AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You can hold her if you want,” Zeliha said, magnanimous. “If Kadou will let her go.”
Kadou felt like he didn’t particularly need another person with whom he had to fight for time with his niece, but Evemer was harder to spite than Siranos, and . . . he was sort of curious. He looked at Eyne—she was staring up at Evemer with enormous eyes as if he had just revealed something shocking and life-altering to her, and now shewasactually slobbering on his hand, and Kadou didn’t know what to do with any of this information except wave a white flag and surrender.
“I don’t mind,” Kadou said slowly. Evemer promptly and decisively plucked Eyne out of his arms.
Siranos didn’t return for another ten minutes, and when he did, Kadou was almost grateful to see him. Eyne had gotten all chatty with Evemer, squawking and burbling at him while Evemer got just as chatty in return, carrying on half of a deadly serious conversation with her and calling herHighnesswith the same depth of gravity that he used for Kadou, if not more. Kadou almost wanted to turn around and demand to know whether Evemer had replaced himself with an identical twin, except thatnobodybut Evemer Hoskadem said “Highness” in that particular way, with that particular incredible nuance of meaning.
Zeliha turned to Siranos with a smile as he entered the pavilion again and held out her hand. He came forward and took it obligingly, sitting on the ground by her couch and watching Evemer. “She’s won another heart, has she?” he said.
“She’s as charming as her body-father,” Zeliha murmured back. Kadou couldn’t look at them, and he couldn’t look at Evemer (who was murmuring to Eyne, “Yes, Your Highness, did you know that you also have a nose? Thank you for holding on to mine, I was concerned,” in the same grave manner he might have said, “Yes, Your Majesty, the harbor tax collected this month totaled one hundred and twenty-six thousand altinlar”).
For lack of anywhere else to look that wasn’t supremely awkward, Kadou looked out across the garden and was therefore the first to spot Eozena in the distance, walking toward them at a brisk pace, nearly a jog, with her sword strapped to her hip.
“Zeliha, if you’ve finished,” Siranos said, “perhaps His Highness might give us our privacy—”
“Wait, please,” Kadou said, rising to his feet. Something was wrong. “Evemer,” he said urgently. Evemer stopped in the middle of whatever he was saying to Eyne. “Give her back to Zeliha. Right now.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Evemer obey instantly.
His heart was pounding. What was it? What had Eozena found?
“Kadou?” Zeliha said.
“Wait, please,” he said again. He went to meet the commander. Evemer followed close behind.
Eozena shoved a handful of coins at him as soon as she was close enough. “Highness. Confirm these,” she said.
As soon as the metal hit his palms, he knew: counterfeits. The signature of the altinlar clanked hollowly rather than ringing clear; the yiralar tasted bitter in his fingertips, almost medicinal, rather than the delicate notes of white tea and snow.
He didn’t even need to say anything. Eozena made a cutting motion at Evemer with one hand, the other gripping the hilt of her sword. “Distance. Now.”
“Commander,” Evemer barked. Immediately, he took ten paces backward from Kadou and jerked to stiff attention, staring straight ahead.
“What?” Kadou said faintly, but Eozena seized his arm, pulling him forward with her.
“Distance!” she snarled at the kahya standing at the corner pillar of the pavilion. The woman’s eyes widened and she scrambled away with the same speed as Evemer. Then, to Kadou and Zeliha: “Stay.”
It was a voice he hadn’t heard since he was a child, and he knew Zeliha hadn’t either. It was the voice of someone saying,Your life is in my hands; obey me so that I can save it.He went to his sister’s side and found her coming to his, seizing his hand, clutching her daughter to her chest.
Siranos had risen too and he joined them. “What’s happening?”
“Eozena, what is it?” Zeliha said, sounding more like his sister in that moment than she had since the day she had been crowned sultan.
“A moment, Your Majesty,” Eozena said. She looked around at the kahyalar arrayed around the garden. Stabbing her finger at a spot on the ground twenty paces distant from the pavilion, she roared, “Fall in.”
Every kahya in earshot obeyed. There were eight of them, and they formed two neat cobalt lines of four at perfect attention.
Kadou’s hands were trembling. So were Zeliha’s, he noticed distantly. He huddled closer to her side and she put an arm around his shoulder, drawing him in still further. Siranos edged in front of them, putting himself between them and the squad of kahyalar.
Eozena barked at the kahyalar, “Stand.And with the gods as my witness, if even one of you takes a step forward, the others have leave tokill them.”
Eight kahyalar stood stock-still. They didn’t even twitch or blink. They might have been statues.
Eozena whirled on Kadou and Zeliha, assessed them with a glance. “Majesty,” she said. “Highness. I am invoking the privileges of my station.”
“Yes,” Zeliha said. Her voice was steadier than Kadou’s would have been. “Yes, I rather see that you are. What is it?”
“Lieutenant Armagan is guilty,” she said bluntly. “I found achestof coins in çir quarters, which His Highness has just confirmed are counterfeits. I also found two other kahyalar in the process of destroying some of Armagan’s personal papers.”
