‘Obsidian Tongue,’ Kindly growled. ‘At least, he’d better be, with all the money I’ve given him!’ He shot me a reproachful look, to remind me of the row I had had with the lawyer the last time I had met him.
‘Wait here,’ muttered one of the guards. He vanished, while his colleague moved to stand in the middle of the doorway, holding his sword across his chest with one glittering row of obsidian blades pointing suggestively at my neck.
A moment later the first guard was back. He was not alone. Obsidian Tongue almost pushed him out of the way.
‘You!’ he bawled, staring at me.
Kindly stepped forward. ‘Obsidian Tongue! You’re here! What’s…’
The lawyer ignored him. ‘You’d better get in here, fast!’ he snapped. He reached out as if to grab my cloak and drag me through the doorway by it.
‘Not so fast!’ snapped the guard. ‘Is this man a witness or not?’
The lawyer turned to him, heaved an exasperated sigh and snapped: ‘What do you mean, “a witness?” He’s the only bloody witness!’
‘The only…? What are you talking about?’ I began, completely confused, but Obsidian Tongue had already turned his back and was heading back into the room. I followed mutely, and the guards stood aside for me, although they had stepped smartly back into their places before Kindly had a chance to move.
‘Wait!’ he called out plaintively. ‘What about me?’
If anybody answered him, I did not hear it. I had already been ushered into the courtroom, and the sights and sounds that surrounded me in there drove any thought of what might be happening outside from my head entirely.
‘Where’s Lily?’ I demanded, the moment Obsidian Tongue and I were through the door.
I got no answer. Before I could say or see anything more. Obsidian Tongue had thrown himself face down on the floor. On the way he plucked with one hand at the hem of my cloak, as though trying to drag me down with him. I took the hint.
‘My lords!’ he cried into the floor.
There was a brief pause before a clear, perfectly modulated tenor voice, which I thought must belong to one of the judges, sang back: ‘Obsidian Tongue! This is most extraordinary behaviour! I do trust you can explain it.’
‘Stay on your face until I tell you to get up,’ the lawyer hissed at me as an aside. Then, having obviously risen at least as far as his knees, since his speech was no longer muffled, he addressed the judges again.
‘My lords, I apologize. I had an urgent message that there had been a development in the case. May I ask for a short adjournment?’
A different, gruffer voice, that of the other judge, answered him. ‘If it means we might actually be able to have a trial afterwards, that can only be to the good!’
‘Wait, Yolyamanitzin,’ said the judge with the tenor voice. I hoped the name ‘Just Man’ suited his colleague’s nature. ‘What do you want an adjournment for?’
‘My Lord Xayacaxolochatl, I believe I may be able to call a witness on my client’s behalf.’ The name meant ‘Wrinkled Face’.
‘Ah, it’s about time we had one!’ said Just Man cheerfully.
There was another brief pause. I heard whispers, which I assumed were the judges conferring. ‘Very well,’ Wrinkled Face said. ‘We will withdraw for a few moments, no more. We have a lot of business to get through and the Useless Days begin the day after tomorrow.’
‘My lords, I am obliged,’ said Obsidian Tongue. Then I felt a kick in my side, just under my ribcage, and he snapped’
‘Right, you, on your feet! Time for you to start talking!’
I scrambled upright, looking wildly around me, my lips silently forming Lily’s name.
The judges were departing through a small side exit, through which a little light fell, and I guessed there would be a courtyard beyond it for them to take their ease in between sessions. I spared those two dignitaries the briefest of glances, just enough to note the contrast between them. Although both were finely dressed in cotton cloaks that fell to their ankles, one of them, alone, wore a jade labret and a towering headdress whose shimmering plumes displayed the unmistakable blue-green of quetzal tail feathers. The other had a few white heron feathers in his hair, and his earplugs and labret were merely of gold. His costume was finer than most commoners could ever aspire to, but nonetheless that, plainly, was what he was: a commoner whose abilities — probably as a warrior, at least to begin with — had earned him a place alongside his noble colleague.
Obsidian Tongue had told me that the reason nobles and commoners sat together as judges in Tetzcoco’s courts was that it ensured impartiality in the many disputes between those who owned the land and those who worked it. I suspected it might just have been the King’s way of preventing a powerful subject from getting above himself, by placing a commoner next to him. Here the noble was Wrinkled Face and the commoner was Just Man.
Apart from the few rays of fight falling through the judges doorway, the only illumination in the room came from pine torches mounted on the walls, and a single tall flame from a brazier standing on a dais at the back of the room. This enough for me to see as much as I needed to. Two high-backed chairs stood, one on either side of the brazier. They were the most splendid-looking items of furniture I had ever seen, richly gilded and encrusted with emeralds that sparkled in the flickering light of the flame between them. They were the Seat of the King and the Seat of the God, the Lord of the Near and the Nigh. On a low pedestal, just to the right of the Seat of the King and within easy reach of a man sitting in
