'You– ' Tizoc-tzin started, but the She-Snake interrupted.
'My Lord, I think it would be prudent to adjourn. You grow tired.'
While Tizoc-tzin protested, Acamapichtli turned, slightly – until he could see me. 'Acatl,' he whispered, low and urgent. 'They've dismantled everything.'
'Everything?' I asked, with a sinking feeling in my belly. 'Your sick patients…'
The look on his face was clear enough. The containment, however efficient it might have been, had been breached, and, worse than that, we had a man under accusation of grave treason loose in the palace, if not in Tenochtitlan.
We had to wait until the end of the audience to leave, which was, sadly, all too predictable. Acamapichtli and his priests were to remain in confinement until Tizoc-tzin could figure out further charges to bring against them. He wouldn't even listen to any other accusations – I caught a glimpse of the courtesan Xiloxoch arguing with a magistrate, but it was likely it would all come to nothing.
If it was even true. I had my doubts.
Afterwards, Mihmatini caught up with us.
'I didn't expect to see you here.'
'Same goes for you,' Teomitl said. He shook his head. 'I thought you were in danger.'
'In danger?'
Teomitl pointed to the thread coiled on the ground between them, which was now a faint light once more, barely visible unless one knew where to look. 'It flared up.'
'And of course you rushed to my rescue.'
'Was I supposed to leave you–?' He stopped. 'What kind of danger were you in?'
Her face was set. 'I lodged a formal complaint with Tizoc-tzin over the arrest of a High Priest. The second arrest in four months,' she said, throwing a glance towards me.
'You did what? Are you mad?' I asked. When I had failed to enthusiastically support Tizoc-tzin four months ago, he had arrested me and threatened to execute me. And now she – Teomitl's wife in a marriage Tizoc-tzin hadn't approved of – told him to his face that he was wrong? 'Do you want to be killed?'
'I'm old enough to take care of myself.'
'Not in that kind of circumstance,' Teomitl said.
'You think so?'
She'd always had a tendency to charge into trouble – climbing cacti to get maguey sap, with the firm belief flimsy cotton bandages would protect her against thorns; rowing to the Floating Gardens on her own and wedging her boat so deeply into the mud that she couldn't lift it out; sneaking into the calmecac school to see Neutemoc, never thinking the priests would keep a watch…
'Tizoc-tzin isn't quite a fool,' Yaotl said. His face was grave. 'Arresting a young woman because she spoke up against him in an open trial would make him look bad.'
'She's the Guardian of the Sacred Precinct. Hardly harmless,' I said, dryly.
'But she's eighteen, and a housewife.' Yaotl smiled. 'That's what people will see first, and Tizoc-tzin knows it. And if he doesn't, I'm sure his sycophant Quenami will remind him. He can't afford to do that, not in front of his noblemen.'
But, presumably, he could afford to arrest the entire clergy of Tlaloc.
'I'm still free,' Mihmatini pointed out. 'If he were to do anything, he'd have done it by now.'
And that was supposed to make me feel better? 'Look–' I started – and gave up. She looked so much like a younger version of her predecessor Ceyaxochitl, and the gods knew nothing had ever stopped Ceyaxochitl once she'd made up her mind – only death, snatching her from us unexpectedly and pointlessly. 'Just be careful, will you? You can't go on doing this, and I don't want you to get hurt.'
'I appreciate the thought, but really, I'm old enough to take care of myself.'
'I'm just worried about you,' I said.
Teomitl moved to stand by my side. 'The court is no fit place for anyone currently.'
Mihmatini's eyes rolled upwards. 'Honestly. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you had prepared beforehand.' Someone sniggered: Yaotl, who never wasted an opportunity to mock Mexica. 'Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to be elsewhere. I'm lodging a formal complaint with the She-Snake as well.'
'I wish you wouldn't do that,' I said. Ceyaxochitl had once told me that everyone had to grow up, but why did it have to happen so fast to those around me?
'Thank you for the honesty.' Mihmatini grimaced. 'Now, you're not going to make me change my mind, and you two look as though you'd better be elsewhere. I'd suggest we both get on with what we were doing.'
And, before either of us could answer that, she was gone. Yaotl threw us an amused glance, and turned to follow his mistress out of the courts.
'Acatl-tzin….' I'd never seen Teomitl look so forlorn.
'She'll survive,' I said, slowly. She had Yaotl to watch out for her, and probably the She-Snake. And surely she was right – surely, if Tizoc-tzin had wanted to act against her, he would have done it by now? 'We'll deal with this later. We have to find the sick men first.'
TEN
The wing of the palace Acamapichtli had occupied had, indeed, been quite thoroughly dismantled – the white and blue cloaks of Tlaloc's clergy replaced by the familiar black garb of palace guards, and the courtyards filled with
