Harbinger of the Storm - By Aliette De Bodard Page 0,35
they could not kill her – not when young Nezahual-tzin was so desperately in need for something he could turn into a show of strength. “I see. And he accepted your offer.” I still could not quite believe it, she lied as easily as she breathed, told me exactly what she wanted me to hear. Her father had indeed trained her well.
She inclined her head, gracefully. “Of course he did. He made me a promise.”
”One he wouldn’t go back on?”
She smiled. “You underestimate me, Acatl-tzin. I am no fool. The moment he revealed his allegiance, others would court him. So I made him promise not to say anything until it was time.”
”And he accepted?” Of course, if he had given in to her seduction, she would have had her blackmail tool. The Revered Speaker might have many wives, but they were not for ordinary mortals.
”Of course.”
”You trusted him?”
”Not any further than I had to,” Xahuia said, with that same smile, revealing the darkened red of her teeth. “But I made him swear a solemn vow before a priest of Quetzalcoatl.”
A canny move, for oaths sworn before Quetzalcoatl were sacred – the Feathered Serpent Himself, scourge of falsehood and deception, being called to witness them. Such a priest wouldn’t have been easy to find at this hour in the palace. But, then again, she was a princess of one city and an empress of another. Who would not come, if called?
”I suppose you won’t want to tell me the name of that priest?”
”Why should I not? Every word is true; besides, the fool is dead.” And, for a moment, her mask of beauty and power slipped, revealing a face as cold and as merciless as that of an executioner.
In that moment, she frightened me as no one else had. I saw that just as she had told me, she would not hesitate to do what was necessary for her own good. That she would not hesitate to remove a Guardian, perhaps, who was too curious, or even a High Priest.
My hands shook, and even the sunlight seemed cold on my brow. “I see,” I said, but I still had my duty. “Do you know a man named Pezotic?”
She looked genuinely puzzled. “It’s not a familiar name. Who is he?”
”A member of the council,” I said. I’d been a fool. I should have asked Quenami, but I had been too busy fencing with him to think of that particular question.
”Oh. There are far too many of those.” She laughed, careless once more. “I can’t say I remember him at all.”
”I see,” I said. I would have pushed, but her puzzlement and surprise had been so obvious I didn’t think she knew him. “I’ll take the name of that priest of Quetzalcoatl, if you please. The one Ocome swore an oath before.”
”Of course.” She gave me a name, telling me he officiated at the Wind Tower, the same place I had gone to pray for Ceyaxochitl’s sake. “Will that be all?”
The food sat between us. I had not touched it, and all she had taken were the tomatoes and a newt. Her teeth, when she smiled at me, were the red of spilt blood; and her eyes shone with the light of the moon, of the stars which belonged to She of the Silver Bells, now and forever. A light which grew stronger and stronger, starting from the pupils and slowly consuming the irises and the whites, a great sea of light in which I drowned.
”That will be all,” I said, forcing the words between my teeth. I could hear footsteps in the distance; the slaves, coming to escort me out. All I had to do was to get up; to put myself outside of her influence…
”Ah, my dear,” Xahuia said, from far away. She turned away from me; and, in that moment, broke the eye contact between us, and whatever spell she had been weaving. “What a pleasure to see you.”
Shaking, I pulled myself to my feet, and met the curious gaze of a youth. He looked to be even younger than Teomitl, with a round, open face reminiscent of a rabbit, with the soft folds of flesh of one who had never had to work a day of his life.
But it was his companion who caught my gaze, and held it. He was much taller, as rake-thin as a pole, his face crossed by a single black stripe. His right foot trailed slightly behind him, to a rhythm as erratic as