Free Young Jaguar, The by Zoe Saadia

Would you rather go along with the
common warriors plan?”
    “Well, I wasn’t offered Coatepec yet, you know? You
were the one who was asked for by name.”
    “That’s the thing. I thought about it when I heard
my father this morning. I have to find a way to talk to her again, to let her
know we are coming together or not at all.”
    “And how do we do that?”
    “We try to talk to her.”
    Mecatl’s laughter rolled between the plastered
walls. “Just send her word, eh? Hello princess, would you care to meet us
somewhere around the marketplace, so we won’t have to walk too far? It’s been a
long day .”
    “She may be back at her temple by now.”
    “Not likely. She’ll be preparing for the journey.
The royal folk don’t travel as lightly as a simple troublemaker like yourself.”
    He hadn’t thought of that possibility. So, she
will be leaving for Coatepec too. Aware of a twinge of excitement, he
frowned, saying hurriedly, “Then we’ll have to try to find her in the Palace.”
    “Just walk in there and ask for an audience with the
First Daughter of the First Son of the deceased Emperor. Why didn’t we think of
that right away?”
    But he was already full of ideas, picturing her by
the same secluded pond, throwing flower petals in the water, waiting idly.
    “We can get into the Palace; it’s very secluded
around the gardens and ponds. No one will notice. Then, if she is not there,
I’ll find that slave of hers… the one she sent to call for me yesterday. It can
be done.”
    Mecatl’s face lost any trace of its usual
cheerfulness. “Atolli, tell me you are not serious! To break into the Palace’s
grounds after the temple incident? You will make matters so much worse by doing
that. They may actually execute you. No one climbs the Palace’s walls, no one!”
    “We did it once, remember?”
    “But we were children! Now we are grownups with all
this trouble on our hands for doing just that – climbing walls we should not be
climbing. Get it out of your head!”
    But he wouldn’t listen. And now, sneaking behind the
trees of the artificial grove at the deepening dusk, he began thinking that his
friend might have been right. What would he tell them if questioned? How had he
gotten here and for what purpose?
    The muffled voices reached him, causing him to stop
dead in his tracks. A man was talking, calmly, reassuringly.
    Afraid to breathe, Atolli froze behind the thick
trunk of a kapoc tree.
    “There is no need to hurry,” said a deep, slightly
familiar voice.
    A grunt was the man’s answer. Atolli peeked
carefully.
    By the same pond he had remembered the slender form
of a girl, sat yet another cloaked figure, rigid and stiff, his back to the
talker, facing the water but not tossing any flowers into it. The second man
stood behind, relatively at ease, but with a certain amount of deference.
    “It all will be ready in good time,” repeated the
standing man. “There is no need to hurry such events.”
    The cloaked man grunted. “It’s good for you not to
hurry, staying in Azcapotzalco.” The hooded head turned sharply. “How can I be
sure of anyone, even you?”
    “You can be sure of me and my people, Oh Revered
One. Azcapotzalco will see you back in a very short time.”
    “How short?”
    “Two moons at the most.”
    “It is a long time to be away.”
    “Not with your faithful people working diligently to
have you back.”
    The cloaked man turned away once again. “How many
will be siding with us?”
    “Many.”
    “Then why not now?”
    “Such a move has to be prepared. The sudden death of
your Revered Father caught us unprepared.”
    “You are sloppy.” Irritably, the cloaked man picked
up a pebble and tossed it into the water. “How could my father leave me with
such a forsaken province? Me, the First Son!”
    “He was very ill in the end. He would never do this
otherwise.”
    In the middle of the pond another pebble landed with
a splash.
    “How many of the advisers will side