TEUHTLILLI [aside]
            The unknown guests which call me to the east
            Are such a hoax-like sighting as may lend
            To superstition credence; rumors, weight.
            I fear some rash infection has arrived.
            Reports pour in of towers on the waves,
            Maneuvered by a spectral race of men,
            The truth of which I must submit to test.
            And so it goes: The fleet of hueless troops
            Approaches from the seashore as I speak.
            Now, after weeks of waiting in the sticks,
            At last, my first glimpse of these lily-skins.
            Gods grant that they behave.

                          Enter CORTÉS, ALVARADO, SANDOVAL, AGUILAR.

AGUILAR                                              Be­hold, Cortés,
            Your foremost model of a Mexican.

TEUHTLILLI
            Hail, friends of Mexico! Which is your chief?

                                         Enter MALINALLI.

CORTÉS
            Well, Aguilar?

AGUILAR                        He speaks a nonsense tongue.
            We’re too far north. I can no longer help.

TEUHTLILLI
            I ask again: Where is your leader, friends?

MALINALLI [aside]
            (Now, silly girl, or never.) [indicating Cortés] This is he.

TEUHTLILLI
            What’s this? A mediating concubine?

AGUILAR
            You speak his language, girl, as well as mine?

CORTÉS
            What, will this slave girl double-cross us all?

MALINALLI
            Our humble chieftain greets your emperor
            And many times does kiss those regal hands.

TEUHTLILLI
            That’s well.

AGUILAR                That’s well!

CORTÉS                                   This all seems to be well.

AGUILAR
            Rejoice, Cortés! This maid is double-tongued.
            She’ll translate his words into my Chontal-
            From him to her, from her to me, to you.

CORTÉS
            Then let us test these true but tedious links.

MALINALLI      You were saying, sir?

TEUHTLILLI      How many braves trail in your train?

MALINALLI       How many warriors tread in your wake?

AGUILAR          How many soldiers shadow you?

CORTÉS           Five thousand.

AGUILAR          Uh, five thousand.

MALINALLI       They’ve a thousand, sir.

TEUHTLILLI
            I’ll see your thousand and I’ll raise you two.
            [to a servant] Deploy two thousand men to build them huts,
            [aside] But crammed with warlocks, witch doctors, and spies.
                                                          ­                                          Exit a servant.
AGUILAR
            This works well.

CORTÉS                           Thus the fragile chain is forged.
            Friend, you must look upon our advent here
            Not with unease, but as a world of good.

TEUHTLILLI
            Then down to brass tacks: These wan wanderers
            Indeed match those who skimmed our shores last year.
            See- Here’s my schoolyard scribbling of their looks:

MOTECUHZOMA
            What are these? Iron pipes on lumbering wheels?

TEUHTLILLI
            A roaring, dragon-mouthed machine of war,
            Whose entrails discharge hails of shooting stars.
            When leveled at a mountain’s rocky crags,
            The cliff face cracked, disgorging its rich veins,
            Then, splintered into chips a knotted pine.
            Their porters picked their teeth with the remains,
            Like sullied spirits in a sulfurous haze.

MOTECUHZOMA
            What is this shambling menagerie?

TEUHTLILLI
            Some over-magnifying strain of hound,
            Whose *****-yellow eyes flash sparks of flame,
            And lolling tongues lob down to glut for blood.

MOTECUHZOMA
            And these? Some hybrid hash of man and stag?

TEUHTLILLI
            No, sire, but merely stilted, toothy does
            That suffer men to play at pick-a-back.
            Their plate-wide hooves dig wells at each impress,
            And lofty eyes peep over the city walls.

MOTECUHZOMA
            What is their destination?

TEUHTLILLI                                   Here, my lord.
            They’re full of inquiries, but send you gifts:
            These chokers of green glass- Quite lovely things.

MOTECUHZOMA
            What is the subject of their questions?

TEUHTLILLI                                                     You, my lord.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Unpack your thoughts. Be free and frank with me.
            Pretend yourself my junior cabinetman,
            For my own court is often at a loss.
            What vague agenda does this fleet announce?

TEUHTLILLI
            They masquerade as peaceful legates sent
            To haggle wares and flaunt their god, no more.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Ridiculous!
      
TEUHTLILLI              My sentiments as well.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Then what’s your own misgivings of their aim?
            Don’t gild the pill for me. Who are these men?

TEUHTLILLI
            I’d bank they’re vigorous, new, cruel foes,
            Now swiftly winging from the Eastern Sea
            To spoil, maraud, shed sheathes and buccaneer.
            We’ve Mayan authority to warrant this,
            Hence their determination for the fray.

MOTECUHZOMA
            But I have poor rapport with Mayaland.
            What do my coastal subjects make of this?

TEUHTLILLI
            They call them minor, maverick deities,
            As yet unknown, yet fancied devilish.

MOTECUHZOMA
            And what if they will prove, as prophesied,            
            Our long-lost rulers coming home?

TEUHTLILLI                                                Perhaps.

CORTÉS                            
            Friend, you must look upon our advent here
            Not with unease, but as a world of good.

AGUILAR     [simultaneously] . . . but as a world of good.
            My potent monarch rules beyond the seas,
            And rumors tease his ears of Mexico.
            I come to you as his ambassador,

MALINALLI      [simultaneously] . . . to you as his ambassador,
            With gifts I must in person grant your lord,
            And bring him tidings that will save his life.

TEUHTLILLI
            [aside] (Fresh off the boat, and asks for audience!)
            My ruler also is a busy king,
            Like yours, and he will send for his desires.

            MALINALLI     [simultaneously] . . . he will send for his desires.
            He’s locked in caucus from his island throne:
            The teeming, lacustrine metropolis
            Of Mexico, called also, “Cactus Rock,”

AGUILAR         [simultaneously] . . . called also, “Cactus Rock,”
            Whose minions by the millions stir with drive,
            And fructify the land on floating farms.

CORTÉS
            A land with gold in hand?

TEUHTLILLI                                  By heaps and mounds.

CORTÉS
            “Why ask?” you’ll ask. I ask because I know
            That precious metal heals an arrant heart.
            My men are languishing from that complaint.

TEUHTLILLI
            We have the cure to purge bad-hearted men.
            [aside] (By god, his helmet flashes on my mind:
            Dead ringer to the one our war god wears.)
            [to him] May I, sir, as a token of goodwill,
            Present my lord your brilliant helm?

CORTÉS                                                     You may,
            If you return it filled with grains of gold.
            We’ll test by trial if this New World’s veins
            Are worth the circulation of the Old.
            Come sir, we’ll further parley by the fire.
            Escort this minister to my retreat.
                                           Exit Alvarado, Sandoval, Teuhtlilli, and servant.
            Well now, young lady. What whelp have we here?

AGUILAR           Your name, child.

MALINALLI           Malinalli.

AGUILAR             Ah, Malina.

CORTÉS        Well! Marina, then.
            I’ll sponsor you, in my kind custody.
            Mellifluous and honey-throated dame,
            Your golden tongue must buy us a good name.                  *All exit.

Enter CORTÉS and ALVARADO.

CORTÉS
            Hail, friends, from the Atlantic potentate!
            [of ALVARADO] This wandering star is my bright satellite.

ATTENDANT
             He glitters like a flax-haired god of hell.

TEUHTLILLI    [aside]
             A god? Gaudy, perhaps.

ALVARADO                                  Hail, gentlemen.

TEUHTLILLI    [to Malinalli]
             How like a brilliant sun does he arise!
             Let’s drench them with these superfluities.

                          (Enter SANDOVAL, ESCUDERO, DÍAZ,
                          MARÍA DE ESTRADA, and GARRIDO.
             TEUHTLILLI produces the helmet, filled with gold dust.)

             Your helmet, with its brim-full quarry, sir.
             A drained mine’s monthly yield all ground to dust.
             What fortunes else, I furnish for your eyes.
                                                                              (The gifts are presented.)
CORTÉS
             See, Alvarado, how much more they give,
             When left to give it voluntarily?

TEUHTLILLI
             Will you now, otherworldly men, make march
             To where Motecuhzoma, in your name,
             Still keeps the throne warm for his ancestor?

MALINALLI
             They will enjoy the presence of the king,
             Wherever he might be, to lavish him
             And do all he might order us to do,
             For to this end, they’ve charted seven seas,
             And journeyed distant lands.

TEUHTLILLI                                          Then let them come.
             [Aside]  (Let’s see how far they’ll take their godly fraud.)
             Let us now pierce our tender tongues with thorns,
             For your divine desire, if gods you be,
             That you may taste our blood.

CORTÉS                                                    Certainly not!
             We’re no more gods than you are penitents.
             If this is all you have to offer, go.
             I’ll summon you at leisure, by and by.
                                                       (Exit Mexicans. The Spanish converse.)
SANDOVAL
             [indicating gifts] What do you make of these gratuities?

ALVARADO
             A gesture of submission.

CORTÉS                                            No, not so.
             It was to be a show of dominance:
             Great wealth in unmatched liberality,
             Which their profuse humility in giving
             Makes glorious. But they mistake their man,
             For I might mask this bounty as a meek,
             Submissive yielding, binding legally.
                                                       (Exit Cortés, Alvarado, and Sandoval.)

MARÍA DE ESTRADA
             But oh, to storm so rich a capital!

AGUILAR
             We’re far too insignificant a force.

GARRIDO
             I wish that we already lived with them.
                                                                 (Exit all but Escudero and Díaz.)

MOTECUHZOMA
            It is their chief that most perplexes me.
            Send him my greeting, and convey to him
            The gifts I have equipped for your encounter:
            A turquoise serpent mask, a pearl-decked shield
            With feathered fringe as gossamer as foam,
            I’ll send the rain god’s legendary headdress
            Of quetzal feathers, green as sprouting grass,
            Fine, snail-shell collars, dainty golden bells,
            A saffron helmet chased with dazzling stars,
            Sandals obsidian-black- What riches more,
            I have not breath in this old chest to list.

TEUHTLILLI
            By your good will, I might unfold for him
            The vestments which are worn by several gods:
            Tezcatlipoca’s mirror, and Tlaloc’s jades,
            Huitzilopochtli’s gilded helm, and such.
            If he reach straight for the regalia
            Of Quetzalcoatl- Well, who need say more?

MOTECUHZOMA
            A thoughtful move. And, if not gods themselves,
            They yet may be our wandering ancestors.
            See if their speaker is the picture of
            A homeward-bound, long-absent patriarch.
            Especially take note if he admits,
            Or claims, he is your rightful king. What more?

TEUHTLILLI
            Should I purvey a spread of birds and game,
            And mark how fluently he dines or not?
            If he is from our far-flung lineage,
            He ought to be familiar with our fare.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Do so. But if, by chance, he shuns your board,
            And does not hanker for such bill of fare,
            But rumbles with a yen for human flesh,
            Why, then allow yourself to be consumed.
            I will ensure the welfare of your wife,
            And guide your children.

TEUHTLILLI                                 As you wish, my lord.           *Exit.

TEUHTLILLI
            My family looks for me. Why, then, do I,
            Here in this hideous House of Serpents, wait?
            A hellish bestiary of constrictors.
            But now, behold where, from the grisly gate,
            Our golden eagle lights like daybreak’s rays.
                                                                    Enter MOTECUHZOMA.
MOTECUHZOMA          
            Well met, bright steward. Rise, and meet me, sir.

TEUHTLILLI
            When might a mortal’s eye behold the sun?

MOTECUHZOMA
            When, sir? Why, when he dwindles in the west,
            When, blushing red and swollen full with care,
            A man might ogle with unwinking eyes
            Before his flickering orb of day winks out.
            Look up, my scout. I wish your sights were high,
            And eyed a brighter orbit for your liege.

TEUHTLILLI
            I do, your majesty.

MOTECUHZOMA                   Come, your report.

[May 1; In a Mexican-controlled territory on the Gulf Coast.]

                          Enter AGUILAR and MALINALLI.

AGUILAR             Blood.
MALINALLI         Sangre.
AGUILAR             Gold.
MALINALLI         Oro.
AGUILAR             War.
MALINALLI        Guerra.
AGUILAR            God.
MALINALLI        Dios. Yo soy Marina. Yo soy traducidora. Enough lessons, Aguilar!

AGUILAR
            Cortés insists you must perfect his tongue.
            I’ll have succeeded once I’m obsolete.

MALINALLI          
            Aguilar,
            Sometimes, I think of that Guerrero.

AGUILAR                                                                 Why?

MALINALLI
            He entered my world; now I enter his.
            At first, a forced exchange, but in the end,
            We both embrace our foster families,
            And shall go as enigmas to our graves.

AGUILAR
            Hush now, here comes that meddling Mexican.

                     (Enter TEUHTLILLI, with two attendants.)

MALINALLI
            Where do you come from?

TEUHTLILLI
                                                                 From where do I come?
            From Mexico.

MALINALLI                         You may, or you may not.
            Perhaps you tease. I know we all would like
            To claim that we’re from Mexico these days.

TEUHTLILLI
            I come to greet my sovereign, who is here.

MALINALLI [to Aguilar]
            He says he’s here to meet his sovereign lord.

AGUILAR
            You err, my dear. He must’ve said, “your lord.”

MALINALLI
            In fact, he claims his king is here with us.

AGUILAR
            Captain, come forth! Our emissary’s here.
            And, sir- I’d look as kingly as you can.

MOTECUHZOMA
            If, past this moment, you persist in lies,
            Know I shall bury you beneath my halls,
            Pull down your house till sludge seeps through the planks,
            And wipe your family name from off the earth,
            Yea, to the unborn fragments in the womb.
            Now, wouldn’t you recant this little fib?

FISHERMAN
            Forgive me lord, but what I tell is truth.

TLACAELEL
            Most like it is.

MOTECUHZOMA             Then know, you brave, bold slave,
            These spectral archipelagos you saw,
            Were giantlike canoes, with alien crew.
                                        He gestures to a servant, who produces a trunk.
            One year ago, the waves cast up this trunk
            Of jewels, foreign frocks, and silver swords:
            Most like, the precious jetsam of this launch.

FISHERMAN
            May my aviso aid your eminence.

MOTECUHZOMA
            One see him nobly boarded in our suites.
                                                                  Exit Servant with the Fisherman.

                                       Enter a Majordomo.
                    
TLACAELEL
            Well, watch, where are your hocus-pocus wards?

MAJORDOMO          My lord, command that I be cut to pieces or whatever you wish, for you should know that when I reached the cell, there was no one there. I had my best sentries there, trustworthy men I’ve known for years, but none of them heard the sorcerers escape.

TLACAELEL
            Then how, pray tell me, have they flown the coop?

MAJORDOMO
            Perhaps they flapped away.

TLACAELEL                                       What, gallows-meat?
          
MAJORDOMO        They can sprinkle themselves with fern-spores, and
shimmer into invisibility.

TLACAELEL
            Buzz, buzz! These twice-told tales upend my trust.
            Rope’s end-

MOTECUHZOMA          No. Suffer him.

TLACAELEL                                             As you see fit.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Some say such wizards take wing every night,
            And soar unto the fringes of the earth.

TLACAELEL
            His majesty’s broad magnanimity
            Has spared you this time, turnkey, but repair.
            Not all wards will be such skilled hide-and-seeks.

MOTECUHZOMA
            Now: Torch the hovels of their families,
            And witness if those new lighthouses’ beacons
            Will call their wandering rooks home to re-roost.
                                                                                     Exit Majordomo.
TLACAELEL
            And what of these vast dugouts?

MOTECUHZOMA                                        Time will tell.
            Our steward Teuhtlilli eastward creeps,
            To see what tricks are offered from the deeps.             *They exit.