[Aztec 04] - Tribute of Death by Simon Levack

Author:Simon Levack [Levack, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, History
ISBN: 9781847997449
Google: lu4GAwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1847997449
Barnesnoble: 1847997449
Goodreads: 2338541
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2007-05-14T23:00:00+00:00

As I walked back along the canal towards Handy’s house, I felt extraordinarily weary. I found myself dragging my feet, scraping my heels on the hard earth of the path. It seemed that all the events that were happening around me – the mutilated body I had seen this afternoon, the monster that had pursued me in the night, the theft of Star’s body, Flower Gatherer’s disappearance, even in some way Star’s death – all had some connection with this feud between her husband and Red Macaw. I was filled with despair at the prospect of trying to unravel a secret that the people of Atlixo would not share, even with their parish policeman.

It was while I was wrestling with these thoughts, with my eyes downcast so as to avoid the reproachful glances of the people around me, that I met an old acquaintance: one I would happily have avoided if I had recognised him in time.

‘There he is!’

I looked up at the sound of a familiar voice. When I saw the face that went with it, my first thought was: ‘Oh no, not you again.’

It was the old man I had spoken to in the morning, who had urged Kite to lock me up or hand me over to the chief minister. However, I dismissed him from my thoughts the moment I saw who was with him.

The old man was holding a conversation with someone in a canoe. It was that person who had caught my attention. He was looking directly at me. His jaw dropped as he took in my appearance, but he recovered from his surprise quickly, and a moment later he was out of the canoe and striding along the canal towards me. His cloak – a three-captive warrior’s, like Red Macaw’s – flapped around him and his long hair bounced at his temples in time with his steps.

I stared at him, horrified and amazed. He was none other than my former master’s steward, Huitztic the Prick, the same man who had bullied and taunted me relentlessly during the years I had spent in lord Feathered in Black’s household.

He stopped a few paces away from where I stood. The old man he had been speaking to and a few others trailed diffidently behind him, halting a respectable distance away and trying to peer over his shoulder.

The steward stared at me. It seemed to take him a little while to find his voice. ‘Yaotl! What are you doing here?’

Having concluded that he had lied about the men who were meant to be protecting me, I had all but forgotten about my former master. The horror and terror I had experienced since the previous day had all but driven the chief minister and his servants from my mind. But it seemed he had remembered me. It had been inevitable that he would get to hear where I was, ever since I had returned to Atlixco that morning, and found myself the centre of attention. Now I was face-to-face with his steward and had to decide whether to cringe or to defy him.

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