"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.
Chapter Twenty-Four
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."
"If they don't?" Kiram asked.
"Then we'll have to depend on the information that you can gather here at the duke's side." Alizadeh shrugged. "It's the only way."
"He's just a boy," Rafie said with a pained frown. "And not even a Bahiim."
"The shajdi must not fall into the hands of the man on the hill." Alizadeh's expression was serious. "And to be honest I'm nearly as loathe to leave him here as you are, but he is the only one with access to the academy as well as the duke. He shouldn't be in any danger so long as the man on the hill remains focused upon the Tornesals." Alizadeh gave Rafie a reassuring smile. "And the duke certainly seems dedicated enough to Kiram's safety."
"I don't like this," Rafie replied.
"I know," Alizadeh said. "But it's vital that we keep someone close to the duke. And I don't believe we could hope to place anyone closer to him than Kiram is already."
"He's too young," Rafie insisted. Kiram wanted to argue that he was not, but held his tongue. Alizadeh already supported him, and no one else had as much experience or success convincing Rafie to change his mind.
"We don't have the luxury of being sentimental now, my love." Alizadeh caught Rafie's hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss into his palm. "You saw how Kiram fought on the tournament ground; he's plainly not a child anymore."