Obsidian & Blood

TWENTY

The Jaguar Knight's Brother

It was late by the time I arrived at Neutemoc's house; and in the darkness, the leaping jaguars painted on the gates seemed as luminous and as threatening as haunting mothers hovering on the edges of the Fifth World. Faint voices wafted out from the courtyard, and the laughter of children – for a moment, it seemed as though I had gone back to a few years before, when there had still been a mistress of the house, and my brother had epitomised the success I'd never know as a priest without possessions.

In the reception room, Neutemoc was sitting, nibbling on a fried newt; the laughter came from Necalli and Mazatl, who sat listening to Mihmatini telling a story – though my sister herself wasn't laughing. Her eyes were red, and it was obvious her mind lay elsewhere.

"Brother." Neutemoc lifted his bowl towards me – a salute, almost. "Be welcome."

I sat next to him, helping myself to a handful of maize flatbreads. For a while, neither of us spoke; the children squealed and laughed as Mihmatini mimicked a bumbling warrior seeking to eat driedout corn, and a merchant obsessed with counting his feathers and gold quills. It was all – so hauntingly familiar, a reminder that outside the tensions of the Imperial Court and the threat of our extinction, there were still flowers and songs, still quetzal feathers and precious jade. And yes, they wouldn't last, they would be soiled and marred – but did that make them less valuable, while they still shone brighter than the Fifth Sun?

"How is she?" I asked.

Neutemoc made a stabbing gesture with one hand. "Brittle. Be careful what you say."

I grimaced. "I'm always careful."

"You know what I mean." Neutemoc turned, to look at me for a while. "You look melancholy as well. Still that warrior's death?"

"I don't know," I said. I'd walked back there, rather than my temple, and to be honest, I still didn't know why. I could have made four hundred excuses about needing to talk to Mihmatini, or to keep contact with my family, but there had been no such rationality in my choice. Like a hunted beast, I'd gone to ground in familiar surroundings, and those had turned out to be my brother's house. "There is too much going on."

Neutemoc was silent for a while. "There is always is, isn't there? The gods move and plot, and we are the pawns on the patolli board." He raised his bowl again, as if addressing an invisible assembly.

"You know–"

"–that you don't think that." The ghost of a smile quirked up his lips. "But still… they talk, in the Jaguar House."

"Of the deaths?"

"That, yes." Neutemoc laid his bown on the mat, between the jug and a plate of tamales. Then he looked at me sideways, from the corner of his eyes. "There are a lot of Knights missing, too. Officially, they've gone back to their families for the Feast of the Sun."

"I can't–" I started. I wasn't supposed to be telling anyone about Teomitl; the gods knew we had too many people, from Nezahualtzin to the She-Snake, who already suspected. But if I didn't speak out, the weight on my heart would blacken and tear it. "They went to join Teomitl."

Neutemoc's face went deathly still. "He has desires beyond the House of Darts, then?"

"I don't know," I said, a little more annoyed this time. "He's not involved in this." It might have been his goddess' magic, but he'd almost died. No, he had nothing to do with the sorcerer. But he was making use of the chaos for all it was worth. "But the situation suits him, and he is taking advantage of it."

"And you never foresaw any of this," Neutemoc said – displaying a disquieting shrewdness for a man who had once been oblivious to the goings-on in his own household.

"No," I said, at last. "I don't understand–" I didn't understand how both Mihmatini and I could have failed to see anything – to interpret the signs, the portents; to peer into the shape of the future and see how it inevitably led to this, brother against brother.

"He was your student," Neutemoc said. "Your beloved son, if you want to go that far – and knowing you, I suspect you would. But even beloved sons go astray, Acatl. It's the nature of raising children." His lips quirked up again, in what might have been a smile if it wasn't so weak and devoid of emotion. "Our parents might have had a few things to say about that, had they lived."

But it wasn't that – what Teomitl was doing went against everything I'd been trying to teach him. I poured myself cactus juice into another bowl, letting the sharp, pungent aroma waft up to me, washing away all other smells. "Yes," I said, sarcastically, raising the bowl towards him. "They might." Look at us now, the priest they'd always disapproved of, and the bright warrior all but disowned by his own order.

Mihmatini rose, leaving Ollin and Mazatl on the mat – both curled up and sleeping. Like Quenami, she quelled the shaking of her hands well, but she couldn't quite disguise it.

"You saw him," I said.

"Of all the stubborn-headed–" she stopped herself, and sat by our side. "I can't… I just can't make him listen."

"You're his wife," Neutemoc said, finally. "He'll heed your opinion, but not on this."

She took a deep breath. "I thought–" She blinked, furiously, her eyes wet – and for a moment I wished Teomitl were there, so I could shake some sense into him.

"He loves you," Neutemoc said, gently. "But he wasn't always smart, that one."

Mihmatini said nothing – her hands clenched, briefly.

"Did he…?" I hesitated. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask. Did he tell you anything?"

I had to repeat the question twice before Mihmatini could bring herself to answer it. "Say anything? No, nothing useful," Mihmatini said. "But the chaperone is the driving force behind this."

"The old woman?" I asked. She had been the one to see him; the one that had set him on his bid for the Turquoise and Gold Crown. "Who is she?" She'd exuded Toci's magic, as naturally as we breathed – as if nothing stood between her and the goddess. Another agent we knew nothing of? Unlikely: few gods ceded Their powers to mortals, and Toci – the hungry earth, the broken furrows – tended to keep Herself to Herself.

Mihmatini grimaced. "His sister. Always had a bit of a weakness for her brother – though really, he's almost young enough to be her nephew, or worse. And she doesn't look like she likes Tizoctzin – or Axayacatl-tzin – very much, for that matter."

More palace politics? I hid a grimace. The last woman who had interfered in imperial succession had been by far the more successful and canny claimant – even though she had failed, in the end. An old imperial princess would be as sharp as broken obsidian – and as dangerous as a jaguar mother deprived of her children. "Between both of them, they might just get what they want." That was, in the case of the princess , the support of the palace; for Teomitl, that of the army. And Tizoc-tzin out of the city… Had I done the right thing?

But no, I had to. We couldn't afford to have our Revered Speaker fall to Chalchiuhtlicue's magic, not so soon after the last one's death – and with him unconfirmed, too, devoid of anything but the simplest magics of the Southern Hummingbird.

Mihmatini shook her head. "There has to be something I can do, Acatl."

Was there? I couldn't be sure. "You know him better than anyone else," I said, slowly. "You'll think of something."

She took in a deep breath. "I guess." But she didn't sound convinced.

"I need your help," I said to Neutemoc.

Neutemoc raised an eyebrow. "That's… unexpected."

"I'm not finding this funny."

"Me neither." There was a flash of something in his eyes, as if he remembered for a moment that I was part of the reason his wife was dead, and his house deserted. "What do you want?"

"Nothing much," I said. "I need you to look into Eptli."

"Why? The man has been dead long enough, surely?"

"I don't know," I said. "I've got a gut feeling he wasn't picked at random." The first victim of the disease would have had a high symbolic weight, if nothing else – but something in the way he had been set up suggested personal rancour, and if it wasn't Chipahua, or the merchant Yayauhqui, or Xiloxoch, then I couldn't understand why anyone would hate him.

"I can ask," Neutemoc said. "But unless you can think of something more specific…"

"Anything that would have made him an enemy."

"Still rather broad." Neutemoc grinned with far too much amusement.

"Look, if I knew, I wouldn't be here. I don't think it's anything obvious, like people who couldn't stand him as a warrior. If it were, we'd have found out by now. It has to be something more insidious; some secret of his past we haven't found."

Neutemoc sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

Afterwards, I walked with Mihmatini in the courtyard, under the gaze of the white moon – Coyaulxauhqui, She of the Silver Bells, who was the Southern Hummingbird's sister and His bitterest enemy.

"He loves you," I said in the silence. "But–"

"But not enough to listen to me? I don't know if that's love." She sounded miserable. "He's doing a foolish thing."

"The gods come first." They always did – except my own god, who always came last. "The Mexica Empire comes first."

Mihmatini shivered. "He belongs to the Southern Hummingbird after all, doesn't he?"

I was silent, for a while. "You have to realise it's not only the Southern Hummingbird who drives the Mexica forward. The other gods feast on our offerings as well, and would crush anyone foolish enough to try and get in their way."

"But other people would make them just as well, wouldn't they? We're not the only ones worshipping Tlaloc the Storm Lord, or Xochiquetzal."

"No," I said. I stopped by the pine tree, ran a hand on its rough bark, breathing in the smell of crushed needles and dry wood.

"It's not fair."

"It's not about fairness. It's about balance first."

"And you believe that?"

"Yes." I had to – or what else could I cling to? "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. That's the problem, Acatl – I just don't know." Her face in the moonlight was gentle, and she seemed not so much the Guardian or a priestess, but just my sister, as bewildered as the day the dog had bitten her. "There has to be something…"

I didn't know what to say. I could have lied, and told her it would get better, but that would have been wrong.

She sighed, at length. "Never mind. Let's see what tomorrow will bring. Good night, brother."

"Good night."

I emerged from dark, deep dreams of the plague sweeping through Tenochtitlan – among which swum Acamapichtli's blind face, his hands questing for my own, never quite meeting them – and found myself in a sunlit room, with one of Neutemoc's slaves waiting by my sleeping mat. "Acatl-tzin, there is someone to see you."

"Someone?" I rolled over painfully – I no longer needed the cane to stand up, but I did still feel as though I'd been pummelled repeatedly. "I'll be outside in a moment."

Alone, I pulled myself upwards – reached out for my obsidian knife and offered up my blood to the Fifth Sun and Lord Death.

I didn't know who I had expected – Ichtaca with further news, perhaps, or the She-Snake, come to apprise me of yet another disaster. But the person waiting for me in the courtyard was Xiloxoch – her face painted the yellow of corn, her hair unbound like that of a young courtesan about to dance with warriors. "Acatl-tzin." She smiled, uncovering rows of black-stained teeth – unfortunately for her, so much seduction was wasted on me. I had once faced the goddess she worshipped, and compared to Her raw power, artifices were rather paltry.

"I hadn't expected to see you again."

She raised a thin, artful eyebrow. "Why not?"

"The She-Snake's guards are looking for you."

She had the grace to look amused. "Let them look. It's you I've come to see."

"To mock me? I'd have thought you'd played your part," I said.

"My part." She tossed her head back, in the familiar fashion of courtesans trying to appear coy. "And what do you think my part is exactly, Acatl-tzin?"

"False accusations. Sowing discord." When she said nothing, I added, "And attempting to steal sacrifices."

That got a smile, if nothing else. "Please. I wouldn't attempt to scrape corn from the belly of another god. The sacrifices were merely… irresistible."

Irresistible. The proximity of death; of godhood – and something else, something in the way she said it… What hadn't I seen? "Sex," I said, flatly.

"I prefer the term 'lust'," Xiloxoch said. She smiled again, stroking the pine tree as she'd hold a lover's arm. "My mistress takes power where She can."

Small, paltry offerings of semen and vaginal secretions – nowhere near full blood sacrifices, but perhaps enough to keep an exiled goddess satiated.

"I could call the guards," I said.

"Ah, but will you do such a thing, without even listening to me?"

"Perhaps I don't want to listen to you," I said. But my curiosity was too strong – even though I suspected she was going to feed me more lies. "Fine. What do you want?"

Xiloxoch tossed her head back. "Oh, Acatl-tzin. This isn't about what I want. This is about you."

"You have nothing I want."

"Do I not?" Her eyes were mocking – and for a moment, they reminded me of Xochiquetzal's burning gaze, of Her face in the moment She'd risen from her low-backed chair to confront me, the embodiment of a force beyond human imagination or control. "Or perhaps I do. Perhaps it's time to make alliances, Acatl-tzin."

"Alliances." I dragged my voice back from where it seemed to have fled. "Alliances. I don't need help."

"You don't? I'm glad to know you have a good understanding of what's going on, then." Her lips quirked up. "Tell me you do, and I'll leave you alone."

And she knew very well that I wouldn't, the Duality curse her. "What are you offering?" And at what price?

"A little help," Xiloxoch said. "A little… destabilisation for certain parties."

"You speak in riddles."

"Of course." She smiled again. "Why should I make life easier for you?"

"Then why are you helping me at all?"

She smiled again; her blackened teeth seemed to have turned into the maw of a jaguar. "Because I don't particularly appreciate any of the sides taking part in this. Because as long as you're all weak, Xochiquetzal is strong."

And as long as she could lead us astray, she would. "You'll forgive me for not feeling particularly trusting."

"No matter." She leaned against the pine tree, looking at the sky. From the slaves' quarters came the rhythmic sound of maize being pounded into flour. "I'll give it to you regardless."

"At what price?"

"I told you. As long as everyone is busy…" She opened out her hand, revealing a bundle of cotton clothes. "I thought you might want to see this."

When I took it from her, I felt the weight of Chalchiuhtlicue's magic, a smell like brackish swamp water, or the bloated flesh of drowned men. Carefully, I unwrapped it, and found a torn feather quill, filled with powder, which looked for all the world like the one Palli had found on Eptli's body. Except that the powder was a different, richer colour, more dark orange than yellow: I'd have said cacao, except that it was not dark enough for that.

I wasn't crazy enough to rub it between my fingers. "Where did you get this?"

Xiloxoch pursed her lips, which were as red as chafed skin. "You'll remember I collected Zoquitl's possessions. This was among them."

"And we didn't see it."

She smiled, as if my scepticism was of little matter. "It was well hidden, and you didn't search the room that well."

I wasn't altogether sure I believed her, but then I couldn't see why she'd want to give this, and how she'd have filled it with Chalchiuhtlicue's magic. "You have the bravery of warriors about to die, then. The sickness–"

"Please. I have my own protections. In any case–" she smiled again, an expression that was no doubt meant as seductive, but was starting to be decidedly unpleasant "it's all yours. You'll know what to make of it."

Other than the fact that it had been the vector for the sickness, and slightly different from the one that had killed Eptli… no, I didn't. "Well, that was helpful. I certainly feel more knowledgeable."

"Make of it what you wish. I could tell you you're looking in the wrong place, but you already know that."

"Yes," I said. "Was that all you had to say? You're wasting my time, once again."

"Once again? Whenever did I waste your time, Acatl-tzin?"

"The bribe," I said. "It was all a fiction you devised to keep us running in the dark."

She smiled again, as radiant as the rising sun. "I sow chaos, Acatltzin. I do my goddess' will. You know all this. Does it matter if I lied to you?"

"It might make me slightly distrustful," I said, darkly.

"You're a disappointment. Too frank, that's your problem. I lie when it suits me, and tell the truth when it doesn't. And, right now, the truth is more convenient."

I'd had enough. "If you're just here to mock me, you might as well be gone."

She shrugged. "Fine. But remember what I've given you."

She was gone in a heartbeat, but, just as she'd intended, she'd sown the seeds of doubt.