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“How dare you even suggest such a thing?”
“I know. What is the world coming to?”
Evemer turned and kissed him again rather than dignify that with an answer. “I’ll have the rest of the plan worked out in the next day or two.”
“Don’t tell me all of it, all right? Maybe just the upcoming week of the plan, if there’s anything specific I need to do.”
“Will it worry you to hear the rest?”
Kadou shrugged. “If something goes wrong, or we have to change course, it very well might.”
That made sense—Kadou was best with problems that were right in front of him, things he could see and touch. “There won’t be many things for you to do. Just be Prince Kadou. Throw bread and silver. Open an orphanage.”
Oh,he thought an instant later. Orphanages. Children.Heirs.He went very still, feeling a sudden giddy joy bloom in his heart—he wouldn’t have to worry about loving Kadou’s children too hard after all.
But that was at least four or five years down the line—there were much higher priority things to give his attention to right now.
He squeezed Kadou’s hand and attended, as much as possible, to the near future. “We’re heading into some degree of scandal. There’s no evading that. It’s going to be loud, and irritating, and we’ll both get more attention than either of us care for.”
“This isn’t helping my worry.”
“I’m going to get most of the attention, unless I can figure out another way to get us through it.”
“Why would you get most of the attention? No one knows who you are.”
“That’s the problem.” Evemer sighed. “The best way to come out of this cleanly is to show people . . . melodrama.” He pursed his lips at the very thought—it was going to be like one of Tadek’s soppy plays, gods grant him patience. “A common kahya will simplynot dofor the prince of Arast—I’m going to have to convince the general populace that I’m a hero.”
“That’s not terribly hard. Zeliha could be convinced to give you a medal or something—you’d deserve one anyway, after the last few weeks.”
“There weren’t enough witnesses for all that.” Evemer mulled over his options. “I might have to get myself stabbed in the line of duty.”
Bewilderingly, Kadou seemed to think that was unreasonable.
Kadou had not finished fighting with Evemer over whether or not he was going to be allowed to arrange himself a light stabbing in heroic and romantic circumstances by the time they finally heard Tadek calling, “Highness?”
“Are we even going to attempt to hide this from him? He already knows everything else.” Evemer’s expression grew even more calculating. “I could use a pawn.”
“Surely he’s an arch-dedicate at the very least, good at diagonal movement.” Kadou raised his voice to call, “Here, Tadek.”
“Are you well?” Tadek said, coming around the spiral corridor. “It’s been ages, I thought I’d check and see whether you needed anything.” He stopped in the archway to the center of the folly and took them in at a glance. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did you even try to put yourselves back together?” He came forward and plucked a leaf out of Kadou’s hair, batted the wrinkles out of his clothes and tugged them until they lay straight. “Evemer, you look like you got dragged backward through a bush.” He stepped back, eyed them up and down. His eyes caught on the grass stains, which Kadou was not attempting to hide, the edge of a love bite just visible above Evemer’s collar. “Well,” he said dryly. “Congratulations on your annulment. Did you really just interrupt me seducing a governor’s heir to make me stand guard for you? Because if so, I respect that. A valid and fair retaliation for, y’know, me laughing my guts out at you the other day. It has a certain poetic justice to it.” He cocked his head. “I thought you’d be at Her Majesty’s residence for lunch. When did you go to the temple?”
“We didn’t,” Kadou said, reaching up to fix Evemer’s hair for him.
The wry, amused expression slid off Tadek’s face. “Oh. Uh. Skirting a little close to the line of what’s plausible as ‘we haven’t,’ aren’t you? Or are you just going to lie to the dedicates? Because that’s what I would do.”
“Evemer’s decided to accept your overtures of friendship,” Kadou said. “Discuss it on the way back to Zeliha’s, I have to go talk to her again.”
“Highness,” they both said in unison, giving him tactful but pointed once-overs.
Kadou stopped and cleared his throat. Right. He probably should clean up properly before charging into another audience with her. “Goddamnkahyalar,” he muttered, adjusting the fall of his kaftan so the front panels entirely hid his knees.
In point of fact, there were several other things to do in his chambers before returning to Zeliha—besides brushing his hair and changing into clothes that weren’t covered in sex and sweat and grass stains, there was the note to be written to the head of the garrison to inform them that he was requesting Evemer and Melek as his attendants indefinitely and that Evemer should be consulted regarding scheduling for anyone else assigned to him.
Evemer sat near him while he worked, twisting a lock of Kadou’s hair around his finger while he scribbled. As soon as he blotted the ink dry and folded the page, Evemer leaned forward and kissed his neck. “Let me carry it to the garrison,” he said. “I shouldn’t be in the room when you talk to Her Majesty.”
“Why not?”
“You’re going to tell her that you won’t marry that Vint.”
