Obsidian & Blood

by Aliette De Boddard

  "Doesn't the prisoner know who captured him?"

  Coatl's lips tightened. "You've never been on a battlefield, have you? As I said: it's fast and frantic, and all the warriors have painted faces and similar feather-suits. Who's to tell the difference between them, unless they have standards of their own? Which," he added, "neither Eptli nor the other possessed."

  "And how do you resolve this, if there are no witnesses?" I asked.

  "As you said: you ask the prisoner." Coatl didn't look happy. "Ask other warriors of the unit to see if you can trace the troop movements and see who is more likely to have been there at the crucial point." He didn't sound altogether pleased.

  "You don't like doing this?"

  He grimaced. "Discipline I can deal with. Warriors should set a higher example than commoners, and if they go so far as to forget themselves, and steal or betray, or retreat in battle, they only deserve what happens to them. This…? The stakes are high, we're not sure, and everything depends on our decision."

  "When you say 'we'–?"

  "The war-council handles all criminal matters connected to warriors while we're out on a campaign." I caught the implication: whoever the guilty party was, they would likely be tried by the tribunal in the palace, thus relieving him of his responsibilities.

  I could have asked him if he thought he'd taken the right decision, but there would have been no point. What we needed wasn't the truth of what had happened on this battlefield, but someone with a strong enough grudge to cast a curse on Eptli. "The other warrior who claimed the prisoner–" I started.

  "Chipahua? He wasn't happy. Not at all." Coatl seemed to realise the import of what he'd said. "Not that he'd do anything. I'd be very much surprised. Chipahua has always abided by the rules."

  Clearly, he'd defend his warriors to the death, and I wasn't sure I blamed him. Were our situations reversed, I'd have done the same for my priests. "What kind of a warrior was he?"

  "What do you want to know?"

  "Young or old?" I asked.

  "Middle-aged." Chipahua grimaced again.

  "But he'd already taken a captive before."

  "Four."

  "Like Eptli." And, like Eptli, he'd have stood on the verge of admittance into the Jaguar or Eagle Knights. Two warriors, vying for further status and prestige, and only one prisoner. It could definitely get ugly fast.

  "Look," Coatl said, "as I said, I don't like doing this. Accusing people without proof."

  I drew myself to my full height, letting him see my oak-embroidered cloak, the polished skull-mask on my face: the paraphernalia of a High Priest for the Dead, one who patrolled the invisible boundaries, one who defended against magical incursions. "It's a serious matter. Magical spells are one thing; spells cast under the Revered Speaker's nose, so to speak…" I had no doubt Tizoc-tzin was going to hold Acamapichtli and I accountable for all of it. The Southern Hummingbird knew he needed little excuse, those days.

  Still, I stood by what I'd said a year ago. Our Revered Speaker might be a poor warrior with too much ambition, and didn't have the stature to wear the Turquoise and Gold Crown. But when the alternative was star-demons loose in the palace – as we'd had during the drawn-out change of Revered Speaker – I knew where I stood. I would preserve the balance and learn to live with my rancour.

  Coatl's face was expressionless. "As I said, you'll want to talk to the commander of his unit."

  "I don't think so," I said, slowly. "There is something more you're not telling me, isn't there?" I knew the signs, had seen them too often. Coatl was far from the first uncooperative witness I had ques tioned. In fact, for a member of the war-council, one of the highest authorities in the army, he was surprisingly amiable. Then again… then again, he wasn't a nobleman by birth – from his build and numerous scars, he had risen through the ranks to attain his current position. His parents, just like mine, would have been peasants.

  Coatl's face twisted, becoming distant, expressionless, as if he were being careful not to display a strong emotion – hatred? I very much doubted it was affection. "Eptli could be… difficult to get on with."

  "I see. Anyone in particular he didn't get on with? Apart from Chipahua, I presume."

  Coatl didn't rise to the bait. "He got into a quarrel with a merchant, three days out from Tenochtitlan."

  Merchants and warriors got on about as well as warriors and priests – very seldom. "About the usual things, I presume?" Though not as highly considered as warriors, merchants were often more prosperous, and tended to displays of wealth the warriors found obscene and undeserved. More than one merchant had been beaten to death after returning from a trading expedition with a few too many quetzal feathers, cacao pods or jewels.

  "I don't know." Coatl sounded distinctly weary now. "I've seen too many of those cases to tell them apart. The merchant was one of the advance spies, bringing us word of the situation in Metztitlan and of its weak points. He'd barely come into the encampment when Eptli came along and started insulting him."

  "Was he hot-tempered?" I asked.

  "Eptli?" Coatl hesitated – deciding how much untruth he could get away with. "No," he said, regretfully. "He was a cool-headed man."

  Hmm. Either Eptli hated all merchants, or there was something particular about this one, something that had caused him to lose his calm. I added this to the growing list of problems to tackle.

  "Where can I find Chipahua?" I asked. The warrior who had vied with Eptli for the prisoner looked like the most likely person to arrange a fatal accident. "At the feast?"

  Coatl shook his head. "His rank isn't high enough for him to attend the feast in the palace. You'll find him at his house." He gave me an address in Cuepopan, one of the four districts of Tenochtitlan.

  As I left, I could feel his eyes on the back of my neck. He was a singular man – few people had the courage to stand up to an increasingly erratic Tizoc-tzin. I liked him, and I knew I shouldn't have, for in all he had said to me, it had become clear he hadn't cared much for Eptli, and perhaps even resented him for taking away the glory of another, more worthy warrior. He had insisted on obtaining justice – but could he have done otherwise, if he hoped to pretend innocence?

  I took a boat from the temple's dock to get to Chipahua's house. Like most of our crafts, it was a small, sleek assemblage of reeds, with a simple frieze of spiders running along the prow. The priest who was polling it through the canals was someone I didn't know: a young man barely into adolescence – probably a novice who had recently entered the clergy. He wielded the pole with the ease of someone born on the lake, effortlessly inserting us into the dense traffic of the crowded canals and navigating between ornate barges three times our size without a second thought.

  I sat at the back, wishing I'd thought to change out of my High Priest regalia. It would undoubtedly impress a warrior more than a simple cloak, but the sun was high in the sky and the whole cloth of the embroidered cape was already uncomfortably hot. Sweat ran down my cheeks in rivulets, and the skull-mask wedged on my face kept being dislodged by the jolts of the boat as it turned into yet another canal.

  Most boats were going the opposite way, their oars and poles splashing into the water with the familiar rhythm of rowing. On the land adjoining the canal, a crowd walked in companionable silence: women with baskets of poultry and vegetables, and men bent forward against the band on their forehead which supported the burden on their backs.

  Chipahua's house wasn't far from the centre of the city, on the edge of the noblemen's quarter. The buildings here were lower, not having the two storeys that only high-ranking noblemen were allowed, but they were brightly-painted adobe, not wattle and daub, and what they lacked in height, they made up with sheer scale. Every house we passed seemed to sprawl interminably, their gates open to display their outer courtyards, every one more magnificent than the last: a mass of high trees and vibrant frescoes, every building vying with its neighbours with tasteful decoration reminding the viewer of their owner's wealth.


  At length, we stopped before a house that seemed almost shabby compared to its neighbours: the outside frieze was a simple portrait of Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, god of war and fate, and the single slave at the entrance wore a white loincloth with no insignia or adornment.

  He took me to his master without demur, leading me through a courtyard with a well and two pine trees, in which slave women wove cloth, keeping a wary eye on the children, who were playing with dolls and wooden chariots. The rhythmic sound of their looms against the mortars followed us inside – though not the heat, thankfully.

  The reception room was supported by columns painted with ochre, and a single quetzal-feather fan seemed to be the only concession to the wealth and status of its owner.

  Three warriors and three women were sitting at the far end, gathered around the remains of a meal. When the entrance-curtain tinkled, the warrior in the centre looked up, straight at me, and gestured for the slave to bring me closer.

  I'd expected him to remain seated, but to my surprise he rose and bowed to me. "Acatl-tzin. Do join us."

  He knew my name, too, which was surprising. Warriors and priests seldom mingled, unless at court, but he wasn't high enough in the hierarchy to be at court on a regular basis. I threw a glance at his companions, who appeared to have swallowed a live ember. Well, at least their reception wasn't unexpected. "Chipahua, I presume?"

  He smiled. Like Eptli, he wasn't a young man, and battles had left their mark on him, not only in the long scar that slashed his face from right cheek to temple, but also in the wariness with which he held himself. But the smile, spreading to every feature, made him seem almost boyish. "Honoured to meet you, Acatl-tzin." He pointed at the food, spread out on the mat before him. "Do eat with us."

  Most of the food was already gone, though the maize cakes and the fish in lime and spiced sauce smelled delicious – not fit for the meal of the Revered Speaker, but simple, robust fare such as I ate every day. "I already ate," I said, regretfully.

  "A pity. I'd expected to have more time to idly chat," Chipahua said. "But I very much doubt you came all this way for my sake."

  I studied him, but his weathered face gave nothing away. He had to know about Eptli, didn't he?

  "You know what happened."

  Chipahua's gaze didn't waver. "Yes. Someone fainted during the ceremony."

  "Not fainted. Died."

  "I see." His lips tightened. "And once again we're not informed."

  I felt obscurely embarrassed, even though none of it was my fault. Chipahua smiled – but it was a smile tinged with anger. "What did you do with the body?"

  "It's still being examined in the palace. Why?"

  "Because he was one of us. He should be given a proper funeral."

  "He'll have one." A wake, a pyre and a dog's sacrifice, and the hymns for the Dead – no more, no less than what any man was entitled to.

  "I don't think you understand," Chipahua said. His gaze was still amused – but it was tinged with the contempt of warriors for priests. "He was one of us. We will be at his funeral, and it will be done properly."

  I acquiesced, rather than let myself be drawn into a loaded discussion. "You haven't asked me which warrior it was."

  Something passed in his gaze, too fast for me to grasp. "No. It doesn't matter who he was."

  A lie. A good one, but still a lie. "The warrior was Eptli of the Atempan clan."

  One of the other warriors sniggered. "Got what was coming to him."

  "Zacayaman!" Chipahua said, sharply. "Be silent. The dead are owed respect." But he didn't sound as outraged as he ought to have been.

  "I've seen sadder reactions," I said.

  Chipahua picked up a maize cake, and looked at it as if it were a lump of jade. "If you're here, you know what happened. I can't exactly be sad."

  "But you're also the one with the strongest motive."

  "Motive?" This time, the surprise sounded genuine, but I'd already seen what a good liar he was. "I don't see – you mean the death wasn't natural? I assumed–"

  "You assumed wrong. Someone cursed Eptli, and he died."

  Chipahua tore the cake into two neat pieces. "Curses are serious matters," he said.

  "So is ascending into the Eagle or Jaguar Knights."

  He wasn't looking at me anymore. "It takes more than four prisoners, as you well know."

  "I'm not that familiar with army procedures," I said carefully, though in this particular case I did know. My elder brother was a Jaguar Knight.

  "The Knights have to accept you as a brother." He shrugged. "I don't think either I or Eptli had much of a chance, to be honest."

  "Why?"

  "I'm a commoner," Chipahua said, simply.

  "And Eptli wasn't?"

  "Eptli's father was a commoner before the Revered Speaker elevated him. It gave Eptli a great deal of… arrogance?"

  "Which was totally unjustified," the warrior on my left said.

  I suspected arrogance was the wrong word. Warriors were arrogant as a way of life. There had to be more to explain why Eptli was so disliked.

  "Commoners have ascended into the Jaguar Knights before," I said, thinking of my brother. We were the sons of a peasant family on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan; he'd risen through feats of arms, and I through the clergy.

  Chipahua grimaced. "The new commander isn't as open as the previous one."

  "Southern Hummingbird blind the Jaguar Commander," the right-hand warrior – Zacamayan – said. "We know your worth, as does everyone in the clan-unit." His accent and dress were those of an educated man: he was either a nobleman himself, or the son of an elevated commoner, afforded all the privileges of the nobility.

  I ignored the interruption. "You want me to think you had no motive for killing Eptli," I said to Chipahua. "But taking a fourth captive brings other benefits besides entry into the Knighthoods." The haircut that marked them as veterans; distinctive insignia and cloaks; the right to more of the tribute, and the title which would give them the higher status they coveted.

  "I won't deny that." Chipahua's face was blank. "If you're going by motive, then yes, I do have one, and a strong one. You'll know I wasn't the only one."

  I refrained from glancing at his two supporters. "Giving me names to save yourself?"

  Chipahua looked thoughtful for a moment. "You've talked to Coatl," he said finally.

  I thought, uneasily, of the tone in Coatl's voice when he'd talked about Eptli. "He didn't approve of Eptli?"

  "Eptli mocked the old. He rejected their authority – he said they were spent, and they had nothing more to teach us."

  I winced. Given the little I'd seen of Coatl, I very much doubted he'd have liked that. Eptli was sounding more and more like a thoroughly disagreeable person.

  Not that I was surprised. It was rarely the likeable men who were murdered. Murder – especially magical murder, with the lengthy preparations, the shedding of living blood and the calling on the power of the gods – required premeditation, and that in turn meant a strong motive. Few innocent men inspired such destructive passion.

  "Very well. Do you have anything else to add?" This included the two warriors on either side of me, who watched me with undisguised hostility. Whatever Chipahua thought of priests, they didn't share that opinion.

  "No," the left-hand one said.

  "No," Zamacayan said. "But you should look elsewhere, Acatltzin." He put a slight pause after my name, as if he were adding the honorific only as an afterthought.

  "I will give it some thought," I said as I rose. My cloak brushed against him for a bare moment – and I felt a palpable jolt of magic – a strong pulsing power that could only belong to Huitzilpochtli the Southern Hummingbird.

  It might have been a ward: many warriors and noblemen had them – including my own student Teomitl. But the throbbing energy climbing up my arm was no standard ward. Zamacayan was either a magic-user, or he had access to one – not the tame priests at court or in the army, but someone prepared to
cast a strong, elaborate spell.

  I said nothing as the slave took me out of the house, and my priest started rowing us back to the temple. But I was preoccupied. Chipahua himself might have no knowledge of magic, and the two warriors no motive to kill Eptli – but put them together, and bind them with the strong comradeship that kept a unit together in the heat of battle…

  "Acatl-tzin!"

  I looked up, startled out of my reverie – and almost fell over when I saw Teomitl, leaning on the prow of a narrow-nosed boat. He'd discarded his regalia in favour of a mantle with a red brim, and a dark cape, though his face was still painted black and blue.

  "How did you find me?" I started, but then saw the green glow of his patron goddess Jade Skirt etched in every feature of his face. I was on a boat, in the water that was Her province – of course She'd know where I was. I shifted conversation subjects. "What in the Fifth World are you doing here?"

  "Telling you that you were right." Teomitl reached out, taking my hand to drag me into his own boat. "Come on, we'll go faster with this one. It's larger, and it's got the imperial insignia."