Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell Book One

"Yfes, but mine is an entirely new kind of steam engine. Mine will work, where the royal mechanist's simply functions."

"Really?" Javier raised a dark brow.

"Yfes, really," Kiram replied. "The royal mechanist's steam engine has a boiler and a single steam chamber. When pressure builds from the boiler, it drives steam up into the chamber and that forces the piston up."

Kiram tapped one of the huge pistons on the shelf beside him. "To drop the piston back down into its starting position, the steam chamber has to be cooled so that the steam condenses and dribbles back down into the boiler. Then the entire process has to start again. The boiler has to build heat back up and warm the steam chamber all over again before the piston can make a second stroke. The process requires an absurd amount of time and fuel."

"And your engine is different?" Javier frowned at the boiler. Kiram guessed that Javier couldn't perceive his innovative design, but it didn't bother him. Mechanisms weren't Javier's strong point.

"Once it's finished, the engine will have a second steam chamber inside a condensation chamber, which will buffer the boiler and the first steam chamber from cooling, so there won't be a delay in the drive of the primary piston." Kiram gazed lovingly at his work. "It's designed so that a second piston will be driven by the contraction of steam in the condensation chamber."

Kiram watched Javier mulling all of this over then after a moment he asked, "So what does all of that mean?"

"It means that my steam engine will do twice the work of the royal mechanist's but only burn half the fuel."

"But what will this mechanism actually do?"

Kiram suddenly realized what it was that Javier wasn't asking about the means so much as the end result.

"Anything you want it to." Kiram grinned. This was where he excelled and he rarely had any opportunity to flaunt it. "The miniature engine I built for my father powers our private mill. But an engine this big could pump water out of a deep mine or grind grain for a whole town. It could pound redbark or pulp linen. It could power almost anything. Riverships, siege engines, forge bellows, smithy hammers.It could do anything."

"Anything but ride a horse, I would suppose." Javier leaned back against the shelf next to Kiram. "Were you planning on staying out here all night?"

"No, I just didn't feel like eating at the Hellions' table." Kiram wiped a smear of oil off one of his wrenches. He'd almost managed to forget about his humiliation in riding class. "I suppose Nestor told everyone about what happened with Master Ignacio."

"No, he didn't say anything, but every other second-year student in the dining hall was jabbering about it."

"They ought to mind their own business."

"If people did that then I wouldn't need to keep my hands to myself, would I?" Javier pushed a curl of Kiram's hair back from his face. Kiram flushed and he could tell from Javier's smile that this was the response Javier had wanted. "They were saying Master Ignacio laid you out flat."

"I never hit the ground." Kiram wasn't sure why it mattered but it did.

Javier caught his arm and gently led him toward the window. He frowned as he studied the left side of Kiram's cheek and jaw.

"Looks like it hurt some," Javier said.

"Yfeah, some." Kiram didn't want to complain about an injury to Javier. "I didn't make a scene on purpose. I just. I don't know, did something that made Firaj think I wanted him to perform this strange backwards prance."

"Motesdo steps," Javier supplied. "Not too many horses know them."

"Well, Firaj does. And he was pretty proud of it too, but then the next thing I knew Master Ignacio was furious with me. When I tried to explain that I hadn't done it on purpose he hit me."

"That's not like Master Ignacio," Javier said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's not like him to lose control in front of an entire class." Javier seemed to disregard the challenge in Kiram's tone. "What else did he say?"

"I don't know," Kiram replied. He pulled out of Javier's grip and returned to the shelf to put his wrench away. "He just ranted about how his teachings were the ways of the greatest Cadeleonian men and that he didn't care if I was a Haldiim genius, I still had to respect him."

Kiram glanced back to Javier. He seemed to be assessing Kiram.

"How bad is your riding?" Javier asked at last.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Aside from the fact that the whole matter took place during a riding class, and was provoked by your riding? Oh nothing. I'm just making conversation." Javier shook his head at Kiram. "I think Master Ignacio must be really agitated about you riding in the tournament race. I can't see any other reason that he'd lash out like that."

"Not just because he's a jackass, perhaps?" Kiram suggested.

"He's never struck a student out of sheer rage before."

"Maybe that's because he's never had a Haldiim student before." Kiram gave Javier a challenging look. Javier didn't reply and Kiram could see that the thought troubled him. Master Ignacio was important to Javier, as few other people were. Suddenly Kiram did not want to tear down Javier's hero.

"I'm a terrible rider," Kiram admitted. "I'm easily the worst in the entire class. If Firaj weren't such a well-trained horse I would probably have already been trampled."

"It's not the horses, is it? Do they frighten you?"

"It's not fear, just inexperience. I'd never ridden a horse before I got to the academy."

"Never?" Javier looked genuinely startled at this revelation.

"No, never."

Javier was quiet for a few minutes, simply staring at the shafts of light that cut across the floor of the shed.

"We're going to have to do something about that," Javier said at last. Then he straightened and started for the door.

"Wait, Javier?" Kiram called to him and he turned back.

"What is it?"

"I.I was wondering if you'd be back up in the room before the last bell?" Kiram hoped that the pleading feeling in him didn't carry through to his words. Javier bowed his head, so that his dark hair hid his eyes.

"No, I'll stay away. You don't have to hide down here in this shed." He turned back and opened the door. Kiram had enough time to tell him that he didn't want him to stay away, to tell Javier that he'd missed his company and even his arrogant humor.

But he said nothing, because it was the only wise thing to do, for both their sakes.

He watched as Javier stepped outside and the door fell closed behind him.

When Javier shook him awake early the next morning, Kiram wasn't ready to greet the day. His eyes clenched closed. He rolled over and Javier jabbed him in the back.

"Up," Javier said firmly. "Get up."

"No," Kiram moaned. "First bell hasn't rung yet."

"We aren't going to lounge around waiting for the bells. You have a riding lesson. So get up." Javier's hand slipped under Kiram's blankets. His fingers caressed Kiram's shoulder and then closed around Kiram's nipple. The sensation was delicious at first but then Javier pinched him harder. Kiram jerked upright and shoved Javier back.

"Fine, damn it!" Kiram was so groggy he almost fell out of the bed. "I'm getting up. Damn you, you-I can't even think of a Cadeleonian obscenity that's filthy enough for you, right now."

"Khivash?" Javier suggested.

Kiram pulled his eyes all the way open and regarded Javier. Not only did he look annoyingly refreshed and well dressed but now he was speaking Haldiim. It hadn't been just a dream the previous night.

"Where did you learn that word?" Kiram demanded.

"I must have picked it up somewhere or other." He offered Kiram a smug little smile.

"It was in Calixto's diary, wasn't it?" Kiram slowly staggered up out of the bed. Faint predawn light filtered in through the windows.