‘Too bad your friend didn’t make it,’ I said.
Muscles bunched in the Texcalan’s arm. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he demanded, but the captain was speaking before I could answer.
‘On your feet.’
I stood up unsteadily. ‘Nimble, are you all right? What happened?’
‘Who told you to say anything?’ the Otomi snapped. ‘You talk when we ask you a question, not before. Got it?’
I said nothing. My mouth had suddenly gone dry.
‘Right. Now, we were just about to ask the lad here how many more of you there are, but now you’re here you can tell us instead. Is that woman, Lily, with you? What about her father?’
I tried to swallow, but my throat had stopped working. I said nothing. I kept my eyes fixed on my son. He seemed unhurt but was very pale.
The captain’s grin broadened. ‘I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me!’
Then he picked up the weapon that had been propped against the wall beside him. Its blades sparkled as he hefted it thoughtfully. I tried not to look at it. It was a hideous tool, not so much a sword as a long, straight club with slivers of obsidian set into it in four viciously sharp rows: a thing designed to crush, maim and shred flesh rather than to kill. In the captain’s hands it was an all-too-familiar sight, and I knew he would be only too happy to use it.
‘Now, I suppose I ought to ask you again.’ He turned and stepped over to my son. Standing just in front of him, he suddenly kicked at Nimble’s legs to force them apart and then thrust the club into the space between them. ‘Will you tell me where the woman and the old man are or do I turn your boy into a girl? Well?’
‘No!’ I cried, and tried to step forward. I was held fast. ‘All right! I’ll tell you, just don’t hurt him…’
‘Father, no!’ the boy said, his voice barely audible. ‘You mustn’t…’
‘That’s enough from you,’ the captain hissed. ‘I have to take you both back to Lord Feathered in Black, but he didn’t say you had to be in one piece!’
‘Lily’s in prison,’ I said. ‘In the royal palace in Tetzcoco. And her father…’
A scream interrupted me.
It was a short, shrill cry, abruptly cut off as if something had stopped up the throat it came from. It had originated outside the front of the house.
Everyone in the room, even the captain, jumped. The warrior who had been holding Nimble suddenly let go, whirled around and stood in the doorway. ‘Cuectli!’ he shouted.
Cuectli was the captain’s deputy. His name meant ‘Fox’. I realized that he must have been left outside, watching the road, and then I guessed what must have happened. Rattlesnake and his men had finally arrived.
‘Get away from there, you idiot! Get back in here!’ thundered the captain.
He was too late.
The warrior in the doorway shook as if struck and then staggered back, making gagging noises as he fell. There was a dart through his throat.
‘The courtyard, quick!’ The captain seized Nimble by the arm and threw him forward. Before I could react I had been grabbed as well, the Texcalan’s one hand dragging me into the open air with such force that I could barely stay on my feet. As I staggered, completely out of control, he let go of me, plucked at the sword slung over his back and swung it through the air in a graceful arc, accomplishing all this in a single smooth motion.
When I looked past him into the courtyard, a bewildering sight confronted me.
The pile of rubble that had stood against the rear wall had broken down completely, scattering pieces of masonry and slabs of plaster across the ground. In its place stood two armed men: warriors who, I suddenly realized, must have buried themselves under it while they lay in wait for me and the men I was to meet.
‘Rattlesnake?’ I began wonderingly, but that was as far as I got.
Both of the men in front of me screamed and launched themselves towards us, swords poised high above their heads and blades flashing faintly in the starlight. The Texcalan kicked me hard in the back and leaped over me with his own answering shriek as I fell over.
It was over in a moment, a moment filled with roaring voices, the swish of swords and the crunch of their blades on bone, the dull thud of falling bodies and a warm rain of blood splashing on to me.
More shocking than the clash was the silence that followed it.
I looked up fearfully.
The captain was bending over his foe, using the man’s hair to clean the blades of his club. ‘Bloody amateurs,’ he spat.
The Texcalan stood by the corpse of his own victim, his head darting about like a startled squirrel’s in the moment before it bolts. ‘Where did they come from? Where are the others?’
I looked around for Nimble. He had been pushed to the ground as well. As he tried to get up, the captain stood on him. ‘Don’t move! Who are these, Yaotl? Pals of yours?’
‘No,’ I said truthfully. ‘They were Maize Ear’s men. They knew about our meeting. They must have set a trap for us.’
The captain gave a contemptuous snort.
The Texcalan said, in a steady but subdued voice: ‘We ought to take these two and go. There’s no telling how many men are out there.’
His chief rounded on him. ‘What do you care? Your death’s guaranteed one way or another! I’m telling you, we go nowhere until we find out what happened to Fox! And then we kill the men who did it! All of them, you hear me? As for these — we don’t waste any more time with them. You kill Yaotl and I’ll do the boy! Now!’
‘Wait!’ I cried, scrambling desperately to get to my feet. ‘You can’t! Remember Lord Feathered in Black!’
‘Screw him!’ roared the captain, raising his sword.
‘Look
