Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

"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 pine. 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."