Chapter Twenty Four: THE JADE STEPS
The Jade Steps
Chapter Twenty Four: The Jade Steps
When the food arrived, turkeys and maize cakes in great abundance, Malinali ate quickly. She had no time for conversation with Bernal, eager to talk about the wonders of the palace. She cast a knowing glance at Cortez and fled from the room. She returned within the hour, Cortez inviting her to join the group of officers with whom he was conferring. Everyone looked at her expectantly.
"I heard no talk around this palace or out on the plaza of any trap. I overheard talk between guards, nobles, priests, and common people. They all talk of you using the word teotl (tay-ottle), which means wonder, awesome, terrifying power. They talk of how the strangers are men from another more powerful world, men they have never seen before. Montezuma, it seems, can talk of nothing else. There is no anger in what I heard, only teotl."
The men started to express their relief and appreciation to her when there was a commotion. Several jaguar warriors had entered, followed by a procession of grandly cloaked and feathered nobles, perhaps as many as a hundred. In their center was Montezuma.


