Flower of War: Jewels of the Sun
Mar. 24th, 2006 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aithne[ah, yes, here are those nightmares I was talking about...]
Coal was putting on his sandals when Jade entered the room, after knocking and being invited in. She had bathed that morning and then set out to see what she could find out about Monkey. She needed to get rid of Torch's dagger, and Monkey sounded like exactly the person she needed.
"Good morning, Jade. What can I do for you?" asked Coal.
"I actually was wondering what you can tell me about Monkey," she replied.
He shrugged. "Ugly man on the inside. Treats all people as objects. Best to stay away from him."
"Do you know what he usually does for Aziuhoatl?"
"The boy spends time in darkside acquiring things. Things that only the really rich or those who know where to look can find."
Ah, he's acquisitions, got it. "Illegal, extremely rare, or both?"
"Any and all." This was evidently not one of Coal's favorite topics. He bent over his sandal, ostensibly fussing with it, hiding his expression from Jade.
Jade tried a bit of a different angle. "Interesting. I've heard he talks to you quite a bit."
Coal straightened and grimaced, making an ugly face. "Talks at, more likely. He blathers on about this girl he slept with and how pretty she was and that she wanted him more but he had to tell her no, because he is more than a one woman man. Blah blah blah."
"Any reason he's picked you to talk at?" she asked.
He shrugged again. "Mostly because I am a patient man, I think, and will stand still long enough for him to talk at. Try to avoid him. He is annoying on his best days, and you don't want to see his worst. You may wish to ask Raven more about him. Raven is his other sounding board."
Jade nodded. "I will, thank you. I should be going, I'm sure I'll see you later, Coal."
"As should I. I have another matter to attend to," he said, and rose, picking up his wooden sword and fastening it to his belt.
"Anything interesting? Or one of those things you can't talk about?"
"Torch was killed in an attempt to find the rebels, that you probably knew. I am supposed to find the killer. It's probably Jaguar and his group, but Aziuhoatl commands and we obey." Coal didn't sound very excited about his assignment.
Jade was running out of time to frame someone for Torch's death, then. "Good luck on that. I heard Jaguar's group scattered to the four winds after Torch died."
"I would bet on it. Killing an advisor just kicked the rebellion into the category of major threat."
It would have, wouldn't it? "Too bad for them, eh?" she said, shrugging. "Not like they'll be missed."
Coal glanced away. "Unfortunately, that means Smoke as well. I did like that girl."
She made a note of that for later. "I don't know, I think if she can be found alive, she might be brought back into the palace. I don't really know her, but everyone says she's a good kid. I'll keep my ears open for you about Torch, if you like. I don't think I'll hear anything, but if I do, I'll let you know."
"Thanks Jade. See you later." He escorted her out, and closed the door behind him.
"You too," she said, and gave him a smile she was startled to realize she meant. She was starting to like Coal, at least a bit. With that thought she turned and left, picking up Spear and Leaf in the corridor. "Show me to Raven's quarters?" she asked.
Leaf nodded. "Of course, honored one." Soon enough they were on a corridor that Jade had never seen before, knocking at a door.
A man opened it, and Jade said, "Raven, my name is Jade Reed, called Jade. I have a few questions for you, if you have a few minutes."
Raven smiled. "Certainly Jade, come in." He ushered her into a roomy space that was comfortably furnished with many chairs and places to lounge. The man himself was a bit shorter than Jade, built neither lightly nor heavily, with a an easy way of moving that suggested not a warrior but a player of bol. His long hair was tied back from his face, and his smile was open and pleasant as he gestured to a small table, pulling up a chair to it for himself as Jade sat. He was quite a bit better than average-looking, the lines of his face strong, with only the very beginnings of lines around his eyes.
Obviously, the farther you went up in the hierarchy, the better your quarters got. Raven was rather high-ranking, filling the eighth slot below Aziuhoatl, easily the highest-ranking advisor she'd interviewed so far. She regarded this man, who had steepled his long fingers as he looked back at her. Best to start with what she really wanted to know. "I've been told that Monkey tends to use you as a sounding board. What can you tell me about him?" she asked.
He gave her a penetrating look. "That's an interesting question, Jade. Why would you want to know about Monkey?"
"I'm trying to find out about my fellow advisors." She spread her hands. "I'm rather curious about this group of people I've been thrown into, and so I'm poking my nose into things that probably don't concern me."
"Probably," he commented. "Being female, Jade, I would avoid him. He's a bit fast and casual with women."
"So I've heard. I hear he's offended most of the female advisors," she replied.
"Yes, he has. You won't be the last, if you haven't run into him yet."
She smiled, remembering being the only female acolyte in a very male Temple. "I'm a hard woman to offend, considering where I've spent most of my life. But I'll keep it in mind. He seems to be friends, of a sort, with Coal."
"As much as Monkey can be friends with anyone," Raven said. "He's abrasive at best."
"And at worst?"
"Worst, he can be dangerous." He gestured with one hand at the door. "He tells tales when he is drunk of times when he got turned down. Most of those stories end up with the girl dead at the end."
Jade had wondered, and now she knew. "Well, it seems that Aziuhoatl tolerates all sorts of--interesting--behavior among his advisors, as long as they're good at what they do." She was probing, she wasn't quite sure for what.
"Monkey is good at acquisitions. That's true."
"So I've heard. It sounds like he has extensive contacts in the dark side," she said.
Raven nodded. "He does. If you need it he can get it."
"And at least it doesn't sound as if he's actually afflicted with madness."
"His own version," Raven said, and then reached over to a box that was sitting nearby. He pulled out a flask of what appeared to be an amber liquid that sloshed as he set it on the table.
Jade raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"Monkey's weakness." He smiled at her questioning look. "It's a brew that comes from the coast in the jungles. Made with a plant that promotes images."
"Ah, one of the more exotic ones," she said. "We use something like it in the Temple when we're trying to experience visions, and to keep the sacrifices calm."
Raven smiled, running his fingers over the flask. "With a personality like that, he adds some of this to his girl's drinks and suddenly he is much more exciting and witty. Made the mistake of trying it himself and now you can usually find him in the bottle after midnight most nights."
A weakness, then. A very serious weakness. "It's one of the addictive ones, I take it?"
"Seems to be. I keep some here so that when he comes over, I feed it to him and he shuts up for the night." Raven's smile turned sharp. "And he thinks that he has had a good chat with his friend Raven."
Jade chuckled. "And you don't have to listen to him. Nice."
"You got it. Monkey likes it because he suggests things to his dates that they would never do sober--and he does so often from his tales."
She'd heard tales of men who liked certain things in bed; she'd experimented with a few of those things herself, when she was younger. "A bit kinky, is he?"
"So I understand."
Jade quirked her mouth. "Pleasant fellow, really. I think I'll take your advice and avoid him, if I can."
He pushed the flash across the table towards her. "You can take the bottle with you for protection, if you want."
Trap, or genuine offer of alliance? Jade couldn't tell, and Raven's expression told her nothing. She decided to take the bait, if bait it was. "That's generous of you, thank you. I probably won't have to use it; most people think twice before trying to mess with a priest of Huitzilopochtli. For some reason, we scare people."
"You could end up on the altar, I believe, is the biggest reason." Something in his voice suggested that this wasn't something Raven worried about much.
"Among others. It sometimes gets tiresome, being the monster in everyone's closet, but it's occasionally useful." As she spoke, she felt the expected truth of that statement; she was a little tired of being feared. Who would have thought I'd ever get tired of it?
"I am sure that it would get old, but useful in its way. Anything else Jade?" Raven asked.
"Not really, right now." She picked up the flask. "Thank you for this, and I'm sure I'll see you around."
He stood, and she echoed him. "Good to meet you, Jade." he said as he escorted her to the door.
She nodded, and said, "Good to meet you, as well." Then she left him behind, Leaf and Spear falling in beside her as she walked and thought. She still wanted to plant Torch's knife on Monkey somehow, and she didn't want to have to sleep with him to do it.
She glanced at the bottle. If she had a drink with him, drugged him, and then dragged him back to his rooms...she could plant the dagger in his rooms, and then alert Coal that she had found something suspicious. Coal could find the knife, and do what he needed to do with Monkey. Her name wouldn't be involved. Raven would know something was up, but he had more or less handed her Monkey's death warrant.
But why? She shook her head. She had to use the weapons to hand, and worry about the consequences later. Coal couldn't trace Torch's death back to the rebellion, he had to find an advisor responsible.
With that in mind, she took a trip to the market to obtain something suitably alcoholic. Jade herself didn't imbibe except on certain suitably sacred occasions, but pulque was available, as well as several drinks made from fermented amaranth and coca. It really didn't matter--she would only be using the taste of the drink to drown out any taste of the drug. If her plan worked, Monkey was probably going to think that he was going to get a chance to bed her, and wouldn't be paying a lot of attention to what he was drinking.
With a suitable beverage in a jar, she trundled back to the palace. She sent a message to Monkey, requesting him to meet her in her room that evening "to see if we find each other's company congenial". She figured that would bring him over, right enough.
The rest of the day she spent in the new temple, overseeing the movement of certain goods from the old temple to this one. She saw Shale a few times, but for the most part concentrated on being present and visible. She had been neglecting her temple duties, and she feared she was going to have to continue to do so.
Familiar faces, familiar voices, all of them comforted her. There was a rhythm to the work, as she directed her fellow priests. The sun started towards the western horizon, and the Temple as a whole sat down to a simple meal, their first in the new Temple.
Jade walked up to a group of priests with her bowl of roasted maize. It was Gull, Sap, Risen, and Whistle, men she had known for most of her life. They were laughing together about something or other, probably making bets on the bol game scheduled for tomorrow. "Is this seat taken?" she inquired lightly as she sat down beside them, sitting in tailor's pose next to them.
The laughter of the group died. Gull, the highest-ranking member of the group, said, "Of course not. High priest."
There was nothing in his tone that was anything other than respectful. She tried to talk to them, about the move, about the dedication, about the weather, and they were polite and very, very distant.
These priests were her friends. Whistle had even shared her bed a time or two, and she'd always meant to get around to seeing if the rumors about Risen were true. It was as if an invisible hand had come to wipe away all of that.
After a few minutes, she nodded to them and rose, leaving her half-eaten meal behind. They'll get used to it, she told herself. They just need some time, is all.
There was a suspicion in the back of her mind, though. Something about the priests not wanting to be friends with the doomed. High priests rarely lasted longer than three years, as Molten had pointed out to her what seemed like ages ago. There was no retirement. It was a lifetime appointment, and that lifetime could be very short indeed.
The price of power, she thought, and sighed. She needed to get back to the palace, and get ready to have what was probably going to be a very ticklish conversation with Monkey...for a little while, at least.
She wanted to appear as though she were thinking about bedding Monkey, though not as if she had already made up her mind. To that end, she unbound her hair and combed it out, and put on some loose clothing. She did not perfume herself, or put a blossom or two on the table; such things would indicate that her mind was made up, and likely Monkey would not want to tarry long in conversation.
Just after sundown, there was a knock on her door. She had told Leaf and Spear to expect the arrival of another advisor, so they had likely stepped aside to let him pass. "Come in!" she called.
The door opened, and Monkey stepped inside. He was not unattractive, Jade realized in surprise. Some would even say well-favored. But he had a look about him as if he were in possession of a desperate hunger, and as he looked at her she rather thought he had seen something he wanted to eat.
"Come in, have a seat," she said, smiling. He did so, glancing around her room. Something he saw surprised him, she thought. Perhaps that I do not have skulls on my shelves, she thought in amusement. After he'd sat down, she started pouring drinks for them both--the drugged beer for him, water for herself. As she did so, she said, "As a new advisor, I'm speaking to all of the other advisors, to get to know the people I'm working with."
Monkey's smile was sharp and hungry. "Well that's good. I like to get to know them as well, especially the good looking females."
Jade raised an eyebrow. I didn't think he'd resort to flattery so quickly. She knew what she looked like; few strangers would ever call her attractive. Her face was interesting rather than pretty, and she was too tall, too thin, too hardened and scarred by her life and her work. "Most men seem to find me somewhat--intimidating. Perhaps you have a taste for danger. Anyway. Can you tell me what you generally do for Aziuhoatl, at all?" She raised her cup and sipped; he copied her.
"I acquire things for him. The hard to get items. He likes things that are magical in nature."
She smiled and leaned forward a bit. "So I've noticed. Does he generally like the protective magics, or the magics that cause damage? I've heard both are available for someone with resources."
He shrugged. "Any and all. He has been looking for clerical magics as of late."
"Interesting. Usually, those are protection and healing--depending on the Temple, of course." She gave him a weighing look; that she could see him interpreting as a speculative evaluation.
He responded by sitting up a bit straighter, and sipping from his cup again. "Varies greatly. I have been in particular searching for anything from the God Tlaloc."
"Considering that Aziuhoatl is, as far as I know, a faithful of Huitzilopochtli, I'm surprised. I'm sure he has his reasons, though," she said, keeping her voice light.
"He is destroying them, I think." Monkey's voice was dismissive.
Jade considered her next tactic. "Out of curiosity, what can you tell me about Raven? I've heard you're friends with him and Coal. Trustworthy, do you think?"
"Raven, barely know him. I have occasionally have a drink with him but we rarely talk. But Coal is a great guy. Best of friends." He lifted his cup and drank deeply, smiling. Jade leaned forward and refilled his cup after he set it down again.
"I've worked with Coal a few times, he seems to be a decent individual. Unlike a few others along the advisors I've met."
Monkey snorted. "Yes, they are a few out there that are more interested in themselves or have an agenda." He drank again, seeming not to notice that he was doing so.
Jade said diffidently, "It's difficult to tell, with some people. Like Ocelot. Who knows what he's up to? Nobody's been able to say."
"Ocelot has so much power at this point, that I don't think he gets normal assignments like the rest of us," Monkey said. He drugged and drank again. Jade saw that his eyes were starting to glaze over a bit, his eyelids drooping.
"Do you have any ideas what he might be doing? Or Thunder and Teal?" she asked, more in the interest of keeping him awake for the moment than anticipation that he'd be able to answer.
Monkey had lost his smile and, seemingly, any interest in Jade whatsoever. He sat back in his chair, pressing himself into the wood. "Ocelot, I have no idea. Teal is Ocelot's current girl. Thunder is a dangerous man, but I know he only works for Ocelot because Ocelot has something on him."
Teal was sleeping with Ocelot, not Thunder? Jade noted that for later. "What makes Thunder so dangerous?" she asked.
"Thunder has some unusual abilities. Most are rumor, but one that I have seen myself, Lord Raven, is his ability to step through walls."
Jade felt a jolt of electricity run down her spine, and she fought to keep that reaction from showing, even though she thought Monkey wouldn't notice. Lord Raven? This isn't just a hallucinogen. So why would have Raven given it to me, given what I'd find out?
She could not worry about it right now. "When did you see him do this?"
"Last week, Lord."
She considered her next question. She'd have to ask very specific questions to get answers, probably. "Tell me about seeing Thunder step through a wall," she told him.
He nodded, his eyes entirely closed now. "He was heading down to his room and paused by Teal's door. He was listening at the door, when I rounded the corner. I stopped and watched him. It was quite evident that Teal and Ocelot were busy. Thunder strode down to Ocelot's room and just walked through the door, like it was not there."
"Did you see him come out?" she asked.
"I didn't want to chance him seeing me watching, my lord. I retired for the evening." Though Monkey's eyes were closed and he was slumped in the chair, his voice was steady, with only the slightest dreamy tinge to it.
Jade smiled, an idea coming to her. "Tell me, have you ever had any contact with the resistance?"
He moved his head slightly. "I have isolated cells in the past, Lord, for Aziuhoatl, but currently I have none. Your mission has kept me too busy."
Jade felt like a hummingbird that had just found a virgin blossom. Avid, she leaned forward. "And how much progress have you made on my mission?"
"Some lord, I have found many of the more powerful Tlaloc items and turned them over to you as requested. Giving Aziuhoatl only the minor ones."
"What do you think I'm doing with the more powerful items?" she asked.
"Selling them as usual, lord, to Coral."
And what is she doing with them? she wondered. She said, her voice more commanding than suggesting, "Why don't you take off one of your sandals, Monkey? The left one. Make yourself more comfortable."
Monkey complied. dropping his sandal on the floor and going back to his relaxed state. "Put it back on," she said, and once again he did exactly as he was told. Her suspicions were growing, but she needed to see this through before she could do anything about them. "I think you do have some ties into the resistance. You've just forgotten about them, and will forget about them again. In fact, once I've finished talking to you, you'll have forgotten I've told you this."
"I understand, Lord," he said, and his voice was still completely relaxed.
"You were in the tunnels beneath the city when Torch attacked," she continued. "He saw you, and attacked you. You killed him in self-defense. It was in a small room off the main corridor, one with two doors. You killed him and left the body to burn in the fire Torch had set. You will forget that you know this, until Coal asks you about it. You will try to hide this truth from him. You will speak of this to no one, including me, even if I ask. Only Coal."
"I understand," was all he said in response.
"And now, I will help you back to your room. This evening, you had an interesting conversation with the advisor Jade, but you drank too much and in the end you decided to leave sleeping with her for another time. When you get back to your room, you will fall asleep and not wake until morning."
Monkey barely nodded. "I understand, lord."
"Stand up," she said. He complied, and she picked up the cloth bag that she'd stashed behind her own chair, the one with Torch's knife in it. She stooped and draped one of Monkey's arms over her shoulders, and "helped" him to the door.
Outside the door was a large man who could have been Mountain's twin. Jade blinked. It was Thunder. What was he doing outside her door? "Can I help you? I'm seeing Monkey back to his room, he had...a bit too much to drink."
He glanced at the other advisor, who was doing a credible impression of being dead drunk, his head lolling. "Let's step back inside, Jade," he said. "We don't want to discuss this in public."
Jade's stomach knotted, and she swiftly hid her trepidation and nodded. "Of course." She stepped back into her room and laid Monkey down on her pallet, kneeling beside him briefly and telling him, "Sleep now." To Thunder, she said. "I don't think Monkey will remember much of anything, come morning."
"Probably not. Now Jade, you and I have business."
"We do? What about?" She kept her voice level and neutrally curious.
Thunder glanced at Monkey, still and silent on the pallet. "You are new to this game. Raven just set you up. That bottle will cling to your neck like a noose. He is about to discover all the Tlaloc items in Monkey's possession and a bottle of the stuff that he is using to control him in Monkey's room. He will then blame you, for you have that same potion bottle in your room." He shrugged. "And you can guess the rest of this."
Jade cursed herself for her stupidity. Yes, in retrospect, it was a setup. She should have smelled a trap--rather, she had, and had decided to walk into it. "I'd wondered why he gave me the bottle. I was planning on getting rid of it tonight."
He shook his head. "Too late, they will be here in minutes. They have already been to Monkey's place. You stumbling back with him will only incriminate you further."
All right. I give up. I'm not dead yet, which means that Thunder is here to help. Or something. "I take it you have an idea for how I can get out of this?" she asked.
"Give me the bottle, Monkey, and the cups you were drinking out of." He glanced at the bag that she was still holding. "What's in the bag? Anything incriminating?"
Jade nodded. "Very. It's a piece of evidence that Monkey didn't know he owned."
"Coal is with them. Give me that, too. What is it?"
"A knife belonging to a dead man."
He gave her a quick, speculative look. "Anybody important?"
"Yes, he was." Jade returned his look. "I can give you a name, if you want, but you may not want to know."
Thunder shrugged. "That's all right. Who do you want to frame for this?"
"For Monkey?" She paused and thought. Raven would be too far-fetched. "It would be altogether too convenient if Coral happened to take the fall for this," she said, making her decision.
He just looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "You owe me, Jade, and I am one that usually collects."
She quirked her mouth at him. "I understand," she said, echoing Monkey's statements from before. He stooped to sling monkey over her shoulder, then took the flask and the cups and shoved them into the bag with the knife. Then he turned and stepped through the wall, into the back courtyard.
Jade wasn't sure she believed her eyes on that one. But Thunder was gone, and for sure he hadn't walked through the door. She shook her head, then settled down on the floor, bowing her head in prayer. She chanted quietly, recovering her center, the inner core of calm within her.
That core was shaken but still standing, but surrounded now by ghosts, horror, guilt. With the armor of her discipline, hard-won over the years, she hedged them out, holding them away.
But memories made it through the armor anyway. Not even the usual suspects, not even Moth this time, but faces she shouldn't remember, faces belonging to people whose names she'd never known. All of them angry, sorrowful, weeping. I didn't know what I was doing, she told them. I didn't know any better.
But that did not absolve her of responsibility, did not lift this burden from her. Instead, she sat, centered under the awful weight, until the knock she had been expecting came.
She rose with a warrior's grace. At the door was Coal, guards at his back. "Hello. Can I help you?" she asked.
He was looking at her as if he were embarrassed to find himself here. "Sorry Jade, we have had some accusations that Monkey is a Tlaloc worshipper, and you were implicated as well. The accusations about Monkey are true, so I have to follow up. "
Jade didn't let her expression change even a flicker. "I am quite faithful to my god. What do you need from me, then?"
He held up a flask that was exactly like the one that Raven had given her. "Again, I am sorry Jade, but by order of Aziuhoatl I am to search your room for a bottle just like this."
"Fine, come in, have a look around." She stepped back from the door and motioned Coal in. The people behind him filed into the room, and Coal stopped near the door.
"Have you seen Monkey today?" he asked.
She shook her head. "He stood me up this evening. I was going to speak with him, but he never arrived."
"That's at least good." He stayed by the door with her as the men he had with him searched the room. They were quick, efficient, and thorough. She chatted with Coal, thinking all the while, You have no idea what a mire you're in, do you? I almost wish I didn't have to use you as I do. I think you'd make a fine ally, and friend.
The men finished, and came up empty-handed. Coal nodded. "Again, I'm sorry Jade, but as I expected there was nothing to find. I am off to search the rest of the advisors' rooms. I think the accuser may have been mistaken about who they were accusing."
She glanced at the men who were filing out past them. "Can I ask, at least, who accused me?"
"Raven," he said.
"Ah. Interesting. I'll see you later, then, Coal."
"Good night, Jade," he said, and took his leave. After she closed the door, she did a quick search to make sure none of the men had left anything behind, and straightened up a bit. She found nothing.
She snuffed the light and lay down on her pallet, the freshening breeze blowing in through her window. She turned the day over in her mind, but between one thought and the next, she was asleep.
She dreamed that she was surrounded by people, all of them with a gaping hole in their bodies right below the ribcage, the characteristic wound of the sacrifice. They washed up against her like waves of water, touching her skin and hair gently, so gently. She shuddered and tried to break away and their hands turned hard, pinching and poking, tangling in her hair and pulling.
The harder she fought, they more they hurt her. Pinches turned to blows, blows turned to knife cuts. "Want what you stole," one whimpered. "Want you to give us what you took."
"Her heart," wailed another. "Tear it up, a piece for each of us!"
There isn't enough! she thought desperately. Her mouth was full of blood, she couldn't speak. There isn't enough of my heart for all of you--
"Should have thought of that before you took!" one howled. Mercifully, all went black at that point.
But when the images began to come again, she found herself wishing for the crowd. Before her stood Moth, his heart in his hands, still beating. He didn't say anything, just stood and looked at her. She tried to back away, but she couldn't move from the spot. She beat at the walls of the dream like a bird, but still Moth stood there, looking at her.
She closed her eyes and crouched where she stood, repeating to herself, It's just a dream, just a dream.
Moth's voice was still familiar after all these years. "Don't you want to look at me, love?" he asked. "Don't you want to see me?"
"You're dead," she said, refusing to open her eyes.
"I am. You made sure of that. And I'll never leave you. I'll be here every night for the rest of your life--"
Jade screamed.
The sound echoed off the walls of her room and she jerked awake, flailing at her blankets. She was tangled in them briefly, then managed to free herself. Breathing hard, she rolled to her feet, hands groping for a knife.
She finally realized where she was, standing in the darkness, goosebumps on her skin and her muscles clenched and aching. She let out a breath and tried to relax, but it didn't work.
She lay down again once her heartbeat had slowed a bit. The nightmares would come back the moment she fell asleep again, she knew. But her body was aching, demanding what little rest she could give it. She lay down again, and closed her eyes.
Sunrise came as a blessed relief, when it finally came.
Emerging from her room, she caught Coal walking down the corridor towards his room. "Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked.
Coal's mouth twitched. "We found Monkey asleep in Coral's bed, with that flask I was looking for. Coral was meeting with Aziuhoatl, so she has a solid alibi. He had a knife that once belonged to Torch on him. We executed him about an hour after we found him. Boy didn't feel a thing, he was so sodden with that drug."
Jade frowned. "Coral's room? How do you figure that happened?"
"It doesn't really add up, does it? Near as I can figure, Monkey went to Coral's room to wait for her to finish meeting with Aziuhoatl and drank himself into a stupor. Maybe he knew Raven was going to finger him and thought she could protect him. Who knows?" Coal shrugged savagely. "I don't like it, but there it is. Torch's killer is found, the resistance is off the hook. End of story."
"Well, congratulations on finding him," she said. "I need to be going. I'll see you later." She nodded to him wand walked down the hallway, Leaf and Spear trailing her.
"Thunder's room, please," she said to her guards. They nodded and began to lead her towards a corridor much closer to the Chief Speaker's wing than her own. Too close, actually; that had to be Ocelot's influence, because Thunder and Teal were both only mid-ranking, thunder six ranks below Raven, Teal one below Thunder.
Spear was looking at her strangely, but didn't speak to her. She assumed he'd heard her scream the night before--why he hadn't come into the room because of it, she didn't know. He did not ask, and she did not volunteer information.
At Thunder's door, they stopped. "I won't be needing your services for most of the day today, warriors," she told them. "I have business that will take me out into the city. If I find myself back here, I will call for you."
The guards nodded and walked away. There were no guards on Thunder's door, and she took a deep breath and knocked.
The door opened, and when he saw her, Thunder ushered her in. "Do you have a few minutes, Thunder? I'd like to speak with you," she asked.
"Certainly," he said, and sat down in a chair. These were spacious rooms, but sparsely furnished. Thunder's idea of aesthetics tended towards the spare and hard. She sat down across from him and said, "I wanted to thank you for last night. I have to wonder, though--why? You don't even know me."
Thunder shook his head slightly. "Walker sent me."
She blinked in surprise. "How do you know Walker?"
"He was my teacher."
Jade considered this statement, and chose her next words with care. "I see. I have so many questions, I'm not even really sure where to start."
"I am sure you do have a great many questions, Jade. I will answer what I can," he said.
"So I guess the first question is--how did Walker know I was about to be in trouble I'd have been hard-pressed to get out of?"
Thunder shrugged slightly. "I have no idea, Jade. All I got was a message to go to your room and get Monkey and any evidence that he was there out quickly."
"And from there, you put the rest together?" she asked.
"His message stated that a bottle had been given to Jade by Raven," he said. A line had appeared between his brows, though his mouth was held carefully neutral. "That needed to be retrieved, as well."
Jade frowned. "So, I suppose the next question is--who, exactly, is Walker?"
"A mage of great ability."
I knew that, she thought impatiently. "Is he the one they call Spirit?"
Again, Thunder shook his head. "You proceed from a false assumption. There is no Spirit, there are many."
Jade remembered wondering if Spirit was some trick perpetrated on Aziuhoatl. "Ah, I'd wondered if that weren't the case."
"That is why Mantis will fail."
"Because he's looking for one person. Though he appears to be attempting to commit genocide, as well," she said, remembering what Mantis had said his orders were.
"Not all are nahuales," Thunder said.
She frowned. "Sympathizers with them, then? Or is something larger going on here?"
"We play the same game Jade," he said, looking her directly in the eye.
We do, do we? But are we on the same team? "We might be playing the same game. But, right now, I've no good idea if we're working towards the same goals. And, unfortunately, I have this feeling that you're not going to tell me."
"My goal is to destroy Ocelot. Those are my orders from Walker."
Perhaps not the same team, but the same side, then. "That's odd. Everyone seems to think you're working for Ocelot."
Thunder's mouth tightened in a slight smile, the first she'd seen from him. "So does Ocelot. Walker made me break cover for you."
Jade furrowed her brow, "Why--oh. I understand, I think." The explosion in the tunnels, her walking out with Jaguar over her shoulder, Walker finding them and offering to help. "The circumstances under which Walker and I met, the once, probably convinced him that I was working on the same goal."
"He said you were one of us," Thunder said, and his penetrating gaze seemed to pin her to the chair.
One of who? Carefully, she said, "Well, I hesitate to claim allegiance to a group that I only suspected existed until right now. How did you come to be Walker's student, anyway?"
Thunder shook his head. "No, you misunderstand, Jade. You only become one us when Walker says so. Each of his students were born differently, gifted somehow to be different then the rest."
There was a long pause while Jade tried to decide if Thunder were saying what she thought he was saying. "In other words...Walker has claimed me, for some reason?"
"He says that you are the same as I, some power that differs you from the rest. Ever seen a man walk through walls before?"
Jade shrugged. "No, I hadn't, but there are many strange abilities that I've heard of but never seen. I thought it was something Walker taught you."
"He helped me. But the power was present."
She thought about this for a moment. Do I have any strange powers? Wouldn't I have noticed by now? "I am different, yes--but I've never shown any signs of strange abilities like that. Not that I know of, anyway."
There was that intent gaze again. Jade wondered if Thunder were more interested in finding out more about her than he seemed. "Nothing ever happen to you that you can't explain?"
She shrugged. "Nothing that could not be explained by the fact that my god thinks I am a valuable tool and occasionally protects me, no."
"Tell the story Jade. What happened?"
How much of this story dared she tell? "It was just a little thing. I was in a place I wasn't supposed to be, doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. Witnesses to it all seemed to see someone different, and no two could agree. But I was on specific orders by my god. I simply thought he had protected me."
"Was this when you were chosen to become a priestess?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "This was more recent. When I was chosen to become a priestess, there was a sign that saved me from being executed for my presumption of disguising myself as a boy to join the warriors. That, I assume, was sent by the god himself."
Quietly, Thunder said, "Was it? Why would a god do that?"
Jade frowned. What, exactly, was this man attempting to suggest? "I assumed that he decided I would be more useful alive than dead. He is quite fond of me, in his own way."
"You may wish to ask him or Walker." Thunder shook his head. "Walker is never wrong about these things. And it usually presents itself early in life."
"I had a strange childhood, to be sure, but that was the first mysterious thing that ever happened to me. Unless you count the fact that I was able to pass for a boy until I was sixteen, but that was more due to the fact that nobody was expecting a girl to join the warriors." She gave a crooked smile, remembering those days, her childhood friends. Whatever had become of Coyote and Shield, anyway? They'd drifted away from each other, once she'd become a priest.
"It happens in times of stress, usually."
"Well, the moment I became a priestess would have qualified." She chuckled. "I was absolutely convinced I was about to die."
"And what happened?" he asked.
Her eyes were distant as she recalled the story for him. "The priests prayed for Huitzilopochtli to tell them what should be done with me. A hummingbird came and sang for the priests, dropped a feather in front of me, and left. The priests took it as a sign that the god wanted me, so I was untied and brought into the temple." She returned her eyes to his. "I...don't really think I made that happen. If I did, I didn't do it consciously. All I remember is the fear, and the determination that whatever happened, I would meet it bravely like the warrior I was."
Thunder had a thoughtful look on his face. "Can you do it again? Can you remember that feeling?"
"Maybe," she said, and closed her eyes. She had been at the top of the old temple, she remembered. It was late afternoon, and the sun was beating down on her head. She was on her scraped and bleeding knees, her hands tied behind her back, and all around her were priests. They chanted in unison, words that made her dizzy to listen to. There was shouting, the men who had brought her there screaming curses at her.
The fear was easy to recall, despairing of living through the next hour. Her heart thudded, her breathing quickened, as she remembered how the fear had wrapped around her and shaken her in its jaws. There was the metallic taste of desperation in her mouth, and a grim determination that she would see herself through this like a warrior, not some mewling girl.
The next thing she knew, Thunder's hand was on her shoulder, shaking her. "You can stop now, Jade. Open your eyes and see."
Jade did, and her mouth dropped open in utter astonishment. There were what must be a hundred hummingbirds in the room, circling the ceiling, their squeaky twitterings almost drowned out by the blurring drone of their wings. One of them hovered in front of Thunder's face, and he glared at the tiny bird.
She recovered herself enough to ask, "Did they just appear?"
Thunder shook his head. "No, they flew in here."
"Oh." She looked at the hummingbirds, at a loss for words. "It's all right, all of you. You can go," she said, not thinking it would work.
But it did. The birds squeaked at her and flew out the window. The one that had been facing down Thunder circled his head once, creaked dismissively, and followed the rest. Jade covered her mouth with her hand, feeling a sudden urge to laugh hysterically. I can't believe it. I can summon hummingbirds. So very useful! "This seems like a talent that might have been useful once, but only once," she said to Thunder once she'd recovered from her momentary attack of the giggles. "But you were right. It's an odd gift, but I do appear to have it."
"So far," he said. "Think about it, Jade. You can summon hummingbirds, can you summon other things? Other animals? And if you can, then the nahuales will heed your very commands, because they too are part animal."
She put her hand over her mouth again, this time to cover the astonished gape on her face. "...oh. So that's why--" She stopped, remembering that this man was not yet her ally and certainly not her friend. "Never mind."
"Now do you see your role?" Thunder asked.
Jade thought about it. "Part of it, at least," she said, nodding. Someone who could control nahuales with nothing more than her voice and her will could do so many things...including controlling the council members who were nahuales.
Thunder nodded. "And mine, for why I saved you."
She let out a long breath. "I suppose I ought to go find Walker, and speak to him."
"I think that would be best, Jade. You can find him again?"
She reviewed the route in her mind. "I think so. If I get too far lost, I have a shortcut."
There was an odd expression on his face. It was almost, but not quite, a smile. "Good. I am here Jade if you need me. We are and always will be part of the same spirit."
The same spirit. Or the same Spirit? It was impossible to tell. "Thank you," she replied. "By the way...are you related to Mountain?"
"Our fathers are brothers," he replied.
She'd thought it must be something like that. "You two bear a striking resemblance. I am sorry for the loss of your nephew, then." She could not say any more than that, couldn't say I'm sorry I was the cause of his death.
"Thank you--we have all lost family, I'm afraid. Dark times upon us."
She quirked her mouth, a little sadly. "I have none left to lose, but the times are indeed dark. I'll speak with you again later, Thunder."
He nodded, and showed her to the door. "As you wish, Jade."
Out in the hallway, she strode towards her room, thinking about what had just happened. She needed to talk to Huitzilopochtli, right enough, but not until she had calmed herself down. A few minutes in her room and she had her breathing calm and even once more. She said into the silence, "All right, Huitzilopochtli, I know you were paying attention to that conversation. So was it me and not you who summoned that hummingbird?"
The god flickered into visibility before her, plopping down onto the floor facing her. "Yep, all you," he said, grinning. "But before you go all pot throwy on me. I knew you could get yourself out of the problem, so I didn't interfere."
She looked at him, suddenly suspicious. "Would you have, if I couldn't have?"
"Um...well, see. You were sixteen, and not really that important." He shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly. "So, not so much."
Jade narrowed her eyes, glaring at the god. "Hmph. And here I thought all these years that you'd picked me out."
"So I was a little late in getting to you. You humans live such short lives. By the time I turn around sometimes, generations of you have come and gone."
She snorted gently. "True enough. Though you seem to be paying very close attention to me, these days."
The god wrinkled his nose in an expression that reminded her, unaccountably, of Spider. "Well, yes. Tlaloc is a problem, and I want you to be the thorn."
That reminded her. "I've been meaning to ask. What is it that you want done with him? Have him taken down a peg? Have his worship obliterated, as far as I can manage it? Just take Ocelot out?" She'd been wondering how far she was going to have to take this.
Huitzilopochtli shrugged. "Much like here, there is a hierarchy. Tlaloc is trying to jump over me to get to the next level. But to do that, you need more worshippers, more power and so on. But when one goes up the other must go down, so he is culling my worshippers to make me lose power. Soon he will challenge me to combat of a sorts and if he wins, he gets the Mexica."
"And if you win?" she asked.
He smiled, and in that smile was something that reminded her that this was not a man after all, but a god. "The status quo remains the same on the god level. But we will make some changes down here."
She raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask what sorts of changes?"
"That's where you come in. What would you change? You live here, I don't, much."
She blinked, thinking about it. What would she change, if she could? "The sacrifices. They're a useful bit of theater, very impressive. But--there have been too many. and too many of them weren't people who accept the possibility of the altar when they choose their life's path. And the nahuales. They used to be honored, but now they're feared and hunted."
"All things you can change," he said.
"The rest--I'll keep my eyes open." She admitted, a bit ruefully, "I've never really looked around with an eye to what might be better if it changed." Mexica society was eternal, arranged by the gods...or so she had always thought. She rather thought she might know better now.
"Look, Jade, and see what needs to be changed and do it. Too many people out there are trying not to get noticed and let things happen that shouldn't be happening." The god's handsome face was solemn now, and a bit sad.
"I've made a start, but I will keep looking," she promised, meaning it with all her heart. "This Walker, is he known to you? Can I trust him?" she asked.
He nodded. "Walker, good mage. Never talks to me. But you can trust him."
"Good. Because I think I need to go learn whatever he needs to teach me," she said.
The sadness seemed to drop away like a cast-off coat. "He can teach you a lot. And pretty quickly, I would imagine."
She twitched the corner of her mouth. "I certainly hope so, though I think the limitation would be the student, not the teacher. I'm a little old to be learning this sort of thing."
"'Tis easier than you think," he said, with a confident gesture of his hand towards her.
"I hope so. But I won't find out until I go talk to him, and so I should be off."
Huitzilopochtli smiled. "Goodbye, Jade. Still mad?"
Jade regarded her god, the being who she'd committed her soul to almost twenty years ago, who she still loved with all her heart, despite the fact he wasn't what she'd thought he was at all. She chuckled. "You really think I can stay mad at you? Okay, maybe a little, but not too much. I'll get over it."
"That's good. I would hate to think my current favorite human is mad. It would make me sad." He grinned at her and vanished.
For a moment after he left, Jade sat and stared where he had been, unsure whether to feel angry, gratified, or both. Confused, she felt something in her chest that she couldn't quite identify.
It turned out to be laughter, slightly hysterical laughter but laughter nonetheless. She covered her mouth and doubled over where she was sitting, laughing so hard her stomach hurt. "Hummingbirds," she gasped between spasms. "I can summon hummingbirds! God above!"
After the laughter had passed, she lay loosely curled on the stone floor for a moment. She realized that she didn't feel quite so empty any more, that she no longer felt as if the place where her faith had been was scraped out and hollow. She wasn't sure what was taking its place, but it felt--warm. Yes, that was it. A tentative warmth, like sunrise after a long, cold night of vigil.
She felt an urge to curl herself around this warmth, to safeguard it from the guilt and sorrow that she bore. She summoned the shield of her discipline and her will around it, to guard this fragile new thing, whatever it was. "Maybe it's faith," she muttered. "Maybe something else."
Jade picked herself up off the floor and stretched, her ribs aching. She needed to get going. She had no idea what the rest of the day was going to bring her, but she was feeling, for the moment, at peace with herself, the nightmares sticking to the shadows for the moment.
Out into the sunshine she headed. "Hummingbirds," she muttered under her breath, grinning. "Hummingbirds!"
Coal was putting on his sandals when Jade entered the room, after knocking and being invited in. She had bathed that morning and then set out to see what she could find out about Monkey. She needed to get rid of Torch's dagger, and Monkey sounded like exactly the person she needed.
"Good morning, Jade. What can I do for you?" asked Coal.
"I actually was wondering what you can tell me about Monkey," she replied.
He shrugged. "Ugly man on the inside. Treats all people as objects. Best to stay away from him."
"Do you know what he usually does for Aziuhoatl?"
"The boy spends time in darkside acquiring things. Things that only the really rich or those who know where to look can find."
Ah, he's acquisitions, got it. "Illegal, extremely rare, or both?"
"Any and all." This was evidently not one of Coal's favorite topics. He bent over his sandal, ostensibly fussing with it, hiding his expression from Jade.
Jade tried a bit of a different angle. "Interesting. I've heard he talks to you quite a bit."
Coal straightened and grimaced, making an ugly face. "Talks at, more likely. He blathers on about this girl he slept with and how pretty she was and that she wanted him more but he had to tell her no, because he is more than a one woman man. Blah blah blah."
"Any reason he's picked you to talk at?" she asked.
He shrugged again. "Mostly because I am a patient man, I think, and will stand still long enough for him to talk at. Try to avoid him. He is annoying on his best days, and you don't want to see his worst. You may wish to ask Raven more about him. Raven is his other sounding board."
Jade nodded. "I will, thank you. I should be going, I'm sure I'll see you later, Coal."
"As should I. I have another matter to attend to," he said, and rose, picking up his wooden sword and fastening it to his belt.
"Anything interesting? Or one of those things you can't talk about?"
"Torch was killed in an attempt to find the rebels, that you probably knew. I am supposed to find the killer. It's probably Jaguar and his group, but Aziuhoatl commands and we obey." Coal didn't sound very excited about his assignment.
Jade was running out of time to frame someone for Torch's death, then. "Good luck on that. I heard Jaguar's group scattered to the four winds after Torch died."
"I would bet on it. Killing an advisor just kicked the rebellion into the category of major threat."
It would have, wouldn't it? "Too bad for them, eh?" she said, shrugging. "Not like they'll be missed."
Coal glanced away. "Unfortunately, that means Smoke as well. I did like that girl."
She made a note of that for later. "I don't know, I think if she can be found alive, she might be brought back into the palace. I don't really know her, but everyone says she's a good kid. I'll keep my ears open for you about Torch, if you like. I don't think I'll hear anything, but if I do, I'll let you know."
"Thanks Jade. See you later." He escorted her out, and closed the door behind him.
"You too," she said, and gave him a smile she was startled to realize she meant. She was starting to like Coal, at least a bit. With that thought she turned and left, picking up Spear and Leaf in the corridor. "Show me to Raven's quarters?" she asked.
Leaf nodded. "Of course, honored one." Soon enough they were on a corridor that Jade had never seen before, knocking at a door.
A man opened it, and Jade said, "Raven, my name is Jade Reed, called Jade. I have a few questions for you, if you have a few minutes."
Raven smiled. "Certainly Jade, come in." He ushered her into a roomy space that was comfortably furnished with many chairs and places to lounge. The man himself was a bit shorter than Jade, built neither lightly nor heavily, with a an easy way of moving that suggested not a warrior but a player of bol. His long hair was tied back from his face, and his smile was open and pleasant as he gestured to a small table, pulling up a chair to it for himself as Jade sat. He was quite a bit better than average-looking, the lines of his face strong, with only the very beginnings of lines around his eyes.
Obviously, the farther you went up in the hierarchy, the better your quarters got. Raven was rather high-ranking, filling the eighth slot below Aziuhoatl, easily the highest-ranking advisor she'd interviewed so far. She regarded this man, who had steepled his long fingers as he looked back at her. Best to start with what she really wanted to know. "I've been told that Monkey tends to use you as a sounding board. What can you tell me about him?" she asked.
He gave her a penetrating look. "That's an interesting question, Jade. Why would you want to know about Monkey?"
"I'm trying to find out about my fellow advisors." She spread her hands. "I'm rather curious about this group of people I've been thrown into, and so I'm poking my nose into things that probably don't concern me."
"Probably," he commented. "Being female, Jade, I would avoid him. He's a bit fast and casual with women."
"So I've heard. I hear he's offended most of the female advisors," she replied.
"Yes, he has. You won't be the last, if you haven't run into him yet."
She smiled, remembering being the only female acolyte in a very male Temple. "I'm a hard woman to offend, considering where I've spent most of my life. But I'll keep it in mind. He seems to be friends, of a sort, with Coal."
"As much as Monkey can be friends with anyone," Raven said. "He's abrasive at best."
"And at worst?"
"Worst, he can be dangerous." He gestured with one hand at the door. "He tells tales when he is drunk of times when he got turned down. Most of those stories end up with the girl dead at the end."
Jade had wondered, and now she knew. "Well, it seems that Aziuhoatl tolerates all sorts of--interesting--behavior among his advisors, as long as they're good at what they do." She was probing, she wasn't quite sure for what.
"Monkey is good at acquisitions. That's true."
"So I've heard. It sounds like he has extensive contacts in the dark side," she said.
Raven nodded. "He does. If you need it he can get it."
"And at least it doesn't sound as if he's actually afflicted with madness."
"His own version," Raven said, and then reached over to a box that was sitting nearby. He pulled out a flask of what appeared to be an amber liquid that sloshed as he set it on the table.
Jade raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"Monkey's weakness." He smiled at her questioning look. "It's a brew that comes from the coast in the jungles. Made with a plant that promotes images."
"Ah, one of the more exotic ones," she said. "We use something like it in the Temple when we're trying to experience visions, and to keep the sacrifices calm."
Raven smiled, running his fingers over the flask. "With a personality like that, he adds some of this to his girl's drinks and suddenly he is much more exciting and witty. Made the mistake of trying it himself and now you can usually find him in the bottle after midnight most nights."
A weakness, then. A very serious weakness. "It's one of the addictive ones, I take it?"
"Seems to be. I keep some here so that when he comes over, I feed it to him and he shuts up for the night." Raven's smile turned sharp. "And he thinks that he has had a good chat with his friend Raven."
Jade chuckled. "And you don't have to listen to him. Nice."
"You got it. Monkey likes it because he suggests things to his dates that they would never do sober--and he does so often from his tales."
She'd heard tales of men who liked certain things in bed; she'd experimented with a few of those things herself, when she was younger. "A bit kinky, is he?"
"So I understand."
Jade quirked her mouth. "Pleasant fellow, really. I think I'll take your advice and avoid him, if I can."
He pushed the flash across the table towards her. "You can take the bottle with you for protection, if you want."
Trap, or genuine offer of alliance? Jade couldn't tell, and Raven's expression told her nothing. She decided to take the bait, if bait it was. "That's generous of you, thank you. I probably won't have to use it; most people think twice before trying to mess with a priest of Huitzilopochtli. For some reason, we scare people."
"You could end up on the altar, I believe, is the biggest reason." Something in his voice suggested that this wasn't something Raven worried about much.
"Among others. It sometimes gets tiresome, being the monster in everyone's closet, but it's occasionally useful." As she spoke, she felt the expected truth of that statement; she was a little tired of being feared. Who would have thought I'd ever get tired of it?
"I am sure that it would get old, but useful in its way. Anything else Jade?" Raven asked.
"Not really, right now." She picked up the flask. "Thank you for this, and I'm sure I'll see you around."
He stood, and she echoed him. "Good to meet you, Jade." he said as he escorted her to the door.
She nodded, and said, "Good to meet you, as well." Then she left him behind, Leaf and Spear falling in beside her as she walked and thought. She still wanted to plant Torch's knife on Monkey somehow, and she didn't want to have to sleep with him to do it.
She glanced at the bottle. If she had a drink with him, drugged him, and then dragged him back to his rooms...she could plant the dagger in his rooms, and then alert Coal that she had found something suspicious. Coal could find the knife, and do what he needed to do with Monkey. Her name wouldn't be involved. Raven would know something was up, but he had more or less handed her Monkey's death warrant.
But why? She shook her head. She had to use the weapons to hand, and worry about the consequences later. Coal couldn't trace Torch's death back to the rebellion, he had to find an advisor responsible.
With that in mind, she took a trip to the market to obtain something suitably alcoholic. Jade herself didn't imbibe except on certain suitably sacred occasions, but pulque was available, as well as several drinks made from fermented amaranth and coca. It really didn't matter--she would only be using the taste of the drink to drown out any taste of the drug. If her plan worked, Monkey was probably going to think that he was going to get a chance to bed her, and wouldn't be paying a lot of attention to what he was drinking.
With a suitable beverage in a jar, she trundled back to the palace. She sent a message to Monkey, requesting him to meet her in her room that evening "to see if we find each other's company congenial". She figured that would bring him over, right enough.
The rest of the day she spent in the new temple, overseeing the movement of certain goods from the old temple to this one. She saw Shale a few times, but for the most part concentrated on being present and visible. She had been neglecting her temple duties, and she feared she was going to have to continue to do so.
Familiar faces, familiar voices, all of them comforted her. There was a rhythm to the work, as she directed her fellow priests. The sun started towards the western horizon, and the Temple as a whole sat down to a simple meal, their first in the new Temple.
Jade walked up to a group of priests with her bowl of roasted maize. It was Gull, Sap, Risen, and Whistle, men she had known for most of her life. They were laughing together about something or other, probably making bets on the bol game scheduled for tomorrow. "Is this seat taken?" she inquired lightly as she sat down beside them, sitting in tailor's pose next to them.
The laughter of the group died. Gull, the highest-ranking member of the group, said, "Of course not. High priest."
There was nothing in his tone that was anything other than respectful. She tried to talk to them, about the move, about the dedication, about the weather, and they were polite and very, very distant.
These priests were her friends. Whistle had even shared her bed a time or two, and she'd always meant to get around to seeing if the rumors about Risen were true. It was as if an invisible hand had come to wipe away all of that.
After a few minutes, she nodded to them and rose, leaving her half-eaten meal behind. They'll get used to it, she told herself. They just need some time, is all.
There was a suspicion in the back of her mind, though. Something about the priests not wanting to be friends with the doomed. High priests rarely lasted longer than three years, as Molten had pointed out to her what seemed like ages ago. There was no retirement. It was a lifetime appointment, and that lifetime could be very short indeed.
The price of power, she thought, and sighed. She needed to get back to the palace, and get ready to have what was probably going to be a very ticklish conversation with Monkey...for a little while, at least.
She wanted to appear as though she were thinking about bedding Monkey, though not as if she had already made up her mind. To that end, she unbound her hair and combed it out, and put on some loose clothing. She did not perfume herself, or put a blossom or two on the table; such things would indicate that her mind was made up, and likely Monkey would not want to tarry long in conversation.
Just after sundown, there was a knock on her door. She had told Leaf and Spear to expect the arrival of another advisor, so they had likely stepped aside to let him pass. "Come in!" she called.
The door opened, and Monkey stepped inside. He was not unattractive, Jade realized in surprise. Some would even say well-favored. But he had a look about him as if he were in possession of a desperate hunger, and as he looked at her she rather thought he had seen something he wanted to eat.
"Come in, have a seat," she said, smiling. He did so, glancing around her room. Something he saw surprised him, she thought. Perhaps that I do not have skulls on my shelves, she thought in amusement. After he'd sat down, she started pouring drinks for them both--the drugged beer for him, water for herself. As she did so, she said, "As a new advisor, I'm speaking to all of the other advisors, to get to know the people I'm working with."
Monkey's smile was sharp and hungry. "Well that's good. I like to get to know them as well, especially the good looking females."
Jade raised an eyebrow. I didn't think he'd resort to flattery so quickly. She knew what she looked like; few strangers would ever call her attractive. Her face was interesting rather than pretty, and she was too tall, too thin, too hardened and scarred by her life and her work. "Most men seem to find me somewhat--intimidating. Perhaps you have a taste for danger. Anyway. Can you tell me what you generally do for Aziuhoatl, at all?" She raised her cup and sipped; he copied her.
"I acquire things for him. The hard to get items. He likes things that are magical in nature."
She smiled and leaned forward a bit. "So I've noticed. Does he generally like the protective magics, or the magics that cause damage? I've heard both are available for someone with resources."
He shrugged. "Any and all. He has been looking for clerical magics as of late."
"Interesting. Usually, those are protection and healing--depending on the Temple, of course." She gave him a weighing look; that she could see him interpreting as a speculative evaluation.
He responded by sitting up a bit straighter, and sipping from his cup again. "Varies greatly. I have been in particular searching for anything from the God Tlaloc."
"Considering that Aziuhoatl is, as far as I know, a faithful of Huitzilopochtli, I'm surprised. I'm sure he has his reasons, though," she said, keeping her voice light.
"He is destroying them, I think." Monkey's voice was dismissive.
Jade considered her next tactic. "Out of curiosity, what can you tell me about Raven? I've heard you're friends with him and Coal. Trustworthy, do you think?"
"Raven, barely know him. I have occasionally have a drink with him but we rarely talk. But Coal is a great guy. Best of friends." He lifted his cup and drank deeply, smiling. Jade leaned forward and refilled his cup after he set it down again.
"I've worked with Coal a few times, he seems to be a decent individual. Unlike a few others along the advisors I've met."
Monkey snorted. "Yes, they are a few out there that are more interested in themselves or have an agenda." He drank again, seeming not to notice that he was doing so.
Jade said diffidently, "It's difficult to tell, with some people. Like Ocelot. Who knows what he's up to? Nobody's been able to say."
"Ocelot has so much power at this point, that I don't think he gets normal assignments like the rest of us," Monkey said. He drugged and drank again. Jade saw that his eyes were starting to glaze over a bit, his eyelids drooping.
"Do you have any ideas what he might be doing? Or Thunder and Teal?" she asked, more in the interest of keeping him awake for the moment than anticipation that he'd be able to answer.
Monkey had lost his smile and, seemingly, any interest in Jade whatsoever. He sat back in his chair, pressing himself into the wood. "Ocelot, I have no idea. Teal is Ocelot's current girl. Thunder is a dangerous man, but I know he only works for Ocelot because Ocelot has something on him."
Teal was sleeping with Ocelot, not Thunder? Jade noted that for later. "What makes Thunder so dangerous?" she asked.
"Thunder has some unusual abilities. Most are rumor, but one that I have seen myself, Lord Raven, is his ability to step through walls."
Jade felt a jolt of electricity run down her spine, and she fought to keep that reaction from showing, even though she thought Monkey wouldn't notice. Lord Raven? This isn't just a hallucinogen. So why would have Raven given it to me, given what I'd find out?
She could not worry about it right now. "When did you see him do this?"
"Last week, Lord."
She considered her next question. She'd have to ask very specific questions to get answers, probably. "Tell me about seeing Thunder step through a wall," she told him.
He nodded, his eyes entirely closed now. "He was heading down to his room and paused by Teal's door. He was listening at the door, when I rounded the corner. I stopped and watched him. It was quite evident that Teal and Ocelot were busy. Thunder strode down to Ocelot's room and just walked through the door, like it was not there."
"Did you see him come out?" she asked.
"I didn't want to chance him seeing me watching, my lord. I retired for the evening." Though Monkey's eyes were closed and he was slumped in the chair, his voice was steady, with only the slightest dreamy tinge to it.
Jade smiled, an idea coming to her. "Tell me, have you ever had any contact with the resistance?"
He moved his head slightly. "I have isolated cells in the past, Lord, for Aziuhoatl, but currently I have none. Your mission has kept me too busy."
Jade felt like a hummingbird that had just found a virgin blossom. Avid, she leaned forward. "And how much progress have you made on my mission?"
"Some lord, I have found many of the more powerful Tlaloc items and turned them over to you as requested. Giving Aziuhoatl only the minor ones."
"What do you think I'm doing with the more powerful items?" she asked.
"Selling them as usual, lord, to Coral."
And what is she doing with them? she wondered. She said, her voice more commanding than suggesting, "Why don't you take off one of your sandals, Monkey? The left one. Make yourself more comfortable."
Monkey complied. dropping his sandal on the floor and going back to his relaxed state. "Put it back on," she said, and once again he did exactly as he was told. Her suspicions were growing, but she needed to see this through before she could do anything about them. "I think you do have some ties into the resistance. You've just forgotten about them, and will forget about them again. In fact, once I've finished talking to you, you'll have forgotten I've told you this."
"I understand, Lord," he said, and his voice was still completely relaxed.
"You were in the tunnels beneath the city when Torch attacked," she continued. "He saw you, and attacked you. You killed him in self-defense. It was in a small room off the main corridor, one with two doors. You killed him and left the body to burn in the fire Torch had set. You will forget that you know this, until Coal asks you about it. You will try to hide this truth from him. You will speak of this to no one, including me, even if I ask. Only Coal."
"I understand," was all he said in response.
"And now, I will help you back to your room. This evening, you had an interesting conversation with the advisor Jade, but you drank too much and in the end you decided to leave sleeping with her for another time. When you get back to your room, you will fall asleep and not wake until morning."
Monkey barely nodded. "I understand, lord."
"Stand up," she said. He complied, and she picked up the cloth bag that she'd stashed behind her own chair, the one with Torch's knife in it. She stooped and draped one of Monkey's arms over her shoulders, and "helped" him to the door.
Outside the door was a large man who could have been Mountain's twin. Jade blinked. It was Thunder. What was he doing outside her door? "Can I help you? I'm seeing Monkey back to his room, he had...a bit too much to drink."
He glanced at the other advisor, who was doing a credible impression of being dead drunk, his head lolling. "Let's step back inside, Jade," he said. "We don't want to discuss this in public."
Jade's stomach knotted, and she swiftly hid her trepidation and nodded. "Of course." She stepped back into her room and laid Monkey down on her pallet, kneeling beside him briefly and telling him, "Sleep now." To Thunder, she said. "I don't think Monkey will remember much of anything, come morning."
"Probably not. Now Jade, you and I have business."
"We do? What about?" She kept her voice level and neutrally curious.
Thunder glanced at Monkey, still and silent on the pallet. "You are new to this game. Raven just set you up. That bottle will cling to your neck like a noose. He is about to discover all the Tlaloc items in Monkey's possession and a bottle of the stuff that he is using to control him in Monkey's room. He will then blame you, for you have that same potion bottle in your room." He shrugged. "And you can guess the rest of this."
Jade cursed herself for her stupidity. Yes, in retrospect, it was a setup. She should have smelled a trap--rather, she had, and had decided to walk into it. "I'd wondered why he gave me the bottle. I was planning on getting rid of it tonight."
He shook his head. "Too late, they will be here in minutes. They have already been to Monkey's place. You stumbling back with him will only incriminate you further."
All right. I give up. I'm not dead yet, which means that Thunder is here to help. Or something. "I take it you have an idea for how I can get out of this?" she asked.
"Give me the bottle, Monkey, and the cups you were drinking out of." He glanced at the bag that she was still holding. "What's in the bag? Anything incriminating?"
Jade nodded. "Very. It's a piece of evidence that Monkey didn't know he owned."
"Coal is with them. Give me that, too. What is it?"
"A knife belonging to a dead man."
He gave her a quick, speculative look. "Anybody important?"
"Yes, he was." Jade returned his look. "I can give you a name, if you want, but you may not want to know."
Thunder shrugged. "That's all right. Who do you want to frame for this?"
"For Monkey?" She paused and thought. Raven would be too far-fetched. "It would be altogether too convenient if Coral happened to take the fall for this," she said, making her decision.
He just looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "You owe me, Jade, and I am one that usually collects."
She quirked her mouth at him. "I understand," she said, echoing Monkey's statements from before. He stooped to sling monkey over her shoulder, then took the flask and the cups and shoved them into the bag with the knife. Then he turned and stepped through the wall, into the back courtyard.
Jade wasn't sure she believed her eyes on that one. But Thunder was gone, and for sure he hadn't walked through the door. She shook her head, then settled down on the floor, bowing her head in prayer. She chanted quietly, recovering her center, the inner core of calm within her.
That core was shaken but still standing, but surrounded now by ghosts, horror, guilt. With the armor of her discipline, hard-won over the years, she hedged them out, holding them away.
But memories made it through the armor anyway. Not even the usual suspects, not even Moth this time, but faces she shouldn't remember, faces belonging to people whose names she'd never known. All of them angry, sorrowful, weeping. I didn't know what I was doing, she told them. I didn't know any better.
But that did not absolve her of responsibility, did not lift this burden from her. Instead, she sat, centered under the awful weight, until the knock she had been expecting came.
She rose with a warrior's grace. At the door was Coal, guards at his back. "Hello. Can I help you?" she asked.
He was looking at her as if he were embarrassed to find himself here. "Sorry Jade, we have had some accusations that Monkey is a Tlaloc worshipper, and you were implicated as well. The accusations about Monkey are true, so I have to follow up. "
Jade didn't let her expression change even a flicker. "I am quite faithful to my god. What do you need from me, then?"
He held up a flask that was exactly like the one that Raven had given her. "Again, I am sorry Jade, but by order of Aziuhoatl I am to search your room for a bottle just like this."
"Fine, come in, have a look around." She stepped back from the door and motioned Coal in. The people behind him filed into the room, and Coal stopped near the door.
"Have you seen Monkey today?" he asked.
She shook her head. "He stood me up this evening. I was going to speak with him, but he never arrived."
"That's at least good." He stayed by the door with her as the men he had with him searched the room. They were quick, efficient, and thorough. She chatted with Coal, thinking all the while, You have no idea what a mire you're in, do you? I almost wish I didn't have to use you as I do. I think you'd make a fine ally, and friend.
The men finished, and came up empty-handed. Coal nodded. "Again, I'm sorry Jade, but as I expected there was nothing to find. I am off to search the rest of the advisors' rooms. I think the accuser may have been mistaken about who they were accusing."
She glanced at the men who were filing out past them. "Can I ask, at least, who accused me?"
"Raven," he said.
"Ah. Interesting. I'll see you later, then, Coal."
"Good night, Jade," he said, and took his leave. After she closed the door, she did a quick search to make sure none of the men had left anything behind, and straightened up a bit. She found nothing.
She snuffed the light and lay down on her pallet, the freshening breeze blowing in through her window. She turned the day over in her mind, but between one thought and the next, she was asleep.
She dreamed that she was surrounded by people, all of them with a gaping hole in their bodies right below the ribcage, the characteristic wound of the sacrifice. They washed up against her like waves of water, touching her skin and hair gently, so gently. She shuddered and tried to break away and their hands turned hard, pinching and poking, tangling in her hair and pulling.
The harder she fought, they more they hurt her. Pinches turned to blows, blows turned to knife cuts. "Want what you stole," one whimpered. "Want you to give us what you took."
"Her heart," wailed another. "Tear it up, a piece for each of us!"
There isn't enough! she thought desperately. Her mouth was full of blood, she couldn't speak. There isn't enough of my heart for all of you--
"Should have thought of that before you took!" one howled. Mercifully, all went black at that point.
But when the images began to come again, she found herself wishing for the crowd. Before her stood Moth, his heart in his hands, still beating. He didn't say anything, just stood and looked at her. She tried to back away, but she couldn't move from the spot. She beat at the walls of the dream like a bird, but still Moth stood there, looking at her.
She closed her eyes and crouched where she stood, repeating to herself, It's just a dream, just a dream.
Moth's voice was still familiar after all these years. "Don't you want to look at me, love?" he asked. "Don't you want to see me?"
"You're dead," she said, refusing to open her eyes.
"I am. You made sure of that. And I'll never leave you. I'll be here every night for the rest of your life--"
Jade screamed.
The sound echoed off the walls of her room and she jerked awake, flailing at her blankets. She was tangled in them briefly, then managed to free herself. Breathing hard, she rolled to her feet, hands groping for a knife.
She finally realized where she was, standing in the darkness, goosebumps on her skin and her muscles clenched and aching. She let out a breath and tried to relax, but it didn't work.
She lay down again once her heartbeat had slowed a bit. The nightmares would come back the moment she fell asleep again, she knew. But her body was aching, demanding what little rest she could give it. She lay down again, and closed her eyes.
Sunrise came as a blessed relief, when it finally came.
Emerging from her room, she caught Coal walking down the corridor towards his room. "Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked.
Coal's mouth twitched. "We found Monkey asleep in Coral's bed, with that flask I was looking for. Coral was meeting with Aziuhoatl, so she has a solid alibi. He had a knife that once belonged to Torch on him. We executed him about an hour after we found him. Boy didn't feel a thing, he was so sodden with that drug."
Jade frowned. "Coral's room? How do you figure that happened?"
"It doesn't really add up, does it? Near as I can figure, Monkey went to Coral's room to wait for her to finish meeting with Aziuhoatl and drank himself into a stupor. Maybe he knew Raven was going to finger him and thought she could protect him. Who knows?" Coal shrugged savagely. "I don't like it, but there it is. Torch's killer is found, the resistance is off the hook. End of story."
"Well, congratulations on finding him," she said. "I need to be going. I'll see you later." She nodded to him wand walked down the hallway, Leaf and Spear trailing her.
"Thunder's room, please," she said to her guards. They nodded and began to lead her towards a corridor much closer to the Chief Speaker's wing than her own. Too close, actually; that had to be Ocelot's influence, because Thunder and Teal were both only mid-ranking, thunder six ranks below Raven, Teal one below Thunder.
Spear was looking at her strangely, but didn't speak to her. She assumed he'd heard her scream the night before--why he hadn't come into the room because of it, she didn't know. He did not ask, and she did not volunteer information.
At Thunder's door, they stopped. "I won't be needing your services for most of the day today, warriors," she told them. "I have business that will take me out into the city. If I find myself back here, I will call for you."
The guards nodded and walked away. There were no guards on Thunder's door, and she took a deep breath and knocked.
The door opened, and when he saw her, Thunder ushered her in. "Do you have a few minutes, Thunder? I'd like to speak with you," she asked.
"Certainly," he said, and sat down in a chair. These were spacious rooms, but sparsely furnished. Thunder's idea of aesthetics tended towards the spare and hard. She sat down across from him and said, "I wanted to thank you for last night. I have to wonder, though--why? You don't even know me."
Thunder shook his head slightly. "Walker sent me."
She blinked in surprise. "How do you know Walker?"
"He was my teacher."
Jade considered this statement, and chose her next words with care. "I see. I have so many questions, I'm not even really sure where to start."
"I am sure you do have a great many questions, Jade. I will answer what I can," he said.
"So I guess the first question is--how did Walker know I was about to be in trouble I'd have been hard-pressed to get out of?"
Thunder shrugged slightly. "I have no idea, Jade. All I got was a message to go to your room and get Monkey and any evidence that he was there out quickly."
"And from there, you put the rest together?" she asked.
"His message stated that a bottle had been given to Jade by Raven," he said. A line had appeared between his brows, though his mouth was held carefully neutral. "That needed to be retrieved, as well."
Jade frowned. "So, I suppose the next question is--who, exactly, is Walker?"
"A mage of great ability."
I knew that, she thought impatiently. "Is he the one they call Spirit?"
Again, Thunder shook his head. "You proceed from a false assumption. There is no Spirit, there are many."
Jade remembered wondering if Spirit was some trick perpetrated on Aziuhoatl. "Ah, I'd wondered if that weren't the case."
"That is why Mantis will fail."
"Because he's looking for one person. Though he appears to be attempting to commit genocide, as well," she said, remembering what Mantis had said his orders were.
"Not all are nahuales," Thunder said.
She frowned. "Sympathizers with them, then? Or is something larger going on here?"
"We play the same game Jade," he said, looking her directly in the eye.
We do, do we? But are we on the same team? "We might be playing the same game. But, right now, I've no good idea if we're working towards the same goals. And, unfortunately, I have this feeling that you're not going to tell me."
"My goal is to destroy Ocelot. Those are my orders from Walker."
Perhaps not the same team, but the same side, then. "That's odd. Everyone seems to think you're working for Ocelot."
Thunder's mouth tightened in a slight smile, the first she'd seen from him. "So does Ocelot. Walker made me break cover for you."
Jade furrowed her brow, "Why--oh. I understand, I think." The explosion in the tunnels, her walking out with Jaguar over her shoulder, Walker finding them and offering to help. "The circumstances under which Walker and I met, the once, probably convinced him that I was working on the same goal."
"He said you were one of us," Thunder said, and his penetrating gaze seemed to pin her to the chair.
One of who? Carefully, she said, "Well, I hesitate to claim allegiance to a group that I only suspected existed until right now. How did you come to be Walker's student, anyway?"
Thunder shook his head. "No, you misunderstand, Jade. You only become one us when Walker says so. Each of his students were born differently, gifted somehow to be different then the rest."
There was a long pause while Jade tried to decide if Thunder were saying what she thought he was saying. "In other words...Walker has claimed me, for some reason?"
"He says that you are the same as I, some power that differs you from the rest. Ever seen a man walk through walls before?"
Jade shrugged. "No, I hadn't, but there are many strange abilities that I've heard of but never seen. I thought it was something Walker taught you."
"He helped me. But the power was present."
She thought about this for a moment. Do I have any strange powers? Wouldn't I have noticed by now? "I am different, yes--but I've never shown any signs of strange abilities like that. Not that I know of, anyway."
There was that intent gaze again. Jade wondered if Thunder were more interested in finding out more about her than he seemed. "Nothing ever happen to you that you can't explain?"
She shrugged. "Nothing that could not be explained by the fact that my god thinks I am a valuable tool and occasionally protects me, no."
"Tell the story Jade. What happened?"
How much of this story dared she tell? "It was just a little thing. I was in a place I wasn't supposed to be, doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. Witnesses to it all seemed to see someone different, and no two could agree. But I was on specific orders by my god. I simply thought he had protected me."
"Was this when you were chosen to become a priestess?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "This was more recent. When I was chosen to become a priestess, there was a sign that saved me from being executed for my presumption of disguising myself as a boy to join the warriors. That, I assume, was sent by the god himself."
Quietly, Thunder said, "Was it? Why would a god do that?"
Jade frowned. What, exactly, was this man attempting to suggest? "I assumed that he decided I would be more useful alive than dead. He is quite fond of me, in his own way."
"You may wish to ask him or Walker." Thunder shook his head. "Walker is never wrong about these things. And it usually presents itself early in life."
"I had a strange childhood, to be sure, but that was the first mysterious thing that ever happened to me. Unless you count the fact that I was able to pass for a boy until I was sixteen, but that was more due to the fact that nobody was expecting a girl to join the warriors." She gave a crooked smile, remembering those days, her childhood friends. Whatever had become of Coyote and Shield, anyway? They'd drifted away from each other, once she'd become a priest.
"It happens in times of stress, usually."
"Well, the moment I became a priestess would have qualified." She chuckled. "I was absolutely convinced I was about to die."
"And what happened?" he asked.
Her eyes were distant as she recalled the story for him. "The priests prayed for Huitzilopochtli to tell them what should be done with me. A hummingbird came and sang for the priests, dropped a feather in front of me, and left. The priests took it as a sign that the god wanted me, so I was untied and brought into the temple." She returned her eyes to his. "I...don't really think I made that happen. If I did, I didn't do it consciously. All I remember is the fear, and the determination that whatever happened, I would meet it bravely like the warrior I was."
Thunder had a thoughtful look on his face. "Can you do it again? Can you remember that feeling?"
"Maybe," she said, and closed her eyes. She had been at the top of the old temple, she remembered. It was late afternoon, and the sun was beating down on her head. She was on her scraped and bleeding knees, her hands tied behind her back, and all around her were priests. They chanted in unison, words that made her dizzy to listen to. There was shouting, the men who had brought her there screaming curses at her.
The fear was easy to recall, despairing of living through the next hour. Her heart thudded, her breathing quickened, as she remembered how the fear had wrapped around her and shaken her in its jaws. There was the metallic taste of desperation in her mouth, and a grim determination that she would see herself through this like a warrior, not some mewling girl.
The next thing she knew, Thunder's hand was on her shoulder, shaking her. "You can stop now, Jade. Open your eyes and see."
Jade did, and her mouth dropped open in utter astonishment. There were what must be a hundred hummingbirds in the room, circling the ceiling, their squeaky twitterings almost drowned out by the blurring drone of their wings. One of them hovered in front of Thunder's face, and he glared at the tiny bird.
She recovered herself enough to ask, "Did they just appear?"
Thunder shook his head. "No, they flew in here."
"Oh." She looked at the hummingbirds, at a loss for words. "It's all right, all of you. You can go," she said, not thinking it would work.
But it did. The birds squeaked at her and flew out the window. The one that had been facing down Thunder circled his head once, creaked dismissively, and followed the rest. Jade covered her mouth with her hand, feeling a sudden urge to laugh hysterically. I can't believe it. I can summon hummingbirds. So very useful! "This seems like a talent that might have been useful once, but only once," she said to Thunder once she'd recovered from her momentary attack of the giggles. "But you were right. It's an odd gift, but I do appear to have it."
"So far," he said. "Think about it, Jade. You can summon hummingbirds, can you summon other things? Other animals? And if you can, then the nahuales will heed your very commands, because they too are part animal."
She put her hand over her mouth again, this time to cover the astonished gape on her face. "...oh. So that's why--" She stopped, remembering that this man was not yet her ally and certainly not her friend. "Never mind."
"Now do you see your role?" Thunder asked.
Jade thought about it. "Part of it, at least," she said, nodding. Someone who could control nahuales with nothing more than her voice and her will could do so many things...including controlling the council members who were nahuales.
Thunder nodded. "And mine, for why I saved you."
She let out a long breath. "I suppose I ought to go find Walker, and speak to him."
"I think that would be best, Jade. You can find him again?"
She reviewed the route in her mind. "I think so. If I get too far lost, I have a shortcut."
There was an odd expression on his face. It was almost, but not quite, a smile. "Good. I am here Jade if you need me. We are and always will be part of the same spirit."
The same spirit. Or the same Spirit? It was impossible to tell. "Thank you," she replied. "By the way...are you related to Mountain?"
"Our fathers are brothers," he replied.
She'd thought it must be something like that. "You two bear a striking resemblance. I am sorry for the loss of your nephew, then." She could not say any more than that, couldn't say I'm sorry I was the cause of his death.
"Thank you--we have all lost family, I'm afraid. Dark times upon us."
She quirked her mouth, a little sadly. "I have none left to lose, but the times are indeed dark. I'll speak with you again later, Thunder."
He nodded, and showed her to the door. "As you wish, Jade."
Out in the hallway, she strode towards her room, thinking about what had just happened. She needed to talk to Huitzilopochtli, right enough, but not until she had calmed herself down. A few minutes in her room and she had her breathing calm and even once more. She said into the silence, "All right, Huitzilopochtli, I know you were paying attention to that conversation. So was it me and not you who summoned that hummingbird?"
The god flickered into visibility before her, plopping down onto the floor facing her. "Yep, all you," he said, grinning. "But before you go all pot throwy on me. I knew you could get yourself out of the problem, so I didn't interfere."
She looked at him, suddenly suspicious. "Would you have, if I couldn't have?"
"Um...well, see. You were sixteen, and not really that important." He shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly. "So, not so much."
Jade narrowed her eyes, glaring at the god. "Hmph. And here I thought all these years that you'd picked me out."
"So I was a little late in getting to you. You humans live such short lives. By the time I turn around sometimes, generations of you have come and gone."
She snorted gently. "True enough. Though you seem to be paying very close attention to me, these days."
The god wrinkled his nose in an expression that reminded her, unaccountably, of Spider. "Well, yes. Tlaloc is a problem, and I want you to be the thorn."
That reminded her. "I've been meaning to ask. What is it that you want done with him? Have him taken down a peg? Have his worship obliterated, as far as I can manage it? Just take Ocelot out?" She'd been wondering how far she was going to have to take this.
Huitzilopochtli shrugged. "Much like here, there is a hierarchy. Tlaloc is trying to jump over me to get to the next level. But to do that, you need more worshippers, more power and so on. But when one goes up the other must go down, so he is culling my worshippers to make me lose power. Soon he will challenge me to combat of a sorts and if he wins, he gets the Mexica."
"And if you win?" she asked.
He smiled, and in that smile was something that reminded her that this was not a man after all, but a god. "The status quo remains the same on the god level. But we will make some changes down here."
She raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask what sorts of changes?"
"That's where you come in. What would you change? You live here, I don't, much."
She blinked, thinking about it. What would she change, if she could? "The sacrifices. They're a useful bit of theater, very impressive. But--there have been too many. and too many of them weren't people who accept the possibility of the altar when they choose their life's path. And the nahuales. They used to be honored, but now they're feared and hunted."
"All things you can change," he said.
"The rest--I'll keep my eyes open." She admitted, a bit ruefully, "I've never really looked around with an eye to what might be better if it changed." Mexica society was eternal, arranged by the gods...or so she had always thought. She rather thought she might know better now.
"Look, Jade, and see what needs to be changed and do it. Too many people out there are trying not to get noticed and let things happen that shouldn't be happening." The god's handsome face was solemn now, and a bit sad.
"I've made a start, but I will keep looking," she promised, meaning it with all her heart. "This Walker, is he known to you? Can I trust him?" she asked.
He nodded. "Walker, good mage. Never talks to me. But you can trust him."
"Good. Because I think I need to go learn whatever he needs to teach me," she said.
The sadness seemed to drop away like a cast-off coat. "He can teach you a lot. And pretty quickly, I would imagine."
She twitched the corner of her mouth. "I certainly hope so, though I think the limitation would be the student, not the teacher. I'm a little old to be learning this sort of thing."
"'Tis easier than you think," he said, with a confident gesture of his hand towards her.
"I hope so. But I won't find out until I go talk to him, and so I should be off."
Huitzilopochtli smiled. "Goodbye, Jade. Still mad?"
Jade regarded her god, the being who she'd committed her soul to almost twenty years ago, who she still loved with all her heart, despite the fact he wasn't what she'd thought he was at all. She chuckled. "You really think I can stay mad at you? Okay, maybe a little, but not too much. I'll get over it."
"That's good. I would hate to think my current favorite human is mad. It would make me sad." He grinned at her and vanished.
For a moment after he left, Jade sat and stared where he had been, unsure whether to feel angry, gratified, or both. Confused, she felt something in her chest that she couldn't quite identify.
It turned out to be laughter, slightly hysterical laughter but laughter nonetheless. She covered her mouth and doubled over where she was sitting, laughing so hard her stomach hurt. "Hummingbirds," she gasped between spasms. "I can summon hummingbirds! God above!"
After the laughter had passed, she lay loosely curled on the stone floor for a moment. She realized that she didn't feel quite so empty any more, that she no longer felt as if the place where her faith had been was scraped out and hollow. She wasn't sure what was taking its place, but it felt--warm. Yes, that was it. A tentative warmth, like sunrise after a long, cold night of vigil.
She felt an urge to curl herself around this warmth, to safeguard it from the guilt and sorrow that she bore. She summoned the shield of her discipline and her will around it, to guard this fragile new thing, whatever it was. "Maybe it's faith," she muttered. "Maybe something else."
Jade picked herself up off the floor and stretched, her ribs aching. She needed to get going. She had no idea what the rest of the day was going to bring her, but she was feeling, for the moment, at peace with herself, the nightmares sticking to the shadows for the moment.
Out into the sunshine she headed. "Hummingbirds," she muttered under her breath, grinning. "Hummingbirds!"
