Empire of the Skull

by Philip Caveney

  Chicahua studied her thoughtfully. 'You are pretty,' he said at last.

  Conchita didn't reply. She just glared back at him as if he'd said she was the ugliest creature he'd ever set eyes on.

  'But she looks cross,' added Tepin warily. 'You don't want another cross wife, brother. Remember that other one you had?'

  Chicahua nodded. He looked at Alec. 'I had to get rid of her,' he said.

  Alec winced. He could only imagine what that meant, but he was pretty sure she hadn't been sent off to a nice hotel.

  Conchita looked at Alec. 'What are you doing here?' she asked him.

  'I . . . er . . . I'm telling the great emperor and his sister all about life in our world,' he said.

  'Yeah?' muttered Conchita. 'Well, maybe you could find out when they're going to let us get back to it.'

  Chicahua laughed. 'But you are going nowhere,' he said. 'You my wife now, your place here.'

  Conchita shook her head. 'I'm not being funny, Chicasaw, or whatever your name is, but when it comes to men, I look for somebody a little more mature – you know what I mean?'

  Alec nearly buried his face in his hands.

  'You funny,' Chicahua said. 'I think we will get on well.'

  Tepin didn't seem quite as impressed. 'She does not seem to respect you, brother,' she said. 'Perhaps you should have her beaten.'

  'Beaten?' gasped Conchita; her eyes seemed to be daring the young emperor to even try such a thing.

  Chicahua waved a hand in dismissal. 'It is no matter. She will need to get used to our ways.' He looked at Conchita. 'Now you will dance for me.'

  Her jaw dropped in astonishment. 'Dance?' she cried.

  'All his wives dance for him,' said Tepin. 'It is Aztec way. You will do this or you will be beaten.' She clapped her hands and shouted something in Nahuatl.

  Alec could see that Conchita was about to hit the roof, so he quickly got up. 'Great Emperor,' he said, 'your new wife is . . . unfamiliar with the Aztec ways. If I might be allowed to have a quick word with her?'

  Chicahua shrugged his plump shoulders and Alec hurried across to Conchita. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her over to the other side of the room.

  'Hey, whaddya doing?' she protested, but Alec ignored her.

  'Listen,' he said quietly. 'You have to do this. It may be humiliating, but that boy over there has the power to have us all killed just by clicking his fingers.'

  Conchita glared back at him. 'But I will feel stupid,' she said.

  'Better that than being dead. What do you suppose happened to that cross wife he was talking about?'

  Conchita's eyes widened in realization. 'Oh,' she said.

  A small group of musicians was trooping into the room, carrying a selection of exotic-looking instruments. Conchita looked at them blankly. 'But I don't know how to—'

  'Conchita, just imagine that the emperor is whatsisname. Louis B. Mayer. Think of this as your screen test!'

  'But—'

  'You know how to dance, don't you? Didn't Frank say he first saw you in a musical revue?'

  'Sure, but . . .' She looked at the musicians, who were now settling themselves down on the floor. 'Do they look like they know the music of Irving Berlin?' she asked him.

  'No, but you'll just have to improvise.' He gazed at her intently. 'Please, Conchita, I'm begging you. All our lives might depend on this dance.'

  'Oh, so no pressure then,' she said flatly.

  Alec went back to his couch, hoping against hope that he'd managed to get through to her. Conchita turned back to face the emperor. He clapped his hands once and the musicians started to play a weird composition, consisting of a lively drum beat with pan pipes and ocarinas. It didn't sound like anything that Alec had ever heard before, and certainly nothing like Irving Berlin.

  Conchita closed her eyes for a moment. She seemed to be concentrating, and for a very long time she didn't move so much as a muscle. Alec glanced nervously at Chicahua and saw that he was frowning. But then Conchita began to move, swinging her arms, undulating this way and that across the floor. They were the kind of steps you might expect to see in any modern musical revue, but set against the wild cacophony that accompanied her they looked positively surreal. However, Conchita seemed to grow in confidence, adapting the moves to suit the unfamiliar beat. Just when it seemed it couldn't get any more bizarre, she began to sing.

  'Welcome to Acapulco

  Your playground in the sun.

  Come and join us, on the beaches

  And we'll have a lot of fun!

  We'll go swimming in the ocean

  We'll go dancing every night

  To the sounds of Latin Salsa

  Everything will be all right.

  Acapulco! Acapulco!

  Your playground in the sun!

  Come and join us, come and join us

  And we'll have a lot of fun!'

  Chicahua looked at the baffled expression on Alec's face; he could only smile back desperately.

  'A traditional song from our world, your highness,' he shouted, over the fearsome racket of the musicians. 'Especially in your honour.'

  'Ah!' Chicahua nodded and seemed perfectly happy. He and Tepin began to clap along to the music, while Conchita whirled backwards and forwards, singing her heart out. It struck Alec that though he had experienced some strange events in Egypt, nothing that had happened to him there quite compared to this.

  Back in their cell, Ethan, Coates and the others were unable to settle. The sky they could see through the grille above them had darkened and the first stars were out. Most of them were sitting on their bunks, but sleep seemed a million miles away. Coates was worried about Alec, and Frank was equally concerned about Conchita. But whereas the valet was able to keep his troubles to himself, Frank was more vocal. He strode up and down the room, complaining to anybody who would listen.

  'It ain't right,' he kept saying. 'You can't just take somebody against their will and marry them off to some little kid.'

  'They can do whatever they want,' Ethan told him. 'They're the ones with the knives and spears.'

  'But that don't make it right. She must be terrified. God only knows what those savages are putting her through.'

  'Will you shut up?' growled Nelson ungraciously. ' That woman is most likely living in the lap of luxury now. She's got it easy. She isn't the one with a death sentence hanging over her.'

  Frank glared at him. 'Oh, that's you all over, isn't it?' he said. 'Don't care nothin' about nobody 'cept yourself.'

  'Yeah, I look out for number one,' admitted Nelson. 'Always have, always will. That's how I got where I am today.'

  'Stuck in a cell,' observed Coates. 'Nice work, Mr Nelson. You'll excuse me if I don't applaud. And let's not forget that Master Alec is out there too. And if it hadn't been for him, we'd probably all be history by now.'

  Nelson shrugged. 'The kid's plucky, I'll give him that. Reminds me of myself at that age.'

  Luis gave him a look of disbelief. 'You are kidding, I hope. That boy's got more to him than you'll ever have. I figure you've always been what you are now. A user.'

  Nelson studied Luis contemptuously. 'Oh, so you've finally plucked up the courage to say something, have you? I thought maybe you'd realized that nobody here gives a tinker's cuss what you think.'

  'I tell you what I think,' said Luis calmly. 'I think there's a way out of here and we should be spending our time trying to find it.'

  'Amen to that,' said Ethan. 'Here's how I figure it. Supposing a couple of us pretend to have a fight? The guards rush in here to break it up, we overpower them and make a run for it.'

  'And go where, exactly?' asked Coates. 'We're in a city in the middle of a jungle – there'd be nowhere to run to.'

  Ethan turned to look at him. 'On the way here we passed a river,' he said. 'There were canoes moored by a jetty. We'd grab ourselves a couple of those and take off downstream. Of course, we'd have to locate Alec and Conchita first – there's no way we'd leave them behi
nd. But all rivers lead eventually to the sea, and there'll be villages near the coast. Friendly ones. We'd just have to make it to one of them.'

  Nelson stretched out his arms. 'Oh, so easy!' he exclaimed. 'Yeah, just the small matter of paddling a boat several hundred miles. Should be a piece of cake!'

  Ethan sighed. 'You got a better idea, I'd love to hear it.'

  'Yeah, I got one,' said Nelson. 'These people speak English, don't they?'

  'Some of 'em do,' agreed Frank.

  'So then, they can be bargained with. Every civilization, no matter how primitive, understands the principles of business. Back in Veracruz I have millions of dollars at my disposal. Millions! We just get them to name their price to let us go. I can arrange to have the money brought here and—'

  Luis laughed in disbelief. 'You think these people care about your stinking money?' he cried. 'They are planning to send us to their god, Señor Nelson. It may surprise you to know that their religion has nothing to do with commerce. And besides, what good would money do them, way out here? There's no shops for them to spend it in. No Macy's, no Sears, no ice-cold Coca-Cola!'

  'It doesn't have to be money!' protested Nelson. 'Gold! Bars of gold. Everybody understands gold. Or we could offer them trinkets – bracelets, necklaces; anything they want, I can get it for them!'

  Luis shook his head. 'I don't know who is more pathetic. You for saying such stupid things or us for even listening to you!'

  The colour seemed to drain out of Nelson's face. Suddenly he leaped off his bunk and flung himself at the Mexican, slamming him against the wall. Luis struggled to escape but Nelson's hands were clamped tight around his throat, trying to throttle the life out of him. There was a moment's hesitation from everyone else and then a mad scramble to try and pull the two men apart. It took some time to disentangle them. In the midst of it all, Ethan looked hopefully towards the door, expecting a guard to rush in to see what all the commotion was, but nobody did. It seemed as if their captors were quite happy to let them fight amongst themselves.

  'So much for that theory,' he muttered. He flung Nelson onto his own bunk, while Coates and Frank settled Luis back onto his. 'Nice of you boys to try and cause a diversion,' he said sarcastically.

  The two men sat glowering at each other in mutual hatred.

  'If we ever get out of this, I'm going to fix you good,' said Nelson.

  'You are welcome to try,' said Luis quietly.

  In the following silence the sound of the door opening made everybody sit up and take notice. Alec stepped into the room and the door was slammed and bolted behind him.

  'Master Alec,' said Coates. 'Thank goodness you're all right. Did anybody try to harm you?'

  'No, I'm fine,' Alec assured him. 'Really. I've been spending time with Chicahua and his sister. Luckily they seem to like me.'

  'Oh, they like you,' said Nelson. 'We're all thrilled to hear that.'

  Ethan shot him a look. 'Button it,' he said. 'Or you and me are gonna be slugging it out.'

  'Did you see anything of Conchita?' asked Frank anxiously.

  'Er . . . yes, don't worry, she's doing fine.'

  'Where exactly did you see her?' persisted Frank.

  'In the emperor's palace. She was . . . er . . . singing and dancing.'

  'She was what?' asked Ethan incredulously.

  'She was doing excerpts from Welcome to Acapulco,' said Alec. 'It was, er . . . well, you had to be there.'

  'You see,' said Nelson bitterly. 'I knew that one would land on her feet. We're stuck here on death row and she's living the life of Riley. I guess we can forget about getting any help from her.'

  Frank looked at him. 'I'm just goin' to ignore that,' he said.

  'Too right,' said Ethan, looking sternly around at his companions. 'The way I figure it, we've already lost one day, and if we carry on fighting and bickering amongst ourselves, we'll have no chance of getting out of here.'

  'So what is your plan?' asked Luis.

  'I already told you my plan,' said Ethan. 'OK, it's not great, but the way I see it, we've got two more days to figure out a better one.'

  Everybody considered this in silence for a moment.

  Ethan gave Alec a grim look. 'Don't worry, kid,' he said. 'We'll think of something.'

  Everyone moved back to their bunks and sat down.

  'We don't know for sure we've only got two more days,' said Alec hopefully. 'I think Chicahua likes me. Maybe I could persuade him to spare us.'

  Coates frowned. 'It's certainly an idea, Master Alec. But from what I've seen, that high priest is the real power behind the throne. And he seems determined to get his hands on us one way or another. I'm not sure how long a young boy like Chicahua can stand up to somebody like Itztli. I fear he was just putting off the inevitable.'

  Alec frowned. He lay down on his bunk and thought about trying to get some sleep. But sleep seemed a million miles away.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Big Match

  Alec woke to the sound of the cell door opening. Early morning sunlight was pouring in through the bars above him. Sitting up, he saw that several armed guards, led by Tlaloc, had entered the room. For a moment he felt totally disorientated. The last thing he remembered was being unable to sleep, so exactly how and when had he drifted off ? Panic flared in the pit of his stomach as he looked at the stern faces of the Aztecs. He wondered if Chicahua's decision had been overturned and they faced death earlier than the appointed time; but Tlaloc simply beckoned to Alec. He got obediently to his feet.

  'Where are you taking him?' demanded Coates, starting to get up, but one of the warriors held a spear to his chest, forcing him back.

  'He . . . go . . . Chicahua,' said Tlaloc, speaking the words with great care.

  Alec felt a sense of relief wash over him. The boy emperor was no doubt eager to hear more about the wonders of the modern world. He smiled reassuringly at the others.

  'Put in a good word for us, kid,' said Ethan as he left the room.

  'I will!' Alec shouted back. He followed Tlaloc along the whitewashed corridor, noting that there were only a couple of guards minding the cell door, and then they emerged in the main plaza. He looked apprehensively at the step pyramid but it seemed reassuringly deserted today. They crossed the plaza, heading for the royal palace. Two heavily armed jaguar warriors stood on either side of the entrance, but they simply nodded to Tlaloc and allowed them through. Finally they came to the room where Conchita had entertained them the day before, and found Chicahua, Tepin and Travers eating what looked like an enormous breakfast. The three of them were being waited on by some of Chicahua's wives, but Conchita was not among them. As usual, two more guards stood near the table, keeping an eye on their emperor. Tlaloc bowed to Chicahua and then left the room.

  The boy looked up and grinned delightedly, his chin sticky with grease. 'Good morning, Al-eck!' he said. 'Come, you must be hungry, eat with us.'

  Alec approached the table, realizing as he did so that he was starving. He had to admit that some of the many platters did look enticing. He took a seat opposite Travers and surveyed the food with interest.

  'Help yourself,' said Tepin. 'Just use your fingers.'

  Alec selected a corn pancake filled with red beans and began to bite into it hungrily.

  'Did you sleep well?' Travers asked him.

  Alec gave him a cool look. 'As well as might be expected for somebody who has only a short time to live,' he said bitterly.

  Travers shook his head. 'You should not think of it as an end,' he said, 'but a beginning. It is a great honour to be sent to the realm of Mictlan.'

  Alec swallowed his mouthful. 'You'll forgive me if I don't get too excited about it,' he said. He looked at Chicahua. 'You know, your majesty, I have so much more to tell you about the world beyond Colotlán. I . . . I'm not sure that I will have time to tell you everything.'

  Chicahua looked thoughtful. 'Well, you must tell me what you can in the time you have,' he said.

  This
was not the answer Alec had been hoping for. 'But surely there's some way we could . . . extend the deadline?'

  Chicahua looked puzzled. 'I do not understand,' he said.

  'I think he is asking for more time,' said Tepin.

  'Yes. I mean, couldn't we put off the sacrifice for a few more days?'

  Chicahua looked at Travers but the old man shook his head.

  'You don't know what you are asking,' he said. 'Chicahua has already angered Itztli by making him wait three days.'

  'But . . . just exactly who is emperor here?' demanded Alec. 'When all is said and done, Itztli is just a . . . a priest!'

  Travers smiled. 'To say such a thing proves that you do not understand the Aztec way of life. In our world, priests are all-powerful. They speak with the gods; they are our guides to their ways. It does not do to anger a priest, especially one as powerful as Itztli. Any Aztec would tell you the same.'

  Alec snorted. 'But you're not an Aztec.'

  Travers looked irritated by the remark. 'Of course I am,' he snapped.

  'No. You're just a . . . a tourist. Pretending to be like these people. I notice you managed to evade the knife.'

  'Ah, but I would have accepted it gladly if that had been the decision.'

  'Oh yes, I'm sure!'

  Travers sighed. He looked at Alec sadly. 'I understand it must seem cruel and unjust to one such as yourself. It is not the way of your people. But you wandered into this place—'

  'Hardly! We were captured and brought here against our will. That's not the same thing at all.'

  Travers made a dismissive gesture. 'I am not going to argue with you,' he said. 'I have advised Chicahua not to put off Itztli any longer.' He glanced sternly at Chicahua. 'I hope that he will take my advice. Now it is for you to spend what time you have wisely.' He made an effort to calm down. 'Actually, we have a little surprise for you. Something we think you may enjoy.' He got up from the table. 'In fact, I must go and prepare myself. I will leave Chicahua to tell you about it,' he finished, and left the room.