I frowned, thinking that this was the last thing I wanted. What if Hunter managed to stumble across the merchant’s body? ‘Why not go back to the palace for now?’ I suggested. ‘Won’t Rattlesnake be expecting some kind of report?’
‘Like what?’ he demanded. “‘We found the old man but the arthritic old bastard managed to limp away from us?” Not likely! No, we go to Hare’s place. Come on.’
Night was falling by the time we neared the house. A cold breeze had sprung up from the East, blowing towards the lake, where it would stir the surface into a froth. I was going to miss my cloak. At first I thought the goose pimples that broke out on my skin were on account of the weather. Then it occurred to me to wonder why, if that was the case, I was not shivering. Something else was making the fine, almost invisible hairs on my arms and legs stand up, a sensation that had become all too familiar in the short time I had been in Tetzcoco: the feeling that I was being followed.
I glanced over my shoulder, but there was nothing to see but the still shadows of trees and houses.
Who was it this time, I wondered — Black Flower’s spies, perhaps, friends of the unfortunate man who had had his fingers crushed deep inside the palace? I suppressed the fear that it might be the Otomies. The prospect of the captain and his followers pounding the road at my heels, their lust for vengeance stoked up higher than ever by what had happened to their comrade at Hare’s house, was too frightful to contemplate. But why should they come after me in the evening when they had laid a trap for me the next day, one I was bound to walk into?
I glanced at Hunter, but he merely trudged onwards, seemingly oblivious to the fears that assailed me.
I tried to ignore the pricking sensation at the back of my neck while I turned my mind to other problems.
My thoughts about meeting the Otomies had been concerned with how I was going to survive the encounter. I still had no idea how to go about doing that, but, I reflected gloomily, achieving even this seemingly impossible feat would do me no good by itself, beyond putting the final reckoning with the captain behind me. The only reason for risking my life in this venture was to get hold of whatever message Hare had borne, assuming it was among the property the brutal Aztec warriors had plundered from his house. If I could not do that — or if the Otomies did not have the message in the first place — then I might as well turn back now. Except, I told myself ruefully, that I had Hunter with me.
I found myself grinding my teeth in frustration. For all I knew. Nimble’s own scheme might have succeeded, and he might have found not only the child who had escaped the carnage at Hare’s house but the message itself, or some clue to where it might be. He might even now be trotting towards the palace with the thing we had been looking for, and I would have no way of knowing about it, because, unless I could escape from Hunter’s side, I could not contact him. And I could not run away, not with Lily still in the hands of Rattlesnake and his silent, sadistic companions.
I might be about to get myself killed for everything or nothing and never know which.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ the warrior asked.
‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘Just my teeth chattering. It’s the cold.’
‘Not surprised. You should have worn a cloak.’
A few paces further on he suddenly stopped. ‘What was that?’
I looked around, but by now it was too gloomy to see anything further away than my outstretched hand. Even Hunter was little more than a hulking presence beside me.
‘I don’t see anything.’
‘Neither do I, but I heard something. Sounded like a whistle.’ I heard a faint rustle of movement, very close. I started, and then realized that it was the warrior, unfastening the sword he still wore slung over his back.
‘Keep quiet and keep walking,’ he commanded under his breath, ‘and listen, if you know what’s good for you!’
We moved forward again slowly. I had not taken more than three steps when I caught the sound myself: a low call that could not have been made by any bird or animal I knew of.
‘Someone’s signalling,’ Hunter whispered. ‘How much further to Hare’s house?’
‘Not far.’ I remembered what had happened when Kindly and I had been walking along this road and I had thought we were being followed. Then I had found my son, or rather he had found me. Despite my tension, I managed to smile at the memory. I dared not hope to be that fortunate this time; all the same, it was impossible to resist trying to play the events of two days before over again.
‘Why don’t we split up?’ I hissed.
‘What good would that do?’ The words jerked out of Hunter’s mouth as he turned his head from side to side, trying to locate the source of the sounds.
‘Think about it. Whoever’s out there will go for one of us. If it’s me, you can go on to Hare’s house, and, let’s face it, you’ll stand a better chance against the Otomies, when they get here, than I would. If it’s you, you’re a skilled warrior; you’ll be able to fight them off.’
‘Doesn’t sound right. How do I know you won’t just turn and run?’
‘Lily,’ I said simply.
There was a long pause, during which I thought I heard another low whistle. This time I was able to work out where it had come from: somewhere up ahead.
‘All right,’ the other man said eventually. ‘We’ll try it. You go to the house. I’ll work my way around the back, along that stream at the bottom of the slope. I think there’s a path behind
