I added this to the growing number of things I was going to need men for. I hated taking people away from the Revered Speaker's funeral, which should have been my priority, but if there was a summoner of star-demons loose in there…
Teomitl turned, to look at the protective spells over the gates with a dubious frown.
The Storm Lord blind me, whoever had done this was extremely well prepared. Not only had they managed to find someone on the inside, but they had also been ready to do their summoning in the hours that had followed Axayacatl-tzin's death.
I didn't like the sound of that.
The first thing I did upon entering the palace was to go to the Revered Speaker's rooms. I found the guards at the gates in a state of alert. I assumed they had been apprised by the She-Snake on the murder, and were holding themselves ready for anything.
Inside, the burly offering Priest Palli was watching as two dozen priests for the Dead prepared the corpse for its funeral. A quincunx of blood spread across the tiled floor, with the faint greenish tinge of Mictlan's breath. The priests were all chanting hymns, calling on the minor deities of the underworld; except two, who were busy undressing the former Revered Speaker. Clothing was all-important: the mummy bundle that would be burnt would be made of dozens of layers of many-coloured cotton, each added with the proper beseeching to the gods, each garnished with gems, amulets and gold and silver jewellery.
Palli nodded to me when I entered, but waited until the current hymn was finished to move outside the blood quincunx. 'Acatltzin. As you can see, we have matters well in hand.'
I nodded. The forms looked to be respected. The room itself was pulsing with a presence like a burst dam, the breath of the river that separated the underworld from the Fifth World. Everything was well taken care of. 'No doubt of that.' I hesitated; but it was still something that needed to be done. 'How many could you spare?'
Palli looked dubious. 'I could without half, but the rituals would progress more slowly…'
'No matter,' I said. 'The funeral isn't going to be for a while anyway.' Not if the other high priests had their way.
'It's about the body, I assume.'
I nodded. 'It looks like the summoning of what killed that man was done from inside. I need one person sent to the registers, to check up on the accreditations of all the sorcerers.'
'You don't mean–'
'I'm not sure what I mean,' I said, darkly. 'But watch your step, definitely.'
Palli nodded. 'I can do that, but…'
'I know.' It was going to be a long list. Most noblemen had access to magic, if only for their protective spells. If they didn't have a pet sorcerer, they were sorcerers themselves; and that didn't count the numerous priests and magistrates who came here, either in the service of their temples or in the service of the Imperial Courts.
'And the others?' Palli asked.
'I want them to search the palace. If a summoning was done here, it should show.' The magic wouldn't be washed away, not so easily. 'Every room, every courtyard. There has to be a place we can find.' It was the timing I didn't like: the murder of Ocome had taken place barely one hour after the death of the Revered Speaker. This suggested… planning. Someone, somewhere had held themselves ready for an opening, knowing it couldn't be long until the ailing Revered Speaker passed into Mictlan.
Palli grimaced again, an expression he was a little bit too fond of. 'I'll see who I can spare. For the ritual's end…'
Only the High Priest for the Dead could ease a soul's passage into the underworld. 'I'll be there.' One way or another. I wouldn't rob a dead man to serve another one.
I just hoped the corpses would stop arriving.
• • • •
Teomitl and I dropped briefly by Ocome's room, which still stank of death. Two guards were keeping watch by the entrance-curtain, looking as if they would have given anything to be elsewhere.
In the room itself, there was not much new to see: the magic was slowly dissipating, absorbed by the wards. I'd expected the scattered gobs of flesh would have started to rot, but they remained in the same state, as if the star-demon's removal of the soul had put a stop to the decomposition process.
I'd made more cheerful discoveries. No matter; he would still burn on his funeral pyre as well as any corpse, provided we could scrape the flesh from the floor and from the walls. For once, I was glad to be High Priest, which meant someone further down the hierarchy would do the exhausting, distasteful work.
When we came out in the courtyard in the dim light of late afternoon, I turned towards the burliest of the guards. 'How long ago were you assigned to this room?'
I could see him hesitating, his eyes roving over my regalia, weighing the possibility that he could get away with a lie.
It was his companion who spoke, a much thinner man, with the white lines of scars crisscrossing his legs identifying him as a veteran of some battlefield. He held his
'I see,' I said. And, as casually as I could, 'I take it you weren't standing guard when this happened?'
The burly guard grimaced. 'We thought we heard something on the other side of the courtyard, so we went to investigate.'
'And didn't come back?' This from Teomitl, who had been standing with one hand on the entrance- curtain.
The guard grimaced again. 'It turned out to be nothing, but we still wanted to make sure. I went to ask the others who were on guard in the next courtyard.' He wouldn't meet my gaze, but in any case I knew he was lying. His companion the veteran was even less talkative.
'Really?' Teomitl started, but I lifted a hand.
'Someone called you away?'
The burly guard had the grace not to answer; the veteran shifted uncomfortably. There was a light in his eyes I couldn't read, anger or fear, or a bit of both. What had been promised to them, in exchange for their silence?
