'All we want is answers,' Teomitl said, a little too hastily. 'Brother, please. Crimes cannot go unpunished.'
Tizoc-tzin's face was a death-mask. 'Crimes? I am the Master of the House of Darts, priest. I answer to no one – certainly not to the priests who swarm around this court like flies, polluting us with their pretences of humility.'
'You can at least explain to us…'
'Get out.' Tizoc-tzin's voice was bright and false, with the same edge as a chipped blade. 'I don't have to explain myself. Get out before I have you arrested, all of you.'
I didn't need to be told twice. I carefully retreated, pushing Mihmatini ahead of me. Teomitl remained for a while, staring at Tizoc-tzin with pity on his face.
It wasn't until he joined us outside that I realised what had been staring me in the face all along. It was almost evening, the sky was pink and red, but the stars were already out, visible through the dome of the Duality's protection. 'Star-demons,' I said.
'What?' Mihmatini asked.
'He reeked of magic, as if he'd brushed one recently.'
'That would explain his state,' Teomitl said, curtly. 'A narrow brush with death…'
It could have been that, a perfectly plausible explanation. But there was an equally plausible one, that he smelled of them only because he had consorted with them, and that the whole thing was a feint to purge the council, force them into a vote from which he would emerge the victor.
Storm Lord blind me, was that what we were facing?
I left the two of them in Teomitl's room, impressing upon him to bring Mihmatini home, trying not to think of that thread stretching all the way across the city, laid over the buildings and the canals, a trail everyone would be able to see. So much for discretion. Then again, I had known about this when we had first set out to do the spell, so it wasn't as if I could complain.
Then I went to check on Palli.
I found him sitting on the entrance platform of the Revered Speaker's rooms, looking despondent. 'Acatl- tzin,' he said.
I handed him one of the maize flatbreads I'd taken from a nobleman's kitchen. 'Here, have some food. I take it the search isn't progressing.'
Palli took the flatbread, but did not bite into it. 'It's worse than that,' he said. 'We've checked almost everywhere, Acatl-tzin. The storerooms, the treasury, the armouries, the tribunals…'
'The women's quarters?' I asked, thinking of Xahuia.
Palli smiled, briefly. 'Those, too. But it's useless. There is nothing that looks even remotely like a summoning place.'
'You haven't finished,' I said, trying to be encouraging. In truth, I wasn't feeling optimistic. If Palli thought there was nothing, then it was likely to be the case.
Palli's eyes drifted into the courtyard, staring at the beaten earth. It was almost dark, now 'It's just a handful of rooms, and they're used by everyone. If there was a summoning…'
'I see,' I said. I tried to hide my disappointment. There must be some place they had missed, some obvious location…
But, with so many people helping out, I doubted it was the case. Which left me with a problem – how in the Fifth World were the star-demons getting past the palace wards?
I mulled the problem over as I walked out of the palace, but could find no satisfying solution. With a sigh, I headed back to the Duality House.
After all the animation of Mihmatini's designation, it seemed oddly deserted, as if night had robbed it of all vitality. Only a few priests were there, kneeling in the dust to beseech the Duality's favour for the Empire and the Fifth World. I found Ichtaca where I had left him, watching Ceyaxochitl's corpse. His face lit up when he saw me. 'Acatl-tzin. I see you're still–'
'Alive? I guess.' He had seen me taken away by Tizoc-tzin's guards; no wonder he'd worried.
I sighed. Now that I was back in a familiar setting, all the fatigue of the previous days was making itself felt; the lack of sleep over the previous night, the barely-healed wounds on my chest, the hasty meals – all of it came like a blow.
Ichtaca pulled himself straighter. 'I've received word from the temple, while you were out. There is something you need to know about the order of the deaths.'
'The… order?' It hadn't occurred to me that there was something to check there.
'We checked the records. They only give the days of the religious calendar, but we can work out the correspondence with the year count.'
He made it sound easy, but it was far from it. The religious calendar was two hundred and sixty days, while the year count followed the sun's cycle. They overlapped, but working out dates from one to the other required patience and a talent for mathematics.
Ichtaca was pursing his lips, as he often did when contemplating a difficult problem. 'The date of birth of Ocome-tzin was the Second Day of the Ceasing of Waters, that of Echichilli-tzin the Fifteenth day of the Ceasing of Waters, and Manatzpa-tzin was born on the Third Day of The Flaying of Men. All those dates are in the first or second month of the calendar.'
'Coincidence?'
'I don't think so.' Ichtaca rose, bowing to Ceyaxochitl's corpse, and turned to face me. 'Or, if it is, too much of one. I took the liberty of checking the names of those councilmen I did know. Their dates of birth are all posterior to the dead ones.'
'Said otherwise, they're dying by chronological order.' I bit my lip. As Ichtaca had said, too much of a coincidence. It might explain why Echichilli had known his death was coming.But why?
The year had started on the day Two Rain, a time of unpredictability, a time of divine caprices. It was heading towards its end on the day Two House, and the
