From this time, too, power seems to have shifted to
the Thames valley and southeast Britain. Except for
short periods, political and economic power has
remained in the southeast ever since. Hill-forts
replaced henges as the centres of local power, and
most of these were found in the southeast,
suggesting that the land successfully supported more
people here than elsewhere.
There was another reason for the shift of power
eastwards. A number of better-designed bronze
swords have been found in the Thames valley,
suggesting th at the local people had more advanced
metalworking skills. Many of these swords have
been found in river beds, almost certainly thrown
in for religious reasons. This custom may be the
origin of the story of the legendary King Arrhur's
sword, which was given to him from out of the
water and which was thrown back into the water
when he died.
One conqueror in particular, a former student of law named Hernando Cortez, was possessed by the wildest ambition. He wanted to march deep into the heart of the country and seize all its legendary treasures. In 1519 he left the coast at the head of 150 Spanish soldiers, thirteen horsemen and a few cannons. The Indians had never seen a white man before. Nor had they seen a horse. Horrified by the cannons, they were convinced that the Spanish bandits were powerful magicians, or even gods. Still, they made many brave attempts to defend themselves,attacking the soldiers by day as they marched and in their camp at night.But from the outset Cortez took terrible revenge, setting fire to villages and killing Indians in their thousands.
Tella knew Scarlett thought she was lazy. But Tella had a theory: Neat rooms were easy to rifle through and search undetected because it was simple to put carefully placed things exactly where they’d been. But messes, on the other hand, were difficult to re-create. With one sweeping gaze, Tella could see no one had been brave enough to lay a finger on her personal disaster.
This was why love was so dangerous. Love turned the world into a garden, so beguiling it was easy to forget that rose petals were as ephemeral as feelings, eventually they would wilt and die, leaving nothing but the thorns.
Death would have to try harder if he wanted to take her back, and she was not about to let him do that. If she perished there’d also be no one to take care of Scarlett, to make sure her sister had all the proper adventures and kissed more boys than just Julian. Scarlett deserved all the kisses. Maybe Tella wanted more kisses too, ones that wouldn’t end in death.