unpleasant memory. 'Nothing,' he said, and that was the worst lie I'd heard him utter. 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'
Oh, but he had, and we both knew it. 'Tar protects against water,' I said, aloud. 'It's connected with boats and sacrifices.' His face, which had begun to relax, tightened again at the mention of sacrifice. Sadly, it wasn't exactly surprising. Palli had already told me that someone had died in Axayacatl's room. 'A councilman went missing,' I went on, slowly. 'Pezotic. I'm starting to wonder if he's alive at all, Quenami.'
His face shifted again. How I wished I could read his expressions, but he had a tight control on them. 'What wild tales you spin, Acatl.'
It was clear I wouldn't get anything else out of him; not without more evidence. 'Why are you here, Quenami?'
He smiled again, about as convincingly as a star-demon. 'I told you, Acatl. To offer to assist you.'
As if I'd believe him. 'Well, I should think I've made my position clear.'
Quenami watched me for a while. I got the feeling he was trying to decide how best to handle me. 'Yes,' he said, finally. 'You have made that perfectly clear.'
I was saved from thinking up a reply by Teomitl, who entered the courtyard with the brisk step of a warrior on his way to the battlefield. 'Acatl-tzin!'
'Ah, I see your student is here. Don't let me stand in the way of your imparting of knowledge,' Quenami said. He bowed to Teomitl, much too little to be sincere. Teomitl's eyes narrowed, but he actually managed to retain his self-control, a fact for which I was eternally grateful.
He waited until Quenami was out of the courtyard to speak, though. 'I didn't know you were on speaking terms with him.'
'I'm not,' I said, curtly.
'Then why is he here?'
'That's the problem.' Why had he come here? I thought back to the way he'd acted, much too friendly, much too smooth, in a way that even I could see. Either he thought me not worth deceiving anyway, or he was truly in a panic, unable to master himself. 'Has anything happened at the palace?'
'Yes,' Teomitl said. 'But I'm not sure he would know.'
'What?' I asked.
He did not answer at once, he was too busy staring at Quenami's retreating back. 'Teomitl!' The Duality curse me, was everyone turning into copies of Nezahual-tzin?
'Tizoc-tzin gathered the remaining members of the council yesterday. They're going to vote in two days.'
I looked up, into the clear sky. The stars were pinpoints, barely visible unless one knew that they were here. Two days, eh? And three or four more, for the ritual of coronation to take place. Perhaps we had a chance. Perhaps we could stand until then.
My mind came back to Quenami, and to more mundane matters. 'He knows about the vote, no question.' I thought again on what he had asked me. 'He wanted to make sure where I stood.'
'And?' Teomitl asked.
'I told him that I would stand by whoever was elected Revered Speaker.' As I said this, I thought of the scene I'd seen the previous night. If my worst suspicions were right, then I had just made it clear to Quenami that I was a liability, a man they needed to neutralise, and fast. 'We need to go back to the palace.'
'Of course,' Teomitl said.
'And to see Nezahual-tzin.'
Teomitl's face froze. 'That's a bad idea, Acatl-tzin.'
'He made me an offer I couldn't refuse,' I said. I explained, as best as I could, during the time it took us to cross the Sacred Precinct. It was early morning, and the crowds were there as usual, carrying offerings and worship thorns and leading sacrifices to the pyramid temples as if nothing were wrong. I caught sight of a woman with an embroidered cotton skirt who looked up at the Great Temple, her face frozen in cautious hope. Her earlobes were bloody, and she was whispering the words of a prayer.
As I expected, Teomitl's first reaction to my story was hardly enthusiasm. 'I see. And you believed him?'
'I think he's honest.' I was suddenly glad I hadn't had time to get into the details of my meeting with the She-Snake. 'As long as it suits him to be, of course.'
'I'm not surprised,' Teomitl said. 'He thinks too much of himself, that one.'
'You seem to have developed a liking for him,' I said, dryly.
'I've seen enough.'
'From one meeting?'
'You forget,' Teomitl said. 'He was here, for a while.'
They were much the same age; but somehow, it had never occurred to me that they could have met. From Teomitl's sombre tone, it must have been more than that. 'You were still a child when he left Tenochtitlan, and so was he. People change.'
Teomitl shook his head. 'I doubt he has.'
Clearly I wasn't going to be able to make him change his mind, and I didn't feel like arguing at this juncture. What I needed to do was understand who was doing what in this palace – and fast, before I stopped being able to work out things at all.
One of Nezahual-tzin's men met us at the entrance of the palace, by the red-painted columns, and directed us, not towards the boyemperor's chambers, but to the sweatbaths.
