“I was not about to bar that poor woman from her baths until the gossip-storm has blown over,” Ashar said. “Are you too vexed for words right now, or may I go and see if Mistress Salimat is in?”
Hira shook herself vigorously, and unfolded herself into a much taller figure that could speak human words to let him have a piece of her mind. “Go on,” she said. “Clearly I’ll do a much more refined job of choosing our clients than you do.”
“Please don’t kick sand at the entire neighborhood,” Ashar said ruefully.
“Are they really going to walk seven whole blocks to Imari’s when the scandal is brewing right here? You of all people know the power of gossip.”
“I would prefer not to find out,” Ashar told her, exchanging his house slippers for the reed sandals he wore outside. “And I hold my power bykeepingthe intimate secrets I’ve been entrusted with. Once a secret is no longer secret, its power is scattered to the winds.”
Hira sighed, plucking a date from the bowl and batting it around the tabletop idly. “That might work for you, but it clearly doesn’t work that way for the aunties.”
“I can only live by what works for me,” Ashar said, opening the door again.
A large tabby cat stalked in and sat directly on his foot.
“Well,” Ashar said, blinking down at his visitor. “Hello there. To what do I owe the honor?”
Close the door,the cat told him firmly.
“I do need to move my foot,” Ashar pointed out.
Hrrmph.The cat barely shifted off his foot so that he could swing the door shut without bumping either of them, and then it sank its claws into hisshalwar.
Private,it told him.
“More than this?”
That’s a cat,the cat told him, flicking an ear towards Hira.More private than this.
“Well, Hira, if you will pardon me in a different direction for a few minutes…?” He carefully eased his feet back out of his street sandals, trying not to either pull at the cat’s claws or sink them into his skin. He suspected this was a catfolk in smaller shape, because while alley cats could also make their opinions quite clear, they didn’t tend to use as many human-shaped word-thoughts for it.
“Hsssssssst,”Hira told the cat, ears flat back, with a distinct air ofthat human is mine.
“Nyaoooowwwwr,”the tabby yowled back, tail bushing out.
“Oh, please, let’s not,” Ashar said, unhooking the tabby’s claws from hisshalwarand scooping it into his arms. He hurried into the Pillow Room, because it had nothing resembling water in it and a strange cat could take badly to being carried into a room with a vast human water-pit in it. Then he nudged the door closed with his hip, set the cat down, and raised the sound-wards for privacy.
“Now, how may I help you?”
Stay away from Mistress Salimat.
Ashar blinked.I beg your pardon?
She says she’s gotten snarled in the other end of your yarn-knot, and since she’snota prophet, she can’t afford to have you bumbling around connecting threads that neither of you want to have connected. Does that make any sense to you?
Enough sense that I understand the message,Ashar said,but not as much sense as I hoped for. Whom can I ask for further lessons, then?
That’s your problem, not ours,the tabby said irritably.Who would you trust to unravel the knot and not take advantage of the knowing?
Ashar ran both hands down his face.No one who could teach me what I need to know,he admitted. Because if he needed to study illusion-work, and someone who knew illusion-work well enough to teach him also followed the thread of thought-secrets back to — to that carefully hidden other name which he could not allow to cross his mind even now, not with a clever catfolk’s thoughts touching his — if he made that mistake, then he would have exposed his dear one to the whims of a powerful mage who could choose to look like anyone.
And that powerful mage would know to look like Ashar in particular.
Thank you for the warning,Ashar told the cat.Would you like some dahi for your trouble?
That would be acceptable, I suppose,the cat said primly, but the tone of its thoughts was much closer toYESSSSSSSSSS.
The last night’s curd had set up nicely by the banked warmth of his enchanted cauldron, so Ashar uncovered the pot and spooned out several dollops for the cat, then sat on his heels and petted it gently while it devoured its treat.
