Lion relaxed his grip on the other man’s hair. “But if I believe you...”
“Are you going to let me up?”
After a moment’s reflection the young warrior released his friend. Hummingbird Feather eased himself into a squatting position and eyed Lion warily. “Why don’t you tell me what happened, then?”
He pursed his lips as he listened to the story.
“If it really was a demon, then there’s no telling what’s happened to the girl, is there? She’s probably been eaten. I don’t suppose they’ll even find a body!”
“Hummingbird Feather, please! Can’t you think of anything? I’ve got until nightfall to find her, otherwise I’m a dead man — or I might as well be!”
A grin had spread over the other man’s features as he witnessed Lion’s discomfiture, but it faded as he saw the genuine terror on his face. “Well, if it’s really a demon or a sorcerer that got her, why don’t you get another sorcerer to help you find her? Or maybe a priest?”
Lion shivered, his fear of magic reasserting itself. “Where would I find one of those? Could I trust him? Hummingbird Feather — What is it? What have you thought of?” The last words came out in an eager rush as he caught the sudden lightening of his friend’s expression.
“I’ve just remembered — your brother’s a priest.”
Lion turned pale.
“Oh, no. No, I am not asking Yaotl to do me a favour. I’d rather die!”
“Well?” Lion demanded anxiously. “Can you help?”
Yaotl had punctuated his brother’s tale with a commentary of derisive snorts, short barks of laughter, and mocking grins. Nonetheless he had listened, if only so that he could enjoy Lion’s misfortune to the full.
Telpoch looked at Yaotl. “Don’t you think we ought to help? After all, if there is a demon loose in the city...”
“You don’t go looking for demons, Telpoch — especially during the day. They find you at night, if you’re very unlucky. Our job is to drive them away — that’s why we have to wander in the hills at night with censers and fir branches to burn. Besides, we have duties. Talking of which...”
“No, we don’t,” Telpoch reminded him. “It’s a fast day. We’re not expected to do any work today, and anyway, we can say we were at the market buying paper vestments for the offering priests. Why don’t we go and look at where your brother saw this demon? Aren’t you even curious?”
“No!”
But Yaotl was lying. He looked sideways at his brother and found himself wondering what had really happened. As much as he had always loathed him, he had never seen him show fear before.
The two priests peered at the top of the wall. “I wonder how strong that roof is?” Telpoch said aloud.
“Why, are demons heavy?”
“Who knows? I’ve never tried picking one up!”
Yaotl looked along the path towards where it vanished around the corner. “Hummingbird Feather was up ahead, then?”
“He was out of sight, yes.”
“For how long?”
“It must have been awhile. I couldn’t see the torch when I started running. Not even after I rounded the corner.”
“Well, I don’t suppose Hummingbird Feather had anything to do with this. It sounds like it would have required too much imagination for any warrior I’ve ever met! If he and his girlfriend had been close enough for her to get back here in time to give you your scare, then you’d have seen the torch.”
“Maybe he doused the flame,” Telpoch suggested.
“Doubt it. He’d have had to find his way home afterwards, and I can’t see him waking some householder in the middle of the night and asking if he can rekindle it on his hearth. But we could always ask at the pleasure house if it was alight when they got back there.”
Lion looked nervously at the lengthening shadows. “We haven’t much time left.”
“You haven’t much time left, you mean!” Yaotl laughed unkindly. “Shall I come and fetch you home after they’ve finished with you in the warrior house?”
That was too much for Lion, who suddenly rounded on his brother, seizing him by the throat and shoving him hard against the wall. “Just remember this, you little creep,” he snarled. “After they throw me out, the first thing I’m going to do is come looking for you, and don’t think your black robes and your face paint will protect you!” He tightened his grip and shook the younger man so violently that flakes of soot fell off his skin onto the path.
As Yaotl gasped vainly for air, Telpoch tried to intervene. “Lion, this isn’t helping! Yaotl, please — can’t you try to think of something constructive?”
The only response at first was a choking sound. Eventually, however, Lion left off throttling his brother, who fell to rubbing his throat and groaning. Then he eyed the warrior balefully.
“You’ve got a funny way of persuading people to your point of view,” he mumbled resentfully. “But I did think of something, as it happens.” He pulled himself away from the wall and stepped warily past his brother.
“Where are you going?” Lion demanded.
“Back along your route last night. You’ll have to show me where you went — and tell me exactly what happened at each house you called at.”
The three of them stood by the entrance to the big house where Flower Necklace had snatched the cupful of porridge.
Yaotl peeped into the courtyard, observing the cold ashes where the fire had been, the idols, the sweat bath. There was nobody about.
“Now, tell me again what happened, and don’t leave anything out.”
“I’ve told you twice already!”
“Do you want the girl found or not?”
Lion sighed before going over the story once more. His brother frowned in what the young warrior suspected was mock concentration, but the frown deepened noticeably when he repeated the householder’s words.
“If Father came out with stuff like that about Mother, she’d make him pay for it!” Yaotl said.
“She would.” It was one thing they could both agree on. “But that doesn’t help me, does it?”
Suddenly a grin formed on his brother’s darkly stained features. Lion watched in horror as it grew broader. His fists clenched. “This isn’t funny, Yaotl, and if you still think it is...”
His brother chuckled. “Wrong on both counts, Brother — what our mother would do helps you a lot, and I’ve rarely known anything funnier! Wait here.”
With that, he stepped into the courtyard.
He was gone some time.
To look at Flower Necklace now, Yaotl thought, it was hard to see why she was one of the most popular girls in Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Her face was drawn and her eyes were heavy with fatigue, and under what was left of her makeup, her skin was the colour of ash. Every so often she would suddenly turn and retch into a clay bowl that had been left beside her for the purpose.
The little woman, the householder’s wife, fussed anxiously about her, alternately adjusting her blanket and casting anxious glances at the black-robed priest in her doorway.
“You say she’s your sister?”
“Um, yes, that’s right. They told me she hadn’t come home so I thought I ought to come and look for her.”
“She’ll be all right, you know.”
“I’m sure she will,” he said neutrally. “It’s just something she ate, I expect. We’re very lucky you found her.”
“Will you take her home now? Only my husband’s still out in the fields, and he wasn’t very happy about my taking her in. He didn’t think I should go out there at night at all, but I had to get my cup back!”
“Quite.”
“So, anyway, if she’s not here when he returns, that would be just as well.”