Tom Holland

We don't know what that part is.

Very coy, these chroniclers, aren't they?

Yeah.

Extracted all the bones through a certain part, leaving the skin intact, and made him into a drum.

The shoulders formed one end of the drum, and the abdomen the other.

So, with the head, feet, and hands embalmed, he was preserved intact, but transformed...

who was preserved intact, but transformed into a kettle drum.

Goodness.

Well, you know, it's like Jan Zizka, the Hussite general, but he had himself turned into a drum after he died.

Did he?

So the story goes.

See, Ruminyawi's got this bloke as a drum, but they weren't even particularly enemies.

He's just a former ally who was stabbed in the back.

I mean, it's a good lesson to others, isn't it?

You don't mess with them.

So with this kettledrum, he now rules in Quito as an independent warlord.

I mean, he's literally kind of the king in the north, Rumiñahui.

His problem, however, is now the Spanish are after him.

So the Spanish have heard rumours that Quito is just as rich as Cuzco, and they want its gold.

Dominic, is there someone else who has heard similar rumours, who we have met in a previous series?