Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

"No." A shadow of anxiety crossed Javier's face. "Did they know about me? All of them?"

"No, Majdi's the only one who knows. Well, Rafie and Alizadeh obviously know that I'm close with you but I haven't told them anything. No one else would even suspect. You're just too Cadeleonian."

Javier seemed to relax. "It's strange how different things are here."

"Too different?" Kiram recalled how overwhelmed he had felt the first few weeks he had lived in the Cadeleonian world of the Sagrada Academy. And he had even known what to expect; he'd studied Cadeleonian literature, language and history. He'd spent days wandering through the Cadeleonian district of Anacleto in preparation.

"It just doesn't seem possible that all of this could be real." Javier studied the red physician's star above Rafie's doorway. "This all seems like something I would find in one of those ancient Yuan travel journals."

"Like the one that said that all Haldiim are born women?" Kiram asked.

Javier smirked at that but nodded.

"I do know what you mean," Kiram said. "There were times at the Sagrada Academy-especially early on-when I couldn't quite believe what was happening."

"Like what?" Javier asked, as if he couldn't imagine anything about Cadeleonian society as strange.

Like you, Kiram thought but he decided against it. Instead, he chose the most obvious difference. "The complete absence of women for one thing. I couldn't believe that there could actually be an entire academy without a single woman scholar or student. That's just unheard of in any Haldiim school. And then there was all the riding. To most Haldiim riding horses is a sure sign that you're from a family of thieves or raiders of some kind."

"Really?" Javier smiled, clearly liking the idea of being taken for some kind of wild raider. Just now, with his crooked smile and wind tousled hair, he did look like a dangerous and daring highwayman from one of Kiram's favorite books.

"But it's different, isn't it?" Javier leaned against the doorframe close beside Kiram. "You hadn't wanted to ride horses all your life and then come to the Sagrada Academy and seen everyone around you riding."

Kiram nodded but his mind was hardly on the conversation. There was something in Javier's motion, perhaps the angle of his head, the slight parting of his lips that told Kiram that he was going to kiss him. A rush of heat and excitement flooded Kiram, despite how common such exchanges might be in the Haldiim district.

Javier's lips grazed Kiram's mouth; his hand touched Kiram's hip. Kiram pulled him close, opening his mouth to Javier's. Javier's hesitation broke and he pushed Kiram back against the door. Their kiss deepened into a rough desperation. Kiram arched his hips against Javier and Javier pulled Kiram so close that Kiram could feel Javier's heart pounding against his own chest.

Above them, a crow let out a sharp call and they bolted apart. The bird swept past them and swooped over Rafie's roof. Kiram laughed, feeling stupid for being so nervous. He wasn't Cadeleonian and yet he'd startled as easily as Javier.

To his relief Javier too laughed. Then he reached out, and Kiram thought he would embrace him again, but instead Javier pulled the chain for the doorbell.

Rafie welcomed Javier and teased Kiram about his inborn ability to time his arrival with the service of any given meal. Then he led them into the garden.

Sunlight filtered through the glossy leaves of plum and almond trees. The perfume of spring flowers paled before the strong aromas of hot oil, garlic and cinnamon. Kiram drew in a deep breath and felt hunger growling through his belly. He noticed that familiar voracity in Javier's expression as well. If they had still been at the Sagrada Academy all pleasantries would have been forgotten in favor of wolfing down hunks of food.

As it was, they both tried not to stare at the spread of aromatic foods. Simple clay dishes heaped with lamb, rice, toasted nuts, sugared fish and greens waited on a low table near a gnarled tree. At Kiram's mother's house it would have been a simple meal, but Kiram knew that for his uncle Rafie this variety of dishes represented a feast.

Alizadeh smiled at them as he filled four cups with stream- cooled tea. He had already laid out plates for Kiram and Javier. Kiram thought that he really shouldn't have been surprised at Alizadeh's prescience by now.

"It's an honor to meet you again, Lord Tornesal." Alizadeh stood carefully, leaning on his cane. He offered Javier a respectful bow.

"Please call me Javier. There's no need for formality," Javier assured Alizadeh. "Have you been ill since we last met?" Obviously Alizadeh's frail condition surprised Javier far more than the lunch preparations.

"A winter malady. It's already passed. I keep the cane so that Rafie will pity me and fetch me things when I'm feeling lazy."

"Which is most every day," Rafie commented.

Kiram thought Alizadeh did look healthier than he had even three days earlier. He toyed with his cane more than leaned on it. Rafie still watched him with that measured, physician's gaze, but he didn't hover as much he had before.

All four of them settled on the ground and ate. Above them crows gathered in the tree branches and from time to time flew down to accept bits of food from Alizadeh's hand.

Rafie tossed one a chunk of fatty lamb and the crow caught it like a trained dog.

"Are these your familiars?" Javier asked Alizadeh.

"Very familiar, yes." Alizadeh laughed and then considered Javier with a sly smile. "I take it you read the book I sent to you."

"I did," Javier said, after gulping down a mouthful of lamb. "I believe I understood it pretty well."

"Really? I can't say that I understand most of Alizadeh's texts." Rafie grinned at Alizadeh. "Crazy old Bahiim aren't the best authors, you know."

In response Alizadeh stole an almond from Rafie's plate. Kiram noticed the attentive way Javier studied the two of them beneath his lowered lashes.

"What about you, Kiri?" Alizadeh's voice pulled Kiram's attention from Javier. "Did you read any of it?"

Kiram shook his head and frowned down at his simple clay plate. He shouldn't let himself fall into the habit of gazing longingly at Javier. They were both going to have to return to Cadeleonian society and mooning wasn't something either of them could afford to indulge in there.

"Should I have read it?" Kiram asked. He'd missed eating sugared minnows and now he helped himself to several as well as a heap of rice.

"No. I was just curious." Alizadeh's attention returned to Javier. "Most of the text concerns the obligations and duties one must accept when becoming a Bahiim. It doesn't make for the lightest of reading nor for the easiest of lives."

"A lot of travel, deprivation and battle. All for very little worldly reward, that's what it sounds like" Javier sampled one of the small sweet fish and then took two more, reverting to an air of nonchalance beneath Alizadeh's direct scrutiny.

"Still better than being hunted all your life by a curse," Aliza- deh replied, "don't you think?"

"Yes, the thought had occurred to me," Javier agreed. "Even before you sent the book, but it's…it's a lot to give up."

Kiram looked between Javier and Alizadeh as he realized what they were discussing.

"You're not serious?" Kiram demanded. "If a holy father even suspected that you were suggesting to Javier that he should convert-"

"No one has said anything about conversion," Rafie cut Kiram off. "Not a word"

"No one's said a word about lamb fat either but we're all eating it!"

Alizadeh laughed at this and Rafie gave Kiram a pained scowl.

"I haven't decided on anything" Javier gazed down at his long hands, his expression troubled. "But I have questions that need answers and I haven't found those answers in the Cadeleonian church."