"Do you think they're friends?" Asked Mirza Tarqui Khan.

"I doubt it," his companion, Stefan, replied, casting a disparaging blue eye over the two men walking below them in the garden. "I doubt that that creature has any casual acquaintances who are speaking to him, let alone friends."

"You do have a talent for saying what I'm thinking."

"I pride myself on it." Stefan moved close to Mirza on the balcony and leaned on its extravagant rail. "It's a pity. Nadir used to be so sensible."

As if on cue, Nadir, below them, roared with laughter at something or other the "creature" had said."

"Used to be." Mirza said in a low mumble. Then, more clearly, "I worry for his son."

"Reza? Not half as much as the daroga himself does. Have you seen him? I tears him apart."

"I would bet I don't know how much that the creature does not give a flea for that boy's fate."

"And he probably has fleas, too." Both men laughed at their crude cleverness.

"Oh, but aren't they witty?" Erik said lowly to Nadir. "Shall I go up and kill one of them?"

"No, Erik."

They walked another few feet, then Erik said, "Why do I listen to you?"

Nadir shrugged, loose hanging robes falling awkwardly from his wiry shoulders. "Because." The daroga smiled, jade eyes hiding something.

"Oh, bloody…"

"We're friends."

"No we're not." Erik snapped furiously. "I don't have friends."

"Not live ones, anyway. You ought to stop with those dissections."

"Oh, do shut up, daroga." Erik shoved his hands into the pockets of his stubbornly Western suit and kept walking, eyes on the ground. "I don't have friends," he repeated, more to himself than anyone else.

"I hate you," said Nadir comfortably, and yawned.

"Yes, I hate you too."

And they kept walking. And the men above them kept talking. And somehow, the men who "hated" each other were happier than the men who "liked" each other. Because, in the backstabbing world of the Persian court, the men who "liked" each other also "trusted" each other.

The men below did not "trust" each other to be anything but themselves. And they were perfectly happy, too.