Flower of War: Feathered Vengeance, part 1
May. 1st, 2006 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aithne[aww, shoot, i didn't manage to keep this one quite short enough to fit in one post. Live and learn... The next one should be posted in the next couple of days]
10/8/1487
Year 8 Acatl, Month of Pachtontli, Trecena 1 Atl, Tonalli 5 Acatl, near sunrise
(week of Water, daysign Reed: A good day to seek justice, a bad day to act against others. The priest-warrior is advised during this week to perfect the art of shapeshifting: only by mimicking the nature of water do we become an agent of change rather than a target of it. The purified heart casts no reflection in the smoking mirror.)
Moth was leading Jade somewhere, his hand warm in hers. "Where are we going?" she asked him, confused. This wasn't like him.
"Sssh. It's a surprise."
"You're not really Moth," she told him as he drew her onward. "You look like him, but you're not."
His hands tightened painfully on hers. She tried to pull away, but his grip was eternal as the roots of a great tree. "I am the closest thing you have to Moth. I have something to show you."
"You're just a dream. Just my memories. Let me go!" But if it was a dream, why couldn't she wake? Why were the trees moving like that, why did the wind in their leaves sound like voices?
They reached the edge of a clearing and Moth shoved her through the last few feet of underbrush. She stumbled out into the clearing, then brought herself up short. "Bodies," she said flatly. She turned back to Moth, who had not stepped into the clearing himself, his body shrouded by leaves. "Is this supposed to frighten me?"
"Take a closer look, Jade."
She turned back around, then stiffened. The bodies...she knew them.
Cat was the closest, laid out in the grass, half of her hair burned off and her chest split open by a sword. There were Coal, and Mountain, and Thunder, and Spider, and Cinder, and Smoke, and Onyx, and Shale. Walker lay near Cat, eyes filmed over, face profoundly surprised. Jade swallowed. "I know what you're doing," she told Moth's memory. "You're trying to scare me. It won't work. I know better."
"Take a good look," Moth said, and she jumped because he was suddenly next to her ear. "You're going to be the cause of their deaths. And look closer, and see who's not here."
Mantis. Jaguar.
Moth took her hand again, and led her on a weaving path through the field of corpses. Flies buzzed, and the clearing smelled like death. At the far side of the clearing, they began climbing the side of the pyramid that she hadn't noticed before. She stared at the cracked stones, grass growing between the stones. So unkempt. How had it gotten like this? Where was everyone?
At the top, as she'd rather expected, was Jaguar. He was lying at the base of the killing stone, a great hole under his ribs betraying that his heart had been taken. She sank down by him, touched his storm-sky hair, closed his staring eyes. She was holding a bloody knife in her right hand, and she paused, confused.
"You did it," Moth's voice said, hissing in her ear. "You did him just like you did me. They're all dead because of you, lover. All dead, because you're going to fail. I know what you really are. Murderer. Monster. You don't even care that they're dead, do you? You cut your own heart out the day you cut out mine, and burned it in the same fire."
"I care," she said, slowly. "Why would you have shown me this, if I didn't care?" She touched Jaguar's hair once more, then got to her feet. A slow, massive anger was beginning to burn in her. "You. Are. Not. Moth. Moth would never have done this to me. Moth understood the decision I had to make, and I swear to Huitzilopochtli that if I could take it back, I would!" She stabbed a finger at Moth. "I am tired of this. I killed you. Why won't you stay dead?"
Instead of quailing before her shouts, Moth just smiled. "I will never die. Just like Jaguar, when you kill him, will never leave you. The blood on your hands and on your soul will never wash away, Jade. No matter how hard you try to pretend you're a good person." His smile thinned. "Oh, look. We have company."
Jade turned. Mantis was standing silent behind her, a blade in each hand. There was no evidence of anything even remotely like humanity in his eyes, and she put her hand to her mouth as her heart broke. "No..."
"You fail." Moth's voice was in her ear again. "You fail, Jade. He never has his pain taken from him."
Mantis raised his swords. Jade bowed her head.
Pain was a bright fire in her as the swords swept through her abdomen and she fell, vision dimming. "Sorry," she coughed, and choked. "So sorry."
Jade thrashed awake, her legs tangled in the blanket. She stilled herself, raising her hand to her cheek to discover that it was wet. She had been crying in her sleep.
Of all of my enemies, I think that my own mind's one of the worst, she thought ruefully, and wiped her face on the blanket. She glanced out the window. Dawn was barely lightening the sky, and her shoulders and hips ached, a sure sign that she wasn't getting enough sleep.
She untangled herself from the blanket and smoothed it out, curling up underneath of it once more. For a minute or two, she closed her eye and simply allowed herself to long for a friendly touch, a voice, someone to put their hands on hers and reassure her. Anyone--a fellow priest, Jaguar, Coal, even Mantis--anyone...
There was nobody there, and after that minute she put the longing away. She did not think she would be able to sleep, but she did anyway. When she woke, the sun was up and had been for almost an hour. It was later than she'd slept since the day before she'd become a priest.
She rose, washed, and helped herself to some fresh clothing from the Temple stores. She broke her fast with some cold maize cakes from the kitchens, then headed towards the palace.
Coal's guards were there, but he was not. "He went out early, he should be back within the hour, honored one," one of the guards told her. She nodded, thanked the man, and then went in search of Mountain. She found him in the training yard, watching some of his men spar. She joined him at the side of the yard, and said, "Mountain, do you have a moment? I have a few questions about last night."
He nodded and said, "Sure, let's go to my office, it's more private." He escorted her there, to the spartan room, that, like the man himself, betrayed nothing. He offered her a seat and sat down himself.
Jade said, "I was wondering, actually, if you'd ever had contact with Heat before yesterday. Something about the way he was acting is bothering me."
Mountain nodded. "I have. He has been accused of bullying other darkside merchants and making them pay him not to."
"And from rumor, he was more or less second-in-command of the clan of were-birds. What's bothering me is that he didn't act like it." She frowned, remembering. "I realize that the three of us being there was intimidating, but someone accustomed to having power wouldn't have acted so...afraid."
"He had reason to be afraid. Three advisors at your door is something to be afraid of. But you are right, he was inordinately afraid of something and don't think it was us. But who, Raven? Raven is dead. This creature in a box business that he claims can control him?"
"That's a possibility. But why would he have been so afraid of it in the moment? He seemed like he was protecting something. He probably drew the conclusion that he was going to die the moment he saw us."
"He knew something else and took it to the grave rather than reveal it," Mountain said. "But was more afraid of it than dying."
She nodded pressing her lips together, trying to think. "That's what I'm afraid of."
"But what? Any idea?"
She shook her head. "I have guesses, but none of them have any foundation behind them, and I don't know the business of the were-birds well enough to tell."
He nodded. "The people that mutilated Midnight. I have more on that, if you want to hear gory details."
Anything would help, at this point. "I would, actually."
Mountain grimaced slightly. "We attempted to reassemble Midnight's body. All her reproductive parts are missing."
It was a violation almost unimaginable, and something about it was...contemptuous. "Someone was very angry about her choice of lovers, it seems," she said.
"Very angry. Who hates nahuales that badly?"
"I would say Aziuhoatl did, but evidently he didn't, since he knew Bloom was one and let him live. Did you find anything else that might point at a culprit?"
"We found a lot of bird droppings, consistent to what Heat said. But the marks on her face were made not with beaks but some sort of pointed instrument. Like a quill."
"A quill," she echoed. "Someone was using her blood to write with? That's macabre."
"Looks that way. We have some evidence that the reproductive organs were burned in an intense fire. A marking of ash, that is consistent with a mage spell--the one that was used on Raven."
"There are only a few mages that can do that spell, if I recall correctly. I can think of three on the council, at least. So we may be looking for a mage, or someone who has a mage as an accomplice. Have you ever seen any mutilations like this before?" Jade asked.
"I have seen mutilations before. They tend to be the acts of the religiously fervent. No offense," he added, inclining his head. "Or of people that are insane."
She smiled. "None taken."
"This tends to fall into the latter, and tends to be men that hate women for some reason. But something about this makes me want to say that it was calculated."
"You're right. It feels almost like a warning. Not sure to who."
"There is another possibility. Midnight might have been pregnant and someone wanted to make sure the child died and there was no evidence."
Her eyes narrowed as she thought about it. It fit, but it brought up a number of other questions. "That might be easy enough to figure out--her neighbors would notice if she were more than a few months pregnant. The darkside's like any other market. Everyone's got their noses in everyone's personal business, even if they turn a blind eye to other things that go on. But if she hadn't started to show yet...why do this? The only person who would have probably cared was Bloom, and he was dead. Though that wasn't common knowledge yet."
"And if Midnight was sleeping with others?" Mountain said with a raised eyebrow.
Tch. It's not just me who occasionally sleeps with more than one person at a time. "True. No reason to assume he was her only lover. People who knew her well might know who she kept company with."
"I would start there. Advise Coal, and he can usually get answers."
Coal had mentioned wanting to interview the people who had known Midnight anyway; this would be one more thing to ask about. "I will, I'm supposed to be helping him in his investigation this morning." A speculation she'd had before occurred to her again, and she asked, "He's a useful man, Coal is, though I have to wonder--do you know why he was chosen for the advisors? He doesn't seem the type who usually is."
Mountain let out a long breath, and his eyes looked suddenly troubled. "If I tell you, you may not be the same after."
She smiled sharply. "Mountain, believe me, I've had a number of life-changing experiences in the last six days. What's one more?"
He still looked troubled, but he answered her question. "Coal is Ocelot's brother."
Jade simply stared at the big man for a moment, not sure if she trusted her ears. She carefully fitted in the knowledge with what she already knew about Coal. "I assume he was Ocelot's recommendation to the advisors?" she asked.
"It was. Ocelot assumed he could control him. He found he couldn't, and they fight more than any two advisors I know. Or brothers, for that matter."
She let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. "I was going to ask. They don't get along, then?"
"No, not at all. Only blood keeps Ocelot--or anyone else--from killing him."
It was just one more thing about Coal, added to her knowledge about him. "Well, that wasn't the most surprising piece of news I've had in the last few days, but it's certainly up there. I wouldn't have guessed, at all."
"Coal won't talk about, or Ocelot either."
She thought about it for a moment, adding this into her picture of Coal, and found that it changed very little. Her instincts were telling her that Mountain was telling the truth. Coal was not in Ocelot's employ. "I'm sure. Oddly enough, this makes me trust Coal even more."
"That's good. Sometimes people act differently around Coal when they find out."
She could imagine that they did. "We can't help who we're related to, and it sounds as though Coal is doing what he can."
"He is a good man," Mountain said. "A bit naive when he started, but his job has made him less so. And he had never really been to darkside before. At least to its underbelly."
Jade tried to imagine Coal never having been to darkside before, and shook her head. "Now he seems reasonably adept at navigating it. More so than I am, for certain."
"He is now." There was a ghost of a smile haunting Mountain's mouth. "His first murder, he must have thrown up a thousand times or more. Rather amusing actually."
Jade winced in sympathy, remembering the first sacrifice she'd ever performed. "I'll bet. He didn't seem to turn much of a hair even at the mutilation last night, so he's improved quite a bit."
"Yes, he has seen it all by now."
She frowned. "How long has he been an advisor, anyway? There must have been low turnover for a while in there." Coal was only one position above her in precedence.
Mountain shrugged slightly. "Oh, about two years now."
"And he's still only one above me. Must have been a peaceful time among the advisors for a while."
"Not really. He has let people advance over him. It's a protest thumbed in Ocelot's face."
"Ah, I wondered. So no matter how many people die, he'll always be low-ranked?"
"He refuses to get involved in politics and favored any decision that went against ocelot. He purposely passed on jobs that would have gotten him more rank and prestige. He refuses to advance by removing advisors above him."
Jade grinned briefly. "I knew there was a reason I liked him."
Mountain nodded. "He likes what he does, I think."
That statement took Jade by surprise, and she wasn't sure why. She knew that Mountain had seen her moment of uncertainty, and wondered if she cared that he had. She'd never thought about the fact that someone on the advisors might do what they did because they enjoyed it. She wondered, briefly, if she liked what she did.
No. Well, sort of. She'd always done what her god had told her to do, as she was doing at this moment. Liking what she did didn't enter into it.
But there were parts she did like. She liked some of the people she was around. Mountain came to mind, and Coal, Spider, Mantis, Walker. Jaguar. Even Cat. There was a sense, now, that she was moving forward, that she and those who followed her were making progress towards something. What, exactly, she couldn't see clearly. But the path in front of her was unrolling, compelling, clear.
It was her job to show the way. To lead the battle. And after, if she lived, to lead, if from behind the scenes. To serve as she always had, from another position.
She wondered if Ocelot felt the same way she did. It was an uncomfortable thought. We are very different, and yet the same. We both serve. Do you serve the same way I do?
She realized that Mountain was looking at her with an expression of mild puzzlement. She smiled self-consciously. "Sorry. My mind wandered. There are few enough genuinely good people among the advisors. I'm glad Coal's one of them."
"Yes. They are few and far between."
"And there are any number of people with twisted reasons for what they do."
"Yes, most disturbing is this new one. I hope Coal and you can find them quickly. I don't want to be reassembling bodies."
She shook her head. "That kind of hate doesn't stop at one. They'll keep on doing this until someone finds and stops them."
Mountain nodded. "If I knew the motive, then I would be less concerned but for now, there isn't one. There are just theories."
"And no assurance that this person will stop with mutilating dead people. They might start in on people who are still alive."
"Yes. It was lucky that she was already dead."
She twisted her mouth. "If there's any luck at all in this. Anyway, I think I'm going to go check in with Shale--I took the liberty of assigning him to Cinder and Stream--and see if Coal's back."
"Try to have a good day, Jade."
"You, too." She rose and left, thinking, I'm not sure if any of my days since I became an advisor have qualified as good.
She headed for the Speaker's quarters, where she knew she would find Shale. She did find him...with the small heir to the throne riding on his shoulders. He gave her a slightly pained smile. "Morning, Jade."
Her mouth twitched in a small smile. "Good morning, Shale. You seem to have made a friend."
Aziuhoatl the younger tugged on Shale's hair. "Who's that?" The young heir looked at her critically. "She's dressed funny.
"The high priest. Remember, I was telling you about her? Down you go now, go see if your mother's done with her hair." He swung the boy down from his shoulders. The boy ran off, and Shale sighed. "This is awfully...domestic."
Jade gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Aziuhoatl the younger seems to have taken to you."
"He's spent the last day declaring that he's going to be a priest when he grows up, just like me. I impressed him when I was casting wards on the windows. The ladies and I are getting along. You were right about Stream. She really does need someone to take care of her. Cinder, though. Cinder's sharp as a blade. She and I had a good long talk last night, after Stream fell asleep."
"Any sign of Ocelot?" she asked.
"He hasn't been by." Shale shrugged. "How are you doing, Jade?"
"I'm all right. I've got some stuff I'm working on, including who mutilated the body of a darkside dealer last night. I don't know why it's important, but it feels like it is. I need to go, but I'll be back later. I just wanted to see how you were getting on with the ladies."
He smile wryly. "I think after a few more days of this, I am going to be stark raving mad. I never realized before just how not cut out for family life I am."
"You'll get used to it, Shale. I don't know how much longer this will last, but you're doing a very important job. Tell Cinder that I'm looking into something in darkside that may be important." They said their goodbyes, and then Jade headed out into the palace, looking for Coal.
She found him in one of the gardens, frowning at a piece of maguey paper. On the stone next to him were several quills, cut for writing. "Find something interesting?" she asked him.
"Maybe. Maybe not," he said, not taking his eyes from the paper.
"Where'd you find this?" she asked.
He smiled briefly, and handed Jade the paper. "Criminals tend to be overanxious in regards to ridding themselves of evidence. I searched the garbage of several darkside stalls and found these two stalls down."
She looked at the paper. There were names on it, about twenty of them. Half male, half female, and none she recognized. It appeared to have been written in ink, not blood, though one of the quills was bloody. She pointed at that one. "Interesting. Mountain said that the marks on Midnight's face were made not by animals, but by a quill. Looks like that might be the one."
Coal nodded. "Yes, I had wondered that myself."
Jade handed the paper back to him. "Do you know any of these names?"
"No. But they are all written by Midnight. It matches her ledgers."
"Have you talked to her neighbors, yet?" she asked.
"No, darkside is open late and doesn't open very early in the morning. I wanted to get to them before they took out the garbage for the day. Which will be about now, as they are arriving."
She nodded, impressed. Coal knew his business, certainly. "Good thought. Mountain also mentioned that her reproductive organs were all missing, and there was evidence of them being destroyed by a mage spell on the premises. He was speculating that she might have been pregnant, and whoever did this wanted to hide the evidence of that."
Coal's eyebrows shot up, and he held up the list of names. "Baby names?"
She was just behind him in putting it together. "That's one I hadn't thought of, but it's certainly possible. It would make sense, too, if the mutilator wanted to get rid of any evidence that she was pregnant."
"So they rip out the child, destroy it, and remove the list of baby names and throw it out. And to be safe, mutilate the rest of the body and assume that such a graphic mutilation will disguise the real intent." Coal's face held a bit of disgust.
"So the question is, why go to so much trouble to disguise the fact that she was pregnant?" Jade was thinking aloud, frowning. "We should probably ask her neighbors if there was anyone else other than Bloom that she was lovers with. If she had ones other than him, they would probably be the ones who'd care."
"It's a good place to start," Coal replied.
"Shall we go, then? Was there anything else you needed to do here?"
"Nope, the quill is bloody but I can't be for sure that its part of the mutilation. Might be chicken blood."
"Might be, but we'll have to keep it in mind. If it was used to write something, I'm guessing that the mutilator probably has whatever they wrote in her blood with them. A souvenir, of sorts."
"Yes, and they will cling to it. But the problem is we aren't really looking for a murderer, just a corpse defiler."
Jade shook her head. "Yet. This kind of hatred usually escalates. I've seen it happen."
"It does and it may come to murder but for now, it's just an investigation. By the way, what was the timing in Raven's killing? The timing seems off to me."
She'd gone through this over and over in her mind, thinking about Heat's confession. "It took me about...a little less than two hours or so to track him down after I realized it probably wasn't him who had been killed by Mountain. I found Mantis first. As far as I can tell, the timing of Heat's story doesn't at all match up."
"So if you killed Raven before he went to Heat, does that mean you killed the real Raven and someone else showed up, disguised as him? Or vice versa?"
Jade grimaced. "I think that's what happened. The timing doesn't work out, otherwise. I'm pretty sure I got the real Raven--he was casting some very nasty spells. But I might not have."
"He would have reverted soon enough if it wasn't. That's why Teal blew up the body, I would suspect."
"Well, as far as I know, the body's still under a pile of rock under darkside. Might be worth going to check."
"There first, then darkside?"
Jade nodded. "Sounds good. I can take you there."
They headed out of the palace together. Jade thought she remembered an entrance into the tunnels near where she and Walker had fought Raven, and was gratified to discover that she was correct. They came to the intersection, the rock pile still there with Raven's hand sticking out form it. The place smelled a bit of decaying flesh.
Coal helped her uncover the body. It was Raven, still. Jade did a careful search of his body, looking for any sign of the moon crystal. He had several rings that glowed with magic, and a knife that was the same way, but no crystal. He also had quite the stash of jade on him. She hefted the bag thoughtfully after she removed it from his person.
"Well. If he had the crystal, it looks like he sold it before I caught him. Or he never had it. Might have been prepared to live outside the city for a bit, though." She lifted the bag of jade meaningfully.
"I think someone else found out and has it," Coal said, nodding.
"So why would Heat have told the story about Raven coming to get it?" Jade asked, thinking.
"He was desperate. He may have been lying, but I have done this enough that I don't think so. He believed he'd seen Raven come and get the stone and leave."
"He was scared out of his mind, is what he was. Afraid of something a lot more than he was afraid of dying."
"The others he spoke of or was that something different?" Coal speculated.
"I couldn't tell. It felt like he was trying to protect something, but I might be wrong about that." She paused, then asked. "Know any nahuales? They might know who has it."
He snorted. "I used to but they are a bit wary of advisors recently. Mantis and all."
Odd. That doesn't seem to have been true for me. "I may be able to dig one or two up who will talk to me, but they're not reliably in the city at this point."
Coal's gaze had returned to Raven's body. "Heat did say something about being controlled by a creature. Maybe it made him do or see something different than what really happened."
"Perhaps. Tough to track down, if that's the case. I have a couple of ideas, but I'd need to go see my mage contact who I gave the cloak to and see what he says about this creature." And ask the creature if it can be used to control people.
"Might be best, let me go question darkside. Meet back in the palace after mid-meal. That give you enough time?"
It would, barely. "It should, yes. I'll meet you there."
Coal nodded, waved, and headed back the way they had come, up towards the surface world. Jade waited until he was gone, then turned and headed down the tunnel that led under the walls.
It was a bit of a tromp to Walker's house from here, but she knew the way. Walker was sitting inside his house, fiddling with a device that she couldn't tell right away what it did. "Good morning," she said to him, bowing slightly. "I need to speak to the creature in the box, but I might have some time for training afterwards, if you're free."
Walker smiled. "Certainly. It would be good to continue your training."
"Yes, it would. I have to be back at the palace after mid-meal, but my business with the creature shouldn't take that long."
He nodded. "Oh, after you are finished with the creature, I have news of the cloak."
"Oh, good. I have some information about its function, but I'll bet what you have is more complete than mine." He nodded to her, and then picked up the device and headed outside with it. She fetched the box from the shelf and sat down with it in her lap. After she opened it, the words, "Greeting, Jade," appeared in the sand.
She smiled. "Hello. I think I'll call you Thorn. After your talons. I have a few questions for you."
"Thorn is an interesting name. Please feel free to ask."
For some reason, she felt much better, speaking to a creature with a name. "I spoke to Heat yesterday. He said that the creature in the box was controlling him, and that he heard a woman's voice sometimes. Is that you, or is there another like you out there?"
"No, it is Coral."
Jade frowned. "Coral had Heat under her control?"
"Yes."
There was so much that she did not know about this creature. "Does she have the other people who have your talons in them under control, as well?"
"The ones that she inserted, yes. But the new one you have, no. It is keyed to you. But you do not have the same type of magic."
"Can I also cast magic through the talons I insert?" she asked.
"Yes and that is what she did. Some magic to control them. For you, magic to protect and heal."
"Is it possible to remove the talons?" she asked.
"Yes but only I can."
"Do you have to be physically present to do so?"
"Yes."
It would have been too much luck for him to be able to do it remotely. "Well. I'm likely going to need to reveal your existence to more people than I hoped I would have to."
"Your current course of stopping their heat is working just fine."
Jade eyed Thorn. Was that evidence of a sense of humor that she'd just witnessed? It was very difficult to tell, from such a strange creature. "Some of those are people who I would really like to remain among the living," she told it.
"Then you will have to bring them here or me there."
She made a face. "I'll think about what's the best course of action. I don't really want Coral to get her hands on you again."
"She was rather unlikable."
Thorn hadn't liked Coral? Well, she probably wouldn't have liked someone who had stolen her from her native land and locked her up in a box, either. Jade wondered if Thorn liked her any better. It really didn't matter; she intended to travel north to where the creature came from, to the burning sands, and release it once she had time to do so. It was not in its proper place, and it had helped her. She would return the favor. "Speaking of," she said to Thorn, "Heat said something about there being others right before he died. Do you know what he meant by that?"
"He meant others under her control."
"Ah. All right. Before I go--I didn't see Spear this morning. What is he doing at the moment?"
"Resting."
"Still hurting from yesterday, I take it?" She should have stopped by this morning to see him. She told herself she'd do so that afternoon.
"Yes, he is able to walk but is very stiff in his movements."
"Is he grieved about Leaf's death?" she asked.
"Yes, in the way that a friend is sad about another."
She had a thought. "Do you know why Coral chose him to have a talon?"
"She knew a new advisor was coming and assigned Spear to your door, through Aziuhoatl. She wanted to see what side you were on."
Jade nodded, it was what she had thought. "Ah. I think I may have taken you before she found out."
"Yes, she had little time with it. She can still control him but his thoughts and mine are the same."
"And she no longer has access to you. All right. Thank you, Thorn. I'll be back in a bit." She rested her hand on the lid, getting ready to close the box, when she saw words scribing themselves in the sand. They were a bit slower than usual, for some reason.
"Good luck, Jade."
She chuckled. "Everyone keeps telling me that." She closed the lid, thinking that perhaps Thorn found her more likeable than he did Coral. She shivered; the air always seemed cold after she had been talking to Thorn. The heat coming from the open box was intense and pleasant, like a few minutes spent in the summer sun after bathing.
She put the box on the shelf and then went outside to find Walker. The old mage was sitting beneath a large tree, looking up into the branches. "Well, I'm done speaking with Thorn. Found out some stuff I was really hoping wasn't true. I may have to take the box back into the city with me, because I'm guessing you don't want a bunch of advisors trooping through your house."
He chuckled. "Not that optimal, no." He had a bundle of cloth on his lap, which he handed to her. It was Bloom's cloak. "The cloak is a disguise, basically. For about handspan per day, you can look like someone else. The voice mimics as well."
Jade nodded. "What's with the strange rippling pattern of the magic?"
"Part of the magic. It's not all that stable. That's why I said about a handspan. Might be more, might be less."
"So if I use it, I shouldn't rely on it not running out unexpectedly." She wondered if that had been deliberate on the part of the person who'd created it. Perhaps.
Walker nodded. "Correct."
"Good enough. I'll take it back to Coal, who gave it to me, and tell him what it does."
"Good. Now come, sit. I have some new things to teach you."
She sank down beside him in the kneeling position of the learner. He had her summon animals again, this time two and three at a time. She was starting to get a feeling for the depth of this new talent of hers, and thought that, given enough time, she would likely be able to summon and control many animals at once.
She let the three deer that she had summoned bound away from her, and Walker said, "Now Jade, can you feel the nahuales out there? Can you feel something animal but isn't quite?"
Jade closed her eyes and concentrated. After a moment, the presences seemed to shimmer forth in her mind. "I can, there are...four relatively close. More father away, I can't quite make them out." She frowned and tried to reach harder for those faraway nahuales, but Walker's voice interrupted her.
"Search for one you know or need to talk to."
Who? Cat came immediately to mind. She fixed the girl in her mind, concentrating on her image and her name. She reached out and a shape came into her mind: Cat. Definitely. I need to speak to you, she thought. Come here.
She felt--startlement?--and then motion. Cat was coming towards her. She kept her concentration on the girl. Less than half a handspan later, she arrived at Walker's clearing. She had a pained expression on her face, and her hands over her ears. "Oh, you can stop that anytime now," she said to Jade.
Jade stopped concentrating on her, and said, "Well, it worked, didn't it?"
Cat blew out a breath and relaxed. "Thank you. Once is enough. A long time of that is just plain annoying."
"What was it like?" Jade asked, curious.
The girl wrinkled her nose. "It's like your voice calling, with a visible path to you. But it's also a great deal like chewing on metal. You come because you want it to stop."
"Good to know. I actually did have a reason for calling you. I need to know what happened while you were in Heat's shop, getting the moon crystal."
"I went in. He was looking at the demons you created. I picked his locks. Grabbed the stone, a bit of jade and locked it all up again and took off."
"Nothing else happened while you were in there? Nothing strange at all?" she asked.
"Nope, nothing. Simple grab and run."
Jade frowned. She was missing something. What was it? "Strange. When he was confronted, Heat clamed that he'd handed it off to Raven hours before."
"Wasn't me. I didn't switch them. It was all that was in the lock box."
"And it was definitely the crystal, you showed it to me. Strange. Someone made Heat think he'd handed it to Raven. Coral, maybe."
Cat was thinking, biting her lip. "Maybe, but have you checked with the nahuales up north? You positive it's the crystal?"
"I think I'll need to do that before I head back into the city. If it's not, I have some searching to do."
"Yep, and there's more than moon crystal out there," Cat said. "Some are more powerful than others."
Jade paused, and fit that piece of information into the story Heat had told and the version of events she had lived. "Would have been an awful coincidence for Heat to have more than one..."
Cat grinned, as usual pleased to know something Jade didn't. "True, but I know of another that was stolen about a moon ago, but it was a small one in power."
"Hm. Who was it stolen from?"
"Tribe, north and west. Bunch of bird nahuales."
Jade snapped her fingers. "Perhaps Heat had recovered it."
"He probably would have at least know about it. He may have even been trying to get it back. He came from there."
Jade didn't doubt it. "So let's say he had two. The question would be, which one did we return to the northern tribe? I suppose I should go ask. They'd know if it wasn't theirs by now, probably."
"Probably." Cat bounced on the balls of her feet. "Want me to run and find out?"
She smiled. "If you like. You can move through the swamp much faster than I can."
"Anything! Just don't do that thing again," the girl said, making a face.
"I won't." Jade gave the girl a swift smile. "Well, maybe a little."
Cat stuck out her tongue at Jade and bounced again. "I'll say hi to Jaguar for you." She turned then and bounded off into the swamp without waiting for a reply.
Jade rolled her eyes and sighed. "Children."
"They are remarkably insightful though sometimes," Walker said, from his seat underneath the willow.
Jade shrugged. "What was between Jaguar and I is over and dead. I'd prefer it stayed that way."
"So one part of you says. What the rest says is different." Walker was looking at her with calm eyes, and Jade stifled her instinctive defensive response.
Snapping at people never helps, she told herself. Listen to what he has to say. It might be important. She sat down beside the old mage, folding her legs under her. "I have my reasons. I'll not endanger him any more than I have to." She gave Walker a half-smile, acknowledging that he was right, that there was something going on between her and Jaguar.
"It is not a good time for either of you," he said, nodding. "Maybe after, if you both live."
After. The thought was a strange one, that there would one day be an after. She tested the thought gingerly. If we live...there might be time. Enough time to find out if we can start again. Maybe enough time for me to figure out how to get past Moth. The story of Moth was aching in her, but Walker wasn't the person she wanted to tell it to. Not yet. Quietly, she said, "Afterwards...might be a different story. When there's less danger, if he's captured again, that he'll be brought to the altar stone."
"There may be no altar stone, if it all goes right."
"That's my hope, at least." She took a long breath. "If I can accomplish that much with my life, then I'll be quite happy."
Walker nodded. "It is a worthwhile goal."
"We'll see if I manage it. If I live through Ocelot, perhaps."
"That could be tricky, but possible," Walker said, with a gentle smile.
"We'll see. If I don't, I have Jaguar and Shale to carry on the work. And I'll get to find out if I've paid enough penance for who I've been."
"Only Huitzilopochtli can answer that."
Jade inclined her head, acknowledging his statement. "I'm not that eager to find out right away, that's for sure. Only a bit related...how did you manage to find yourself opposing Ocelot?"
Walker chuckled quietly. "We had opposing views."
"On what?"
"On who should be breathing and who shouldn't be." He glanced over at her. "We both agreed that the other person shouldn't be."
Which answers the question without answering it, she thought, but let it go. "That's a pretty fundamental disagreement. So you sent Thunder in as a double agent, more or less?"
"Yes, he was in the unique position of being a friend of Teal and an advisor. Teal let him into Ocelot's inner circle."
Jade sighed. "It's too bad that I can't manage to talk with Thunder for more than a few minutes at a time. But I don't really want Ocelot to know I'm in contact with him."
"It's best not let him know. He would suspect Thunder and blow his cover. Can the creature be of assistance?"
"It might be, and I was thinking of that. I'd have to ask Thunder if he was willing. I don't want to put a talon into any of my allies without asking first. That gives me an idea for a question I can ask the creature, though."
"Glad to have helped," he replied, and there was a genuine smile on his weather-beaten features.
"I should go do that," she said, and then cast a glance at the sky. The sun was near its zenith, mid-meal was close. "Then I should meet with Coal." Walker nodded, and she got up and headed into the house. She opened the box once more. "Thorn, one more question. Can your talons be used to communicate with the people that they're in?"
"Yes, if you are the asker, the question will go to the person that owns your talon."
"Can it be done even on the ones I didn't put into people?" she asked.
"No."
Jade made a disappointed noise, and then said, "All right, thank you." She closed the lid and put the box away, then took off for the city at a fast walk.
Coal was in the garden she'd met him in that morning, evidently having just finished mid-meal. "Well, I've had a reasonably productive morning so far. How about you?" she said to him, dropping down to sit beside him.
"Yes, I did. I have some really interesting bits of information about Midnight."
"Really? what do you have?"
Coal smiled. "I found one of her better friends. Yes, she was pregnant. The father is rumored to be Aziuhoatl, Ocelot or Bloom, in that order."
Jade's eyebrows shot up. Midnight had gotten around, it seemed. "Oh, that's interesting."
He nodded. "Bloom is pretty much out of it. Nahuales after they become nahuales if human or born nahuales have trouble mating with humans. If the human becomes nahual than it's far easier."
"So Aziuhoatl is still a possibility. As far as I know, Ocelot is human," she said.
"I would bet Ocelot is the father. I would also bet that Teal found out. Came to Midnight's place, found her dead, and destroyed the evidence of any child in a rage. Decorated the walls with her intestines and left. Tossing the list of baby names and the quill as she went."
"That would be consistent with all of the evidence we have. And it would mean that she's probably not going to escalate to doing this to living people, unless more women turn up pregnant by Ocelot," Jade said.
"Which is likely, I suppose. He does, after all, sleep around quite a bit."
"So I've heard." Jade grimaced. "I hate to tell her, but the problem is Ocelot, not the women he's doing."
"Yes, but Teal thinks she can change him," Coal said.
"Wishful thinking."
"Very much so. Now this pondering leads to others." He made a sweeping gesture with his hands, encompassing the whole of the palace. "Follow me on this little journey of logic. Aziuhoatl was a rumored nahual and Coral is an assumed nahual. And where was Coral spending most of her nights? We have established that it's easier for nahuales to breed together."
She gave Coal a surprised look. "You think Coral might be pregnant?"
"Don't you?" Coal asked. "Offer a child of Aziuhoatl up to ocelot."
"She gets the power being the mother of the heir grants her," Jade said. This was making too much sense.
"He can dump Stream and the baby. And Coral will rule by Ocelot's side. Pretty story."
Jade had known that Coral wanted the throne. This was the first time that she had heard an explanation of how she planned to get there. It was altogether too reasonable to not be true. "Boy, Teal is going to be pissed," she said wryly. "Coral will need to take care of Teal before she makes her move. Teal would destroy her in open combat. It's a gamble on Coral's part. If the child's a girl, that means that she'd be no better an heir than Smoke." She frowned. "Not that Smoke's a bad heir. But she's female, and she's in hiding, both of which are problems."
"Right and if the boy dies. Who's up next?"
"Probably the heir in hand, not the one in hiding. And if Ocelot finds and kills Smoke, then we're down to one heir."
Coal nodded. "Yes we are. And he will."
"And if Smoke reappears on the scene, not only will Ocelot be out to get her, so will Coral."
"Yes. It hinges on Coral being pregnant. She made no attempt to hide her relationship with Aziuhoatl."
An idea occurred to Jade. "I can actually likely find that out, if you give me a couple of minutes."
It was Coal's turn to raise his eyebrows. "Certainly."
"You can be here or not, it should make little difference." She closed her eyes briefly, found the spell she wanted in her mind, spoke the three words that would make her next question resonate in her god's ears. "Is Coral pregnant?" she asked into the expectant silence.
Huitzilopochtli's voice was amused, and Jade, opening her eyes, saw that Coal evidently couldn't hear his voice. "The boy is good. Well yes, yes she is."
Jade smiled. "He is, isn't he? Good to know. I'll talk to you later."
"Later," the god replied, and the sense of expectation in the room eased.
Jade turned to Coal. "That's confirmation. She's indeed pregnant."
Coal made a wry face. "Nice. That would be so handy as an investigator."
"It comes with a few drawbacks, let me tell you. But it's definitely come in handy a few times," she replied with a smile." "So the question is, what do we do with this now? We're pretty sure of what Coral's planning. Her plan puts Stream and her child in direct danger--well, more than they were, anyway, since I was pretty sure Ocelot's planning to kill the both of them. But she's unlikely to make a serious move until the child's actually born, since there are all sorts of things that can happen during pregnancy and childbirth. She may try to kill Teal in the near future, though."
"Correct. Depends on what Ocelot does. He may marry Stream, or he may wait and marry Coral. He will have stream's ear anyway, one way or another."
"He will. Much as I'm trying to prevent it, he will. She's a nice girl, but...not exactly regent material."
"No, she isn't. With Teal around he may control her, or Coral. Either one."
Jade thought about the situation until she almost felt as if she could see it, Ocelot, Teal, and Coral, locked together in a delicate balance of power. "And if something shows up to threaten that cozy little power balance, all parties will more or less turn on that something," she said quietly.
"Your only chance to upset this is to get Teal to go after Coral by revealing her plan. She will probably not believe either one of us, though, is the problem."
"No, but I know who she will believe. I'd just need to convince him."
"Thunder is the best bet. Mountain might be able to talk to him."
She nodded. Coal's thought were running in parallel to her own. "It's a bit roundabout, but it would do. I may be able to speak to Thunder myself, as well."
He raised an eyebrow. "Give it a try. Will he believe you?"
"He might." Jade spread her hands. "Tough to convince him with only the word of my god as proof, but I can give it a try."
"Try not to die," Coal said.
"What, he has a habit of killing people who bring him bad news?"
"Yep, pretty much. Mountain said he had a really bad temper when younger. I am loath to tempt it."
Jade tried to imagine Thunder, who was so reserved that he barely betrayed any feeling at all, erupting into an explosive rage. She could see it happening easily enough, she decided. "Well, I'll try to avoid antagonizing him. I'm pretty good at not dying, though, I've been doing it for a while. With a little luck, I'll be fine."
"I am sure you will." Coal shifted, and tightened his jaw in thought. "So Teal mutilated the body. Mystery solved. Who appeared as Raven to Heat?"
"I found out a few things about that, not an answer to the question, though," she said. "Turns out there was likely not one but two moon crystals in Heat's possession at that point. Someone stole one from his shop in the afternoon--that was what that disturbance in front of his shop was about. He may have given one to someone he thought was Raven. Or--my mage friend suggested this--if he really was controlled by someone, they may have made him think he'd given one to Raven when he actually hadn't. Or he could have given it to someone else, who he thought was Raven."
"Interesting," Coal said. "Theories yet?"
She nodded. "An incomplete one, mostly because I lack a why. I found out a couple of other things, including that it's indeed plausible that Heat was under control, like he described. The creature he mentioned is a nasty one, it can be used to spy on people--or cast spells on the people who have bits of it in them."
"That's rather revolting."
That's how everyone reacts, she thought. Why is it that I seem to have a higher tolerance for creepy people and things? Maybe it's my Temple training. Though, Jaguar had reacted in the same way. "Coral's box that was stolen may have had one of those in it. If so, she would be able to cast controlling spells through it"
"So, Coral?"
"That's what I'm thinking. Even if she doesn't have it now, she could still cast the spell," Jade said. "My question is, why?"
Coal's mind was working quickly, she could tell. "The answer lies in the stone there. She gets the stone can make any were reveal themselves but if it comes into contact with any non-nahual what's it do?"
"Kills them. Within hours. Silently and leaving no mark. You think she's going to use it to kill Teal?"
"Bigger," Coal said. "She marries, has the heir. New king and, boom, dead king. New queen. Coral. Teal, too though. Ace in the hole if it comes to a battle."
It was all falling into place in Jade's mind. "You know, I really don't like the idea of Coral having that crystal," she said.
Coal nodded. "Yep, you, me, we are all vulnerable."
"We are. I can likely spot it before it's handed to me, but I can see magic. And here's another question. There were two moon crystals stolen recently. One was weaker, the other was very strong. Which one does Coral have?"
"Give you one guess."
"I have a contact confirming for me, but I would guess the stronger one, myself." She shook her head.
"So, mysteries solved. Now what?" Coal asked.
"Now, I try to get Thunder to believe me that Coral is pregnant and gunning for Teal, and we need to figure out how to get a moon crystal, which neither of us can touch and neither can Mountain, out of Coral's possession."
Coal smiled. "Know any nahuales you can trust?"
She acknowledged the unspoken question beneath that one with a smile. "A few, yes. And a couple owe me favors."
"Better call them in. I can follow Coral, see where she goes, what she does for the next few days."
"Sounds good to me. I can talk to Spider, as well, about her, and see what she says."
"That one creeps me out. How can you stand to be in the same room with her?" Coal asked, frowning as if he'd just smelled something nasty.
Jade shrugged. "I'm good at dealing with creepy people. She's not that bad once you get used to her. I can cope with Mantis, and of the two of them he's harder to take most of the time."
"True enough. He is very...blunt, is the best word."
"Blunt, and he has one foot in this world and one in the next. Nice combination." She got to her feet. "Oh, I was going to tell you. The cloak is a disguise--it'll change your appearance and your voice for about an hour a day. Do you want it back?"
He shook his head. "Keep it, if you want. It might come in handy."
"It might, at that. If you want to use it, though, let me know. I'll see you later, Coal." She nodded to him and left, looking for Mantis. She wanted to talk over what she'd learned today with him, and thought he might have some insight.
10/8/1487
Year 8 Acatl, Month of Pachtontli, Trecena 1 Atl, Tonalli 5 Acatl, near sunrise
(week of Water, daysign Reed: A good day to seek justice, a bad day to act against others. The priest-warrior is advised during this week to perfect the art of shapeshifting: only by mimicking the nature of water do we become an agent of change rather than a target of it. The purified heart casts no reflection in the smoking mirror.)
Moth was leading Jade somewhere, his hand warm in hers. "Where are we going?" she asked him, confused. This wasn't like him.
"Sssh. It's a surprise."
"You're not really Moth," she told him as he drew her onward. "You look like him, but you're not."
His hands tightened painfully on hers. She tried to pull away, but his grip was eternal as the roots of a great tree. "I am the closest thing you have to Moth. I have something to show you."
"You're just a dream. Just my memories. Let me go!" But if it was a dream, why couldn't she wake? Why were the trees moving like that, why did the wind in their leaves sound like voices?
They reached the edge of a clearing and Moth shoved her through the last few feet of underbrush. She stumbled out into the clearing, then brought herself up short. "Bodies," she said flatly. She turned back to Moth, who had not stepped into the clearing himself, his body shrouded by leaves. "Is this supposed to frighten me?"
"Take a closer look, Jade."
She turned back around, then stiffened. The bodies...she knew them.
Cat was the closest, laid out in the grass, half of her hair burned off and her chest split open by a sword. There were Coal, and Mountain, and Thunder, and Spider, and Cinder, and Smoke, and Onyx, and Shale. Walker lay near Cat, eyes filmed over, face profoundly surprised. Jade swallowed. "I know what you're doing," she told Moth's memory. "You're trying to scare me. It won't work. I know better."
"Take a good look," Moth said, and she jumped because he was suddenly next to her ear. "You're going to be the cause of their deaths. And look closer, and see who's not here."
Mantis. Jaguar.
Moth took her hand again, and led her on a weaving path through the field of corpses. Flies buzzed, and the clearing smelled like death. At the far side of the clearing, they began climbing the side of the pyramid that she hadn't noticed before. She stared at the cracked stones, grass growing between the stones. So unkempt. How had it gotten like this? Where was everyone?
At the top, as she'd rather expected, was Jaguar. He was lying at the base of the killing stone, a great hole under his ribs betraying that his heart had been taken. She sank down by him, touched his storm-sky hair, closed his staring eyes. She was holding a bloody knife in her right hand, and she paused, confused.
"You did it," Moth's voice said, hissing in her ear. "You did him just like you did me. They're all dead because of you, lover. All dead, because you're going to fail. I know what you really are. Murderer. Monster. You don't even care that they're dead, do you? You cut your own heart out the day you cut out mine, and burned it in the same fire."
"I care," she said, slowly. "Why would you have shown me this, if I didn't care?" She touched Jaguar's hair once more, then got to her feet. A slow, massive anger was beginning to burn in her. "You. Are. Not. Moth. Moth would never have done this to me. Moth understood the decision I had to make, and I swear to Huitzilopochtli that if I could take it back, I would!" She stabbed a finger at Moth. "I am tired of this. I killed you. Why won't you stay dead?"
Instead of quailing before her shouts, Moth just smiled. "I will never die. Just like Jaguar, when you kill him, will never leave you. The blood on your hands and on your soul will never wash away, Jade. No matter how hard you try to pretend you're a good person." His smile thinned. "Oh, look. We have company."
Jade turned. Mantis was standing silent behind her, a blade in each hand. There was no evidence of anything even remotely like humanity in his eyes, and she put her hand to her mouth as her heart broke. "No..."
"You fail." Moth's voice was in her ear again. "You fail, Jade. He never has his pain taken from him."
Mantis raised his swords. Jade bowed her head.
Pain was a bright fire in her as the swords swept through her abdomen and she fell, vision dimming. "Sorry," she coughed, and choked. "So sorry."
Jade thrashed awake, her legs tangled in the blanket. She stilled herself, raising her hand to her cheek to discover that it was wet. She had been crying in her sleep.
Of all of my enemies, I think that my own mind's one of the worst, she thought ruefully, and wiped her face on the blanket. She glanced out the window. Dawn was barely lightening the sky, and her shoulders and hips ached, a sure sign that she wasn't getting enough sleep.
She untangled herself from the blanket and smoothed it out, curling up underneath of it once more. For a minute or two, she closed her eye and simply allowed herself to long for a friendly touch, a voice, someone to put their hands on hers and reassure her. Anyone--a fellow priest, Jaguar, Coal, even Mantis--anyone...
There was nobody there, and after that minute she put the longing away. She did not think she would be able to sleep, but she did anyway. When she woke, the sun was up and had been for almost an hour. It was later than she'd slept since the day before she'd become a priest.
She rose, washed, and helped herself to some fresh clothing from the Temple stores. She broke her fast with some cold maize cakes from the kitchens, then headed towards the palace.
Coal's guards were there, but he was not. "He went out early, he should be back within the hour, honored one," one of the guards told her. She nodded, thanked the man, and then went in search of Mountain. She found him in the training yard, watching some of his men spar. She joined him at the side of the yard, and said, "Mountain, do you have a moment? I have a few questions about last night."
He nodded and said, "Sure, let's go to my office, it's more private." He escorted her there, to the spartan room, that, like the man himself, betrayed nothing. He offered her a seat and sat down himself.
Jade said, "I was wondering, actually, if you'd ever had contact with Heat before yesterday. Something about the way he was acting is bothering me."
Mountain nodded. "I have. He has been accused of bullying other darkside merchants and making them pay him not to."
"And from rumor, he was more or less second-in-command of the clan of were-birds. What's bothering me is that he didn't act like it." She frowned, remembering. "I realize that the three of us being there was intimidating, but someone accustomed to having power wouldn't have acted so...afraid."
"He had reason to be afraid. Three advisors at your door is something to be afraid of. But you are right, he was inordinately afraid of something and don't think it was us. But who, Raven? Raven is dead. This creature in a box business that he claims can control him?"
"That's a possibility. But why would he have been so afraid of it in the moment? He seemed like he was protecting something. He probably drew the conclusion that he was going to die the moment he saw us."
"He knew something else and took it to the grave rather than reveal it," Mountain said. "But was more afraid of it than dying."
She nodded pressing her lips together, trying to think. "That's what I'm afraid of."
"But what? Any idea?"
She shook her head. "I have guesses, but none of them have any foundation behind them, and I don't know the business of the were-birds well enough to tell."
He nodded. "The people that mutilated Midnight. I have more on that, if you want to hear gory details."
Anything would help, at this point. "I would, actually."
Mountain grimaced slightly. "We attempted to reassemble Midnight's body. All her reproductive parts are missing."
It was a violation almost unimaginable, and something about it was...contemptuous. "Someone was very angry about her choice of lovers, it seems," she said.
"Very angry. Who hates nahuales that badly?"
"I would say Aziuhoatl did, but evidently he didn't, since he knew Bloom was one and let him live. Did you find anything else that might point at a culprit?"
"We found a lot of bird droppings, consistent to what Heat said. But the marks on her face were made not with beaks but some sort of pointed instrument. Like a quill."
"A quill," she echoed. "Someone was using her blood to write with? That's macabre."
"Looks that way. We have some evidence that the reproductive organs were burned in an intense fire. A marking of ash, that is consistent with a mage spell--the one that was used on Raven."
"There are only a few mages that can do that spell, if I recall correctly. I can think of three on the council, at least. So we may be looking for a mage, or someone who has a mage as an accomplice. Have you ever seen any mutilations like this before?" Jade asked.
"I have seen mutilations before. They tend to be the acts of the religiously fervent. No offense," he added, inclining his head. "Or of people that are insane."
She smiled. "None taken."
"This tends to fall into the latter, and tends to be men that hate women for some reason. But something about this makes me want to say that it was calculated."
"You're right. It feels almost like a warning. Not sure to who."
"There is another possibility. Midnight might have been pregnant and someone wanted to make sure the child died and there was no evidence."
Her eyes narrowed as she thought about it. It fit, but it brought up a number of other questions. "That might be easy enough to figure out--her neighbors would notice if she were more than a few months pregnant. The darkside's like any other market. Everyone's got their noses in everyone's personal business, even if they turn a blind eye to other things that go on. But if she hadn't started to show yet...why do this? The only person who would have probably cared was Bloom, and he was dead. Though that wasn't common knowledge yet."
"And if Midnight was sleeping with others?" Mountain said with a raised eyebrow.
Tch. It's not just me who occasionally sleeps with more than one person at a time. "True. No reason to assume he was her only lover. People who knew her well might know who she kept company with."
"I would start there. Advise Coal, and he can usually get answers."
Coal had mentioned wanting to interview the people who had known Midnight anyway; this would be one more thing to ask about. "I will, I'm supposed to be helping him in his investigation this morning." A speculation she'd had before occurred to her again, and she asked, "He's a useful man, Coal is, though I have to wonder--do you know why he was chosen for the advisors? He doesn't seem the type who usually is."
Mountain let out a long breath, and his eyes looked suddenly troubled. "If I tell you, you may not be the same after."
She smiled sharply. "Mountain, believe me, I've had a number of life-changing experiences in the last six days. What's one more?"
He still looked troubled, but he answered her question. "Coal is Ocelot's brother."
Jade simply stared at the big man for a moment, not sure if she trusted her ears. She carefully fitted in the knowledge with what she already knew about Coal. "I assume he was Ocelot's recommendation to the advisors?" she asked.
"It was. Ocelot assumed he could control him. He found he couldn't, and they fight more than any two advisors I know. Or brothers, for that matter."
She let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. "I was going to ask. They don't get along, then?"
"No, not at all. Only blood keeps Ocelot--or anyone else--from killing him."
It was just one more thing about Coal, added to her knowledge about him. "Well, that wasn't the most surprising piece of news I've had in the last few days, but it's certainly up there. I wouldn't have guessed, at all."
"Coal won't talk about, or Ocelot either."
She thought about it for a moment, adding this into her picture of Coal, and found that it changed very little. Her instincts were telling her that Mountain was telling the truth. Coal was not in Ocelot's employ. "I'm sure. Oddly enough, this makes me trust Coal even more."
"That's good. Sometimes people act differently around Coal when they find out."
She could imagine that they did. "We can't help who we're related to, and it sounds as though Coal is doing what he can."
"He is a good man," Mountain said. "A bit naive when he started, but his job has made him less so. And he had never really been to darkside before. At least to its underbelly."
Jade tried to imagine Coal never having been to darkside before, and shook her head. "Now he seems reasonably adept at navigating it. More so than I am, for certain."
"He is now." There was a ghost of a smile haunting Mountain's mouth. "His first murder, he must have thrown up a thousand times or more. Rather amusing actually."
Jade winced in sympathy, remembering the first sacrifice she'd ever performed. "I'll bet. He didn't seem to turn much of a hair even at the mutilation last night, so he's improved quite a bit."
"Yes, he has seen it all by now."
She frowned. "How long has he been an advisor, anyway? There must have been low turnover for a while in there." Coal was only one position above her in precedence.
Mountain shrugged slightly. "Oh, about two years now."
"And he's still only one above me. Must have been a peaceful time among the advisors for a while."
"Not really. He has let people advance over him. It's a protest thumbed in Ocelot's face."
"Ah, I wondered. So no matter how many people die, he'll always be low-ranked?"
"He refuses to get involved in politics and favored any decision that went against ocelot. He purposely passed on jobs that would have gotten him more rank and prestige. He refuses to advance by removing advisors above him."
Jade grinned briefly. "I knew there was a reason I liked him."
Mountain nodded. "He likes what he does, I think."
That statement took Jade by surprise, and she wasn't sure why. She knew that Mountain had seen her moment of uncertainty, and wondered if she cared that he had. She'd never thought about the fact that someone on the advisors might do what they did because they enjoyed it. She wondered, briefly, if she liked what she did.
No. Well, sort of. She'd always done what her god had told her to do, as she was doing at this moment. Liking what she did didn't enter into it.
But there were parts she did like. She liked some of the people she was around. Mountain came to mind, and Coal, Spider, Mantis, Walker. Jaguar. Even Cat. There was a sense, now, that she was moving forward, that she and those who followed her were making progress towards something. What, exactly, she couldn't see clearly. But the path in front of her was unrolling, compelling, clear.
It was her job to show the way. To lead the battle. And after, if she lived, to lead, if from behind the scenes. To serve as she always had, from another position.
She wondered if Ocelot felt the same way she did. It was an uncomfortable thought. We are very different, and yet the same. We both serve. Do you serve the same way I do?
She realized that Mountain was looking at her with an expression of mild puzzlement. She smiled self-consciously. "Sorry. My mind wandered. There are few enough genuinely good people among the advisors. I'm glad Coal's one of them."
"Yes. They are few and far between."
"And there are any number of people with twisted reasons for what they do."
"Yes, most disturbing is this new one. I hope Coal and you can find them quickly. I don't want to be reassembling bodies."
She shook her head. "That kind of hate doesn't stop at one. They'll keep on doing this until someone finds and stops them."
Mountain nodded. "If I knew the motive, then I would be less concerned but for now, there isn't one. There are just theories."
"And no assurance that this person will stop with mutilating dead people. They might start in on people who are still alive."
"Yes. It was lucky that she was already dead."
She twisted her mouth. "If there's any luck at all in this. Anyway, I think I'm going to go check in with Shale--I took the liberty of assigning him to Cinder and Stream--and see if Coal's back."
"Try to have a good day, Jade."
"You, too." She rose and left, thinking, I'm not sure if any of my days since I became an advisor have qualified as good.
She headed for the Speaker's quarters, where she knew she would find Shale. She did find him...with the small heir to the throne riding on his shoulders. He gave her a slightly pained smile. "Morning, Jade."
Her mouth twitched in a small smile. "Good morning, Shale. You seem to have made a friend."
Aziuhoatl the younger tugged on Shale's hair. "Who's that?" The young heir looked at her critically. "She's dressed funny.
"The high priest. Remember, I was telling you about her? Down you go now, go see if your mother's done with her hair." He swung the boy down from his shoulders. The boy ran off, and Shale sighed. "This is awfully...domestic."
Jade gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Aziuhoatl the younger seems to have taken to you."
"He's spent the last day declaring that he's going to be a priest when he grows up, just like me. I impressed him when I was casting wards on the windows. The ladies and I are getting along. You were right about Stream. She really does need someone to take care of her. Cinder, though. Cinder's sharp as a blade. She and I had a good long talk last night, after Stream fell asleep."
"Any sign of Ocelot?" she asked.
"He hasn't been by." Shale shrugged. "How are you doing, Jade?"
"I'm all right. I've got some stuff I'm working on, including who mutilated the body of a darkside dealer last night. I don't know why it's important, but it feels like it is. I need to go, but I'll be back later. I just wanted to see how you were getting on with the ladies."
He smile wryly. "I think after a few more days of this, I am going to be stark raving mad. I never realized before just how not cut out for family life I am."
"You'll get used to it, Shale. I don't know how much longer this will last, but you're doing a very important job. Tell Cinder that I'm looking into something in darkside that may be important." They said their goodbyes, and then Jade headed out into the palace, looking for Coal.
She found him in one of the gardens, frowning at a piece of maguey paper. On the stone next to him were several quills, cut for writing. "Find something interesting?" she asked him.
"Maybe. Maybe not," he said, not taking his eyes from the paper.
"Where'd you find this?" she asked.
He smiled briefly, and handed Jade the paper. "Criminals tend to be overanxious in regards to ridding themselves of evidence. I searched the garbage of several darkside stalls and found these two stalls down."
She looked at the paper. There were names on it, about twenty of them. Half male, half female, and none she recognized. It appeared to have been written in ink, not blood, though one of the quills was bloody. She pointed at that one. "Interesting. Mountain said that the marks on Midnight's face were made not by animals, but by a quill. Looks like that might be the one."
Coal nodded. "Yes, I had wondered that myself."
Jade handed the paper back to him. "Do you know any of these names?"
"No. But they are all written by Midnight. It matches her ledgers."
"Have you talked to her neighbors, yet?" she asked.
"No, darkside is open late and doesn't open very early in the morning. I wanted to get to them before they took out the garbage for the day. Which will be about now, as they are arriving."
She nodded, impressed. Coal knew his business, certainly. "Good thought. Mountain also mentioned that her reproductive organs were all missing, and there was evidence of them being destroyed by a mage spell on the premises. He was speculating that she might have been pregnant, and whoever did this wanted to hide the evidence of that."
Coal's eyebrows shot up, and he held up the list of names. "Baby names?"
She was just behind him in putting it together. "That's one I hadn't thought of, but it's certainly possible. It would make sense, too, if the mutilator wanted to get rid of any evidence that she was pregnant."
"So they rip out the child, destroy it, and remove the list of baby names and throw it out. And to be safe, mutilate the rest of the body and assume that such a graphic mutilation will disguise the real intent." Coal's face held a bit of disgust.
"So the question is, why go to so much trouble to disguise the fact that she was pregnant?" Jade was thinking aloud, frowning. "We should probably ask her neighbors if there was anyone else other than Bloom that she was lovers with. If she had ones other than him, they would probably be the ones who'd care."
"It's a good place to start," Coal replied.
"Shall we go, then? Was there anything else you needed to do here?"
"Nope, the quill is bloody but I can't be for sure that its part of the mutilation. Might be chicken blood."
"Might be, but we'll have to keep it in mind. If it was used to write something, I'm guessing that the mutilator probably has whatever they wrote in her blood with them. A souvenir, of sorts."
"Yes, and they will cling to it. But the problem is we aren't really looking for a murderer, just a corpse defiler."
Jade shook her head. "Yet. This kind of hatred usually escalates. I've seen it happen."
"It does and it may come to murder but for now, it's just an investigation. By the way, what was the timing in Raven's killing? The timing seems off to me."
She'd gone through this over and over in her mind, thinking about Heat's confession. "It took me about...a little less than two hours or so to track him down after I realized it probably wasn't him who had been killed by Mountain. I found Mantis first. As far as I can tell, the timing of Heat's story doesn't at all match up."
"So if you killed Raven before he went to Heat, does that mean you killed the real Raven and someone else showed up, disguised as him? Or vice versa?"
Jade grimaced. "I think that's what happened. The timing doesn't work out, otherwise. I'm pretty sure I got the real Raven--he was casting some very nasty spells. But I might not have."
"He would have reverted soon enough if it wasn't. That's why Teal blew up the body, I would suspect."
"Well, as far as I know, the body's still under a pile of rock under darkside. Might be worth going to check."
"There first, then darkside?"
Jade nodded. "Sounds good. I can take you there."
They headed out of the palace together. Jade thought she remembered an entrance into the tunnels near where she and Walker had fought Raven, and was gratified to discover that she was correct. They came to the intersection, the rock pile still there with Raven's hand sticking out form it. The place smelled a bit of decaying flesh.
Coal helped her uncover the body. It was Raven, still. Jade did a careful search of his body, looking for any sign of the moon crystal. He had several rings that glowed with magic, and a knife that was the same way, but no crystal. He also had quite the stash of jade on him. She hefted the bag thoughtfully after she removed it from his person.
"Well. If he had the crystal, it looks like he sold it before I caught him. Or he never had it. Might have been prepared to live outside the city for a bit, though." She lifted the bag of jade meaningfully.
"I think someone else found out and has it," Coal said, nodding.
"So why would Heat have told the story about Raven coming to get it?" Jade asked, thinking.
"He was desperate. He may have been lying, but I have done this enough that I don't think so. He believed he'd seen Raven come and get the stone and leave."
"He was scared out of his mind, is what he was. Afraid of something a lot more than he was afraid of dying."
"The others he spoke of or was that something different?" Coal speculated.
"I couldn't tell. It felt like he was trying to protect something, but I might be wrong about that." She paused, then asked. "Know any nahuales? They might know who has it."
He snorted. "I used to but they are a bit wary of advisors recently. Mantis and all."
Odd. That doesn't seem to have been true for me. "I may be able to dig one or two up who will talk to me, but they're not reliably in the city at this point."
Coal's gaze had returned to Raven's body. "Heat did say something about being controlled by a creature. Maybe it made him do or see something different than what really happened."
"Perhaps. Tough to track down, if that's the case. I have a couple of ideas, but I'd need to go see my mage contact who I gave the cloak to and see what he says about this creature." And ask the creature if it can be used to control people.
"Might be best, let me go question darkside. Meet back in the palace after mid-meal. That give you enough time?"
It would, barely. "It should, yes. I'll meet you there."
Coal nodded, waved, and headed back the way they had come, up towards the surface world. Jade waited until he was gone, then turned and headed down the tunnel that led under the walls.
It was a bit of a tromp to Walker's house from here, but she knew the way. Walker was sitting inside his house, fiddling with a device that she couldn't tell right away what it did. "Good morning," she said to him, bowing slightly. "I need to speak to the creature in the box, but I might have some time for training afterwards, if you're free."
Walker smiled. "Certainly. It would be good to continue your training."
"Yes, it would. I have to be back at the palace after mid-meal, but my business with the creature shouldn't take that long."
He nodded. "Oh, after you are finished with the creature, I have news of the cloak."
"Oh, good. I have some information about its function, but I'll bet what you have is more complete than mine." He nodded to her, and then picked up the device and headed outside with it. She fetched the box from the shelf and sat down with it in her lap. After she opened it, the words, "Greeting, Jade," appeared in the sand.
She smiled. "Hello. I think I'll call you Thorn. After your talons. I have a few questions for you."
"Thorn is an interesting name. Please feel free to ask."
For some reason, she felt much better, speaking to a creature with a name. "I spoke to Heat yesterday. He said that the creature in the box was controlling him, and that he heard a woman's voice sometimes. Is that you, or is there another like you out there?"
"No, it is Coral."
Jade frowned. "Coral had Heat under her control?"
"Yes."
There was so much that she did not know about this creature. "Does she have the other people who have your talons in them under control, as well?"
"The ones that she inserted, yes. But the new one you have, no. It is keyed to you. But you do not have the same type of magic."
"Can I also cast magic through the talons I insert?" she asked.
"Yes and that is what she did. Some magic to control them. For you, magic to protect and heal."
"Is it possible to remove the talons?" she asked.
"Yes but only I can."
"Do you have to be physically present to do so?"
"Yes."
It would have been too much luck for him to be able to do it remotely. "Well. I'm likely going to need to reveal your existence to more people than I hoped I would have to."
"Your current course of stopping their heat is working just fine."
Jade eyed Thorn. Was that evidence of a sense of humor that she'd just witnessed? It was very difficult to tell, from such a strange creature. "Some of those are people who I would really like to remain among the living," she told it.
"Then you will have to bring them here or me there."
She made a face. "I'll think about what's the best course of action. I don't really want Coral to get her hands on you again."
"She was rather unlikable."
Thorn hadn't liked Coral? Well, she probably wouldn't have liked someone who had stolen her from her native land and locked her up in a box, either. Jade wondered if Thorn liked her any better. It really didn't matter; she intended to travel north to where the creature came from, to the burning sands, and release it once she had time to do so. It was not in its proper place, and it had helped her. She would return the favor. "Speaking of," she said to Thorn, "Heat said something about there being others right before he died. Do you know what he meant by that?"
"He meant others under her control."
"Ah. All right. Before I go--I didn't see Spear this morning. What is he doing at the moment?"
"Resting."
"Still hurting from yesterday, I take it?" She should have stopped by this morning to see him. She told herself she'd do so that afternoon.
"Yes, he is able to walk but is very stiff in his movements."
"Is he grieved about Leaf's death?" she asked.
"Yes, in the way that a friend is sad about another."
She had a thought. "Do you know why Coral chose him to have a talon?"
"She knew a new advisor was coming and assigned Spear to your door, through Aziuhoatl. She wanted to see what side you were on."
Jade nodded, it was what she had thought. "Ah. I think I may have taken you before she found out."
"Yes, she had little time with it. She can still control him but his thoughts and mine are the same."
"And she no longer has access to you. All right. Thank you, Thorn. I'll be back in a bit." She rested her hand on the lid, getting ready to close the box, when she saw words scribing themselves in the sand. They were a bit slower than usual, for some reason.
"Good luck, Jade."
She chuckled. "Everyone keeps telling me that." She closed the lid, thinking that perhaps Thorn found her more likeable than he did Coral. She shivered; the air always seemed cold after she had been talking to Thorn. The heat coming from the open box was intense and pleasant, like a few minutes spent in the summer sun after bathing.
She put the box on the shelf and then went outside to find Walker. The old mage was sitting beneath a large tree, looking up into the branches. "Well, I'm done speaking with Thorn. Found out some stuff I was really hoping wasn't true. I may have to take the box back into the city with me, because I'm guessing you don't want a bunch of advisors trooping through your house."
He chuckled. "Not that optimal, no." He had a bundle of cloth on his lap, which he handed to her. It was Bloom's cloak. "The cloak is a disguise, basically. For about handspan per day, you can look like someone else. The voice mimics as well."
Jade nodded. "What's with the strange rippling pattern of the magic?"
"Part of the magic. It's not all that stable. That's why I said about a handspan. Might be more, might be less."
"So if I use it, I shouldn't rely on it not running out unexpectedly." She wondered if that had been deliberate on the part of the person who'd created it. Perhaps.
Walker nodded. "Correct."
"Good enough. I'll take it back to Coal, who gave it to me, and tell him what it does."
"Good. Now come, sit. I have some new things to teach you."
She sank down beside him in the kneeling position of the learner. He had her summon animals again, this time two and three at a time. She was starting to get a feeling for the depth of this new talent of hers, and thought that, given enough time, she would likely be able to summon and control many animals at once.
She let the three deer that she had summoned bound away from her, and Walker said, "Now Jade, can you feel the nahuales out there? Can you feel something animal but isn't quite?"
Jade closed her eyes and concentrated. After a moment, the presences seemed to shimmer forth in her mind. "I can, there are...four relatively close. More father away, I can't quite make them out." She frowned and tried to reach harder for those faraway nahuales, but Walker's voice interrupted her.
"Search for one you know or need to talk to."
Who? Cat came immediately to mind. She fixed the girl in her mind, concentrating on her image and her name. She reached out and a shape came into her mind: Cat. Definitely. I need to speak to you, she thought. Come here.
She felt--startlement?--and then motion. Cat was coming towards her. She kept her concentration on the girl. Less than half a handspan later, she arrived at Walker's clearing. She had a pained expression on her face, and her hands over her ears. "Oh, you can stop that anytime now," she said to Jade.
Jade stopped concentrating on her, and said, "Well, it worked, didn't it?"
Cat blew out a breath and relaxed. "Thank you. Once is enough. A long time of that is just plain annoying."
"What was it like?" Jade asked, curious.
The girl wrinkled her nose. "It's like your voice calling, with a visible path to you. But it's also a great deal like chewing on metal. You come because you want it to stop."
"Good to know. I actually did have a reason for calling you. I need to know what happened while you were in Heat's shop, getting the moon crystal."
"I went in. He was looking at the demons you created. I picked his locks. Grabbed the stone, a bit of jade and locked it all up again and took off."
"Nothing else happened while you were in there? Nothing strange at all?" she asked.
"Nope, nothing. Simple grab and run."
Jade frowned. She was missing something. What was it? "Strange. When he was confronted, Heat clamed that he'd handed it off to Raven hours before."
"Wasn't me. I didn't switch them. It was all that was in the lock box."
"And it was definitely the crystal, you showed it to me. Strange. Someone made Heat think he'd handed it to Raven. Coral, maybe."
Cat was thinking, biting her lip. "Maybe, but have you checked with the nahuales up north? You positive it's the crystal?"
"I think I'll need to do that before I head back into the city. If it's not, I have some searching to do."
"Yep, and there's more than moon crystal out there," Cat said. "Some are more powerful than others."
Jade paused, and fit that piece of information into the story Heat had told and the version of events she had lived. "Would have been an awful coincidence for Heat to have more than one..."
Cat grinned, as usual pleased to know something Jade didn't. "True, but I know of another that was stolen about a moon ago, but it was a small one in power."
"Hm. Who was it stolen from?"
"Tribe, north and west. Bunch of bird nahuales."
Jade snapped her fingers. "Perhaps Heat had recovered it."
"He probably would have at least know about it. He may have even been trying to get it back. He came from there."
Jade didn't doubt it. "So let's say he had two. The question would be, which one did we return to the northern tribe? I suppose I should go ask. They'd know if it wasn't theirs by now, probably."
"Probably." Cat bounced on the balls of her feet. "Want me to run and find out?"
She smiled. "If you like. You can move through the swamp much faster than I can."
"Anything! Just don't do that thing again," the girl said, making a face.
"I won't." Jade gave the girl a swift smile. "Well, maybe a little."
Cat stuck out her tongue at Jade and bounced again. "I'll say hi to Jaguar for you." She turned then and bounded off into the swamp without waiting for a reply.
Jade rolled her eyes and sighed. "Children."
"They are remarkably insightful though sometimes," Walker said, from his seat underneath the willow.
Jade shrugged. "What was between Jaguar and I is over and dead. I'd prefer it stayed that way."
"So one part of you says. What the rest says is different." Walker was looking at her with calm eyes, and Jade stifled her instinctive defensive response.
Snapping at people never helps, she told herself. Listen to what he has to say. It might be important. She sat down beside the old mage, folding her legs under her. "I have my reasons. I'll not endanger him any more than I have to." She gave Walker a half-smile, acknowledging that he was right, that there was something going on between her and Jaguar.
"It is not a good time for either of you," he said, nodding. "Maybe after, if you both live."
After. The thought was a strange one, that there would one day be an after. She tested the thought gingerly. If we live...there might be time. Enough time to find out if we can start again. Maybe enough time for me to figure out how to get past Moth. The story of Moth was aching in her, but Walker wasn't the person she wanted to tell it to. Not yet. Quietly, she said, "Afterwards...might be a different story. When there's less danger, if he's captured again, that he'll be brought to the altar stone."
"There may be no altar stone, if it all goes right."
"That's my hope, at least." She took a long breath. "If I can accomplish that much with my life, then I'll be quite happy."
Walker nodded. "It is a worthwhile goal."
"We'll see if I manage it. If I live through Ocelot, perhaps."
"That could be tricky, but possible," Walker said, with a gentle smile.
"We'll see. If I don't, I have Jaguar and Shale to carry on the work. And I'll get to find out if I've paid enough penance for who I've been."
"Only Huitzilopochtli can answer that."
Jade inclined her head, acknowledging his statement. "I'm not that eager to find out right away, that's for sure. Only a bit related...how did you manage to find yourself opposing Ocelot?"
Walker chuckled quietly. "We had opposing views."
"On what?"
"On who should be breathing and who shouldn't be." He glanced over at her. "We both agreed that the other person shouldn't be."
Which answers the question without answering it, she thought, but let it go. "That's a pretty fundamental disagreement. So you sent Thunder in as a double agent, more or less?"
"Yes, he was in the unique position of being a friend of Teal and an advisor. Teal let him into Ocelot's inner circle."
Jade sighed. "It's too bad that I can't manage to talk with Thunder for more than a few minutes at a time. But I don't really want Ocelot to know I'm in contact with him."
"It's best not let him know. He would suspect Thunder and blow his cover. Can the creature be of assistance?"
"It might be, and I was thinking of that. I'd have to ask Thunder if he was willing. I don't want to put a talon into any of my allies without asking first. That gives me an idea for a question I can ask the creature, though."
"Glad to have helped," he replied, and there was a genuine smile on his weather-beaten features.
"I should go do that," she said, and then cast a glance at the sky. The sun was near its zenith, mid-meal was close. "Then I should meet with Coal." Walker nodded, and she got up and headed into the house. She opened the box once more. "Thorn, one more question. Can your talons be used to communicate with the people that they're in?"
"Yes, if you are the asker, the question will go to the person that owns your talon."
"Can it be done even on the ones I didn't put into people?" she asked.
"No."
Jade made a disappointed noise, and then said, "All right, thank you." She closed the lid and put the box away, then took off for the city at a fast walk.
Coal was in the garden she'd met him in that morning, evidently having just finished mid-meal. "Well, I've had a reasonably productive morning so far. How about you?" she said to him, dropping down to sit beside him.
"Yes, I did. I have some really interesting bits of information about Midnight."
"Really? what do you have?"
Coal smiled. "I found one of her better friends. Yes, she was pregnant. The father is rumored to be Aziuhoatl, Ocelot or Bloom, in that order."
Jade's eyebrows shot up. Midnight had gotten around, it seemed. "Oh, that's interesting."
He nodded. "Bloom is pretty much out of it. Nahuales after they become nahuales if human or born nahuales have trouble mating with humans. If the human becomes nahual than it's far easier."
"So Aziuhoatl is still a possibility. As far as I know, Ocelot is human," she said.
"I would bet Ocelot is the father. I would also bet that Teal found out. Came to Midnight's place, found her dead, and destroyed the evidence of any child in a rage. Decorated the walls with her intestines and left. Tossing the list of baby names and the quill as she went."
"That would be consistent with all of the evidence we have. And it would mean that she's probably not going to escalate to doing this to living people, unless more women turn up pregnant by Ocelot," Jade said.
"Which is likely, I suppose. He does, after all, sleep around quite a bit."
"So I've heard." Jade grimaced. "I hate to tell her, but the problem is Ocelot, not the women he's doing."
"Yes, but Teal thinks she can change him," Coal said.
"Wishful thinking."
"Very much so. Now this pondering leads to others." He made a sweeping gesture with his hands, encompassing the whole of the palace. "Follow me on this little journey of logic. Aziuhoatl was a rumored nahual and Coral is an assumed nahual. And where was Coral spending most of her nights? We have established that it's easier for nahuales to breed together."
She gave Coal a surprised look. "You think Coral might be pregnant?"
"Don't you?" Coal asked. "Offer a child of Aziuhoatl up to ocelot."
"She gets the power being the mother of the heir grants her," Jade said. This was making too much sense.
"He can dump Stream and the baby. And Coral will rule by Ocelot's side. Pretty story."
Jade had known that Coral wanted the throne. This was the first time that she had heard an explanation of how she planned to get there. It was altogether too reasonable to not be true. "Boy, Teal is going to be pissed," she said wryly. "Coral will need to take care of Teal before she makes her move. Teal would destroy her in open combat. It's a gamble on Coral's part. If the child's a girl, that means that she'd be no better an heir than Smoke." She frowned. "Not that Smoke's a bad heir. But she's female, and she's in hiding, both of which are problems."
"Right and if the boy dies. Who's up next?"
"Probably the heir in hand, not the one in hiding. And if Ocelot finds and kills Smoke, then we're down to one heir."
Coal nodded. "Yes we are. And he will."
"And if Smoke reappears on the scene, not only will Ocelot be out to get her, so will Coral."
"Yes. It hinges on Coral being pregnant. She made no attempt to hide her relationship with Aziuhoatl."
An idea occurred to Jade. "I can actually likely find that out, if you give me a couple of minutes."
It was Coal's turn to raise his eyebrows. "Certainly."
"You can be here or not, it should make little difference." She closed her eyes briefly, found the spell she wanted in her mind, spoke the three words that would make her next question resonate in her god's ears. "Is Coral pregnant?" she asked into the expectant silence.
Huitzilopochtli's voice was amused, and Jade, opening her eyes, saw that Coal evidently couldn't hear his voice. "The boy is good. Well yes, yes she is."
Jade smiled. "He is, isn't he? Good to know. I'll talk to you later."
"Later," the god replied, and the sense of expectation in the room eased.
Jade turned to Coal. "That's confirmation. She's indeed pregnant."
Coal made a wry face. "Nice. That would be so handy as an investigator."
"It comes with a few drawbacks, let me tell you. But it's definitely come in handy a few times," she replied with a smile." "So the question is, what do we do with this now? We're pretty sure of what Coral's planning. Her plan puts Stream and her child in direct danger--well, more than they were, anyway, since I was pretty sure Ocelot's planning to kill the both of them. But she's unlikely to make a serious move until the child's actually born, since there are all sorts of things that can happen during pregnancy and childbirth. She may try to kill Teal in the near future, though."
"Correct. Depends on what Ocelot does. He may marry Stream, or he may wait and marry Coral. He will have stream's ear anyway, one way or another."
"He will. Much as I'm trying to prevent it, he will. She's a nice girl, but...not exactly regent material."
"No, she isn't. With Teal around he may control her, or Coral. Either one."
Jade thought about the situation until she almost felt as if she could see it, Ocelot, Teal, and Coral, locked together in a delicate balance of power. "And if something shows up to threaten that cozy little power balance, all parties will more or less turn on that something," she said quietly.
"Your only chance to upset this is to get Teal to go after Coral by revealing her plan. She will probably not believe either one of us, though, is the problem."
"No, but I know who she will believe. I'd just need to convince him."
"Thunder is the best bet. Mountain might be able to talk to him."
She nodded. Coal's thought were running in parallel to her own. "It's a bit roundabout, but it would do. I may be able to speak to Thunder myself, as well."
He raised an eyebrow. "Give it a try. Will he believe you?"
"He might." Jade spread her hands. "Tough to convince him with only the word of my god as proof, but I can give it a try."
"Try not to die," Coal said.
"What, he has a habit of killing people who bring him bad news?"
"Yep, pretty much. Mountain said he had a really bad temper when younger. I am loath to tempt it."
Jade tried to imagine Thunder, who was so reserved that he barely betrayed any feeling at all, erupting into an explosive rage. She could see it happening easily enough, she decided. "Well, I'll try to avoid antagonizing him. I'm pretty good at not dying, though, I've been doing it for a while. With a little luck, I'll be fine."
"I am sure you will." Coal shifted, and tightened his jaw in thought. "So Teal mutilated the body. Mystery solved. Who appeared as Raven to Heat?"
"I found out a few things about that, not an answer to the question, though," she said. "Turns out there was likely not one but two moon crystals in Heat's possession at that point. Someone stole one from his shop in the afternoon--that was what that disturbance in front of his shop was about. He may have given one to someone he thought was Raven. Or--my mage friend suggested this--if he really was controlled by someone, they may have made him think he'd given one to Raven when he actually hadn't. Or he could have given it to someone else, who he thought was Raven."
"Interesting," Coal said. "Theories yet?"
She nodded. "An incomplete one, mostly because I lack a why. I found out a couple of other things, including that it's indeed plausible that Heat was under control, like he described. The creature he mentioned is a nasty one, it can be used to spy on people--or cast spells on the people who have bits of it in them."
"That's rather revolting."
That's how everyone reacts, she thought. Why is it that I seem to have a higher tolerance for creepy people and things? Maybe it's my Temple training. Though, Jaguar had reacted in the same way. "Coral's box that was stolen may have had one of those in it. If so, she would be able to cast controlling spells through it"
"So, Coral?"
"That's what I'm thinking. Even if she doesn't have it now, she could still cast the spell," Jade said. "My question is, why?"
Coal's mind was working quickly, she could tell. "The answer lies in the stone there. She gets the stone can make any were reveal themselves but if it comes into contact with any non-nahual what's it do?"
"Kills them. Within hours. Silently and leaving no mark. You think she's going to use it to kill Teal?"
"Bigger," Coal said. "She marries, has the heir. New king and, boom, dead king. New queen. Coral. Teal, too though. Ace in the hole if it comes to a battle."
It was all falling into place in Jade's mind. "You know, I really don't like the idea of Coral having that crystal," she said.
Coal nodded. "Yep, you, me, we are all vulnerable."
"We are. I can likely spot it before it's handed to me, but I can see magic. And here's another question. There were two moon crystals stolen recently. One was weaker, the other was very strong. Which one does Coral have?"
"Give you one guess."
"I have a contact confirming for me, but I would guess the stronger one, myself." She shook her head.
"So, mysteries solved. Now what?" Coal asked.
"Now, I try to get Thunder to believe me that Coral is pregnant and gunning for Teal, and we need to figure out how to get a moon crystal, which neither of us can touch and neither can Mountain, out of Coral's possession."
Coal smiled. "Know any nahuales you can trust?"
She acknowledged the unspoken question beneath that one with a smile. "A few, yes. And a couple owe me favors."
"Better call them in. I can follow Coral, see where she goes, what she does for the next few days."
"Sounds good to me. I can talk to Spider, as well, about her, and see what she says."
"That one creeps me out. How can you stand to be in the same room with her?" Coal asked, frowning as if he'd just smelled something nasty.
Jade shrugged. "I'm good at dealing with creepy people. She's not that bad once you get used to her. I can cope with Mantis, and of the two of them he's harder to take most of the time."
"True enough. He is very...blunt, is the best word."
"Blunt, and he has one foot in this world and one in the next. Nice combination." She got to her feet. "Oh, I was going to tell you. The cloak is a disguise--it'll change your appearance and your voice for about an hour a day. Do you want it back?"
He shook his head. "Keep it, if you want. It might come in handy."
"It might, at that. If you want to use it, though, let me know. I'll see you later, Coal." She nodded to him and left, looking for Mantis. She wanted to talk over what she'd learned today with him, and thought he might have some insight.
