Tom Holland

But as far as they know, it's loyal to Manco.

So that's fine.

But the problem is the northern third.

So that's modern-day Ecuador and southern Colombia.

That is Atahualpa's heartland.

You know, the civil war in the minds of the people of the North is still going on, and the Spaniards are merely a new factor in this war.

And one of Atahualpa's achievements during his imprisonment had been to spare Quito and the north from the attentions of the Spaniards, hasn't it?

He'd sent all the looting parties southwards.

Yes, exactly.

So if the Spaniards want to unite the empire under Manco, they will have to beat Atahualpa's former generals, two of whom, I mean, they've already burned Chalcochima, but two of them are on the loose.

So one of them is this guy, Kiskis, who had previously been in Cusco.

He's been driven north from Cusco.

He still probably has about 20,000 men, so quite battle-hardened troops at this point.

Most of Kis Kis's men, although they're battle-hardened, they are exhausted.

They've been on the road for, what, two years?

And they want to go home to Ecuador.

And so he's trudging back all this time towards Ecuador with a gigantic mob.

I mean, thousands of llamas and porters carrying all their stuff.

So bear them in mind.

But there is another general up in the north who is a very ruthless man.