Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell book Two

Hashiem gave Kiram a cold glare and then very purposefully turned away from him. Kiram almost laughed at how childish the gesture seemed, especially after everything else that had happened tonight. Hashiem's snub meant hardly anything to him.

"We must be going, Mother Kir-Naham," Kiram said. "Good evening."

Mother Kir-Naham refused to even respond.

Kiram shrugged and led Javier through the press of the gathered crowd. A few people greeted them but most were far too engaged in speculation about the illumination of the Circle of Red Oaks.

"All the lights from the Solstice have come home!" A child suggested. An older boy wondered if the lights were all just bugs but the wrinkled man beside him shook his head and pointed out the whirling symbols the lights formed.

"That's the Bahiim symbol for life," the old man said, "and all that is sacred. That's impressive writing for bugs."

"It's beautiful," one woman whispered and she gazed at the sky as if she were falling in love.

Javier smiled and the pride of his expression seemed to lift even his exhaustion. Still Kiram wasn't about to shove him onto Lunaluz's back and just hope he made the trip home. Nor did he feel like returning to his own house.

The ambient golden glow made it easy to wander the streets and find a hostel. Kiram rented a room where Javier fell asleep before he'd even gotten both his boots off. Kiram lay down with him but didn't sleep right away. In the dark of their little room the symbol that had fallen upon Kiram's arm gave off the faintest light. Kiram watched it shine and slowly fade as the lights outside dimmed and at last gave way to darkness.

Kiram arrived back at his family house just after the fourth morning bell rang out. He had planned to get home earlier but having Javier to himself in a bed had proved too much of a temptation.

The smell of earth and sweat still clung to his body and the taste of Javier's semen lingered in his mouth. Stray leaves clung to the curls of his hair and his rumpled clothes made it look like he'd spent the night under a bush.

In the courtyard his mother's secretary, Fiez, gave him a disapproving glance before hurrying to the candy shop to no doubt inform Kiram's mother that he had at last dragged himself home.

Kiram hurried to the only refuge he could claim. Unfortunately, Majdi already occupied the men's bath. Steaming vapor rose from the water and the smell of sweet soap filled the air. From where he stretched out in the tub, Majdi took in Kiram's dirty, rumpled appearance and then shook his head.

"Do you know if Mum's very mad at me?" Kiram asked.

"Very mad?" Majdi raised his brows. "She's furious."

"How furious?"

"Too furious for you to be hiding with me," Majdi replied. "This is your trouble, Kiram. You'd best go out and face it."

"But-"

"Allyou had to do wasgp to a dinner." Majdi sounded exasperated. "You could have avoided this but you chose not to. Now go and face the consequences like an adult."

"But I didn't mean to miss the dinner."

"Don't tell me your excuses," Majdi snapped. "And. don't think you can go to father or Dauhd either. Mum had it out with all of us last night. You're on your own. I suggest you take responsibility like the grown man you play at being."

Kiram wanted to argue, to plead with Majdi to help him, but he realized that Majdi was right. How could he expect to embark on a life amidst Cadeleonian courtiers, bullies and princes when he couldn't even muster the courage to face his own mother? He supposed that if their situations had been reversed Javier would have gone straight to his mother, just as he had marched directly to his penance the morning after he knocked Genimo out.

Kiram wiped his face clean and rinsed his hands, then left Majdi to his bath.

He met his mother at the back door of the candy shop.

"So, you've decided to come home?" She watched him like he was a fly she planned to swat. Behind her, Kiram noticed Dauhd and Siamak both peeking out of the doorway.

"I-" Kiram began.

"Your Cadeleonian duke didn't take you home to show off to his people?" The rage in her voice belied her cool expression.

"No." Kiram rolled his eyes at the absurdity of the thought. "Of course not-"

"Don'tyou dare take that tone with me, Kiram!" His mother's voice rang shrill and strange. Her tightly controlled expression broke into rage and she slapped him across the face. "Don't you dare even open your mouth!"

Kiram could only stare at his mother. He'd been struck far harder in the last year and yet that single blow shocked him. Never in his life had he seen his mother like this, not even when she and Siamak had fought.

"You humiliated Mother Kir-Naham and her son last night! And you made a liar of me and your father, and why? So you could throw yourself after some well-hung, rich animal! I'd rather have found out that you were letting a dog fuck you!"

Fury flooded Kiram, immolating his earlier thoughts of simply bowing his head and apologizing. Instead he met his mother's glare with his own.

"Javier is not-"

His mother swung for him, but this time Kiram caught her hand and shoved her back. Both Dauhd and Siamak rushed from the candy shop to their mother.

"Javier is not an animal!" Kiram snarled. "He's been gracious and generous and he has never said one bad word against any of you!"

"He's not safe!" Siamak shouted at him. "If you'd just be reasonable, Kiram you'd see that. He's a Cadeleonian-"

"I know he's a fucking Cadeleonian!" Kiram's heart pounded hard now, like he was about to get in a real fight. "You can all stop telling me. I know! I don't care, because he's a better human being than Hashiem, his mother or any of you. He doesn't care that you're Haldiim, you know that? He treats you all with respect."

"I know, Kiram." Dauhd looked frightened. "Javier's a good man. He is. But if you get involved with him, you could end up being exiled or worse. We just want to keep you safe."

"No, you don't," Kiram bellowed. "You want to use me for an alliance with Mother Kir-Naham. Well, I'm not going to go live with that bitter old woman or marry her dull son."

"Don't you speak of Mother Kir-Naham in that fashion." Kiram's mother glowered at him.

"I'll speak how I like!"

"Not while you're in my house you won't!" His mother's voice rang through the courtyard. Kiram noticed a fruit seller standing near the fountain gaping at them.

"Well, then," Kiram ground the words out in a low growl, "I won't be staying in your house."

His mother and sisters all looked stunned at that and Kiram turned and strode towards the gates.

"Don't think you can come back if you walk out now, Kiram! Don't you dare!" His mother shouted after him as he stepped past the gates. Still, he thought he heard Siamak assuring his mother and Dauhd that he'd be back before nightfall.

But he wouldn't, he promised himself. He was not going to go back home, not ever.

He fumed and paced the streets, attempting to walk off some of his anger while making his way to Rafie's house. As he wandered Kiram overheard constant chatter between street vendors, their patrons, guards and passerby. All of them discussed last night's illuminated sky. Only the rarest individual seemed to have slept the night through. Most were bleary-eyed but still excited and filled with a delighted euphoria. People spoke unabashedly of miracles occurring all through the city, of a new age of enlightenment. Some even confessed their own mystical premonitions of the moment. Men and women who Kiram knew had never been religious were suddenly speaking rapturously of sacred groves and the holiness of the Haldiim people.

Kiram felt alien in the midst of so much jubilation. He couldn't keep from wondering how many of these people would be delighted if they knew that a Cadeleonian nobleman had ignited the sky with those Bahiim blessings? What would they have thought if they knew that it had been done secretly and against the wishes of the majority of the Bahiim community?