'Is that you can investigate this matter, but, as I said, you'll be on your own. I'll offer resources, but I can't do more than that, or I risk my own position.' She didn't sound thrilled by that consideration. But then she had always been independent, like me.
'You know I can't refuse,' I said.
Her gaze was sceptical. She knew exactly the state of my relationship with my family, and the grievances between Neutemoc and me. I owed nothing to my brother – nothing at all. I could just walk away…
There was a tight knot in my belly; a constriction in my throat, as if I would vomit. I couldn't let Neutemoc be executed. I couldn't stand by and do nothing.
'Very well,' I said. I crouched on my haunches in the middle of the room, trying to forget the nausea in my stomach. 'I assume you've sent search parties out into the Sacred Precinct.'
'Yes,' Ceyaxochitl said. 'With jade amulets.'
I shook my head. 'Jade won't be of use against a nahual.' But it couldn't hurt, either. 'What can you tell me about Priestess Eleuia?'
Ceyaxochitl's cane tapped against the frescoed walls. 'An ambitious woman,' she said. 'Still beautiful, considering that she was five years older than you.'
Thirty-five. For a woman, definitely past her prime.
'And?'
'All this is hearsay, of course,' Ceyaxochitl said. 'Gathered from those few students bold enough to talk to me. But the head of the calmecac, Priestess Zollin, wasn't overjoyed about Eleuia being foretold as the next Consort of the Flower Prince, Xochipilli. Zollin had ambitions of her own.'
'Was she born on a Jaguar day?' I asked.
Ceyaxochitl shrugged. 'That can be verified. She could have hired someone to do the summoning, though.'
I shook my head, still feeling the roiling anger in the room. 'Too much rage in here. Whoever did this had personal stakes.'
Ceyaxochitl bent to lift the reed mat from the ground with her cane. 'I'll defer to your expertise in such matters. What else? You'll want to know about the people present in this section of the calmecac. Surprisingly few, considering how spread-out the place is.'
'You can't account for them all,' I said.
'You'd be surprised,' Ceyaxochitl said, 'at how many priestesses are awake at night.'
Of course. They would be going through their devotions, just like the priests in the other temples: blowing their shell-conches at regular hours, burning copal to honour their goddesses, and kneeling on the cold stones to pray for the welfare of the Fifth World. 'So who was here?'
'In the vicinity of this room,' Ceyaxochitl corrected. 'A handful of students. Another Jaguar Knight, Mahuizoh. And, of course, Zollin, whose rooms are just next to Eleuia's.'
'A Jaguar Knight?' Men in the girls' calmecac weren't rare or forbidden, but they usually left by sunset.
'Visiting his sister,' Ceyaxochitl said. 'The girl says he didn't leave her side.'
'She would.'
Ceyaxochitl nodded. 'Of course. Blood stands by blood.' Probably another jab at me.
Or perhaps I was being too sensitive about the whole matter. The idea of Neutemoc arrested and tried had rubbed me raw, and I wasn't really fit to judge Ceyaxochitl's actions.
'What was Neutemoc's reason for being here?' I asked.
Ceyaxochitl shrugged. 'He won't tell us.'
I turned, took a good look at the room. 'I guess you've already searched it?'
Ceyaxochitl didn't move. 'Yaotl did. But if you want to see for yourself…'
I nodded. Yaotl had no magical sight. It was possible he might have missed something, though unlikely.
It was a brief search. Like all priestesses, Eleuia had been living in near-poverty. In the wicker chests I found a few personal belongings, and an unfolding codex on maguey paper, which opened with a rustling sound, to reveal the history of the Fifth World – from the primal fire from which Tonatiuh the Sun God had emerged, to the very end: the Celestial Women and monsters that would consume us before the earthquakes tore the land apart.
Aside from that… a few tokens, safely hidden under a pile of embroidered cotton skirts: an exquisite chalcedony pendant set in silver, in the shape of a dancer entwined with a warrior; and the same kind of pendant, this time in coral, with the dancer alone. Presumably, a third pendant with another type of inset stone, depicting the warrior alone, would complete the set. It was a fairly safe guess, though, that Eleuia had it around her neck.
I walked out of the room with Ceyaxochitl in tow, wondering how to proceed.
Outside, the night was dark, with only a few stars winking in the sky. Like all the rooms in the calmecac, Eleuia's quarters opened onto a courtyard with a small garden – in this case, a pine-tree. There was faint magic in the courtyard: traces of a nahual, though without living blood I couldn't place it more precisely.
'Satisfied?' Ceyaxochitl asked.
I took a quick look at the layout of the place. Only two sets of rooms opened on this particular courtyard: two wide entrances flanked by painted pillars, their curtains painted with the same dayflower design. The first were Eleuia's, which I had just searched; I guessed that the others had to be those of her rival, Zollin. I would have to talk with Zollin, to see what she'd really thought of Eleuia, and whether she'd summoned the nahual.
I would also have to talk to Neutemoc – and the Southern Hummingbird knew I wasn't looking forward to that.
But the most urgent thing was tracking the nahual. Which meant I needed to cast a spell; and unlike Ceyaxochitl, who was the agent of the Duality and had been entrusted with some of Their powers, I could only rely on my personal magic. Other than magical obsidian, our patron Mictlantecuhtli, God of the Dead, did not give His powers into human hands. Without the gods' help, I could only work magic with living blood.
For this, my own blood would not suffice: I needed much more than I could spare.
