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Quisquis met his new ruler at Cajacamara, battered and out maneuvered by Castro, he must have been hoping that Ninancoro could inspire confidence could inspire in his wavering army. Instead he found a young man well out of his depth, leaving Quisquis once again on the ropes. Hearing of Cusco's alliance with Spain Ninancoro wanted to retreat but Quisquis was prepared to make a stand. The general viewed keeping a toehold in the central empire as vital to winning the war. So he cajoled the young Sapa Inka into organizing a defense just north of Cajacamara. To reinforce his position he summoned the general Ukumari south, with a large number of troops. This left a small number of troops defending Quito, the borders of the north, already porous, began to fray completely. Quisquis knew this would happen, but he guessed (correctly) that the northern tribes would never be able to threaten Quito directly. Right now what he needed was a strong, organized stand to force the Spanish and Cuscan advance to halt.

Long term Ninancoro's faction lay its hopes in Manco. It was widely known that the Cuscan nobility distrusted Atahualpa's brother, and the feeling was likely mutual. Quisquis did fear that Manco would try and assert his own claim to the throne with his large, battle tested force. There was little Quisquis or Ninancoro could do except promise Manco things they currently could not give. The best the faction could do for now was hunker down and fight.

Manco had a long way to march north, and kept a slow pace. He knew that many of his troops were predisposed to favor Ninancoro, but he did not wish to play his hand too early either. So he crawled up the coast slowly, looking for any excuse to stop for awhile and bash some "rebellions". The only title he asserted was that of Apu, roughly analogous to Governor, of Qullasuyu. The previous Apu had just died, and Manco had already running the show for quite some time. The move was a political ploy that ended up working quite well. Both Quispe-Tupac and Ninancoro announced their approval of the move, each not knowing what the other had done, in the hopes that Manco would back then. Instead he used the double endorsement as an excuse to levy troops and supplies from the locals, who could now not fall back on the excuse of backing another claimant.


As the great wild card ambled north. Quispe-Tupac and his new Spanish allies began to ecamine the other with suspicion The Sapa-Inka made as little contact as possible with Castro and Castro's native allies, preferring to keep his Cuscan force away from what he perceived as a dangerous influence. Castro had promised his Chimu allies that he would get Quispe-Tupac to free Chan Chan from Tawantinsuyu control. Quispe-Tupac balked at these commands, seeing his empire stripped away. But he had cast his lot with the Spanish, and so gave vaguely affirmative answers to Castro's promised changes and prepared his plans on how to get the Spaniard out of his hair.

Quisquis carefully prepared his defenses, readying a stand against his advancing enemies. He did not intend to be caught off guard again. His line would hug the mountains and throw back the advancing tide. When Ukumari arrived Quisquis would (hopefully) have enough forces to hold his position against more then one attack.

Then the Cañari revolt began.

The revolt was not entirely Cañari, other local groups were certainly involved, but it was the Cañari who's name would reach the history books for the revolt. While Atahualpa had the steadfast loyalty of his army and choice selections or the north many still felt the desire to break free from the Tawantinsuyu. And Castro's invasion provided a perfect opportunity.

The impetus for the revolt came as Ukumari marched through the lands of the Cañari. His army behaved no worse then any before him. But his army still needed food from the storehouses along the route, and times were hard across the empire. A few scuffles over food with some peasants later and a revolt was emerging. It was disorganized at a large scale, but at a local level it was more cohesive then previous revolts with small bands of rebels proving effective in raids.

Ukumari's pace slowed dramatically, and he found himself bleeding men and supplies to the ill-timed rebellion. He began to focus on pacification, a necessity if Quisquis was to avoid an attack on the rear. So when Castro's attack came in mid-August Quisquis faced it alone.


Spanish historians would term the ensuing fighting the Battle of Cajacamara, but Quisquis's forces were actually well to the north and the attack was really a series of smaller battles along a wide front. Castro's Spaniards and Chimu fought well, as did Quisipe-Tupac's Cuscans. Quisquis's men were more experienced then all but the Spanish, and the general had organized his defense well. In the end the attacking forces were unable to break the Quitian lines. Castro and Quispe-Tupac retreated back to Cajacamara, and planned their next move. But Quisquis would make it for them.

The battles had caused his men to take heavy casualties, and Ukumari still was bogged down to the north. Quisquis felt could not defend against another full on attack from his enemies, and he would certainly be unable to prevent a break through on any subsequent attacks.

So Quisquis ceded the field, and took his army and Ninancoro North, hoping that he would finally find a strategy to stop the Spanish.