Oh, not only was he going there and getting annoyed with the tiger for daring to turn his back on him, but he was doing it inside Tannusen's own territory? The pooka came to a halt, sure, but his spine was stiff with a dangerous, quickly-growing anger.

"Excuse me?"

His own voice didn't carry any sort of magic, but that ever-present purr of his was suspiciously low. Soft velvet draped over cold steel. There were only two circumstances that made him sound like that, and neither involved him obeying someone else's control.