Three Princes (31 page)

AMBASSADOR AMBROSE
LeBrun arrived in a sleek, official Quetzal, a little black crow that driftedup to his mooring post alongside Mixcomitl’s giant gilded condor. Mr. Qusmi escorted LeBrun to the breakfast room, to join Prince Viracocha and the rest at their meal.

Neither the brilliant, sunlit room with its view of the mountains nor the sunny delights of Mama Kusay’s remarkable food could brighten the dark news LeBrun had come to tell them.

“On the morning of the Tlachtli games, Pachacuti sent orders to his men in every major city—foreigners in the empire are to be seized, and executed.” LeBrun kept running his hands through his hair, as though smoothing it could smooth his distress. “The embassy at Chan Chan is under siege, and there is fighting in the streets. Pachacuti’s soldiers are on the highways, and we cannot contact them to change their orders.”

Viracocha pushed his breakfast plate aside, his eyes sharply focused on LeBrun’s familiar face. “I must stop this.”

“The embassy has initiated full evacuation across the country,” LeBrun said. “Every Quetzal we can commandeer is in flight, to get people to safety, but thousands are in danger. This will become a massacre of Egyptians if we cannot stop Pachacuti’s men.”

“They’re soldiers,” Natyra said with an offhand shrug. “Change their orders.”

Oken immediately liked her suggestion and spoke up in support. “ ‘From the top to the tip of the country,’ remember?” he said to Viracocha. “You’ve got the fastest ship in the fleet— and you’re in charge now, like it or not.”

Viracocha nodded thoughtfully. “Mixcomitl and I can change their orders. Yes, I must do that— at once.”

He looked at Natyra, and his face changed; his eyes took on a different kind of sharpness, a greater light. “You will come with me?” he said to her.

“Of course, I will—my wardrobe is still in Qusqo.” She laughed, and kissed his cheek. “We have to impress the troops, don’t we?”

Oken could well imagine the effect. The combination of golden Mixcomitl with Natyra’s instinct for dramatics and Viracocha’s powerful voice, trained by the wind, would have just the right impact.

“From what you told us about the imperial troops,” Mabruke said to Viracocha, “They should find it all quite romantic, don’t you think.”

“Indeed!” Viracocha said. “Romantic. Yes, Mixcomitl and I will talk to them,” he said. “That is the Egyptian way, isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” LeBrun said. “The talk-to-me nation. Conversation is more enduring than battle.”

Captain Hanaq Pacha folded his napkin, set it aside, and stood from the table. “I will begin flight preparations at once, Glorious One.” He bowed to his prince. Viracocha nodded agreement, and Hanaq Pacha left.

Runa watched him go, her brow furrowed in thought; then she ran after him.

“We will have a conversation about a new treaty between Tawantinsuyu and Egypt when I return,” Viracocha said to the ambassador as he rose to his feet. “Nothing like the old.”

Ambassador LeBrun was greatly cheered by this announcement. “Actually, we could talk on board Mixcomitl, if you wish.”

LeBrun suggested to Zaydane and Mabruke that they should take his embassy Quetzal to Port Zulia, and return to Memphis from there. “The Pharaoh and the Queen must learn of these developments before the story hits the international newspapers,” he said to them.

“I do not want you to leave,” Viracocha said to Oken and Mabruke. “But Egypt needs you more than I do. Ambrose is here to guide me.”

He put his hand out to Natyra. “And you, to guide me,” he said to her. “You are an empress now.”

“Yes.” Natyra took Viracocha’s hand, drawing herself up gracefully beside him.

“I would say, then, that you are in good hands,” Mabruke said to Viracocha and Natyra, blessing the couple with his radiant smile.

“I do not kiss you good-bye,” Natrya said to Oken. “We did that before. I kiss you the next time we say hello.”

Oken bowed his head to her in ac knowledgment; then the new Inca and his empress left, to save their country from further bloodshed. Ambassador LeBrun and his assistant followed them out.

“We can go as soon as our luggage is on board the embassy Quetzal,” Oken said.

Mabruke looked down at the dishes on the table, lovingly prepared by Mama Kusay, and sighed with dismay. “Can we finish eating first?”

IHHUIPAPALOTL LEANED
forward, perched tautly on the edge of his seat. The haeka-glass wall was the only bright light in the control room. A double row of gauges and toggles on the control panel readouts flickered softly in the shadows behind him. He was totally focused on the view in the glass, a wide expanseof red desert soil, packed hard and baking in the African heat. At the far edge of the field was a black-charred gantry, a ceramic and steel tower. Resting inside the webwork of the gantry stood a proud, shining arrow-shape, a single design- gesture of Egyptian engineering and New World ingenuity, a vision of pure eagerness for flight.

The Sun himself seemed entranced by the importance of the moment, watching from the sky. Ignition was called, and great jets of fire poured out of the rocket’s engines, powered by the same noxious brew that burned in Mama Kusay’s ovens, grown in swampy vats of compost. Vapor poured away from the gantry and out across the hard desert.

Ihhuipapalotl could not breathe. The silver, shining Moon-rocket hung impossibly still over the billows of flame, then shot skyward. The brighter light of the upper air made the entire rocket glow like gold; then it was gone, vanished in the heavens, a white line of vapor marking its clean ascent.

The cheers were deafening then, men and women dancing wildly about, and laughing, crying, giddy with relief and joy, a dozen languages shouting happily together.

Ihhuipapalotl sat very still, gazing at the white trail piercing the sky. Quietly, he whispered to the soul of his poor old Inca, Osiris Yupanqui, whose lifelong dream of reaching the Moon had been perverted by his mad son. Yupanqui’s dream was, at last, a reality.

“This launch, Glorious One, did not fail.”

Aklya Kono
(Ak-LEE-yah KOH-noh) Quechua for “Virgins of the Sun.” Vestal Virgins of Tawantinsuyu.

Blestyak
(Blest-YAK) General Vladimir Modestovich Blestyak of the horse-guardsmen from Rusland.

Chocolatl
(Chock- LOT’l) Quechua for the hot cocoa drink native to the southern continent of the New World.

Hanaq Pacha
(Hah- NOCKPah-CHAH) Quechua for “The highest, watery heavens above.”

Hara’wi
(Hah-rah-WEE) Quechua for “Sacred music.”

Hukuchasatil
(Hoo-koo-chah- SAH-teel) Quechua for “Mouse Face.” Commander of Pachacuti’s private guard.

Ihhuipapalotl
(Ih-HWEE-pahpah- lotl) “Feathery-Winged Butterfly.” High Priest of Qurikancha Temple Complex.

Ka
Egyptian concept of the outer persona, character, charisma, reputation—you as only others can know you. (As contrasted to ba, your point-of-view on reality, your experience of yourself. Ka is outer; ba is inner.)

Kuchillu
(Koo-CHEEL-loo) Quechua for “Slashes with a Knife.” Childhood name of Pachacuti.

Mabruke
(Mah- BROO-kay) Professor-Prince Mikel Mabruke, professor of alchemy, and board member of the Guild of Pharaoh’s Special Investigators.

Mama Kuna Quechua
for the guardian “house mother” of the Aklya Kono.

Mama Kusay
(MAH-maKoo-SAY) Quechua for “Queen of Chefs.” The head of the Queen Mother’s kitchens.

Maracuyá
(Mar-ah-KOY-ah) Quechua for “passion fruit.”

Mixcomitl
(Meesch- kohMEET’l) Quechua for “Cloud Vessel.” Flagship of the Imperial Quetzal fleet, and Prince Viracocha’s private transport.

Natyra Arkadyena Solovyova
(Nah-TEAR-ahAr-kad-YAIN-ah Soh-LOV-yo-vah) Dancer from Novgorod, a celebrity known around Europe.

Nayture
(Nature) Egyptian name for the eternal forces, the gods and goddesses, divinity.

Oken
(OAK-en) Lord Scott Oken, fourth son of the Spate Arch of Mercia, Britannic Isles. He is a trained memoryman, and personal assistant to Professor-Prince Mabruke.

Ollantaytambo
(Oh-lahn- tay-TAHM-boh) “The Resort Palace of Ollantay.” Valley of the Imperial Palace, formal residence of the Inca and his Inheritor, as well as his concubines and guests.

Pachacuti
(Patch-ah- KOO-tee) Quechua name of the current Inheritor of Tawantinsuyu.

Pachamama
(Patch-ah-MAH-mah) Quechua for “Mother Earth.” The dimension of space/time.

Pharoman
(FAIR-roh- man) Generic for the Egyptian Empire founded by Pharaoh Gaius Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra.

Ptah- Sokar
(p’TAH Soh-KAR) Egyptian divinity of the art of the tomb and the silence of the grave.

Quillabamba
(Kweel-ah-BAHM-bah) Quechua for “City of the Eternal Summer.” Home of the Queen Mother’s estate, as well as the non-inheriting offspring of the Inca.

Qurikancha
(Kwoor-ee- KAHN-cha) Quechua for “The Temple of the Sun.”

Qusmi
(KWOOZ-mee) Quechua for “Smoke.” The Queen Mother’s butler.

Qusqo
(KOOZ-koh) Quechua for “The Navel of the World.” Mercantile capital of Tawantinsuyu.

Quy
(Koo- EE) Quechua for guinea pigs. “Wheek” is the sound they make when excited.

Quyllur Misi
(QWEE-lur MEESee) Quechua “Star of the Cat.”

Ra
(RAY, as in “ray of light.”) Egyptian divinity of conscious self- awareness, the eternal source of all consciousness. Ra is the Sun in your mind, lighting your internal world.

Rawray unquy qura
(RAW-ray oonk-kwee KOOR-rah) Quechua for “fever herb.”

Rimaykullayki
(Ree-may-kool- LAY-kee) Quechua for “Greetings.”

Ripuy
(Ree- POO-wee) Quechua for “Go now!”

Sakhmetical
(Sakh-METI-kall) Egyptian medicine, from Sakhmet, goddess of the healing arts (together with Isis and Thoth).

Satiltzoj
(Zah-TEELT-zoj) Quiche for “Face of the Bat.” Current President of the United States of Maya Land.

Sobak
(SOE-bock) Egyptian god of the neurochemistry of the human unconscious.

Spate
(SPATE) The Egyptian equivalent of a state or province, also known as “Nome.”

Spinglass
(SPIN-glass) fiber-optics technology. Spinglass lamps are “spunglass.”

Sunsu Nyakay
(SOON-soo-Ny-AK-ay) Quechua name of an abandoned prison compound.

Tawantinsuyu
(Tah-wahn- tinSOO-you) “Nation of the Four Quarters” The empire centered in the Andes mountains. The emperor is known as the “Inca.”

Teonanactl
(Tay-oh-nah-NAKT’l) Quechua for “Flesh of the Gods.” Native psychedelic mushroom used in religious ceremonies.

Tiwanaku
(Tee-wah-NOCK-oo) Quechua for the sacred center of Tawantinsuyu, near Lake Titikaka.

Urubamba
(OorooBAHM-bah) Quechua for “Flat Land of Spiders.” Civic center of Tawantinsuyu, site of the main Egyptian Embassy.

Usqhullu
(Oosk-HOO-loo) Quechua for “Wildcat.” Princess of Tawantinsuyu.

Viracocha Inca Yupanqui XII
(Veer-ah-KOH-chaInk-ah YouPAN-kwee) Current Inca.

Wankakanka
(Wank-ah-KANK-ah) Quechua for “Rock Rooster.”

Warmi Irqi
(WAR-mee EAR-kee) Quechua for “Boy Child.”

Wawa
(WAH-wah) Quechua for “dear child.”

Wayra Wayta
(WAY-rahWAYtah) Quechua for “Wind Flower.” Viracocha’s personal captain of the guards.

Xibalba
(Schee-BAL-bah) Quiche for the Underworld.

Xochicacahuatl
(Schoh-cheekah-kah-HWAHT’l) Quechua for “Flowery Cacao Tree.” The Queen Mother’s estate.

Yadir
(Yah-DEER) Mabruke’s maternal grandfather