Given the unhealthy joy that danced in Quenami's eyes, I was certain that Tizoc-tzin would not congratulate us. In fact, I might be happy to get out of there with my rank intact. With Axayacatltzin's demise, both he, as Master of the House of Darts, and the She-Snake received the right to name high priests. While the SheSnake would keep me around for the sake of appearances, Tizoc-tzin, who hated anything to do with the clergy, would leap at the first chance to dismiss me.
FIVE
Tizoc-tzin's quarters were in a courtyard on the same layout as the Imperial Chambers: a wide terrace over two state rooms where his followers sat, gorging themselves on amaranth seeds, and cooked fowls. It was… not exactly indecent, I guessed, not exactly forbidden, but still unseemly, with the palace in mourning.
Upstairs massed mostly warriors – Eagle Knights in their cloaks of feathers, and Jaguar Knights in full regalia, with their helmets in the shape of a jaguar's head. They watched Quenami and I pass by with predators' smiles. The division between priests and warriors ran deep. They saw us as uptight fools, we saw them as arrogant men obsessed with appearances. Even Teomitl, who paid less attention to this than other warriors, proudly bore the orange scorpion cloak and the shaved head that denoted him as a Leading Youth.
The entrance-curtain was wide open, even though the evening was colder than usual. Inside, bare-chested warriors lounged on mats, picking frogs, fish and other delicacies from bowls set in front of them.
Quenami wove his way through the crowd with supreme ease, stopping here and there to greet a particular table, ignoring their gazes of frank contempt. Teomitl's face was frozen in ill-concealed anger, and he walked with the haughty pride of a sacrifice victim.
At the back of the room, five windows opened on another courtyard, a garden from which came the chatter of birds. The wind, blowing through the apertures, brought in the smell of the distant jungle, strong enough to overwhelm the aroma of copal incense.
Tizoc-tzin was seated on a mat behind a wooden screen so polished it shone with yellow reflections. Beside me I felt Teomitl stiffen. 'Does he wear turquoise too?' he whispered angrily.
As it turned out, Tizoc-tzin – a middle-aged man with sallow skin – did not wear turquoise, but a deep blue that was uncomfortably close to the imperial colour. I couldn't help but notice that several of the warriors we'd passed had also removed their sandals out of reverence.
'Ah, our High Priest for the Dead. What a pleasure,' he said. He dismissed Quenami with a wave of his long fingers, and then turned his attention back to me.
He had never made me comfortable, but in a very different way than the She-Snake. I could trust the She- Snake to act in his own interests; but with Tizoc-tzin I never knew if he was going to do something just out of caprice.
His eyes were two small, black beads that pierced me like a spear. He considered me for a moment with growing anger. 'I've always known that priests couldn't be trusted. You have just exceeded my expectations.'
'The star-demons –'
'Save your breath.' His voice had an aura of command: cutting, merciless. 'I know all about the star- demons, Acatl.'
'Then you'll know this isn't the time for quarrels.'
'On the contrary.' Tizoc-tzin smiled, an expression that didn't reach his eyes. 'This is a time of flux. What better opportunity for change?'
Oh gods, what a fool. But a scrap of self-preservation prevented me from saying that aloud. 'My Lord–'
'I know everything there is to know about you, and you have gone too far.'
'Too far?' I asked. I might have, with Acamapichtli, but there was no way he could know about that, not unless Quenami could communicate by thought alone.
Tizoc-tin's gaze moved to Teomitl. 'Don't act so innocently, Acatl. Did you think I would never realise? A prince will marry a noblewoman or a princess, never the daughter of peasants.'
So
Teomitl's face had gone pale. I had to admit we did not have much to stand on. Mihmatini would have made a wonderful concubine, but to reach any higher would have been the worst kind of arrogance.
'The daughter of peasants,' Tizoc-tzin repeated. 'And you… you have the audacity to think her fit to join the imperial family? It is not enough to have my brother in your thrall, always following you. You must have more, Acatl. You place your pawns everywhere advantageous and hope that I won't notice. Well, I'm no fool, and I have seen.'
I'd listened in growing perplexity, and then anger. 'You accuse me wrongly. I have never had any intention of holding power in this court.'
'That was the game you played at first.' Tizoc-tzin's face had turned the colour of muddy earth. 'Last year, when you came before me, having never set a foot at Court. But that's no longer true.'
'I have the best interests of my order and of the Fifth World at heart.'
'No doubt, no doubt.' His face was creased in a smirk I longed to wipe off.
Star-demons take the man, how could he not see that I was sincere? Out of all those he had to face within the Imperial Court, I was possibly the one with the least reason to set myself against him…
Except, of course, for the treacherous little voice that kept whispering that the She-Snake and Manatzpa were right, that he was no man fit to be Revered Speaker, no man fit to rule Huitzilpochtli's empire.
'My Lord…'
His eyes were on me. I saw then that he'd dismiss me. That out of his rivals, I was the one enjoying the least support, an isolated priest whom no one would miss. That was the reason why Quenami, the Storm Lord's lightning blind him, had looked so happy, one fewer man in his path.
'Enough.'
