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“His Highness,” Eozena said, “went to the guild last night around midnight. He had one kahya and one lamp. Now, in a shipyard, there’s a lot of wood—a whole haystack of wood, one might say. And yet His Highness managed to find the proverbial needle fairly easily. Wooden needle, wooden haystack, and yet—how long did it take you to find it?”
“Less than an hour. Less than half an hour, probably. In the dark,” Kadou said. “I was also . . . you know. Drunk.”
Eozena slouched back in the chair and laced her fingers together across her stomach. “Thoughts on that, Armagan?”
“I . . . I’m afraid I don’t know what to say. Please don’t take this the wrong way, Your Highness, but how can you be certain of what you found? Especially if it was dark, especially that late at night when you must have been tired. Especially if you were . . . intoxicated.”
“My kahya, Lieutenant Hoskadem, was with me,” Kadou said. “He was posted with the guild investigation just before his promotion, and he says that he’s unaware that there were any efforts at all to search the shipyard for evidence.”
“He must be mistaken,” Armagan said.
“You recorded an exhaustive amount of other details, Lieutenant,” Eozena said. “Why not record the search?”
“I—I must have forgotten.”
“I wonder what else you forgot to make note of?” Eozena stood slowly. “Highness, may I request a moment alone in the room with Lieutenant Armagan?”
Kadou nodded weakly. “Of course, Commander.” She was going to arrest çem. It probablywasbetter for him to be out of the room for that, in case Armagan got . . . violent. He retreated just outside, leaving the door open, and leaned against the wall next to Evemer.
“Right,” Eozena said from within. “Are you going to make this easy?”
Of course Armagan’s office and personal quarters had to be gutted and searched.
Kadou left all this to Eozena and her people. It was her jurisdiction, after all, since she was one of Armagan’s direct supervisors. She wouldn’t appreciate him hanging around behind her, wringing his hands and being useless, and in any case he had a much more daunting task.
He had to go tell Zeliha.
He hadn’t seen her in weeks, except at a great distance, surrounded by kahyalar and ministers. He hadn’t dared to show up at her rooms for breakfast. To be fair, though, she hadn’t invited him either.
She couldn’t turn him away again, not today. Not for this. He had an excuse this time. If her kahyalar declined to let him near her, he could say it was important without lying.
“Do either of you know what Her Majesty’s schedule is today?” Kadou asked his kahyalar.
“It is the second hour of the afternoon,” Evemer replied immediately. “Unless Her Majesty has been detained on some important matter, the official schedule included a gap of an hour and a half. It is presumed she will be at leisure in the gardens near the royal chambers.”It is presumedwas a phrase that meant the kahyalar’s gossip network was in good working condition. All the core-guard had access to the sultan’s official schedule, though not all of them had reason to keep themselves apprised of it. Through sheer familiarity with Zeliha and her habits, the kahyalar could make reasonable guesses about where she might be and what she might be doing during any unscheduled time in her day.
Evemer’s guess was, indeed, correct: They found Zeliha in the pavilion in her garden. White silk curtains hung from the eaves on the sunward side, casting shade over the couches within. Most of her kahyalar were positioned at a bit of a distance—one stood at the corner pillar of the pavilion, but the other three were arrayed fifteen or twenty feet away. Enough space to give her the illusion of privacy, but close enough that a word from her could bring them all to her side.
Zeliha herself was lounging on one of those couches, idly reading a book. Kadou was too close to turn away when he saw that she wasn’t alone—Siranos sat cross-legged on the carpeted floor with Eyne swaddled up in the cradle of his lap, brushing her nose with the tip of a soft feather and grinning down at her. Kadou’s heart thumped unpleasantly in his chest, and he forced away all his feelings with a frantic shove before they could do anything more than that.
He stopped at the edge of the pavilion and bowed. “Majesty,” he said softly. “Good afternoon.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Siranos look up. Kadou didn’t look over, though it took all his will. He kept his eyes fixed on Zeliha.
Looking up from her book, she said blankly, “Oh. Kadou. What are you doing here?”
“There’s a matter. That I need to discuss with you. If you have a moment? I’m sorry for interrupting.”
“No, no,” she said quickly. She sat up, putting a ribbon in the book to mark her place and setting it aside. “Please come in, sit down.”
She didn’tseemlike she was still angry with him.
He stepped into the pavilion and sat on the edge of one of the couches, folding his hands in his lap. Gods, he was nervous. He took a breath or two—just one of Usmim’s trials, he told himself. Just something that had to be gotten through. And for goodness’ sake, this was hissister. “If it would be possible for us to speak privately?”
Zeliha grimaced. “How long is this going to take?” she asked. “I’ve promised Siranos that I wouldn’t let business interrupt us this time.”
“Only a few minutes,” he said hesitantly. “It . . . it can’t wait. I’m sorry.”
“Only a few minutes,” she said brightly to Siranos. “Do you mind?”
Even the mere beat of hesitation before Siranos spoke was agony. “Of course not, Your Majesty,” he said. Kadou was almost shocked to hear Siranos speak so calmly and pleasantly. “I’ll just take a turn around the garden.” He gathered Eyne into his arms and got awkwardly to his feet.
