Nestor seemed both scandalized and thrilled. Kiram imagined that he was trying to memorize the offhanded way that Javier tossed out obscene words like "cunt."
Javier held the jupon up against Kiram's chest and nodded as though what he saw pleased him.
"You'll look like you're made entirely of gold." Javier's tone was soft and Kiram imagined that if Javier's hands hadn't been full he would have reached out and touched Kiram's hair, as he often did when they were alone. But Nestor was with them and Javier simply dropped the jupon back into its box.
"No candy in that one," Javier said to Nestor. "Let's try another."
The three of went through the boxes, unpacking winter clothes, mechanist tools, one of Kiram's bows, a clay talisman Kiram's little nephews and nieces had made for him, rounds of waxed cheese, dried figs, and to Nestor's utter delight, honey cakes and four dry-cured sausages.
"Do you mind if I have a little of it?" Nestor asked.
"Help yourself. You should have some of the cheese as well." Kiram opened a last box, which contained several Haldiim books and his mother's sheaf of correspondence.
While Kiram read the letter, Nestor devoured slices of sausage and cheese and Javier considered several of the tools Kiram's father had sent with a look of uncertainty that almost bordered on suspicion.
The news from home was comfortingly normal. Two more of his cousins had become fathers and thus assured their places in their wives' houses. His brother Majdi on the other hand had once again failed to find a woman willing to take him and had again set sail aboard the Red Witch. Kiram's mother wondered if she hadn't made a terrible mistake purchasing the ship for Majdi, as she now feared he would never settle into a secure marriage.
At home his sisters, Siamak and Dauhd, were attempting to entice his mother to offer Cadeleonian cookies in the candy shop. His father was still tinkering with designs for mechanical birds. Most of them were very pretty and few of them could remain airborne for more than a few moments. Several had crashed into the henhouse and the cook was eyeing Kiram's father with annoyance.
Kiram smiled at his mother's obvious affection for his father despite his eccentricities. He was disappointed to find that the questions he had written to his uncle's husband had gone unanswered. Both his uncle Rafie and Alizadeh were traveling. She didn't expect them back until midwinter, weather permitting.
Kiram glanced down to the stack of books in front of him and then to Javier.
"She says she sent the books you asked about," Kiram said. "Though she doesn't want you to think that we're all so superstitious as these Bahiim writings would make you think."
Javier looked pleased and Nestor squinted at the books.
"What do they say? I can't read them at all," Nestor complained.
"This one is called Red Blossoms from a Fallen Tree and this one is A Beast Cries in the Sacred Heart of the Night and the last is called A Longing That My Bones Will Remember." Kiram pointed out each of the books as he spoke. "They're poems written by two famous Bahiim mystics. They talk quite a lot about the sacredness of all aspects of life, even those that seem base and animalistic."
Kiram hadn't read any of the books all the way through but he knew the more famous poems, as most Haldiim did. They were quite old and Kiram could only guess that Javier had gotten the titles from Calixto's diary.
"Thank her for me, will you?" Javier picked up the three books and took them to his desk. Kiram nodded and continued to skim the gossip from Anacleto. There was news of his friend Musni. Kiram took it in with a sense of loss, frowning at the letter.
"What's wrong?" Nestor asked.
"What?" Kiram looked up at him. "Nothing. Nothing at all. It's just that one of my close friends has decided to marry a girl." Kiram realized how this sounded and quickly added, "I liked her as well, so I'm happy for him but sad about the marriage."
"Did he know you fancied her?" Nestor asked.
"Yes, he knew." Kiram accepted a slice of sausage from Nestor. It was spicy and tasted of juniper and cloves. For a moment he couldn't keep from wondering whether Musni would have refused to marry if he hadn't left for the academy. He sighed again, realizing that he would have left even if he had known that he would lose Musni.
"Not much of a friend if you ask me," Nestor grumbled. "It's pretty low to steal a man's girl while he's gone away to school."
"He didn't steal her," Kiram replied. Nestor handed him a piece of cheese. He ate it and felt better. He couldn't have cared that much about Musni, he supposed, if a slice of sausage and a bite of cheese could console him so easily.
"She liked him and he comes from a poor family, so taking a wife is a good choice for him. Her mother owns two mills. Musni will be well taken care of."
"Still doesn't make it right," Nestor said, frowning.
Kiram shrugged. He glanced down to the box and realized that he'd missed a satchel. He opened it and discovered his favorite taffy, packed with mint leaves. He shared a piece with Nestor and then turned to offer one to Javier.
He didn't know why, but Javier's expression seemed almost stricken. Then he gave Kiram a quick smile.
"You have an entirely different life waiting for you back in Anacleto, don't you?" Javier accepted the taffy but didn't eat it.
"We all have other lives outside of the academy," Kiram replied.
"Not really." Nestor's expression turned thoughtful. "Not like you do. I never considered it before, but all of us Cadeleonians are going to be dealing with each other like this for the rest of our lives. Not with upperclassmen and all that but we do the same things here as we do at home, eat the same food, know the same people. You come from an entirely different place." Nestor spoke as if this idea just occurred to him and he found it somehow troubling. "When you're done with academy you're not just going to disappear back behind the Haldiim wall to your other life, are you?"
"I have to go home sometime."
"But you're going to write to me and come visit and invite me to visit you, aren't you? My family house is in Anacleto, less than an hour from the Haldiim district."
"Of course." Kiram smiled at Nestor. "After a few days back at my mother's house I'll be desperate to get out. I'll be visiting you everyday. Honestly, escaping from home was half of why I came here in the first place. I wanted to see something new and meet different people."
"Well, you've certainly met different people, I'll bet!" Relief rang through Nestor's voice. "And you've ridden horses and learned to fence, and you're going to win dozens of ribbons in the tournament. When that girl sees you she's going to break down in tears because she missed her chance at you."
Kiram laughed at the thought of any girl crying over him, much less Musni's new wife. Briefly Kiram wondered what would happen when they were both back in Anacleto. If he ever did find a husband, how would he introduce the man to Nestor?
Nestor nodded happily. "You won't care because by then you will have had your fill of women from the Goldenrod and half of them will be writing you love letters the way they write to Atreau."
"Yes," Javier said tiredly. "It will be a glorious future for all. But for now I think we ought to go down for dinner."
"The bell hasn't-" Nestor began but then the seventh bell sounded from the chapel.
The three of them joined the flood of other students filing down to the dining room and Kiram's brief, troubled thoughts of his future were forgotten as the smell of beef and fresh bread beckoned him.
Chapter Seventeen
When the day of the tournament finally arrived, the students at the academy rose early and ate quickly before mounting up and riding in a tight procession into the town of Zancoda. Nervous excitement pervaded the air, and neither Kiram nor Nestor was immune. As Kiram reined Firaj alongside Nestor's mount he noted the pink flush of Nestor's cheeks and felt certain that anyone close at hand could hear the pounding of his own heart.