The Sultan's Spy

Chapter 11: Alliance

His eyes quickly narrowed into a glare, his brows coming sharply together. "Who do you think you are, going around spelling people? What right do you have to take my will away from me?"

Eliska raised her eyebrows, projecting calm confidence. She didn't like the expression on his face and tensed slightly, ready to defend herself if he decided killing her would release the spell. "You swore on your honour and your life. I just made things more official. Or were you planning on betraying me?"

Tariq crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, how do you even know this works? I could just go out now and tell all those neighbours of yours what you just said."

"I know because you're not my first. My work's important enough that I have to be sure of people."

"You don't work for any of the victims or their families, do you?"

She shook her head. "I work for the government."

He grimaced. "Well, that's great. The information I have points to someone in the government being involved, probably someone in the Sultan's family. They can get away with anything."

"That's not possible, I can assure you."

"How do you know? The Sultan and his family keep slaves. Maybe he thought he should just get some for free?"

"No, he doesn't keep slaves."

Tariq snorted. "You can't possibly be that naïve. The Sultan and his family buy slaves all the time."

Now it was Eliska who narrowed her eyes. "Buys them, yes. Keeps them, no. Every slave bought by the Sultan is freed. There are no slaves among his people in the palace, his people are loyal to him of their own free will and serve him by choice."

"Like me?" he asked scathingly.

"That's your own fault for forcing your way into my life. You made that decision and I just had to make it something I could live and work with."

"So what now then?"

Eliska sighed. "I don't really know," she replied, rubbing an arm. "I just kind of ran with this since I didn't have any other options."

"Well, I can go out tomorrow and bring some of my things over here so people don't talk about me being in the same clothing every day at least."

"You don't need clothes here. You can just change at your house."

Tariq gave her a look. "If we're going to keep this fiction alive, I'm going to have to live here."

"Oh, no. No, you're not."

"We don't really have a choice. And I'm not letting you run off without taking this magic off me, so unless you have some miraculous other plan, we're stuck with each other."

Eliska glowered. "Well, you can stay in the men's quarters I suppose," she said grudgingly. "But so help me, you step one foot into the women's quarters and I'll cut you and leave your corpse to the crows."

Tariq nodded. "Fine. Then you stay out of the men's quarters."

"Why in the name of the sky and earth would I want to go into the men's quarters?"

He gave her a sidelong glance. "Seems to me you enjoyed our little kiss and might be looking for more."

She flushed before she glared. "There won't be any more of that, I can assure you. And if you try anything...well, I have more knives on me than most butchers own, so consider this your one and only warning."

Tariq shrugged. After a moment of silence, he said, "Speaking of butchers, can you cook?"

Eliska folded her arms over her chest. "Of course I can."

"Good. The food I make isn't suitable for other people."

"So you're saying you want me to do all the cooking?"

"It'll help sell us as a married couple. Or do you want to destroy this identity already?" He asked, eyebrows up.

"Has anyone told you you're insufferable?"

"Has anyone told you that you're bossy?"

"You wanted to work together," she retorted.

"As partners. I wanted to share information, not be spelled into it. I suppose you have another spell that will force me to do whatever you want?" He asked, voice harsh, fists clenched.

"Don't be ridiculous. Magic doesn't work like that. I don't think you could make a spell like that. The ritual involved...well, if it's anything like the ritual for this spell, I can't imagine anyone being able to complete it."

Tariq frowned, hands relaxing. "How do you set up a spell like that?"

Eliska shook her head as she reached down to scoop up her basket. "That's a secret, and one I'm not telling a stranger. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get this put away," she said, before turning and heading straight into the kitchen without looking back. She was going to need to figure out what to do now, and might as well use the excuse of getting food sorted to do so.