Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

"Your father is building a fountain right now, isn't he?" Javier asked.

"He's nearly done." Kiram noted Javier's pleased expression. "Next he's thinking of trying his hand at a new design for a water clock. Why?"

"I need a reason to be in the Haldiim district," Javier began and Kiram immediately followed his thoughts.

"If you commissioned my father to design and built a fountain or-"

"-Or a water clock," Javier put in and Kiram nodded.

"Either way it would seem perfectly reasonable for you to be down here, directing the work and observing the progress."

"Perfectly reasonable," Javier said. "I'd probably have to stay the night on more than one occasion."

"You'll definitely have to stay the night."

The two of them exchanged excited grins and suddenly Kiram's exhaustion seemed to dissipate.

"Should I approach your father directly with the commission or would it be better if you brought it up to him?"

"You should talk to him. He'll be thrilled to design something for the Duke of Rauma." Kiram bounded out from the shade of the almond tree and sunlight warmed his skin. "Come on. He'll be up and in his workshop by now."

The two of them raced up Gold Street as morning bells rang out and a flight of doves took to the sky.

After an initial consultation with Kiram's father, Javier took the excuse of tending to Lunaluz to visit Alizadeh for another session of Bahiim training. Kiram spent rest of the morning in his father's workshop, helping him complete his fountain so that he could begin work on Javier's commission immediately.

Across the room his father beamed and hummed to himself as he drew up extravagant designs for a water clock worthy of the Duke of Rauma. Kiram didn't think Javier could have done anything that would have won his father's favor more completely than commissioning this machine.

"What do you think of a second series of waterwheels that track the date?" Kiram's father looked up from his papers. "Perhaps a gold sun and a silver moon that could rise and set as well."

"Brilliant." Kiram tightened down the screws on the decorative case, which housed one of eight small spigots. The work was precise and delicate and Kiram found it soothing.

"He'll want some motif," Kiram's father commented.

"A white horse," Kiram replied without looking up from his tiny screws. "He loves his stallion, Lunaluz. Most Cadeleonians like horses."

"A horse…" his father repeated, as if it were a suggestion of uncanny genius. "Yes, that would work." apter F ^cen

Kiram secured copper pipes to spigots with locking bolts and plumbing wax. The fountain was nearly complete. Kiram could already see it as it soon would be: three delicate peacocks with tails made of gold feathers augmented by plumes of water. It would be lovely when it was done.

The two of them might have missed lunch entirely if Dauhd hadn't called them to the table. She rolled her eyes at the sight of them and tossed them a dishtowel to clean the machine oil and graphite dust from their hands and faces.

"We're entertaining guests today." Her smile assured Kiram that she hadn't really expected him or his father to be any more presentable than they were.

"Oh, and a letter came for you today, Kiram." Dauhd pulled the small packet from her vest pocket. "Looks like it's from someone at your school."

Kiram broke the wax seal and quickly read while Dauhd attempted to smooth down their father's wild white hair. He knew that this missive couldn't be a response to the letter he'd sent earlier-no mail wagon traveled that quickly-still he found it relieving to recognize Scholar Blasio's handwriting.

Blasio apologized for having not wished Kiram goodbye when he'd left the academy. Apparently his brother, Scholar Donamillo, had taken ill that afternoon. Blasio expected that he would recover soon enough and assured Kiram that Fedeles was fine, as was Genimo. Then he wished Kiram a happy vacation and a safe return to the school this summer.

"Bad news?" Dauhd asked.

"I hope not." Kiram didn't want to make too much of it. His worry certainly wouldn't help Donamillo's recovery and Blasio had assured him that Fedeles was very well. "Just a note from one of my instructors."

"You always were a class pet," Dauhd teased but she let the subject go at that.

In the sunroom, three of Siamak's friends joined them-all of them silk-clad daughters of wealthy mothers-as did Majdi's red-bearded Mirogoth navigator. Kiram's father immediately announced to them all that he was designing a water clock for the Duke of Rauma. Such pride lit his expression that Kiram wondered if his father hadn't always longed to receive such commissions. If he hadn't married and settled in the confines of the Haldiim district, doubtless he would have long ago achieved much wider fame for his mechanisms.

As their father described his innovations in loving, drawn out detail, Dauhd quietly grilled Kiram about his meeting with Musni at the gymnasium.

"He was drunk and fell on me," Kiram whispered. He poured tea for Siamak and her three well-dressed friends, then sat back down beside Dauhd.

"Chebli says that Lord Tornesal nearly ran Musni through. You wouldn't believe the things people are saying about that." Dauhd's pale eyes gleamed with excitement.

"He didn't even draw his sword. And since when do you talk to Chebli anyway?" Kiram demanded between bites of almond and lamb-stuffed grape leaves.

"He's not so bad." The slightest flush colored Dauhd's face. Kiram raised his brows.

"You used to tease him because he stank like pickles."

"That was years ago. He's in the Civic Guard now," Dauhd defended. "And he comes from a very good family. His grandmother directed the treasury for forty years."

"Who's this?" Majdi asked, suddenly taking note of their whispered conversation.

"Chebli Kir-Wassan," Kiram provided and Dauhd pinched him.

"Chebli." Majdi smirked at Dauhd with knowing. "Now he has certainly filled out from the scrawny, vinegar-seller he used to be, hasn't he?"

"His mother is looking for a home for him, I hear," one of Siamak's friends commented.

The rest of the meal passed in a flurry of teasing and speculation as to how Dauhd would ever claim Chebli now that he'd matured into such a handsome and obedient young man. Dauhd beamed at the attention. It soon became clear that she had spoken quite extensively and seriously with Chebli's mother and eldest sister. Siamak and her friends gave her advice. The Mirogoth navigator traced a heart-shaped sign on Dauhd's palm as a charm to let her capture love in her hand.

Majdi just sighed and Kiram refilled everyone's tea once again. He and Majdi would have a new brother soon. Kiram wondered if Chebli still snorted when he laughed. That could get annoying.

Then he realized that it didn't matter. By the time Dauhd brought Chebli into the house Kiram would probably be living far to the north in either Cieloalta or Rauma. Briefly he felt a wave of sadness at the thought of leaving.

But it passed as he thought of the relief that distance would provide. He would have the opportunity to make his own way instead of settling with a pharmacist's son only five blocks from his mother's house.

Besides, he would visit often.

Kiram wondered if Majdi felt the same way, spending so much of his life at sea and in distant lands with strange people. He always returned but never to stay, no matter how their mother tried to settle him in a wife's home.

Even now Majdi and his navigator discussed their next voyage to the western provinces of Yuan. They would set sail just before the Flower Festival while the winds were best. They planned to return next fall with silk and rare plumage from exotic birds.

When Siamak pointed out that two of Mother Rid-Fisse's daughters had expected to court Majdi this summer, Majdi simply shrugged as if putting out to sea was a physical necessity.