The Sacred Amulet

In pre-conquest Mexico, a young Aztec from the village of Atoyac named Little Serpent encounters a mortally wounded noble while out hunting. The dying man presses an ornate necklace into his hands and speaks the name Tlatli. Little Serpent becomes the prime suspect in the noble's death. When he learns his parents have been taken and a strange disease is spreading across the land, he travels to Tlatelolco to find the poet Tlatli, eventually making his way into Moctezuma's palace. He has limited time to identify the disease's source before his parents are sacrificed. The trail leads to a noble and a priestess using the disease to destabilize the emperor's rule, and to a final confrontation in the temple of the Ceremonial Center.