'I have seen many men do many things,' Eliztac said. 'Not all of which contributed to the continuation of the Fifth World.'
Neutemoc's face darkened. 'You–'
He hadn't been in a good mood for a while. I could understand why, but it might all have ended badly if someone hadn't lifted the entrance-curtain. The tinkle of bells spread between Neutemoc and Eliztac, stopping them dead.
It was Huei, as I had never seen her: her face painted white, lips greyed, her unbound hair falling onto her shoulders in a cascade of darkness. Her shift, too, was white, as if it had already been time for her sacrifice.
My heart tightened in my chest.
'Neutemoc.' She turned, slightly, towards me. 'Acatl. What a surprise.' Her voice was ironic. Behind her, a green-clad attendant closed the curtain and moved closer to her, in protection.
Neutemoc's hands had clenched into fists. 'You had to know I'd come.'
'I'd almost given up hope that you'd make it out of your cage.' Under the white makeup, her face was expressionless; but in her eyes shone tears. 'But I'm sure you're not here for my health.'
'Why, Huei?' Neutemoc asked, the question bursting out of him before he could hold it back.
'No one can be cheated of their dues,' Huei said. 'Gods, goddesses, wives…'
I felt embarrassed, as I had when they'd started quarrelling in front of me; as if the masks had fallen, revealing the faces of mortals instead of gods. Standing between them wasn't my place. It would never be. 'I think we shouldn't be here,' I said, pushing Teomitl away from Neutemoc.
'Do stay,' Huei said, and the irony in her voice was as frightening as any ahuizotl. 'You're involved, after all, aren't you?'
Teomitl and Eliztac, luckier than me, were discreetly withdrawing to the other end of the courtyard. I spread my hands, trying to contain my frustration. 'I didn't cause anything that you didn't already start. You should have known the consequences of what you did.' Both of them.
Huei said nothing for a while. 'They didn't tell me.'
'The commander?' I asked.
She looked at me, surprised. 'Yes. He and his second-incommand. How did you know?'
'He told us,' I said, curtly. 'And he's dead now.'
Huei's hands clenched into fists. 'I see. It doesn't matter.' She said to Neutemoc, in a lower voice, 'But you couldn't see what was happening, could you?'
He looked at her, for a while. His face was unreadable. 'The gods give, and the gods take away.'
'Still your old excuse?' Huei crossed her arms over her chest. 'Everything dies, Neutemoc. That's no reason to detach yourself from what's yours. That's no reason to abandon me or your children.'
Neutemoc's face was white. 'You've seen how easily everything can tumble.'
'Then things are all the more precious, aren't they?' She shook her head. 'You can't armour yourself against loss, Neutemoc. That doesn't work.'
'I've seen,' he said, stiffly. 'But still–' His voice was low. 'I almost lost you to childbirth. Twice. How can I love what can't last?'
'Everyone does,' Huei said. Her voice was sad. 'And lust won't make you forget.'
'No,' Neutemoc said. 'It will not. We agree on that, if on nothing else.' His lips tightened around an unseen obstacle.
Huei looked at him for a while. 'No matter,' she said, with a sigh. 'What's done is done. I have no regrets.'
'You sought to kill him,' I said, softly, not knowing what else to say.
'Yes,' she said, defiant. 'Because he left me no choice.'
Feeling more and more of an intruder, I started slowly retreating. Neither of them made a gesture to stop me.
Neutemoc didn't move. He shook his head, once, twice. 'The children miss you,' he said, finally.
Huei stood, tall and proud, as she had in her own household. 'I've made my choices.'
I joined Eliztac and Teomitl at the other end of the courtyard. If Neutemoc said something more to Huei, I didn't hear it. How could they both have been so foolish – too blind to see the consequences of their acts, in spite of what Huei had blithely affirmed?
Once it had been established not only that I hadn't been there to coerce Huei into leaving but that I'd brought her husband to see her, Eliztac became more helpful. He probably thought our request to go into Chalchiutlicue's Meadows was a crazy endeavour: two warriors – a far cry from the peasants the Storm Lord and his wife favoured – and a priest of Mictlan, whose magic was anathema to life. The equivalent of mice trying to walk through an eagle's eyrie. But, after all, as he said, our lives were our own.
He led us into a smaller room, with a discreet altar to the Jade Skirt. The room was dark, illuminated only by the flames of a brazier, and filled with the wet, earthy smell of churned mud. A limestone statue of the goddess stood behind the altar: a woman with braids and a shawl with green tassels, opening out Her hands to encompass all of the Fifth World.
Eliztac knelt before the altar, whispering a brief prayer. Then he withdrew from a wicker chest a small figurine of the goddess, which he set on the altar, within a ceramic bowl.
'Stand this way,' he said, pointing to a carved pattern on the floor: a huge water-glyph, still bearing traces of dried blood. And, to me: 'I'll open the gate, but you'll have to complete my spell with your own blood offerings.'
I knelt within the glyph, running my fingers on the smooth stone. 'I'm used to it,' I said. There was a slight draught that raised goose bumps on my skin: an air current running from behind the altar to the door. There must have been a hole somewhere in the wall.
'Our blood, too?' Teomitl asked. He was watching the statue of Chalchiutlicue as if it might come to life at
