by Ginn Hale
"That woman is not-" Timoteo began.
"You're not fooling anyone." Elezar waved aside whatever excuse Timoteo wanted to make. "And I don't give a shit either way. Your lack of piety is your own damn concern. Just leave Javier alone. He knows his prayers better than you do and we all know it."
Nestor snickered at that and Riossa and her maid pretended to be occupied with their gloves. Flushing, Timoteo turned his mount aside and rode back the way he'd come.
"Well spoken," Kiram told Elezar once Timoteo was out of sight.
"Tim can't help being a jackass sometimes." Elezar shrugged. "He means well, but the royal bishop isn't making it easy for him or any priest to be friendly with Javier right now."
"What do you mean?" Kiram felt a sudden dread at the mention of the royal bishop. He remembered the blue jays he'd seen the week before and the feeling of the shadow curse at his back.
"It's nothing," Javier said firmly and he gave Elezar a hard look.
"It's not nothing. It's serious," Elezar replied, then looked to Kiram. "The year before you came to the academy Javier killed Lord Quemanor's firstborn son in a duel."
"Nestor told me."
"Did he tell you that since then Lord Quemanor has been out to destroy Javier?"
"He didn't need to. I met Lord Quemanor once," Kiram said.
"Well, now the man is blaming Javier for Fedeles' condition, claiming Javier possessed him. Quemanor's even petitioned the royal bishop to have Javier imprisoned and exorcised."
"Exorcised?" Kiram felt the blood draining from his face.
Javier said, "It's an empty threat. Quemanor doesn't have any proof and the royal bishop wouldn't dare move against me without a shred of evidence."
"Not yet, maybe." Elezar scowled at one of the stable hands and then turned his gaze back to Kiram. "I don't mean any offense to you or your family, Kiram, but all this time in the Haldiim district isn't doing his reputation any good."
"You've said more than enough, Elezar," Javier growled. "None of this is Kiram's doing or his concern."
Elezar looked like he might argue but closed his mouth as Riossa approached.
"Why are you three looking so dour?" Riossa inquired. Her maid eyed the three of them suspiciously. Nestor followed Riossa, looking both protective and proud.
"Nothing worth lingering on." Javier gave Riossa one of his handsome, ingenuous smiles. "Certainly not when I have the construction of a water clock to oversee. I expect it will keep me late. When should I see the rest of you back at the Grunito house?"
"Not until evening. Kiram has promised to show us the Haldiim goat market. They hold races every Mediday," Riossa replied.
"That sounds quite entertaining, so long as you don't let Elezar lose too many bets." Javier bowed slightly to Riossa. "Doubtless you will have a lot to tell me about at dinner this evening."
Javier slipped away to train while Kiram occupied Elezar, Nestor and Riossa with the amusements of the goat cart races. Teams of goats whipped around the muddy track surrounding the open market while crowds cheered and wagers raged. Regardless of language barriers Elezar dove into the betting, placing money on teams for reasons that eluded Kiram but proved oddly accurate. Nestor and Riossa tended to cheer for the scrawny, weird goats that rarely won.
Between races they all drank spiced tea and ate candied fish. Nestor and Riossa sketched their surroundings and encouraged Riossa's maid to try Haldiim dishes, though she didn't seem to care for many. Elezar walked through the crowd at Kiram's side. He looked as if he had something on his mind but in typical Cadeleonian style remained silent.
"Is there something bothering you?" Kiram asked at last.
Elezar stole a quick glance to where Nestor and Riossa stood with Riossa's maid at a tanner's stall. They seemed deeply occupied with the kidskin vellum on display.
"Javier's up to something here in the Haldiim district," Elezar whispered. "He's doing something and it's changed him."
"Changed how?" Kiram asked.
"You should tell me. You're the one who brought him here, who keeps inviting him back," Elezar replied. His gaze was intent. "What's he been doing in the Haldiim district this past month? He's not just talking about some water clock, I know that. He comes back haggard with strange burns all over his body."
Kiram wondered how exactly Elezar had spied Javier's burns, but he didn't ask and Elezar went on quickly. "He's been avoiding chapel for weeks and the last three days I think he slept outside in an old oak tree. It's insane."
"He slept in a tree?" That was something from an archaic holy text, wasn't it? Javier really was embracing Alizadeh's Bahiim teachings.
"Yes, up in a tree." Elezar lowered his voice. "And it's not just that, when he's up in the branches I swear.." Elezar suddenly clenched his mouth closed.
"What?" Kiram demanded.
"You really don't know anything about this?" Elezar's expression was disbelieving.
"I've spent nearly every day with you and Nestor, not Javier. How could I know what he's been doing?"
Elezar sighed heavily and then nodded.
"He flickers." Elezar looked uncomfortable even saying the words.
"Flickers?" Kiram asked. "You mean-"
"It's the white hell. He sits up there in the oak with sparks lighting up and dying all around him. It's not just one little flash. It's like a cloud of fireflies-like he's pulling stars down from the sky." Elezar scowled as two women passed close by them, then went on. "Late last night he lit up the entire tree. The branches and leaves blazed white all around him and he looked like.like something from another world. Javier has always liked to show off with sparks and tricks but that wasn't showing off. That was something powerful and unholy."
Kiram remembered the image he'd seen in Calixto's diary of a luminous, tangling tree and Alizadeh talking about igniting the White Tree.
"Unholy"' Kiram repeated. To any Haldiim luminous branches reaching from the earth to the heavens would be just the opposite. But knowing that wouldn't be any consolation to Elezar. "No wonder Timoteo wants him to attend chapel."
Elezar nodded.
Kiram asked, "Do you think Javier is in real danger from the royal bishop?"
"The way things are right now, he might be," Elezar said. "Something's gotten up Lord Quemanor's ass and stirred him enough to think that he has the evidence to have Javier arrested. I don't think Quemanor is bluffing either."
"And if he convinces the royal bishop to move against Javier, what will happen?" Kiram asked.
"We'll give him one hell of a fight." Elezar's hand dropped reflexively to his sword hilt. "Atreau and Morisio are both here for the wedding and they've sworn to stand with him."
Kiram frowned at the thought of a small group of schoolboys holding out against the royal bishop's personal army. They'd be slaughtered.
"What about you?" Elezar asked. "Will you stand with him or run if trouble comes?"
"I'll fight for Javier, no matter what," Kiram said, though the prospect frightened him. The royal bishop was a prince and his men certainly wouldn't abide by the neat rules of a tournament.
Suddenly the scent of hay and goats, the sound of the surrounding crowd, and even the warmth of the noonday sun seemed distant and dull. The cold pain of his final duel in the autumn tournament rolled over him. His forearm ached as if the stitches had once again split apart. How much worse would it be to die in battle?
They needed to find a way out of this that didn't include battle. But why would the royal bishop want to arrest Javier at all when he wielded the shadow curse?
"Has Javier mentioned that Fedeles may be back with us again?" Elezar absently watched Nestor chatting with a Civic Guard.
"Back with us?" Kiram asked but something in Elezar's expression gave him his own answer. "You mean he's better?"
"Maybe fully recovered. If it's true, it would be good. Not that he was ever much of a fighter. But still, if he were here and well again it would mean the world to Javier." Elezar's expression soft
ened for just a moment. Then he pulled himself back. "Morisio swears he saw him in Zancoda, walking with a magistrate and speaking very rationally."
"That's wonderful!" Kiram felt almost giddy with joy. Scholar Donamillo must have broken the curse despite his illness. Kiram had left his engine in working order with the scholar and he wondered if it had made the difference.
But even as Kiram spoke a dark thought came to him. If Scholar Donamillo had driven the shadow curse from Fedeles, then the royal bishop would have to alter his tactics against Javier. A cold dread gripped Kiram.
"If the royal bishop did decide to arrest Javier, how do you think he'd go about it?" Kiram's throat felt dry and his words came out too quiet.
"I don't know." Elezar frowned and for a moment Kiram thought he looked as desolate as Kiram felt at the prospect. But then some Cadeleonian reflex surged and Elezar gave a brutish smile. "He'll want to seize Javier while he's away from Rauma and his own men. If he's going to do it he'll have to move soon, before Prince Sevanyo can get word."
"Soon, and most likely here or at the academy?" Kiram asked.
Elezar nodded. "Even so, Javier has the white hell. The royal bishop knows that and I'd bet my left ball that scares the shit out of him."
Only Javier didn't really have the white hell now. From what Javier had told him, his control over it was touch and go.
"The bishop will need to find a way to restrain Javier," Elezar went on.
"He'll want Javier to go to confession." Kiram suddenly realized. "Once Javier has been given muerate poison he'll be vulnerable."
Elezar's face actually paled. "That would be exactly when he'd want to move."
"Then I suppose it's good that Javier's been avoiding chapel," Kiram commented.
"God, yes," Elezar murmured. "It makes sense now."
"What makes sense?" Nestor asked.
Both Kiram and Elezar spun around. Nestor smiled at them benignly. He carried a thick roll of supple vellum sheets over his left arm. Riossa gripped his right arm with a shy pleased expression while her maid trailed behind them, occupied with a sweet roll.
Elezar scowled at his younger brother but Kiram took heart in Nestor's friendly ease. Talking with Elezar he'd felt like any moment they might both die, but just looking at Nestor Kiram felt the warmth and cheer of their surroundings return. He reminded himself that what he and Elezar had been discussing were only rumors and suppositions. Certainly, if anything were truly wrong, Javier would be the first to know and be the one to tell Kiram.
He noticed that new teams of goats waited on the muddy track and that bets were again being taken.
"I was explaining to Elezar that the red goats were originally bred for their meat, not their milk, so they tend to be bigger and make better racers," Kiram supplied.
"Oh, but the little white ones are very quick and their carts are smaller," Riossa commented. "So if the race is only half the track they get to the finish before the red fellows can work up any speed."
"That's true." Kiram smiled, realizing that Riossa had actually been paying much closer attention to the races than he had.
"I'd place my bets with your future sister-in-law," Kiram told Elezar. Elezar nodded absently, but Riossa gave Kiram a genuine, thankful smile.
Dauhd and Majdi found them a few hours later, just as a team of red goats with black lacquered horns pulled their young driver past the finishing posts and a wild cheer went up through the crowd. Elezar collected his winnings, while Riossa, Nestor and even Riossa's shy maid continued to shout encouragements for a team of spotted goats whose cart driver appeared to be a blind woman. Kiram cheered along with his friends when the goats took third.
"I daresay that sometimes a valiant loss is more inspiring that a certain win," Riossa commented.
"Well, certainly. You remember Kiram and me at the autumn tournament," Nestor replied and Riossa nodded.
"That was more like a certain loss," Elezar remarked.
"It wasn't!" Nestor frowned at his brother. "Not Kiram. He fought like a."
"Yes?" Elezar prompted.
"Like a stoat!" Riossa supplied and Kiram laughed out loud.
"They're fierce creatures when they're cornered. Fierce and brave," Riossa protested.
"You're quite the stoat yourself, Riossa," Elezar told her and then he patted her lightly on the head.
Riossa grinned as if Elezar couldn't have paid her a higher compliment and knowing Elezar, Kiram thought that perhaps he couldn't have. Kiram enjoyed listening to them all chat and tease each other. He basked in the mood of gentle happiness that Nestor and Riossa effortlessly created. Even Elezar seemed to have given in to their warmth. Certainly his teasing smiles were a far cry from the autumn afternoon when he'd snarled Riossa's name and told Nestor that the girl had duped him. Now it felt as if they were all a family, even himself and Dauhd and Majdi.
That sense of comfort lingered and might have stayed with Kiram even after the Grunitos had departed, if only he hadn't noticed the column of bright blue jays flying overhead. These were not just the few birds he'd noted a week ago. Dozens and dozens of birds filled the sky, circling the dark treetops of the Circle of Red Oaks.
They most certainly belonged to the man on the hill.
A terrible dread crept over Kiram as he wondered why they had come and what else followed in their wake.
"Mum is expecting you to attend Mother Kir-Naham's dinner tonight." Dauhd's words hardly penetrated Kiram's anxious thoughts, seeming almost meaningless. He knew it couldn't be a coincidence that those shrieking spies had arrived just when the royal bishop was planning to arrest Javier, but what could be done about it?
"Kiram, did you hear me?" Dauhd demanded.
"What? Yes," Kiram replied. "Yes, I heard you." alking to the stables with the Grunitos and his own siblings, iapter Seventeenx
Both Dauhd and Majdi studied him with unconvinced expressions. Kiram felt suddenly tired of pretending that dinners with Hashiem's mother-or Hashiem himself-mattered.
"She'll be expecting you by the sixth bell," Dauhd went on.
Kiram just rolled his eyes. "Does anyone honestly think, that I'm going to settle down with-"
"Don't you dare!" Dauhd cut him off, holding both of her hands up as if to cover Kiram's mouth. "Don'tyou dare tell Majdi or me what you're planning to do! I refuse to be blamed for failing to stop you."
Kiram just stared at his sister and Majdi burst into convulsive laughter.
"Well spoken," Majdi told Dauhd when he at last recovered his decorum. Then he turned his attention to Kiram. "It really would be best if you didn't make either of us a knowing accomplice to this affair of yours, Kiram."
"But you do know."
"No. We suspect," Dauhd stated firmly. "And I don't think I'm willing to go even that far. Not when I need Mum to approve of Chebli. She's not going to do that if she thinks I helped you to-do whatever it is that I have no suspicion that you're getting up to! Understood?"
"Yes." Kiram sighed heavily, then looked back to the sky where the jays seemed to spread like storm clouds. "I need to go speak to Uncle Rafie."
"Good choice," Majdi told him.
Dauhd frowned at him, and for the first time Kiram could clearly see one of their mother's expressions on her face; it was as much concern as consternation. "You take care, Kiram."
"I'm only visiting Uncle Rafie, not storming the Cadeleonian church." Kiram offered her a game smile. "I'll see you this evening for dinner with Mother Kir-Naham."
He turned and ran to Rafie's house, almost colliding with his uncle as he came bounding up to the front door.
"Kiram! I was just going out to find you." Rafie's grim expression brightened a little but he still studied the sky with agitation. "Alizadeh needs you."
"Those jays-" Kiram began to ask but Rafie cut him off.
"We'll talk about it inside. Come in. Quickly now." Rafie hurried Kiram into the house and out to the garden.
Javier and Alizadeh both knelt beside a twisted pi
ne. Their eyes were closed.
"Kiram is here," Javier said, though he didn't look up.
Alizadeh glanced to the door and smiled at Kiram.
"You're right. He is." Alizadeh cocked his head slightly. "You certainly found him quickly enough, Rafie."
"He found us," Rafie replied.
"I came because I saw a huge flock of jays."
"Yes, their numbers have been growing over the last week and now I think there may be enough for them to attempt to take the Circle of Red Oaks." Alizadeh rose slowly from his crouch beside the tree. Javier remained where he was, eyes closed, one hand curled around a root of the old pine. "It seems that the shadow curse is moving, trying to reach into Anacleto."
"Can you stop it?" Kiram asked. He glanced again to Javier, finding it odd that he remained so still and quiet at a time like this. Javier drew in a deep slow breath but said nothing.
"If the White Tree were ignited then no curse could settle upon the city, much less the mere shadow of one." Alizadeh waved his hand as if batting aside a fly.
"But it isn't ignited." A clammy sweat began to rise as Kiram tried not to remember that rushing shadow hunting him through the woods and cutting into his body. He focused on Alizadeh's calm expression, his easy stance.
"No, the White Tree is not yet ignited but neither has the shadow curse settled. The force behind it feels stronger but not so powerful that it can take the city without placing wards first. That's why he's sent those jays. If they can beat their way through the Bahiim wards and settle in the Circle of Red Oaks, then the shadow curse will infiltrate our places of power. The man controlling the shadow curse will own the circle and the White Tree. Whoever he is, he knows the old Bahiim ways well." Alizadeh scowled. "If we hope to stop him then the White Tree must be ignited tonight."
"Is Javier ready for that?" Kiram asked.
"No, but when has that ever stopped me?" Javier gave Kiram a brief smile. Kiram thought he looked tired already.
"And, that's why we need you, Kiram," Rafie said.
"If you come with us to the Circle of Red. Oaks tonight you can serve as Javier's anchor. You'll keep him from being lost in the shajdi."
Kiram had no idea what that even meant, much less what it would require. He opened his mouth to ask but Alizadeh cut him off.
