The King's Fifth

Set in 1541 during the era of Spanish colonization of the Americas, the novel alternates between a framing narrative, in which the protagonist awaits trial in a colonial prison, and an extended flashback recounting the expedition that led to his imprisonment.

Estéban de Sandoval, a 16-year-old Spanish cartographer, sits in a cell in the Fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, off the coast of Vera Cruz in New Spain (colonial Mexico). He faces trial before the Royal Audiencia, a colonial court, for withholding the King's Fifth, the Spanish Crown's mandatory share of any treasure found in the New World. His jailer, Don Felipe de Soto y Ríos, provides him with writing supplies because he wants Estéban to draw a map to the hidden gold. Estéban resolves instead to write down everything that happened, hoping to understand his own actions and prepare his defense.

His account begins aboard the galleon San Pedro, sailing north through the Sea of Cortés. At 15, Estéban is copying coastal charts for Admiral Alarcón's fleet, which carries supplies for Captain-General Coronado's army, then marching overland in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola, rumored to be paved with gold. Captain Blas de Mendoza visits Estéban and points to the vast blank space on the chart marked "UNKNOWN," appealing to the young mapmaker's ambition with promises of fame. Mendoza plans to seize the ship and strike inland, but Admiral Alarcón preempts the mutiny by ordering volunteers ashore. Only Mendoza's four retainers step forward. When Alarcón's gaze settles on Estéban, the young mapmaker recalls Mendoza's promise and volunteers.

The six men depart in a longboat and are nearly destroyed by a Cordonazo, a violent storm. They drift for days under brutal sun with dwindling water. One man, Lunes, one of Mendoza's musician retainers, hallucinates and slips overboard at night. By a miracle, the longboat reaches a freshwater lake marked on an old chart. After recovering, the party reunites with Torres, Mendoza's horse keeper, and the horses at a village called Avipa, where they encounter Ensign Gómez from Coronado's starving army. Mendoza lies, claiming Alarcón's ships likely sank, and silences Estéban with a glance. Estéban rationalizes his silence: He is desperate to reach Cíbola and make his map.

They join Coronado's army and meet Zia, a 13-year-old Nayarit girl who serves as guide and interpreter. She speaks six languages, wears a corncake hat hung with silver bells, and helps Estéban begin drawing maps. The army marches north through the Valley of Hearts, then reaches the ruins of Chichilticale, called Red House, where they find no gold, only an old man spinning extravagant stories of Háwikuh, where gold is so common the poor eat from gold plates. The army then endures the Despoblado, an uninhabited wilderness, on its last rations before sighting Háwikuh at dawn. The city is built of mud, not gold, glittering only with mica.

The inhabitants of Háwikuh refuse peace offerings and attack. Estéban follows the army into the city and fights hand-to-hand with a young warrior on a parapet, disarming him but unable to deliver a killing blow. Mendoza arrives and kills the wounded man. Estéban is severely injured and spends weeks recovering, tended by Zia. The army finds almost no treasure.

Mendoza obtains permission for a journey northwest. Their party of seven, including Father Francisco, a priest who collects flowers and insects, and Tigre, a large greyhound, departs Háwikuh. They descend into a vast canyon and follow a river to Nexpan, a hidden meadow ruled by Chief Quantah, where Mendoza discovers gold in a stream. Estéban finds a large nugget and feels for the first time what he describes as a fever and sickness: the intoxicating pull of gold.

Mendoza needs sheep fleece to collect gold dust, but Quantah forbids the killing of sheep. When Mendoza secretly slaughters six and the crime is discovered, the group flees. Mendoza sets the dry grass ablaze to cover their escape, and Zuñiga, one of his musician retainers, going back for extra gold, is killed by the flames. After they climb out of the canyon, Torres slashes the saddle girths and flees with two sacks of gold. Zia confronts Torres and is struck, but she and Estéban manage to keep the foal Blue Star. They spend the winter on a mesa preparing for the journey ahead.

In April, they reach Tawhi, the Cloud City, built atop a mountain. Mendoza and Estéban discover that the lake's bottom glows with gold, deposited over centuries during a ceremony in which each successive chief is coated in oil and gold dust, then washed clean. Mendoza plans to breach the earthen dam holding the lake; Estéban opposes the scheme but is overruled. At dawn the dam breaks, and the party flees with bags of gold. Mendoza sends Roa, another of his musician retainers, east to Háwikuh for extra mules, then leads the rest westward, away from the army. One evening Mendoza throws a stone at Tigre; the dog lunges and fastens his jaws on the captain's throat. Mendoza dies.

Father Francisco urges Estéban to bury the gold. Instead, seized by gold fever, Estéban takes command and leads the train south toward Culiacán rather than returning to Háwikuh. Father Francisco watches and says, "Already he is like Mendoza." Zia, seeing the same transformation, leaves the party. Before she goes, Estéban gives her Blue Star.

Estéban and Father Francisco push south into a vast, scorching depression Estéban calls the Inferno. Father Francisco grows blinded by the white alkaline dust, begs Estéban to bury the gold, and dies, having left the last of the water for Estéban along with his book of pressed flowers. Standing before the bags of gold, Estéban hears the dead priest's voice in his mind. He carries the bags to a field of sulfurous craters and drops each one into the deepest pool. Each sinking bag feels like a stone lifted from his back. He rides to Culiacán, tells his story, and is arrested.

The framing narrative tracks Estéban's trial across several sessions. Under questioning, he reveals the treasure's size: approximately 60,000 onzas (a Spanish weight measure similar to the ounce) of gold. Torres testifies falsely that Estéban threatened Mendoza, and the royal fiscal, the Crown's prosecutor, charges Estéban with murder. Zia is called as a witness. She confirms the treasure exists but states she was not present when Estéban hid it. The murder charge collapses because Zia had already told authorities that Mendoza was killed by his dog. Estéban is found guilty of withholding the King's Fifth and sentenced to five years, commuted to three on account of his youth and cooperation.

After the verdict, Zia tells Estéban she left the expedition because she hated what Mendoza did to the people of Nexpan and Tawhi, and because after Mendoza's death, Estéban had become just like him. She came to the trial because she heard he had buried the gold and wanted to speak for him. Captain Martín, the fortress commander, offers to help Estéban escape and split the treasure, but Estéban refuses. He reflects that although he is a prisoner, he is free of the gold's corrupting power. Don Felipe, Captain Martín, and the royal fiscal, all dreaming of the treasure, are the true prisoners. Estéban resolves to spend his three years studying Father Francisco's book of flowers, improving the cross-staff (a navigational measuring instrument), and thinking of Zia, the girl of the silver bells.