“It has nothing to do with demands, Irfan.” With a sigh, Faraj admitted, “I’m fine until she bears her next kitten. She has, I presume, a limited number of them.”
Shai Vishal passed a hand over his mouth and beard to hide any hint of his expression. Irfan crumpled onto one of the floor-pillows and buried his face in both hands.
“I admit that’s a scenario I hadn’t thought to test,” Najra mused, rubbing her chin with the tip of her silverpoint. “But then we couldn’t really mimic the situation, could we. And the experiment is currently performing itself, so I should catch up with the observational notes! When exactly did you realize?—”
“Notrightnow,Najra, please?” Faraj begged.
“But there’s no better time to record the most accurate observations of?—”
Kamil hissed, even around his mouthful of Faraj’s collar.
“All right,” Najra said, holding both hands up. “Because you asked so nicely. But you don’t need to worry, either of you. I’m already sure I’m going to win.”
“Even aside from the unutterable arrogance of a heretic witch daring to lecture two sworn priests on matters of theology,” Irfan told her through a tense jaw, “the last I inquired, you were not the prophet among us.”
“Of course not,” Najra said, cleaning up one of the lines on her diagrams. “But I have absolute faith in the one of us whoisa prophet. And if his Adorableness had foreseen the need to stop me, he would have done so at least by yesterday.”
Faraj swallowed hard. “Najra,” he said unsteadily, “I’ve been trying not to look into today, or beyond. I… I didn’t want to foresee… what might be said, what might be done, what harms we might do to each other along the way… what Sahar might…um.”
“Ah. Well, still don’t worry,” she said, with a smile that showed nearly as many sharp teeth as a river crocodile. “We should let the Chamberlain make his case first, so that I don’t need to blasttoomany holes in the foundations of the Empire’s theology in the rebuttal. It’s easier to aim when I know where to target.”
“Ya rahmat,”Irfan sighed, pressing both palms together over his heart. “If the word of the scripture holds no defense for his Highness’ surrender to infidel heresies, then you will strike against the very heart of the faith itself?”
“Exactly!” Najra said brightly. “See, I always knew you were clever. If the scriptures’ prohibitions are absurd, I might as well poke holes in the cult to deflate all the windbags, and then the scriptures’ prohibitions don’t matter anymore. It’s not like we have a shortage of other gods to choose from around here, for those who feel compelled to hand over their moral compass.”
“Howdareyou?” Irfan breathed.
“He-re-tic,” Najra enunciated, pointing a fingertip toward her nose. “It means ‘doesn’t give a damn about the scriptural proclamations of a God-Emperor whom I can document was most likely a magically-assisted fraud from the start.’”
“Najra,please,” Faraj said, utterly miserable. “There are lines I will not cross. Not even for my own life. The Empire isstableunder my brother’s reign, and we have not seen the armies of the five realms march against each other for hundreds of years.”
“Oh, for mercy’s sake,” Shai Vishal said, rubbing at the headache-point at the bridge of his nose. “All of you back off for a moment. Save the threats of the destabilization of the faith, the throne, and the five realms for thelastresort, not the first. We are talking about one cat-familiar.”
“We are talking about one cat-familiar and her kittens,” Najra said. “And we are talking about a cat, her kittens, andpurely political threats to them all, inside theTemple of Bastet. I’m still fairly sure I’m going to win this one, your Reverence.”
“I thought you had just proclaimed yourself a heretic,” Shai Vishal observed.
“If you ask the God-Emperor’s priesthood, certainly,” Najra said. “But there are thousands of gods out there, and even I haven’t managed to offendallof them yet. Besides, IlikeBastet. Curiosity, pleasure, prowling around sticking your nose in, and all those kittens? What’s not to like?”
“Ya rahmat,”Irfan said again. “Your Reverence, we have heard from her own lips that she eagerly desires to strike against the God-Emperor’s faith, on behalf of rival gods. Whatever testimony she may provide is stained by that heresy, while you and I seek only to shelter his Highness’ gentle heart from invasive corruption, to support him in the faith to which he has sworn his soul. Pray dismiss the avowed heretic from this hearing.”
“Are yousureyou want to do that?” Najra asked, twirling her silverpoint between her fingers with the crocodile’s sharp smile. “Because while I’m in this room, you still have a chance to persuade me it’snotworth commissioning a thousand broadsides from eighty vassal cities’ scriptoria, documenting the questionable origins of Rashid’s claims to godhood. While you’re in here dickering over theology, if you have me dismissed, then I’m out thereunsupervised. And I correspond withso many scribesin five realms’ worth of archiving.”
“No one of sense would describe this asbacking off,” Shai Vishal said wearily. “Your Highness, you have often seen the world through different eyes than the rest of us, and this hearing could certainly use another perspective. What have you to say?”
“I am most humbly sorry for the difficulties I bring you, your Reverence,” Faraj said, “but I would like to speak on behalf of many more cats and catfolk than my own dear ones.”
“What?” the Chamberlain said.
“We’re going to need a much larger pot of chai for this, aren’t we,” Shai Vishal said, resigned. “Give me a few minutes. Nobody claw each other’s faces off or destroy an entire religion in my absence.”
As he stalked out, he did notentirelyslam the door closed behind himself, but Faraj suspected that had much to do with avoiding the attention of hundreds of curious cats and two nosy Priests of the Assessors.
“Your Highness,” the Chamberlain said, shifting from Shai Vishal’s stubbornly common speech to the highest register of the court language. “Most noble, most serene, and most visionary among the pillars of our faith. Can you not hear how your mind has been twisted out of true from the compass of the Sun’s Glory? Kamil, most devoted of protectors — can you not hear it? Or were you bewitched as well?”
“You say bewitched, I say enlightened,” Najra said, choosing one of the dialects of the scholars who found their passions in the word-tangles among logic and philosophy. “Have you ever read a single book that opened your mind beyond the proscribed boundaries of your holy walled gardens, al-Sadiq?”
“I have never wished to read those prohibited books to curse or compel an innocent soul. His Highness is the God-Emperor’s prophet, and in love and faith, I have sworn my life to the support of his Highness’s every need,” the Chamberlain said. “And, your Highness, I am so terribly sorry that I have failed you.”
