.” Current President of the United States of Maya Land.
Sobak (SOE-bock) Egyptian god of the neurochemistry of the human unconscious.
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