Soon, Huascar declared he wished to bury all the royal mummies and take their lands, wealth, servants and women from the panacas. At the same time he said he wanted to go from the Hanan side to Lower Cuzco These facts demonstrate the extremes to which the differences were carried between the sovereign and the Cuzco nobility that had been his best support.

Very different was Atahualpa's situation, the distance permitted him not to take part directly in the fights between lineages and he had the support of his father's generals.

Huascar's loss of prestige allowed the members of the panacas of Hatun Ayllu to which Atahualpa belonged, to maintain power intrigues.

The war

Little by little Huascar's generals began joining Atahualpa's cause. This circumstance explains the constant defeats of Huascar's armies despite his having great soldiers. Thus, Atahualpa's generals were gaining ground until Huascar was left with no other remedy than, like the sovereigns of old, to take command of the troops himself.

On the other hand, Atahualpa marched slowly towards the south leaving the handling of the war to his generals. Thus, being in Huamachuco, he sent two emissaries to consult to the famous huaca Catequil about the outcome of the war. The oracle responded that Atahualpa would have a bad end. Furious, Atahualpa marched on the place where the oracle was found with his golden halberd in his hand. When he found it, an old priest dressed in a long white tunic trimmed with sea shells. Knowing it was he who had predicted such a destiny for him, Atahualpa struck him a crude blow to the head that destroyed his skull.

By then the news arrived of the appearance of strange white, bearded people arrived in wooden houses that floated on the sea. Atahualpa did not worry about that people who arrived for the second time in his dominions. On the first occasion they left before they could have been seen and, out of curiosity to see how those strangers were, Atahualpa did not take the precautions that his generals recommended to attack them in some sort of narrow mountain pass. The Inca paid no attention and rather offered guides and food to the strangers with the order to lead them to Cajamarca where he would be.

Meanwhile, Atahualpa's generals kept on defeating Huascar's troops until the Inca imprudently put himself at risk in a narrow gorge without knowing enemy positions. Huayna Capac's experienced generals were aware of the imprudence and closed Huascar in between two armies. The triumphant troops of Atahualpa advanced toward Cuzco to the hill of Yavira. There the panacas and important lineages arrived and everybody found a place for themselves; on one side those of Hanan Cuzco and on the other those of Hurin Cuzco and they prostrated themselves to the huauque, the double or brother of the new sovereign, to render homage to him and recognize him as Inca.

Some time later a relative of the new Inca named Cusi Yupanqui arrived in Cuzco with orders, according to the consensus of chroniclers, to kill the close relatives of Huascar, their wives and children and for more extreme cruelty, burn the mummy of Tupac Yupanqui. To destroy the mummy or body of an ancestor was the worst possible punishment. The vengeance against Capac Ayllu, to which Huascar belonged, shows that the confrontation between the two brothers was a battle between rival panacas.

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