“It was, er, something of a personal favor.”
“Can I borrow it before the kittens gnaw holes in it? That binding isexquisite. And I’m thinking we need to commission you somemashrabiya-style screens for your bookshelves.” She’d pulled a silverpoint-ended reed out of the knot of her hair-scarf and was already scratching some notes in a palm book; the fine, pale lines would oxidize darker on the page without the need to fuss with a pot of ink. “Esha, Ahmed, what kitten-lures do you see dangling about that we should tuck in and tidy up for his Highness?”
“The quills, the ink, the parchment, the entire surface of the desk,” Ahmed began, counting points on his fingers. “Most likely the entire desk itself.”
“Most certainly the entire desk itself,” the Chamberlain said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “That is a pre-Imperial relic, your Highness. As are many of the pieces of furniture in your chambers here. Not to mention the five centuries of silk tapestries celebrating his Imperial Majesty’s ascension to the Sun Throne, which areentirelytoo tempting for creatures with claws whether or not they are actually demons made incarnate.”
“Noted,” Faraj sighed, as Najra’s silverpoint kept scratching in her palm book. “So, the antiques, anything made of fabric or wood or ceramic or paper, anything particularly gnawable or breakable, anything easily stained or torn or disarranged…” Looking around and running a hand through his hair, he admitted, “Icouldstill make myself a pallet in the tack-room of the stables.”
“None of you have children, do you, your, er, your assorted honors and worships and so forth?” Esha asked. “May I suggest the notion of a nursery fitted out for kittens?”
“A place where they stay contained and no ink gets spilled and no one else sees them and no one knows they exist?”Ahmed asked, suddenly much happier. “I would gladly sign that requisition order myself.”
“I had been thinking more of a safe sunny place for them to nap and climb and play with toys that no one will shriek about,” Esha said, “but certainly, let’s sell it your way to the Deputy Minister.”
“You presume that they will not be judged to be the unholy spawn of demonkind,” the Chamberlain said.
“Well, no more than any other kittens are, I expect,” Najra said, still browsing the bookshelves. “You’ve been holding out on me, your Highness. Al-Tayir’soriginalswatch books?”
He’d intended to give her that set for a Sun-in-Triumph gift, because the longest day of the year came with the most hours of light to appreciate the colors. Really, he hadn’t thought atallabout the implications of inviting so many people into his personal chambers to consider their suitability for kittens.
And his foresight seemed to consider embarrassment his natural state of being, not something to particularly warn him for. He supposed he ought to consider that a mercy, because otherwise he would spend much of his life blinded by the warning-shadows.
The door creaked slightly as one of thekhadimshouldered it open with his hands full of a tray of bed linens and vases of fresh flowers. Faraj realized that the servants expected him to be safely away at the Ministry by this time of the morning. By the time he’d taken a breath to warn the man, Kamil was already moving.
Thekhadimturned toward the room, realized it was stillveryoccupied, and shrieked as he dropped the tray directly into Kamil’s hands.
Seeing Kamil lunge at you was cause enough for alarm by itself. But Faraj bit his lip to keep from laughing as the poor man struggled over whether he ought to scream that theshahzada’schambers had been invaded by a common woman, a notorious book-witch,anda prohibited housecat, while thehajibwas standing right there to witness all of it.
Laughing wouldn’t be kind at all, but the hilarity tickled his throat like a cat’s whiskers as he watched thekhadimtry to decide which affront against propriety was the most imminently terrible.
“Y-your Highness, I’m so sorry, you — you have, er, there are— occupants— I didn’t realize — I’ll go?—”
Faraj suddenly realized that akhadimeven remotely familiar with the tales of his brothers’ exploits would assume that at least one of the women had been discovered in his bed at dawn by the still visibly upset Chamberlain.
And explaining that thecathad been the one in the bed he had been sharing with a companion at dawn wouldn’t really be an improvement.
“Thank you for your service,” he managed, with a mostly straight face. “If you happen to see one of the woodworkers, would you mind sending them up?”
“A woodworker, your Highness?”
“We are about to embark upon the construction of a kitten-nursery,” he explained, “and I should imagine wood would be more satisfying for tiny claws than stone? Maybe some ropes, some worn fabrics, a sandbox, that sort of thing…?”
“Akitten-nursery?”Thekhadimlooked at the Chamberlain much more directly than he should have, when the God-Emperor’s brother had just made a request.
In that particular moment, in front of Esha and Ahmed and Najra,the impropriety of contradicting theshahzada’spersonal request in front of those Outside the Household outweighed the impropriety of the cat-familiar whose fate still awaited an inquisition’s judgment. The Chamberlain barely inclined hishead, but it was enough for thekhadimto bow deeply and hurry out.
“Thank you,” Faraj told him, sincerely, as Kamil set the tray of now-splashed linens and disarranged vases on a side table.
Sahar blinked up at the Chamberlain, licked her paw, and began to purr. The Chamberlain visibly stiffened and turned away.
Faraj couldn’t help reaching over to stroke her fur; as Najra had noted, it was an open question whether he ought to feel that rejection as personally as he did, and whether Sahar was a part of him as much as he felt she was. Regardless of the theology and the philosophy, she was wonderfully soft, and petting her soothed an ache in his heart as well.
“You just can’t help that stick up your ass, can you?” Najra said to the Chamberlain.
“This is my domain,” he reminded her. “Take care with the barbs on your tongue.”
“This is his Highness’s domain, where he invited me as his guest.”
