We dined on ahuacatl cocktail, followed by a mélange of spiced fish with peppers, aubergines and sweetcorn. Tetzahuitl took only vegetables and fruit; he did not eat meat of any sort, and also abstained from alcohol. I was seated opposite him at the table and had watched him closely since his arrival, continually wondering whether his constant look of disdain reflected real emotion or was simply a mask of office. After eating he smoked a thin-stemmed pipe filled with aromatic tobacco, responding briefly to the conversational forays of others but showing no inclination to engage in small talk. Yet his eyes were active: they constantly scanned the table, as if he could learn everything he wanted to know about a person simply by watching and listening. Presently, as if to amuse Richard, he took an ahuacatl stone and twirled it through the fingers of his hand before it vanished entirely. Then he plucked it from behind Richard’s ear.
Richard was predictably delighted, and begged for more. Tetzahuitl took the stone and rubbed it between both his palms. When he opened them again, the stone was gone and in its place, as if it had been transformed, was a piece of chalchihuitl, the variety of jade which the Aztecs still prized as much as gold. Tetzahuitl presented it to Richard while everyone applauded fulsomely. The cihuacoatl was supposedly descended from Nezahualcoyotl, another great sorcerer, though any stage magician could have duplicated his sleight of hand.
‘Did you like my trick?’
Tetzahuitl was addressing me.
‘It served its purpose,’ I replied. What interested me more was that his face had remained expressionless throughout; he was a man well used to hiding his thoughts and feelings.
‘I’ll take a walk now,’ he announced. ‘Perhaps you would care to accompany me.’
A request or an order? I wasn’t sure. He rose and offered his arm. Though I was suddenly afraid to be alone with him, I knew I couldn’t refuse.
His arm in mine, we began walking towards the Palm House. Several soldiers moved to accompany us, but Tetzahuitl waved them back.
His assurance and arrogance angered me. As soon as we were out of earshot of the others, I said, ‘Aren’t you taking a risk?’
‘A risk?’
‘Being alone with me like this? Don’t you know I’m your sworn enemy? Perhaps I have a hidden knife.’
He didn’t even look at me. ‘If I were to be assassinated by a princess of the realm while walking in these gardens, I would be quite amazed.’
‘Do you think I’d be afraid to do it?’
‘I think perhaps you might like to. But the desire is one thing, the means and the enterprise quite another.’
He paused on the steps to light his pipe, still not deigning to look at me. Blue smoke wreathed his feathered head. He seemed an impossible figure in such surroundings. I felt both furious and foolish.
‘Let me assure you,’ he said, ‘I don’t underestimate you in the slightest. But look there. And there.’
He pointed towards the pond, in which ducks floated, then at an ornamental hedge in front of the Palm House. There were snipers with high velocity rifles trained on us. On me.
We walked on. Birds were darting amongst the trees and shrubbery.
‘European sparrows,’ Tetzahuitl remarked. ‘Vigorous colonizers. Did you know that they’ve been displacing our native bluebirds from many areas in the north and west of our continent?’
I made no reply to this.
‘We’ve been forced to build nesting-boxes too small for them to enter so the indigenous species can be preserved.’
‘Are you trying to make some symbolic point?’
‘I’m simply making conversation. Your starlings are energetic immigrants, too.’
‘We’ve got colonies of passenger pigeons all over London.’
‘So I gather. Perhaps it’s futile for us to suppose we can limit species to their original domains.’
‘Are you going to tell me that this justifies your invasion of my country?’
‘Not at all. I was going to ask your advice.’
‘My advice?’
‘Does that seem so remarkable? You’re a woman of integrity and spirit. A patriot. Therefore I hope you’ll answer me with the interests of your country at heart.’
We circled the lake while a security jetcopter flew low overhead. As it diminished towards the west, Tetzahuitl said, ‘I’ve come here primarily as a matter of courtesy and diplomacy, and because the Revered Speaker requested it. He has two sons here and is naturally eager that they perform their duties well. He must constantly consider their future.’
‘So you’ve come to check up on them?’
‘In a manner of speaking, yes. To assess their progress and achievements. To see if changes should be made.’
Suddenly I was concerned. Tetzahuitl had obviously been pleased with Maxixca’s success in Scotland, and I began to imagine the worst possible outcome in which he would replace Extepan as governor.
‘If you’re going to make any changes,’ I said, ‘I hope you’ll consult us.’
‘That’s precisely my point in speaking to you now. Of course I understand that you would like nothing better than for us all to leave, but, that aside, I would be interested in your appraisal. For example, are you satisfied with Extepan’s efforts on your country’s behalf?’
This sounded ominous.
‘There are many who would have done far worse,’ I replied.
‘That hardly sounds like a recommendation.’
‘What do you expect? Unqualified praise for the agents of an occupying power? Extepan has behaved decently but with purpose since he arrived here. We could have had a worse master. We did, in Nauhyotl. Under the circumstances, I think his achievements are considerable.’
Tetzahuitl sucked on his pipe. ‘High praise indeed from someone so adamantly opposed to us.’
‘I don’t like the situation, but I’d prefer us to be ruled by someone who will try to work with the people rather than humiliate and brutalize them. I think Extepan’s quite clever at achieving his own ends with sweet reason rather than force.’
Tetzahuitl made no comment on this. We began making our way back to the others, he descending into small talk about the seedless pomegranates and black roses he had been shown earlier. Around us, furtive shapes darted in the branches of trees.
‘Look,’ I said, pointing. ‘Grey squirrels.’
Victoria and I spent the following afternoon riding Archimedes and Adamant in Parliament Park under heavy escort. I returned to the complex sore-limbed and allowed myself the luxury of a long hot bath.
When I emerged, Bevan was out in the garden, stalking the rosebeds with a pair of secateurs. It was another balmy evening, and I joined him outside.
‘All right?’ he greeted me, squatting to snip a sucker from the base of a bush.
‘You’re getting green fingers,’ I remarked.
‘Keeps me busy, doesn’t it?’
He set to work on another bush with what seemed like excessive brutality.
‘Isn’t it the wrong time of the year for pruning?’
Bevan brandished a clump of suckers in his gloved hand. ‘Never too early for these. Parasites, they are. Suck the life from the plant.’
He crouched and began rummaging in the foliage.
‘I was wondering when you’d be back,’ he said presently.
‘Oh?’
‘I hear you’re off to Lords tomorrow.’
I was surprised he knew. Extepan had arranged for Tetzahuitl to attend a special limited-overs game between the England and the touring Azanian team.