The Sultan's Spy

Chapter 44: Truce

Eliska closed her eyes against the faint moonlight, her head tilted back as she exhaled slowly. The headache that had been plaguing her all day was still there. A late night, magic use, combined with everything she'd been trying to put together had borne painful fruit. She grimaced and hoped Lizina would indeed be back in the morning like Ajani had said. That would take some of the pressure off of her.

The shushing of footsteps through the grass had her opening her eyes. She waited quietly as Tariq came into view, his face hard to read in the dark. Eliska didn't say anything until he joined her on the bench, hoping he had something for her that would help resolve all of this. She eyed him for a moment, noting how stiffly he was sitting and the sharp edge to the look her gave her. That didn't bode well for her.

Still, she had to know. "Did you find anything out?"

Tariq nodded. "You weren't here yesterday."

Eliska shrugged. "I had some other business to take care of that happened to be at the same time. It was important." Inwardly she grimaced as the words left her mouth, wondering why she'd felt the need to justify herself. So what if Tariq thought she'd missed their meeting for no reason? He had already pulled himself back since finding out who she was, and that's the way it should be. Professional. Not like the kind of personal relationship he'd first wanted and been trying to push her towards. She shoved down the twinge of regret at that thought and focused back on Tariq.

He was frowning, but didn't push her. "I had an interesting meeting yesterday on my way here."

"Oh?"

"I was rather forcibly recruited by Khaliq last night. He wants me to report anything unusual I see directly to him, especially anything out of the ordinary among the scribes and requests that we get. He made it a point to mention that I'd be helping him, Israr, and the Sultan by doing this."

Eliska stared at Tariq for several seconds, eyes wide. Khaliq? Everyone-should-work-constantly Khaliq? The man she'd heard complain about receiving breaks and complain about others not working extra hours? He was recruiting spies among the spies? "You can't be serious!"

"Oh, I am. Or did you think that everyone in the Grand Vizier's office was perfect?" His tone was mocking and sarcastic.

Eliska glowered, but wasn't about to engage with Tariq. That would only encourage him. The curl of his lips made her decide not to tell him about the notes and the hint towards Israr. That would only encourage him and nothing she said would dissuade him. He'd already shown how stubborn he was about her brother and the rest of her family, even knowing her. She didn't need anything else to add to the sum of her headache. "This is serious. I'll have to report this as soon as I can, because if we're having multiple people trying to recruit scribes, then there's a higher chance something going through them is important. And you can't be everywhere at once, unfortunately."

"Not going to defend Khaliq?"

She snorted. "Everyone above a certain level spies on others. That's part of palace life. The higher you are, the more it matters. Knowing what your rivals and allies are doing, knowing about things before they happen, and being able to position yourself based on the changing winds of court is the best way to move up. With Israr's age, the in-fighting between Khaliq and Sirhan will be intense. One of them will almost certainly be chosen as Grand Vizier when Israr steps down or dies, so looking like they're more in the know than the other or seeming more effective than the other can make all the difference. Better yet if they can do something exceptional that will make Kasimer want to reward them, or at least be brought to his attention."

Tariq raised his eyebrows. "So this is normal to you?"

"No, not exactly. Spying I expect. Recruiting scribes is out of the norm, as far as I'm aware. If it was normal, we'd consistently have one of our people among the scribes. They do occasionally handle sensitive information, but most of it isn't things that are terribly useful in general. Paired with other knowledge they could potentially be interesting but I'm not certain. Have you seen anything that stuck out at you lately?"

"No. Mostly boring reports on equally boring meetings." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Then I'll see if there's been any important meetings that would affect things other people would care about, or things that people could use to turn a profit. That's usually what interests people who recruit spies."

"And you still don't think it's anyone in your family?"

Eliska just gave him a look. Tariq was like a one-tune minstrel at times, and she wondered if she smacked him if that would make him switch. Seeing the way his eyes were narrowed, she guessed not. It would probably just make him more certain that he was right and her whole family was evil. "My family is trying to fix this. It's being investigated from multiple angles, and while you have a deep-rooted prejudice against us, you could at least trust me enough to know I wouldn't tolerate the kind of mage we're after no matter where I found them."

"You're blind to any darkness within your family."

"As you're blind to any good within us. We keep having this same conversation and I'm getting tired of it. Can we just leave it as something we disagree on, unless one or both of us finds some new information to readdress it?"

Tariq held her gaze for several moments before he looked away with a sigh, his shoulders slumping. "Fine. It's not like I can convince you otherwise."

"The feeling's mutual," she replied dryly.

A hint of a smile lightened Tariq's face briefly, making Eliska feel a bit better. She genuinely liked Tariq, even if he frustrated her as much as he amused her. She wanted him to trust her. Wanted him to trust her family. But for now, she'd settle for a temporary truce. Though thinking of what Lizina wanted to do with him, she thought maybe, just maybe, Tariq had good reason to be suspicious of her family.