Flower of War: Feathered Vengeance, part 2

[aithne]

She found Mantis in his quarters. He opened the door as she approached, before she could even knock, and waved her inside. He closed the door behind her, and said, "So her eyes have opened farther. What dangers do you see now?"

She thought of the configuration of power in her mind, the careful balance of Ocelot, Teal, and Coral. "A delicate balance of power, three sides locked together in a dance of loyalty and disloyalty. And here comes me, to interrupt the musicians."

Mantis nodded, his dark, intense eyes watching her closely. "Ah yes. Which way to walk, what to play. Your path has to be clear."

Jade spread her hands. "If I am patient, Coral may kill Ocelot for me. But the alliance between the two would be...troublesome. I don't think I want to hand her that much power."

"No, the cat will reign forever if he is linked to that one."

"So, I will stop Coral. At least that doesn't require asking Thunder to act against Teal. I don't know what he'd do if I did, and I really don't want to find out."

"You don't want to kill the child of Aziuhoatl as you did Aziuhoatl. Teal will do it. The key is the crystal. Remove it and she will fall."

Jade winced at Mantis's reference to her killing the Chief Speaker. She had not told anyone of that, but she should have known that Mantis would know. "I don't suppose you have any idea where she's currently keeping the crystal?" she asked.

"In the home of another, under guard by the assassin called Blade."

The name was familiar...ah. "Blade. Another advisor I don't know yet."

Mantis shrugged. "Don't. Kill and be done with it. He will."

"Good to know. I won't send in the person who will likely need to handle the crystal alone, then."

"No. The cat that admires you would just die."

Admires me? I suppose that's one way of putting it. "And I won't do that to her. Well, if I find Blade, I find the crystal, then."

"Yes, you will." Mantis paused and looked at her, tilting his head slightly. The tone of his voice changed, with a note of something like wonderment in it. "Your soul is brighter, Jade. Huitzilopochtli watches you even now."

Something about how he said that made flush slightly, as if he'd just praised her to the heavens. "I'm doing my best. And I assume that he usually has at least a corner of an eye on me--I'm doing his work, after all."

"I will be in my room tonight, Jade, if you encounter trouble come to me. I will also be here if you are to remove the talon of Thorn. Though there is no one in here that Coral can control."

She gave him an odd look, searching his face for answers that he wasn't giving her. "Coral can't control you? And there's...more than one person within you? How is that possible?"

"A great many things are possible, just not probable. There is no explanation that I can give. Just that it is so."

"Well," she said. She felt as though this revelation should have made her uneasy. It did not, for whatever reason. It simply was, like Mantis simply was. "I'd like the talon to come out anyway. Just in case you're wrong, you'd be a very bad person for Coral to have control of."

His gaze sharpened. "I am a bad person Jade, I have killed thousands just like you."

She gave him a level look. "I should have said dangerous." She shrugged gently. "I'm not a good person, either. But we both do what must be done."

Mantis nodded. "Yes, remember what I said about tonight. You may need me."

That was an unmistakable offer. "I will, thank you. I may ask to take you with me when I go to get the crystal."

"That would be more efficient, yes."

"Thank you. I'll stop by later, then. I should go speak with Thunder, now."

Mantis's gaze went a bit distant. "Bring the cloak. I will need it. Blade won't come out if he sees me."

Jade smiled at him, and to her surprise Mantis smiled back. It was, oddly enough, a pleasant smile. It took his face from completely ordinary to something just a shade this side of handsome. She wondered, irrelevantly, if his former wife had liked it when he'd smiled at her. She said, "I will." Then she left, going out into the palace once more, looking for Thunder.

Huitzilopochtli faded in once the door closed behind her, and Jade looked over at him, unsurprised to see him there. "I seriously want to know how he does that," the god said.

"You and me both," she replied. "In the same way I can call animals, I assume. And the bit about him having several people inside of him, and they're nobody that Coral can control...what sort of people *couldn't* she control? It almost sounds like something semi-divine."

"That's magic. Born magic. What he does is something beyond. It's not divine, it's not demon. It's not born, it just is."

It was as good an explanation for Jade's sense of Mantis as any. "Well, I'm just glad that whatever it is appears to be on my side. And I hope I can do for him what he thinks I can do."

"So he believes. Ah well, happy hunting." The god started to fade out. "Need anything before I go? Honey? Milk? Water into wine?"

Jade simply smiled. "It was just good to see you again," she told the god. It was the simple truth. Every time she felt a bit shaky, Huitzilopochtli showed up. His presence made any number of things easier to deal with.

"Ta ta for now!" he said, laughing, and then faded out completely. All except his smile, which lingered for several seconds and then disappeared all at once.

Jade laughed, then realized that the guards on the corridor were looking at her strangely. She gave them her best stern priest look, and they looked away. She smiled once they'd stopped looking and started to where she thought she could find Thunder.

He was in his quarters, eating a late mid-meal. One of his guards showed her in, and he gestured at a chair. "I won't keep you long, Thunder," she said as she sat down. "I have a couple of pieces of news to tell you, and a request. The first piece of news is that Coral is pregnant, with Aziuhoatl's child. If I suspected that she was going to try to take out Teal before, I'm sure of it now."

Thunder nodded. "Does sound that way. I assume you want me to pass that along?"

"Not quite yet, but eventually. The second thing is that Coral has in her weapon inventory a moon crystal. I'll be attempting to relieve her of that soon. Once she doesn't have that any more, she can't either disable or kill Teal with it."

Thunder looked a bit surprised. "Moon crystal. Dangerous thing. One made it into the city?"

"Two, actually. Bloom brought one in, the other was stolen from the were-birds about a moon ago. One's out of the city again. Coral managed to steal the other. Once it's no longer in her possession, Coral will be far less dangerous to Teal. You can pass the message along, then."

Thunder's expression was troubled. "I will do that. We have another problem. The city is supposed to be protected from harmful magics coming in by Spark and her crew of mages. They are supposed to report any magic that could be deadly to Mountain and Coal for tracking down."

And when was someone going to tell me that I shouldn't be hauling magical items in and out of the city? she thought, irritated. "Really. Well, Spark's not doing her job, then."

"Or she has been bought or someone that works for her has," he said, nodding.

"I'll bring that up with Mountain and Coal. They may know more," she said.

"Sounds like a good thing to discuss with them. I will talk to Teal tomorrow after I know you have been successful, then."

Jade nodded. "I'll pass a message along if I'm successful. If I'm not, I'll be dead, since Blade's currently guarding it."

"That could be difficult then." Thunder eyed her, appearing to evaluate her battle-worthiness as he'd size up any fighter. "Take some good backup."

"I'm taking the best backup I have with me," she said, smiling wryly. Her warrior days were behind her, she knew. She was still good with a blade, but a professional warrior would have the edge on her. "And the request I was going to make is this--I have in my possession a way for you and I to be able to speak without being in the same room. It would make both of our lives easier, I think. But it has some drawbacks. It means I'd be able to cast spells on you from a distance. And it means I'll be able to track your movements." She shrugged. "Which, depending on how much you trust me, you may not want."

Thunder spent a moment thinking about it. "Is it permanent?"

"No, it can be removed later, if need be. So I'm assured."

"That's fine then, Jade. So long as after this is over, and we are both still alive, you get rid of it."

"I will. And if I don't, I'll give instructions to someone I trust about how to remove it."

"Leave it with Walker if you can, then."

She nodded. "I usually leave it at his house, so that would work." She pulled out and unwrapped the talon. It lay in her hand, innocuous-looking, innocent. "This needs to pierce your skin, and then it'll be done."

Thunder nodded and bared his left arm, muscles moving under his scarred skin. Jade pressed the talon into his arm, giving it a good shove to make sure it would penetrate.

The moment it pierced his skin, the talon seemed to come to life. It burrowed into his flesh towards the bone, the skin closing after it and healing over cleanly. There wasn't even any blood, which was eerie. "Interesting thing, that," Thunder said, inspecting his arm and rubbing his thumb over where the talon had gone in.

"The rest of it's even more interesting. I should be off, I'll talk to you later, Thunder."

"Goodbye, Jade," he said, and she nodded and walked out of the room. There was no sign of Ocelot, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

What next? Oh, yes, Spider. The twitchy woman was likely to be awake at this time of the day. She arrived at her quarters to find Spider lounging in a large, padded chair, staring intently into a fist-sized chunk of obsidian. Unlike usual, she was hardly moving at all. The only bit of her that seemed to have any of her usual restlessness was her foot, which bounced and twitched and fidgeted.

Jade focused her magical sight and saw that the rock seemed to be magical. "Pretty toy, that is. What does it do?"

Spider didn't look up. "Don't know, just got it from darkside."

"It's got some magic on it, looks like."

"Yep, my amulet told me that much. Can't seem to make it work though." She frowned. "Or at least in the normal ways that magic sometimes responds."

"Can I see?" Jade asked.

"Sure," Spider said, and tossed her the rock. She sat up, tucking her feet underneath of her.

Jade caught the rock and looked at it. It was uncarved except for a little smoothing of wind and water. The magic on it was mage magic, probably something to do with illusions, but that was all she could tell. There was no trigger that she could see. She tossed it back. "Something to do with illusions, mage magic. Can't tell you much more than that."

Spider shrugged. "It's a start, thanks."

"Anyway. Interesting stuff going on. I was on an investigation with Coal yesterday and this morning, and found out a bit more about what Coral appears to be planning. Had a question for you, though. Spark's supposed to be reporting magic items moving in and out of the city. Any idea if she's been bought?"

"I am pretty sure she has been. But I can't say who's money she's getting. She has been letting the jade flow pretty freely lately."

Jade made a face. "Wish I knew if Coral's the one who's bought her. I should operate under the assumption that she is, likely."

"I would give her the best chance myself. Ocelot isn't that subtle. He would have gone to Spark and ordered her to let whatever it was in."

"Which means I need you to meet me outside of the walls sometime soon. I don't know exactly when; there's something I need to acquire and I'm not sure when I'll manage it. But either late afternoon or tonight. Coral's done something to you, it appears, and I need to undo it."

Spider sat bolt upright. "She has? What?"

"Remember that box that was stolen from Coral?" she asked.

"Yes, I do."

"Basically, how the box works is that it puts out little talons that can be put into people. This allows the box to scry on you, more or less, and it also allows the one who put it in to cast spells on you, no matter whether or not they have the box. I just recently figured out how to undo it, and you're one of the people who carry a talon."

Spider had a look of utter horror on her face. "Question is how it got there in the first place. I have avoided Coral from the first day I met her."

"She is a mage. If she ever touched you at all, she may have done it then, or she may have erased it from your memory. Have you had any time you can't account for lately? Or done things you didn't really intend to do?"

"Only once in the last couple of days. I was out looking for Raven right after I saw you. The day that Aziuhoatl died. Later that day I was in darkside and I don't know how I got there." The look of horror was still in her eyes, and she swallowed.

"Do you remember waiting in darkside to see if Midnight or Boa walked by?" Jade asked.

"I remember that, but that was earlier. This was much later."

"Hm. I can't tell you what you might have been doing, then. Anyway, it needs to stop. I can get the talon out of you, but I need equipment I don't have in the city at the moment. And, unfortunately, I can't bring it in. This is going to cause a problem, because both Cinder and Stream have one."

Spider made a face. "Getting them out of the city could be a problem."

"If I do bring it in, if Spark's been bought by Coral, I'll bet she'll be on me the moment she hears." Jade sighed, turning the problem over in her mind.

"What about removing Spark?" Spider asked, tilting her head thoughtfully.

"A possibility. What do you know about her?"

Spider shifted again, stretching out one leg and wiggling her bare toes. "So-so mage. Pretty, which is why she is an advisor. No real skills at anything but hair styling."

Why am I not surprised? "She has a bunch of mages working for her, I hear."

"She does and they are better than she is, mostly. They take shifts at the main gates, looking for large magical glows coming and going. You probably have seen them so often you don't realize they are there in the side buildings."

Jade thought about it, thought about the small houses by the gates that always seemed to have someone in the windows. She nodded. "Do they keep an eye on the tunnels leading out of the city, at all?"

"Not often." Spider shook her head.

"You know, if I bring this up to Mountain, he may just do this for me." She pursed her lips. "If I point out to him that I know damn well a very powerful artifact came into the city the other day and he didn't hear about it, he'll probably be moved to do something about the problem. Or if he knows, then he might have a reason for not doing something about it."

"Mountain and Coal are supposed to be alerted to the problem and then find what it was." Spider's eyes were bright, and she had abandoned any pretense of boredom. She suddenly seemed to be very interested indeed in Jade, and was watching her avidly.

"And they didn't. I was the one who figured out what it was, and then took care of the problem. Well, thought I took care of it. Turns out Coral beat me to it. I'll have to talk to them before I decide on my own to take Spark out, though."

Spider wiggled her toes again, shifting her attention to them. "Yes, she could surprise you with all her new purchases she has made recently," she said, seemingly to her toes.

"What else has she bought?" Jade asked.

"She has been picking up just about anything magical, it seems. Which is why I got the rock, just so she wouldn't."

Jade narrowed her eyes. It made sense. "Coral's arming herself for a fight with Teal."

"Using Spark as the buyer? Probably." Spider was still talking to her toes.

"That would be my guess. Spark doesn't sound like the type to be buying them for herself. And Coral's definitely gunning for the job of queen."

Spider transferred her sharp gaze back to Jade. "So what are you going to do? Take out Spark or take out Coral?"

"Coral, I think, but I won't actually be the one doing that fight. Teal will be."

She looked intrigued by the idea. "Setting up a large cat fight, are we?"

"You have no idea just how literal I think that particular truth is, Spider." Jade smiled mercilessly, and Spider blinked, apparently taken a bit aback. "If I'm correct, both Coral and Teal are nahuales. Don't know what Teal is, but Coral's probably a cat of some sort. In fact, I need to go talk to one of my contacts outside the walls. You can come with me, if you like--I can't take you to the place where the equipment is hidden, but I can go get it and bring it to you, as long as I don't have to bring it into the city itself."

Spider shook her head. "That's all right, let me know when you need me to come out and I will. I am going to try to figure this out." She lifted the obsidian chunk briefly.

Jade nodded. "All right, I'll see you later, then." She rose and left Spider behind, her mind ranging ahead of her. She needed to see Mountain, and then probably Coal. Then she could go out of the city again.

She found Mountain again, looking at a piece of paper with a troubled expression. "Mountain, do you have a moment? I have what should be a quick question."

"Sure," he said, putting the paper down.

"Remember the moon crystal I was questioning Heat about yesterday? It came in that morning, I know, via one of the gates. Was it reported to you, at all?"

The big man shook his head. "No it wasn't. I checked with Coal to see if he heard of it. He hadn't either. Spark let it through on Aziuhoatl's standing order for moon crystals." He frowned, his expression darkening. "She is supposed to report to one of us right away. She didn't."

"I found out just now that she's been busy acquiring anything magical she can get her hands on lately. I have a feeling she's been bought by someone. Possibly Coral, though I can't prove it."

"Coal probably can. He monitors the advisors through people in darkside."

"I'll mention it to him when I see him next. Thank you, Mountain." She bowed shallowly and left, intending to track down Coal once more.

He was preparing to leave for darkside, it appeared. "Coal, I have a little piece of information for you. Not sure what you'll want to do with it, but I figured you should know."

He ran his hand over his hair. "What is it?"

"Spark's been doing a lot of acquiring of magical items lately. Using money I suspect isn't hers, but Coral's." She twisted her mouth slightly. "I can't prove a thing, but maybe you can."

"I knew she was doing that. Just not that it was Coral's money. I can monitor her for you. See if she has meetings with Coral."

Jade nodded. "That would probably be best. There's only one person who really benefited from you and Mountain not knowing that the moon crystal came into the city yesterday, and that's Coral."

Coal nodded. "That's true. I will look into it right away."

"Thanks, Coal. I'll see you later." He waved briefly and she took off again, this time heading out of the palace, towards the west gate. She walked back to Walker's; the walk there and back was beginning to feel quite familiar. Cat wasn't there when she arrived, but before the sun had moved half a handspan, she wandered into the clearing that Walker's stone house was tucked away into.

Cat smiled insouciantly when she saw Jade. "Miss me?"

Jade gave the girl a secretive smile. "Like the moon misses the sun, little sister. I have something you might be interested in helping me with."

"Sure. The rock you sent me to look at is a rock and it is a moon rock but it's not their moon rock."

"Want to help me swipe back their real moon crystal?" Jade asked.

Cat grinned and bounced. "Sure. Where is it?"

"Somewhere in the city. Coral's got it, more or less, but she's not the one we'll be dealing with between here and there." Jade dropped her voice low with warning. "The thing that may make you not want to do this is who I'll be bringing along as backup."

"Okay, who's that?"

"Mantis."

Cat's mouth fell open a little bit, and she shivered. "Yeah, that doesn't inspire confidence." The girl shook herself, pulling her cockiness around her like a cloak once more.

Jade spread her hands. "Didn't think it would. As far as I know, he's on my side, and he's going to be necessary to deal with the person who's guarding the crystal. Advisor named Blade. So, your choice. Mantis was only killing nahuales because he was ordered to by Aziuhoatl. I trust him, as far as I can trust anyone as strange as he is. And if he decides to kill you, he'll need to go through me." Not that it would be hard for Mantis to do so. I don't think I can kill him. Disable him briefly, maybe. Not that Cat needs to know this.

Cat thought about it briefly, then made a pfft noise. "Oh him. Fire, pan. Thanks. Okay, but if I die, I will come back and haunt you."

I know you will, Jade thought. "You'd be in excellent company, little sister." Cat gave her a strange look, and Jade shook her head. "Don't worry, I'll do my best to make sure you never even see Blade."

"That's good. Trouble is, not seeing him worries me the most."

"He's an assassin type, that much I know about him. I do have a bit of a plan, but we'll see."

"What time are we going in?" Cat asked.

"This afternoon--" She stopped speaking, astonished. Cat's face and body were taking on a strange orange cast, as if the sun were setting early--but only on her. "What on earth is that?"

"What?" Cat looked around, puzzled.

"I must be seeing things. You look a bit orange to me."

The girl examined her arms and legs critically. "Nope, I don't see it. Trick of the sun probably. Or are you feeling all right?"

Jade put a hand to her head. "A little dizzy, like I stood up too fast." She dropped into her magic sight, and saw nothing out of the ordinary--Walker and his staff, Thorn from inside Walker's house, nothing much else.

Walker was coming towards her, a speculative look in his eyes. "Blink a few times Jade, does it go away?"

She did. After about three blinks, Cat returned to her usual color. "Hm. It did. Let me guess, that's my talent making an unannounced appearance?"

Walker nodded. "Most likely. Probably going to be a side effect. You may not only summon nahuales, but see them in their human forms."

"Well, that could be useful." The strange feeling in her head was subsiding, as well. "Though the dizziness won't be, but I'll cope."

"It will probably subside some. Once you get used to it." Walker smiled. "Detecting magic made me violently ill the first time. All that swirling color and things moving that shouldn't be. Much like riding an llama."

"Strange--I guess priest magic's a bit different. Well, good to know. Next time, I'll be ready for it." She ran her hand over her tightly bound hair. "You must have tried it the first time in a very magic-rich environment. The first few times we do it during our training, it's in a room bare of anything but a small, hidden magic item."

"Yes, my instructor was less kind."

"I'd call few things about our training kind, but I suppose that was." Jade shook her head, remembering the first terrible days after she'd joined the priests. She'd had so much to catch up on, and the older priests had seemed to think that because she hadn't been in training for the six years that most of the boys around her had been by her age, she'd needed to receive all of the beatings they had all at once. She'd thought she was going to die. For an awful six hours, during one of the first of her tests, she'd wanted to die--suspended in a cage, hands and feet bound, having been fed a concoction of mushrooms and a certain fungus that grew on the maize in wet years, she had been out of her mind with torment.

She'd made it through because of sheer stubbornness. She'd refused to let them break her, not after years of secrecy as a warrior and then surviving her discovery.

"Magic training is always a bit unkind," Mantis said. Jade saw that Cat was not even pretending to be uninterested in the conversation.

"True. For us, it less the magic training than the training to put aside all earthly things. I was lucky that I came to it late and I knew what I was getting into. The young boys don't, generally."

"No, they don't. Be careful, some other things may appear unexpectedly. I have opened the door and all sorts of things are rushing out."

Jade nodded. "I'll keep it in mind--and with luck, next time I'll be able to figure out what's happening on my own. I'm guessing that you won't be nearby, next time." She transferred her attention back to Cat. "Anyway. Cat, I was thinking late afternoon or early evening to go in."

"Meet you inside the city?" Cat suggested.

"Sounds good. I'll call you when we're ready to go. Try to stay out of sight, I know that Coal's eyes are active in the darkside, and I'd hate for you to get picked up by Mountain's guards by mistake. That would be a bit awkward."

Cat snorted and bounced. "Yes. that would be. I will meet you by the priest temple. Nobody in their right mind goes there."

Jade grinned at the girl. "All right. By the way, Cat, you haven't threatened to bite me for days. Don't you like me any more?"

The girl stood frozen for a moment, as if she weren't quite sure that she'd heard what she had. Then she blushed and silently left, towards the city. Jade chuckled and turned back to Walker. "Walker, have you seen Jaguar around recently? I need to remove the talon in Smoke, and he knows where she is."

He nodded. "He's been coming around in the late afternoons most days. I can tell him you are looking for him or you can wait."

Jade glanced at the sky. "I can wait, I don't have anything pressing out in the city. You think we possibly have some time for more training while I'm waiting?"

The old mage smiled. "Certainly."

It was about a handspan later when Jaguar arrived. He came into Walker's clearing and pulled up short to see her. Surprise flickered across his face, and then--was that a smile?

Jade stood from where she had been kneeling, and came toward him. "Jaguar. You're a sight for sore eyes."

Surprise, again. "Well, thank you. So are you."

She smiled, trying not to feel self-conscious after her talk with Walker earlier in the day. "I don't have a whole lot of time left out here, but I need to see if I can remove the talon in Smoke. Coral can use it to control her and cast spells on her, and I'd like to prevent the possibility. And there's been a lot going on recently. A busy couple of days." She wished she had time to sit down and tell him all about it. She thought she could use his wisdom on several problems she was facing. She had little time, and there were things more important.

"Sounds like it. Do you have to be here for it? I can get Smoke out here pretty quickly. Otherwise, we can do it."

"I don't know. I'll ask Thorn, just a moment." She ignored his puzzled glance and walked inside the house. She opened the box and said, "Hello, Thorn. Do I need to be present in order for you to remove the talon from someone?"

"No, Jade, you do not."

She was both pleased, and obscurely disappointed. She recognized the emotion for what it was and shoved it to the back of her mind. "How is it done?"

"I will sense it in the part of their body and then that part will be exposed to me. I will touch it with my claw on outside of the skin and it will wiggle its way out."

"So the person with the talon in them just needs to be brought to you, then, and you'll let them know which part the talon is in?" she asked, wanting to be entirely clear.

"Correct and once out, it will become inert."

"All right, thank you. The talon in Thunder is active now, correct?"

"Correct."

It had worked. "Do I need to speak to him through you, or can I do it on my own?"

"Through me. I provide the link."

"That was what I needed to know. Goodbye, Thorn." She closed the box and walked outdoors once more. Jaguar had sat down under Walker's tree, and she sat facing him. The mage himself was occupying himself near the house, within earshot but ostensibly not part of the conversation. She said to Jaguar, "I don't need to be here for it. Just take Smoke to the box and watch what Thorn says--it'll tell you what part of her body the talon is in. That part needs to be bared to it, then it will need to touch her skin with its claw, and the talon will make its way out."

Jaguar nodded. "Sounds easy enough. Do you feed that thing?"

"Not as far as I know." She thought about it briefly. "I think it may be sustained partially by the magic of the box and partially by the talons it has in other people."

He looked askance at her, a somewhat disbelieving expression on his face. "That's a bit creepy."

Jade laughed mirthlessly. "Everything about it is a bit creepy, honestly. Then again, I honestly think it's not the creepiest person I talk to on a regular basis."

"No, probably not. Mantis has to be right up there."

She nodded. "He's at the very top of my list. Did you know that not even Huitzilopochtli has any idea what he is?"

"Huitzilopochtli talks about him a lot. He finds him fascinating, I think. But yes, he told me that he doesn't understand where his power comes from. Walker, either. Strange to hear your god admit that."

Jade spread her hands. "I didn't think there was anything the gods didn't understand."

Jaguar nodded. "Must still be mysteries out there for them as well. Otherwise what's the point if you know what's going to happen all the time?"

The point? Isn't the point that you're a god? But Jade had never been a god, and she was willing to admit that it might not be quite like she thought it was. "I suppose, but usually they don't admit to not knowing what's going to happen. It's a bit unsettling, but I'm getting used to it."

"Its been hard to deal with myself. You may wish to ask Walker about Mantis. I know he taught him for a few years, to no avail."

Jade folded her hands, nodding. "I think Mantis isn't really much like the rest of us that he's taught. I can see why he failed with him. Mantis said something to me today that implied that there are other people in his mind, or he's more than one person, or something. Bizarre. Fascinating, but bizarre."

Jaguar was leaning forward now, and so was she, and Jade was surprised to find how familiar this felt, discussing the world and the things in it with him. She had spent so many hours talking with him, both before and during the time they'd been lovers. She was surprised to find that she'd missed it. Things always seemed to make so much more sense after she'd talked them over with Jaguar. "He is a bizarre man," her fellow heretic was saying. "I don't know really how he functions."

"You and me both. I just hope I'm able to do something for him. His daughter may have inherited whatever it is he's got, as well."

He straightened, taken aback. "That's not good. Two of them."

"And Boa's loyalties are completely unknown at this point," she said, sighing.

Jaguar shook his head. "Yes, she only seems to love to dance."

"I've been meaning to find out more about her, but I've been a little busy, what with the moon crystal thing and someone mutilating a corpse and all yesterday." She made a face. "And Mantis is unlikely to be much help. He barely knows her, as far as I can tell."

Slowly, Jaguar said, "No, I don't think he does."

She gave him a wry smile. "Perhaps if life slows down a bit over the next few days. I'm about to have my hands very full, giving Teal a push in Coral's direction. Coral's pregnant by Aziuhoatl, and she's probably going to try to use that fact to secure a queenship for herself."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sounds a bit like you do have your hands full. We still have people inside the city that they don't know about. I can have Boa watched some."

"That would be useful. If they see anything to indicate where her loyalties might lie, could you have that passed along to me?"

"Certainly. I will take care of Smoke as well."

Jade breathed out, relief of a worry she hadn't known she possessed rounding her shoulders. "Thank you. I don't like the idea of Coral having access to her. I'm going to be removing the talons in all of the people I'm allied with over the next few days. I can't really bring Thorn into the city right now, so I'll be bringing them outside. Not here, though. Elsewhere."

"Tell me when and I can transfer--Thorn, is it?"

"That's what I've started calling it. I'll let you know, it depends on when I can get people outside of the city. It might be tonight. If so, I'll likely send Cat to find you." The thought for a moment. "One of those I'll be bringing out is Mantis, the other is hopefully Spider."

"Sounds good. I will wait for you or Cat here."

"Thank you. While Mantis has been out here before, I don't want Spider to know any more than she needs to about what I do when I'm out of the city. If it's just me and Mantis, I might just bring him here."

Jaguar nodded, and his dark eyes were on her. "I will wait with Walker. Keep safe, Jade." The words held a tone somewhere between a blessing and a slightly fearful command.

"I'll do my best. It was good to see you again, Jaguar," she said quietly.

"It's always good to see you, Jade." From his voice, she knew that he meant it.

The urge to reach out to him, to give him even a hug, was very strong. She resisted, Moth's remembered voice hissing in her ear. She glanced away, her face growing hot with a sudden flush. She nodded and walked away, unable to think of something to say to him that would not damn her, would not give her away.

She came to Walker, across the clearing, and was caught by his compassionate gaze. Se shrugged helplessly, then found her voice. "I had a question or two about Mantis, if you have a minute."

"Can't answer a lot, but I know a few things," he said, gesturing at a spot beside him.

She sat and asked, "Any ideas at all about what he is?"

"No, not really. I can tell you more about what he isn't. His power is not divine in nature, it is not magical in nature. It is not a demon either."

"Has he ever mentioned something about there being more than one entity within him?"

"Yes, he has said that. I think that he refers more to the voice in his head. I think his mind is more open to others thoughts and he can hear them. I think he is actually tapped into the place that the gods dwell and he can see and hear what they are saying."

It was an interesting idea, and one that made a frightening amount of sense. "That would make sense, especially how he seems to know at least a little about almost anything. Especially when you can get him focused on something."

"He could say the most eerie things and they would be right on. I also have a great suspicion that he is much older than he looks."

"Immortal, do you think?" Few creatures were; the gods were, of course, and a few types of demons. Everything else aged and died, though some more slowly than others.

"It would explain a lot. I have seen his scars. His chest was nearly split in two at some point and he still lives."

Jade paused and tried to imagine it. Then she wondered, briefly, if she might talk him into letting her see those scars. From the point of view of someone who was a battle priest and a healer, scars were always interesting, especially unusual ones. "It would make sense with how he talks, like he's single-handedly killed more people than he can count at this point. I mean, so have I, but I am a priest. Do you think his daughter's inherited what he is?" she asked.

"I would bet on it. Have you talked to Boa?"

"Only briefly. She hardly knows Mantis. I do know she wanders darkside at all hours of the night, though."

Walker asked, "Did she mention her mother at all?"

Jade shrugged briefly. "Just that her mother always said Mantis was crazy, really. I assume she physically takes after her mother. She's quite striking."

The mage nodded. "She does. Her mother about fifty years ago."

Jade straightened, startled. Boa had been born during the last year-bundle? "She's older than me? Well. She's aged quite well. "

"Boa is my age. She should be close to sixty."

Jade's eyes narrowed in thought. "Which makes me wonder how she managed to be captured and taken to the altar a couple of years ago. You'd think she'd have known they were coming for her and her lover. Unless she was lying through her teeth to me about why she ended up there."

"She may have been," Walker said.

"I know she was there, I remember seeing her fetched right before she was going to be sacrificed. Of course, if she's made of the same stuff as Mantis, I'm not certain that even removing her heart would kill her. That would have been...disconcerting."

"Very, and that may be why she was removed. And the lover story is made up. Aziuhoatl would have had to know."

"He would have." She sighed and made a face. "Everything about this is a bit unsettling. And Mantis believes I'm going to be the one to kill him."

"I don't know how," Walker said, and his voice was hollow.

"Me, neither. And...I find myself not wanting him to die. If that's the only way to end the pain he's in, so be it. But if there's another way, I will find it."

Walker just shook his head. "I hope you have better luck than I did with him."

Jade nodded, then looked up at the sky. "I must go. I'll likely be back tonight, Walker. Thank you for your hospitality, and the answers." She climbed to her feet, waved to Jaguar, then headed into the swamp.

Next time, she promised herself. Next time I see him, I'll...

What? What should she do? Walker had been right. This was not the right time for either of them to be distracted by whatever it was that was going on between them. Moth's voice chuckled in her memory, and she flinched. She realized that she didn't even know if Jaguar was currently entangled with anyone. The way he'd said Fox's name, the times he'd mentioned her--she was certain that there was some attachment there. Perhaps they were together.

It had been three years, and she'd thought he was dead for most of it. She didn't know if he'd thought they would ever meet again. There was so much she didn't know, and there was so much that he didn't know about her, even from the last few days.

She took a long breath and quickened her step. If she survived the next few days, she could deal with it then...