Master of the House of Darts (46 page)

  She is a Campbell Award finalist and a Writers of the Future winner. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in venues such as
Interzone, Realms of Fantasy,
and
Fantasy
magazine, and has been reprinted in
The Year's
Best Science Fiction
. She lives in Paris, where she has a job as a computer engineer.

aliettedebodard.com

Extras...

AUTHOR'S NOTES

The Historical Setting

As in previous volumes, I took some liberties with naming conventions: the Revered Speaker of Texcoco is Nezahualpilli-tzin, but I shortened the name to Nezahual-tzin. I also kept the convention of referring to the inhabitants of Texcoco as "Texcocans" rather than the more proper "Acolhuas", and once again used the "tzin" like Japanese honorifics , to mark respect, rather than as permanent titles. My main concern, again, was to keep the text readable and understandable, in order not to add confusion to an already complicated universe.

This volume is most concerned with war, a central concept in Aztec society: more specifically, Tizoc-tzin's coronation war, which is recorded in the annals as a disaster. The coronation war was more properly a confirmation war: once the new Revered Speaker was invested, he had to lead his men into battle: this served the double purpose of confirming him as a leader of warriors, and of securing enough prisoners for the public celebration of his accession to power.

Again, what we know of the organisation of the Aztec army is fragmentary: I mostly used Ross Hassig's
Aztec Warfare
as a source for practical details of campaigns, chain of command, and matters of discipline, such as deciding to whom a prisoner belonged.

The war council was essential in Tenochtitlan: it consisted of four members – their names and functions have been reported in differing fashions, depending on the source. Given that titles such as Master of the House of Darkness seemed to have been attributed much like titles in Ancient China – ie, names chosen for specific acts of valour rather than functions which had to be always filled – I chose to pick among the recorded members of the war council those names which seemed most attractive to me.

Together with the war council, the Revered Speaker and the She-Snake made up most of the high ranks of Tenochtitlan: therefore, they could not all be absent at the same time. While the Revered Speaker was on campaign, the war council split in half: two of its members remained behind in Tenochtitlan – they were replaced by two deputies within the army. The other two would march along with the soldiers. This ensured that, not only did the city keep functioning smoothly in the absence of the Revered Speaker; but also that in case of attack, there were strategists and veterans ready to organise the defence of the city.

War, of course, permeated every layer of Aztec society: the merchants I mention also doubled as spies and as advance units, and they sometimes had to disguise themselves while on missions in foreign cities, in order not to be summarily executed. The tension between them and the warriors is well-documented, and I had Eptli voice a lot of the clichéd insults traded between both groups.

Tlaltelolco, which turns out to be crucial to the plot, was Tenochtitlan's sister city: it was founded by a splinter group some kilometres away from the Mexica capital; and, as time passed, both cities grew to abut each other. Where Tenochtitlan was a city of warriors, Tlatelolco was known for its merchants, and its marketplace had the dimensions of a small city. The war between Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco is also reasonably documented: it went on pretty much as I described it, though it is likely that Tenochtitlan's growing role in the Triple Alliance and the management of the Mexica Empire drove a lot of Moquihuix's plotting (and it's still not really clear how much of the so-called plot was Moquihuix seeking to strike before he was struck).

As mentioned in the novel, Texcoco's role was crucial: had Nezahualpilli's father not chosen to honour his old alliances ands side with the Mexica, it's likely the war (and victory) would have gone the other way. I did tweak history slightly by having Moquihuix die strangled – the record of his death is confusing, with no less than three different accounts, but in none of them does he die of strangulation.

It is worth noting that Teomitl/Ahuizotl did indeed make a headstart in healing the breach between both cities, by marrying a Tlatelolca princess. Their son, Cuauhtemoc, would become joint Revered Speaker of Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan – though, sadly, this was at the time of the conquest, and he is more known for being the last Mexica Revered Speaker.

The epidemic Acatl, Mihmatini and Teomitl have to face is also, unfortunately, quite real: I derived its symptoms from smallpox, a sickness which was brought over by the Spanish and devastated the Aztecs – who, having no livestock, had never had to face the disease. It turns out that there are quite a few different varieties of smallpox, and – sadly – I did not have to exaggerate in order to make the epidemic deeply horrific (the hallucinations of diseased corpses, though, are my own invention in order to give the illness supernatural weight).

On the role of women in Aztec society, I once again cheated: though there were priestesses, none of them had even a fraction of the liberty and power enjoyed by Mihmatini and Acamapichtli's consort. The female priesthood was very much inferior to the male clergy – its members shared in the deprivation, but were far less visible in ceremonies, and wielded very little power. It is, though, a recorded fact that High Priests were the only members of the clergy allowed to have a spouse: this is most probably for the reason I advance here, to have representatives of both the male and female sides of the deities at the highest levels (much like the Revered Speaker and the She-Snake functioned as two halves of a male/female duality).

I have had questions about the hymns: they are not real – as in, they were never spoken by bona fide Nahuatl speakers. I write them myself, using a reference the very real hymns contained in books such as
The Flayed God,
or
Aztec Thought and Culture
. The main reason I do this is because, like most religious hymns, Aztec hymns are highly language-specific, and translate very badly to English (most literal translations come with reams of translator's notes), all the more so when one does not have the cultural references necessary to understand things.

It is, for instance, highly counter intuitive that the Nahuatl expression "to bear fruit" actually has a negative connotation: the verb in this expression carries the entire meaning of flowering, ripening, bearing fruit and then falling to the ground and rotting away; it was mainly used about high officials that were dismissed because of their reprehensible actions. Likewise, many Nahuatl expressions either do not have an English equivalent, or would require paragraphs of explanations to make sense. I sometimes can manage to put in entire Nahuatl phrases, and I try to do this whenever it is possible; but it is far from being always the case.

Further Reading

Paper Sources

Manuel Aguilar-Moreno,
Handbook to Life in the Aztec
World
, Oxford University Press, 2006

Elizabeth Baquedano,
Eyewitness: Aztec
, DK, 1993

Frances F Berdan, Patricia Rieff Anawalt,
The Essential
Codex Mendoza,
University of California Press, 1997

David Carrasco,
Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and
Ceremonial Centers
, Waveland Pr Inc, 1998

Inga Clendinnen,
Aztecs: an Interpretation (Canto)
, Cambridge University Press, 1991

Laurie Coulter,
Ballplayers and Bonesetters
, Annick Press, 2008

Nigel Davies,
The Aztecs: a History
, University of Oklahoma Press, 1973

William Gates,
An Aztec Herbal: the Classic Codex of 1552,
Dover, 2000

Ross Hassig,
Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political
Control
, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988

David M Jones & Brian L Molyneaux,
Mythologies des
Amériques
, EDDL, 2002

Miguel Leon Portilla,
Aztec Thought and Culture
, University of Oklahoma Press, 1990

Miguel Leon Portilla,
The Broken Spears: the Aztec Account
of the Conquest of Mexico,
Beacon Press, 2006

Roberta E Markman & Peter T Markman,
The Flayed
God: the Mythology of Mesoamerica
, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992

Jacques Martin & Jean Torton,
Les Voyages d'Alix: Les Aztèques
, Casterman, 2005

Colin McEwan & Leonardo López Luján,
Moctezuma Aztec
Ruler,
The British Museum Press, 2009

Mary Miller & Karl Taube,
The Gods and Symbols of Ancient
Mexico and of the Maya
, Thames & Hudson, 1997

Jacques Soustelle,
Daily Life of the Aztecs
, Phoenix Press, 2002

Michael Ernest Smith,
The Aztecs (People of America)
, , Wiley-Blackwell, 2002

Thelma D Sullivan & Timothy J Knab,
A Scattering of Jades:
Stories, Poems and Prayers of the Aztecs
, University of Arizona Press, 2003

Online Sources

Aztec Calendar –
http://www.azteccalendar.com

Sacred Texts –
http://www.sacred-texts.com
(most particularly the "Rig Veda Americanus" by Daniel G Brinton)

Mexicolore -
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk
(in particular the article on Tlaloc)

Acknowledgments

As always, I remain deeply indebted to the people who helped me with this book, either during the pre-writing brainstorming, the actual writing, and the post-writing process, aka the painful dissection of the bits that weren't working. The sixth Villa Diodati workshop helped me brainstorm my ending: Stephen Gaskell, Ralan Conley, Ruth Nestvold, Nancy Fulda and Sara Genge dissuaded me from having yet another epic battle between various private armies (though, sadly, the stakes in this prevented me from having the quiet, intimate ending I'd first envisioned; next time, I swear…).

Various people kept me going while I was writing: Stephanie Burgis, Patrick Samphire, Neil Williamson, the late Colin Harvey, Gareth L Powell, and the entire gang at Codex, who listened to me vent my frustrations online.

My most excellent crit group helped me salvage the disaster of the first draft: Dario Ciriello, Juliette Wade, Keyan Bowes, Doug Sharp, Genevieve Williams, Janice Hardy, and TL Morganfield. As always, Traci Morganfield was a treasure trove of information, a great help for brainstorming, and a wonderful friend whose enthusiasm helped me navigate the troubled waters of writing this book.

The response to the books has been wonderful so far, and many people have publicised
Obsidian and Blood
online. I don't have space here for everyone, but here a few people I'm deeply indebted to: Charles Tan and Lavie Tidhar at the World SF blog, Josh Vogt of
examiner.com
, Ove Jansson at
cybermage.se
, Duncan Lawie of Strange Horizons, Lauren from Violin in a Void, Ros Jackson of Warpcore SF, Brad P Beaulieu and Gregory A Wilson from Speculate! for a truly epic set of podcasts, Cheryl Morgan (and co-conspirators Mike Carey, and Jon Courtenay Grimwood), Jenny Barber from the British Fantasy Society, Seb Cevey and his co-conspirators at Angle Mort, Rob at Val's Random Comments, Emmanuel Chastellière of Elbakin, Brenda Cooper, Jonathan Crowe, Gemma Files, Rose Fox, Russ Gray, Alethea Kontis, Jason Loch, Henry Lopez, Anne Lyle, Gillian Pollack, Jason Sanford, John Scalzi, Angela Slatter, Fred Warren and the rest of the gang at Liberty Hall…

Special mentions to everyone who took part in the Great Honeymoon Giveaway competition on my blog; to the numerous people who entered my goodreads giveaway for Harbinger of the Storm; to the people involved in the Codex Blog Tour (Colin Harvey, Lawrence M Schoen, Nancy Fulda, and Doctor Grasshopper) and to everyone who attended Eastercon, the SFWA Nebula Awards Weekend, and Imaginales – and actually managed to make me feel like a rock star.

And since space is limited, and I don't have enough of it to mention you all, a big blanket thanks to everyone who read the books, blogged about them, lent me some space on the web for guest posts, or boosted the signal in some other way. You all rock, and I definitely wouldn't be here without you.

Special thanks to Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Chris Kastensmidt, Floris Kleijne, JK Cheney, and Justin Pilon for being around and providing much needed friendship and support when I needed it; and to friends closer to home (Charles-Eric Drevet, Clémence Lê, Alexandre Mège, Fabien Terraillot, Mathieu Leocmach, the ex-police interns/Binet Robot team, and the various members of our Nephilim roleplaying group) for reading and promoting the books.

As always, I owe a lot to the Angry Robot team – Overlord Marc Gascoigne, Lee Harris, Mike Ramalho, and John Tintera – and to my wonderful agents at Zeno, John Berlyne and John Parker, for the dedicated work and the awesome advice.

And, last but not least, to my family – to my grandparents and my parents and my sister – for always nurturing me, and for propagating my reputation as a writer all over France, Europe and Vietnam. And to my husband, Matthieu, for the brainstorming, the crits – and the general awesomeness.