Obsidian & Blood

  He stood over me in the courtyard under the red, swollen gaze of the Fifth Sun. Obsidian glinted in his hand; a knife. 'This is going to be much harder to explain…'

  The emptiness in my chest flared to life, a huge fist punching through the confines of the Fifth World. The air around us rippled, the sunlight dimmed, and a cold wind blew through the courtyard, prickling our skins like shards of obsidian.

  'What?' Manatzpa asked, the knife pausing in its descent.

  I didn't spare time to think. I pulled myself upwards again, and half-crawled, half-ran towards the entrance-curtain. There were voices, close by, indistinct murmurs that sounded like a lament for the dead.

  I burst out of Manatzpa's rooms into the courtyard, and all but crashed into Teomitl.

  'Acatl-tzin?'

  He wasn't alone. A group of guards accompanied him and, just next to him, were a priest of Patecatl, and my sister Mihmatini, pale and wan and looking as though she wanted to tear me to shreds for deliberately splitting my wounds open again. 'Acatl!'

  I struggled to speak, the air in my lungs like searing fire.

  The entrance-curtain tinkled again and Manatzpa staggered out, still holding the knife. It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at; but then his lips curled into a bitter smile, and he threw the knife away. 'I see,' he said. 'It was good game. A pity I lost.'

  Teomitl looked from me to Manatzpa, but he had never been a man to hesitate for long. 'Arrest him.' He half-turned towards me. 'And there had better be some explanations.'

  Explanations. Yes. I looked up, at Tonatiuh the Fifth Sun, Whose light was once more bright and welcoming. But I was not fooled. The hole in the Fifth World had widened again; and it could only mean one thing.

  The Guardian of the Sacred Precinct – Ceyaxochitl, agent of the Duality in the Fifth World, my friend and mentor – was dead.

There were explanations; or, at any rate, all those I could offer Teomitl, given my current knowledge. He all but carried me to his room, where he insisted I lie down.

  'You need rest,' Teomitl said, fiercely. 'You shouldn't over-exert yourself.'

  'As if he'd do it,' Mihmatini said, from where she was sitting, in the furthest corner of Teomitl's room. 'My brother is one of those men who can kill themselves quite effectively by sheer exertion.'

  Teomitl raised a hand. 'Not now.' He turned back to me, his face hardened into stone. 'I want to know what happened.'

  He listened to my increasingly confused explanations, his face growing darker as I spoke. 'The Guardian is dead?'

  'I'm not sure. You could send to the Duality House.' But I was sure, and the emptiness in my chest, the tightness in my eyes, weren't only because of the hole in the Fifth World. Ceyaxochitl had loomed large over my life, and, much as I wanted not to believe that she had gone, I had seen enough people deny Lord Death's grip on their lives, and pay the price for their blindness. Death should be accepted, and the living should move on.

  I knew this. But still, I couldn't keep my voice from shaking, couldn't stop the prickling in my eyes.

  'And Manatzpa is the summoner?'

  'Yes,' I said. 'And the man who killed Ceyaxochitl.' But it made no sense. Manatzpa's life had been as much in danger as ours and he had seemed genuinely angry at Echichilli's death. And, to cap it all, he had not been able to cast out the star-demon. 'I'm not sure, actually. Some things just don't fit.'

  'I see.' Teomitl's gaze was dark and thoughtful. 'I'll ask Tizoc if I can interrogate him, then.'

  'He's in Tizoc-tzin's hands?' I asked. If he'd been in any hands but Teomitl's, I'd have expected the She- Snake's.

  'Those were his guards.' Teomitl sounded genuinely surprised. 'Do you think I have my own?'

  'You're Master of the House of Darts.'

  'Not yet.' His voice was low and fierce. 'I have to be worthy of it first.'

  'I should think you've proved yourself amply.'

  He sighed. 'You're not the one who makes the decisions, Acatl-tzin.'

  A fact I knew all too well. 'Still…'

  'Still, I'm a troublemaker.' His lips twisted into a smile. 'Not ready for politics. But with Tizoc's help, this should sort itself out.'

  'You went to see him yesterday,' I said. 'When you said you were going to dismiss the ahuizotls.'

  'What of it?'

  'Nothing,' I said. 'Except that you could have told me the truth.'

  'I know how you feel about my brother.' Teomitl's face had grown cold again.

  Silence stretched, tense and uncomfortable. It was Mihmatini who broke it. 'Teomitl,' my sister said. 'He needs rest. Honestly.'

  Teomitl looked me up and down. His gaze darkened, as if he didn't like what he saw. 'Yes, you're right.' He rose, stopped by her side to run a hand on her cheek. 'Take care of him.'

  She smiled. 'Of course.'

  A tinkle of bells, and then he was gone, leaving me alone with my sister. Somehow, I wasn't sure this was an improvement. 'Acatl–'

  I raised a shaking hand. 'I know what you're going to say. I need sleep, I need my wounds to close; and I need to stop traipsing around the palace on too little food.'

  'See? I don't even need to say it.' Her face went grave again. 'Seriously, Acatl.'

  'Seriously,' I said, pulling myself up against the wall. 'You shouldn't be here.'

  She puffed her cheeks, thoughtfully. 'Why?'

  I wasn't deceived. I might not have been a big part of her childhood, since more than ten years separated