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“You weren’t spying on Siranos, were you?” Kadou said, aghast. “Don’t do that! Oh, gods. Did I hint to you that you ought to? I shouldn’t have. It’s my fault. I don’t care what you heard. Pretend like you heard nothing. Don’t tell anyone.”
“My lord,” Evemer said. “It was accidental.”
Kadou’s shock and terror shifted into uncertainty. “Still. You don’t need to tell anyone. Certainly not me. I don’t need gossip about him.”
“It isn’t gossip. And I’m going to tell you.” And he did, as much of the conversation he could remember and translate, but Kadou shook his head the whole time.
“No, no,” he said. “No, we’re not going anywhere near Siranos. Or his family.”
“My lord.” Evemer crushed down his frustration—would Kadou notlisten? “She, at least, is up to something.”
“Of course she is!” Kadou cried. “She’s the eldest daughter of a merchant family that’s in unfortunate financial straits. Whowouldn’tbe up to something? She probably has fifteen schemes going all at once! But what business is it of ours?”
“She could be linked to the counterfeits, the break-in. Siranos mentioned those papers that accused you—”
Kadou shook his head again and turned away, pulling off his kaftan and underlayer and replacing them with a thin linen night-shirt. He left the buttons at the collar undone.
Clavicles,Evemer’s brain pointed out helpfully. He shoved the thought away and tried to remember what his point had been.
“We’re not going to bully Siranos,” Kadou was saying. “We’re not going after his family. We’renot.”
“My lord,” Evemer said.
And for one more day after that, all was quiet.
There was a soft sound—a creak, hinges, the door. Kadou stirred and slitted his eyes open. It was still full dark, slivers of moonlight lighting the windowsills, and the rain had abated at long last.
“Evemer?” he mumbled, bleary. If it was past midnight, then Evemer would have had already gone off duty . . . “Melek?”
No answer. Kadou’s brain jangled with alarm, that instinctive screech of warning that saved people from tigers and wild boars in the forest—but this was his own room, and if Evemer wasn’t asleep or in the sitting room, then he’d be right outside the door, along with several other kahylar. Kadou was quite safe. It was only his tedious brain playing tricks on him again, pouncing on him in the middle of the night and shaking him to pieces like a dog with a rabbit in its teeth. Tiresome, useless thing.
He sighed and turned flat on his back, glaring up at the bed hangings above, willing his heart to calmdown,for gods’ sake, just calm.
Fear!his brain yowled.Danger! Hello, what if we’re about to die!
Fine,he thought back.Fine. Suppose you’re right. Suppose there is “danger.” What are we going to do about it, hmm? Are we going to do anything about it, or are we just going to lie here and let ourselves be torn to pieces by the tiger that’s somehow gotten into this room? What’s the plan?
The yowling part of his brain didn’t quite know what to do with that. It was almost as if it slunk back, a little embarrassed to be confronted with practical logic.Fear? Fear?
Shut up. If there’s a tiger in the room, then we grab a weapon and we yell for the kahyalar. Lots of weapons in here,he added sleepily, forcing his muscles to relax.Tear down the bed hangings to slow it down, then find the dagger in the nightstand and—
He froze again.
He strained to listen.
Fear,his brain insisted.
Hush,he replied.
Had he imagined that, or was there someone else breathing in this room?
He lay very, very still.
Bed hangings to slow them down. Dagger in the nightstand. Chair at the vanity, could be used to pummel someone. What else?
He shifted, very slowly, breathing as slow and silent as he could, his eyes wide to look into the darkest parts of the room. An instant later, Kadou was certain he saw movement.
More than one.
