AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My lord,” Evemer said briskly, and he hauled Tadek over his shoulder and out the front door to the street corner—whichhurt,but that was the price of justice.
The whole way, Tadek chattered at an astonishing pace. “Are you Zeliha’s secret twin? Is Kadou just a decoy to protect you, the real prince, from assassination? Was a witch’s curse involved at any point? Did you spend twenty years wandering in the wilderness because the man you thought was your body-father said that—” The rest was lost to gurgles as Evemer pinned him below the spout of the water pump on the corner and hauled on the lever.
“Are you done?” Evemer said, when Tadek had been thoroughly doused.
Tadek spluttered and coughed. “Confidence scheme involving body doubles?”
Evemer gave him another torrent of water.
“I can’t think of any more,” Tadek said when Evemer next let him breathe. He pushed Evemer’s hand off his chest and sat up, wiping his hair out of his eyes. “It’s got to be something with the shipwreck and the inheritance claims—” He rolled away as Evemer tried to seize him again. “That’s the only plausible one. Hey, is your shoulder bleeding?”
“Tore my stitches,” Evemer said, sitting back on his heels. He was damp all down his chest, and the knees of his trousers were soaked. But it seemed to have shut Tadek up, so . . . Worth it, all told.
“What, hauling me around like a sack of grain? Or before?”
“Before. When we were captured.”
“Fought like a bull, did you?” Tadek shook the wet hair out of his face again as Evemer stood. “All right. Help me back inside and we’ll take care of that.” He held out his hand and gave Evemer an expectant look.
“No more questions,” Evemer said firmly. “No more theories.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Evemer, having taken his hand and pulled him partially up, let him drop again into the slowly draining puddle on the cobblestones and gave the handle of the water pump another half push. “Fine, fine,” Tadek yelled, scrambling out of the way. “I get it, you’re not ready to reveal your secret identity!”
“Are you not yet drowned?” But he let Tadek go and pulled him back to his feet. He even let Tadek lean on his shoulder as they went back inside.
Kadou was just lifting the seal from his second letter as they came back in. “How’d it go?”
“I am a wet and wretched thing, pity me,” Tadek said. He limped to the hearth, peeled off his kaftan, and hung it over the back of a chair in front of the fire.
“He’s not going to ask any more questions, Highness,” Evemer said.
“Good.”
“Kadou, I know we’re just friends now,” Tadek said, “but you should know that you areverypretty when you’re being merciless. You should do it more often, suits you.”
Evemer squashed the impulse to drag the little twit back outside for another go under the pump.
Kadou ignored Tadek and held out the letter. “Take this out to one of the kahyalar and tell them toflyto the palace. We’ll follow right away.”
As he took the letter, Evemer could see the strain of exhaustion in Kadou’s eyes. “We could wait until morning. Or wait for them to send horses down.”
“Zeliha needs the satyota to verify the loyalties of the kahyalar. And we need the kahyalar to arrest Siranos and Sylvia, and find Melek.” Kadou closed his eyes, clearly worn to the bone. “Half an hour to catch my breath, and then we’ll go.”
The perimeter guard was a little thin, with one of them already sent to carry the message down to the harbor, so Evemer went down into the cellar, where three more were asleep on pallets. By the time he got one of them out of bed, into clothes and shoes, and out the door, Kadou had fallen asleep at the kitchen table, his head pillowed on his arms. Tadek, half-dressed and still dripping all over the floor, was delicately draping a blanket over him. Tenzin was dozing too, curled up in the opposite corner of the room on some of the floor pillows.
“We’re both on the same page about this, right?” Tadek whispered. “We’re waiting an hour to wake him, not half an hour?”
That . . . was too good of an idea to pass up. “Yes,” Evemer said.
“Coffee?”
“Yes.”
Tadek made him coffee—in Evemer’s own home, which was strange and uncomfortable, but then Tadek wasn’t the one who had brushed up against death that night. As it was brewing, Tadek got him to take down one side of his bloodied kaftan, smeared ointment on the torn wound, and bandaged him up neatly.
“So,” Tadek said, when he had poured the coffee. He took a seat across from Evemer, folding his hands on the table. “Will I get dragged back out to the water pump if I ask about tonight’s escapades?”
“What do you want?”
