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“I couldn’t possibly trouble you like that,” he said. He stood, smoothing out the fabric of his underlayer. She caught his elbow and turned him to face her.
She was taller than him, taller even than Evemer. “Kadou. Do you have anyone to tell you no?”
“Just Zeliha,” he whispered. And Evemer, who would sayHighnessin that tone—that was nearly the same. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better. You shouldn’t bother yourself with my foolishness. You’re not just any kahya, after all. Things like this are . . . beneath you. There are more important matters that you can be working on besides brushing my hair and telling me I’m being an idiot. I should be able to do that for myself.”
He glanced up just in time to see the corner of her mouth quirk. She shrugged. “As you prefer, Highness. Though I would argue that there is nothing my liege could ask of me that I would consider beneath me.”
She led him out to the parlor, where breakfast had been laid. Evemer was seated like a granite statue in a chair by the door, and Tadek stood awkwardly near the table with a cup of something gently steaming. Kadou smelled it as soon as Tadek handed it over—it was medicinal, an infusion of willowbark and bitter herbs, and he had to choke it down all in one go.
Tadek lingered until Kadou and Eozena had settled at the table and, evidently seeing that he was not going to be invited to partake, excused himself with a murmur and returned to the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
Eozena poured coffee for herself. Kadou, still a little wary of the state of his stomach, had salep. It was hot and milky and as thick as gravy, sweetened with honey and brightened with cinnamon to balance the underlying earthy flavor of it, like the smell of an approaching thunderstorm in the heat of a dry summer.
“My excellent intelligence network also told me that you didn’t eat much yesterday,” Eozena said. “Please mind your health. If that nonsense continues today, I’m going to come back at dinnertime and we can have an argument about it, which I will win.”
Of course she’d win. There was no doubt about that.Shehad no compunctions about fighting dirty in arguments like that. “I’ll eat,” he said. “Lunch and dinner, at least.”
She gave him a dry, skeptical look. “See that you do.” She hauled a satchel closer and pulled out a thick sheaf of papers, covered with neat, tiny script. “All the records from Lieutenant Armagan’s investigation. I reviewed them last night.”
Kadou’s head really was aching too much to easily read anything right now. “It’s useless, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know.” She pushed the papers across the table to him. Armagan’s handwriting made his head throb. “Look how neat and tidy they are. Look how methodical.” She gestured to the pages—Armagan did indeed write with an exceptionally clear, fluid hand, the letters tiny with large spaces between each line of text, presumably so çe could go back later and easily add any necessary notes. “Not that handwriting has anything to do with personality, but . . .” She shrugged. “Armagan’s a meticulous sort of person too. I’ve been aware of çem for years. Çe’s done excellent work ever since çe was promoted, and I’ve heard nothing but good things from çir former supervisors.”
Kadou looked up from the pages, frowning. “So çe’s not likely to have missed anything.”
“It would be uncharacteristic, at the very least. Armagan is thorough. So,” she said, pulling the papers back toward her and spreading them out between the two of them. She propped her elbows on the table, steepling her fingers at her lips. “I can’t help but wonder why çe concluded so quickly that there was nothing more to be done.”
“You think that’s . . . wrong?”
Eozena tilted her head side to side, uncertain; a few of her locs tumbled over her shoulder. “I almost always think that it’s wise to get a second opinion. One’s own perceptions can lie so easily.”
Well . . . that was true. Kadou knew that intellectually, even if the obsessively terrified parts of his mind couldn’t always remember it. “What should I do? You said you reviewed these—did you spot anything?”
“Nothing obvious, nothing inhere.” She paused. “But . . . I have this excellent intelligence network in the palace.”
“So I’ve heard,” he said slowly. “And?”
“And I’m told that the people reporting to Armagan discussed the case with çem that morning, and then çe left the palace. Armagan shut down the investigation when çe came back. Almost immediately. Started reassigning people right and left, talking about how it was pointless and nothing would come of it.”
Kadou frowned. “That’s . . . odd.”
“Yes.Yes, it is.”
“Where did Armagan go, when çe left?”
“That’s the other thing. It doesn’t seem that anyone can give me a definite answer. It’s all just guesses or assumptions. Lots of people blinking at me and saying, ‘Um, I think çe went out, maybe to talk to some witnesses or something?’”
Kadou didn’t want to say it out loud, didn’t want to have to ask. But . . . Oh, Mother of All, give him strength. “Do you think çe was . . . involved?”
“We have to suspect thatsomeonein the palace was involved—the thieves timed the break-in so the fireworks would cover the noise, remember. Someone told them to be on standby. Could have been Armagan. Could have been someone else.” Eozena tapped her steepled fingers against her chin. “It’s worth keeping an eye on çem, I think. Worth paying close attention, and being thorough and meticulous ourselves.”
This should have been a comfort—it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t ruined it. There was some other, external force, something that they hadn’t seen. And yet . . . The stakes were even higher now. If he fumbled this, he could ruin Armagan’s career, just like he ruined Tadek’s, just like how he’d gotten Balaban and Gülpasa killed, just like—
He forced himself to breathe. Eozena was here. Eozena wouldn’t let him muck it up. “What should we do? What shouldIdo?”
She shuffled the papers back into a neat pile. “Read through these with me. Tell me if you see anything that sticks out. We’ll go from there.”
He nodded. “Yes, all right.” His head ached. His stomach churned. Eozena distributed the notes between them, and he tried to focus enough to read.
