“That is how it acts?” Cihuacoatl blanched in alarm.
“It will not be pleasant.”
“I thought you would bring me something that was painless—not this.”
“You told me to get the poison that was most effective, and that’s not the most painless one. I see you are distraught—shall I take it back and get another?”
Cihuacoatl hesitated; the prospect of deferring his plan to a later time was not desireable. “No, this will have to do,” he replied at length. “I can’t have any more delays. My nerves would never withstand it.”
“It is guaranteed to bring the desired result. Who did you say it was for? Some relative in pain of a lingering incurable sickness?”
“Yes. That’s why I had hoped it would be a painless drug, but even so, he has suffered so much already; this could not make his pain any worse.”
“I don’t approve of using this for such purposes, but that’s only my opinion. I shall not stand in your way if you are set on its application. No doubt you have agonized over this before resorting to these desperate methods.”
“Indeed I have, Alotl. The decision has caused me horrible despair.”
“Such resolutions are never easy. You have my sympathy.”
“Thank you for your condolences, but back to the drug. Which is better for it, food or drink?
“Both are well suited for it, but perhaps it would be a somewhat quicker reaction if he drank it. Also, if given to him in a cup, you have greater assurances that only he would drink it. The chances of someone else accidently consuming it are minimized.”
“I was just thinking the same thing. Now, how much of this should I give him?”
“That depends. If he is old and feeble, it will not be necessary to use more than a fourth of the bag’s contents. If you wish to put him out of his misery quickly, then pour all of it into a cup. It disssolves readily and had no peculiar odor to it—he will never be able to distinguish it from whatever else he drinks.”
“How precise you physicians are. If I use all of this, there will be no chance of escaping the drug’s lethal effect?”
“None.”
“Remarkable. This is what I needed to know—not the medical analysis. I shall put this to use at the earliest opportunity.”
“Such haste,” Alotl wryly commented. “The situation must be unbearable—for you. You are certain you do not want me to get something less potent?”
“No, this will do nicely.”
“Nicely? I should hate to be your relative. Then you are satisfied?”
“You’ve done well, Alotl. Perhaps some day I can do you a favor in return.”
“I’m not so certain I would ask you for one. However, if you need anything else, I’m always at your service.”
With his business thereupon concluded, Alotl departed, leaving Cihuacoatl alone in the chamber as he had found him. A cynical man, the physician had long ago determined there was nothing more in life that could surprise him, but when he left the minister, he must considered his conclusion sorely tested.
Now that Cihuacoatl had the poison, a more complicated task lay ahead of him as he thought about over how he would administer it and discovered few alternatives existed for him. If he placed the drug in food, many could become affected by it, and there was a need for him to be in the kitchen or Tizoc’s dining quarters—to accomplish this unseen required a magician. A more promising possibility was to corner the monarch alone somewhere and, with the aid of accomplices, force him to consume the potion. The perfect situation was if the minister were alone with Tizoc without anyone knowing of it; there had been such occasions, but they were rare. One thing he was clear on: if the deed was to be done, he needed to create the conditions for its consummation.
Fortunately Cihuacoatl had already managed to secure abettors in the scheme—Tizoc’s lack of popularity extended through many circles making that recruitment easier than he had imagined. He decided it might be beneficial to seek them out for ideas on how to continue from here. He walked from his ministry feeling confident the problem would unravel itself; no sooner had he cleared the door when he was intercepted by a messenger. “Our Revered Speaker requests your presence, Lord Minister,” the courier reported. “He desires a private meeting—in his royal garden.”
“When?”
“At noon.”
The gods themselves have arranged this, Cihuacoatl thought in amazement. They beckoned him to proceed.
He still had enough time to meet with his accomplices to finalize their strategy and, after dismissing the courier, hastened off for the trading center to make contact with Lord Huactli who ruled over the pochteca, the merchants. It was perhaps to be expected that he would be involved in plotting against Tizoc, for no other sector of the society was more adversely affected by the monarch’s timidity than the pochteca. Their trading routes, once sacrosanct, became increasingly hazardous to traverse as a result of banditry which they blamed on Tizoc’s failure in policy enforcement and his acquired reputation for weakness. Only the military may have held the monarch in lower esteem, but there the command and authority of Ahuitzotl acted as a steadying influence against drastic action, preventing any escalation of opposition.
Cihuacoatl was met at the center by Huactli’s personal guardians who informed their master of the minister’s visit and, after receiving the lord’s consent, bade him to enter and left him alone in a chamber with Huactli.
“You breathe heavily,” Huactli observed, “and come in great haste. Does this portent what we have so long desired?”
“I think this is the day,” Cihuacoatl affirmed.
Huactli sat motionless, needing time to fully appreciate the news. “What would you have us do?” he finally asked.
“I am to meet Tizoc at noon in his garden. I have the poison with me, and believe we will be by ourselves. If he has a drink available, I should be able to slip it in his cup. If not, I want you and your co-conspirators to appear with a goblet filled with water. We can then force him to drink it.”
“But if he is to meet only you, how will we explain our presence to him?”
“Do not make your appearance until I give you a sign—I’ll rub my arm across my brow as if wiping off perspiration. You have access to the garden. Hide yourselves in the shrubs and await my signal. Once I call for you, it will be too late for him and it no longer matters what he thinks.”
“What if he is not alone?”
“Then we’ll have to postpone our plan until another occasion presents itself.”
“How will we know the poison will be allowed to do its work? He could drink it, and then regurgitate it, annulling its effect, or maybe even take some kind of remedy to counteract it.”
“The poison begins to have an affect shortly after it is ingested. We’ll simply have to stay until the first symptoms appear—by
