Read Aztlan: The Courts of Heaven for Free Online

street vendor in District Ten.”
    “Zolin?” she said. “On Xipe Totec Street?”
    I found myself smiling. “You know him?”
    “ Know him? I practically support him all by myself. Every time I’m in that part of town.”
    “Same here,” I said. “I’m surprised I haven’t seen you there.”
    “I’m surprised I haven’t seen you .”
    “Maybe you have and you just don’t remember.”
    She shook her head. “No, I’d remember seeing Maxtla Colhua.”
    It was flattering to be spoken of that way. Especially when I hadn’t played a Sun League game in many cycles.
    “Well,” said Ollin, turning her attention back to the menu, “if not the salamanders, I’d go for the duck. The cherry sauce is like nothing you’ve ever tasted.”
    “I’ll take your word for it.”
    “Good move,” she said.
    It turned out that she was right about the duck. I’d never had anything quite like it.
    And I’d never met anyone quite like her. We got to know each other so quickly that we’d advanced to the more personal questions before we ordered dessert.
    “Do you have a mate?” she asked.
    I shook my head. “No.”
    “An intended, then?”
    “Not that either.”
    “No woman at all? That’s surprising.”
    “Is it?”
    “A guy with your looks . . ." She smiled.
    I shrugged. “I work a lot.”
    “There must be some one.” She said it as if she knew it for a fact.
    Normally, I would have steered the conversation in a different direction. I didn’t like to talk with women about other women. I figured that was rude.
    But for whatever reason, I made an exception. “There was ,” I conceded. “Not too long ago, someone I’d known when we were kids. But it turned out we didn’t have a great deal in common.”
    “She wasn’t interested in your Investigations?”
    “Actually,” I said, “she was a suspect in the Renewal murders.”
    Calli—I no longer thought of her as Ollin—leaned forward. “Really.”
    “But it turned out she wasn’t guilty.”
    “Then what was the problem?”
    “You mean why aren’t we still together?”
    “Yes.”
    I thought about the last time I had seen Eren. It was at the intercity rail station. She was on her way back to the capitol. But not to work for the Emperor, as she had before. She was going to lead a protest of his Mirror policies at the Imperial Palace.
    “She was a member of a religious cult,” I said. “We didn’t look at the gods the same way.”
    “You mean those people who marched around the pyramids?”
    “Yes. Those people.”
    My companion looked apologetic. “That came out the wrong way. Everybody’s got a right to think the way they want.”
    “She thought so too.”
    “Well,” Calli said, using her napkin to dab at her mouth, “I’m full. Care to see me home?”
    I nodded. “I would.” An easy choice. It was a sure bet that she lived in Aztlan proper, and I had to go back that way anyway. “But I can’t stay.”
    “You’re in the middle of an Investigation,” she said, the slightest hint of sadness in her voice. “I understand.”
    As Calli had promised, she paid the bill. Normally it was the man’s place to do that, but I didn’t feel bad accepting her kindness. I had a feeling—a good one—that I would get the chance sometime to return the favor.
    “Where do you live?” I asked her as we got up to leave.
    “District Twenty-nine.”
    I had been right to think her family had beans. District Twenty-nine was where rich people lived when they didn’t live in District Fourteen.
    It was sundown when we boarded a southbound rail carriage. The sky in the west was a thinning blue, the clouds painted in startling pinks and golds.
    Once we were seated, Calli put her head on my shoulder and said, “Long day.”
    Of course, mine wasn’t over yet.
    But I could enjoy this small part of it while it lasted. As I turned to Calli and drank in the perfume of her hair, I was glad her place was a good half hour away.
     
    I didn’t get a kiss