"Acatl. Yaotl told me you were alive, thank the Duality." I'd expected a verbal flaying, but she merely sounded relieved.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"They're looking for Teomitl," Mihmatini said.
"Who isn't here." Yaotl had already told me he'd left.
"No," Mihmatini said. She exhaled, slowly and deliberately – an easy expression to read.
"I'm not the first one to ask."
Her gaze was bright, desperate. "No. The She-Snake was here."
Trust the She-Snake to always be near the heart of intrigues, but never quite embroiled in them. Careful and measured, like his father before him: the power in the shadows, never challenged or besmirched. "What else did he say?"
"You already know it."
"No," I said. "I'm not a calendar priest, and I've always been abysmal at divination. Tell me."
"He said… to be careful. That Teomitl was playing a dangerous game, and that we could lose everything." Her hand wandered to her cheek, scratched it. "And I said I didn't know what game, and he left." Her eyes wouldn't meet mine.
"But you know." And hadn't told me – I suspected perhaps not even admitted it to herself. Then again, had I been any better? I'd received enough warnings – both in signs and speeches – and hadn't heeded any of them.
"There have been…" Mihmatini shook her head, angrily. "The Duality curse me, I'm not about to behave like some gutless and bloodless fool. There have been signs, Acatl. Visitors at Neutemoc's house – Jaguar warriors and veterans, and too many noblemen to be relatives concerned with our old welfare. And an old woman, several times."
"An old woman?"
"Yes. Why are you interested in that? I would have thought the warriors were more significant."
"Significant, but not unexpected." My hands had clenched into fists; I forced them to open again – relaxed, carefree. "The old woman – you might know that when he almost died of the sickness, it was Toci's magic which saved his life."
Toci. Grandmother Earth. The aged, ageless woman; the bountiful and damaged earth that we broke anew with every stroke of our digging sticks. Most of Her devotees were women past their prime – the younger ones tended to call on the more youthful Xochiquetzal, like the courtesan Xiloxoch; the men chose other deities altogether.
"But I don't see what this has to do with anything," Mihmatini said, slowly and carefully, as if she stood on the edge of a great chasm, listening to the whistle of the wind in her ears.
"I don't know," I said. Gods help me, I didn't know. I just didn't like any of it. First, Jade Skirt's magic; now Teomitl's odd behaviour.
"Well, you might be content with that, but I intend to find out what's going on." Her hands shook, and for a moment there was a glimmer of tears in her eyes. "He always gets into scrapes bigger than he is. I – I need him back, Acatl."
"We'll find him," I said. "He's still my responsibility, remember?"
"You don't act like he is."
"He's my student, not my child," I said – and immediately regretted it: by becoming his wife and tying her garment to his, Mihmatini had taken on the responsibilities of both sexual partner and mother to him – nourishing him just as his mother had once done.
My sister grimaced, but said nothing, even though it cost her. I mentally vowed to have pointed words with Teomitl – plotting the gods knew what against his brother was one thing, but giving his wife sleepless nights quite another.
But I did need to check one thing, before it cost me my own night's sleep. "I need to ask," I said, spreading my hands in a gesture of apology. "Has he been talking about his brother to you – about our choice of Revered Speaker?"
"Not in complimentary terms, no…" Her voice trailed off, and she looked at me. "Acatl."
Much as I wished to, I couldn't lie to her. "You know what he wanted, more than anything else; you heard him as well as me. He wants things now, not five or ten years into the future."
"But…"
I couldn't think of any comforting lies. "We need to find him."
"Be my guest," Mihmatini said with a touch of anger. "He's hidden himself well."
Leaving all of us exposed – and the Duality House to become the rallying point for the discontent. Oh, gods – when I caught the fool I was going to pinch his ribs, hard. "I hadn't come here for Teomitl, originally."
"He does have a way of taking over conversations even when absent," Mihmatini said, her voice expressionless and flat – like glass, a moment before it shattered. "What did you want?"
"Two things. The plague–"
Mihmatini snorted. "Quenami is in charge, and making a mess out of it. Then again, he doesn't listen to half the things I'm saying."
So – panicked, but still not smart enough to see my sister as talented. "He's a fool."
"I don't care." Mihmatini's voice was grim. "Whatever he is, he's failed at containing this. That's his biggest fault to me."
"It's bad, isn't it?" I asked, cautiously – though I already knew the answer.
"As bad as it can get. Yaotl probably told you it's starting to spread within Tenochtitlan."
The last thing we needed. "Yes." I said, carefully, "Some of my priests might come by, later. We have an idea for a cure."
Mihmatini's gaze snapped up sharply.
"I don't want to give you false hope," I said. "It's quite possible it won't work at all."
"It's still going to be better than whatever Quenami's come up with," Mihmatini snorted. "And what was the second thing you came for?"
It took me a moment to remember what she was talking about. "Oh. Xiloxoch."
"The courtesan?" Mihmatini gave it some thought.
"Teomitl said he was going to arrest her, remember?"
"I do." Mihmatini puffed her cheeks, thinking. "I haven't heard any news – wait." She rose, and pulled the entrance-curtain to her chambers open. "Yaotl!"
"Mistress?" Yaotl came in wearing his palace vestment – an elegant, richly embroidered cloak – and streaks of blue and black across his cheeks.
"Acatl wants to know what we have on Xiloxoch."
Yaotl looked startled. "Nothing that I know of." He thought, for a while. "She did make an accusation against Eptli."
"When?" I asked. I hadn't thought she'd had time to see the judges before Tizoc-tzin worked himself into a rage over the clergy of Tlaloc.
"Before the clergy of Tlaloc was hauled in. For all the good it did her… It was dismissed summarily, like all the cases that didn't concern Acamapichtli's clergy."
Mihmatini shook her head. "She's a wily one. Nezahual-tzin probably neglected to tell you she's been serving her goddess well."
Not surprising, though it was heartening to have a confirmation my suspicions were headed somewhere. "I presume she's been keeping an eye the interests of Xochiquetzal while the Quetzal Flower is in exile from Tenochtitlan."
"That's what my priests have confirmed, yes," Mihmatini said. The Duality House was also the centre of a network of spies and magicians, whose only goal was to safeguard the balance. Her predecessor, Ceyaxochitl, had used this to terrific effect. Clearly, Mihmatini was learning fast.