"Look," I said, gently. "Look at him, Nenetl."

Something in my voice could still reach her, wherever the woman Nenetl had retreated. She turned, staring at the hollow-eyed boy by my side, his arms reaching out towards her, beseeching. But there was no love on the face. There was nothing.

"Where you take him," I said, "he won't grow. He'll dwindle away until he's skin stretched over bones, and then bones, and then nothing. He won't play with his toys. He won't run in the courtyard."

"No," she whispered. "I am his mother. I know what is best for him. I won't be forgotten."

"He'll never be a warrior, never be a priest, never make you proud. He'll never kiss you or tell you how much he loves you. There's no love in the underworld."

"No," she said, weeping. "No. Please..."

"He won't grow up," I whispered. "Do you love him so little, that you'd inflict this on him?"

Nenetl did not answer. "They haven't paid," she said at last. "They paid nothing. They have their darling child and all's well. They have no remorse."

"Then it's not about love," I said. "It's about revenge, and hatred. Is that all you are?"

She turned her face towards me, her death's head with the skull beneath the translucent skin. "No," she said. "I'm not that. I'm not that. Am I?" And it was the plea of a lost, bewildered girl.

I did not answer. I laid my hand on her shoulder, ignoring the wave of nausea that spread through me as my fingers gripped her flesh. "I'm sorry," I said. "But this isn't the answer."

Nenetl gazed back at her son, and then at Xoco, who stood watching her, her face expressionless.

"If you want her to go," I said to Xoco, "you must make a promise. Tell the child who his mother was."

"And that I killed her?" Not a muscle of her face moved. They were well suited, she and Yaotl.

"No," I said. "But let Chimalli honour his true mother."

Xoco's face moved towards her child, and back to the Haunting Mother. "Yes," she said, tightly. "I'll tell him the truth when he is older."

Nenelt did not speak. She moved at last, passing through my decayed wards like a knife through human skin, and knelt beside Chimalli. She took both his hands in hers, gazing into his hollow eyes. Gently, she led her back to his reed mat, and helped him lay down on it. "I'm sorry," she said.

She was fading now, growing fainter and fainter, taking with her the darkness and the cold.

Soon there was nothing left but Chimalli on his mat, curling back to go to sleep. The aura of the underworld had not left: it still clung to his hands and feet. It would cling to him all his life. I wondered how he would fare, and decided I could not do anything about that.

About Xoco, though...

She watched me, with that same unbending attitude she had shown earlier. "And now what?" she said. "Do you think to arrest me? There's no proof. Nenetl was burnt four years ago."

"I'm no magistrate," I said.

"But still you judge. She was a slut, whose only dream was to become mistress of the house. As if a mere slave could rise high enough for that. I'm the only one in Yaolt's heart." There was hunger, too, in her eyes, but a different kind from Nenetl.

"But you used her," I said. "You'll pay the price."

"After death?" she said. "I don't care."

"No," I said. "You're paying it now. Do you love Yaotl, knowing what he did to conceive Chimalli?"

"I talked him into this. We have a child, and he's alive," she said. "Yaotl loves me."

"Do you truly think that he does, knowing what you did?" And, seeing her recoil, I knew I had been right. There was darkness between her and Yaotl now. He feared her for what she had imagined, for what she had accomplished. Only Chimalli kept them together.

"We're happy," she said, and her eyes told me she knew it was a lie.

I smiled. "Then enjoy your happiness," I said, and exited the room.

It was dark when I came out of the house and started back towards my temple: clouds had covered the stars and the moon had set. But that darkness held no fears for me, for it would be dispelled in the morning.

I walked away by myself, and left Yaotl's house behind, and the darkness that coiled at its heart, hopefully never to return.

LIST OF CHARACTERS.