investigation?'
'I don't know,' I said, though she most surely was.
'There was a man found in Eleuia's rooms,' Papan said. 'With blood on his hands.'
I nodded, curtly, trying not to think too much of Neutemoc, of what I'd have to tell his wife, Huei, once I'd gathered enough courage to go to her. 'There are unexplained things,' I said, finally. I started walking towards the end of the courtyard, crushing pine needles under my sandaled feet. Their sweet, aromatic smell wafted upwards, a relief after the stifling atmosphere of Zollin's room.
Papan followed me. 'You're looking in the wrong place.'
'Your loyalty brings you credit,' I said. 'But–'
'No. You don't understand. Zollin-tzin has worked hard for this calmecac. She's always been fair. She would never kill or summon forbidden magic.'
'Nahual magic isn't forbidden,' I said. 'And I only have your word for Zollin's acts.'
'But I have only your word that Eleuia was abducted,' Papan said, obviously frustrated. 'No one has found her. No one even knows if she didn't summon the nahual herself.'
I shook my head. 'Priestess Eleuia wasn't born on a Jaguar day.
She couldn't have summoned the nahual.' Curious, I asked, 'Why would she do such a thing?'
Papan came to stand by my side, under the red arch leading out of the courtyard. A fresco of conch-shells and butterflies ran along the length of the arch. The insects' wings, painted with dark-red lac, glinted with the same reflections as Papan's eyes. 'Eleuia was very beautiful,' Papan said. 'But always frightened. Cozamalotl and the other students didn't see it, but she always moved as if the ground would open under her feet.' 'She had enemies?' I asked.
Papan shrugged. 'I didn't know her.'
'But you understood her.'
'No,' Papan said. She blushed. 'I just saw. But it wasn't just now. She'd always been like that. For years and years, ever since I entered the calmecac school.'
'And you think she wanted to disappear? Why, if she'd always been afraid?'
Papan turned her face away from me. 'I– I'm not supposed to tell you. But if it helps…' She twisted her hands together, but didn't speak.
'Go on,' I said. 'It could save her life.'
Papan was silent for a while. 'I saw her once, at the bath-house. She was coming out of the pool.' Papan blushed again. 'I saw the marks on her body.'
'What marks? Scars?'
'No,' Papan said. 'Stretch-marks.'
'She'd borne a child?' It wasn't forbidden for a priestess of the Quetzal Flower, but it was certainly unusual. Many herbs would expel a child from a woman's body, and there were spells which would summon minor gods from Mictlan to end an infant's life in the womb. Priestesses would know all of these.
'Yes,' Papan said. 'I asked her; and she laughed and she said it was a long time ago, when she was much younger, in the Chalca Wars. I asked her why she'd done that, and she told me she'd wanted a keepsake of her warrior lover.'
My heart went cold. 'You're sure it was in the Chalca Wars?'
Papan nodded.
In the Chalca Wars, Eleuia and Neutemoc had slept together. But surely… Nonsense. She was a sacred courtesan. She'd slept with many, many men, even in the Chalca Wars. There were dozens who could have been the father of that child. But it had been someone she'd loved. You couldn't say that about just any warrior.
And there lay the root of the problem: for a warrior, sleeping with a courtesan was an inalienable right, a reward for facing the hardships of the battlefield. A long affair between a warrior and a courtesan, though – that wasn't tolerated. It would lead to exclusion from the Jaguar Brotherhood, no matter how long ago the affair had taken place. If Neutemoc had indeed conceived a child with Eleuia – and if Eleuia had kept it – then it meant they had been more than casual lovers.
It also meant that Neutemoc had an even stronger motive to keep Eleuia silent. A child.
I did not like the thought. I had to consider it, like everything linked to the investigation – but it was an itch at the back of my mind, claws softly teasing apart what I had believed I knew about Neutemoc.
'Why do you think it may be connected?' I asked Papan.
Papan shrugged. 'I don't. But she didn't name the warrior.'
I had noticed that. 'And she didn't tell you anything about him?'
'No,' Papan said. 'But she looked scared, as if she'd told me something I wasn't meant to know. She made me swear to keep it secret. And I have, haven't I?'
I knew what she wanted. Gently, I said, 'Secrets are no use to her if she's dead.'
Papan stared at me for a while. I couldn't tell if I'd convinced her. 'Don't tell Zollin-tzin I told you,' she said, as we walked out of the courtyard. 'She thinks Eleuia was only an opportunist.'
She didn't use any honorific for Eleuia, I noticed, just her name. 'You were close?' I asked.
Papan bit her lip. 'Until Zollin-tzin started teaching me,' she said, miserably. 'It's hard, being torn in two halves.'
I hadn't known that. But I could guess, given Zollin's acidity, that it was indeed hard. 'You did the right thing,' I said.
'I'm not sure.' Papan bowed, deeply. 'I'll go back to my room now. But thank you for listening to me, Acatl-tzin.' And she walked off into the darkness, leaving me to my own worries.
A child. Neutemoc's child? The Storm Lord smite him, couldn't he have been more careful? A warrior was meant to marry in his calpulli clan, to love his wife, to raise her children. And it seemed that Neutemoc – who'd always been held up as an example before me, the shining representation of all I should have done with my life,
