Chapter Summaries

Xolotl faced the Purple Grass Family’s attempt to bargain against the kingdom’s seizure of its southern lands. Medina’s seductive dance nearly overcame him, but he held firm, and she left with the family’s forced relocation still in place.

• Xolotl ordered the armies to secure Apatzingan and Kuramo City and isolate the southern nobles.
• Medina entered Xolotl’s tent on behalf of the Guramo family and offered to surrender most of its land and people in exchange for keeping its north-shore manor.
• Xolotl refused and insisted that the Purple Grass Family leave the south and surrender the north shore of Atoyac Lake.
• Medina performed the Huastec Cat Dance, but Xolotl resisted her advances and ordered Guramo to accept an enfeoffment north of the Lerma River.
• Xolotl offered Guramo additional able-bodied people to help build his northern domain, then had Bertad escort Medina back with hot honey tea.
• Medina told Xolotl she admired him and wanted to offer herself, leaving him dazed as she departed.

Xolotl welcomed Medina after she claimed Guramo had abandoned her and that she feared returning to Purple Grass Manor. After accepting her into the kingdom and kissing her, he was betrayed when she attacked him with a dagger, leaving him wounded as guards surrounded them.

• Xolotl and Bertad planned to form a new Purple Grass Legion under Etalic, drawing troops from Etalic's forces, the surrendered Tarasco, the Tuntian Army, and local militia.
• Medina came to Xolotl's tent and begged him to take her in, saying Guramo had abandoned her and would kill her if she returned.
• Medina told Xolotl about her painful upbringing and her mother's death, and Xolotl comforted her and accepted her into the kingdom as a priestess.
• Medina and Xolotl kissed, but she suddenly stabbed at him with a dark-blue dagger; his Bronze Armor blocked the blow to his waist.
• Medina pursued Xolotl as he retreated, cut his arm, and was surrounded by Bertad and the guards; she told the wounded king she had caught him and wanted them to go to the Underworld together.

Medina tried to kill Xolotl with poison on her fingernails, then took her own life after explaining that she wanted freedom and revenge. Xolotl survived, ordered her buried with a rose, and commanded the Imperial Guard Legion to march south and sacrifice Guramo.

• Bertad knocked Medina down and demanded an antidote after she wounded Xolotl, while Medina insisted there was none.
• Medina explained that her clan chief had sent her to assassinate Xolotl, and said she had chosen death to escape being used and to take her enemies with her.
• Medina clawed her throat and died, while Xolotl and Bertad believed the king had been poisoned.
• The herbal priests discovered that the dagger held harmless Indigo Dye and that Medina's fingernails carried deadly frog poison, which had not entered Xolotl's wound.
• Xolotl ordered Bertad to bury Medina with her pottery jar and a rose, then commanded the Imperial Guard Legion to march south at dawn and sacrifice Guramo.

Guramo prepared the Purple Grass Family to rebel after arranging Medina’s attempt to assassinate the king. He returned to Kuramo City and mobilized his agents, leaving the family’s fate to one decisive move.

• Guramo watched the Capital Region Legion’s camp and prayed for the Moon Goddess Haratana, believing Medina’s poison might have killed the king.
• Guramo ordered two exhausted dancers and musicians killed, then continued toward Kuramo City with his guards.
• Near the Crow Family’s manor, Guramo sent Sage to tell Little Crow the king had been assassinated and Allspice to accuse the Crow Family of rebellion if the Capital Region Legion arrived.
• After reaching Kuramo City, Guramo sent Cranberry and Evolvulus to contact the militia, then ordered Sweetgum to approach Etalic and poison him if necessary.
• Guramo set out for the Purple Grass manor to mobilize the family warriors, while silently considering an eastern escape route if the rebellion failed.

After visiting a solitary grave, Xolotl ordered his army south toward Kuramo City. At the Capital Region Legion, Puapu and Oltar secured orders to march south, then resolved to eliminate evidence of their ties to Guramo before the king arrived.

• Xolotl watched a hummingbird visit a grave outside Oto City, then ordered the army to march forty li a day and reach Kuramo City within five days.
• Olorosh learned that the Crow Family was gathering warriors and accused it of rebellion, while Puapu and Oltar asked him to delay action for half a day.
• Olorosh ordered Puapu to take two thousand men against Purple Grass Manor and sent Oltar to support Kuramo City.
• Puapu and Oltar admitted they had exchanged letters with Guramo and feared the commander suspected them of disloyalty.
• Puapu and Oltar decided to erase their loose ends before Xolotl arrived, then led their four thousand warriors south past the Crow Family manor toward Kuramo City.

Etalic and his Mexica Warriors held the Main God temple atop Kuramo City’s pyramid against the Purple Grass Family’s rebellion. As the defenders’ food and water dwindled, Etalic saw signs that reinforcements were near and prepared for the rebels’ final assault.

• Etalic directed more than five hundred Mexica Warriors and Temple Guards in a layered defense of the pyramid, repelling repeated attacks by the Kuramo militia and Purple Grass warriors.
• Etalic recalled how a Purple Grass assassin had poisoned one of his guards and how insiders helped rebels ambush his camp, killing more than three hundred of his thousand warriors.
• Etalic led the surviving troops in a breakout to the pyramid, where they endured two days of fighting and inflicted heavy losses on the rebels.
• Guramo gathered militia on three sides of the pyramid and brought nine Bronze Armor elites and more than three hundred warriors forward for a final assault.
• Etalic judged that Guramo was committing his remaining elites too soon and praised the Main God, believing his Highness was safe and reinforcements were close.

Guramo led a massive rebel assault on the Mexica Warriors defending the pyramid in Kuramo City, while Etalic committed his forces to hold the lines. As the battle turned desperate, a northern legion arrived, and the Mexica defenders rallied under the Main God’s banner.

• Guramo sent waves of archers and javelin men up the pyramid, using conscripted civilians to exhaust the Royal Archers’ arrows, and Etalic recognized the deception.
• Guramo urged thousands of rebels to charge, and Etalic blew the Aztec Death Whistle as fighting erupted across all four sides of the pyramid.
• The rebels began to break through the southern defenses, so Etalic sent forty heavy-armored warriors to counterattack while Guramo committed reserves and personal guards to the battle.
• Etalic saw that his troops were nearing exhaustion as Guramo prepared to finish off the royal army, but a northern ox-horn call announced the arrival of reinforcements.
• The War Priest spotted thousands of kingdom warriors approaching Kuramo City and rallied the defenders by proclaiming that the Three Gods were dead and the Main God was supreme.

Guramo tried to hold Kuramo City against the arriving royal army, while Oltar and Puapu moved to crush the rebellion. Puapu realized Guramo was not on the city wall and rushed to Purple Grass Manor to catch him.

• Guramo heard the royal army’s horns and feared Medina’s assassination attempt had failed and his rebellion was doomed.
• Guramo deceived the Kuramo leaders by claiming the arriving Purepecha Warriors had come to join the rebellion, then went to the north gate with a small escort.
• Oltar’s Sky Warriors attacked Kuramo’s north wall, but Guramo’s apparent stand and the defenders’ counterattack forced them to pause.
• Puapu arrived, recognized that the masked leader was not Guramo, and ordered the Purepecha Warriors to surround Kuramo City.
• Puapu hurried toward Purple Grass Manor, hoping to intercept Guramo before he escaped.

Grey Earth Puapu and Sky Oltar destroyed the Purple Grass Family’s manor while searching for Guramo and his secret letters, but Guramo escaped by boat with a Jade Talisman. General Etalic found two secret letters on a dead warrior at the Great Temple.

• Puapu interrogated the captured Purple Grass clansmen and learned that Guramo had fled south toward the lake.
• Oltar reported that the city had fallen and that General Etalic was unharmed, while Puapu realized Guramo might have taken the secret letters.
• Puapu and Oltar searched Guramo’s secret chamber, found a wall of preserved women’s heads instead of the letters, and ordered the Purple Grass Family killed and its manor burned.
• Guramo watched the manor burn from Atoyac Lake, then sailed east with his remaining followers while carrying a Jade Talisman marked with a Chinese character.
• General Etalic examined a dead man’s belongings near the Great Temple and found two secret letters inside a bloodstained leather pouch.

Xolotl took control of Purple Grass County after the rebellion and agreed to punish Kuramo’s rebels while authorizing a religious tribunal to pursue false-god believers. The chapter ended as Etalic presented secret letters linking the Purple Grass Family to Purepecha generals.

• Old Crow surrendered the Crow Family’s fief, and Xolotl rewarded the family with new lands and permission to retain one thousand registered people.
• Xolotl arrived in Kuramo City and ordered twenty thousand people connected to the rebellion reduced to serfs and sent north.
• Chief Priest Itri asked to expand the Temple Guard and establish teams empowered to pursue false-god believers, and Xolotl approved the tribunal squads.
• Xolotl ordered confirmed stubborn believers sent to Tingambato Mine and offered Itri the prospect of leading a separate tribunal.
• Etalic gave Xolotl secret letters from the Purple Grass Family that implicated many Purepecha generals.

Xolotl uncovered a conspiracy by hereditary nobles Puapu and Oltar to enthrone an old prince and seize control of the kingdom if he died on the northern expedition. After consolidating royal control in the south and preparing to confront the southwestern rebellion, he summoned the two nobles and confronted them with their letters.

• Xolotl read secret letters revealing that Puapu and Oltar planned to unite Purepecha nobles, enthrone an old prince, and take control of the kingdom if Xolotl died.
• Xolotl ordered the Imperial Guard Legion to take over Kuramo City's defenses, while Chief Priest Itri's examinations identified poor believers who could avoid being sent north as serfs.
• Ezpan reported that the Second Spear Legion had taken control of central Purple Grass County and that two rebellious noble families had been annihilated.
• Black Wolf's Guachichil Legion raided southwestern mountain settlements and Tecos gathering places, prompting Xolotl to delay Ezpan's westward advance.
• Puapu and Oltar returned to Kuramo City and entered the guarded temple unarmed to meet Xolotl.
• Xolotl showed the two nobles their secret letters and demanded to know which Prince of Tarasco they intended to enthrone.

Xolotl questioned Sky Oltar and Grey Earth Puapu over secret letters plotting disloyalty, then spared them and punished them by stripping their commands and assigning them to new posts. He purged the Capital Region Legion and turned his attention to a decisive pursuit battle near Apatzingan City.

• Sky Oltar and Grey Earth Puapu admitted writing the secret letters but claimed they had been deceived and knew nothing about the supposed Prince of Tarasco.
• Xolotl ordered guards to stage their beheading, then spared them and had each given twenty lashes.
• Xolotl removed Oltar from command of the Sky Warrior Battalion and transferred him to the Tuntian Army, while he exiled Puapu to the Talsas River’s southwestern sea mouth.
• Xolotl renamed the Sky Warrior Battalion and Tzintzuntzan Warrior Battalion and ordered a purge of the Capital Region Legion.
• Over ten days, Xolotl’s forces dismissed and exiled dozens of officers and more than a hundred warriors before he burned the secret letters and pledged not to pursue past offenses.
• Near Apatzingan City, a crucial pursuit battle entered its final stage.

Zotor led Palm warriors into a valley to trap a fleeing Dog-kin chieftain, unaware that the Red-hair Hunters were waiting on the cliffs. As the hunters unleashed a volley, Zotor’s fate was left uncertain.

• Zotor pursued a raiding band of red-haired barbarians and drove them into a valley near Apatzingan City.
• Zotor reflected on the attacks across the region and the uncertain support of the western and southeastern Tecos tribes, while Chimali’s southwestern Tecos gathered to aid the Palm Family.
• Zotor and three hundred Palm warriors cornered the Wolf Robe chieftain and more than a hundred Red-hair Hunters at the valley’s far end.
• The Wolf Robe chieftain gave a howl, revealing hundreds of Red-hair Hunters hidden on the cliffs, who fired a volley at Zotor.

Ozoma and Masat led the Guachichil warriors in a successful ambush that killed Palm chieftain Zotor and routed his army. At Apatzingan City, Toltec abandoned a costly assault and marched west to strike Chimali’s stronghold while leaving troops to delay his advancing force.

• Masat lured Zotor’s Palm warriors into a valley, where Ozoma’s hunters ambushed them and killed the chieftain.
• Ozoma and Masat led the Guachichil forces in a sweeping attack that killed two thousand Palm warriors, captured five hundred, and drove the survivors back to Apatzingan City.
• The Dog-kin piled two thousand severed heads near Apatzingan’s walls, frightening the city’s defenders into abandoning hopes of fighting outside the city.
• Toltec tested Apatzingan’s defenses with an attack, then ordered a retreat when its archers and defenders inflicted heavy casualties.
• Toltec left five hundred men to watch Apatzingan and ordered two thousand troops to delay Chimali while he led the rest west to attack the great Shield tribe’s stronghold.

Black Wolf led the Guachichil Legion on a rapid raid to Hand-Snake City and launched a surprise assault on the unprepared stronghold. His warriors breached the walls, and Black Wolf ordered them to seize the granaries and kill the city's defenders.

• Tecos survivors fled to Hand-Snake City and warned the noble chiefs that northern barbarians had attacked their grain column.
• Black Wolf arrived outside Hand-Snake City with Red-hair Hunters and Guachichil warriors after breaking through Tecos defenses along the Kan River.
• Black Wolf ordered Ozoma's hunters to fire on the defenders while Dailu and Masat prepared the warriors to storm the walls.
• The Red-hair Hunters killed defenders and threw the city's hastily assembled garrison into disarray.
• Dailu and Masat led the warriors over the walls, and Black Wolf charged into the city, ordering his soldiers to seize the granaries and kill the enemy.

After capturing Hand-Snake City, Black Wolf learned that the Tecos had abundant grain and thousands of women and children but that his three thousand warriors could not transport them. He chose to burn the Tecos’ food supplies across a wide campaign route, hoping to force more than a hundred thousand people to surrender.

• Dailu reported that two thousand Tecos had been executed, while Red monkey reported that the city held about seven thousand women and children and enough grain to feed fifty thousand people for a year.
• Red monkey explained that most southwestern tribes lived along the Kan River and that villages beyond Hand-Snake City held more than twenty thousand people, though much of their grain had gone to Chimali’s army.
• Black Wolf rejected Dailu’s suggestion to kill the captives and agreed with Red monkey’s plan to burn surplus grain and Chimali’s provisions.
• Black Wolf planned to sweep southwest from Hand-Snake City to the great lake, then travel east along the shore to the Talsas River, burning Tecos villages and their grain along nearly seven hundred li.
• Black Wolf planned to take boats north from the Talsas River to Kuramo City, leaving the Tecos with the choice of starvation or surrender.

Black Wolf led the Guachichil Legion through the southwestern Tecos lands, burning villages, scattering defenders, and seizing food and boats as he advanced along the Pacific coast. By January 11, the army had reached Nespa and was nearing the Talsas River, where Black Wolf planned to carve a monument to its campaign.

• Black Wolf’s legion burned Hand-Snake City and nearby villages, released seven thousand women and children to flee north, and marched south.
• The Guachichil Legion ambushed and routed two thousand Tecos militia near Wild Mountain Village, then burned the settlement and drove its residents away.
• Black Wolf chose the coastal route instead of attacking Fire River City, and ordered the villages of allied coastal communities stripped of their people and grain.
• At Palm Bay, Black Wolf’s forces seized dugout canoes and provisions, conscripted fishermen, and continued southeast while creating tens of thousands of Tecos refugees.
• After reaching Nespa, Black Wolf learned that the Talsas River was nearby and ordered his men to carve a stone stele on a sacred mountain to record their campaign.

Black Wolf's Dog-kin army reached Trout Village, where Mavik prepared a feast and identified a nearby sacred mountain he wanted to visit. As Black Wolf and Mavik set out with warriors, a scout reported several hundred warriors approaching from the east.

• Black Wolf ordered the central army to split into teams and requisition grain from nearby villages on the way to the Talsas River.
• Mahuo secretly sent runners toward the river mouth to find the newly arrived warrior lords.
• Mavik prepared silverfish soup and orange-stuffed roasted trout for Black Wolf, making Mahuo help tend the fire.
• Mavik told Black Wolf about a sacred mountain nearby where priests had once tried to sacrifice him, and Black Wolf ordered him to lead the way.
• A scout reported that several hundred warriors had arrived from the east, and Black Wolf and Mavik grew wary while Mahuo looked pleased.

Black Wolf met Grey Earth Puapu outside Trout Village and requisitioned his remaining troops before heading to God Mountain to record his campaign. There, a priest revealed a mysterious power over indigo stones and confronted the warriors.

• Black Wolf told Grey Earth Puapu that he had burned Hand-Snake City and learned that Grey Earth no longer commanded the Tzintzuntzan camp.
• Black Wolf accused Grey Earth of involvement in Guramo's assassination, then lowered his sword after Grey Earth swore his loyalty to the king.
• Black Wolf requisitioned Grey Earth's three hundred warriors and seventy dugout canoes, then decided to visit God Mountain before returning to the kingdom.
• Black Wolf, Mavik, Grey Earth, and two hundred Dog-kin warriors traveled to God Mountain despite Mahuo's warning about angering its Mountain God.
• A Mountain God priest emerged with his guards and used indigo stones to form a single sphere, which he called the Mountain God's Gaze.

Black Wolf’s expedition confronted the priests of God Mountain, but Grey Earth Puapu killed them before they could summon the Mountain God. Black Wolf dismantled the sacrificial altar and carved a monument recording his victories, leaving the mountain with his achievements and praise for the king engraved in stone.

• The God Mountain priest demonstrated the divine stones and warned Black Wolf to leave, but Black Wolf insisted on taking a stone to record his merit.
• Grey Earth Puapu attacked and killed the old priest, then slew the two other priests and helped defeat the mountain guards.
• Black Wolf accepted the divine stones as spoils, searched the priests’ huts, and climbed to the mountaintop altar with his men.
• Black Wolf ordered the altar dismantled and the human remains burned, then carved an account of his victories into the largest stone.
• At Puapu’s suggestion, Black Wolf added praise for the Main God and the king, along with the date, and celebrated his accomplishments.