Naamah's Blessing
“Young and terrified. No one consulted her or asked for her permission in this bargain, and the Emperor’s senior wives had filled her head with terrible tales of the strangers across the sea and their depravities. For all I know, half of them were true.” He shrugged. “I didn’t lay a hand on her, Moirin.”
I was glad.
And I felt guilty for it.
Bao looked sideways at me. “And how was the Emperor?”
I glanced at the palanquin, noting that several bags of the
cacao
beans that served as currency in the Nahuatl Empire had been added to it. “Generous.”
“So he ought to be.” Bao pressed a kiss against my hair, silently absolving me. “Shall we return to our companions?”
I nodded. “Yes, please.”
Once again, I travelled across Tenochtitlan in a palanquin. This time, it was different. There was a quiet respect in the Nahuatl gazes that followed our progress; and whether it was due to the honor Achcuatli had accorded me, or the salve my actions had spread on their pride, I could not say.
In the ceremonial square, I asked Lord Cuixtli to halt before the great temple dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. My bearers lowered the palanquin, and I disembarked. Beneath the bright blue sky, I gazed upward at the towering twin staircases, faint traces of blood rusty in the creases where the stones were joined.
I stared at the hollow-eyed skulls in the
tzompantli
, trying to envision a sea of cut flowers. The skulls stared back at me, jaws parted in mockery, teeth bared in an eternal cheerful grin.
I touched one, feeling the smooth, sun-warmed bone beneath my fingers. “Greet the sky and live, blossom.”
“Moirin?” Bao gave me an inquiring look.
I shook my head. “I am trying to understand, that’s all.”
He frowned at the
tzompantli
. “Why? I do not think the Nahautl would celebrate death so if they had endured it.”
I touched his cheek, feeling warm, living skin. All too well, I remembered Bao’s death and rebirth. “The Emperor said somewhat to me before I left that made me think. And I believe we may have need of understanding before this is done, my magpie.”
“A vision?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Only a feeling.”
Bao sighed, rolling his shoulders. “Moirin, I will be glad when this is done, and we can get down to the business of making fat babies.”
I smiled. “So will I.”
Our journey across the long causeway to the Aragonian fortress on the distant shore was an uneventful one; but on the far side of the lake, the reception we found among the Aragonians was markedly unpleasant.
It was a dreadful scene.
“Whore!” Diego Ortiz y Ramos spat the word at me as soon as I stepped from the palanquin. The guards had spotted our approach from the watch-towers and the commander was awaiting us in the square, his cheeks flushed and hectic with color, the point of his neatly trimmed beard quivering with indignation. “You lied!”
I felt an answering flush of anger rise. “No, my lord,” I said in a precise tone. “I did
not
lie. If you and your men had not offended the Emperor, I would not have been driven to make the bargain I did.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?” He pointed a finger at me. “Half-breed or no, you D’Angelines are all alike with your filthy morals, your filthy gods, and your filthy ways! You came here with every intention of using sex—”
Without warning, Bao swung his staff, connecting hard with the Aragonian commander’s steel helmet. There was a dull ringing clang, as though he’d struck a defective bell. The fellow gaped at him in disbelief, wobbling on his feet. Knowing Bao, I guessed he’d used exactly the amount of force he intended to rattle the man without knocking him down.
It happened so fast, the Aragonian guards stood staring for several seconds before drawing steel. Lord Cuixtli gave a sharp command, and the Nahuatl warriors took offensive stances and raised their studded clubs. There were only six of them, but they represented an entire empire.
Balthasar Shahrizai arrived at a run, followed by most of our company. Sizing up the situation at a glance, he ordered them to stand down.
Bao ignored them all. “Apologize,” he said in a flat tone.
The commander looked blankly at him, one hand on his helmet as though he wasn’t sure what had struck him. “Are you mad? I’d be within my rights to put you in chains for assaulting a commanding—”
“You will apologize to my
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