I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Chapter Thirteen

Jem had a gold-bottomed pot bubbling merrily on the fire when I returned. The room had filled with a lovely smell, enough to drive even the memory of green onion from my senses. Grifo leaned as far as he could without setting a paw through the doorway. Emma tossed him a carrot. His head whipped up as someone entered the room behind him. My hand clenched the chopping knife, but my dog's fluffy, curly tail started wagging fit to fall off instead. He woofed a greeting.

"Hello to you, too." Xolotl was awake. He crouched beside the dog, who spun around to get his ears scratched. The god glanced at the rest of the room and smiled. "I smelled pozole."

"Is it okay that we're in here?" said Jem with a guilty look. "We didn't have supper."

Xolotl waved off the worry and got his hand licked. One of his Xolos had trotted up beside him. "Make yourselves at home. Can I help with anything?"

Jem contemplated the soup pot. "Do you have any meat?"

Xolotl stood with a flick of his wrists that made the Grifo hairs on them disappear. He snapped his fingers in my direction. A large, pink chunk appeared on my cutting board. It was genuine pork. Jem looked delighted. I cautiously allowed the tension in my hands to ease a little. Xolotl seemed genuinely friendly, and Grifo had an excellent danger gauge. Unless he was being manipulated... I eyed the god's Xolo cap. Could a god manipulate a living creature like that? Somehow, I doubted it.

"Tea?" said Xolotl, now at the counter, sifting through a stack of pots.

"Poleo?" said Emma, and got a smile. Xolotl downsized the firewood pile in the other pit with a flick, then lit it with another. The small pot he'd found had filled with water while he held it. He hung it over the flames and went back to digging through the edges of the counter. This time he surfaced with a jar of dried leaves, which he set aside.

"Why didn't you just make those?" said Jem curiously.

"They taste better grown."

Emma held out a rabbit drumstick for Grifo and the Xolo to sniff. Xolotl flicked surreptitiously in its direction. Its appearance didn't change, but the dogs perked up and licked it delicately. Emma made a sound of delight. Another Xolo trotted up. This one was in a playful mood, so Emma grabbed its ears and shook them. They growled happily at each other. Grifo had forgotten the no-dogs-in-the-cooking-area rule and was sniffing Xolotl's pant leg.

"Afuera," I said. "That's Grifo."

Xolotl chuckled. "He told me."

"He—what?"

"Ask them," said Emma. "These ones do, too."

I looked down at my meat-juice-covered hands and willed them clean. Nothing happened. Xolotl snapped his fingers. A bowl of water appeared beside me, with a bar of soap purloined from the bathroom's washbasin.

"Thanks."

I scrubbed my hands and joined Emma amidst her growing pack of dogs. The playful one woofed and hopped around me. I put a hand on her head. Tochtli popped into my mind as clearly as Chimalli once had. This time, though, images followed it: chasing rabbits through tall grass; running down a long cave guided by golden torchlight; then standing on the bank of a slow, impossibly broad river under a black sky. There was a tap behind me, and the vision cut short. Tochtli bounded back to Xolotl, who had called her over. He was still smiling, but he didn't look at me.

There didn't seem to be an issue with me petting the other dog, though. He was smaller than Tochtli and rather more composed. Huitecoya. In his mind was another vision. We stood together under a night sky full of pinpricks like shining grains of sand. A rain of shooting stars drew a curtain down on the horizon. The sight sent a shiver through me that set the hair on my arms on end. Huitecoya watched me with somber eyes as I let go of his scruff.