“You’re late, boy.”
“But the sun hasn’t even cleared the roof. And I have had such marvelous company!”
Master Asharan took Rahat’s tray from him and set it at the other end of the bench, then settled both of them between the trays and began to pour cups of chai that he set out for the children. Rahat followed his lead with the second pot and its cups, and suddenly found a little brown girl with a long black braid peering at him closely.
“Chameli-sahib, who’s your friend?”
“This is my sweet Rahat,” Master Asharan said, smiling.
“Is he magic too?”
Rahat opened his mouth to deny it, but Master Asharan told the girl blithely, “Yes he is! You know the statues in the temples that you offer your secret prayers to, and the temple folk give you a charm or a treat?”
“Like petting Bastet’s nose for mischief, and petting the fat god’s tummy for happiness?”
“Very like that. My Rahat’s special magic is that if you whisper a secret in his ear, he has rose-sweets to share?—”
The little girl wasn’t listening to Master Asharan’s description of a traded secret, though. She reached out and rubbed Rahat’s belly happily, just like the temple statue of the fat god Upaja.
“May I have a sweet, Rahat-sahib?”
“Oh, I, um — yes? Here—” He fumbled with the tie of the rose-embroidered pouch and pulled out a sugar-dusted sweet to give her, and her eyes lit up.
“I want a sweet too!” a tabby-striped catfolk kitten yowled.
“Me too!”
The next thing he knew, Rahat was surrounded by children and kittens climbing all over each other and patting his belly.
Both fiercely embarrassed and oddly touched, Rahat handed out sweets and smiles and sometimes ear-rumples with abandon, while Kamil made grumbling noises and Master Asharan poured them all cups of chai as quickly as he could.
Somehow, the little pouch of sweets never quite emptied. Not even when word spread along the alleys and more children and kittens, and even a few wary teenagers, came to see whether patting the fat man like a temple statue meant there was still another sweet to be found in that little rose-stitched pouch.
When the last lingering younglings had been rounded up and herded toward Elder Sister’s pots of food and associated lessons, Master Asharan sighed, brushing the back of his fingers over Rahat’s cheek, where he could still feel the heat of his blushes.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I’d hoped for that suggestion to involve more secret-whispers and fewer uninvited touches.”
“I don’t mind,” Rahat said, hoping his blushes didn’t put too much of the lie to his words. “They’re adorable, both the children and the kittens.”
“Kamil will want my head on a platter if ‘dash up and pat my master for treats’ spreads too far, though.”
“You,” Kamil growled at the bottom of his range, “areabsolutely correctabout that,ya rafiq.”
“Truly, I don’t mind,” Rahat insisted to them both. “Thank you for allowing the little ones their curiosity, Kamil.” Looking down at himself, he sighed, “A figure like mine would be a notable peculiarity around here, wouldn’t it.”
“Oh, we’ve several round aunties and uncles in the neighborhood,” Master Asharan told him. “But very few ofthem are willing to be patted down in search of magical sweets. They’ve known the little scamps all their lives, after all.”
“Magical sweets? Is the pouch enchanted?”
“Just a bit,” Master Asharan admitted. “I’ll need to keep that jar of rose petals topped up, but you shouldn’t run out of sweets as long as there’s a petal left in the jar. Petals store much more tidily, and roses do have quite an affinity for taking on magic. It barely takes a nudge to suggest that their most alluring form is a sugared bit of delight.”
“How absolutely marvelous,ya majid.” Rahat sighed. “I could never hope to approach your skill.”
“Of course you can! You learned to welcome Sahar into your heart on your very first try.”
“Really? But… that was your excellence in teaching…”
“And your willingness to open your heart in trust, and your kindness of spirit. And,” Master Asharan added, “I am entirely certain you have talents far beyond mine as well. If nothing else, a trader must know how to make the books balance properly!”
