Free Harbinger of the Storm by Aliette de Bodard Page B

Quenami?”
    He smiled even more widely. His teeth were the same deep blue as his costume, meticulously dyed. “Long enough.”
    ”Playing spy like a merchant looking for a bargain?” Teomitl asked.
    I lifted a hand again before the insult went too far. Quenami looked entirely too satisfied, which meant nothing good for either of us.
    ”Confirming an opinion. But, as they say, the game was played long before I got here.” He looked at both of us in turn, his eyes narrowing in what might have been disapproval, or disappointment.
    I hadn’t thought anyone could get on my nerves more than Acamapichtli, but Quenami was running a close second. “What do you want, Quenami? There’s no need to dance around each other like warriors on the gladiator stone.”
    He pretended to look thoughtful, even though he had to know he couldn’t keep us waiting forever. “No, there might not be. A message was entrusted to me, and I pass it on to you both. Tizoc-tzin will see both of you.”
    ”It’s evening now,” Teomitl pointed out. “Surely my brother can wait–”
    Quenami shook his head. “Now, Teomitl-tzin.”
    Given the unhealthy joy that danced in Quenami’s eyes, I was certain that Tizoc-tzin would not congratulate us. In fact, I might be happy to get out of there with my rank intact. With Axayacatl-tzin’s demise, both he, as Master of the House of Darts, and the She-Snake received the right to name High Priests. While the She-Snake would keep me around for the sake of appearances, Tizoc-tzin, who hated anything to do with the clergy, would leap at the first chance to dismiss me.
     
 
 

FIVE
    Imperial Blood
     
 
    Tizoc-tzin’s quarters were in a courtyard on the same layout as the Imperial Chambers: a wide terrace over two state rooms where his followers sat, gorging themselves on amaranth seeds, and cooked fowls. It was… not exactly indecent, I guessed, not exactly forbidden, but still unseemly, with the palace in mourning.
    Upstairs massed mostly warriors – Eagle Knights in their cloaks of feathers, and Jaguar Knights in full regalia, with their helmets in the shape of a jaguar’s head. They watched Quenami and I pass by with predators’ smiles. The division between priests and warriors ran deep. They saw us as uptight fools, we saw them as arrogant men obsessed with appearances. Even Teomitl, who paid less attention to this than other warriors, proudly bore the orange scorpion cloak and the shaved head that denoted him as a Leading Youth.
    The entrance-curtain was wide open, even though the evening was colder than usual. Inside, bare-chested warriors lounged on mats, picking frogs, fish and other delicacies from bowls set in front of them.
    Quenami wove his way through the crowd with supreme ease, stopping here and there to greet a particular table, ignoring their gazes of frank contempt. Teomitl’s face was frozen in ill-concealed anger, and he walked with the haughty pride of a sacrifice victim.
    At the back of the room, five windows opened on another courtyard, a garden from which came the chatter of birds. The wind, blowing through the apertures, brought in the smell of the distant jungle, strong enough to overwhelm the aroma of copal incense.
    Tizoc-tzin was seated on a mat behind a wooden screen so polished it shone with yellow reflections. Beside me I felt Teomitl stiffen. “Does he wear turquoise too?” he whispered angrily.
    As it turned out, Tizoc-tzin – a middle-aged man with sallow skin – did not wear turquoise, but a deep blue that was uncomfortably close to the imperial colour. I couldn’t help but notice that several of the warriors we’d passed had also removed their sandals out of reverence.
    ”Ah, our High Priest for the Dead. What a pleasure,” he said. He dismissed Quenami with a wave of his long fingers, and then turned his attention back to me.
    He had never made me comfortable, but in a very different way than the She-Snake. I could trust the She-Snake to act in his own