Servant of the Underworld

by Aliette de Bodard

  I knelt by the oldest of the frescoes, peered at the details. The eyes were dark, accentuated by black marks, and a plume of heron feathers protruded from His head.

  Tlaloc! Eleuia had given birth in a shrine to Tlaloc, God of Rain.

  We met Palli, Ezamahual and Tepalotl halfway out: they had been unable to push past the sense of uneasiness. Tepalotl, being a slave, didn't look as though he cared much one way or the other; but my two priests were sheepish.

  "We could have followed you, Acatl-tzin," Palli pointed out, once we were safely outside.

  Ezamahual said nothing. He was clenching and unclenching his hand around his obsidian knife, frowning. "I scarcely feel anything," he said.

  "The magic is here," I said, finally, not knowing what else I could tell him. "It takes some practise to open to it, that's all."

  Ezamahual looked doubtful. "I suppose," he said.

  "Acatl-tzin would know," Palli said, looking at his companion severely.

  Ezamahual said nothing. I could tell he wasn't completely convinced. He should have had confidence in me, but I hadn't been capable of proving my abilities to him.

  Huitzilpochtli curse me.

  "It doesn't matter," I said. "We have what we need."

  "We do?" Neutemoc asked, behind me. "I, for one, haven't understood anything."

  I didn't react to his sarcasm. I weighed the baby's bones in my hands, thoughtfully. After the shrine, the small feeling of wrongness was almost restful. "Neither have I." But one thing was sure: the Storm Lord wasn't a god of childbirth. There had been no reason for Eleuia to go into that shrine to give birth unless something else was going on. "But I don't think Eleuia's true allegiance was to the Quetzal Flower."

  "And that solves the matter for you?"

  I shrugged. "If she was to become Consort of Xochiquetzal's husband, she couldn't afford the worship of another god." Hence the need to silence Neutemoc, who might remember the child; who might remember this place and cause someone else to realise what Eleuia had done.

  Neutemoc said nothing, but he didn't look convinced. That wasn't what bothered me. The bones that I held in my hand, however… What kind of child had Eleuia given birth to?

  It's dead, my conscience pointed out, reasonably. Whatever happened, she didn't carry it to term. But that wasn't enough to dispel my growing feeling I'd missed something.

  SEVENTEEN

  Confrontations

  We came back to Tenochtitlan two days later, at dawn. Fog hung heavily over the canals and the streets, clinging in wisps to the houses even after sunrise. The air was humid and sweltering. Overhead, there were no clouds yet, but the rain would not be long in coming.

  I sent Palli and Ezamahual back to the temple; Neutemoc, his slave Tepalotl and I went back to Neutemoc's house.

  Mihmatini was waiting for us in the courtyard, wearing a creased dress of cotton, embroidered with butterflies. Her face was as wan as the moon, and dark circles underlined her eyes. I had never seen her so tired.

  "You shouldn't be up so early," I said.

  She shook her head. "If I sleep, they'll eat the wards." She glanced at Neutemoc. "And your protection is almost gone. I need to renew that for you."

  "I thought you and Ceyaxochitl had everything under control when we left?" I asked, slowly, afraid of what she would answer me.

  Mihmatini gave me a tired smile. "They're either more powerful, or more numerous. Either way, I'm losing this battle."

  "You can't stay here," I said to Neutemoc.

  He shook his head, angrily. "And whose fault is that?"

  "Neutemoc," Mihmatini said.

  I bit back on a wounding retort. "Can we argue about responsibilities later? I need to get you and your household to–"

  I contemplated the possibilities. Most temples weren't warded, except perhaps for the Great Temple. But half of that belonged to Tlaloc. And, given what we now knew of Eleuia's ties with that god, I wasn't eager to find refuge there.

  "We'll go to the Duality House," I said, at last. "That's large enough to hold us all." At least, while I worked out what I did next. I'd have to go back to the Jaguar House, and ask Mahuizoh about Eleuia's ambitions.

  "The Duality House?" Neutemoc asked, incredulous. "My whole household? Acatl, it's one thing to take me on a fruitless journey–"

  I cut him off, with no effort to be civil. "That wasn't fruitless, unless you want to deny what happened in that so-called shrine to the Duality. And I'm not taking risks."

  He stared at me: weary, cynical, angry. "Priests hide and run away. Warriors don't."

  Warriors and priests. Why in the Fifth World did it always have to come to the same thing?

  I'd had enough of that. I said, sharply, "You can stay here if that satisfies your pride. I'm not seeing Mihmatini and your children die like Quechomitl."

  "He died because you involved him in this," Neutemoc snapped.

  I shook my head. "He died because he defended you. That's all."

  "He would have had no need to defend me if you hadn't interfered."

  Interfered? I'd risked my career to prove him innocent, and that was all he could find to say to me? I said, "I wasn't the one who drove Huei against you. You did that yourself."

  This, as I had expected, wounded him. His eyes narrowed; his muscles tensed, readying for a leap in my direction. I laid a hand on one of my obsidian knives, feeling the emptiness of Mictlan well up.

  Mihmatini gave a snort of disgust, and stepped between both of us. "Enough. A pity Mother isn't here any more. You're behaving like children, both of you."

  "Neutemoc," she said, firmly.

  He turned to her. It must have been something in her voice, so reminiscent of Mother's flat, deadly tones. "Yes?"

  "Come here. I'll renew the spell on you. And then we'll pack." She threw me an angry glance. "As to you… don't think I'm on your side, Acatl."

  "You don't sound as if you are," I said, but she was already fussing around Neutemoc.

  I almost went to lean against the wall, until I remembered the creatures, hungrily pressing themselves on the other side.

  So I settled in the middle of the courtyard, watching Mihmatini draw a circle on the ground. I stood, trying to empty my mind of everything. But I couldn't. In the bag at my back were the baby's bones, so subtly, so incomprehensibly wrong. What had Eleuia tried to do with the baby – and was it for this failed attempt that she'd died?

  We drew many curious glances as our small procession crossed the Sacred Precinct, heading towards the Duality House. Even at this early hour, priests were already out: through the fog, I thought I caught a glimpse of Ichtaca in his headdress and spiderembroidered cloak, leading a handful of black-clad offering priests back to the temple for the Dead.

  Getting inside the Duality House required some negotiation: the guards weren't willing to let in two dozen people. They sent for their superior – who turned out to be Yaotl, Ceyaxochitl's personal messenger. I wasn't sure whether his smug smile was an improvement on the situation. His eyes took in the slaves, Neutemoc, and Mihmatini, with Ollin sleeping in a wicker basket at her back, and four year-old Mazatl in her arms.

  "I'm sure there's a good explanation for all of this," Yaotl said.

  I wasn't in the mood to provide much of anything to anyone. "There is," I said. "I'll give it to you once we're inside."

  "I suspect I'd rather have it now," Yaotl said.

  I sighed. "Your walls are solidly warded. Is that good enough?"

  Yaotl glanced at the adobe walls, and finally shrugged. "Warded against what?" he asked.

  "Against things that might be trying to kill us," I said.

  Neutemoc was standing to the side, glowing with Mihmatini's protection, brooding like a jaguar over lost cubs. He wasn't talking to me, and he was avoiding Mihmatini, too. But then, we both were, after the verbal flaying she'd given us on the way there.

  Yaotl looked again at the walls. "Protection. It's irregular–" he started.

  "You care ab
out irregularities now?"

  He smiled. "Possibly. However, you come at a good time. Mistress Ceyaxochitl wanted to see you. I suppose we'll count all the others as your retinue."

  "Ha," Neutemoc said.

  "The sense of humour runs in your family, I see," Yaotl said, as Neutemoc's slaves all gathered in the first courtyard of the Duality House. Neutemoc found himself an isolated place, from which he could glare at me in peace.

  "No," I said, "I can't say I ever had much of one." I gathered my priest-senses, and felt the solidity of the Duality wards, woven into the very foundations of the walls by generation after generation of Guardians. This was a safe place, the safest haven magic could devise. The surest prison, also. I could well imagine how Neutemoc would chafe within those walls.

  Mihmatini was laying Mazatl on the ground, wrapping a blanket around him with the help of an old slave woman. Then she settled down, and started rocking Ollin against her chest, singing a soft lullaby.

  "Come," Yaotl said. "They can get settled without your help."

  Ceyaxochitl was waiting for me within the Duality shrine: a vast, open space at the top of the central pyramid, with a limestone altar, a carved piece of stone, as flat as the surface of a still lake. There were no grooves to collect the blood, either on the altar or on the platform; for the Duality only took bloodless sacrifices such as fruit or flowers.

  "I wasn't expecting you so early," she said. She was leaning on her cane as if rooted to the ground. Her face, like Mihmatini's, was wan and tired. Above her, heavy clouds were gathering: the rains were coming, and would start soon, thank the Duality.

  "He's not alone, either," Yaotl said, with some satisfaction.

  Ceyaxochitl raised an eyebrow. "Not alone?"

  "He's brought a whole household."

  "Your brother's?" Ceyaxochitl asked, quick to see the point. "I take it the creatures are still there."

  "Yes, and it's getting worse. Your wards are down."

  Ceyaxochitl tapped her cane on the floor, thoughtfully. "They shouldn't be. I'll have to look into this. When I have priests to spare."

  "Hum," I said. "I'd rather you focused on these." I handed her a bundle of cloth, containing the bones of Eleuia's baby.

  Ceyaxochitl held it in the palm of one hand, and carefully started unwrapping it with the fingers of her other hand. "What is this?"

  "Bones," I said. "The bones of Eleuia's child."

  "Mm," she said, poking at them with one finger. "Odd bones, you mean."

  "Yes," I said. "But I'm not sure if it's relevant."

  Ceyaxochitl looked at them for a while. "They feel wrong. But I'm not sure why. I need to think."

  She was exhausted, it was obvious: this promise was likely all I was going to get. But I could not force her, in any case. "Why did you want to talk to me?" On the way there, I'd entertained the notion that she'd found a way to kill the creatures – even that she'd have found the sorcerer, and that both Neutemoc and I could go our separate ways. But it didn't look to be the case.

  Ceyaxochitl's face was grave. "I have news, Acatl."

  Bad news, judging from her solemn voice. "The Emperor?" I asked. Though, if Axayacatl-tzin died and there was political upheaval, Ichtaca would deal with the consequences of that.

  Then I remembered, with a twinge of unease, the conversation we'd had. I didn't need further conflict between us.

  Ceyaxochitl was shaking her head. "Yaotl?" she asked. "Can you make sure we're alone?"

  Now she was frightening me.

  Yaotl came to stand near the top of the only stairs leading to where we were, his hand resting on the hilt of his macuahitl sword. Ceyaxochitl moved towards the altar – on which, I suddenly noticed, lay a piece of maguey paper.

  She took it in her free hand before I could read it. "I haven't been idle while you were away."

  "I didn't think you would," I said, finally. "Why all the secrecy?"

  Ceyaxochitl handed me the piece of paper without another word.

  There wasn't much to see: it was just a drawing in red ink, and another in black ink, superimposed upon it. Together, both sets of lines formed a stylised figure: an animal, suggested by its claws and the shape of its maw.

  "I don't understand," I said.

  Ceyaxochitl sighed. "The red pattern is the one Yaotl took from Eleuia's cheek."

  "And the black?" I asked, a hollow deepening in my stomach. Missing lines. If you added the black lines to the red, you had a complete pattern.

  Ceyaxochitl raised a hand. "Promise me you're not going to do something foolish about it," she said.

  She was really, really worrying me. Was the overall symbol some Imperial seal? "I can't promise that until you tell me," I said.

  She was silent, for a while. "It was badly smudged," she said. "Barely recognisable. But Yaotl has a good memory."

  "And?" I hated that she was toying with me, holding her answer at arm's length.

  She turned, to lay one hand on the altar, as if drawing strength from the stone. "It's a ring," she said. "A ring of engraved turquoise."

  My stomach twisted. Turquoise was an Imperial colour. "Who wears that ring?" Tizoc-tzin? Or – and my heart missed a beat – Teomitl?

  "Only one man," Ceyaxochitl said. "Quiyahuayo, Commander of the Jaguar Brotherhood."

  Commander Quiyahuayo. I'd met him, was my first, incredulous thought. He hadn't sounded like… Like a sorcerer. Like a ruthless man, ready to sacrifice Neutemoc for the Duality knew what aim. Was I such a fool as not to recognise a sorcerer?

  "That's not possible," I said. "Someone made a copy…"

  Ceyaxochitl shook her head. "That would be going to a lot of trouble for not much. We had so much trouble tracing that ring, I don't think it was meant to mislead us."

  "I don't understand," I said, stupidly. But I did. The Jaguar Knights were privileged warriors, heavily connected to the Imperial Family – especially their Commander. Ceyaxochitl was telling me that Quiyahuayo might be behind the abduction of Eleuia; but that I would have to tread carefully.

  I thought of the bruises on Eleuia's skin; of how no part of her had been left undamaged; of how Quiyahuayo had left Neutemoc to rot in his cage for days; of how he'd induced Huei to betray her husband and put her own life in danger; of how, because of him, she was now condemned to death. A cold anger crystallised in my chest.

  I crumpled the paper between my fingers. "Thank you," I said, and walked out before she could stop me.

  Yaotl joined me as I reached the outer courtyard of the Duality House. "You're about to do something foolish," he said, flatly. For once, he didn't sound amused or ironic.

  "Do you have any other solutions?"

  "Mistress Ceyaxochitl can appeal to the Imperial Courts–"

  "That's not a solution," I said. "That's just delaying things."

  "Sometimes, it's the best thing," Yaotl said. "Quiyahuayo has more influence than you believe."

  "No," I said. I wasn't there to dally in politics. I wasn't there to be thrown left and right by events out of my control. I wanted justice.

  Yaotl started to say something, but then met my gaze. He sighed: an unusual, uncharacteristic gesture. "It's your choice," he said. "Don't say we failed to warn you this time."

  I shook my head. If my destiny was to rush in, like a fool, then so be it.

  I was almost all the way to the doors of the Jaguar House when I realised someone had followed me. Neutemoc.

  "You're not safe here," I snapped.

  He stood, some paces away from me, stubbornly unmoving. "I heard you. It's my Brotherhood, Acatl. My commander. I think I deserve an explanation."

  He still shone, faintly, with Mihmatini's spell: a soft light, barely visible to my priest-senses, which spilled on the beaten earth under us. The rising wind whipped at his cloak, giving him the air of an uncanny monster.

  I looked at the bulk of the Jaguar House, throwing its shadow over us – at the guards at the entrance. For company, I could do worse than Neutemoc: h
e might hate me, but he'd guard my back, if only because I was family and because his brotherhood had betrayed him.

  "Very well," I said, finally. "Come on."

  He walked some paces away, which suited me. I had no desire to start a long conversation. When we reached the Jaguar House, though, I saw the faces of the guards darken.