Temple by Matthew Reilly Read Free Book Online Page B

the

Incan people, were positioned outside the city walls.

In other words, the Incans were laying siege to their own

To be fair, this situation came about as the result of a long

complicated chain of events. In 1533, my Spanish countrymen rode
into Cuzco unopposed and, at first, they were

to the Incans. It was only when they began to per-

the full extent of the riches within the city walls that any
pretence of civility vanished.

My countrymen pillaged Cuzco with a frenzy never before

Native men were brutally enslaved. Native women ,,vere ravaged.
Gold was melted down by the wagonload—after

which time the Incans began calling my Spanish countrymen
'gold-eaters'. Apparently, they thought that my countrymen's
insatiable lust for gold stemmed from our need to eat it.

By 1535, the Sapa Inca—Renco's brother, Manco Capac—

until that time been conciliatory in nature toward my

. fled the capital for the mountains and assembled an enormous army
with .which he planned to retake Cuzco.

The Incan army—100 000 strong, but armed only with sticks and clubs
and arrows—descended upon the city of Cuzco in a fury and they took
Sacsayhuaman, the massive stone citadel overlooking the city, in a
day. The Spaniards

took refuge inside the city walls.

And so the siege began.

It would last for three months.

Nothing on this earth could have prepared me for the sight that I
beheld when I rode through the enormous stone tollgates at the
northern end of the Cuzco valley.

It was night, but it might as well have been day. Fires

burned everywhere, both within the city walls and without.

It looked like Hell itself.

The largest force of men I have ever seen filled the valley before
me, an undulating mass of humanity pouring down from the citadel on
the hill toward the city—100 000 Incans, all of them on foot,
shouting and screaming and waving torches and weapons. They had the
entire city surrounded.

Inside the city walls, fires could be seen ravaging the stone
buildings situated there.

Renco rode ahead of me, right into the seething mass of people, and
like the Red Sea for Moses, the crowd parted for him.

And as it did so, an enormous roar went up from the Incans, a cheer
of rejoice, a shout of such fervour and cele bration that it made
the hairs on my neck stand on end.

It was as if they had all recognised Renco instantly— despite the
fact that he was dressed in Spanish clothing—and stood aside for
him. It was as if every single one of them knew of his mission and
would do their utmost to allow him every possible haste in
effecting it.

Renco and I charged through the teeming mass of people, galloping
at tremendous speed as the hordes of cheering Incans opened up
before us and urged us on.

We dismounted near the base of the mighty fortress Sac- sayhuaman
and walked quickly through a crowd of Indian warriors.

As we walked through the Incan ranks, I saw that numer ous stakes
had been driven into the ground all around us.

Mounted on top of the stakes were the bloodied heads of Spanish
soldiers. On some stakes, the entire bodies of cap tured Spaniards
had been impaled. Their heads and feet had been hacked off. I
walked quickly, mindful to stay close behind my friend Renco.

Then all at once, the crowd in front of us parted and I saw,
standing before me at one of the entrances to the giant stone
fortress, an Indian dressed in a most glorious manner.

He wore a dazzling red cape and a gold-plated necklace and on his
head sat a magnificent jewel-encrusted crown. He

was surrounded by an entourage of at least twenty warriors and
attendants.

It was Manco. The Sapa Inca.

Manco embraced Renco and they exchanged words in Quechuan, the
Incans' language. Renco later translated it for me thus:

'Brother,' said the Sapa Inca. 'We were anxious as to your
whereabouts. We heard that you had been captured, or worse, killed.
And you are the only one who is permitted to enter the vault and
rescue the—'

'Yes, brother, I know,' said