‘“We”?’ Kindly repeated.
‘But why?’ asked Nimble.
‘My lord…’ I began, but we were all interrupted.
‘Go on, before we’re seen!’
As I clambered into the hole, I heard Kindly’s muffled voice somewhere ahead of me, protesting: ‘It’s dark! I can’t see where I’m going!’
‘Just go forward,’ Hungry Child told him as he dropped through the hole behind me, letting the trapdoor go at the same time. ‘Follow the tunnel. It doesn’t branch. Mother of Light will be waiting for us at the other end, although,’ he added drily, ‘what she’ll make of all of you is something I couldn’t answer for!’
Afterwards, I realized that our walk through the tunnel must have been short, little more than the distance between the hole Little Hen had found and the palace wall, a distance I had crossed in moments when I was above the ground. It was a different matter stumbling, stooping painfully, through total darkness, with only my fingertips to guide me as they brushed against earth walls and wooden props. I was tempted to turn back, but my way would have been entirely blocked by Hungry Child, who was plainly determined that, having come this far, we were going to finish our journey whether we wanted to or not. Judging by the complaints and curses coming from up ahead, I understood that Nimble and Kindly were no happier with their situation than I was with mine, but Little Hen, who was still just short enough to stand upright, treated the whole affair as a joke, laughing and chattering continually until we all saw a light in the distance and felt the ground under us beginning to rise as we approached the surface. She fell silent only as we emerged, blinking, into the middle of the palace courtyard.
One by one we came out, under Mother of Light’s astonished gaze.
Hungry Child was the last to appear. Even before I saw him again I could hear his voice: ‘Mother of Light, I think you may know these — well, the scrawny slave at the back, anyway. Isn’t he the one we saw outside the marketplace, the fool who got himself into that fight with the pedlars, who came to see you at the palace the next day?’
The woman stood silently in the middle of the courtyard, surveying each of us in turn before reluctantly agreeing with Hungry Child. ‘It looks like him,’ she conceded. ‘I don’t know these others. Though the girl…’
The former King came to stand by her. ‘Ah, yes, the girl.’ Leaning forward, he took Little Hen’s chin in one hand and tilted it upwards. ‘Mayan, of course. So I wonder…’
I decided that it was time for me to take a hand before this Mysterious man, who had once ruled a large part of the valley and whose powers now I could barely guess at, decided that he had everything he wanted from us. ‘My lord, if Mother of Light told you who I am, then she will have told you why I am here, and about the evidence I need to help my mistress. If this girl has what you need, then I ask you…’
Hungry Child looked around at me, his eyebrows rising as though he had forgotten I was there and my presence came as a surprise.
‘“Ask”?’ he repeated. ‘What makes you think you’re here to ask for things? Now you’ve brought me the girl. Well done! I’ll take her off your hands, and Mother of Light will give you something to eat, and then you can go on your way.’
‘But, my lord!’ I stammered desperately. ‘Don’t you understand? I need whatever is in that girl’s head! Lily’s trial may have started already. We haven’t time…’
‘Oh, I think we have,’ the King said coldly. ‘I’ve waited years for this. I have all the time in the World!’
Beside me, Nimble started forward, a protest forming on his lips. I stilled it with a restraining hand, but for a moment could think of nothing to say myself. It was Kindly who spoke for us, more mildly than I would have expected.
‘At the very least, you might let us hear what she’s got to say.’
Hungry Child looked at him for a moment before responding with a thin smile. ‘I might. Very well, then. Let’s hear it.’
Mother of Light led the way out of the courtyard, through a portico and into a large, echoing hall. Our heels stirred up clouds of dust that swirled around us before settling at the feet of the statues lining the walls.
‘I’m afraid that with just the two of us here, we haven’t been able to keep the place up as well as I should have liked,’ said Hungry Child. ‘All we can offer you is a couple of cold tortillas that Mother of Light bought this morning. We can’t have a fire here in case anyone sees the smoke.’
‘Father…’ Mother of Light’s face formed a warning frown as we squatted on a few mats in the middle of the floor, the old King among us.
‘You needn’t call me father now, at least not here. They seem to know who I am.’ As the woman’s expression softened, Hungry Child looked at me keenly. ‘I’d be interested to know how.’
As the woman broke a pair of tortillas in two and shared them out among her four guests, I thought about my answer. Was it worth trying to trade it for a promise of help for Lily? I decided it was not. Hungry Child had been right, I realized, cursing myself for a naive fool: he had as much time as he wanted to learn whatever it was Little Hen had to say, and if I tried to hold out on him he might simply refuse to share it with us, and then we would have nothing at all. ‘There were a few clues,’ I told him. ‘Mother of Light let it drop that there was someone else behind her — it was only a slip of the tongue,’
