Bee rolled her eyes. “That’s exactly what he’s going to do. Instead of using reasoned words and rational arguments, the kind you would once have insisted on back when you were sensible and heartless, he will use kisses to seduce you back into his arms.”
Ignoring her, Vai addressed me. “Seeing that the hour was late when we returned, I acquired a room for the night. We might speak privately there if you will, Catherine.”
The axe blow of Bee’s gaze struck me full on. “You who so proudly claimed at the academy that you did not fall in love with every handsome face you encountered! Now I look at you and despair!”
Vai’s slyest smile crept light-foot onto his lips. “You can’t possibly believe she could encounter a handsomer man. So by that logic, she is safe.”
“Enough!” I got to my feet as Bee sputtered more from laughter than from indignation. “I will speak to you, Andevai, if only to spare the others any more of this.”
“Chartji,” Vai added as he stood, “we need to be ready to take legal action as soon as an auspicious opening presents itself.”
She whistled a few colorful notes. To my surprise he answered with a short melodic pattern. Her crest flared. Then she chuffed a laugh and flashed me a toothy grin. I made my good nights to the others, not that I felt at all flushed and self-conscious for leaving them in this way.
Vai had taken a chamber on the street side of the troll wing, a tiny room with a bed, a clothes rack, a dressing table and chair placed under the shuttered window, and barely enough room to turn around. The chamber was scrupulously clean, with fresh linen on the bed and plank floors still damp from being scrubbed. A basin, three pitchers of water, and a leather satchel rested on the table. A knock came on the door. Vai opened it to reveal Rory, who handed over the leather bag Vai had brought for me. Rory stepped into the little room to hug me, pressing his cheek to mine before letting go, then paused in the door to wish us a peaceful night.
Vai lifted an eyebrow as with a question. Rory rubbed a hand over his lips in a way that reminded me of a cat grooming with a paw, and then smiled and shut the door.
“I can’t sleep on the other side of the tavern, for I would put out all the fires,” Vai remarked as he set the bag under the clothes rack. “I had to ask them to take out the nests and arrange the room for rats.” He untied his kerchief. “They all expect me to use my wiles and caresses, but as you know, Catherine, I have practice in denying myself what I most desire.”
“Do you? At the mage House, I began to think what you most desired was the flattery and the attention of the other magisters and noblemen.”
“Was I that unkind to you?”
“You weren’t unkind. You were too kind. You were a little condescending. And you refused to see what was going on all around you.”
He shrugged out of the cutaway jacket and tossed it with the kerchief on the bed. “You know I will not force you to stay in a place that seems to you a prison. I admit I could not hear your complaints because I was too overwhelmed by my victory. But Lord of All, love, you might not have chosen such words to shake me.”
He meant the accusation I had thrown after him. “I spoke my worst fear, that you would become one of them.”
With a frown he wedged the back of the chair under the latch and sat on it to wrestle off his boots. “I am one of them.”
“You are not like your tormenters!” I sat on the bed, searching out the words I wanted to say without beating him over the head with them. “You are vain, my love. And you stand a little high upon your pride. I think Rory is right, that you are a tiny bit ashamed of where you come from and who your mother is, and then naturally because you are at heart a good son and a good man, you are ashamed of being ashamed.”
He set the boots against the wall, not looking at me, but I knew Rory’s words had made an impression on him. I also knew that as much as he struggled to control his worst impulses, he would never be a restful person to deal with. Rather like Bee, no matter what she thought about herself! Yet he had come back to face censure rather than walk away to a life he could easily lead without me.
“I do see what is going on among the mages, love, but that does not mean I will let it deter me. I never did before, and I will not now.” He examined me in the most searching way. “I do see you cannot live within the mage Houses as they are currently run. Even if I asked you to, I see that you will not. What do you mean to do, Catherine?”
“Kill James Drake. Camjiata believes he controls Drake, but Drake must be using catch-fires. If Drake becomes as powerful as Queen Anacaona, do you believe he will behave as she did, with respect for the law and the ancestors? What will happen to the general’s legal code then?”
He held my gaze. “You must promise me you will not challenge him unless there is absolutely no risk to you.”
“Like stabbing him in the back?”
“You have no way to defend yourself if he uses you as a catch-fire!”
“Even fire mages have to sleep. Of course I will be prudent.”
“It would be the first time,” he muttered. “I would feel better if you took Rory with you to watch your back.”
“I will. Vai, you must promise me you will not become the mage the mansa wants you to be.”
“I will not become that man. No matter how it may seem, I have had no change of heart. It always has been Kofi and the radicals of Expedition I stand with, since the day I met him. Just as it has always and only been you for me, Catherine, from the moment I saw you. But above everything, you and I must trust each other.”
Let kisses fall where they may: Desire may flourish or wither in the space of a breath. Trust is a rock that will withstand every storm.
I extended a hand. He took it between his. “I give you my trust, Vai.”
“Always,” he echoed. Releasing my hand, he rose to begin unbuttoning his waistcoat. “But next time, love, warn me beforehand so I can be prepared, or we can work out some better scheme.”
The practiced way his fingers worked the rounded pearl buttons distracted me.
“Catherine? Had you something to say?”
“Oh! Yes. Why not tell the mansa I escaped so as to prove what a valuable spy I can be?”
“Why would they believe such a story?” He tossed his waistcoat on top of the jacket.
“They won’t know for sure, will they? If the mansa truly means you to be his heir, then he must allow you to prove yourself. As an explanation, it may serve to put them on the defensive…”
As he pulled off his shirt, I forgot what I was going to say.
“Go on,” he said.
At the dressing table he poured water into the basin and set in on his evening ablutions, washing his face and teeth and then using a damp cloth to wipe down his bare torso. In the midst of this he paused, wrinkling his brow as he pretended to be puzzled by my silence.
“Catherine? Had you more to say?”
A wave of aggravation swept me. Curse the man for being so attractive. “Andevai, those are gorgeous clothes and you look very handsome in them… or out of them… but if you do not hang them on the clothes rack they will get creased and rumpled.”
He pulled me up off the bed and into his arms with such strength that my toes briefly left the ground. He was not minded to be subtle or coaxing or patient. I floated, the heady pleasure of his kiss like ambrosia, as it always was.
When we paused he spoke in a murmur against my cheek as his hands began to wander their familiar paths. “What makes you think I care?”
I slapped his hand. “Of course you care! Anyway, I can’t bear to see such expensive clothes treated so carelessly. I shall do it, if you will not.”
He sat us on the bed and undid the double row of buttons on my cuirassier’s jacket. “Very well. Did you repair this, love? This is what you were wearing when you were shot. I would have thought it must have been cut off you.”
“I did not want to throw away what they had almost ruined. It felt too much like defeat.”
“It’s beautiful work, making something new out of what was torn.”
“They always think they are about to defeat us. For so long we have been at their mercy.” I grinned. “But
