Simon Levack Books

Set in 1518 Mexico, the story follows Yaotl, an Aztec slave, who faces the challenge of uncovering the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of a friend's deceased wife. As he navigates the dangerous world of warriors and sorcerers, he must protect her remains from being used as a talisman. Suspicion arises when he discovers hidden motives among her family and associates, leading to a tense investigation filled with violent deaths. Yaotl must determine whether he is pursuing a thief or becoming prey to a killer.

Mexico, 1517. The Aztec capital is awash with fear and rumours. A strange figure has been seen running through the streets. A being with the face of a snake, his body covered in glittering green plumage: Quetzalcoatl - the Feathered Serpent. Is it an omen? Or is it the god himself, come to warn of impending disaster? Yaotl, the Chief Minister's slave, has more immediate matters to worry about. Engaged in a desperate search for his son, he's on the run from his vengeful master, the all-powerful Lord Feathered-in-Black. Attempting to escape his master's bloodthirsty warriors, Yaotl stumbles on a dismembered, unrecognisable corpse. As he pieces together the clues to who the dead man was and how he died, Yaotl finds himself drawn into an affair of greed, jealousy and lust among the ancient, secretive society of the feather workers, the Aztec's foremost craftsmen.

Mexico-Tenochtitlan, in the year Twelve-House: the vast, teeming city of the Aztecs at the height of its glory. As the novel opens, the Chief Minister's trusted slave Yaotl is escorting a sacrificial victim up the steps of the Great Pyramid to celebrate the Festival of the Raising of Banners. Used to the bloodstained rites of the War-God's priests, Yaotl is unperturbed at the ritual slaughter of the so-called Flowery Death. When the victim runs amok and leaps to his death before he can be sacrified, Yaotl's only worry is how to explain it to his master. But when more bodies start to appear and the Emperor Montezuma starts asking questions about the soothsayers who have vanished from his impregnable prison, Yaotl realises he needs some answers soon. The secrets he uncovers will unlock nightmares from his own youth and threaten the future of everything he knows.