Chapter 15 The High Priest’s Judgment #4
Of them all, Shai Vishal seemed to have the most difficulty with quiet and stillness.
Najra’s silverpoint was busily flicking away at whatever observations she made of Faraj’s breathing and his posture and any hints of discomfort; Kamil had years of daily practice in silent, watchful waiting; and Irfan could make himself as gracefully unobtrusive as the palace draperies when he so chose.
But Shai Vishal was the High Priest of Upaja, and empty cups and neglected bowls clearly cried out to something deep in his soul that needed to nourish people.
He topped up each of the kulhad on the table with fresh hot chai, then cut smaller squares from the broadleaf and set sliced rounds of bread-wrapped barida and little heaps of almonds and dates and dried apricots and spiced cheeses in easier reach for each of them.
Then he folded his hands to wait in exactly the same way Irfan had.
Faraj realized that all three of them might have learned from the same instructors in comportment, many years ago.
When he could breathe properly again, Faraj said, “Thank you.”
He’d expected Irfan to pull away and put his poised facade back together, but instead Irfan still held his hands, and bent his head.
“Has that enchanter stolen your heart as well?” he murmured. “Because there were many, many easier ways to come by a cat than this one.”
Faraj couldn’t let his hands tighten, couldn’t catch his breath, couldn’t blink.
“Your Highness?”
“You can’t possibly expect him to answer that, given what you’re trying to do to a cat that he loves,” Najra grumbled. “Don’t tell me you’d be happier if he’d brought home a bastard instead of a cat.”
“If you had brought home a bastard, your Highness, I would have known what to do,” Irfan said, with a strained effort at a smile. “Your brothers have set that precedent quite thoroughly.”
“I’m sure many of the court would have preferred that,” Faraj said, but his voice trembled despite himself. “I wish I could have brought you a bastard. I wish… I wish I could be… other than I am.”
Kamil’s purring curdled into a growl.
Najra closed her palm-book with a snap. “I love you exactly as you are,” she said. “I have from the day we met. Kamil loves you exactly as you are. He wouldn’t still be here if he didn’t. Irfan?”
“I love, honor, and respect the man you are, your Highness,” his Chamberlain said.
“It has been my life’s privilege to serve you to the best of my ability.
I have not set myself against you in this to hurt you, but to protect you.
Because I am hardly the only member of your brother’s illustrious court who knows the edicts. ”
Shai Vishal asked, “You will not withdraw your complaint, then?”
“I cannot,” Irfan said. “Who am I to question the edicts of my god incarnate?”
“Fortunately, you have me for that,” Najra pointed out. “Don’t your priests have sharp things to say about bastards too? Oh wait, my mistake, they only howl invective against the women who bear them.”
“One revolutionary heresy at a time, please,” Shai Vishal said, rubbing his temples.
“How is it heresy if I’m right? Unless, of course, you’re saying that the God-Emperor’s holy writs are wrong, for rightness to be heresy.”
“Archivist, please,” Irfan said, wincing.
“Would you mind waiting until after the Greater Convocation to provoke the next crisis of faith, Most Learned?” Shai Vishal asked her. “My hands are already quite full at the moment. And I am certain you have stored up no shortage of provocations.”
“I am extremely well prepared with provocations,” Najra agreed, with that sharply toothy grin.
“Now, your Eminence,” Shai Vishal said to the Chamberlain, “I understand you are a courtier as well as the head of his Highness’ personal household.
Suppose we consider the potential rumors here.
Would you prefer the gossips chatter that, here in the city of catfolk, his Highness is inordinately fond of a particular cat?
Or would you prefer they say his Highness is inordinately fond of a particular courtesan?
If I were in your position, I would at least strongly consider the cat. ”
“A courtesan,” the Chamberlain repeated. “Not an enchanter.”
Faraj’s heart skipped a beat, and his breath caught on the sudden knot in his throat.
“Would you not prefer the gossips speak of a courtesan with intimate charms rather than of an enchanter with mind-altering charms?” Shai Vishal asked.
“Your Reverence, unless I am somehow fever-addled, that was my own complaint entirely.”
“Not quite entirely,” Shai Vishal said. “When the gossips speak of enchanters with mind-altering charms, they whisper under their breath in fear. When they speak of cats with mind-altering charms, they laugh and say yes, of course, isn’t she a sweet kitty, our little mistress of all she surveys.”
“That is what makes a cat-familiar the most insidious of disguises for charm-influences, your Reverence.”
“You’re not wrong,” Shai Vishal said, and Faraj felt his heart sink.
“But we all knew that. The question I must weigh upon is not only which of you is most correct by the word of your holy writ, but also what the consequences of each conclusion may be, for this city, the five realms, and our shared humanity.”
“Don’t forget my diagrams,” Najra said. “Which I will deploy if I must.”
“I assure you, Most Learned, I have not forgotten your diagrams,” Shai Vishal said, with a grave nod. “I believe all of us are clear on what you would do, should I judge in a way that displeases you. I am nearly certain I know what you would do as well, your Highness.”
“I’ve been …trying not to foresee it,” Faraj admitted. He couldn’t bear the thought of it, couldn’t bear even to glance toward those shadows, couldn’t imagine asking Kamil… no.
“I know that cat-familiars can be resummoned into incarnation, but I believe your Highness would choose not to, if I told you that I judged it necessary.”
He couldn’t speak around the lump in his throat, but he managed to nod.
“That leaves you, your Eminence. You are the one I am least certain of. What will you do if I judge in a way that displeases you?”
“My displeasure is irrelevant to your judgment of holy writ.”
“That’s not what I asked,” Shai Vishal said.
“But my displeasure must be irrelevant,” Irfan said, clearly startled. “Or else you are not as impartial as we believed, when we came to you in trust.”
“But any judgment is flawed if I do not also consider the judgment’s impact,” Shai Vishal said.
“I have recently heard the voices of the people of the city, of the priestesses of the Temple, and of mages ranging from gutter-witches to the Archmage. Did you know that the considered opinion of the catfolk community includes such pragmatic notions as ignoring the God-Emperor’s ‘yowling’ and vanishing into smaller shapes to dart out the window when the tax collectors knock? ”
“I am not in the least surprised to hear it. Who spoke it to you, so that we may correct the flaws in their consideration of Imperial law?”
“Interesting,” Shai Vishal said. “That was not why I told you that tale.”
“Should it not have been?”
“Not when I also speak on behalf of those whose voices you have not heard,” Shai Vishal said.
“Just yesterday I have heard voices among the community who say that his Highness has enough guards of his own, but the people of Bastet’s faith would fiercely defend his Highness’ small cat for her own sake.
And I know roughly which tales the priests of the Greater Convocation would carry home to hundreds of cities and temples across the breadth of the Empire, if the God-Emperor’s grasp on power was seen to be so tenuous that one opinionated cat-spirit, be it cat-goddess or cat-demon or cat-whatever, was enough to unbalance His prophet’s guidance of the Empire. ”
“And those priests would carry so many reference notes with them,” Najra said helpfully, prying the seed out of an apricot. “I’ve been researching which of them would most love to hear all about it.” She popped a slice into her mouth and chewed.
“But so far, this matter has not come to the attention of the God-Emperor Himself, or none of you would be asking me,” Shai Vishal said.
“Your Eminence, if my judgment displeases you, you can also make your displeasure known to many other powerful men. Several of them would be as delighted by your displeasure as the Archivist’s rival priests will be with hers.
How many weapons will both of you hand to the God-Emperor’s own rivals in your quest to be the most righteously correct? ”
The Chamberlain swayed as though he’d been struck. Faraj put an arm around him hastily.
“It’s — that’s not why—”
“Your why is much less relevant to me than your what next,” Shai Vishal said.
“In my judgment. So I ask again, your Eminence: If my judgment displeases you, what will you do then? How far will you go? And how far will you allow that choice to press upon both the throne and the man you have sworn your life to?”
Numbly, the Chamberlain said, “But if I have seen the change in his Highness’s aspect, then so have a hundred other servants. If I have seen the holy edicts, then so have a hundred other noblemen, a hundred other priests…”
“That’s why we take control of the storytelling,” Najra said.
“Sure, everyone has seen the edicts about the sins of compelling undead spirits to unholy and unnatural obedience — and let me point out unholy obedience is not what you get from a cat-spirit. But everyone has also seen the edicts about the sins of adultery and gambling and public intoxication, and look how much difference those have made.”
“His Highness would never be seen gambling!” Irfan protested, shocked. “He is a prophet; it would be profoundly unfair for him to wager at dice!”
“Of course his Highness wouldn’t cheat at dice,” Shai Vishal said, with almost a hint of a smile.