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and any female servants.”
    Cade would have squeezed her arm before they parted, in case she was nervous.
    “Will do,” Elyse said, pretending she wouldn’t have liked that.
    ~
    Aside from her daughter being the property of a sultan, Yasmin’s mother struck Elyse as a normal concerned parent. According to her, Balu was a good boy. He wouldn’t run away. He was just a little wild these days. She blamed the view cafés. All that human media put wrong ideas into the minds of their city’s youth.
    “Begging your pardon,” she added, remembering whom she was speaking to.
    “That’s all right,” Elyse said. “Sometimes human media puts wrong ideas into our youths’ minds too.”
    Yasmin’s mother smiled unsurely.
    “I need to ask one more thing,” Elyse said, “and I apologize if the topic is sensitive. Yasmin mentioned you had another son?”
    “I have one son,” Yasmin’s mother averred hotly.
    They sat on cushions in the women’s quarters of the villa, opposite each other at the inevitable tea table. Sunshine flooded in from high windows, making it clear that Yasmin’s mother had once been as beautiful as her daughter.
    “Right,” Elyse said, trying not to wriggle awkwardly on her folded legs. “Once upon a time, though, you had two.”
    Once upon a time seemed to be a phrase Yasmin’s mother could accept. She sat straighter than before, her posture proud. “That one shamed us. We no longer speak his name.”
    “Yasmin said he killed someone?”
    “Out of jealousy he knifed his best friend, the son of a close associate of his father. When Ramis turned ifrit, we could no longer shelter him in our family.”
    Elyse took note of the name without mentioning she’d heard it. “Do you think the incident might have anything to do with Balu’s disappearance?”
    “I don’t see how,” Yasmin’s mother said. “We paid the dead boy’s family their vengeance price years ago. They accepted the settlement in oath court. They wouldn’t risk their souls by retaliating against Balu.” Her lips pressed together more primly. “If you were a proper person, you’d know that.”
    O-kay, Elyse thought. So much for interspecies cooperation and respect.
    ~
    Their next stop was the view café Balu was last seen in. According to his mother, it was located in the Glorious City’s grand bazaar. Elyse was grateful for Arcadius’s presence. She’d have gotten lost in two minutes among the covered warren of colorful shops.
    Despite the city’s recent tragedy, business in the bazaar was bustling. Proprietors hawked their wares with great energy, many calling Arcadius by his title to buy them.
    “Not today,” he said to all of them politely.
    Between a brass emporium and a store piled temptingly high with slippers, they found the establishment they were looking for.
    Two of the four soldiers who accompanied them took up positions outside the café’s entrance. The other two preceded them inside, sending Arcadius small professional nods when they’d decided it was safe to go in. The armed escorts made Elyse feel strange, but the djinn who caught sight of them didn’t appear alarmed.
    Arcadius drew longer glances than the soldiers did. She concluded the sultan’s commander was someone everyone recognized.
    Leaving that aside, Elyse looked around. The café wasn’t short of patrons, most twentyish or younger, including a couple girls. Customers sat around scattered tables on floor cushions, drinking tiny cups of Turkish coffee and seeming mesmerized by two immense curving TV screens. One showed a Korean soap opera, the other a loop of nothing but German commercials. Elyse saw no subtitles on either, but the audience was laughing, so presumably they understood the words. A moment later, her eardrums gave a funny pop. Suddenly, she also comprehended what the actors were saying.
    She made a noise of surprise and rubbed her ears.
    Arcadius placed one hand lightly behind her arm. He bent closer to speak to her.