Doctor Who: The Aztecs (2 page)

The Doctor was still marching up and down muttering to himself when a warrior came into the antechamber and beckoned them to follow him up the candle-lit stairs to the temple. Once there, the warrior drew back the brocade curtain and stood to one side to let them pass. The temple had been transformed. The entire back wall, behind which was Yetaxa’s tomb, had been covered with a clear sea-blue curtain filigreed in gold and silver threads with fish, sea-shells and crabs, symbols of Tlaloc, the God of Water. In front of the curtain was a stone dais studded with pieces of jade, turquoise and emerald. On the dais stood a golden throne whose delicately worked trellis back was surmounted by a golden eagle with a coiled snake held in its beak. But the most remarkable transformation of all was Barbara. She was seated on the throne, dressed in a knee-length silk skirt patterned with multicoloured zig-zags. Her green lace blouse was decorated with sheaves of corn and leaves woven in gold thread. Around her waist she wore a leather belt with an emerald buckle. Her necklace was jade, as were the bracelets she wore on her left arm; on her right wrist she wore the coiled snake from Yetaxa’s tomb and she held a posy of flowers. Her head-dress was a gold crown decked with brilliantly coloured plumes, and her sandals were laced with gold thread. The Doctor, Susan and Ian gaped at her in astonishment.

Barbara glanced at the warrior who stood beside the brocade curtain. ‘Leave us’ she commanded.

The warrior bowed and withdrew from the temple. ‘Barbara, what on earth are you doing there?’ Ian’s voice echoed his incredulity.

Barbara leaned her right elbow on the arm of the throne, held up her hand and shook her wrist, the posy and the snake.

‘They think I’m the reincarnation of the High Priest in the tomb.’

‘Because you had put on the bracelet and were caught wearing it by the High Priest of Knowledge,’ the Doctor concluded for her.

‘That’s correct, Doctor,’ said Barbara. ‘Autloc knew that I had come out of Yetaxa’s tomb.’

Susan looked puzzled. ‘But if Yetaxa was a man; she asked, ‘how can they believe you area reincarnation of him?’

‘The form his spirit takes isn’t important to them, Susan.’ Barbara pointed to the bracelet. ‘This is what counted.’

‘Autloc called at Yetaxa’s servants,’ Ian said. ‘Is that who they think we are — your servants?’

Barbara nodded apologetically.

‘Charming!’ the Doctor snorted.

Barbara turned to him. ‘But it’s ideal, Doctor. We can enter the tomb as soon as we like, get into the TARDIS and be on our way.’

The Doctor drily observed that although reincarnations could come out of the tomb, human beings couldn’t go into one.

‘You’re a god, Barbara,’ Ian said with a smile. ‘Find out how it opens.’

Barbara replied that she would ask, but the Doctor tut-tutted testily.

‘That’s the one thing you must not do.’ His voice was severe. ‘As Yetaxa’s spirit, you’ll be expected to know everything. But if you go around asking questions and the Aztecs were to decide that you’re not whom they think you are,’ the Doctor paused for effect, ‘then we won’t last long.’ The Doctor sighed and walked around the throne. Susan and Ian didn’t move. They all realised there was an impenetrable wall between them and the solution to their problem.

The two High Priests came into the temple and bowed to Barbara.

‘Great spirit of Yetaxa’ Tlotoxl said, ‘the High Priest of Sacrifice salutes you.’

The Doctor and Ian exchanged a glance.

‘I acknowledge the High Priest’s greeting,’ Barbara replied.

Autloc approached the throne, ‘For many days and many nights Tlaloc has looked away from us,’ he began, but Barbara interrupted him.

‘The God of Water and Vegetation?’

Autloc nodded. ‘Our land withers and the people groan’

Tlotoxl limped closer to Barbara. ‘Those who serve the temple have prayed that the land may again be bountified; he said, ‘and this day we shall honour ‘Galoc’s

‘When the sun’s fire touches the horizon to the west, the people will stand before the temple in obedience to our commands,’ said Autloc and bowed again. ‘We humbly beg you, Great Spirit, at that time, to show yourself before the people so that they may know their suffering draws to an end.’

The Doctor leant over to Ian and muttered gleefully that Barbara would appear and down would come the rain.

‘How can he be so sure?’ Ian asked out of the corner of his mouth.

‘He’s not the High Priest of Knowledge for nothing, Chesterton’ the Doctor replied.

Tlotoxl was watching them.

I shall do as the High Priest requests,’ Barbara said. ‘We also entreat you, Great Spirit, to permit your handmaiden and servants to perambulate among our people,’ Autloc continued.

The Doctor saw the flicker of doubt in Barbara’s eyes. He stepped forward.

‘Great Spirit, grant this request.’ He pointed to Ian and himself. ‘Thus may we be your eyes and ears and learn how best to serve all our interests.’

The aged servant of Yetaxa speaks with wisdom,’ Autloc remarked, looking at the Doctor with interest. The Doctor bristled. Aged indeed, he thought. Barbara pointed to Susan. ‘My handmaiden remains with me.’ She waved her hand at Ian and the Doctor.’But they may do as you request.’

The High Priests bowed again to Barbara, then Autloc turned to Ian and the Doctor. ‘We shall await you; he said, and they left the temple.

Once they had disappeared behind the curtain, the Doctor rubbed his hands in delight.

‘A beautiful performance, my dear,’ he enthused. ‘We’ve got exactly what we want. You and Susan here in perfect safety, Chesterton and myself out and about, trying to find a way to get back behind that wall, into the TARDIS and off.’

Ian wasn’t convinced.’It sounds all right,’ he said, ‘but I don’t think we should take our eyes off those two High Priests for a second.’

‘Don’t worry about them, Chesterton,’ the Doctor replied airily, ‘they’ll be too busy timing their miracle.’ ‘What miracle?’ Susan asked.

The Doctor turned to her.’Presenting the great Spirit of Yetaxa to the people, one second before there is a flash of lightning, a clap of thunder and it buckets down.’

‘I still don’t see how they can be as accurate as that,’ Ian said, shaking his head.

The Doctor wagged a forefinger at him.’Yea mustn’t underestimate the Aztecs, Chesterton. They were a very civilised, cultured people.’

‘Not were — are, as far as we are concerned,’ Ian interjected.

The Doctor cleared his throat. ‘They know all about about astronomy and the constellations, each of which has its own minor god; their agricultural policies and practices are centuries ahead of their time; and look at the workmanship on Barbara’s throne,’ he pointed dramatically to it. ‘A very advanced people, apart from one or two glaring shortcomings.’

‘Such as cutting out people’s hearts, or chucking them off the temple steps,’ Susan suggested.

The Doctor dismissed her with a look. ‘I was talking scientifically,’ he said haughtily, ‘for example, they don’t know about the wheel.’

The two High Priests waited for Ian and the Doctor in the antechamber below the temple. Autloc was studying his posy of flowers whilst Tlotoxl toyed with the obsidian knife he had extracted from under his priest’s robe.

‘Autloc, who serves Yetaxa?’ he asked suddenly. ‘We do, as High Prists of the temple,’ Autloc replied.

‘What purpose then serve the others?’

‘Yetaxa has said that the..’

Before Autloc had finished speaking, Tlotoxl pointed the knife at him and asked if it would not be better that one of the strangers should lead their force of arms. ‘Yetaxa’s young servant should enjoy this honour. A warrior favoured by the Gods.’

Autloc considered this proposal for a moment, trying to guess what Tlotoxl’s ulterior motive might be. ‘But Ixta is our chosen warrior,’ he replied finally.

Tlotoxl limped over to Autloc’s side. ‘Let Ixta prove himself more worthy of command than the servant of Yetaxa,’ he murmured, touching the tip of the knife with his finger.

But were the servant to lose the contest, it would bring down Yetaxa’s wrath upon us, Autloc countered. Tlotoxl almost smiled as he hinted that Yetaxa would ensure that no harm came to her servant, as the Gods were all-powerful.

Autloc was disquieted and tugged at a petal of a flower as he wondered again what Tlotoxl’s purpose was.

The Doctor and Ian entered the antechamber.

Tlotoxl sheathed the obsidian knife. ‘It has been decided the aged servant may walk abroad,’ he announced, ‘but you,’ he said, turning to Ian, ‘will train to command our armies.’

Ian and the Doctor looked anxiously at one another. Don’t argue, said the look on the Doctor’s face.

‘The Great Spirit of Yetaxa would not deny me such an honour,’ Ian replied.

Tlotoxl turned to Autloc and asked him to conduct the Doctor to the garden at the base of the temple. ‘There you may sit in comfort with others of advanced years,’ he added to an inwardly fuming Doctor, whom Autloc beckoned to follow him down the flights of stairs that would lead them to the ground level of the pyramid.

Then Tlotoxl pointed to the jug of wine and one of the goblets. Ian shook his head, but the High Priest picked up the jug, filled a goblet and drank the wine in a single draught. He put the goblet back on the table and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his robe. He looked at Ian for a few seconds with his intense, dark eyes.

‘Come now with me to the barracks,’ he said, ‘where you shall encounter Ixta’

‘Ixta? Is that someone’s name?’ Ian asked.

‘Yes. He is your rival for command,’ Tlotoxl replied and limped towards the stairs.

Considerably taken aback, Ian followed, rather wishing he had accepted the proffered glass of wine.

The Doctor was slightly out of breath when he and Autloc came out of the temple. He looked up at the pyramid towering above him and recalled Susan’s remark concerning the faster way down and decided he was more than content to pant a bit. Autloc led the way to the high-walled garden behind the temple. In one wall was a wooden door which Autloc opened and let the two of them into the garden. It was enormous and beautifully laid out. The inside of the walls was trellised and covered with the rose and purple hues of bougainvillea vines. In the centre of the garden was a lake with an island of multicoloured rocks in the middle. A mosaic path encircled thc lake, with small paths radiating from it to the walls, and another three concentric paths cut the garden into segments, each one a trimmed lawn with beds of flowers and shrubs. There were stone benches along the edges of the lawns where older Aztecs sat. They bowed their heads respectfully to Autloc, looked curiously at the Doctor’s clothes and whispered amongst themselves.

The Doctor surveyed the scene around him. Colour abounded. ‘A pleasant venue for a reflective afternoon,’ he observed.

‘Many years ago, after the body of the High Priest Yetaxa was sealed in the tomb, a law was introduced that all who attain their fifty-second year should pleasurably pass the remainder of their years, free from responsibility and care,’ Autloc explained.

‘Highly commendable, but don’t they sometimes become bored?’

‘Often we seek the accumulated wisdom of their's ’

‘What about?’

‘All manner of things. Each person here served the community in one way or another.’ Autloc began pointing them out. ‘He was a weaver of priestly robes; she was a woman of medicines; he, an artisan of gold and silver; she, a sculptress in obsidian stone; and that man, a leading architect in the modernisation of our city.’

The Doctor noticed a grey-haired, pleasant-faced, plumpish woman in her mid fifties who was using a knife to prune a rose bush. ‘That lady was, and still is, a gardener, I take it?’ the Doctor asked.

Autloc laughed. ‘Cameca’s advice, of all those here, is the most sought after. She sold vegetables in the market-place but her eyes were everywhere, missing nothing. You will find in her a companion of great wit and interest,’ Autloc added.

‘What did you say she was called? Names have never been my forte’

‘Cameca,’ Autloc replied and begged the Doctor’s permission to return to the temple. The Doctor acquiesced and Autloc strode away.

‘Cameca, yes,’ the Doctor muttered to himself. He had already noticed her glancing furtively at him. He wandered along the path, holding a lapel of his jacket, and stopped beside her. Cameca concentrated on her pruning.

‘Despite the drought there is water for flowers’ he observed.

‘Better to go hungry than starve for beauty’ Cameca replied and snipped off two roses which she handed to the Doctor.

‘Thank you.’ He sniffed them appreciatively. ‘An aroma worthy of the gods.’ He looked around the garden. ‘Such a delightful place, this, though I imagine watering it must be quite a task.’

Cameca smiled. ‘There is a tunnel under the garden,’ she explained, ‘and from it are small pipes which lead to the lawns and flowerbeds.’ She pointed to a nozzle with a watering rose on it which stuck up just above the ground.’ Water from the city’s irrigation aqueducts fills a reservoir with a sluice-gate near the back wall. When the sluice-gate is opened the whole garden can be sprayed’ ‘How ingenious; the Doctor remarked as he sat down on a stone bench. ‘I find it so restful here,’ he said, ‘so very restful.’

‘It is the garden of peace.’

‘Aptly named’

‘The words of Chapal’

‘Chapal?’

‘He built the temple’

‘And set out the garden as well?’ But the Doctor’s mind was clicking over in another direction.

‘As a labour of love,’ Cameca replied.

‘One senses that immediately. Does he ever come here?’ The Doctor was all innocence.

‘He watches over the garden constantly.’

‘Really?’ the Doctor’s face lit up.

‘In spirit.’

The Doctor’s face fell.

‘As does his son,’ Cameca continued.

‘Dead as well.’ The Doctor was despondent.

‘His son’s son lives.’

The Doctor cheered up a mite. ‘He’s a builder?’ ‘No. A warrior.’

‘But perhaps he knows something of his grandfather’s work.’ The Doctor looked up at the pyramid. ‘I find the temple fascinating’ the interior, the steps, the stairs, the antechambers.’ He stopped short of mentioning the tomb.