Chapter 13 What You Can Afford to Know #5
(Hoda-auntie’s sputtering he used as a gauge for how far he could press his catlike cuddling flirtations before he got himself snapped with her hand-towel again.)
The other knack he had learned from both cats and aunties was how to wriggle his way into the tangle of a thorny problem, and then make fixing it become everyone else’s problem.
And so, once he had twined his arm through his darling’s to cradle each bowl and guide him in the folding and creasing, once his chin was snuggled against his shoulder and Sami had relaxed enough that Ashar could feel it in the softness of his side and the settling of his breath, then he murmured, “So how shall we shelter you and your small cat-goddess from the coming of an inquisition?”
Sami immediately tensed up again.
“I — but — no, it is not for you to defend me, not any of you! I had not brought this question to the community to seek guardians; I sought to hear you, to reflect your voices and needs—”
“We’re not defending you, we’re defending your cat,” Mreret said, grooming a paw. “Big difference there.”
“And this is what community means,” Ashar told him, holding his hands to steady both his fragile leaf bowl and his unsteady heart.
“People who care about each other, who occupy themselves with everyone’s lives whether you asked them to or not — sometimes especially when you didn’t ask, if you have enough curious cats and aunties in your flock.
So let me ask again: How can we, of the community whom you seek to support, also support you? ”
“I… I don’t know…? But I couldn’t possibly ask…”
“Let me introduce you to one of the foundations of being in community with aunties and cats and bath-house gossip,” Ashar said. “Whether or not you are asking, we are insisting.”
“We are demanding,” Hoda-auntie said. “Because if some God-Emperor’s zealot thinks he can put down a queen, my towel and I will educate him.”
“Him?” Sami echoed, blinking.
“Tell me it’s not a him,” Basima-auntie said dryly.
“It could also be a her or several they—”
“It’s a him, isn’t it,” Hoda-auntie said.
“In this particular instance it is a him,” Sami admitted. “With a certain number of background they.”
“All right, who is he and how do we blackmail him?” Basima-auntie said.
Blinking in utter astonishment, Sami said faintly, “Good heavens. That is your very first thought?”
“If he’s a rich Imperial ponce, we don’t have enough gold to bribe him with, but blackmail works wonders when they’re all up in their human morality and caring who digs up the dirty secrets,” Mreret explained, tailtip twitching as though she saw a particularly tasty mouse lurking in a dark corner. “What’s his vice?”
“Who is he sleeping with that he shouldn’t be?” Hoda-auntie asked, scrubbing a poor leaf within an inch of shreds.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Sami protested. “This particular gentleman is among the most devoted and morally upright souls I have ever known.”
Ever practical, Basima-auntie looked at Ashar. “Can we pay you enough to get caught in bed with him?”
“That would be a gift, not a punishment,” Ashar said, with a certain irritated pride.
“Can we pay someone else enough to get caught in bed with him, then?”
“Still not seeing how he doesn’t just brag about more proof he’s desirable,” Mreret said, clawing a stack of several leaves into shape. “Can we pay someone enough to not mate with him? Loudly?”
“This is one of the places where humans and catfolk often need to agree to disagree,” Ashar said ruefully.
“Well, he’s got to have something we can threaten him with,” Basima-auntie said, stabbing holes for the pinning-slivers into the folded bowls with particular emphasis.
With a shuddering sigh, Sami said, “The courtly threats and the infighting are — I find it all so difficult, even before the threat of falsehoods. I would hate to wield a weapon that I loathe. Surely there must be some other option.”
“Do you want to win the catfight or not?” Mreret demanded, exasperated. “If you aren’t going to hiss or yowl or claw his nose, what are you going to do?”
“What are we going to do?” Ashar said, curving his hand to Sami’s again.
Sami leaned into his side for comfort, and asked, “Is there anything we can do to protect her? You know the ways of summoning, Master Asharan. Sahar would not be in danger if she were not bonded to me in particular. Could we persuade another enchanter to — to magically adopt her, or something of the sort?”
“Her heart and soul made its choice when she chose you,” Ashar murmured, knowing he did not speak only of the cat.
“And I am profoundly honored,” Sami said, tremulous. “But for her safety’s sake…”
“If you deny her that bond, you deny her the foundation of the magic that supports her living incarnation, with the love and the power your own heart gives her,” Ashar said. “Another enchanter could summon another cat-spirit, but it would not be your Sahar and her kittens-to-be.”
“Well, then.” Sami bent his head to try to mask the glimmer in his eyes. “I am truly sorry that — that she is in danger b-because she chose me.” He twined his fingers between Ashar’s and squeezed a little, and Ashar suspected that he was not speaking entirely of the cat either.
Ashar lifted his hand and kissed the back of it softly. “Her choice of whom to love is her own,” he said.
“Mrrrt,” Sahar agreed, shoving her damp nose into the crook of Sami’s ankle and producing a startling shriek.
“AAAAH—! Sahar, what are you doing here? Did you walk all this way— you were supposed to stay with—” Sami cut himself short as she climbed into his lap. She padded a soft little circle, kneading a soft spot against his thigh, then settled down with a huff and began to groom a paw.
“Oh, she’s a beauty, isn’t she,” Hoda-auntie cooed.
Stroking her fur gently, Sami stammered, “Why…? How…?”
“Let me guess,” Ashar said, delighted. “You’ve been having trouble keeping her behind particular doors?”
“I had no idea how difficult cats could be to contain,” he admitted with a sigh. “Ya habibti, why on earth did you come all this way…?”
“She is a part of your heart,” Ashar told him, scritching the soft nook behind her ear gently.
“And your heart was greatly troubled for her sake. Of course she would come to see to your well-being. And even regular cats can be a challenge to herd. Cat-familiars so new-made that they still remember what it is to slip between spaces even more easily than breath? Well… good luck keeping her and her kittens enclosed anywhere they don’t wish to remain.
Not without a great deal of warding in all six directions and at least two extra dimensions.
You might keep cats out with the haveli’s warding, but as a result I’m quite confident that the same warding was never intended to keep cats in. ”
“Oh, dear,” Sami said, visibly distraught even through the veil.
“You mean oh good,” Mreret said loftily. “If you don’t have the balls and the claws to protect her, then maybe she’ll protect you instead, like one of her kittens.”
“And good luck to the zealot who wants her in a cage,” Basima-auntie said, grinning.
“I wish that were all he wanted,” Sami said, stroking her side gently. “He is greatly concerned about the nature of our soul-bond. And I know so little of it that I didn’t even realize she could follow me. Is it true that a sorcerer could use her against me…?”
Ashar sighed. “Well, yes. But it wouldn’t have to be a sorcerer. You love her. She loves you. That is leverage enough, is it not? You have already come to Bastet’s Temple seeking a way to protect her from someone who does not need any magical power at all to threaten you both.”
Drooping, Sami murmured, “Is he right, then?”
“Right about what?” Hoda-auntie asked. “That love makes you vulnerable? Yes. That love makes you desperate? Yes. But if anyone thought they could use my love for my children against me, they would not think it for long.”
“Your hand-towel is most assuredly valiant, Hoda-auntie, but—”
“Hand-towel? I’d get a fire-poker and break their jaw.” She reached over and patted his hand. “But I understand you have a gentler soul, beta.”
“I still think blackmail’s our best idea so far,” Basima-auntie said.
“We are not blackmailing anyone,” Sami said.
“Because that never ends well for anyone, and even if it did, it would only protect one small cat from one particular individual. I hope to protect many more cats and more humans, both great and small, and to admit them on equal footing, with equal care.”
“Easier for the eye to see than the hand to reach,” Hoda-auntie said.
“Especially without blackmail,” Basima-auntie added, stabbing another bowl.
“You can’t cook halawa without fire,” Ashar said, smiling. “But we must begin with kindling. How can we comfort your zealot’s particular concerns about your own soul-bond?”
“I wish I knew,” Sami murmured. “By the letter of both the God-Emperor’s scripture and Bastet’s own, he is undoubtedly correct about the heresy of my soul-bonding, given how many cats seem to believe they are goddesses to demand their humans’ worship.”
“We don’t believe,” Mreret said, “we know.”
“….You are not aiding my defense here.”
“Facts are facts,” Mreret said, with a full-body shrug. “It’s not my fault if they’re inconvenient.”
“And love has no defense, of course,” he said, studying the somewhat lopsided bowl in his hands.
“Love is its own defense,” Hoda-auntie told him. “And love makes its own defense. I need to find you a fire-poker.”
“And anyone who plays cruel games with a cat is going to find claws in his face,” Basima-auntie agreed. “Ask your zealot what he would do to one of us if we threaten a vulnerable soul he loves. If he is capable of love.”
“He is,” Sami said softly, stroking Sahar’s round, velvet-warm flank. “I would not pit any of us against him if I had a choice. Is there some way I might fortify her soul against sorcerous intrusions?”
Blinking a bit, Ashar said, “I’m sorry, what?”