Naamah's Blessing

ruler.
    Raphael de Mereliot was now the
Sapa Inca
of Tawantinsuyo. All that was left was the coronation ceremony.

SIXTY-NINE

    A fter consulting with the priests, Raphael declared that there should be a day of mourning before his coronation.
    I had a day to make a plan.
    One day.
    I cursed myself for telling Raphael to make haste. It was true, our food stores were dwindling at an alarming rate. If the ants had not feasted on the Quechua dead in and around the fortress, the situation would swiftly become dire. But a few days of hunger would have been a few more days in which to plan.
    Gods be thanked, the old high priestess Iniquill was a step ahead of me. On the eve of Raphael’s triumph, she summoned a council that included Ocllo, Cusi, Machasu, several other maidens I did not know by name, and me.
    “I have spoken with many of you these past days,” Iniquill announced. “And it is my belief that the time of the ancestors is upon us. The sacrifice must be offered.”
    Cusi nodded gravely, her pretty face luminous.
    “So we must find a way for the twice-born to take the place of the high priest Villac Umu,” the old priestess continued. “This I propose. The ceremony is to be held at dawn. I will inform Lord Pachacuti that the Maidens of the Sun will ensure the sacrifice is in place. At nightfall, a dozen of your men including the twice-born will escort the holy sacrifice Cusi to pass the night in prayer in the temple. I will send mymaidens to the temple quarters with many bowls of
chicha
, so that the priests may celebrate.” She glanced at Machasu, then me. “I am told you possess a drug that will not harm them?”
    “Aye, my lady,” I said.
    “Then an hour before dawn, your men will escort the sacrifice Cusi into the priests’ quarters. There they will administer the drug, and the twice-born will take Villac Umu’s place.”
    I frowned. “Will the priests not be suspicious? Raphael… Lord Pachacuti… keeps his countrymen as prisoners.”
    “The priests do not know this,” Iniquill said in a tranquil tone. “But I am told that the Nahuatl who fights among silver-clad warriors is an ally of yours. If he accompanies them, there will be no suspicion. Will he do so?”
    “I think so.”
    Her eyes glinted beneath wrinkled lids. “You must make it so!”
    I took a deep breath. “Then I shall.”
    “Good.” Iniquill gave an approving nod. “The Maidens of the Sun weave the wool of the
vicuña
for the garments of nobles. Tomorrow, we will provide you with fine clothing so that the priests do not doubt your men are in Lord Pachacuti’s favor.”
    “What of the ants that keep watch over my companions?” I asked. “They may not allow them to leave.”
    “I do not think they do so any longer, lady,” Machasu offered. “Lord Pachacuti has greater purposes for his black river now. They guard him and they keep anyone from leaving the city, but not from moving about within it.”
    “You’re right,” I said. “They do, don’t they? That was clever of you to notice.”
    Machasu flushed with pleasure. “Thank you, lady.”
    “So it is decided?” the high priestess Iniquill inquired.
    My palms were sweating, and I rubbed them on my knees. “It is a great deal to arrange in one day, my lady.”
    Her dark gaze was implacable. “I can give you no more aid than I have offered. If you are right, if we are all right and have read thesigns correctly, it shall be as the ancestors willed it. I suggest you make an offering to them tomorrow. If we are wrong…” Her age-hunched shoulders rose and fell. “I fear we shall pay the price, every last one of us.” Her gaze settled on Cusi, softening with compassion. “And for some, it will be terrible.”
    It was not exactly comforting.
    In the chamber I shared with Machasu and a handful of other maidens, I drifted in and out of another night of restless sleep, my mind sifting through the myriad details I must accomplish on the morrow. I tossed and turned on my narrow pallet, shifting my body this way and that in a quest for comfort, avoiding the thought that troubled me most.
    My oaths.
    In all this time, I had still not found a way to resolve that conflict—and I was fast running out of time.
    “You must gather stones from the river, Moirin,” Jehanne’s sweet, lilting voice informed me.
    I opened my eyes. “What?”
    She was perched on the edge of my pallet, her legs tucked beneath her. “Is that not how you discovered it was done? Warding a