Tales of the Djinn: The Double (16 page)

It was rich for him to be questioning her. She wasn’t a murdering ifrit. “What I do isn’t your business.”

He laughed softly. “Your mulishness hasn’t changed. Come.” He stroked the side of one of the arms she’d folded beneath her breasts. “Have coffee with me. There’s a little place nearby where we can talk. No one will look twice at us.”

He was her brother, and his manner had its old charm. He’d been wonderful when his moods were sunny: fun and loving and extraordinarily quick-witted. Their parents had been so proud of him. They’d denied the signs of what his less sunny side might do. In truth, he’d been all their favorite—Balu not excepted.

Ramis must be lonely without them to adore him.

“I’ll share one pot,” she relented. “I can’t stay out all night with you.”

The coffee shop was in the cellar of a nearby building, the entrance accessed from the alley they walked along. The moment they stepped in she understood why he’d said no one would look twice at them. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t veiled her face. The place was smoky and packed and everyone in it was strangely garbed.

Ramis pushed through the crowd to grab a small table with floor cushions. As she sat, Yasmin goggled at the colorful young people around them. “Why are they dressed up?”

“This is a cosplay club.”

“A what?”

“Costume play. They use their magic to disguise themselves as different human characters. That’s Beyoncé and Prince Harry and I believe that fellow over there in the sunglasses is a Hollywood director.”

“And I thought view cafés were strange.”

Ramis shrugged, the shoulders of his black suit going up and down. “Humans fascinate our kind. Always have and probably always will.”

He spoke as if he were the same kind as her. Yasmin decided not to comment. “They don’t seem worried about curfew.”

She’d heard the commander had established one for djinn under twenty-one, at least until order was restored.

“They probably know the police are too busy to enforce it.” He dug a golden coin from his pocket, waving it toward a coffee boy as a way of placing their order.

“You’re supporting yourself,” Yasmin said.

“Needs must,” Ramis said dryly. “Since my silver spoon was forcibly removed from my privileged mouth. Tell me, do you ever wonder why human parents forgive their offspring countless sins, but ours cannot bend at all?”

“I’m not sure that’s true,” Yasmin said. “We don’t know what all of them are like.”

“Perhaps,” Ramis said, but not as if her opinion had shifted his.

The coffee boy returned. He set a small shining samovar and a pair of cups and saucers on their table. Ramis handed him the coin before drawing her a serving.

Yasmin pulled the coffee closer but didn’t sip. “Why are you back?”

“I missed my family. I know I can’t stay in the Glorious City, but I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

She had no idea if this were true. Ramis had never hesitated to lie when it suited him. “Balu has gone missing,” she said and watched his expression.

His eyes widened. “Missing? Since when?”

“Soon after the sorceress’s spell was broken.” She pulled a face. “Or half broken.”

“But . . . what happened?”

“No one knows. I’m here trying to find out.”

“Here?”

“A girl disappeared from the bathhouse too, around the same time.”

“Was she friends with Balu?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

Ramis leaned back straight-armed from the table. He seemed genuinely shocked. “But why are
you
looking for him? Why not Father or the police?”

“You said it yourself: the police have other concerns. I thought my cat form might hear something they couldn’t.”

“And has it?”

Was this question too eager? “It’s too soon to tell.”

Ramis dropped a sugar cube into his coffee cup. He stirred with his eyes on her. “Shouldn’t you speak to the higher ups at the palace? Someone with authority could put their weight behind the investigation—not that I mean to tell you your duty.”

“Perhaps I will speak to them,” she said, “though there’s no guarantee they’ll listen. I’m not an important harem girl.”

“Well.” He stirred some more, his sugar surely dissolved by then. “You’re important enough to be missed if you’re not back in your room soon. I don’t want to get you into trouble.”

For someone who wanted to make sure she was all right, he suddenly seemed eager to have her go. She pushed her untouched coffee away and rose. “Should we try to meet again?”

Ramis’s head had turned, his attention caught by a very large tattooed djinni just then coming in the door. The newcomer’s size was noteworthy. He was at least six-six, thickly built, and no teenager. If that weren’t enough to draw glances, the pattern of the ink he wore was unusual: thorny black swirls that appeared to cover all his skin—even underneath his clothes. Magic flickered at the marks’ edges, causing Yasmin to wonder if this too were a “cosplay” disguise.

Though the gesture was subtle, she was almost certain the tattooed man and Ramis exchanged nods.

“What did you say?” Ramis asked, turning back to her.

Instinct kept her from inquiring if he knew the other man. “I asked if we should try to meet again.”

“That would be wonderful. I’ll see if I can send you a sign somehow. Let me walk you out and make sure you change safely.”

His response was affectionate and smooth and she didn’t trust it all. Was she like her parents, unable to see past his sin?

“Thank you,” she said, her head lowered modestly to hide her thoughts. “That would be kind of you.”

~

Yasmin had the journey back to the palace to decide what she ought to do. Ramis was her brother and perhaps was serving a hard sentence, cut off from all he knew. He’d always cared for Balu and had a vested interest in helping him. Joseph the Magician was simply a distant figure she had a tendre for. She had even less reason to trust the commander’s human companion. By failing to keep her informed, Elyse had already let her down. To add to the confusion, Yasmin’s own motivations were suspect.

Maybe she was more interested in seeking attention from the object of her crush than in finding her brother. She hoped that wasn’t true. It certainly wouldn’t reflect well on her.

She wasn’t sure she’d decided even when she stopped outside Joseph’s apartments. The magician was inside. Her cat nose could scent him.

All right,
she thought, lifting her forepaw to give the door a bat.
Here goes nothing.

~

Joseph’s thoughts were on the portal in the palace’s treasure room, which he’d just returned from checking on. The magicians he’d assigned to charging it were working around the clock in shifts. They’d made good progress, but as yet the nexus wasn’t more than a quarter charged. If he put more men on it, other city services would suffer. If he didn’t, it would take that much longer to start their search for Iksander and the sorceress in the human realm. He’d have said a prayer for patience if he’d thought it would work. He only hoped the bath he was preparing for would help him sleep a few hours tonight.

A rattling at the door brought his head up from disrobing. It wasn’t a knock—more like something soft batting on the wood. Not alarmed but cautious, he retrieved his scimitar from the bed and went to see what had caused the disturbance.

He opened the door, saw nothing, then jumped as a small black streak zipped past his ankles into the room.

“Stop that,” he said, recognizing the cat by its three white socks and its crooked tail. “You’re not supposed to come in here.”

He strode toward the creature, but the cat dodged the other way. Its furry shoulder hit the door, bumping it closed again. Joseph’s skin tingled with awareness. That wasn’t normal feline behavior. The cat sat and looked at him. To himself, he admitted he was impressed. Generally speaking, he could spot shifting magic a mile away.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re not a cat, you’re a djinni in cat form. Perhaps you’d like to take your real shape so we can talk.”

The cat blinked, lowered its head, and shimmered back to its actual self.

Joseph got his second shock. The cat was a young woman—and a beautiful one at that. Her luxurious garb was that of a harem girl.

He couldn’t imagine what she was doing here.

“Forgive me,” she said, lowering her head humbly. Her uncovered hair was long and shining. “I know my being here isn’t proper, but I need to speak to you on a matter of importance.”

He managed to shut his jaw before she glanced up at him. She looked down again at once. The color on her soft cheeks heightened.
Shit
. He stood before her in nothing but trousers. Probably he was lucky he wore that much. He grabbed a robe and tied it.

“Who are you?” he demanded, perhaps a bit rudely.

She’d clutched her hands together in front of her. “My name is Yasmin. The commander’s human was gracious enough to see me the other day.”

His memory clicked. “You’re the girl whose brother went missing.”

She seemed relieved that he remembered. “Yes. His name is Balu. I’ve been . . . scouting the city in search of him. That’s how I heard about the other children who disappeared.”

A harem girl had been running around the city as a cat? He didn’t bother asking if she had permission. In a million years, Iksander’s mother wouldn’t have given it. A serious beating would be the least she’d face if her actions were discovered. She was Iksander’s possession, sworn to obey his rule. Under more conservative administrations, what she’d done would constitute treason.

He rubbed the frown lines beside his mouth. “Perhaps this conversation calls for tea.”

Deciding he wasn’t in immediate danger, he set the scimitar on the table so he could brew the drink. Yasmin must have been impatient. She didn’t wait for him to finish.

“I think my other brother is involved somehow,” she blurted.

Joseph turned to face her again. “Your
other
brother?”

“His name is Ramis. Five years ago, when he was nineteen, his best friend of won an honor he’d been hoping to claim himself. Ramis accused him of cheating. When the friend refused to say he had, my brother stabbed him in the heart. It was clear he hadn’t killed him by accident. He’d used an enchanted knife that blocked his friend from healing. The murder turned him ifrit and my parents disowned him.”

“And you think he’s involved because—?”

She wrung her hands. “Ramis showed up near the bathhouse. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone, but no one told me anything, and I had to see if I could find clues to what was going on.”

“You
had
to,” Joseph said.

“No one told me anything,” the girl repeated. “I’m worried about Balu. Anyway, me running around in my cat form isn’t what’s important.”

Under the circumstances, Joseph supposed that was true. Giving up on preparing tea, he poured some brandy into a snifter and handed it to her. “What did Ramis do that made you suspicious?”

She drank the liquor down and coughed. “He was there, for one thing, where the other girl disappeared. I saw the guard the commander put on the other bath boy. I think Ramis or whoever he’s working with might have come back to try for him.”

“But you didn’t see him try for him.”

“Well, the police guard was in his room—not blending very well, by the way. And then when Ramis recognized me in my cat shape, he told me to change out of it so we could talk and have coffee. I think he wanted to discover what I knew.”

“Why would he think you knew anything?”

“Because he knows I was accepted into the harem, and we—” She gnawed her lip and stopped.

“You hear lots of good gossip there?”

“Yes.” She seemed grateful he understood. “If these missing children have been the target of a criminal operation, whoever’s running it would want to know if the official investigation is close to closing in. They’ll be wondering if they dare take more djinn, or if they should settle for what they have and run. That’s what I’d ask if it were me.”

Her conclusions were a leap but not illogical. Joseph retrieved the empty glass her fingers were clamped on. He offered to pour more brandy in it, but she shook her head.

“You believe me, don’t you?” she asked earnestly.

He wasn’t ready to say that. “Why bring this story to me? I gather you were impatient, but why not seek out Elyse? Surely speaking to a woman would be easier.”

Yasmin blushed even harder than she had at seeing him without a shirt. “I, um, it seemed as if she might be busy. I didn’t wish to interrupt.”

Joseph’s own cheeks heated. He realized she meant interrupt Elyse with her two lovers. That juicy morsel of disinformation would have reached the harem too. Actually, he wasn’t sure how much
dis
there was in the information. His original employer’s fascination with Elyse hadn’t escaped him.

“I see,” he said and cleared his throat. “I’m afraid the commanders will want to hear your account. Do you suppose, since you’ve already spoken to me, that you’d be willing to address them directly? We’d be discreet about it, obviously.”

Yasmin bowed her head. “I could do that. I want to be helpful.”

Her pose was a picture of grace and modesty, exactly what a dutiful harem girl should be. Her tone, he couldn’t help but notice, was the teensiest bit eager.

He glanced at the pendulum of a nearby table clock. Yasmin had already pushed her luck by sneaking from her rooms. Even if she were agreeable to staying, for her sake, he didn’t dare keep her with him for the remainder of the night. The best thing would be to take her to the commanders immediately, thus giving her a chance to get back where she belonged before sunrise. The only drawback was popping in on the threesome unannounced.

“Are we going now?” Yasmin asked hopefully.

Joseph sighed to himself. “We’re going now,” he confirmed.

~

Cade was deeply asleep one moment and shockingly alert the next. A rustle of sheets informed him Arcadius had just sat up on the divan. Cade’s hand moved protectively to Elyse’s hip. Reaching out to her was instinctive—for his double as well, it seemed.