Naamah's Blessing

another team to begin hacking a common grave out of the soil, using the hand-axes and adzes we’d brought for the purpose of building vessels.
    While they worked, Bao and I went to question Pochotl. We borrowed Denis and Balthasar—the former because I wanted someone else skilled in the Nahuatl tongue to hear what was said, and the latter for his keen interrogation skills.
    As it transpired, Pochotl was more than willing to talk. After months of sullen reticence, he was downright forthcoming. When I asked him why he’d done it, he stared at me as though I’d gone mad.
    “To make an end to this!” He waved one hand, indicating the campsite. “I do not fear to risk my life for
my
people, but why should I do so for
yours
?”
    “Because the Emperor ordered it,” Temilotzin growled. “Do youthink he would thank you for giving steel weapons and horses to our enemy?”
    Pochotl shrugged. “It is only one small city. None of the Cloud People know how to use these weapons. They do not even have
macahuitls
. We could have come back with an army and defeated them, taken their weapons and horses. The men of Aragonia are too far away to stop us. The Emperor could not be angry at us, because
we
did not harm the foreigners under his protection.”
    Temilotzin scratched his chin, dislodging flakes of dried blood. “That’s a pretty good plan.”
    I scowled at him.
    The Jaguar Knight grinned at me. “Peace, my little warrior. I did not say I agreed with it.” He thumped the spotted hide over his chest, loosing a further dusting of dried blood. “I keep my word. Shall I kill him now?”
    “Yes!” Eyahue said in a fierce voice.
    “No!” I said in alarm. “No, we need to know for sure if he acted alone, or if Eyahue knew.” I glanced apologetically at the old man, who shrugged, taking no offense. “We need to know if the Cloud People are gathering for another attack, and if we’ll find them enemies from now onward.”
    “Oh, those are good questions.” Temilotzin turned to Pochotl with a cheerful smile. “Answer them, or before I kill you, I will peel the skin from your flesh and dance before you wearing it like a priest of Xipe Totec.”
    “Xipe Totec?” I asked.
    “You don’t want to know,” Denis murmured.
    Balthasar, doing his best to follow the conversation, shuddered. Even Bao looked a bit nonplussed.
    For a mercy, Pochotl continued to answer freely. No, Eyahue had known nothing of his plan, which he’d conjured on the spot once they’d parted ways in the city. The Cloud People were of two minds whether or not to trust him, and decided to send a small raiding party of fifty or sixty warriors to see if it was indeed possible to kill us all in our sleep.
    “Not you, Uncle,” he added. “I made them promise to spare us.”
    Eyahue glared at him. “Idiot sister-son! You trusted them to keep their word?”
    Temilotzin rubbed his chin again. “That is a flaw in your plan.”
    “They had no reason not to!” Pochotl defended himself. He gestured at the campsite. “In their eyes, I would have given them a great gift!”
    “No,” Eyahue said as slowly as though he were speaking to a dim-witted child. “In their eyes, you would have proved yourself an oath-breaker unworthy of trust. It is likely they would have killed us rather than take any chances.
That
is why a
pochteca’s
word of honor is so important. Trade is built on trust. I am sorry you never understood this.” He glanced at me. “The Cloud People attacked us. They will not hold us to blame for their defeat, and I do not believe they will try again.” He nodded at Temilotzin. “You may kill him now.”
    Obligingly, the spotted warrior raised his club.
    “Wait!” I pleaded once more. Temilotzin sighed and lowered his club. I turned to Pochotl. “You said you found someone among the Cloud People who had seen Prince Thierry’s party on the road. Was that true?”
    Pochotl gave me a flat stare. “No,” he said. “I lied.”
    “
Now
may I kill him?” Temilotzin asked in a tone of long-suffering patience.
    I thought of Edouard Durel held under guard in Orgullo del Sol. He had betrayed us as surely as Pochotl had, but gods willing, he would be returned to Terre d’Ange to bear witness against Claudine de Barthelme and her son. He would be tried fairly in a court of law, and mayhap even granted some form of clemency for cooperating.
    Executing a man in cold blood was not a deed that sat well with me.
    But Pochotl
had
betrayed us;