The Sultan's Spy

Chapter 11: Alliance

"What in the name of the seven flaming pits do you think you're doing?" she hissed, dropping her basket to the ground, only keeping herself from yelling with the knowledge that her neighbours were probably still outside.

Tariq raised his eyebrows as he leaned back against the door, posture casual like he hadn't just blundered right into the middle of her job. "I thought I was saving you from your oh-so-respectable neighbours."

She took a step closer, hands clenching into fists. "You nearly blew my cover! And what am I supposed to do now? I was pretending to have a husband and now they all think that's you! How am I supposed to keep this up when you leave? I can't bring in anyone else now, like I was planning before."

He shrugged. "I planned to stick around. It's obvious we're investigating the same thing, or close enough that sharing information just makes sense. We can help each other out, double our efforts."

Eliska tossed her head and snorted. "What possible reason could I have for sharing information with you?"

"Because I can go where you can't, just like you can go where I can't. Sharing information will give us both a more complete picture of what's really happening. And just in case you're wondering, I've been hired to find a boy taken by slavers, to retrieve him if I can, destroy the slavers if I can't."

She narrowed her eyes. She couldn't deny what she'd heard about the rich man's son being taken, couldn't deny that she was looking into the slavers as well, couldn't deny that they did keep running into each other. They seemed to have similar ideas for how to investigate and it was only a matter of time before they'd find themselves thrown together again.

It might be better to work with him rather than against. It wasn't as if she could ignore him anymore, couldn't pretend she didn't know him. And he'd already run headfirst into her life here and she wouldn't be able to get rid of him for this cover. Starting over would be a waste, and it seemed she'd inevitably just be stuck with him again through her investigation.

Eliska studied him for a moment. He was watching her, eyes steady though she thought there was some kind of emotion hidden behind his eyes. He seemed to be telling the truth, and he hadn't betrayed her identity at the auction when he could have. Still, she wasn't about to trust him blindly.

"Can you swear on your honour, on your life, that you won't tell anyone about anything I tell you in confidence? That you'll protect my secrets completely, that you won't betray me, my work, or harm me in any way?"

Tariq held her eyes with his and nodded. "I swear."

"Good," she said, reaching to her left arm and shoving up her sleeves. It revealed the intricate tattoos wrapped around her forearm. Tariq stared but Eliska didn't give him enough time to say anything, instead running a finger across the third one up from her wrist.

"Taehat!" she said, eyes locked onto Tariq.

The mark flared gold on her arm as the magic coursed through her to take effect. Tariq didn't have a chance to move, to speak, to even breathe before he was enveloped in a flash of golden light.

She had closed her eyes just before it went into effect, keeping herself from being blinded. Tariq hadn't had the forewarning and was cursing now, blinking eyes that had to sting, probably trying to get rid of spots. "What was that?" he demanded, swiping at his tearing eyes.

Eliska shifted her weight to her back leg, one hand on her hip. "You swore you'd keep my secrets. Unfortunately for you, I can't be so trusting as to take people at their word, so I added a bit of insurance against any...mishaps."

Tariq stared at her, eyes clearing. "What did you do?" he whispered.

She smiled and held up her tattooed arm. "Bound you with magic. It's a rather interesting spell and it's one of the reasons I'm one of our top operatives. As long as I choose not to release you from your oath, you can't break it. You will find yourself physically incapable of telling other people my secrets in any way."