'Once again? Whenever did I waste your time, Acatl-tzin?'
'The bribe,' I said. 'It was all a fiction you devised to keep us running in the dark.'
She smiled again, as radiant as the rising sun. 'I sow chaos, Acatltzin. I do my goddess' will. You know all this. Does it matter if I lied to you?'
'It might make me slightly distrustful,' I said, darkly.
'You're a disappointment. Too frank, that's your problem. I lie when it suits me, and tell the truth when it doesn't. And, right now, the truth is more convenient.'
I'd had enough. 'If you're just here to mock me, you might as well be gone.'
She shrugged. 'Fine. But remember what I've given you.'
She was gone in a heartbeat, but, just as she'd intended, she'd sown the seeds of doubt.
TWENTY-ONE
After Xiloxoch was gone, I stared at the powder for a while, but try as I might I couldn't make anything of it.
'Up already?' Mihmatini's voice asked.
I sighed. 'And already swamped with problems.'
'As usual.' Mihmatini settled on the rim of the well, watching me with bright eyes – her hair neatly brought up in two hornshaped buns, the traditional style for married women. 'The problems don't go away, you know. You might as well enjoy the quiet bits in the middle.'
'You're one to talk,' I said, sharply, looking at her.
Her face was dark – as taut as a rope about to snap. 'Perhaps I'd like to be able to take my own advice.' She stopped, her gaze dragged to the thing in my lap. 'What in the Fifth World is that?'
'A parting gift,' I said. 'One of the vectors for the sickness.' It might have been an elaborate lie from Xiloxoch, but then why give us two, one on Eptli's body, and one directly? The most likely explanation was that it really was the vector of the sickness.
'This?'
'Yes,' I said, gloomily. 'It's meant to be money from a symbolic standpoint, but what's inside is not gold. I can't figure out–'
My sister made a sound – I thought she was going to cry, but after a while I realised she was laughing. 'Oh, Acatl. Sometimes, you're such an idiot.'
'What?' I asked, looking at the cloth again – what had I missed.
'Men,' Mihmatini snorted. 'You're all the same. What was the last time you actually entered the slaves' quarters?'
'Fairly recently.'
'For an investigation, right?' She wiped tears from her eyes. 'Sometimes, I swear, you're useless.'
'If you're finished with the mocking,' I said, strongly suspecting I was going to end up looking like a fool again, no matter what I did – why could I never win anything against her? 'What is so funny?'
'If you cooked at all, or dealt with food at all, you'd know what the powder is.'
'I cook,' I said, stiffly.
'Only when you can't find food at your temple or at the palace kitchen.' Mihmatini shook her head, amused. 'The powder is cacao pinolli – cacao powder mixed with maize flour.'
'It's a drink.'
'And a base for flatbreads, yes,' Mihmatini said.
'Someone is killing people through food?' It made no sense. 'Try this one,' I said. I gave her a brief description of the other powder, the one Palli had found.
'A deeper yellow than maize flour?' Mihmatini asked. She puffed her cheeks. 'It could many, many things, and I can't be sure without having a look at it. But I think it's chia pinolli – chia seeds and maize flour.'
'I detect a pattern,' I said. Unfortunately, it was the kind that stubbornly refused to coalesce into anything coherent.
'Yes, me too, but why would anyone want to use those for propagating a sickness?'
'I don't know,' I said. I rose, wrapping the broken quill into a piece of cloth, and tucking it into my belt. 'If anything occurs, do tell me. I'll be at the palace.' I needed to speak to Coatl again – and to see what I could get from either of them about the bribe.
In the corridors and courtyards, the bustle was worse than ever, and the crowd abuzz with the rumours of Tizoc-tzin's departure. Apparently, he'd left at dawn with a close circle of his faithful, leav ing Quenami and the She-Snake in charge – a radical departure from tradition, and one that had tongues wagging from the military courts to the treasure halls.
When I reached Coatl's quarters, though, he wasn't there. According to the slaves, he'd left in the night and hadn't come back. 'He's going with Tizoc-tzin?' I asked.
The slave shook his head. 'Not that we know of. We have received no orders for the removal of his household.'
Not knowing what else to do, I went to see the She-Snake, but he was busy with Quenami, and the line of supplicants and noblemen was already overflowing the courtyard of his quarters. I chatted, briefly, with one of his slaves, but it didn't look as though his guards had even started looking for Xiloxoch or Yayauhqui.
Coatl had left. No matter how I turned this around, I didn't like it. He'd said he hadn't taken the bribe, and he was honest, I was sure of that. But why leave at all, in such circumstances? He might have been frightened of
