Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

67. Like Cats and Assassins

Taffiz loomed in the library's doorway. "Ishmara? Are you back with us?"

"Just the man I wanted to see!" I allowed the laugh to burst out of me. It was so good to stretch my shoulders, roll my chest forward and laugh. The will of the Divines was clear. "Taffiz! You win! You win!"

His tall forehead creased with concern. "Tell me, what day is it?"

I suppressed a giggle. "It's the twentieth day of the Third month."

"My preparation was flawless," Xenophonta's voice wafted from further down the hall. "Mother shouldn't be delirious."

Taffiz's hand grabbed the door frame as he leaned into the hallway, supple as the cats weaving around my legs. "It was, young Mistress, but we don't call Ashanti the herb of unrest for nothing. Two drops of valerian—"

"—in a clear cool liquid. The same as for insomnia and half of the dose for hysteria."

Wonderful, now Xenophonta finished Taffiz' sentences. I could survive one of them around, but both? I wasn't so sure.

"Indeed." A proud, almost paternal smile curved Taffiz' lips. Thankfully, Kozima didn't witness this exchange. He'd have a fit.

Xenophonta's steps receded down the hall.

Taffiz slipped into the library, closing the door. His over-pruned brow lifted. "You were saying I won? What did I win?"

"The argument! Yes, I shall allow this Duke to empty his treasury to pay me for tweaking the Tigress' tail! Yes, I will do it despite the tide of history swelling against me. Yes, yes and yes!" My legs wouldn't stop moving. I twirled around the oak table.

"Why?"

"Because I want to. Oh!" I uplifted a finger to draw his full attention to the clever thing I had just thought of. "I have a mission for you. A challenge you've asked for."

He stalked around the table with careful steps of a hunter to catch me by the elbows and peer into my eyes. "Perhaps, you should consider it after Xenophonta administers the valerian solution. I vowed to do your bidding, but I prefer the heart's deepest wish conceived in a calmer state of mind."

"Taffiz, the drug agitates me, yes, but look closer. I'm not addled by it. It simply cracked the plaster of defeat and shook it clean from my soul."

I didn't fight out of his grip. The irrepressible hope, the exhilaration of the fight and the noble instinct to save the poor Duke filled me to the brim. He'd read it on my face, plain as day.

At length, his fingers slipped away from my elbows. His gaze flicked to the Duke Nirav's portrait pinned to the lamp. "I should have known that nothing would send you back into the fray faster than a pretty face whining for rescue."

Taffiz's lips were so thin, they always gave the impression of being on the verge of being pinched. But the bitter twist was new.

"And my task is...?" he asked flatly.

"You'll love it!" I pulled one of the chairs, sat down and dipped the pen into the inkwell. The cats instantly abandoned the tassels on my shoes to hop on the table. One skidded across the polished surface and tumbled to the floor on the other side. The other managed to land. It rolled over the piece of paper I'd just smoothed out.

Taffiz caught the third cat in the air and juggled him in his arms. "Useless creatures."

"They are wonderful mousers," I argued. "Without them, all my books would be devoured."

"Poison would do the trick without the aggravation and clumps of hair sticking to everything."

While he expelled the hissing cat from the library, then strived to throw two more cats out without letting the first to re-infiltrate it, I scribbled on one sheet of paper after another. I crumpled them all, tossing them way out into the hall. All three cats pounced after the irresistible paper balls, trying to reach them before their brethren. "That's how you do it."