Commander Quiyahuayo, Head of the Jaguar Brotherhood, looked at me, thoughtfully. 'The High Priest for the Dead?' he asked. 'You'd be Neutemoc's brother, I take it.'
I wasn't surprised at his shrewdness: to stay in his high position, he would need great intelligence, as well as political acumen. 'Yes,' I said.
The guard's face darkened. 'The traitor's brother?' he asked.
Commander Quiyahuayo lifted a hand. 'Not so fast, Yolyama. Guilt has not been established. What do you want?' he asked, turning back towards me.
I looked at him, trying to establish his feelings towards Neutemoc. He'd be of noble birth; how would he view the ascension of my commoner brother into the nobility?
'I'm looking for evidence,' I said, non-committal.
'About your brother's case?' Commander Quiya-huayo asked. He scratched his chin. 'I was given to understand that there were… complications.'
'Yes.' He missed nothing, and I had no time to fence. I decided to be frank with him. 'Another of your Knights might be involved in this.'
Commander Quiyahuayo raised an eyebrow.
'Mahuizoh of the Coatlan calpulli,' I added.
Commander Quiyahuayo grimaced. 'Mahuizoh,' he said. His distaste was palpable. He hadn't reacted that way when I'd mentioned Neutemoc. 'I see.'
'You're surprised?' I asked.
Commander Quiyahuayo's face was too blank to reveal anything. 'Surprise is a weapon,' he said. 'I try not to let it be used against me.' He scratched his chin, again. 'You want to search this House?'
'We're just looking for him,' I said. 'I need to ask him a few questions.'
'We'll be discreet,' the Duality warrior Ixtli added.
'I see,' Commander Quiyahuayo repeated. 'I have no objections. But make it fast, please. The sooner the Jaguar Knights withdraw from this sordid business, the better.
'Yolyama,' he said to the guard. 'Show them around, will you?' Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked away.
The guard looked at me, then spat onto the ground. 'You're lucky it was Mahuizoh you asked after,' he said. 'The commander's never liked him.'
'Why?' Ixtli asked.
The guard's face closed. 'Not your concern,' he said. 'The commander said you could search the House. That's all. Don't you expect more.'
So there were factions, in the Jaguar Knights; and Mahuizoh was obviously not on the commander's side. I wasn't really surprised. It seemed to be the same everywhere within the Sacred Precinct. How secure was Quiyahuayo's position?
The search wasn't long, although it still felt like time wasted: by the time we exited the house, the sun was halfway down to the horizon line, and the light bathing the temples of the Sacred Precinct had turned as golden as ripe maize.
We'd seen rooms where the young Jaguar Knights – those still unmarried and without lands of their own – would spend the night; common rooms, filled with bored Knights playing patolli, focused on the rattle of the dice to the exclusion of everything else; courtyards where the recruits practised with spears and feather-shields. But no trace of Mahuizoh. Though I had never met the man, the slave Huacqui had provided me with enough a description to stop and question everyone who fitted it.
All wasn't lost, however: one of the Jaguar Knights had given us the address of Mahuizoh's house.
'I assume you'll want us to go there next,' Ixtli said.
I nodded. 'We have to find him.' I still had no proof: just a fanciful story of a disappointed lover who might have turned to abduction and murder. It wouldn't hold before Pinahui-tzin, and certainly not before the Imperial Courts.
We had to find Mahuizoh; and we had to force him to confess where he'd hidden Priestess Eleuia.
Mahuizoh's house was a luxurious one, brimming with slaves, its roof planted with a lush carpet of marigolds and yellow tomato flowers. By its size, it must have lodged more than Mahuizoh's immediate family.
The slave at the door was certainly not expecting a dozen Duality warriors. 'And you would be…?' he asked, trying to pretend unconcern. But his voice shook.
'We've come to see Mahuizoh.' Duality, let him be home.
He looked doubtful. 'I'll ask,' he said and ducked briefly into the courtyard. I heard him call out to his fellow slaves; after a short time, he came back, and said, 'The mistress will see you.'
'Mistress?' Ixtli mouthed. 'What in the Duality's name?'
I gestured for him to be silent. If Mahuizoh wanted to toy with us, handing us to his wife…
Ixtli and I left the warriors at the entrance, covering all possible exits, and entered the house.
The woman who received us in the house's reception room was even older than Ceyaxochitl: too old to be Mahuizoh's wife. Her seamed face had seen far more than a bundle of fifty-two years, and the stiff way she sat in her low-backed chair suggested acute rheumatism. By her side was a slightly younger woman: middleaged, with a face that had sagged too much to remain beautiful.
'I hear you've come looking for my son,' the old woman said.
Mahuizoh's mother, then. I nodded – and then, unsure of whether she could see me at all, said, 'We're here to ask him some questions.'
The old woman cackled. 'The law finally caught up with him? Doesn't surprise me, doesn't surprise
