“I do, actually,” Najra said, with a very sharp grin. “Unless the Chamberlain plans to let me invade his Highness’s bedroom the next time he’s held a book past due, I strongly suggest each of us should stay in our own domain.”
The Chamberlain heaved a sigh. “Archivist, for the sake of your long friendship with our belovedshahzada, please don’t force our hand like this. You know Kamil’s devotion as well as any of us! I should hate to tell him that you were the last to see his Highness before his disappearance.”
“Too late,” Najra said dryly. “You just did.”
“What?”
She made a small turn-around gesture with that raised fingertip.
From the incandescent golden glower in Kamil’s slitted eyes, Faraj suspected he was giving Najra a piece of his mind. Najra didn’t so much as flinch. She was long accustomed to Kamil’s temper, and clearly taking too much enjoyment inthe utterly flabbergasted look on the Deputy Minister and the Chamberlain’s faces.
“Where have you BEEN?”the Deputy Minister shrieked.
“Er. Fetching the morning’s chai?” Faraj offered, because it had been entirely true at one point, and he could swear to it even under a truth-binding. “Would you like a cup?”
“I’d be delighted, your Highness, you’re as darling as ever,” Najra said, taking one of the kulhad from him.
“Why wouldYOU—you haveservants for that?—”
The Chamberlain, who knew Faraj better, said, “Whereelsehave you been, your Highness?”
“Fulfilling a vision I’ve foreseen for half my life,” Faraj said, because it was just as true, and he could swear to that too.
Najra had taken Kamil’s mental tongue-lashing without a flicker, but her eyes widened at that. “Really? We had the star-charts right after all?”
Hecouldn’tlet himselfblush,but the burning in his cheeks suggested desperate intentions alone had no effect on his body’s response to embarrassment. He had to hope the angle of the light through the intricately-carvedjaliwas awkward enough for concealment.
“What star-charts?” the Deputy Minister demanded. “What have you told this book-witch that you’ve kept from your ministry and your master of household alike? Why under heaven did you run off in the night without even yourbodyguard?”
“I was with him almost the entire night,” Kamil rumbled.
“Almost,”the Chamberlain said.
“Yes, almost,” Kamil said, whiskers twitching. “Surely you don’t expect a bodyguardcatfolkto follow him into abath.If you do, go get a human.”
Faraj felt almost light-headed with relief, even as the Chamberlain fussed. He’d hoped Kamil might support him,but he hadn’t known for certain which way Kamil would decide until he said it. And that was going to make the rest of the conversation more complex, because the Chamberlain thought of Kamil as his own ally, and the Deputy Minister?—
“What have you foreseen forhalf your life, but couldn’t be bothered to inform us about one day before, so that we mightexpectyou to be late for your shift instead of fearing you were kidnapped or worse?” the Deputy Minister demanded.
Faraj bit his lip. The worst part was, it was an entirely reasonable question, if you were the Deputy Minister and thought the foresight had something to do with tax returns.
If you were a prophet, and you had already foreseen how badly either “I made love with a charming bath-house companion in the back alleys of the Catsprowl” or “I brought home a cat” was going to be received…
(Honestly, “I brought home a cat” was going to beverybadly received. He had foreseen that much already. But for the sake of Master Asharan’s safety and privacy, Faraj would make that choice a dozen times over.)
“Why do you think you have any more right to that answer than you do to his Highness’s reading history?” Najra snapped, glaring almost as fiercely as her hennaed hair blazed.
“When we werethree minutesfrom arresting you and calling out the guard to scour the city?—”
“How fortunate we have a prophet who has learned a musician’s sense of timing, then. Settle your quillfeathers, Deputy Minister. He’s home safe, he’s fine. Drink some chai. Sweeten your disposition.”
“But it is not at all like your Highness to be so discourteous,” the Chamberlain fretted. “Why could you not trust any of your loyal servants with this?”
Faraj couldn’t sayBecause I knew you would have stopped me.He couldn’t sayBecause I couldn’t have bornethe bombastic embarrassment of an armed escort, and too many people would have taken note of an entire parade of guardsmen.He couldn’t sayMaster Asharan would have been entirely professional and entirely distant, and I would never have trulyknownhim, if I had come to him under the weight of the power and the title he wished so desperately not to hear.
He had to find the right words to take their wrath upon himself, if he wanted to save both Master Asharan’s freedom and Sahar’s kittens.
“Because I know my desire is forbidden,” Faraj said. “And I have welcomed a cat-familiar into my heart despite that.”
