Lord of the White Hell book Two lotwh-2 (20 page)

Kiram gaped at him.

Then Javier gave the groom a lewd smile and, while handing him a gold coin, stated that it was a pity they couldn't get to know each other a little better. The bridegroom hurried up the street before anyone else could make a donation. His servants and musicians raced after him.

Nestor glared at Elezar through his delicate gold spectacles. "I can't believe you were so forward to that girl."

"We just flirted with her." Elezar shrugged.

"Him," Kiram corrected and he gave Javier a hard look.

"What?" Elezar demanded.

"You were flirting-rudely I might add-with a man," Kiram said coldly. "A bridegroom on his way to his wife's home."

Javier's smug grin evaporated and he had the decency to pale, though Kiram guessed it was for the wrong reason.

"No!" Elezar shook his head. "No, that was a girl. She was dressed-"

"-In the traditional clothes of a Haldiim bridegroom!" Kiram cut him off. Elezar went surprisingly quiet. He glanced to Javier and then away almost guiltily. Neither seemed able to meet the other's gaze.

"We aren't far from your mother's candy shop, are we?" Nestor asked after a few moments of awkward silence had passed between them all. "Maybe we should look in on Mother and Riossa."

"We're only a few minutes away." Kiram led Nestor along the street while Javier and Elezar mutely trailed them. They passed street vendors and merchants with goat carts loaded with wine barrels and bunches of spring herbs. At a cross street they glimpsed another bridegroom and his entourage. The wedding season was really upon them, Kiram thought.

Beside him, Nestor started to giggle to himself. Kiram watched him fight to maintain a serious expression as he turned back to Elezar.

"Mother would never approve," Nestor's voice wavered with suppressed laughter, "but if that was who you wanted, I would support you and your Haldiim bridegroom, Elezar, no matter what. I just want you to be happy." Then Nestor dissolved into laughter.

"Shut up," Elezar growled. "It's not funny."

"It is a little," Javier said. He gave Nestor an assessing glance. "It's good to know you're so openminded about matters of the heart, Nestor."

Nestor grinned while Elezar's face flushed vivid red.

"I didn't know! And why was he dressed like that anyway?" Elezar demanded.

"It's a different culture," Javier replied calmly. He now seemed more amused by the interaction than mortified. He briefly met Kiram's gaze. "And everyone knows that Haldiim men can be prettier than Cadeleonian women."

"Disgusting," Elezar grumbled.

"No, he wasn't." Javier laughed. "That was the trouble."

That at least drew a smirk from Elezar. Then Javier glanced to Kiram. "We're not going to see you dressed like that anytime soon, are we?"

"Let's hope not." Kiram rounded the corner and found the street in front of the Kir-Zaki candy shop unusually clogged with people. He made polite apologies as Javier, Nestor and Elezar shouldered their way through the throngs.

Kiram wondered what had attracted so many neighbors and onlookers. He prayed it wasn't another of his father's workshop fires, though there was no sign or scent of smoke. Perhaps his mother and Siamak had had another of their infamous arguments in the street. But Kiram didn't hear either of their voices screeching through the murmurs of the gathered crowd.

Then Kiram realized the loiterers were primarily focused on a gleaming red carriage and the four red stallions that were hitched to it. Emblazoned in gold the Grunito crest adorned the doors of the carriage as well as the front of the driver's long coat. A footman standing at the door of the carriage watched the gawking Haldiim passersby with suspicion, but the majority of the crowd hardly seemed to notice his disapproval. They eyed the huge horses and whispered about the expense of the carriage.

Even Kiram stared for a moment. Not because Cadeleonian carriages were new or strange to him, but because this shining, gilded mass was so out of place here on a narrow Haldiim street. As a rule, when Cadeleonians came to the Haldiim district they did not come with carriages and even left their horses at the stable. If they needed goods transported, then they hired goat carts, and if they wished to travel in an indulgent fashion, then it was expected that they would hire a Haldiim palanquin. That had certainly been how the Grunitos had visited the candy shop in the past.

Nestor exchanged a wave with the carriage driver and Kiram felt the crowd's attention shift from the carriage to himself and the three Cadeleonians with him. Kiram was suddenly very aware of how imposing, foreign and rich Javier and the Grunito brothers would look to the gathered Haldiim.

As Kiram walked past with Javier, Nestor and Elezar, he caught Haldiim whispers and appraising glances, not all of them kind. Someone behind him wondered if Mother Kir-Zaki had whored her son out to all three of those Cadeleonian men in exchange for their business.

Kiram stopped, not shocked by the words as much as the familiarity of the voice, though he refused to turn or to acknowledge the remark.

But Javier spun back to glare at the crowd. Elezar followed Javier's motion, clearly backing him despite the fact that he couldn't have known what had roused Javier's ire. Nestor looked startled, almost panicked, and then Kiram realized that both Javier and Elezar had their hands on their sword hilts.

Only a few feet away two wiry Haldiim men went pale, but Musni gripped his fighting knife. A gasp went through the crowd and mothers pulled their young charges back from Musni and his friends. Kiram noticed the two Civic Guards a few yards away suddenly hefting their short bows.

Kiram instantly caught Javier's forearm and Elezar's elbow and then he stepped between them and the now gaping group of Haldiim.

"There's nothing to be offended, about," Kiram said firmly. "Petty people can't help but say jealous words any more than swine can keep from rolling in filth." Kiram projected his voice to carry the Haldiim anecdote over the crowd. Several people had the good grace to look embarrassed and an older woman slapped Musni in the back of his head.

"He's not worth it," Kiram said and he met Javier's gaze.

Javier relaxed his grip on his sword though his anger still showed on his face. Elezar followed Javier's lead, dropping his grip from his sword. Kiram wondered if Elezar would follow Javier off a cliff just as blindly.

"What just-" Nestor began to ask but Kiram cut him off.

"A misunderstanding that we don't need to drag out any longer." Kiram turned his back on Musni. "Let's see what there is inside for us, shall we?" He strode purposefully towards the perfumed warmth of his mother's candy shop and was relieved when Javier, Elezar and Nestor followed him.

Inside Lady Grunito dominated the tasting room with the same scale and bold presence that her carriage displayed out on the street. Her red silk gown flashed with gold embroidery and the coils of her dark brown braids sat atop her head like a silk crown, plaited with gold ribbons and gleaming pearls. Two Cadeleonian maids and a pair of footmen in Grunito uniforms hung back by the door, their arms already loaded with baskets of marzipan fruit, candied lemons and bright snips of taffy. Beside Lady Grunito, Riossa looked tiny, despite the spectacle of yellow silk, jeweled butterfly pins and embroidered ribbons billowing from her. She held two glistening honey cakes in her hands as if they were delicate blossoms.

Both of Kiram's sisters flitted between the granite counters, displaying sweets to Lady Grunito. Their mother sat demurely by the side, pretending not to understand a word of Cadeleonian. She glanced briefly to Kiram but remained quiet and aloof, perched on her tall stool with a wooden candy spoon in one hand like a scepter. Dauhd flashed him a quick smile before she handed Lady Grunito a small dish piled with glazed almonds.

Riossa, who seemed to have been watching Dauhd closely, followed her quick glance to the door. Suddenly Riossa's plain features lit with a truly beautiful smile.

"Nestor!" Riossa waved a honey cake. "I purchased these for you!" And she added much more demurely, "There's one for you as well, Elezar."

Nestor bounded to Riossa's side and Elezar strode after him. While Nestor beamed at his bride-to-be, Elezar thanked her with a polite formality that Kiram couldn't ever remember him exhibiting before.

The same display of good manners certainly would have been useful out on the street. Though it hadn't really been Elezar who'd been the problem.

Kiram moved just a little closer to Javier, whispering, "You have got to stop going for your sword every time someone says something you don't like."

"Your friend Musni went for his knife first."

"It was just bravado-you of all people ought to be able to recognize that."

Javier's jaw clenched and Kiram guessed that he was suppressing some cutting remark.

Kiram continued, "People are already talking about us as it is"

"Does that matter?"

It was telling that Javier asked the question in Haldiim. Clearly it mattered what his fellow Cadeleonians thought.

"The last thing either of us needs is a street fght-"

"Javier, my dear boy!" Lady Grunito cut off Kiram's whispered reply as she turned and held out her hand. "I was terribly worried for you."

"Forgive me for troubling you." Javier went to Lady Grunito. He bowed over her outstretched hand and kissed her fingers. "I only behave so badly to attract your attention. Really you should pay me no heed at all or I'll be all the worse for it."

Lady Grunito laughed.

"I have no doubt that's true, dear boy, but you are terribly hard to ignore." Lady Grunito's gaze flickered past Javier to Kiram and her easy smile wavered. Kiram wasn't sure if it was curiosity or suspicion that played in her expression but it was gone in an instant. Dauhd proffered a tray of candied flowers and Lady Grunito gave a murmur of delight after placing one of the delicate violets in her mouth.

"You must taste these, Javier," Lady Grunito announced. "They are absolutely the finest sweets. We're just deciding which ones we will have made for Nestor's wedding feast."

"I like the marzipan," Nestor said.

"You like anything," Elezar muttered. Lady Grunito gave him a warning glare.

"It's true," Elezar said with a shrug.

"Kiram, we can use your help." Siamak slipped up beside him like a shadow and drew him back from Javier and the Grunitos. Kiram followed her to the marble candy tables but was then sent back into the kitchen to have tea brewed and served to their illustrious customers.

Kiram wasn't allowed to take the tea out himself; his mother retained a skilled serving boy for such work. Instead, he was chided not to get underfoot and sent back to the house to inform his father and Majdi that dinner would be late.

T
hroughout the following weeks Kiram saw Javier often but almost always in mixed company. His mother, sisters and father took pride in associating with Javier and many of their friends followed suit so that even when Kiram managed to secret Javier away from the house, family acquaintances approached them on the street, insisting on treating Javier to expensive bitter wines and challengingly rarified dishes. Javier behaved politely, engaging foods that even Kiram tried to feed to lapdogs. But the attention wore on them both.

A hunted look flashed through Javier's expression every time a Haldiim mother called out a warm greeting. More and more, Kiram found himself leading Javier through the shabby back streets where no decent Haldiim would travel just so the two of them could steal a few moments of intimacy out of sight of his mother's acquaintances.

A year ago he couldn't have imagined himself purposefully rushing between a tanner's dung pots and oily racks of drying fish to reach a dim alley, much less leaning back against a decaying wall in a passionate embrace. But now that he'd spent more than one evening listening to Hashiem Kir-Naham drone on about dry poultices while surrounded by beautiful furnishings and soothing music, he'd discovered that location mattered far less than the company he kept.

Now the smell of smoked fish and leather almost excited him. And on several lonely afternoons he caught himself gazing into the deep shadows of dank streets with a kind of longing.

Still, he was not fool enough to think that the recesses of the Haldiim district were where he belonged. Along with tanners, fisherwomen and soot mongers, thieves and cutthroats populated those winding narrow streets. When he ventured there, Kiram kept his coin purse hidden in an inner pocket of his vest. He dressed simply and carried the knife that Alizadeh and Rafie had given him.

Javier seemed to take a certain pleasure in dressing down. He claimed to have won his faded leather pants and slashed coat from a Cadeleonian sailor. In combination with his fine sword and riding boots, the wardrobe lent Javier the air of a mercenary, a street snake as Kiram's father called them.

Kiram supposed it was telling that he'd now seen enough of such men to recognize their characteristic fast hands and clean weapons.

"Knowing you has certainly broadened my horizons," Kiram whispered to Javier as they shimmied between racks of drying river fish. Two fisherwomen watched them pass as if he and Javier were hungry cats.

"I could say the same to you," Javier replied. Ahead of them drying nets formed a canopy over the walkway. River gulls, ravens and doves fought for remnants of fish and riverweeds caught in the rope. Their cries and the noise of their wings filled the air. Then Kiram heard a terrible screech and looked up to see a cluster of bright blue jays settling among the other birds. He felt suddenly wary of walking past them and instead led Javier down a cramped lane where plumes of pungent smoke drifted from kitchen fires.

Javier looked oddly amused.

"What are you smirking about?" Kiram asked.

"Just wondering if we're hiding from birds now too."

"Not necessarily," Kiram replied. "Maybe I just wanted to get you somewhere more private."

"And to think I once imagined I would corrupt and seduce you." Javier paused near the mouth of an alley they had used before. "It's been quite the opposite, really."

"I haven't corrupted you," Kiram objected and Javier just gave him a lewd grin.