Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell Book One

"I think so. Alizadeh took steam in Yuan. He said that it opened the world of dreams and allowed him to enter them while he was still wide awake."

"I'm not sure I want more chances to enter my dreams." A teasing expression flickered over Javier's face. "I am curious about yours, though."

A guilty flush flooded Kiram's cheeks and Javier leaned close and whispered, "Are they dirty?"

"I don't remember any of them," Kiram lied. "What about yours?"

"Filthy," Javier replied with a salacious smile. "You'd be shocked to see the things you do in my dreams."

"How can you just admit that?" Kiram asked. "Don't you ever get flustered or embarrassed?"

"Why would I be embarrassed? You're the one who can't keep his clothes on in my dreams." Javier's fingers gently curled along the curve of Kiram's neck and he accepted it as easily as he would have accepted one of Musni's caresses. It seemed natural to rest his hand on Javier's hip, hooking his thumb under the supple leather of Javier's belt and leaning in close to him.

The muscles of Javier's body went taut at Kiram's touch. The confident smirk dropped from Javier's mouth; his lips parted just slightly as he caught his breath. He stared at Kiram almost as if he were powerless to look away, a soft pink flush spreading across his cheeks.

Kiram wanted to kiss him. And he almost gave into that desire, but out of the corner of his eyes he caught a movement at the edge of the Irabiim camp. Javier saw it too and pulled back immediately, dropping his hand down to the sword hanging from his belt. Kiram turned just as the approaching figure waved at them.

And then Kiram realized he knew the man.

Alizadeh so perfectly looked the part of an ancient Bahiim that his appearance could have graced a Haldiim scroll from two hundred years past. His honey-blonde hair hung in spiraling curls down to his waist. Flashes of his dark bronze skin showed through the fine white cotton of his flowing prayer clothes.

The orange wrap that he wore over one shoulder and tied at his hip was heavy and in ancient times it would have served as the only shelter a Bahiim could depend upon while crossing the desert. For the same reason, all Bahiim carried water skins, short bows, and hunting knives. Alizadeh's looked like they had been used often.

His leather sandals were past their prime. The strap wrapping around his right ankle looked as if it had been recently mended. Kiram could easily imagine his uncle Rafie doing the careful stitching while commenting that Cadeleonian boots didn't have these kinds of problems.

"Well met, Kiri!" Alizadeh called. Kiram waved back at him.

Javier studied Alizadeh with an expression somewhere between wonder and suspicion. "You know him?"

"That is Alizadeh, my uncle's partner. The one I told you about."

"The Bahiim." Javier nodded.

Kiram made introductions. Javier gave a curt bow and Alizadeh responded by holding up his palms in a sign of formal blessing. A flock of black crows swept out from the Irabiim camp, passed overhead, and then scattered out over the fair. Alizadeh watched the birds then returned his attention to Kiram. "I see Rafie got the lotus medallion to you."

"Yes, it's already brought me lots of luck. I did better in the fencing circles than I expected anyway. And I think some of it rubbed off on Javier. He won the race this morning."

"Congratulations." Alizadeh studied Javier for a moment then glanced back to Kiram. When he spoke again it was softly and in Haldiim. "Do not take the medallion off, Kiri. This place may not be safe. The shadow of an old evil lingers here and it will not be made to rest."

Kiram knew that Javier understood more of the Haldiim language than he admitted to and clearly from the way his body tensed at the mention of an old evil, he understood Alizadeh's words, and doubtless took them to mean the white hell.

"Anything I can do? Perhaps show you and your partner around?" Javier's tone remained polite, but his face revealed his tension.

"No, thank you." Alizadeh gave Javier a cool, priestly smile. "Kiram's uncle and I just want to catch up with him and make sure that he is doing all right. He's never been this far away from home before and he's been missed."

Kiram frowned at hearing something so dismissive coming from Alizadeh, who as a rule was so welcoming.

"Yes, he was saying something like that just a few moments ago." Javier's expression shifted to mild disinterest, a sure sign that he had withdrawn into Cadeleonian reserve. "I imagine that you all have things to catch up on, and I ought to check on Lunaluz."

"We could go with you." Kiram wanted Javier to make some effort to stay with him.

But Javier had retreated to the impenetrable guise of a bored Hellion. Kiram wanted to assure him that he didn't need to, that Alizadeh wouldn't see him as a soulless aberration. He'd understand that Javier was a man-a friend. Only Alizadeh wasn't treating Javier with the warmth of a friend.

He regarded Javier with a cold formality that the Haldiim reserved for only their least loved neighbors and Cadeleonians. He said, "We shouldn't impose on your upperclassman any longer, Kiram."

"Master Ignacio will expect us at the city stables by the sixth bell," Javier told Kiram. "I'll see you then." And with that he left them.

Alizadeh kept one hand clamped on Kiram's shoulder as he hurried him back across the fairgrounds. He glanced to the sky often, watching the crows converge and fly apart.

"What's wrong?" Kiram asked but as he took in Alizadeh's grim countenance and remembered his words, he knew the answer-an old evil lingered here. "Ybu and Rafie didn't just come to see me, did you? You're here because of the curse."

Alizadeh gave Kiram a quick assessing look and then nodded.

"I'm so glad you came," Kiram told him. "They're in real trouble-"

"Not here," Alizadeh cut him off. "This is not a safe place to talk. Come quickly."

Apprehension gnawed at Kiram's sense of the normalcy of the fairgoers and merchants surrounding him. Suddenly they seemed to be staring too long at him and stepping aside too quickly. All around them children gaped at Alizadeh's long yellow hair and his strange clothes. Adults often made signs of the Cadeleonian church against their chests.

In Anacleto, Alizadeh would have grinned at them and returned the signs. He might have struck up a light conversation with one of the merchants and slowly charmed the people around him. But today he strode past them as if their discomfort wasn't worth noticing.

He led Kiram off the fairgrounds and across the harvested sunflower fields to a stooped traveler's inn at the edge of the city. A sign depicting a grinning black dog hung over the door. Two huge crows called down from the thatched roof. An old dog lay curled up near the wooden steps. Like most animals, the dog rushed to Alizadeh, full of excitement.

"Rafie is waiting for us, as are two of our Irabiim friends. You must be polite to them and don't let their appearances bother you. They're both Bahiim like me." Alizadeh stroked the dog's dusty hide.

"Of course," Kiram replied.

The room Alizadeh and Rafie had rented was directly under the ridge of the roof and so the heavy beams of the rafters slanted down on one wall, while the opposite wall abutted the stone of a central chimney. A single window illuminated a narrow bed where Kiram's uncle Rafie sat. Next to him a lanky Irabiim woman hunched, watching the window. Another more muscular Irabiim woman sat cross- legged on the floor toying with a string of brass prayer beads.

Both women wore their blonde hair long and twisted into thick matted locks. Their clothes resembled Alizadeh's, but the material was much brighter and covered with patches of dark red embroidery. The woman on the bed also wore a necklace that looked like it had been made from bird skulls. Both women gazed curiously at Kiram. Their pale green eyes looked almost luminous against the deep circles of kohl surrounding them.