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Prologue

“We fear our Gods!” Our ninth Revered Speaker, Motecuhzoma—to you Lord Moctezuma—is said to have told his captor, the conqueror Cortez. And indeed he was sincere in his convictions. Even as a young man Motecuhzoma took his religious studies very seriously and early in life formulated strong views in this regard. He was particularly seduced with a notion of the God Quetzalcoatl returning, as promised, to Anahuac in the year One Reed—within his own lifetime—of whose eventuality he needed no pursuasion. But mainly his proclivity was a result of experiences and observations met during the reign of his noteworthy predecessor, the great warrior-king, Ahuitzotl—Water Dog—which infused in him the dreadful trepidations leading to his inevitable ruin when confronted by the foreign invader.

The punishment that our Gods inflicted upon Lord Ahuitzotl is spoken of to this day. That fierce warlord’s rise to predominance and then the horrid wretchedness of his last days—the ignominy of it—pitiless and cruel—this to the mightiest monarch ever to rule in Tenochtitlan! He was the very embodiment of power and resolution, courageous and resourceful, supreme master on the battlefield, but oh, the humiliation. Truly he was humbled. And Motecuhzoma was there to see it all; he was justified in declaring his conviction, for he had borne witness to its veracity.

But had he? Some say that Motecuhzoma erred in large measure over how he interpreted the misfortunes that befell his illustrious fore-bearer, a serious mistake leading him to his own calamitous end years later. His was, when everything is taken into account, but one of many depictions rendered for those astonishing events forever associated with Lord Ahuitzotl. Although of royalty, he was not among the elite circle of Ahuitzotl’s inner court, being too young at the time and often involved in priestly and military duties that kept him at distance from the politics of the realm. Insiders to the royal household have given us a different narration of his reign—of how Lord Ahuitzotl generated into motion the events commonly accepted to be the orchestrations of angry Gods. They have spoken of how he was, for the most part, responsible for his own fall, and much of it had to do with his impassioned love of a woman.

Let us turn the pages forward and learn of the truths behind the transpired events that so profoundly affected a youthful Motecuhzoma as revealed to us by the All-Seeing, All-Knowing, Eternal Lord of the Night Sky, first among the Gods, Tezcatlipoca. By the new calendar imposed upon us, the year is 1486. Ahuitzotl is not yet the monarch. It is his younger brother, Tizoc, who sits on the throne—to the discontent of many, including members of the Council of Speakers, the Tlatoani, who appointed him to rule.

-A priest of Tezcatlipoca circa 1524 A.D.