by Ginn Hale
After lunch, Kiram excused himself to fetch Javier. He ran directly to Mother Kir-Mahoud’s stables and wasn’t surprised to find Javier brushing Lunaluz down, having just finished a ride.
Something in Javier’s expression brought to mind his own sense of ease when he was working with machinery. Javier seemed utterly relaxed and happy tending Lunaluz. The stallion nuzzled his big head into Javier’s shoulder and Javier indulged him with a firm rub along his jaw before returning to his brush down his flank.
Kiram leaned against a hay bale near the stall and watched in silence. He took in a deep breath, smelling leather, sweat and the sweet tang of straw. A moment later Javier turned and smiled at him.
“I thought it was you.” Javier finished with Lunaluz’s coat and let the stallion loose to pose for the two mares stabled near him. Kiram strolled to the stall door.
“Felt me ogling your backside?” Kiram asked.
“Something like that.”
“You’re sure you didn’t just smell all the machine oil wafting off me?” Kiram asked and Javier laughed.
“That might have given you away as well.” Javier leaned against the wall of Lunaluz’s stall and lightly ran his hand over Kiram’s back. “It’s weird that I’m beginning to find the scent of machine oil alluring.”
Kiram closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of Javier’s touch. He supposed this was just what Lunaluz did.
“So, how did your practice go with Alizadeh?” Kiram asked.
“Very well, according to Alizadeh.” An edge of frustration sounded in Javier’s voice. Kiram glanced questioningly to him and he shrugged.
“I’m used to being able to open the white hell and hold it without breaking a sweat. Now, even though I know how to do it, it’s exhausting. Though once I do get it open the connection is much stronger. I feel it through my entire body.” Javier trailed off, frowning out past the open stable doors.
Kiram followed his gaze to the sunlit courtyard where Nestor stood with the reins of his roan stallion in hand. Beside him Elezar sat on his own black mount and stared straight at Kiram and Javier.
Javier’s hand dropped from Kiram’s back. Kiram stepped away, picking up a piece of rope as if he had any need for it. Elezar hardly seemed to notice him. His attention remained fixed upon Javier.
Stable hands in brown vests appeared and took the horses’ reins. Elezar swung down from his saddle and strode across the courtyard like a charging bull. Behind Elezar, Nestor caught sight of Kiram and waved.
As Elezar stepped into the shadows of the stable, Javier rolled his shoulders in the same way he often loosened his muscles before a fight.
“Two damn days, Tornesal!” Elezar stopped just short of Javier. “All your shit is at my house and you are nowhere to be found.”
“I had no idea you’d decided to become my mother.” Javier offered Elezar an unconcerned smile. “Were you sitting by the door all night, weeping?”
Elezar gave a derisive snort. “I was dodging my own damn mother’s fists while explaining that I couldn’t look after you every minute and that I had no idea why you’d ridden off in the dead of night without a word to anyone.” Elezar raised his heavy brows. “Which, come to think of it, is an awfully good question.”
“I told you he’d be with Kiram!” Nestor ambled in, grinning at Kiram. “This is lucky though, all of us meeting at the stable. We just escorted my mother and Riossa to your mother’s candy shop to discuss the sweets for my wedding, but you were gone. I thought we’d have to walk all over the district before we found you. But this is great, isn’t it?”
“Perfect,” Kiram responded dryly.
Nestor bounded between Javier and Elezar, patted Lunaluz on the neck, then turned to study the sleek black mare in the next stall.
“She’s a beauty.” Nestor drew a small, leather-bound sketchbook from a pocket of his embroidered red coat and sketched a quick study of the mare. “She has those ears like the racing horses from Yuan do. Any idea who she belongs to?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Elezar retorted. “You’ve already got a bride.” Though his words were sarcastic, anger no longer sounded in his voice.
Javier too relaxed in Nestor’s presence. “She belongs to a church courier. I saw him stable her here earlier. Though I have no idea what the church would want here in the Haldiim district.”
“He’s probably consulting with our astrologer to be sure of the date of the next full moon,” Kiram said. “Your High Mass has to be held on the day of a full moon, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed,” Javier agreed, though he gave Kiram a curious look as if he hadn’t expected him to know as much.
“My mother’s best friend is an astrologer with a church contract,” Kiram explained.
“You see!” Nestor looked meaningfully at Elezar. “Kiram has all the inside knowledge. He can show us all the secret back passages and dark entries of the Haldiim district.”
Elezar snorted and Nestor frowned at him. “That wasn’t meant to sound dirty.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Elezar held up his hands but he and Javier exchanged a knowing smirk. Kiram supposed it was a good sign for their friendship, if a bad indicator of the tone the rest of the day would take.
And he was right. Soon after the horses were stabled, Elezar and Javier fell into their usual pattern of camaraderie and rivalry, snickering at fertility charms in the market place and leering at the bare arms and low cut vests of the Haldiim women.
Nestor scowled at his brother. Now and then he stole guilty, furtive glances at Kiram, obviously attempting to judge just how offensive his brother and Javier’s behavior was. For his part, Kiram didn’t know if he should laugh at the absurdity of the two of them working so hard to ogle women or just give in to the urge to shove them both into the river.
Just before they reached the Ammej Bridge they encountered a bridegroom’s entourage. The young man was dressed in white silk with a desert scarf covering the lower half of his face like a veil. Black kohl outlined his pale eyes and his golden hair was decorated with strings of tiny gold bells. Behind him a small procession of servants carried the few belongings he would take to his new home and flamboyant wedding musicians clanged chimes and beat drums to announce his move.
Kiram didn’t know the bridegroom personally but he stepped forward along with most of the other unmarried men on the street to place a few coins in the man’s wedding cup.
“It’s good luck,” Kiram explained when Nestor asked.
The young bridegroom thanked Kiram and wished him happiness and managed to thank Nestor in a heavily accented whisper though he seemed too intimidated by Elezar and Javier both looming over him to say anything to either of them. He bowed his head, lowered his gaze, and even the musicians seemed to quiet.
“Someone so pretty shouldn’t be so shy.” Elezar flexed his muscular arms unnecessarily as he presented the bridegroom with a silver coin.
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 aw
ay 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 fight—”
“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.
Chapter Sixteen
Throughout 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.