Ginn Hale - Lord of the White Hell Book One

Rafie nodded, his expression one of quiet concern.

Alizadeh turned his attention to Javier. "You are his guardian, Lord Tornesal, so I would ask you to please look after him. You must not leave him alone while he's in this state."

Javier stepped closer to Kiram. "Of course, I'll stay beside him."

"We had planned to lodge with the Irabiim this evening but obviously that will not be possible." Rafie waved his hand at the three remaining travel wagons of the dismantled Irabiim camp. "Kiram will need somewhere to spend the night."

"He is welcome at my home," Javier offered quickly. "As are the two of you. I would be honored if you would stay at the Tornesal townhouse with me."

"We would be delighted." Alizadeh's smile became predatory. Neither Javier nor the Grunito brothers seemed to notice.

"We would be glad to accept your hospitality later this evening," Rafie said. "For now, we still have some business to arrange with our friends here. We should be able to join you before the fifth bell."

"Very good," Javier replied. "Kiram and I will see you then."

Again Alizadeh gave a pleased nod.

"Take care," Rafie told Kiram. He placed a soft leather coin pouch in Kiram's hand. "Buy yourself something to eat. It will steady you."

"I will." Kiram slipped the pouch into his pocket. "Thank you."

"No chance of Labara wine, I suppose?" Elezar asked once they were back on the fairgrounds.

"Not today," Javier replied. He caught Kiram's elbow and pulled him back from a fascinatingly large boar.

"I've seen him before," Kiram said.

"Yss, you're old friends, no doubt," Javier replied. "Duera goes straight to your head, doesn't it?"

Kiram would have disagreed but then a brilliantly plumed bird caught his attention. Javier laughed at him but Kiram was sure the bird gave him a knowing wink.

Most of the afternoon passed in a relative haze. Kiram ate several rolls stuffed with cabbage and pungent meat and he purchased an assortment of odd, glittering trinkets that struck him as wonderful gifts for his friends in Anacleto. At one point he suggested that Nestor could make a small fortune selling pictures of Javier to the gaggles of young women who were always eyeing him. Then he challenged Elezar to a game of ring toss and proceeded to throw his rings everywhere but onto the mounted bull's horns.

As the afternoon grew late, he and Javier returned to the Tornesal townhouse. When they were alone in Javier's bedroom, Kiram asked Javier to open the white hell so that he might read another passage from Calixto's diary. Javier laughed and reminded him of the price they had agreed to. Kiram pulled Javier close, kissing him deeply.

Javier embraced him tightly and Kiram was not sure if the rush of heat was the white hell or the surge of his own passion. Then the luminous depth of the white hell opened around him. From the center of his chest, just where the lotus talisman lay, an icy chill sparked and spread through him with a terrible, cold blackness. Kiram tried to grasp Javier, but he couldn't see him. He tried to call his name but nothing came out. Kiram's legs buckled. He fell but did not feel his body strike the ground.

He woke in Javier's bedroom, tucked beneath warm blankets. Golden firelight outlined Javier's silhouette, casting his features into shadow. Strands of black hair fell into his eyes and he flicked it aside.

"Ybu need to get a haircut," Kiram remarked. His voice sounded strange and weak.

"Kiram?" Relief sounded through Javier's voice. "You're awake?"

"Yfes." Something about the darkness of the surrounding shadows and the quiet made him suddenly think that it must be night. He remembered falling when Javier had opened the white hell but it had only been late afternoon then. "What happened?"

"You collapsed." Javier touched the edge of the bed and for a moment Kiram thought he might take his hand. Instead his fingers clenched around the corner of the comforter, crumpling it. "I couldn't wake you."

"The duera was probably too strong," Rafie said from across the room. Startled, Kiram rose up onto his elbows. He had been so focused on Javier that he hadn't noticed either his uncle or Alizadeh sitting before the fire only a few feet from the foot of the bed. Firelight glinted along the long spiraling curls of Alizadeh's hair. He gave Kiram a sly wink. Rafie's expression was more troubled. He rose from his chair and went to Kiram's side.

He touched Kiram's forehead lightly and then placed his warm strong fingers against Kiram's throat, checking his pulse.

"Do you have any pain?" Rafie asked.

"Not really." Kiram sat up. He felt oddly groggy. "My arm hurts but not badly. I'm a little tired."

"I think he could use a glass of bitter water. Do you have anything like that here?" Rafie asked of Javier.

"I'll have some brought up to him at once." Javier gazed down at Kiram for a moment and his concern seemed so obvious that Kiram had to drop his own gaze to the clean surface of his blankets. Javier turned away and left the room.

The moment the door closed behind him, Alizadeh bounded from his seat to Kiram's side. He caught hold of Kiram's lotus medallion and held it against his palm, where it glowed dully from between Alizadeh's fingers. As the medallion grew luminous, the dizzy sensation in Kiram's head faded; then at last Alizadeh laid the medallion gently against Kiram's chest. Then he stood silently with his eyes closed and his head bowed.

Seconds passed while Rafie nervously eyed the door. "Young Lord Tornesal will be back soon."

Alizadeh nodded and opened his eyes.

"Kiram was right. The shajdi has not been contaminated. It is changed, more linked to this physical realm, but its essence is pure. I should have been able to see all of this without harming you, Kiram, but I underestimated the defenses your duke has placed around himself."Alizadeh gestured to the vast expanse of symbols drawn across Javier's floor and inscribed into his ceiling. "I'm sorry if I pained you."

"It's all right. I needed the rest anyway."

Kiram was far too relieved by Alizadeh's assessment of the white hell to complain about the brief, terrible chill that had swept through him just before he had lost consciousness.

"He's very attentive, your duke," Alizadeh said.

"Too attentive," Rafie added. "We couldn't get him to leave your side, until just now."

Kiram couldn't help grinning at the rush of happiness he felt upon hearing this.

"I did tell him that you were entrusting Kiram's wellbeing into his care," Alizadeh commented to Rafie.

"Yfes, but who thought he'd take you so seriously? He's what…eighteen? You'd think he'd be bored by staring at Kiram after a few hours."

"I don't think he would." Alizadeh still gazed at the symbols on the floor. "The more I find out about Lord Tornesal the more I'm inclined to agree with Kiram. We should do what we can to protect him."

"Really?" Hope made Kiram's voice rise almost childishly. "You'll break the curse that's been set against him?"

Alizadeh frowned. "I told you before, it isn't a curse. It's something else disguised as a curse."

"Wouldn't that make it easier to destroy than a real curse like the Old Rage?" Kiram asked.

Alizadeh just shook his head.

"I understand curses," Alizadeh said. "I know the very essence of them, but this is something very different. It moves like the Old Rage but it feels empty. If it has no pain or anger then I have no way to appease it or to bind it." Alizadeh scowled at the floor. "I've never encountered anything like it and I would be a fool, risking my life as well as your duke's if I attacked blindly."

"But you said-" Kiram began.

"I said that there might be a way to save your duke. And there may be." Alizadeh laid a hand on his shoulder. "I have to meet with the Circle of the Red Oak in Anacleto. If this shadow curse has been active for nearly eighteen years then someone may well have knowledge of it."