As I got up, Hungry Child began walking around the edge of the pond. ‘You weren’t wholly wrong about the statue, though. If you look in the creature’s mouth you can see a little figure of my father. He always said it was the only good likeness of him ever made!’
I looked into the beast’s jaws again, but it was not fight enough to make out much more than a hint of a tiny carving.
‘How did you get here?’ I asked. ‘And what happened to Nimble and the jewel? And why are you dressed like that?’
‘I grew up on this hill. It became mine when my father died, when I was eight years old, and by then I knew every rock and tree on it.’ He sighed regretfully. ‘I missed it, and I will miss it when I finally leave, but still… it wasn’t hard to creep up here unseen, while your son was distracting the guards with my ring.’
‘Distracting the guards?’ I echoed, suddenly outraged. ‘You mean, you used him to create a diversion while you… Where is he?’ At the thought of Nimble’s being caught and interrogated by Maize Ear’s guards, all the fear I had lost for my own safety came back in the form of terror for his. I stepped towards the former King, with my arm raised, momentarily unable to master my anger.
Hungry Child took no notice of my gesture. ‘Your son is with mine,’ he said softly. ‘Waiting for us at the top of the hill.’ I dropped my arm, breathing heavily. I watched him suspiciously as he resumed, speaking as if I had never interrupted him. ‘As for the costume,’ he said, plucking at the rich cotton, ‘I suppose it may be vanity, but I thought that when I presented myself to Maize Ear I had better come dressed as a King. I did not want him to be in any doubt that I was who I said I was.’
Then he turned to the woman. ‘I’m so sorry. You must be Lily.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ve come to tell you…’
I interrupted her smoothly. ‘Maize Ear sent for us both, but I expect you know that.’
‘Of course. I told him to.’
I shot him a curious glance. ‘Did you find out what Little Hen’s message meant?’
‘Some of it, yes. There’s still a lot I have to find out. I’m looking forward to practising my Mayan!’
‘I figured it out myself,’ I told him, unable to stop my voice swelling a little out of pride.
The jewel at the King’s Up sparkled as he formed his all-but-invisible smile. ‘I had a feeling you might. Well done! Madam, you made a fine investment when you bought this slave! Now, shall we go up and tell my son what we’ve discovered?’
We climbed past more lushly planted terraces, past whispering streams and waterfalls cascading noisily over boulders, past the still pools they splashed into and tumbled out of. From time to time I glimpsed, looking sideways through the trees or down on to a lower level, an expanse of water, like the pond where we had found Hungry Child only larger, and I saw clearly now what I had caught sight of, looking at the hill from the ground: the houses, palaces and little temples with thatched roofs that dotted its slopes.
Nowhere did we see another person. There must have been a vast staff of retainers and many guards, but like the men who had so conspicuously ignored Lily and me at the bottom of the hill, they had obviously been told to have nothing to do with us.
Lily stumbled on the stairs near the summit. Hungry Child and I both seized her arms to save her from falling, and I noticed from her shallow, quick breathing that she was almost exhausted.
‘Nearly there now,’ I whispered encouragingly.
‘When we get there, my son’s physicians will look at those fingers,’ Hungry Child said.
‘Thank you,’ Lily managed between gritted teeth.
‘Why would he do this for us?’ I asked, curiosity overcoming my manners.
‘Because you’ve brought both of us what we want, one way and another,’ Hungry Child said mysteriously. ‘And besides. You extracted a promise from me, if you remember, and I have kept my word.’
‘I’ll be all right when I get my breath back,’ the woman buttered, moving her arms weakly as if trying to shake us off. I nearly laughed aloud, for it was the sort of impatient gesture I Would have expected Lily to make. I dared to hope that her soul had not strayed after all.
‘A little further,’ Hungry Child told her. ‘I assure you, it will be worth the climb.’
And so it was.
‘Water,’ Hungry Child mused. ‘Such a precious thing, in a land that’s parched for most of the year, and the rains can’t be trusted to fall when they’re due. Is it any wonder my father wanted to surround himself with it?’
I stared at the scene in front me, speechless. Beside me, I could feel Lily trembling, but I could not tell whether it was from fatigue or awe.
A sheet of water lay spread before us, gleaming in the moonlight: a man-made lake, dug out of the rock like the ponds we had already passed. This one, however, was at the very summit of the hill, with the ground on each side falling away, and Hungry Coyote had built his palace in the very middle of it, on an island rimmed with great spreading cedars that almost hid the building nestling among them now and would shade it in summer. I realized that they must have been here before either palace or lake were dreamed of, and perhaps they accounted for the choice of location. When I looked East, though, I could see another possible reason. The whole of the valley of Mexico lay stretched out beneath us, with the
