Flower of War: What Flame Leaves Behind

[aithne]

Jade looked impassively down at the dying man at her feet.

It was nothing she hadn't seen thousands of times before, the twitch and the rattle of breath as the heart and lungs failed, the foul smell that always accompanied death. She had found Mirror, invited him to go for a walk with her, and knifed him in the ribs the moment they were out of earshot. Absently, she drew her thumb across her bloodstained palm to heal the bloody wounds in it--Mirror had bitten the hand she'd clapped over his mouth to keep him quiet.

She waited until the last rattle of breath announced that the small man had finally finished dying, and squatted beside him. She patted his clothing, looking for something--ah, there. Out of a pocket cunningly hidden she pulled a small metal mirror, reflecting the blue of the sky above her. The holy symbol of Tlaloc.

She stood, wrapping the mirror in a piece of cloth. Then she called for the guards. "Wrap the body and keep it; Aziuhoatl will want to deal with it. You, get Coal for me. You, get Mountain. We have a search to do."

Ten minutes later, she was in front of Mirror's door once again, another guard opening it for them. This time, the search was thorough and messy, ending with her "discovery" of the pit beneath the room, and the boys inside. They cringed away from the light, and it was Mountain who convinced the boys to climb upwards, who told them that no harm would come to them. The key was found, as well, and Jade handed the mirror that she'd found on the dead man to Mountain to hold for her.

Then Jade called for Leaf and Spear, and requested that they take her to see Aziuhoatl.

Standing before him, she bowed deeply. "I have come to report a success, Chief Speaker."

Aziuhoatl waved his guards off and nodded at her. "Good, Jade, I had heard rumors of something happening. Tell me what you know."

She reviewed the story she was going to tell the Chief Speaker, and took a breath. "There was a break-in at Coral's house a day or so ago. I spoke with the girl they captured. With some encouragement, she told me that she had gone in to steal something, but had managed only to get a small key. She said she'd given the key to the man who hired her. Who was, from her description, Mirror. The girl also said something in passing about him being a bit preoccupied, muttering curses to himself. He kept muttering a name over and over." She would come back to that later. It was a flimsy story, but perhaps it would hold. "I thought Mirror might return last night to Coral's house, and I was there. I watched him cast a spell on her guards, enter the house, and then come out again with something under his cloak. I followed him, then. He met up with someone else. I could not see their face, but Mirror handed the object to the other. Then both of them parted ways. They spoke to each other briefly, before they left. Something about revenge on the Temple."

"Do you know who this other person was?" asked Aziuhoatl.

Jade shook her head. "It was very difficult to tell. They may have had some magic on them that was clouding my perception of them. I can tell you that whoever it was had a very proud bearing. Knowing that Mirror was working against you, I confronted him, which ended with his death. Then I, Coal, and Mountain searched his room."

"Interesting. So how does this relate to the sacrificial escape?"

Ah, yes, the point of her story. "The girl I mentioned before said that the name that Mirror was mumbling sounded a lot like Jaguar. This was before the escape. I do not know if Mirror's was the hand that let loose the sacrifices, but he was certainly involved. He had at least one ally. Possibly more."

Aziuhoatl nodded again. "Good, then continue the investigation."

"I will," she replied. "One last note. Mirror was certainly a Tlaloc worshiper. We found a small mirror on him, and he has been sacrificing young boys for some time."

The Chief Speaker's face went cold as the wind before a thunderstorm. "A Tlaloc worshipper. Have his family, what is left of it, rounded up and executed. Not sacrificed. Get his personal guards as well and execute them and their families for not reporting his activities. Have the guards remove Mirror's personal effects and bring the mirrors to me."

Brrrr. I'm glad I have no family for him to kill, she thought. "I will. The living boys we found, what should be done with them?"

She had thought she'd need to ask for their lives, request that they be given to the Temple rather than killed. Instead, he said, "The children, find their families and return them to them. Stop by the treasury and get a large sum of money for each family and give it to them."

Jade swept into a bow. "It will be done as you say, all of it."

"Good work, Jade. Now, there is an opening in the advisors again. We must maintain the complement of twenty-seven of advisors or Huitzilopochtli will become angry. Please recommend another advisor to this council, and make sure they are under your wing."

She did not show her surprise. Smoothly, she replied, "May I have a bit of time to think about who would be the best candidate? I can think of several."

He nodded. "Yes, Jade, a week, no more."

"Of course. I've no wish to have my god angry with me."

"Nor I, Jade. Nor I. You may go, keep me apprised."

Jade swept into a deep bow once more, and then retreated. She found Mountain once more, and explained Aziuhoatl's orders to him. "I will take on finding the families of the boys," she said. "Can you take care of the rest?"

"I will," rumbled Mountain. He looked at her, and for a moment Jade thought he was going to say something else to her. Whatever it was, he thought better of it, nodded to her, then walked away.

The boys were able to guide her to their families. At each house, Jade ushered a small boy into the arms of his mother or father, then handed them the jade she had withdrawn from the treasury. "As an apology from the Chief Speaker himself," she said. "The one who did this will never have the chance to do it again."

She gave none of them the chance to ask questions of her. She did not want to explain. What, really, could she say?

After she was done, she cast a critical eye towards the sky. It was nearly noon, and she didn't like the look of the clouds on the horizon. This was the season for sudden afternoon storms, when the weather could be as unpredictable as the whims of the gods.

Perhaps it would storm this afternoon and leave tomorrow fine; it would be nice, for the sacrifices.

She stumbled. The sacrifices.

Tomorrow, those who she had not freed would be sacrificed on the altar. Over seventy thousand people would die between dawn and midnight. She would have to do at least one of the sacrifices herself.

There was a part of her that was sighing with contentment at the thought, happy that life was getting back to normal. She knew that she should feel something, some large horror, but-- Some familiarity would be nice. She was good at the sacrifice. It had been one of the lodestones of her life for seventeen years, part of her daily devotions.

She should let it go. Huitzilopochtli had told her that it wasn't what he wanted. But there was a part of her that was looking forward to tomorrow, the part of her that held that the moment of death was sacred to her god. She had been squeamish at first, and then--

Then there had been Moth.

After him, she had thrown herself into the sacrifice whole-heartedly.

She shook her head, irritated with herself. Deal with the problem at hand, she told herself. Save the idiot regrets for later.

Her thoughts did bring up something she hadn't thought of before. If she was to speak to the old high priest, now would be the time. She wouldn't have a chance, after tomorrow. Once again, she descended into the block of cells beneath the palace.

She was directed to a cell near the back, and at her approach the former high priest stood. Molten was a man about fifteen years her senior, with the characteristic lean look of priests of Huitzilopochtli. He had light eyes--very unusual in one of the Mexica--and in the torchlight they glittered, hard as flint. His hair had been shorn, and he was dressed in rags.

"Jade," he said as she came near.

"Molten." There was a pause as they looked at each other, Molten seeing the hand that would take his heart, Jade seeing what she could become--would probably become, some day. "What happened? Why did Aziuhoatl suddenly decide you'd lost the faith of the god?" she asked with no preamble.

He grimaced. "It happened long ago. I have nothing to lose here anyway. Huitzilopochtli came to me and told me that all we do was for nothing. The sacrifices for the sun, the dedications to him. It wasn't what he wanted. I chose not to listen, figuring that I was delusional or something. I awoke one day to find that I had no powers and that Huitzilopochtli refused to grant me any more." Molten ran his hand over his head, over the short, bristly hair that was the public sign of his disgrace. "I sacrificed more and more people to him but nothing. I then decided it maybe wasn't a delusion but it was too late. I was called to Aziuhoatl to heal some odd wounds he had gotten and I couldn't. He knew that I was out of favor with Huitzilopochtli at that moment and here I am."

He, too, had been offered the choice, and turned it down. "Aziuhoatl said I was the only one of the senior priests you didn't recommend to replace you. Why?"

"You seemed to relish the kill so much, I knew that soon you too may lose your powers. Then you would be here as well." There was a sorrow in his voice as he spoke, one that Jade wondered at. Molten had never favored her. He had treated her with distant respect, but that was all.

"I really don't think so," she said. "What wounds did Aziuhoatl have that you couldn't heal?"

"His legs and back had been scratched as if by some sort of great cat. He said it was from an encounter with a woman."

A woman? Interesting. "Some woman with very sharp claws, no doubt."

"So he said. I fear he has been compromised by the nahuales. His lust for blood has greatly increased."

Jade inclined her head. "I've heard he fears them greatly. Most think it's because of his daughter."

Molten shrugged. "So it is spoken. The truth, I don't know any more."

"Perhaps it will come out, some day. Smoke is missing." Jade glanced behind her. "But I have much to do to prepare for tomorrow, and I should be going. Thank you for your candor."

He smiled then, and said, "Good luck as high priestess. Most of us last only two to three years."

Quietly, Jade replied, "I know. Too many pressures from below, too much danger that offending Aziuhoatl will end my life. I'll need that luck, because as I recall the only way to end the position is feet first." And I am likely to have a much shorter tenure than that, should things go badly, she thought. Perhaps I will be lucky. Perhaps my god will take it into his head to protect me. But I think I am not so special to him as all that.

"Or on the altar that Huitzilopochtli doesn't want any more." Molten's voice was bitter.

"That's between me and Huitzilopochtli, now. Thank you, and goodbye." She turned and left, thinking about those wounds on Aziuhoatl. If he were sleeping with a nahual...Coral? One of his wives? Someone he was sharing his bed with that she didn't know about?

The thought of Coral reminded her that she wanted to speak with the mage. Spear and Leaf had fallen in beside her, and Jade thought, amused, how quickly she had grown to take these two men for granted. "Where is Coral's room?" she asked Spear.

"This way, honored one." The guards led her there, to a room with a guard standing on each side of it. "Good afternoon, warriors," she said. "I would like to speak to Coral, if she is in."

The one on the left nodded and knocked on the door. When a woman's light voice called, "Yes? Come in!" the guard opened the door to admit Jade. She nodded to Leaf and Spear, who took up positions in the corridor, and went inside.

The room was crowded, but painfully neat--everything in it, from jars on the shelves to scrollcases stacked in a rack had an air of having been precisely arranged. Coral herself was sitting cross-legged on a chair, an open scroll in front of her. She was a small woman with the sort of aristocratic bearing that Jade had always associated with the daughters of nobles. She gave the mage a half-bow. "Coral. I am Jade. I have a few questions for you, if you have a moment. Something was stolen from your house last night. What was it? And do you know why Mirror might have been interested in it?"

Coral rolled up the scroll in front of her, reaching for the scrollcase beside her. "It was a magic item. One that he coveted, as it was divination related."

"Ah, I see why he'd have wanted it. Dangerous, I assume?"

"Could be, I suppose. Its magic was strong. I was just learning to use it." Coral nodded towards a chair near the desk, and Jade, recognizing the invitation, sat.

"Do you have any ideas about who he might have given it to, at all?" Jade asked.

"You, I heard, found ties to the resistance movement. I would bet on the one that escaped--Jaguar--or possibly another of their group. One other that he may have given it to is Eclipse."

Eclipse. One of the names on the list. "Eclipse? Who's that?"

Coral made a delicately disgusted face. "The only pleasure girl that he went to with any regularity."

"Where would she be found? I may need to speak to her."

"Dark side." Coral was looking away from Jade, now. "She is very exclusive in her clientele. Only the extremely rich."

Not one of the usual, then. Most pleasure girls--the name was something of a misnomer, since many of them worked into their late twenties, when "girl" no longer applied--worked in the Houses of Joy, which were run by the government. A few, gifted with extraordinary beauty or other special talents, found themselves with enough wealthy patrons to be able to set up business in their own houses. The independent pleasure girls could then have closer control over who they saw, and when. "Ah. Do you know if she was Mirror's confidante, among her other duties?" Jade asked.

Coral nodded. "She was. I know that he had a way to contact her any time he wanted. I assumed that it had something to do with his mirrors."

"Probably. What did the item that Mirror stole look like, by the way?"

"It was a box. About three hands long and two wide, made of palm."

Jade nodded. "If I come across it, I'll let you know.

"It would be good to get back but not critical, I don't believe." Coral smiled gently, but the smile was not reflected in her eyes.

Time to change the subject. "Speaking of the resistance--do you know Smoke well, at all?"

"I have seen her about and have talked to her only at social functions. Nice girl," Coral said.

Jade was probing delicately, trying to find an opening. "No idea why she would have suddenly have turned on her father?"

Coral shrugged. "She had a boyfriend that was a commoner. Aziuhoatl forbid it and it broke them apart or so it seemed. Then he found that she was still seeing him and they ran away. It has strained his relationship with Cinder, his first wife greatly. Smoke isn't first in line for the throne anyway. The younger Aziuhoatl is by his second wife." Jade raised an eyebrow at that, and Coral gave her a sharp smile. "So what did it matter, really? Aziuhoatl thought it looked bad."

"I've heard things about the boyfriend--that he wasn't what he seemed. Maybe it was that."

"Rumor stated that he was bitten by a nahual. I don't know for sure, but that was the rumor. But it got Mantis his own army hunting for the nahuales." Her words were carefully emotionless.

"Is that what Mantis is up to? Nobody seems to be particularly willing to talk about him," Jade said.

"It's advisor only material," Coral replied. "Aziuhoatl doesn't really want to start a war with the nahuales. but he is trying hard to find Onyx and Smoke."

"Ah, thus the army being secret."

Coral grimaced. "Yes, but Mantis has been a bit aggressive."

"Aggressive, how?"

The other woman took a moment before she responded. "He is killing all the nahuales in the area to find them. His policy is if they don't know, kill them as an example."

Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about that bit of warrior wisdom. "There's only so much of that you can do without the people you're killing deciding to become a real problem," Jade said, in a voice that was as devoid of emotion as a comment on the weather.

"Which is why they are streaming into the city. They are under Mountain's purview then."

"And Mountain doesn't have the orders to kill all of them he comes across," Jade said, nodding.

Coral shook her head, and a flicker of some emotion crossed her face, gone as quickly as a butterfly's shadow. "He won't, unless they have broken some law. They are safe inside the walls."

Jade nodded. "Of course, it sounds like they're stealing to survive, and they're getting caught at it. Ah, well. Not my problem."

"No, it's Mountain's problem and Mantis's." Coral glanced away, and then returned her eyes to Jade's. "And yours seems to be finding Jaguar. Any better leads?"

Jade sighed, and let her shoulders relax slightly. "The man's a ghost. You hear his name everywhere, but nobody ever admits to seeing him. It's starting to irritate me. I don't have anything solid at the moment other than knowing that his disappearance and Smoke's are related." That much was safe to admit; anything she said to Coral she had to assume would get back to Aziuhoatl. Looking for Jaguar was a safe cover story for what she was actually ordered to be doing for Aziuhoatl.

"You may wish to ask Spider. She is said to have infiltrated the group as one of her many identities," Coral said, sitting back a bit.

Oh, really. Interesting. "That might indeed help. She's a spy, I take it?"

"She is very good at what she does. More of an information gatherer and seller of said information to the highest bidder."

"You're right, she'd be a very useful person to talk to." Jade paused, and smiled thinly. "Should I be prepared to pay for anything she gives me?"

Coral returned her smile, and folded her hands. "I would."

Jade rose then, and inclined her body in a half-bow to her fellow advisor. "Useful, indeed. Thank you, you've been very helpful. I'll keep my eyes open for your item."

"Thank you Jade. Good luck." The mage did not rise as she watched Jade leave.

That's twice in an hour that someone has wished me good luck. It was beginning to make her nervous. Never mind it. On to the next thing.

She wanted to talk to Spider, but Eclipse would need to come first. The pleasure girl would be working this evening, and possibly later in the afternoon, but if she went now she might catch her free. Jade dismissed the guards and left the palace, going out one of the side entrances.

The dark side, like every other market in Tenochtitlan, was a very busy place, loud and hot and crowded, deafening with the cries of merchants with their wares. Unlike every other market, the dark side merchants never referred to their wares by name when they called out to the passing throngs. There was a complicated code by which merchants and their customers found each other, one that Jade had only ever needed to learn a little of--and her knowledge was a number of years old, dating from her childhood, when her mother had sent her to buy pulque.

Fortunately, the method of finding a person in the market did not change from the legitimate markets to the black markets. The water sellers were her first stop; after buying a cup, she inquired as to where the independent pleasure girls usually had their homes. The water seller directed her to one of the salt people, who plied her trade closer to the center of the market. The purchase of a small sack of salt gained her directions to a dream-reader; one of the dream-reader's apprentices when asked, said, "Eclipse? Yes, of course, she's past the carver's and to the north. Blue door. You can't miss it. Are you sure you don't want to have a dream read, though? My mistress is very good."

Jade looked at the girl, and wondered what sort of dream-reader plied her trade in the center of the dark side. "I rarely remember my dreams, I fear. Thank you. Here's for your trouble." She handed the girl the salt that she had purchased a few minutes earlier. The girl gave her a gap-toothed grin and turned away, but not quickly enough to hide her speculative expression from Jade. The female high priest of Huitzilopochtli, seeking out an exclusive pleasure girl--rumor, the true currency of the dark side, would find that little tidbit an excellent fertilizer.

She smiled as she set out for the house with the blue door. There had been rumors that she preferred women rampant ever since she had been taken into the Temple. By now, they just amused her. It seemed that nobody could quite believe that she could be in such a very male calling and yet be a normal woman in most ways.

She reached the blue door and knocked. The young woman who opened the door looked startled when Jade asked for Eclipse, but showed her in. A few minutes later, a door from an inner room opened, and Eclipse herself walked in.

She was tall, though not nearly as tall as Jade, with hair that fell unbound to her mid-back. She lowered herself into her chair with an easy grace, and when she gave Jade a smile, her teeth were ruddy with cochineal. Jade nodded at her, though she did not return her smile. "My name is Jade Reed, I am an advisor. I have some questions, if you have some time to talk to me. I understand an advisor named Mirror was among your clients."

Eclipse gave Jade a speculative look. "I have the time, if you have the money."

"Of course," she replied. "How much for an hour?" It was possibly not the most diplomatic way to say it, but Jade wasn't really concerned with presenting herself as someone who knew how this sort of thing worked.

"Depends. If you are just asking questions, not more than one jade." Her dark eyes were alive with amusement. "Less clothing equals more money."

Jade shrugged. "Just questions. I'm not inclined towards women."

Eclipse did laugh then, her voice rich as xocoatl. "Ah well, your loss. What's the questions?"

She considered her options, then decided to start at the beginning. "I've heard that the advisor Mirror often came to you. Is that true?"

The pleasure girl showed no surprise at the past tense. News traveled fast, it seemed. "He did, at least weekly. Sometimes more."

"Did he ever speak to you of what he was doing for Aziuhoatl?"

Eclipse shrugged and spread her hands, a motion painfully graceful as the opening of a butterfly's wings. "What did Mirror ever do? He watched. He watched for advisors gone bad, for the resistance, for anything that could be used as an advantage to Aziuhoatl."

Nothing surprising in there. "Did he ever talk about an advisor named Coral?" Jade asked.

"He did, he thought she was very pretty but very dangerous. She shared Aziuhoatl's bed, it seems." Eclipse leaned forward slightly. "He also coveted a great many of the magics in her house, but he feared her finding out if he stole them." She sniffed, slightly disdainfully. "He was a fearful little mouse."

He was, wasn't he? I would have been, too. "Anything in particular that he wanted in her house?"

"He knew about two things, some box that he went on and on about. He was scared that it was watching him somehow, but he couldn't figure out how. And a mirror, that he claimed could be walked through."

The mirror? "Walked through? Did he say where you could walk through to?"

Eclipse shrugged. "Anywhere, he believed."

"Did he ever bring you anything to keep for him?" Jade asked.

There was an odd little smile touching Eclipse's lips. "He had a mirror made for me. It's full length and in my bedroom. He would activate it when he wanted to watch me and my other clients. He paid dearly for that."

Jade brought her urge to shudder under control. The man had been a deviant, obviously. "I am sure that he did. You may want to get rid of it, now."

"Probably just move it out of my bedroom."

None of Jade's business if Eclipse didn't choose to hear a warning when one was given, Jade supposed. "So he never gave you anything else, at all?"

"A lot of money over the years. Oh, he did give me this, once." From between her breasts, she pulled a pendant of some sort.

"May I have a closer look at it?" Jade asked.

Eclipse shrugged, pulled the thong the pendant was on over her head, and handed it to Jade. It was warm with her body heat, though it cooled quickly in Jade's hands. It showed no signs of being magical, but it was obviously the work of a master goldsmith. richly pattered gold with an onyx stone set in the top. There was a latch at the top and a hinge at the bottom.

Carefully, Jade opened the pendant. On the inside was more gold, almost featureless. In the top half, three very small pieces of stone--diamond, Jade thought--were set in a triangle. In the bottom, there was one more diamond, this one alone and set in the middle of the pendant. Strange that Eclipse, who evinced no particular emotion for her longtime client, would keep this reminder of him so close.

Jade ran a finger over the diamonds, feeling nothing except the stones. She closed the pendant, and handed it back to Eclipse. "Looks like the sort of trinket men give women they're very fond of."

The other woman said, "He said to keep it close, just in case. Some sort of insurance against his death, he claimed."

"Strange. He never said what against, did he?"

"Nope, not really. He did say it was a location to something important. But if that's a map, I never figured it out. Granted, I didn't try that hard either."

Eclipse shrugged. Jade looked at her, wondering about that statement. "Odd sort of map, if it is one. Do you mind if I borrow the locket for a bit?" she asked.

"For ten jade, you can have it."

"Done," Jade said, and smiled. "Thank you, this conversation has been quite enlightening."

Eclipse had a sly smile on her face. "Any time." Jade silently handed her the jade she was owed, received the pendant, and beat a retreat.

Stopping in the shade of the building, Jade bowed her head and shaped a prayer in her mind, investing it with a small measure of her power. Am I being watched or followed right now? she asked her god.

Jade jumped as the voice of Huitzilopochtli answered her. "Oh, that's a backhanded question," he said, and his voice was amused. "Are you being watched, not really, I have them blocked. Followed, no."

Jade rolled her eyes. The spell didn't actually require anything other than a "yes" or a "no". She was starting to suspect that Huitzilopochtli was taking every opportunity to speak to her that he could. I suppose he doesn't actually get to talk to many people. Or maybe he just wants to keep me on track. "Well, thank you," she said to his disembodied voice. "I assume you doing the blocking was why I couldn't be seen in the mirror last night?"

"Yep. The more I blocked him the more kids he sacrificed. Suffice it to say, his reincarnation isn't happening anytime in next several million years."

Jade hissed in a breath. "There's a death I can be happy to have accomplished. This is looking more and more like a real mess the farther I get into it, though."

"It's far worse than you think," Huitzilopochtli said, and his voice was matter-of-fact.

She wrinkled her nose slightly. "Well, it's a mess and I haven't even started working my way up the precedence chain of advisors. I assumed it was going to get worse from here. If nothing else, Aziuhoatl is confusing me."

"How so? The whole give the money to the kid thing?"

"That's a large part of it. And whether he is a nahual, or is sleeping with one, or is just terrified of them."

Huitzilopochtli laughed. "All three."

Jade blinked. "Odd. I thought I was going to get two out of three, there. Though being terrified of them and being one explains some of his behavior."

"Doesn't it now. Personally, if I were you I would shut down Mantis as soon as you can. He's going to start something he can't finish."

It was something that she had begun to think herself. "That's what I was starting to think. we really don't need open war between us and the nahuales."

"You really don't want that to happen at all. You think eighty thousand people will create a lot of blood, think about the nahuales attacking the city in droves." There was an odd tension in the god's voice, something that Jade couldn't read.

Jade winced, quite able to visualize. "And many of them are already inside the walls, as well." She sighed. "I'm trying to decide if killing Aziuhoatl would help anything. I don't think it will right now, because at the moment, I'm guessing Ocelot would just take over. And I'd be dead, but that's less of a concern," she added.

"Aziuhoatl the younger is about seven now. His mother would rule if she could, and, well, Aziuhoatl isn't the father anyway."

"Is she strong enough to make a good leader?" she asked.

"No. She will fold in a week--if that."

Swiftly, Jade thought about it. She could take down Aziuhoatl, but Ocelot was still out of reach. "Then a knife in Aziuhoatl's heart will accomplish nothing unless Smoke's set up to take over."

"And being that she is on the run...well, you can see the problem. Ocelot will run this place in a matter of days."

"The path's not clear. But I'll get it figured out." She leaned her back against the wall briefly. "I just need to get through tomorrow, is all."

There was something in the god's voice that was kin to sympathy. "Tomorrow, remember that there always is one, unless you are on the altar." The feeling of his presence faded, taking his voice with it.

Jade stretched, then began to walk back towards the palace. A half hour or so found herself ensconced in Spider's room. Spider was a thin woman who fidgeted constantly, even as she waved Jade towards a chair. "I've heard that you may be able to give me some leads on something I'm working on," Jade said to her as she sat.

"Jade, is it? Sure, what do you need?" She'd picked up a small ball from the table beside her and was rolling it in her hands. It was made of a pale substance, either horn or bone.

"I'm looking for a priest named Jaguar. I'm told you might have been able to penetrate his group."

Spider paused, tilted her head, dark eyes fixing on Jade. "Maybe, what do you want him for?"

Jade shrugged. "He's a heretic, and an escaped sacrifice. I need to bring him back."

"Nope, haven't seen him." There went the ball again, Spider's fingers dancing it from hand to hand.

"I don't suppose some jade would jog your memory?" she asked.

"You would have to have some surprisingly deep pockets, or you might really want to tell the truth. My amulet says you are lying." Spider grinned toothily and tossed her ball into the air, snatching it almost too quickly to see.

Jade just looked at the other woman. Damnit. Is there anything I can say here that won't implicate me too badly? "He's...someone who used to be important to me. I thought he was dead until a few days ago."

She sniffed. "Ah good, now the truth comes out. So you are looking to find him and do what? Rekindle old passions?"

Inwardly, Jade winced. Was that what she wanted? She had thought of it, but she didn't even know if Jaguar was unentangled at the moment. There hadn't been a lot of time for catching up, and they had been treating each other strictly as colleagues. Not even friends, she thought. Not any more. She shook her head. "I don't know, honestly. It's been years. But I have been more or less ordered to find him."

"Well, he runs the resistance in a few different locations." Spider shifted, wriggling in her chair. "I can get a message to him, if you want."

That will be helpful, but not in the way you think it will, Jade thought. "If you would, tell him the message that sometimes, silence can be broken without a sound. Tell him it's from me. He should know what that means, if he remembers what we were to each other."

Spider smiled, tossed her ball again. "I can do that. Anything else Jade?"

This woman was making Jade's skin crawl, and she didn't like how deeply she was having to dig for answers that were mostly true but that couldn't be used against her. But she knew things that it would be difficult to find out any other way. "I was wondering if you know anything about what Mantis is up to," she said, watching the other woman closely.

"Certainly. What is it you want to know?"

"I've heard he's being quite aggressive on his hunts. Do you know why?" It seemed a safe enough question, and one that she could compare with other answers she'd gotten about the same thing.

Another toss and catch of that ball. "He is looking for a particular nahual."

"And so he kills all the ones that aren't the one he's looking for?"

Spider looked away, caught her ball and held it for a moment. "He is torturing and killing them for information. He is killing whole families and clans in his search for the one."

There was something about how she had phrased that--ah. "I've heard the one he's looking for is Aziuhoatl's daughter's lover."

She snorted and tossed her ball, then made it dance from finger to finger. "Only as a cover."

Jade fought the unexpectedly strong urge to catch that ball and slap Spider's hand as she would a fidgeting child. "Who's he really looking for?" she asked.

"Spirit, they call him. I don't know if that's his real name."

That was a name she hadn't heard before. "Why does Mantis--or Aziuhoatl--want that particular nahual?"

Spider wrinkled her nose. "Spirit, the story goes, walked into Aziuhoatl's personal chambers and threatened him. Then walked away. What that threat was, I don't know."

"Odd. Do they know even what kind of were he is?"

"What kind of nahual is a mystery. I have heard all the big cats as possibilities but then I have heard eagles to fish. So you name it." She caught the ball, and it somehow managed to disappear for a few moments. "Rumor has it that he bit Aziuhoatl as a warning."

A threat. Nice. "I can see why Aziuhoatl would want him. Though wholesale slaughter seems to be a bit--extreme. If he wanted to make them bow to him, he'd be better off targeting the kills--but I suppose Mantis knows his job."

Spider shrugged. "Even stranger is that this one claims he can control his nahual creations. Causing Aziuhoatl to transform when Spirit wants, and not when Aziuhoatl does."

Jade smelled a rat. That had never been in any of the stories that she had ever heard about the nahuales. "Now, that is a frightening thought," she said, and meant it. "And so Mantis is simply acting on orders to wipe out every nahual he finds until he finds Spirit?"

There was the ball again, and this time Spider was rolling it from hand to hand. "Mantis likes the killing. He really is nothing more than a murderous savage."

Another one that needs killing, probably, she thought. "Ah. Creatively interpreting orders. As do we all. Do you know if he was friends with Mirror, at all?"

"Mantis came to Mirror a great deal in an attempt to find Spirit." Toss; catch. "Never seemed to work. Coral was working on the same thing from a different angle, so I heard."

"Other than that, they had no known association?"

Spider snorted gently. "They argued every time I heard them together."

Maybe there was still something in there she could use. "Just didn't like each other, then?"

"Mirror was having trouble with finding him. Mantis was a bit put out."

Jade smiled. "I can imagine. So Coral's been working on the same thing, but hasn't come up with anything either?"

"Claims she has, but it had something to do with a box in her house." Spider gave Jade a penetrating look. "Which has gone missing, from what I understand."

Jade saw the opening and danced away from it. Remember that she knows if you lie. "It was stolen, yes. So this search for Smoke's lover is just a sham, then?"

Spider set the ball to dancing once more. "No, not really. They are searching for Smoke for sure. Aziuhoatl knows that Aziuhoatl the younger is not his child. Smoke is wanted for a grandchild, but not through Onyx."

Jade blinked. So Smoke wasn't going to go to the altar the moment she was found? Interesting. "If he's a nahual, I can see why. I wonder who he wants to father a child on her. Well, I suppose if they find her lover, they'll find her, if they're still together."

"That is the plan. It will be anyone other than Ocelot from the advisors."

Ah, there was Ocelot once more. "Why not Ocelot?"

Spider shifted, pulling her legs up under her. "Aziuhoatl is sure that Ocelot is involved in some way with spirit. Ocelot is also Aziuhoatl the younger's father."

Once of Aziuhoatl's wives had stepped out...with Ocelot? And both of them were still alive? "I haven't heard very much about Ocelot, other than that he's very, very good at what he does--but most people are reluctant to talk about what exactly it is."

"Ocelot takes on the jobs that no one else can handle." Spider's hands had suddenly stopped moving, and she was watching Jade carefully.

"The difficult ones, or the ones that the even slightly squeamish won't touch?" she asked.

"Both and all. The real question with Ocelot is what he is doing at the any given time and to what end." She shrugged, but otherwise was still. Jade had thought she'd be relieved at the cessation of constant motion from Spider, but she actually found it to be unsettling. "He is one of those people that reveals nothing until he is about to kill you. And he will probably kill you before he tells you anyway."

Mildly, though her disturbance, Jade said, "Dangerous man, that one. And Aziuhoatl thinks he's being disloyal, but is keeping him around anyway?"

"Can't kill what you can't prove. And if Ocelot is working with Spirit--if Ocelot comes up dead, Aziuhoatl may do the same."

It made sense. "True enough. So Aziuhoatl needs to come up with Spirit first."

"And then he can rid himself of Ocelot. He is also looking for Ocelot's loyal servants in the advisors." Spider tilted her head, fixing her with a gaze that had more than a little amusement in it. "Which may be your job. But then again, Mirror was on Aziuhoatl's side."

Jade twitched the corner of her mouth. "It's not my job that I've been told, no. And Ocelot, if he really is working against Aziuhoatl. probably knows that if they get Spirit, he's next. Even if he's not working with Spirit."

"He does, and so I think Ocelot is hiding him, whether they are friends or not." The ball was moving again, more slowly now.

She nodded and said, "Interesting. Well, it certainly something for me to keep in mind. Out of curiosity, what does Coal usually do for Aziuhoatl? I know he's supposedly looking for Smoke's lover at the moment."

She saw Spider do a swift doubletake; this wasn't a line of questioning she had been expecting. "Coal is really not much more than an investigator. His main function is to provide leads to the resistance, help in any way he can to locate Spirit. He deals with local things, murders, robberies--the things that require time to solve that the city guards don't have to time to deal with."

"Ah. He seems to be good at what he does. Not a bad person at all, really."

Spider shrugged and began playing with her ball again. "No, he knows not the quicksand he got thrown into. Nor, probably, do you. But, then again." She have Jade a measuring look. "Two days as an advisor, and Mirror dies."

Jade spread her hands. "My god guides my hand. That's all I can really say about that. I may have been thrown into the quicksand, but I'm hoping to do his will while I drown."

"Spoken like a true high priestess. Anything else I can answer for you Jade?" The ball was in motion once more, dancing along her fingers.

Jade shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Thank you, you've been very helpful."

The other woman smiled sharply. "Most welcome. I will deliver your message to Jaguar."

She rose and left. It was mid-afternoon now, and Jade decided that she really needed to speak with Jaguar. She released Spear and Leaf from their duty, changed her clothes to something a bit less rich-looking, and headed out of the palace into Tenochtitlan.

She took the long way to the small house that was the entrance to the resistance's warren. When she arrived, there was one guard that she recognized, and one that she did not. They took her down to Jaguar with hardly a word, to a room she hadn't seen before--it appeared to be his personal space. They left her alone with him, closing the door behind her. She noticed that there was another door into the room, behind where Jaguar was sitting.

There was an awkward moment as he looked up from the scroll he was studying. Then he motioned her to a chair, and she sat. "Well, I do have some things to tell you. It's much more of a mess up there than I realized. Mirror is dead, first of all. Exposed as a Tlaloc worshiper and linked to the escape of the sacrifices from the Temple. I've been ordered to continue my investigations."

Jaguar smiled and sat back, and the strange tension in the room began to ease. "That's good news."

Jade nodded. "Tell me, have you ever heard of a nahual who goes by the name Spirit?"

"Spirit, I thought, was a myth." Jaguar twisted his mouth a bit. "Turns out he isn't."

"He supposedly walked up to Aziuhoatl and threatened him, and may have bitten him as a warning of some sort. If nothing else, I know that Aziuhoatl is a nahual, and he's sleeping with at least one person who is one, as well."

Jaguar's eyebrows went up. "Who's that?"

"I don't know for sure. I suspect it may be Coral." she shrugged.

"Could be. Have you investigated this box much? I didn't want to open it. it seems a bit odd."

She shook her head and shifted in her seat. "Only a bit. enough to know that it has seventeen people it's tracking, and some of them are advisors. Coral's very upset it's gone, I think, but was playing it very cool with me. I didn't have much time for more." Something occurred to her, something she should have told Jaguar before, she reckoned. "Oh, and it's tracking Smoke, as well. That was disturbing."

His eyes widened. "Coral, then, knows probably how she escaped. And probably to where."

She nodded. "That would be my guess. However, you're still here, which I think means that Coral hasn't told Aziuhoatl yet, for whatever reason. And you have another hole. The advisor Spider. I don't suppose you knowingly have contact with her, do you?"

"No, I don't know her." He looked at the door behind her. "We need to go, this is making more sense than I thought before. Yesterday, the city guard was smaller, and we found some guards inside the courtyards of the palace. The last time this happened they were massing guards because they found our resistance."

It made sense. "I assume the same thing has happened again."

"If coral knows where we are, she told them and they are about to attack." He shook his head and rose, picking up a few things and stowing them into a bag. "Or this Spider."

Jade rose as well, making sure that her daggers were at the ready. "One of the two. If you get a message from me in the next few days, something about a silence being broken with no sound, whoever it's from is her, or a messenger from her. It's nonsense, of course, but I told her you'd know what it meant. She supposedly can disguise herself very well."

"And that will be Spider?" Jaguar was pulling on a cloak.

"It will be her, or someone working for her. She didn't say if she herself had managed to make it inside your organization." There was a rumble that seemed to come from the stones themselves, and under Jade's feet, the ground trembled. "I think we should be going now, don't you?"

Jaguar, without comment, pulled open the door behind him, only to jump back as men with spears stabbed at him. They appeared to be city guards, from the colors of their armor. He jumped back, turned to the other door, and opened it--only to have fire blossom from the opening. From that flame flashed a dagger, which caught Jaguar in the chest before Jade could even think of something to do about it. Jaguar, looking profoundly surprised, staggered back a few steps and collapsed.

Out of the flames strode a tall man who was not even singed by the flame. Jade sucked in a breath. This was Torch, a fellow advisor who she'd seen from a distance and not met, and the fact that he was here meant that she was in very serious trouble.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, bringing herself up to her full height. Behind Torch, the furnishings were starting to catch fire, and smoke was pouring into the room.

Torch was still holding the bloody knife naked in his hand, but he seemed uninclined to use it right now. "Hunting the resistance movement, and you?"

"Attempting to get what information this one knows out of him." She put a generous amount of disgust into her tone. "Now my cover's blown. Thank you so very much. I wasn't done with him yet." She pointed at Jaguar. "Were you supposed to kill him, or bring him in alive?"

Torch stalked around her. He waved at the guards, and all but one left. "Doesn't matter. Where's Smoke then, or Onyx, if you are undercover here?"

Jade snarled. "They were that way." She pointed in a direction that was towards the door that led to the surface. "They might be gone by now. I was trying to get their current location out of this one before you decided to set the place on fire." She grumbled and bent over Jaguar. He was still breathing, she saw, and looked to be just barely holding on to consciousness. The knife had sliced a nice long hole in his chest, and he was bleeding heavily.

Jaguar opened his eyes, focusing them on her, and then at something past her. The way he widened his eyes saved her life, as she realized that there was someone altogether too close behind her. She threw herself to the side as Torch's knife came down and narrowly missed her, rolling to her feet with a knife in her hand.

"I don't believe you," said Torch as he walked forward towards her.

Jade crouched. "Everyone is fucking with me today," she snarled, and launched herself at him. She opened herself to the warrior mind that always took over when she was fighting, acting and reacting in the moment only.

Unfortunately, she discovered as she tried to press an attack and was repelled, Torch was better than she was. He deflected each of her attacks easily, and she was starting to gasp and cough from the heat and the smoke. If she had been watching this fight instead of being in it, she would have given herself low odds to win. He was younger, stronger, and he was a full-time warrior. She was none of those things, but she did have wits on her side.

She danced back just a bit, watched for him to strike, and when he did grabbed his wrist, using his momentum to send him past her and into the flames behind her. He laughed as he came around, the flames touching him but doing no damage.

Swiftly, Jade gathered her will, made a sharp gesture outward at him, spoke a word. She felt her spell smash into the spells on him, and smiled in gratification as she felt his spells give way under hers. His eyes widened as the hungry flame leapt up around him, catching his hair and his quilted armor.

Torch lunged forward and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him. "We can burn together," he hissed, stepping back into the flame.

She wasted not a breath on a reply, bringing her knife hand around and slashing at him. She was utterly in the moment, utterly at peace, concentrating on nothing more than disabling or killing the man who still had her held tight. She could smell burned hair, feel her skin beginning to singe--but it didn't matter.

Finally, a wound in the neck hurt Torch enough that he let her go, falling to the side, dropping his knife as he fell. She snatched up that knife and jumped away and out of the flames, beating the bits of her clothing that had caught fire. She coughed and dropped low, looking for Jaguar.

He was still there, lying altogether too still. She very quickly checked him, decided that he'd probably live long enough for her to get the two of them outside, and hoisted him up over her shoulder. He was conscious enough to keep ahold of the bag he'd shoved things into, but certainly not enough to walk. It appeared that the one guard who'd been left had fled the flames, and Jade followed his example. That guard may cause me some trouble. Nothing I can do about it now.

The only other exit out of the underground that she knew of was the one that went outside of the wall. She headed towards it, through the thick smoke. After long minutes, she came up on the south side of the city, outside the walls. A few people were in front and behind her, though they didn't seem as though they were injured. Everyone was heading away from the city, presumably to find somewhere to wash up before making their way back into Tenochtitlan.

She eased Jaguar off of her shoulder and set him down. Her whole left side was covered in his blood, and she saw that the bleeding hadn't really slowed in the last few minutes. She dropped to her knees beside him and called on the power that the god granted her, calling for flesh to knit together, for the bleeding to stop.

He finally seemed to rise towards the surface of consciousness once again, "Jade--" he started, then grimaced.

"Don't," she said. "It'll take a few minutes for the healing to finish. You got lucky, Jaguar, he nicked your lung but didn't open it. If he had, you'd have drowned in your own blood a few minutes ago. I don't have enough in me to get the wound all the way healed, but I've patched up the worst of it."

He nodded shallowly and closed his eyes, and she sat down cross-legged next to him. She considered this man, who lay so very quiet, pain carving lines into his face that weren't usually there. I'll wait till the healing's taken completely and you can walk, and then I'll figure out what to do next. If nothing else, I need to wash before I head back. She took a moment to examine herself--she had some cuts and some minor burns, but nothing serious.

There were footsteps approaching, and Jade looked up to see an older man approaching, leaning on a gnarled staff. "Need help with him?" he asked.

Must be a member of the resistance, Jade thought. "I've done what I can for him, and he's conscious, but it's going to take him a little bit to be able to walk any distance. I'd appreciate some help, yes."

The old man leaned down and touched Jaguar on the chest. Jaguar opened his eyes, startled, as he began to drift up from the ground. "That should help," the old man said. "He can float wherever you need him to go."

Jade smiled. "It'll help, yes. Though it's not like I know where to take him at this point. I'm Jade. You are?"

"Walker. My home is outside the walls of the city. You can rest there and let your friend recover." He started walking and Jade, somewhat at a loss, got to her feet and began to follow him. True to Walker's word, Jaguar floated behind her, keeping up.

"Don't you know Jaguar?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Only by reputation."

"Ah. I've met very few of the group he's working with. I suppose I thought you all knew one another."

Walker looked back at her for a moment, then kept on. "Not really part of the resistance. I live outside Aziuhoatl's rule. I was in the right place, I guess, to help you."

Jade blinked. A nahual? Or just an eccentric old man? Maybe both. "I see. Well, thank you, then."

The old man led the two of them deep into the swamp, along twisting paths. They crossed a small bridge that was no more than a felled log, and arrived on a small island. Set back and partially hidden by foliage was a small stone house. He ushered them inside, and directed his spell to lower Jaguar onto a cot in the corner. "Rest now for a bit," Walker told them. "He will be fine here. There is water in that pitcher and a cloth for you clean up with."

Jade nodded. "Thank you, this is very generous of you." She crossed the room to the pitcher and the cloth, wetting down the cloth and starting to scrub at her face and arms. The cloth came away dark with soot and blood. "Jaguar, Where were Smoke and Onyx before Torch arrived, do you know?" she asked.

He sat up, groaning a bit in pain. "They were down the hall from us. Fifty paces or less."

She hissed a bit as she scrubbed at one of the worse scrapes she'd gotten. "Damnit. I'm guessing that they've been taken back into custody."

"Maybe. Onyx knew the ways out. He could be anywhere really unless he was captured quickly. Torch would have taken them and gone, had he found them."

"True enough. Well, maybe I won't be forced to do something stupid to get them freed again. That's a cheery thought." She wetted the cloth a bit more and scrubbed at her face.

"He is smart enough to have gotten out, unless I hear differently."

"I certainly hope so," she said, wetting the cloth again and tossing it to Jaguar. "Well, that's two advisors I've killed in two days. Though this one I may be able to avoid taking credit for."

He smiled briefly before he raised the cloth to swipe at his face. "You can blame me for this one."

"That was rather the thought. thought, really, I'd rather keep my mouth shut and let everyone assume that Torch ran into you."

"And he did." Jaguar paused and looked up at her. "Thanks, by the way."

She shrugged awkwardly. "Least I could do, really. I thought he was going to get the better of me for a couple of minutes there. Glad he didn't, but that was closer than it should have been."

"The box I had with me," he said, reaching into his bag and pulling it out. He held it out to her, and she took it from him. He went back to trying to wash at least some of the blood from his side, grimacing with pain.

Walker had taken a seat across the room, and was watching the two of them. Jade wondered what he thought about the pair of them, what he saw when he looked at her and Jaguar. Did the awkwardness she tried so hard to hide show itself? Was it obvious what they had once been to one another, or did they simply appear to be old friends?

"I was wondering where it had gotten to. I thought you might have given it to Fox." She glanced down at the polished box as she sat cross-legged by the cot. "Though the critter inside would possibly have survived the fire."

Jaguar shook his head. "Fox has been a bit strange as of late."

"Strange, how?" She took the cloth from him, wet it again, and handed it back to him.

"She has been gone more than usual, and she and I had a meeting today and she didn't show."

Compromised, captured, or something else? "Is she usually reliable?"

"Very, usually."

"Wonder if someone's gotten to her, then. Interesting."

"It's possible, I suppose." He paused, then asked, "What are you going to do next? You can't stay here for very long. They will wonder what happened to you."

"Back to the Temple, I suppose. Much as I don't really want to go at this point." She looked down at the box. "At least we can find out where Smoke's gotten to before I leave. And you can see how it works." She opened it, and said, "Hello, it's me again."

The sand inside was still glowing, and the creature within still slid restlessly beneath it. Jaguar made a strange noise, whether of disgust or admiration, Jade couldn't tell. Walker came over to look, as well. Words appeared in the sand. "Hello. Jade?"

She blinked. "How you figured out my name, I'll never know. I need to know what Smoke is doing."

The words paused, then rose to the surface of the sand. "Smoke is in a small room underground, attempting to clean her face with a cloth."

"Does she have her lover with her, can you tell?" she asked.

"There are others in the room. Her mate is not among them currently."

Jade asked, "Is she worried about him?"

"She is worried I believe in general, but not just about him."

She looked up at Jaguar. "Well, Smoke's all right, and I'm guessing that since she's not frantic, Onyx probably is all right as well."

He nodded. "Good. I can stay here for a bit, I think, then I will return to the city and contact you when I have a place set up again."

"All right," she said, and turned her attention back to the box. "What is Aziuhoatl doing at the moment?" she asked the creature in the sand.

"Aziuhoatl is awaiting a report from Torch. Mostly he seems to be pacing."

"Fair enough. Goodbye, then." She closed the box lid, and handed it back to Jaguar, who looked as if his skin were crawling. "I should get back. Walker, I don't suppose you have a shirt I could borrow? I think mine's ruined."

"I should have something." He got up and went into the back room. He came out with cloth in hand. "Here. And this, too." He handed her a shirt and what appeared to be a shard of pottery. "Break it, and you will return to this house in a flash of smoke and light."

Jade's eyebrows went up. He was a mage of some power, then. "Thank you. That may very well come in handy."

Walker nodded, and smiled gently. "I am sure it will."

Looking at him, a thread of suspicion entered Jade's mind. What if she were in the presence of Spirit? It couldn't be--could it?

There was no good way to ask, so she simply nodded and took her leave, inclining her head to Jaguar as she left. Out in the swamp, she stripped off and discarded her hopelessly stained shirt and pulled on the one Walker had provided. It was made of maguey cloth, and had a faint scent clinging to it, though it was clean. She sniffed, trying to figure out what it was. A masculine smell, but not quite identifiable.

She gave up thinking about it and concentrated on finding her way back to Tenochtitlan. Keep moving. Do not falter, do not stumble, do not fail. Never show weakness. Never let anything interfere with your duties.

The litany was not as comforting as it used to be. It had gotten her through seventeen years of Temple service, but how much longer would it hold?

The swamp held no answers, and she sighed and kept walking.

Comments

[miryai.livejournal.com]

Awesome. :) I just thought that I would say that I'm really, really enjoying the story. :)

[silenceleigh.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Always good to know that I'm not the only one reading them. :)