would have done, had I met Father there. 'I've been better,' I said, curtly.
'You freed your brother,' Teomitl pointed out.
'Hmm.' I didn't feel inclined to talk about Neutemoc in front of Teomitl. Searching for another subject of conversation, I remembered that he had been one of those besotted by Eleuia. 'We found Eleuia's body.'
Teomitl's face froze, minutely: disappointment, carefully masked. 'Can I see her?'
Inside the room, Teomitl knelt by Eleuia. He noted, I was sure, the bruises and the missing eyes and fingernails, but giving no hint of any expression whatsoever. He whispered something to her, but I couldn't hear his words. Something he likely didn't want me to hear.
I busied myself with the broom and some cold water, and energetically scrubbed the ground clean. When I finished, both Neutemoc and Teomitl were still watching Eleuia's body, with the same hunger in their eyes.
The Duality curse them both. What had they seen in her?
After Teomitl was done, he walked out again and stood in the courtyard, watching the sunlight play on motes of dust. He was silent, uncannily so, seemingly hunched in the shadow of the frescoed walls. He breathed slowly, evenly, his eyes unfocused.
'I should have known,' he said. 'They always die.'
'Who?' I asked.
He shook his head. 'They're always the same, haven't you noticed? They walk as if the world had no hold on them. But the gods catch them, sooner or later.'
I was beginning to suspect that he wasn't talking about Eleuia, and that I had misjudged him. He hadn't been infatuated with her, but with someone else. 'Teomitl–'
He straightened up as if I'd struck him. 'I came with news, Acatltzin. You were looking for Mahuizoh of the Coatlan calpulli.'
'Yes,' I said, tearing myself from my questions about Teomitl with some difficulty. Mahuizoh. I still needed to interview him: I still needed to find out who had tried to kill Neutemoc.
'He has come back into Tenochtitlan,' Teomitl said.
'How do you know?'
Teomitl shrugged. 'Rumours make their way, even into the calmecac.'
Was he still sweeping the courtyard of the girls' calmecac? His manners, at any rate, had not improved. He still had the same unthinking arrogance that chafed at me: a glimpse of what I might have become, if I had chosen the path of war at the calmecac. But that was irrelevant.
'Do you know why he left the city?' I asked. It sounded far too convenient.
Teomitl shook his head.
I sighed. 'Come. Let's go see him.'
We extracted Neutemoc from his moody vigil over Eleuia's body. While we strode to Mahuizoh's house, I told him what he needed to know.
'Her lover?' he asked, plainly crestfallen.
Sometimes, my brother could be such a child. 'Yes,' I said, stifling another sigh. We were talking about a man who had a good motive for wanting Neutemoc dead, and all he could think of was that he'd had a rival.
Teomitl walked by our side, not saying anything. In the afternoon sunlight, his skin shone. Seeing him side by side with Neutemoc, it was easy to know what Teomitl's protection spell was: a much stronger version of the one Mihmatini had cast on my brother. Huitzilpochtli's protection, a fitting spell for a warrior. Teomitl's eyes went from Neutemoc to me; but clearly he was still thinking on Eleuia. Not, not on Eleuia – on whomever he'd really been infatuated with.
At the entrance to Mahuizoh's house, no slave tried to stop us. When I'd come with the Duality warriors, they'd been fearful. But to receive a Jaguar Knight in full regalia was an honour, judging by the way they bowed to Neutemoc.
'The master is at home,' the slave said. 'He'll be delighted to see you.'
Mahuizoh received us in the reception room, sitting on the same dais as old Cocochi. He was dressed, not in his Jaguar Knight uniform, but in a simple loincloth, with a cape of white cotton falling down his shoulders. For a man in his mid-thirties, he was still going strong: the flesh of his arms firm, his face almost as smooth as that of a young man.
'I gather some of you attempted to visit me earlier,' he said, after I'd introduced everyone. His gaze was curious, not hostile: the hostility was reserved for Neutemoc, who was blithely unaware of it. But I wasn't fooled. Mahuizoh was a clever man. He had to be, to balance both his affair with Eleuia and his belonging to the Jaguar Knights – two utterly incompatible things.
'We were looking for you,' I said. 'To ask some questions.'
'Indeed?' His gaze still didn't reveal anything. And yet he had to know the reason we were here. 'If you must.'
The only way I'd get something out of this man was by shattering his composure. 'We found a body this morning, near Chapultepec. It belonged to Priestess Eleuia.'
He stared at me, for a while. Blinked, slowly, very slowly. 'I see,' he said, finally. And then, more softly, 'I see.' He was shaking.
'It was suggested that you slept with her,' I added.
Mahuizoh looked at Neutemoc, the hatred on his face unmistakable. 'I wasn't the only one, was I?'
Near me, Teomitl shifted. 'The Imperial Courts cleared Neutemoc of wrongdoing.'
Mahuizoh smiled. 'I see you're not even brave enough to defend yourself,' he said to Neutemoc. 'You send pups to sing your praises.'
Teomitl went still, one hand on his macuahitl sword, tightening around the hilt. 'You call me a pup?' he
