“No, I’ve learned nothing from her—yet. It’s what I feel.”
“I should prefer something more solid, but I will heed your advice and keep watch on him. At present, I don’t think it crucial. He has disgraced himself, as I have, and will also need some time before attaining the respect of our influential lords.”
Tizoc felt his confidence returning as he spoke with Tlalalca, a quality she seemed to invoke through her presence, which he appreciated. He grew more assured he could regain the respect and trust of his ministers and people. It would be mostly a matter of ignoring the temporary denigration, generating a dynamism by expanding his construction projects and asserting his leadership, and pleasing the large caste of priests and their multiple cults by planning an impressive ceremony for the upcoming feast of Tlaloc—this he could accomplish with the sacrifice of Zozoltin and his Tolucans.
XV
Ahuitzotl met Pelaxilla at their favorite rendezvous point, the gardens behind the royal palace, in as joyful a reunion for two lovers as could be imagined, with smiles, laughter, and even tears of happiness streaming from Pelaxilla’s eyes as she was beside herself with rapture that he had safely returned. They smothered themselves in long affectionate embraces and tender caresses, and for Ahuitzotl these moments reinforced a deep felt yearning for comforts and pleasures only a woman loved could provide, verifying how empty his life was without Pelaxilla.
“How little you men understand,” Pelaxilla said, “what grief you bring to us when you go on your wars—the anxieties we endure over whether we shall ever see you again. Is this what our life together will be like?”
“The requirement exists,” he told her.
“Yes, I’ll have to accept that. At least you’ve come back to me.”
“So let’s enjoy our moments together. They are not that frequent and should be relished to the fullest.”
“The goddess Xochiquetzal will be envious.”
“Of me? You flatterer.”
“No, silly, of me,” Pelaxilla teased, “for the pleasures you give me.”
“See? You are a flatterer.”
They laughed and walked in the delight of each other’s company along the familiar footpath, but the merriment was short-lived as Pelaxilla could not hold back the question burning within her. “Will you do as you promised?” she asked. “Will you speak to Lord Tizoc?”
“I shall, however…”
In her excitement she did not allow him to finish, finding the prospect too stimulating, “It’s so thrilling. You and I together from now on—and this with but an approving nod from Lord Tizoc.”
Pelaxilla’s elation evaporated when she was suddenly saw he did not share it. “What is it?” she inquired, her demeanor turning somber.
“You interrupted me,” Ahuitzotl said, displaying some nervousness. “Lord Tizoc is not in the best of spirits at present. I don’t think he will be amenable to granting me any favors for awhile. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I must wait before speaking to him about you.”
“Oh, no!” Pelaxilla moaned, unrestrained in her disappointment. “No!”
“Please, Pelaxilla,” Ahuitzotl begged, “You know this is as painful to me as it is to you, but it’s unwise to ask him for anything now.”
“I can’t believe this! How long must I wait this time?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps another month.”
“This is incredible!”
“You’re angry with me,” Ahuitzotl reacted to her indignation with some acrimony of his own. “That’s unfair to me, especially when I have our welfare at heart. If I were to ask Tizoc for anything now, he would refuse me out of spite—things did not go well between us at Toluca.”
“What sort of duplicity is this? You are supposed to be the bravest of men, but are afraid to face your brother. Give me evidence of your boldness!”
“I’m doing what is prudent at this time.”
“Allowing a cowardly ruler to deprive us our happiness?”
“Cowardly? Then you know.”
“Everyone in Tenochtitlan knows. The rumors are rampant.”
“What do they say?”
“That your brother, our Revered Speaker Lord Tizoc, if he may still be called that, fled from the enemy to the disgrace of all who saw it.”
“Anything else? About me?”
“Yes, I’ve also heard that you threatened Lord Tizoc.”
At first Ahuitzotl eyed Pelaxilla in utter amazement, then his demeanor turned to anger. “You knew this,” he glowered, “and yet you insisted I should confront him and ask for a favor.”
“Because I thought you had a higher regard for our happiness and deemed the risk worth taking. Evidently I was wrong.”
“I swear there are times I think I hardly know you. Beneath that lovely face of yours lurks a deviousness I find dismaying. All this time I believed you were sincerely distraught, you were merely exercising your pretensions over me. Isn’t that so?”
“Only partly,” she admitted, worried about how he might react. “I was very despondent on hearing of more delays. Those were my true emotions. I could not have feigned the disappointment I felt. How can it be that this weak brother of yours should stand between our being together?”
“This ‘weak brother’ of mine happens to be the Revered Speaker, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“He certainly did not act the part in Toluca, did he?”
Until this moment, Ahuitzotl had no idea that Pelaxilla held Tizoc in such low esteem and this revelation did not please him. Tizoc was still a royal lord and, while it may have been acceptable for him and the ministers to find fault with their monarch, for a mistress, whose dealings with Tizoc were of a personal nature rather than an official one, to declare him in contempt was quite another matter. Ahuitzotl’s own hostility for Tizoc was centered on the ineffective manner in which he ruled the state and a bitterness over not having been bestowed the throne himself, and as far as knew, Cihuacoatl’s animosity was based upon his legitimate concerns over the realm weakening under Tizoc. These were justifiable reasons for despising Tizoc, but to resent him and ridicule him out of mere personal dislike, such as Pelaxilla seemed to do, was distasteful to Ahuitzotl; it had a jaundiced aspect to it which he thought offensive. Tizoc did not deserve this kind of deprecation over his personal qualities, for he was essentially a good man—he was just not a good ruler. It troubled him that the woman he so loved should possess such negative notions.
“That does not change anything,” Ahuitzotl finally replied.
“I think it should,” she countered.
“Of course it should,” Ahuitzotl’s ire mounted, “but Tizoc rules—for life! We are all his subjects. Demean his character all you want—I’ll still have to go to him.”
“But you won’t!”
“Did I say I won’t?”
“You keep putting it off!”
“All right!” Ahuitzotl shouted, “All right! It’s against my better judgment, but if it means so much to you, then—very well!—I’ll see him about this tomorrow.”
“Please don’t be upset with me,” Pelaxilla pleaded. “It’s because of my love for you that I’m unable to wait any longer. I should not be castigated for this.”
“It will be a mistake,” Ahuitzotl said, still feeling uneasy.
Pelaxilla found his recalcitrance