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It was not a very busy night. They hung back, across the street from the entrance. “I don’t see anyone standing around out front,” Kadou whispered. “She meant we had to go inside, didn’t she?”
“Yes,” said Evemer. “This is a terrible idea. I’m not changing my mind again,” he added quickly. “But it is a terrible idea.”
“Yes, I know. Someone should say it.” Kadou took a breath, released it slowly. “We’ll go in, we’ll make the exchange, ask a few questions, and we’ll leave.”
Evemer seemed to relax slightly. “Be quick.”
They went inside, Kadou leading and Evemer close at his heels, and went straight to the counter at the back of the large front room. “We were told at the back that we should come to the front now,” he said quietly to the woman there. “We were wondering if a friend from the palace had left any messages here.”
She looked at them slowly, calculating. “Go sit down. I’ll send someone out.”
They sat at the same table that they’d been at before, the first time, in the darkest and most shadowed corner. An attendant came to their table after a few minutes with a burner of keresa and cedar incense—“On the house,” she murmured—and repeated the note that someone would be along presently to speak to them.
“Are we taking down our scarves?” Kadou whispered when she’d left. “It’s going to look strange—we’re not Tashazi.”
They muttered back and forth between themselves and eventually decided, warily, to unwind the scarves. It was dreadfully warm, the air stagnant and thick with smoke, and they were already sweltering. Evemer grumbled imprecations all the while—Kadou’s hair was too obvious a marker of wealth and status, but the scarves weren’t long enough to fashion into a turban, so there was nothing to be done about it except to twist it into a loose rope, half tuck it into the back of Kadou’s collar, and hope that no one looked too close.
Long minutes passed. Another attendant came with a pot of tea and apologized for the wait.
“Actually, before you go, could we ask you—”
“It will only take a moment, so please relax,” she said, and left before Kadou could say anything more.
“Sit closer,” Evemer muttered, as soon as she had turned away.
“What?” Kadou said, distracted from his annoyance with the attendant.
“It worked before. And there’s someone across the room looking at us.”
Kadou shifted closer against Evemer’s side, their arms bumping awkwardly. “Put your arm around my shoulders,” Kadou said, and Evemer obeyed. He was tense, nervous. Kadou could feel it. “It’s all right,” Kadou said. He rested his chin in his hand so that his fingers covered at least the bottom of his face and glanced around the room. His heart thudded when he spotted the person Evemer had noticed, and he forced his eyes away. “Do you recognize them? Is it someone from the island?”
“I don’t know. I only saw Siranos then.”
Kadou leaned forward and blew out the candle that the attendant had used to light the incense. The ribbon of smoke from the wick added an acrid note to the mellow, woodsy smoke from the burner. “There. They don’t need any more light. Keep an eye on them.”
An age passed without the attendant returning again, and Kadou grew restless and nervous. Evemer’s arm tightened around in this light, they can see his shoulders, which made him restless and nervous in an entirely different way.
He was torn in two—he kept thinking that maybe they should give up, run back to Durdona’s house, and forget trying to get information out of any of the employees here. They could go back to the warehouse and look for clues there. Kadou could order the harbor closed, and as soon as Zeliha had sorted out whatever was happening at the palace, there would be increased security at the city gates to keep Siranos from leaving there either.
He tried to calm himself. They had already waited so long, what was the harm in waiting just a few more minutes? It wouldn’t make any sense to run away when they were so close to their goal.
And the other half of him, which apparently hadnothing better to do,maintained a keen awareness of Evemer next to him, of the warmth of his body and how it was a different quality to that of the room, of the weight of his arm around Kadou’s shoulders. Why had his brain caught up to his handsnow? Why couldn’t he have gone on in avoidance for another month?
He despaired of himself. And he despaired of Evemer—it hadn’t been fair of him to get on his knees like that and swear his fealty, looking into Kadou’s eyes like he was pressing gifts into Kadou’s hands. Kadou’s hands had entirely betrayed him, clinging to Evemer’s, touching his face. And Evemer hadn’t jerked away. He’d looked like he wanted Kadou to keep touching him.
And now . . .
Now he had a moment of stillness and the awkward silence between the two of them while they waited for the attendant to return, and all he could think of was the hours and hours they’d spent at Madam Hoskadem’s table, watching Evemer argue with Melek, with Tadek, withhim. Evemer could have been a brilliant military strategist if he’d set his mind to it—he’d clearly studied enough, and he was methodical and breathtakingly thorough.
He was incandescent when he stopped holding himself back.
Kadou wanted to get right up against him, breathe him in—he smelled still like sea salt and the medicinal poultice, but underneath that was warmth and something unidentifiable andgood.
He wanted to pull away. He wanted to lean in closer. He wanted to never look at Evemer again, and he wanted to drag him out into the back alley and let his hands tell the truth since he couldn’t trust his tongue—his palms starved for Evemer’s skin again. He wanted to kiss him senseless and watch him run Beydamur’s sword progression without having to look away. He wanted to know what Evemer meant when he saidmy lordin that particular way.
There wasn’t anything else to occupy his attention—wherewasthat attendant? Was he being paranoid to wonder what was taking them so long?—so he allowed himself to think of what he’d been avoiding all day:He’s only kissed two people and one of them is you.
He felt Evemer tense against him. “Shit.” He pulled Kadou’s head around, against his shoulder. “Stay still,” he hissed into Kadou’s ear. A long, tense moment passed, and Evemer relaxed. “They’ve left. The person who was watching us. Walked out the front door.”
