‘What news?’
‘You’re aware that for some time we have been in dispute with the Russian government over the precise extent of its borders.’
I went cold.
‘Königsberg, Moldavia, Georgia – all these have proved problematical. In recent months our allies have suffered numerous frontier violations by Soviet troops, and last night border posts in Brest-Litovsk and the Caucasus were fired upon—’
‘Spare me the propaganda, Extepan. What are you trying to say?’
‘An ultimatum was given. It has been ignored. Consequently one hour ago our armies under Chimalcoyotl launched an attack on Russia.’
PART THREE
The Serpent of Fire
One
The November fog was lifting as Mia and Chicomeztli led Adamant and Archimedes out of the stables. I mounted Archimedes while they helped Precious Cloud up into Adamant’s saddle, both taking care not to put pressure on the swell of her belly.
While Mia checked Adamant’s bridle one last time, Chicomeztli scuttled over to me and muttered, ‘Forgive me, but is this wise?’
‘Is what wise?’ I asked.
‘Riding. In her condition.’
‘She’s been riding most days for the last year or so.’
‘She has only a month left of her term.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s what she wants. It raises her spirits.’
‘Extepan is concerned.’
‘So he should be. She hasn’t been happy.’
It was quite unlike Chicomeztli to be so fretful, but he had been mindful of Precious Cloud ever since she became pregnant. During much of her term, Extepan had been away, visiting Channel and North Sea ports both in Britain and on the Continent to ensure that supply convoys departed promptly for the Baltic. The northern group of the Aztec armies had been besieging St Petersburg for the past six months.
I led Archimedes over to Precious Cloud.
‘Are you ready?’ I asked.
She nodded, smiling for the first time that morning.
The mist had risen, leaving the grass drenched with dew. There was a cool, washed smell to the air, and I could see that Adamant was frisky. Precious Cloud touched her heels to his side, and he was off, leaving me to hurry Archimedes after them.
I had no fears for the princess’s safety. Precious Cloud was an even more expert rider than Victoria, and I had readily agreed to exchange Adamant for Archimedes as my mount. She continually spoke to the horse in Dakota and French as we rode, soothing him and making him utterly compliant. When I first suggested the idea of going riding together, she had seized on the opportunity; since her arrival in London, and especially since she became pregnant, she had seemed lonely. I suspected she was homesick.
We rode around the perimeter of the park, jumping low beech hedges, leaping narrow ornamental ponds, and generally treating the place as our own private preserve – which it had in effect become.
We slowed to a trot along the Embankment bridleway. The Thames was filled with motorboats and minesweepers, and the Aztec cruiser Cacama was moored downriver just beyond the complex, its great winter-camouflaged bulk festooned with radar dishes and rocket launchers. Military floaters and jetcopters traversed the sky.
Precious Cloud and I paused near the park gates. Beyond the railings, a gaggle of Mayan tourists were taking photographs of the derelict Big Ben, its hands stopped at seven-twenty-five, an inverted V for victory.
Precious Cloud untied her fur cloak. There was a keen breeze off the river, but she was used to far colder winters in her homeland.
‘It’s so good to ride,’ she remarked. ‘I feel as if I’m escaping everything then.’
She looked painfully unhappy. I remarked on the fact.
‘I feel trapped here,’ she admitted. ‘I’m bored, Catherine. I miss my people.’
It was the first time she had spoken directly about her feelings. She seemed small and young to me then, a child forced to have surrendered the comforts of home too swiftly.
‘Why don’t you suggest to Extepan that you both visit your father?’ I said.
‘I asked him that,’ she replied. ‘But he’s too busy with the war.’
I wasn’t entirely surprised. Though possessing superior equipment and firepower, the Aztecs had found the Russian Empire far from easy to subdue. The climate, terrain and sheer weight of forces which Tsar Mikhail could muster had slowed their advance on the European front so that they had failed to take Moscow and St Petersburg before the onset of winter. Only in the south-east had they made progress, thrusting through the Ukraine towards the Volga, where Chimalcoyotl was hoping to link his armies with those of Ixtlilpopoca, who had invaded from China and Tibet, sweeping through Siberia over the past year. Though I knew Margaret was safe in Moscow, I had received no direct word from her since the invasion began, and I feared greatly for her continuing safety.
Adamant was restless. Precious Cloud tugged on his rein, turning him full circle until she was facing me again.
It’s unfortunate the war is distracting him,’ I said. ‘I know he’s concerned for your welfare.’
‘Is he?’ She almost pouted. ‘I’m not so sure. Can he care so much for me when he still keeps that other woman at his side?’
I peered at her. ‘Do you mean Mia?’
She seemed to shiver. ‘I cannot fathom her. She is so distant and cold.’
She had never referred to Mia before, although she spent more time with her than anyone else. Mia was in attendance wherever she went.
‘She was his consort before he married me, wasn’t she?’
I had always presumed as much, without ever asking anyone. Housekeeper? Companion? Auianime? Mia seemed to combine all these roles.
‘I’m sure there’s nothing between them now,’ I said. ‘Extepan is the kind of man who would take his marriage vows seriously.’
I think I believed this, even though the Aztec nobility in general were quite polygamous, none more so than the tlatoani himself, who had fathered two dozen children by his subsidiary wives. The Papacy had been encouraged to sanctify the status of these wives forty years before; and yet Extepan had made a point of specifying in his marriage ceremony that he eschewed all intimate relations with other women. His mother had always been a strictly orthodox Catholic, I knew, refusing to accept the status of Motecuhzoma’s subsidiary wives after they were married; his own monogamy would be a tribute to her.
‘I feel she watches me all the time,’ Precious Cloud said. ‘She watches me but says nothing.’
‘I’m sure she’s not spying on you. She’s just used to serving in silence.’
‘Did you know they were close as children?’
I nodded.
‘Then there must be things between them that I will never know.’
Her face was drawn with anxiety, and I began to wonder if this was more than a simple case of low spirits. I tried to put myself in her place – young, unused to the pressures of the court, unhappy in a crowded country filled with strangers, attended by an aloof housemaid who had a prior relationship, perhaps even intimacy, with her absentee husband.
‘Try not to worry,’ I said softly. ‘I’ll have a word with Mia—’
‘No! I don’t want her to know any of this. I feel she tries to read my mind enough as it is.’
Ponderously she shifted her position in the saddle. Her bulge was prominent, making the rest of her body look wasted in comparison.
‘Come,’ she said, turning Adamant. ‘Let’s ride.’
Bevan was in his apartment, watching television. On the screen, tanks were rolling across a muddy landscape and a commentator was announcing that Aztec armies under Ixtlilpopoca had just taken Astrakhan on the Volga delta and would soon link up with those in the Western Front, dealing a final crushing blow to their enemies.