than token powers.'
'Except if they entrust them to a human agent,' I said, thinking of Revered Speaker Axayacatl-tzin, and of the last time I'd seen him at the Major Festival: rising from the limestone altar of the sacrifices atop the Great Temple, his hands and obsidian knife reddened with human blood; his whole body brimming with the magic of Huitzilpochtli, the magic that kept the Mexica Empire strong.
Xochiquetzal smiled, and this time Her voice was bitter. 'Not all of us are upstarts, ready to give our powers to anyone. Humans are unreliable. They have wishes and desires of their own. One day, what the Southern Hummingbird does will come back to haunt Him.'
I said nothing. The affairs of gods were not my own; even less so those of the Quetzal Flower, whom I did not worship.
Xochiquetzal went on. 'But it's the way of things. Huitzilpochtli rises to power, becomes the protective deity of your Empire. And We – the old ones, the gods of the Earth and of the Corn, We who were here first, who watched over your first steps – We fade.'
The melancholy in Her voice was unexpected; and, because She was a goddess, it saturated the room, until my throat ached with regret for the days of my childhood. 'You still have priestesses,' I managed to whisper.
'Yes,' She said, 'but the greatest temple within the Sacred Precinct isn't Mine, and the sacrifices they offer Me are paltry little things, to keep Me amused. People believe in war and in the sun, more than they believe in rain or in love.' She shook Her head, as if realising what She'd just said. 'Enough. We haven't come here to wallow in My own misery.'
'I just want to know…' I swallowed, trying to blot out the image of Neutemoc, grunting over the supine body of a shadowy priestess. 'I was told Eleuia had a child. I want to know–'
'Whether it's true?' The Quetzal Flower didn't move. 'You know,' I whispered.
'Of course. I'm a goddess of childbirth, among other things.'
Goddess of love, of carnal desire; of lust and all the base instincts that made fools out of us. The Duality curse me, why couldn't I stop thinking of Neutemoc?
Xochiquetzal rubbed at Her eyes, absent-mindedly. 'Eleuia. Yes, she had a child. Sixteen years ago. But it was stillborn.'
'Stillborn?' I asked.
Her eyes slid away from me, focused on the jade flowers by Her dais. 'Dead. She buried the umbilical cord on a battlefield, to ensure the child's safe passage into the afterlife.'
That's not the custom, was my first thought. The second, which I spoke aloud, was, 'Would you tell me who the father was?' Not Neutemoc. Please, not Neutemoc.
Xochiquetzal shrugged. 'I have no idea. Why does it matter so much to you?'
She was toying with me again, batting me to and fro, like a guinea pig between the paws of a jaguar…
'My brother is involved,' I said at last. 'I need to know–'
'Whether he had a child? How amusing, priest.'
'Please,' I whispered. Her radiance had become blinding.
Something landed at my feet, wet and soft. It took me a moment to realise, squinting through the strong light, that it was the body of the parrot, small and pathetic in its death, cast aside like a rag.
'One sacrifice,' Xochiquetzal said. 'One paltry, bloodless little bird. An insult. You're fortunate that I was inclined to accept it. I don't owe you anything more.' She rose from Her dais – and, for a mere moment, She was every woman I had ever desired, passion and need searing through my bones at the sight of Her. Burning, my skin was burning, and I was on my knees before Her, scarcely aware of having thrown myself to the ground…
She laughed then: the sound of water crashing into underground caves. 'Better,' She said. 'Much better.' She walked by my side, even as I struggled to rise. I could have sworn Her radiance had grown stronger, sharper: deprived of the potency of blood sacrifices, did She now feed on simpler things, on fear, on abject obedience?
I rose on shaking hands, met Her gaze: ageless amusement, uncomfortably close to malice.
'You might yet be of some use,' the Quetzal Flower said. She was back on Her dais, reclining on Her low chair like a playful jaguar. 'You know the proper sacrifices for Me. Bring them here, and I may feel in the mood to give you more.'
I knew what She wanted: offerings, proper worship offered before Her; not the distant sacrifices of Her priestesses, their smoke rising into the Heavens She'd been cast out of, but the blood of living animals, and perhaps of humans. I didn't have any hold over Her: certainly not here, on Her own ground, and perhaps not even in my own temple, with Lord Death's protection over me.
'I'll…' I struggled to find words. We both knew I had no choice.
She smiled again. 'I'm sure you'll be back. Until next time, Acatl.'
• • • •
I left Xochiquetzal's house in a bad state. My hands would not stop shaking, and every time I thought back to Her, to the light enfolding Her as She rose from Her throne, my manhood would stiffen uncontrollably: something that hadn't happened to me since my calmecac schooling.
I walked through the first streets in a daze, barely seeing the boats in the canals; and it wasn't until I reached the temple of the Moyotlan district that I was able to collect my thoughts.
I hadn't expected Xochiquetzal to have such an effect over me. But then, every time I saw any of the minor gods of the underworld, coldness would creep up my spine, and I would remember that everything in the Fifth World would crumble; and that beneath my face lay a yellowed skull, beneath my skin the first hints of a skeleton, crinkling within the funeral fire.
With difficulty, I tore my mind from gods, and thought on what the Quetzal Flower had told me. I needed to focus on the investigation. Though, Tlaloc's lightning strike me, I had learnt precious little from the goddess. That Eleuia had a child now seemed to be a reality. But Xochiquetzal, like all gods, was capricious, and I didn't believe She had told me the truth when She'd said the child had been stillborn. No, he had to be alive. And if he was, then Eleuia had indeed had a serious affair with a warrior who could very possibly be Neutemoc.
Then another thought occurred to me: Eleuia's sudden interest in my brother. Had she thought he was worth courting, that his status as a Jaguar Knight made him powerful enough to be attractive?
I closed my eyes. Neutemoc might be a fool in thrall to his instincts, but I didn't think he'd abandon his responsibilities. The child, though… The Imperial priests would have means of determining his paternity, if he could
