Chapter Two: PRINCESS

Chapter Two: PRINCESS

Malinali giggled. It was the kind of squeal and squeak that only a little girl who is deliriously happy can have. She was hiding behind a curtain in her father’s palace.

“Ixkakuk! Ixkakuk!” her father called out, using his nickname for her, meaning Beautiful Goddess. “Where are you? I can’t find you!” He crept up to the curtain. “But when I do, I’m going to?” he grabbed the bulge in the curtain? “tickle you to death!”

The little girl’s shrieks of mirth rang through the palace. King Teteotcingo released his grip, and Malinali raced away across the throne room laughing and yelling, her father chasing after her. The uproar reached the ears of Malinali’s mother, Queen Cimatl, in an adjoining chamber attended by her courtiers. She sighed disapprovingly. “You would think the King would have more important matters of state to attend to than to play with little girls.”

Malinali was just about to be captured by her father when an old dignified woman entered the throne room. “Malinali,” she called, “it is time for your lessons.”

The King looked down at his child. “Go with Grandmother Ciuacoatl, Ixkakuk. Mother, what will she be studying today?”

“What all young girls should be learning – cooking, sewing, learning to run a household,” came Ciuacoatl’s answer.

“A household?! Mother, Malinali is my only child. She must be raised not to run a household, but a kingdom! One day she will be Queen of Paynala, the most powerful kingdom in Cuatzacualco!”

“Teaching her how to be a good queen is your job,” Ciuacoatl smoothly informed her son. “My job is to teach her how to be a good wife and mother.” With that remonstration, she took little Malinali by the hand and led her out of the room. As she was doing so, in walked Queen Cimatl.

“And just how do you think a woman is going rule Paynala, my King?” she inquired. “It’s a man’s job? isn’t it? Especially when it comes to dealing with our Aztec masters.”

“Don’t you dare give me that innocent smirk, Cimatl,” Teteotcingo riposted. “If you think you know a woman’s place so well, then I would advise you to behave that way. You may run along now and focus on your queenly duties.” The King nodded to an attendant who very courteously escorted Cimatl out of the room.

* * * * *

As the years passed, Teteotcingo spent more and more time with Malinali, teaching her oratory and developing her speaking skills, as well as the arts of reasoned argument and persuasion. His favorite place to do so was underneath a large tree by a stream that ran near the palace. “A ruler must lead his people by the force of his words and his mind,” he explained. “He cannot lead by his muscles alone.” He curled up and flexed his arm. Malinali squeezed the huge bicep admiringly. “Well, it does help for a ruler to be strong,” he smiled. “But to be strong in here?” he pointed to his chest? “and here?” he pointed to his head? “that is more important – and will most especially be for you.”

“Tahtli (father), what can we do about the Aztecs?” she asked.

Her father stiffened. “The Aztecs are monsters from hell,” he pronounced. “They were a tribe of savages from the northern deserts not long ago. They hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers for kingdoms around the Mesheeka Valley — mesheeka is a weed that grows in the valley’s Lake Texcoco, and is what the Aztecs call themselves.

“When they got strong enough, they conquered those same kingdoms and began building an empire. Now their empire has grown far beyond the Mesheeka Valley. They conquered Paynala and all of Cuatzacualco when my father was young. Every month now their tax-men come to collect our food, our riches – and our men for sacrifice. As I said, child, they have built a huge and wealthy empire, but one that is evil to the core, and someday if the gods permit, we will be rid of it.”

“Do I have to learn Aztec Nahuatl, father?” she asked plaintively.

“Yes you do, Little Miss Dry Grass” — Malinali meant “dry grass,” and was the name of the winter month in which she was born (1) — was the answer. “Our dialect of Nahuatl is different from theirs. Few things will be more important for you as Queen to be eloquent in the language of our oppressors. So let’s get back to studying your pictograms.” (2)

* * * * *

By the time Malinali was 12, it was obvious she was going to become an exceedingly beautiful woman. Tall for her age, she stood erect with a royal bearing. She remained playful and unpretentious, however, teasing her grandmother and purposely mixing up the ingredients during her lessons in herbal medicine to drug unsuspecting Ciuacoatl fast asleep so she could run off and explore the forest unattended.

Teteotcingo was concerned that his daughter know how to fight, so he gave her lessons in handling a copper-tipped lance and a wooden obsidian-edged sword, the latter so sharp it could slice off an opponent’s head or arm in one swing. As Teteotcingo parried his daughter’s thrusts during a practice session, he smiled proudly. “You are getting strong, Ixkakuk! That’s right – harder, faster!”

Suddenly, the King dropped to his knees and grasped his chest. He looked up at his daughter bewildered and gasped for breath. Malinali screamed – “Tahtli! Tahtli! What’s happening??”

The King rasped, “Get your grandmother?” They were the last words Malinali would hear her father say. By the time she brought Ciuacoatl, accompanied by court physicians, to where her father lay, it was too late. The King was dead – and Malinali’s childhood was over. Life for the Princess was about to take a very bad turn.

Notes:
(1). December, 1500.
(2). The Aztecs’ form of written communication was a highly accurate and detailed picture-drawing.

On July 29, 2005, we initiated the serialization of a novel I am writing entitled The Jade Steps.

The Jade Steps has a two-fold purpose. The first is to tell Malinali’s story, as fascinating as it is unknown. The second is to bring peace to the civil war raging in the soul of Mexico. I hope you all enjoy it. — JW