Shadow of the Lords

by Simon Levack

  During most of the journey Crayfish was as silent as his cousin, staring morosely at the bottom of the canoe and seemingly becoming more withdrawn the closer we got to his home parish. Suddenly, however, he looked up.

  ‘Was it true, what that woman said – about Marigold lying to my uncle, and being involved in stealing the costume? Did she really only pretend to be Skinny’s friend so he would work harder, when all along she knew they were going to kill him?’

  I was on the point of saying I had no idea, but then I saw the boy’s expression. He was pleading with me, the way a captive might as he looked into the Fire Priest’s face, and the wrong word from me could be like the blow of the flint knife.

  Once again it was my son who answered for me while I struggled to come up with a reply. ‘No, of course not,’ Nimble said, leaning forward to lay a hand lightly on Crayfish’s arm. ‘She was too good for that, and too devoted to the gods to lie. Isn’t that right?’ The question was for me, and in his tone were both deference and defiance, as if he were daring me to contradict him.

  ‘That’s right.’ After all, I thought, it was not as if Marigold herself was ever likely to say anything to the contrary

  ‘And the baby?’ Lion asked. ‘Was it her husband’s, or the featherworker’s?’

  ‘Oh, I should think Butterfly told the truth about that,’ I said. However, as Crayfish relaxed, I found myself wondering whether she had or not. Poor old Skinny, I told myself, it wasn’t just your featherwork they took from you, was it?

  ‘You still haven’t told us’, Lion reminded me, ‘where the costume is. Nor, come to that, who killed Idle. You seem very sure it wasn’t Butterfly’

  ‘The costume’s in Amantlan, of course, where we’re going. But as for Butterfly killing Idle, remember they were lovers. Besides, she had the perfect alibi – me! She must have been with me when he was killed, although I couldn’t have sworn to it not all being a dream. But what clinched it for me, once I’d got my head back together, was the fact that she obviously thought Skinny was alive and well and roaming around dressed as the Feathered Serpent.

  ‘There was another thing I saw that I thought was a vision, you see: the god comes into the room and a woman tries to embrace him, and the god runs away. I had some idea that Quetzalcoatl was trying to avoid a repeat of what happened when Topiltzin was driven out of Tollan, all those bundles of years ago, but it was much simpler than that.

  ‘What I really saw was what I’d seen once before: a man dressed in the raiment of the god. Butterfly thought he was Idle, back from Angry’s house with the costume, which he would have worn partly to scare off inquisitive passers-by and partly out of vanity. But she was wrong. Idle was dead, and the person wearing the costume was his killer.’

  The canoes brought us to the bridge between Amantlan and Pochtlan, the bridge I knew so well, where I had seen Idle dressed as a god and found his brother’s body and been arrested. We leaped out of the canoes within plain sight of the parish’s temple, which made me nervous. I was urging Lion to get his men moving as quickly as he could when my son called out: ‘Who’s that?’

  Dodging the men scurrying around me, I followed his gaze, and let out a groan of despair.

  A lone man stood on the bridge. He started walking towards me as soon as I saw him, hailing me grimly. ‘Didn’t Howling Monkey once tell you you’d have your brains knocked out if you were ever seen in Pochtlan again?’

  ‘Hello, Shield,’ I said lightly. ‘I’m not in Pochtlan. I’m in Amantlan. Look, we don’t want any trouble …’

  ‘Who is he?’ my brother demanded tensely.

  ‘The local police.’ I looked at the newcomer uncertainly. His face was grey and drawn, as though he had not slept since the morning, two days before, when we had seen his colleague killed. I felt sorry for them both. They had only been doing their job. ‘Look, we can’t afford to waste any time. If he tries to detain us, your men will have to take him, but don’t hurt him any more than you have to.’

  ‘All right. You!’ Lion called out to the man stepping off the bridge. ‘We said we didn’t want trouble. Now just go home, like a good lad, eh?’

  Shield did not hesitate. He came straight towards me, even though I was now surrounded by armed soldiers, the smallest of whom stood a head taller than he did. ‘Yaotl,’ he began urgently, ‘I’ve got to tell you …’

  That was as far as he got before the flat of a sword fell on his head. His words tailed off into a moan, a sound as soft as a breeze through sedges, and he sank peacefully to the ground, smiling like an idiot.

  ‘There you are,’ said my brother proudly. ‘That wouldn’t have hurt a bit! Wonder what he wanted? Didn’t sound like he was about to arrest you, did it?’

  ‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘Let’s go!’

  As we entered the little sacred plaza of Amantlan, the parish priest, no doubt alerted by the unaccustomed sound of so many sandals clattering over the flagstones, came bustling out of his house. I was certain he did not recognize me, but his jaw dropped when he saw who I was with.

  ‘Grab him,’ I muttered to Lion, and before he could speak the man was seized and swept along by the advancing warriors like a piece of driftwood picked up by a wave. We surged forward to the base of the stumpy pyramid and on up its short flight of steps.

  Stammerer, the apprentice featherworker, stood at the summit, in front of the temple, holding his broom. At the sound of our approach he twisted his head around, so that he could watch us without turning his back on the idol at the top of the steps.

  He recognized Crayfish first. Angry’s nephew was just behind me. I saw shock register in Stammerer’s face, his eyes widening and his mouth opening in a gasp, and then his stare fixed on me.

  So much for my disguise. He knew me at once.

  He stepped past the idol into the doorway of his temple, turning as he did so and brandishing his broom over his head like a weapon. ‘Get … get … get out of here!’ he shouted. ‘This is a s-sacred place! Only priests …’

  I kept going until I stood one step below the top, and my eyes were level with the boy’s. ‘Forget it, lad. Look at all these warriors. If you break that thing over my head, what are you going to defend yourself with?’

  His eyes jerked left and right, as if looking for a means of escape, and then he took the obvious course and darted through the doorway.

  I made as if to follow, but something made my cloak twitch.

  I looked down. Crayfish was standing on the step below mine, plucking timidly at the edge of the cloth.

  ‘I was right, wasn’t I?’ I said. ‘Stammerer is the one you mentioned, your friend at the House of Tears.’

  ‘Let me talk to him,’ the boy offered. ‘It’s what you brought me here for, isn’t it?’

  I looked from his anxious, upturned face to the open doorway, and stepped aside.

  He did not go in, because the shrine was forbidden to all except the priests of Coyotl Inahual. He stood on the threshold, and spoke softly to the lad inside. I did not hear what passed between them, but after a few moments Crayfish turned to me and said: ‘It’s in there.’

  ‘I know.’

  It took some time for Stammerer to bring the raiment of Quetzalcoatl out into daylight. It came in many pieces, each wrapped in a cloth cover, and many of them were heavy.

  The youth laid them at my feet, like the king of a subject town presenting gifts to the Emperor’s tribute collectors. I waited until he had finished before kneeling and reverentially unwrapping just one item whose shape had caught my eye.

  As I peeled back its binding, the face of the god stared up at me. In the early afternoon sunlight every scale of its turquoise skin flashed, each one its own colour, some blue, some green, some almost black, each seemingly perfect and irreplaceable.

  ‘The serpent mask,’ I breathed. ‘And look at those feathers! Angry did a good repair job on his rival’s masterpiece … Skinny’s monument.’ And all that was left of him. It crossed my mind that perhaps it h
ad been all he really wanted.

  ‘How … how did you know?’ Stammerer asked.

  ‘Where else would it be?’ I stood up and turned, looking at the view I had taken in the last time I had been here: the houses of Amantlan and Pochtlan, and the canal that separated them, and the bridge across it.

  Lion and Nimble had joined us on the summit of the pyramid.

  ‘The night before last, when he came back,’ I continued, ‘were you waiting for him? Or was it a lucky chance?’

  ‘I … I … I guessed he’d be back,’ Stammerer mumbled. ‘I didn’t know when. I’ve spent every night up here, the last few nights, watching that canal, just in case. And then he came along, on the Amantlan side this time, but the same as before – st-strutting about in the raiment of the god like it was fancy dress!’

  ‘So what did you do – run straight down to the bridge and tell him to take it off? What happened then?’

  ‘I didn’t want to kill him!’ the youth cried. ‘He … he had a knife – one of those copper blades the featherworkers use – it was him or me! And it was an accident, anyway. He shouldn’ t have tried to f-fight in the costume. He lost his balance and hit his head on the side of the bridge.’

  ‘You pushed him in after you’d got the costume off him,’ I pointed out.

  ‘He’d profaned it! The god was angry with him. So was I. But I didn’t mean to kill him, I told you – I just kept hitting him until he fell off the bridge. I d-didn’t do it really – it was the god!’

  Montezuma’s words came back to me again. Idle had enjoyed parading around as a god, scaring people. This youth had really believed he would become the god, and be the instrument of his will, and in the end the featherworker’s brother had died as a result of an excess of piety.

  That was his story, anyway. Remembering what Idle had done, I decided it was good enough for me.

  ‘What made you go to the house in Atecocolecan?’ I asked.

  ‘I … I w-wanted to help Crayfish. He’d told me about his c-c-cousin, how she’d gone missing and how his uncle seemed to think her husband and B-Butterfly had something to do with it. I knew he’d been to the house to look for her. I’d been on the lookout for that man every night, and so I hadn’t been able to go myself …’

  ‘But now you had your chance, and thought you’d have a go at playing god yourself?’

  ‘It was d-different!’ the boy protested. ‘Can’t you see – Crayfish, you understand …’

  ‘It’s true,’ Angry’s nephew told me. ‘I did tell him all about Marigold.’

  ‘Oh, never mind,’ I said wearily. ‘Let’s just get this lot wrapped up and returned to the Emperor, shall we?’

  ‘Why did you cut his ropes?’ Nimble asked.

  ‘I thought I was going to find M-marigold. I found him instead, and I thought if Butterfly and Idle were holding him prisoner I should let him go. And then that w-w-woman …’

  ‘You really were re-enacting the story of Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl and his sister, weren’t you?’ I mused. ‘Only this time, you resisted.’

  5

  ‘What’s going on down there?’

  My brother was looking at the bridge, where we had left a couple of men standing over Shield. Some sort of commotion seemed to have started, and someone was shouting. It was hard to catch the words but it sounded like a warning.

  ‘Looks like the policeman’s coming round, that’s all. We’ll know in a moment – here comes one of your boys to tell us all about it!’

  As we watched the warrior racing towards us, Lion asked: ‘What now? I’ve got … let’s see, counting the parish priest down there and not counting Shield, five prisoners – what do you suggest I do with them all?’

  ‘Let them all go, of course.’

  Lion almost fell off the top of the pyramid. ‘Let them go?’ he spluttered. ‘Are you joking? We’re talking about two deaths, or is it three? One kidnapping, theft, blasphemy, and probably a whole load of other crimes there aren’t even words for, and you want me to let everybody go?’

  My brother was not stupid but he saw the world in very simple terms. I reminded myself that executing miscreants was one of his functions, and to him every crime was followed by retribution, as surely as night followed day. ‘Think about it, Lion. Who else would you have to arrest – Kindly, Lily, Nimble, me? We’re all caught up in this one way or another.’

  ‘Yes, I know, but …’

  ‘As for the theft – the stolen property is here. The Emperor will get it back, and as long as nobody blabs about it, no harm will have been done. Of course, it’s been handled a bit roughly and will need mending and checking over. Now who’s going to do that, with Skinny dead?’

  Lion said nothing. It was my son who volunteered the name: ‘Angry.’

  ‘Right. You want to punish him? Go back to Atecocolecan and look at him and his daughter, and ask yourself if there’s any need.’

  Lion sighed. ‘All right, point taken. But what about Stammerer here?’

  ‘He got the raiment of the god back for us, in the end, even if he didn’t mean to, and as for killing Idle – be honest, Lion, do you really care?’

  ‘I suppose you’re right,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘I’ll have to give the Emperor some sort of report, but it’s the costume he’s concerned about.’ He looked sternly at the two youths and the priest. ‘Just remember that none of this ever happened, do you understand? Your lives depend upon it! Now, what do you want?’

  The warrior bounding up the steps two or three at a time was almost black in the face with exertion and could scarcely draw enough breath to deliver his report. Fortunately, it was a very short report.

  ‘That policeman, sir – came round – wanted to warn your brother – his master’s at the merchant’s house! He’s got a bunch of Otomi warriors and they’re holding Kindly and Lily!’

  Shield met us on the bridge. He was rubbing his head as he fell into step beside my brother, my son and me.

  ‘Look, I’m sorry about this,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know.’

  ‘Forget it,’ he said roughly. ‘Compared to those animals, your brother’s boys are like wet-nurses.’ I had no need to ask what animals he meant: his frown, the set of his jaw and the way he spat the word out, as if it were snake venom sucked from a wound, were enough.

  ‘You’re sure old Black Feathers is there in person?’ my brother asked. ‘How many men has he got with him?’

  ‘Nothing happens in this parish without me knowing about it,’ the policeman assured us. ‘They turned up about midday – the Chief Minister, twenty Otomies and a priest.’

  ‘A priest?’ I asked. ‘Why would he have a priest with him?’

  ‘How should I know? He was a youngster, that’s all I can tell you. Looked as if he’d come straight from a vigil – he was still carrying a conch-shell around, like he hadn’t had time to put it away and wasn’t sure what to do with it.’

  ‘Idiot!’ I cried, slapping my own forehead. Now I knew why my master had been willing to give me only Handy as an escort, and why the young man my mother had hired to lead my family’s devotions had left in such a hurry.

  ‘Forget the priest,’ said my brother. ‘What about the Otomies?’

  ‘Like I said, twenty And don’t kid yourself that I might have made a mistake. I’m not likely to forget what that little squad of lunatics looks like – especially the big ugly one-eyed bastard in charge of them! Mostly they’re in the house. They’ve got a few posted outside as lookouts, and a couple of the others on the roof. They don’t take any trouble to keep out of sight.’

  Lion halted. ‘We need to work out how to play this,’ he said.

  His bodyguards drew up behind him as he looked at my son and me.

  I said: ‘It’s easy enough to see what the old man’s after. He wants me and Nimble. He probably hoped to catch us in Pochtlan. Now he’s got Kindly and Lily as hostages, and he’s just sitting there, waiting for us to come back.’ I turned to Upright. ‘How’s he going to g
et away with it, though? Surely the merchants won’t stand for this?’

  Tlatelolco’s merchants had their own laws and their own courts and policed their own affairs. They bitterly resented any interference from outside, and could afford to make their resentment felt – so long as they remained the Emperor’s obedient subjects and kept the Palace supplied with exotic foreign goods and intelligence from abroad.

  ‘They won’t,’ the policeman confirmed. ‘They’ll complain to the Governor, and he’ll complain to the Emperor, and your master will have to explain himself. He’s supposed to be the Chief Justice of Tenochtitlan, among other things, and we all know what happens to corrupt judges.’ Strangulation was the usual penalty.

  ‘Yes, I can just hear it,’ said my brother drily. ‘“All a silly misunderstanding. Just paying a call on some old friends. Of course I had my guards with me, I always do, I’m a great lord, what could be more natural?” No one will believe a word of it, of course, but it won’t matter if the right people get paid off. And by then it’ll be too late anyway. What do we do in the meantime?’

  ‘You mean, besides busting in there and freeing Lily and Kindly?’ It came out more sharply than I had intended. Nerves had added an edge to my voice. What was the captain doing now? I wondered. Was he content to squat in Lily’s courtyard and wait, or had he found some other, unspeakable way to pass the time? My teeth ground together in anger and frustration.

  Lion went pale. ‘Now listen, if you think I’m afraid of a bunch of thugs with silly haircuts …’

  ‘Relax,’ I said hastily. ‘I know you’re not. I only meant …’

  ‘We’ll go in,’ he went on, ignoring me, ‘but we need to know where they all are first. I’ll get a couple of lads to spy out the land.’ He looked at Shield. ‘How well can you see the house from the parish temple? I could send someone up there for a recce.’

  ‘No you won’t,’ I told him.

  He rounded on me. ‘Mind your own business! This is war, Yaotl, not some game you can win with a bit of luck and a fast mouth. Now leave it to me!’