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“Unlikely,” Evemer said darkly.
“Wait and see, honeybee,” Tadek murmured into his ale. “Now we’ve been over that, let’s talk about the most important question that has ever been asked: Whydoyou call him that, Durdona?”
Durdona seemed only too happy to talk about anything else—she’d grown a little ashen at Tadek’s report. “It’s because he works so hard,” she said, resolutely trying to recover herself. “Even when he was little. Always busy, always flying about looking for important things to do. Too busy even to bring anyone home!” she added, tsking. “In the figurative sense, I mean. Bringing home the sultan and the prince and a pack of kahyalar doesn’t count.”
“My mother’s on me all the time for grandchildren,” Pinar said.
“Ah, grandchildren,” Durdona sighed. “Never once wished for a daughter, except for that. But this one’s too busy! I’ve said,Durdona, let him achieve something for himself, be patient. And I have been, haven’t I?” she said, turning to Evemer.
“Yes, Mama,” he said firmly. “Very patient.”
“I thought it might get better once he’d gotten that promotion,” Durdona added to Eozena. “But it has not.”
“Sorry, Mama,” Evemer said.
“It’s my fault,” Kadou said. “I’ve been giving him too many of those important things to do. I’m afraid he hasn’t had a chance to tear himself away.”
“Honeybee,” she said with dour resignation, as if this were the explanation for everything.
“Wait,” Melek said. “Wait. You’ve never brought someone home to meet your mother?”
“No,” Evemer said.
“Never?”
“Not once,” Durdona mourned.
“Sorry, Mama,” Evemer said, with all evident sincerity.
“Never mind, love. Commander, you’re looking tired, can I make you a bed in the workroom?”
“Yes, I think so,” Eozena said. She was looking rather frayed around the edges, and it took both Durdona and Pinar to help her up and into the next room.
“Wait, though,” Tadek said, squinting at Evemer. “How old are you again?”
“Twenty-seven. Why?”
“And you’veneverbrought someone home.”
“As I said to Melek.”
Tadek exchanged a brief glance with Melek, who shrugged, and turned to peer at Evemer again.
“So it’s been more . . . casual friends?” Melek said.
“What do you mean?”
Kadou entertained a brief urgent fantasy of burying his face in his hands. Did Evemer really not know what they were asking?
“Lovers, darling,” Tadek said, and Evemer choked a little on his ale. “Except that you’re so serious, I can’t see you having someone you’d call a lover without introducing them to Durdona immediately, so it must just be . . . casual friends, as Melek puts it.”
“Armsman Hasira,” Evemer said stiffly. Oh, dear. Kadou was going to have to find some way to change the subject for him.
Before he could think of anything plausible, Tadek said, “Listen. Listen, I’ve had a glass of ale on an empty stomach and I’m a bit tipsy right now, and we could get you tipsy too if you try harder to catch up, and then we’ll have this conversation, and then—like I said! Best friends by the end of the week. What do you say?”
Evemer said, “No.”
“Not the sort to kiss and tell?”
