Chapter Summaries

Columbus learned that Portuguese ships were pursuing the Santa Maria and urged De La Cosa to sail openly to Lisbon and announce their discovery. De La Cosa embraced the plan and made Columbus captain again, leaving Columbus stunned.

• De La Cosa told Columbus that the Portuguese navy was pursuing them and would catch them within days.
• De La Cosa drew his cutlass, intending to silence Columbus to protect the secret of the new route from Portugal.
• Columbus argued that the Treaty of Alcáçovas gave Castile claim to the Atlantic and insisted the Queen would learn of his return.
• Columbus proposed raising Castile’s banner and sailing straight into Lisbon to announce the new route publicly.
• De La Cosa dropped his knife, embraced Columbus, and appointed him captain for the voyage to Lisbon.
• Columbus mistook De La Cosa’s embrace for an attack before realizing he had been made captain again.

Lorenzo and Giovanni met with the Venetian guild steward Isaac in Lisbon to discuss Portuguese trade and the growing flow of Southern Continent gold. Lorenzo left seeking more spice supplies and reliable information about Portuguese gold production, including a private meeting with Isaac’s naval-officer contact.

• Eleazar welcomed Lorenzo and Giovanni to his Lisbon warehouse and showed them the busy harbor and Portuguese fleet.
• Giovanni insulted the use of forks as unfit for a true knight, embarrassing Eleazar and his servant Ivan.
• Lorenzo told Isaac that Venice wanted to secure more spices because Ottoman supplies were limited and expensive.
• Lorenzo asked for clear details about Portuguese gold-mine output and coin production, and a private meeting with Isaac’s Portuguese naval-officer contact.

Lorenzo explained to Eleazar how the peninsula crusade had made the Italian city-states and the Church rich through loans, arms sales, and the sale of plunder. He revealed that the Castilians had already repaid much of their debt by looting Granada, while Italy and the Church held the real power over Castile’s future.

• Lorenzo told Eleazar that Venice held about one million gold Ducats in creditor claims and earned roughly 150,000 Ducats in annual interest from the crusade’s debts.
• Eleazar questioned how Venice could recover its large loans to Castile and its impoverished knights.
• Lorenzo said Castile had repaid more than half its debt within a year of the crusade’s end by taking Granada’s wealth, enslaving Moorish captives, and selling royal treasures.
• Lorenzo explained that Castile had sold nearly all its spoils to the Italian city-states and the Church, which supported Castile so long as it kept repaying its debts.
• Lorenzo said the Church held the knights’ collateral and could make those unable to repay their interest serve through further war and plunder.

In Lisbon, Lorenzo and Eleazar discussed Castile’s persecution of Moors and Jews and waited for a Portuguese naval officer who had vanished with a fleet. Giovanni watched the harbor as a battered ship pursued by Portuguese vessels charged into Lisbon and raised Castile’s royal flag, leaving the onlookers stunned by the apparent clash between Castile and Portugal.

• Lorenzo warned Eleazar to avoid Castile, where the Alhambra Decree and Inquisition threatened Moors and Jews with expulsion, execution, and confiscation.
• Eleazar pledged loyalty to Venice and offered to gather intelligence about Portuguese gold mines, but said the naval officer he hoped to meet had disappeared after Portuguese ships sailed to hunt northern pirates.
• Giovanni admired the Portuguese ships in the harbor and dreamed of earning honor through a voyage to the Southern Continent.
• Cannon-like sounds drew Lorenzo and Giovanni to the window, where they saw a large ship charging into Lisbon Harbor while Portuguese warships pursued it.
• The battered ship raised Castile’s royal flag, shocking Lorenzo and Giovanni and raising the prospect of war between Castile and Portugal.

Columbus crashed the Santa Maria into Lisbon’s pier and publicly announced that he had discovered a western sea route to the eastern lands, offering his charts and gold to Queen Isabella. Bruno captured Columbus and the crew, but the crowd witnessed the claims, making it impossible to keep the news from Castile.

• Lorenzo and the Venetians feared that Castile’s arrival in Lisbon could trigger a war with Portugal and ruin their financial claims.
• Bruno pursued the damaged Santa Maria but ordered his men to hold fire when they realized Castilian sailors and possibly nobles were aboard.
• Columbus drove the Santa Maria into the pier, wrecking its bow, then stood on the wreckage and proclaimed his discovery before the people of Lisbon.
• De La Cosa brought Shushu onto the deck as proof of the voyage, while Columbus presented nautical charts and gold to the crowd.
• Bruno knocked Columbus down, gagged him, and ordered the Portuguese soldiers to bind and search the crew.
• Bruno realized that witnesses would carry news of the capture and Columbus’s claims to Castile within days.

King John II and his court debated whether Columbus had truly reached the East, while John concluded that the voyage had found unknown lands rather than India or Cipangu. He weighed the danger of public rumors and conflict with Castile, then ordered Columbus brought before him.

• Portuguese scholars and advisers argued over the sailors’ testimony, the native Columbus brought back, and whether his voyage could have reached the East.
• King John II reviewed interrogation records and recalled why Columbus’s navigation plan had seemed impossible, though the sailors’ accounts supported that he had found islands and a great land.
• John judged that Columbus had discovered unknown lands, not India or Cipangu, and worried that Lisbon’s rumors would draw foreign attention to Portugal’s eastern route.
• Nuno warned John that killing Columbus could turn the false story into a real conflict with Castile, and John agreed to respond rationally.
• John II ordered his men to summon Don Christopher Columbus.

Columbus was taken from a Lisbon prison to meet King John II, while the chapter described Portugal’s military history and its limited ability to field a large army. After being searched and roughed up by Ruben’s guards, Columbus greeted the king cautiously in the palace hall.

• Portuguese guards brought Columbus from prison to Pena Palace at King John II’s summons.
• Ruben’s guards searched Columbus and showed him the royal guard, whose traditions and battlefield record against Castile were described.
• The chapter recounted Portugal’s roughly twenty-thousand-man wartime limit and its retreat from the Castilian War of Succession.
• Columbus mocked the Portuguese and Ruben ordered the guards to search him again, prompting them to rough him up.
• Columbus entered King John II’s hall, bowed, and praised the king with wary obedience.

Columbus asked King John II to pardon his fleet and release its crew, claiming he had reached India and Cipangu by sailing west. Portuguese scholars challenged his claims with the voyage distance and evidence about the islanders, leaving Columbus unable to prove that he had reached the East.

• Columbus recounted his voyage and asked King John II to forgive the Santa Maria’s collision and release the detained crew.
• King John II withheld his response and invited his court scholars to assess Columbus’s claims.
• Leonor calculated that Columbus had sailed at most 3,500 nautical miles before reaching land and mocked him for claiming that distance led to India.
• Columbus defended his discovery by citing the sailors’ testimony, the islanders’ cotton and gold, and a native he had brought back.
• Sebastiao compared the islanders’ homes, tools, food, clothing, and religious practices with accounts of India and concluded that they did not match.

Columbus defended his claim that he had reached India and Cipangu, but John II ruled that he had found only Atlantic islands and ordered him to pay compensation before release. As guards moved to return him to prison, Columbus revealed that he had found a book with unfamiliar square writing, and John II recognized it as a potentially significant eastern letter.

• Columbus argued that the islands and native kingdom he encountered were India and Cipangu, while Sebastiao and Leonor challenged his claims.
• Leonor told John II that Columbus had discovered Atlantic islands, not the eastern lands, and John II agreed with the court scholars.
• John II said Columbus could be released after paying damages, but declared that Portugal did not recognize his claim to the islands or his title as governor.
• Columbus angrily insisted that he had reached Cipangu and swore that his discovery was real.
• When guards came to take him away, Columbus claimed he had irrefutable evidence: a native book bearing unfamiliar square writing.
• John II recognized the description as resembling the eastern letter Little Pero had brought back and demanded that Columbus produce the book.

Columbus presented a Japanese book written in characters resembling a Seres scroll, convincing King John II and his scholars that he had reached the Eastern by sailing west. After Columbus mocked the king and Portugal, John had him arrested and sent to a prison cell.

• Columbus recovered the hidden book from his chest, and King John II compared its writing with a Seres Thousand Character scroll.
• John II and his scholars concluded that the book used Seres characters, while they struggled to explain how Columbus's voyage fit their calculations of the earth.
• Columbus celebrated his supposed discovery and taunted John II for rejecting his plan and letting Queen Isabella claim his service.
• John II accused Columbus of six crimes against Portugal and ordered guards to imprison and interrogate him.
• Columbus begged for mercy as guards dragged him to the deepest part of the prison.

King John II concluded that Columbus’s Book of the East proved a western route to the East existed, so Portugal had to explore it before Castile seized the advantage. He ordered an expedition for autumn and approved Bruno Cao as its captain.

• Nuno warned John II that news of Columbus’s discoveries would soon reach Castile, but John II said his detention was meant to secure Portugal’s maritime interests and delay Castilian exploration.
• John II told Nuno that the book found in the Atlantic proved a western route to the East existed, and Nuno agreed Portugal could not ignore the opportunity.
• John II ordered an envoy to inform King Charles VIII of France about the route and encourage French involvement to draw Castile into conflict on land.
• John II declined to contact Henry VII for now and said Portugal must rely on its own strength and send an exploration fleet west that autumn.
• Nuno recommended Bruno Cao, citing his experience on earlier voyages and his role in capturing Columbus, and John II chose him to lead the expedition.

Director Nuno summoned Bruno Cao to Pena Palace and confronted him about his smuggling and dealings with a Venetian merchant company. After securing Bruno’s cooperation, Nuno arranged for the king to send him on a dangerous westward expedition to find a native kingdom on a great island said to have contact with the East.

• Director Nuno noticed a Venetian merchant company carriage leaving near Bruno Cao’s residence before summoning Bruno to ride with him to Pena Palace.
• Nuno accused Bruno of stealing goods from Columbus’s fleet and colluding with Venetians, and Bruno confessed to taking a small amount of gold and privately trading Southern Continent goods.
• Nuno warned Bruno that leaking kingdom secrets or cooperating with Castilians or Venetians could bring a hanging, then explained that the king planned to assign him a secret westward voyage.
• Bruno offered Nuno most of his private-trade profits, and Nuno promised to seek a baron’s title for him if he completed the mission.
• After a two-hour audience with the king, Bruno left with a nautical log and crew interrogation records, burdened with an uncertain expedition to find the island kingdom.

Bruno and his former seafaring companions prepared for a dangerous royal expedition across the Atlantic to find a distant island and investigate its links to the East. They planned to secure an interpreter and recruit the scholar Martin Behaim when the fleet stopped in the Azores.

• Bruno’s crew read the royal edict ordering two caravels to sail from Setubal in September and search for a large island thousands of nautical miles west.
• Bruno chose to arm each ship with an 8-pounder cannon, iron cannonballs, muskets, and breastplates so the fleet could keep its distance from the island’s warlike natives.
• Ivo urged Bruno to obtain the native sailor for interpreting, but Bruno learned that court scholars had already reserved him; Ivo then pointed out pilot Pedro as a useful recruit.
• Haroldo proposed bringing Martin Behaim aboard, arguing that his noble connections could help ensure a rescue if the expedition vanished.
• Bruno agreed to invite Martin aboard during the fleet’s stop in the Azores and ordered his crew to treat the scholar with courtesy and respect.

Iron Bay Town’s shipbuilders and smiths improved the kingdom’s technology, while Caro began forging its first matchlock musket. The chapter ended with the musket barrel taking shape as the kingdom prepared for further voyages.

• Antonio oversaw the conversion of a Viking-style longship into a three-masted Arab-style lateen sailboat, which sailed out of the harbor using wind power alone.
• Arana watched the new sailboat from the saltpeter fields and lamented his captivity while supervising the production of saltpeter.
• Caro upgraded Iron Bay’s furnaces, trained native apprentices, and rose to prominence as the kingdom’s Master Blacksmith.
• Caro began forging a matchlock musket barrel by wrapping wrought-iron strips around a metal tube and hammering them into a solid piece.

Black Wolf Toltec completed the destruction and forced conversion of the Deer Worm Clan while planning the Kingdom’s next moves along the Maya coast. After receiving Miawa’s letter about an agreement involving the Red Crow Tribe and Wasteland tribes, he demanded half.

• Black Wolf Toltec’s forces destroyed Moto City and forced the Deer Worm people to sacrifice their God-descendants and convert to the Main God.
• Black Wolf Toltec abandoned plans to draw the Xiu Clan into a coastal battle after Xiu Pan refused to send his main force out of the jungle.
• Black Wolf Toltec planned to leave the Chel Theocratic Chiefdom alone for now, while the Huoyan Clan’s Red Bird Huoyan converted and pledged loyalty to the Mayapan Royal Family.
• Black Wolf Toltec considered the Canul Clan’s likely response and focused on opening the eastern coast through the Ekab Chiefdom in October.
• Black Wolf Toltec read Miawa’s letter about a Red Crow Tribe agreement exchanging grain for Wasteland tribes and replied, “I want half!”

Miawa resented Xolotl’s refusal to give her more authority and reluctantly followed his order to send half the exchanged Dog-kin tribesmen to Black Wolf. At the siege of Yodzocahi, Xolotl noticed nobles and warriors praying toward the Bagua Flag and possibly toward him.

• Miawa learned that Black Wolf demanded half the exchanged Dog-kin tribesmen and had sacrificed the beauty she sent him, so she ordered a thousand tribesmen sent to the Maya coast.
• Miawa cursed Xolotl for restricting her power through the coastal Council of Four, then clutched his wooden carving and declared she would hold and devour him.
• Xolotl woke near besieged Yodzocahi, dressed in his sacrificial robes, and prayed for the dead lying around the city.
• Xolotl considered the costly siege and the approaching rainy season, recognizing that the Alliance would have to wait for the Mixtec defenders to run out of food.
• Xolotl saw nobles and warriors kneeling at the Cloud Altar and praying toward the Bagua Flag, with some appearing to face him.

Divine King Avet saw nobles and Samurai praying to Xolotl, whose prophecy of the White-Skinned Demons had been fulfilled, and realized the prophet had gained sincere devotion across the Alliance. Avet concluded that Xolotl’s influence was too firmly established to challenge without risking the royal family and the Alliance, and resolved to strengthen his own rule for the time being.

• Avet heard prayers at the mountain altar and learned from Chiwamitel that it was an auspicious day associated with life, death, and prayer.
• Avet recalled that Xolotl had been made a Priest Elder after his prophecy of the White-Skinned Demons came true, and that nobles and Samurai had begun treating him with awe.
• Chiwamitel identified several praying city-state nobles, including the elderly Luzhu, who had joined the southern holy war hoping to reach the Divine Kingdom after death.
• Avet recognized that the distant nobles’ prayers reflected heartfelt reverence for Xolotl, and compared the prophet’s growing stature to that of Tlacaelel.
• Avet judged that Xolotl’s Eagle Regiment had grown too powerful to dislodge without destabilizing the Alliance, and resolved to keep shining for its future.

Xolotl learned that Alisa had given birth to twins and, with Avet, named them Xo Mixtitlan and Xo Tlapiciloa. Avet declared that the children would inherit the eastern Mixtec Cloud Land, leaving their future territory to be conquered.

• Avet welcomed Xolotl and told him that Alisa had given birth to a boy and a girl in the Lake Capital.
• Xolotl read the news and worried about the dangers Alisa faced after taking the priestesses’ medicines to encourage twins.
• Avet advised Xolotl and Alisa to avoid those medicines and urged them to have more heirs over time.
• Avet and Xolotl chose names for the twins: Xo Mixtitlan Zotl for the boy and Xo Tlapiciloa Zotl for the girl.
• Xolotl declared the twins heirs to his bloodline, territory, and wealth, and Avet promised them a future fief in the Mixtec Cloud Land.
• Avet spread out a map and granted his two grandchildren the eastern two-thirds of the Cloud Land, from God Stone City to Tututepec.

Xolotl and Avet agreed to divide the Mixtec Cloud Land among their descendants, while Xolotl recognized that the prophecy had strengthened his political position and forced a tacit compromise with Avet. Avet then proposed granting the God Stone City valley to Xolotl and Alisa’s children and enfeoffing Xolotl’s Imperial Guards there, leaving Xolotl to respond.

• Xolotl asked whether Montezuma’s royal relatives would object to the children receiving two-thirds of the Cloud Land, and Avet declared the region would be split equally among Montezuma and his two grandsons.
• Xolotl promised to help migrate settlers and Samurai, spread the faith, and establish his children’s rule over their fiefs.
• Xolotl concluded that the White Skin Prophecy had raised his influence enough to balance Avet’s authority, and he considered their compromise and shared political interests.
• Avet told Xolotl that Ekat had crushed a Mixtec uprising in the God Stone City valley and that dozens of implicated nobles had been sacrificed.
• Avet proposed enfeoffing the God Stone City valley to Xolotl and Alisa’s children and promoting Xolotl’s Imperial Guards into military-merit nobles there.

Xolotl and Avet negotiated the enfeoffment of conquered Mixtec lands and reached a compromise that balanced their political interests. After reviewing the Western Route Army’s advance, they agreed the kingdom would supply its forces by sea, setting up a decisive push against the Mixtec heartland.

• Xolotl analyzed Avet’s proposal to distribute God Stone City’s lands among the Imperial Guard and tactfully urged delaying enfeoffment until after the autumn harvest.
• Xolotl proposed enfeoffing five hundred military-merit nobles, including surrendered Mixtec leaders, with quotas divided among the Royal Warriors, City-State Warriors, and Imperial Guard.
• Avet accepted Xolotl’s recommendations, and the two reached a tacit compromise over the lands and military appointments.
• Avet told Xolotl that the Western Route Army had advanced to the coast and was besieging Cuajinicuilapa, creating an opportunity to strike the Mixtec hinterland.
• Avet warned that the Western Route Army’s long mountain supply line was unsustainable, and Xolotl promised that the kingdom would provide sea-borne supplies and mortars.