“I am yours,” Kamil said. “Where you go, I follow. But I have to sleep sometime.”
“And you would not rest well in an unfamiliar, less secured place. I’m sorry.”
Priye set down the rubber fish she’d been gnawing on. She wriggled her way into Faraj’s lap and nuzzled her cheek against the crook of his shoulder. Gently, Faraj stroked her soft fur.
Esha brushed the canvas flap aside and stepped in carefully, nudging the scattered cat toys aside with her feet before she set down a tray of five simple unglazed kulhad brimming with chai.
“With my compliments,” she said, “and your cleaned garments, Ahmed-sahib.”
Ahmed grabbed the bundle she offered and fled behind the hanging curtain.
The tangled, twining shadows flickering at the corners of his vision lurched abruptly, but it was difficult to make out why in the dimness of the tent’s shade. One of the challenges of his foresight was how much it depended onsight,unless people were actually screaming somewhere-and-somewhen.He sighed, and squinted a bit, and took his best guess.
“I suppose I must go,” Faraj said, “if Ahmed and I are to attempt to share the excuse of the spilled cup. My lady Esha…”
She nearly dropped her own cup at that, and awkwardly caught herself short halfway to a prostration that had been pure instinct. “Yes, Rahat-sahib?”
“If I cannot find any way for Sahar to come home with me, if there is no choice but to leave her… might I prevail upon you for the occasional indulgence for her? You have such wonderful cat toys, and I think she will be no happier at parting than I.”
“You must leave her? Oh — the fortress. The cat wards, the wardens.” She tapped a finger to her lip. “Rahat-sahib, the thoughts I am having are unbecoming a dutiful servant of the Empire. But they are most tempting to a Basteti woman who hawks her wares at the top of her lungs and feels herself unjustly robbed of a valuable sale, if the guards see fit to refuse delivery of a wealthy nobleman’s impulsive purchase of cat toys.”
“Oh my,” Faraj said.
“There’s nothing I can do about the wards themselves,” she said. “But I can make thewardensregret their choices. Priye, sweetie, would you keep an eye out here while I find out exactly how far I can bluff my way into thehaveliwith three baskets of very obvious cat toys? You can play with as many toys as you like.”
Priye’s ears perked up immediately at the mention of toys and mischief. She rubbed her cheek against Faraj’s, purring loudly, then scampered over to take a post at the front of the stall.
“My lady Esha, if we make a scene…”
“I’m the one planning to make the scene, Rahat-sahib,” Esha said. “They especially won’t want me making that scene whileyou’rewaiting outside the gate, cradling your new darling in your arms because they won’t let her in.”
“Why are we talking about making scenes now?” Ahmed sighed from behind the dressing-curtain.
“Because the Imperials prefer to make scenesstop,” Esha said. “The Imperials much prefer that there are no loud and raucous scenes right outside the gates to thehaveliwhere the archives and the records of all of the taxes are stored. Especially not when a gentleman of Rahat-sahib’s stature is trapped outside the walls in the middle of the shouting. Don’t they prefer for Rahat-sahib to remain safely within the walls and well-guarded there, Ahmed-sahib? You are an excellent servant of your Empire.”
“Esha, if you had fur I would kiss you,” Kamil said, grinning with all his fangs.
“I will not be a party to anything that reeks of insurrectionists,” Ahmed said.
“Then help me think of a better way for Rahat-sahib to be able to bring his cat home with him. That way, I won’t need to shout outside the gates about the sale I was forbidden to make by your cat-unfriendly policies!” Esha told him brightly.
“This is extortionate!”
“You only mentioned insurrection the first time.”
“That was before you resorted to blackmail!” He hurried back out from behind the curtain, wide-eyed and rumpled, and scooped up hiskulhadto wave it in Faraj’s direction as though it were his last talisman of sanity. “Sahib, the cup, the chai, thelackof blackmailing women— where did that future go?”
“Why, there’s no blackmail at all, when Rahat-sahib already intended to buy cat toys for his darling,” Esha said just as brightly, giving Faraj a significant look. “Ahmed, are you telling me you would prevent Rahat-sahib from doing legitimate business with an upright and honest Basteti tradeswoman?”
“I am profoundly grateful that I have never needed to face you across a war council, my lady,” Faraj said, carefully easing out of the cat-basket the bag of his folded silk garments that Master Asharan had tended for him. He suspected he was goingto need the gold-flecked sealing wax that verified his sigil ring’s imprint in very short order.
“You cannot possibly be consideringyieldingto this harridan, sahib!”
“Ahmed,” Faraj said, “Sahar has made herself a home of my soul. She is a living piece of my heart. I would rather set up a little scholar’s nook in the tack room of the stables and live there myself than be forced to abandon her now, with her kittens coming any day. I don’t know how to abandon part of myself at the gate. I don’t know how else not to lose her. Do you have any better ideas?”
Ahmed looked sadly down at thekulhadin his hands, and he said, “I miss the other path. The cup of chai, and laughing together.”
“Then you two should walk that path,” Esha said. “And if you need reinforcement, then I’ll charge the field.”
