Nestor shot Kiram a puzzled look as if he was reassessing Kiram's intelligence. "He's terribly fond of you. Haven't you noticed?"
Kiram used the excuse of scratching Firaj's cheek to look away from Nestor. Was he and Javier's relationship really that obvious?
"He takes his responsibility seriously."
"Oh, now you're just being coy." Nestor pushed up his spectacles to itch the thin scratch that ran across the bridge of his nose. "Seriously, Kiram. He likes you. You're smart and different from most of the men at the academy. Elezar aside, Javier doesn't give a crap about most of them but he goes out of his way for you. He never would have spent so much time wandering around the fairgrounds with you half out of your brain otherwise. You're definitely his friend. I think he may be a little fond of me as well, you know, by association."
"I'm sure he is."
"Riossa says that only an ass wouldn't like me." His pale cheeks turned slightly pink. "But you know she's a bit biased."
"Nestor, you charmer." Kiram smiled at Nestor's flushed pride.
"She can draw horses pretty well." Nestor gave Kiram a sly look. "And she kisses really well."
"But the real question is, are you any good at kissing?" Kiram expected Nestor to be flustered by the question but instead he beamed.
"I'm marvelous!" Nestor sounded so exultant that Kiram laughed. Nestor laughed along with him.
At the pavilion grooms took the horses. Students from both the Yillar and Sagrada Academy gathered in the center of the pavilion. Friends, admirers, family members, and countless onlookers cheered and shouted at them from the surrounding stands. Flowers and ribbons fell in showers. Occasionally perfumed favors and love notes drifted down.
A yellow kerchief pelted Nestor's head. Both he and Kiram glanced up to see Riossa and her family sitting in the second tier of the stands. Nestor waved to her broadly and Riossa shyly returned his gesture. An older man standing just behind Riossa scowled at him, but Nestor seemed utterly oblivious to his presence.
Before Kiram could comment, Master Ignacio called them to order. The upperclassmen who had been eliminated from the dueling and their underclassmen were sent into the stands to join their families and cheer their classmates.
Kiram bid Nestor a quick farewell, as he and his upperclassman Atreau made for the crowded boxed seats in the third tier of the stands. The Yllar students, too, were divided and the majority sent to cheer and watch while he, Javier and the other combatants retreated to the lowest stands to dress. Grooms handed out bundles of leather armor to the underclassmen, while teams of housemen brought out the heavier metal armor that the upperclassmen would wear.
"Look here, Javier." Elezar held up his breastplate. A red enamel bull reared across its surface. "I just got it re- enameled so try not to scratch it up while you're clinging to it and begging for mercy!"
Javier hefted up his black enameled groin piece in response. "Just so you know what to kiss when you want me to stop beating your ass."
Kiram dressed in his own armor quickly. He winced as he laced a leather guard over his injured forearm. Then, presented with the sight of Javier's bare back, Kiram utterly forgot his discomfort. Kiram touched his shoulder, feeling the smooth warm skin.
Javier gave him a brief, winning smile and then handed Kiram his chest plate. Kiram expected the chill of the metal but not the sheer weight of it.
"Make sure the buckles are tight. It can't slip while I'm out there." Javier's fingers briefly brushed over Kiram's hand. Then he dropped his hand and picked up his leather doublet.
"Not to worry," Kiram told him. "I've had lots of practice getting girths good and tight. I could probably even warm your bit if you had one."
Javier pulled the doublet over his head and then turned to allow Kiram to lace up the leather guard that protected his throat.
After that, the successive layers of Javier's leather armor, chainmail, and enameled plate armor monopolized Kiram's attention.
While Kiram knelt, adjusting the fit of Javier's greaves to his long shins, Scholar Donamillo and Holy Father Habalan arrived with muerate poison. Javier casually held his left hand out to the plump holy father. Scholar Donamillo opened the glass vial of black poison as Holy Father Habalan dragged his silver blade across Javier's wrist. Kiram felt Javier's muscles tense when the blade sliced into his flesh but his expression remained unconcerned.
Kiram bowed his head to keep the holy father from seeing his contemptuous sneer. Even so he smelled the tang of the meurate and felt a shudder pass through Javier as it entered his bloodstream.
"Kiram." Scholar Donamillo handed Kiram a roll of clean bandage. "Bind the wound, but not too tightly."
"Yes, sir."
"Scholar Donamillo?" Javier's voice was low. "Do you know how Enevir Helio is this morning? I'd heard that his leg was broken."
Kiram reflexively glanced up into the stands where the Helio box stood, conspicuously empty.
"His leg is the worst of his injuries," Scholar Donamillo replied. "But he's a strong young man and I expect that he will recover to a great extent within the next few months. Shall I give him your regards?"
Javier shook his head. The Helios were not Hellions, and therefore did not merit much interest. "I was just curious."
"Yfes. Well then. Good luck to both of you." Scholar Donamillo offered Kiram a smile. Kiram appreciated the words, but wished that they had not come with a dose of acrid black poison. He couldn't quite bring himself to thank the scholar. Javier, too, remained silent.
Holy Father Habalan and Scholar Donamillo departed as unobtrusively as they had arrived. Kiram wrapped Javier's wrist. His skin felt icy now. Javier's mouth was pale and he drew his breath with slow concentration.
Kiram laced Javier's leather gauntlet over the bandage, his own arm aching in sympathy. Then he helped work Javier's metal gauntlet up over both. Javier caught his hand briefly in a cold, steel grip. His expression was so drawn that Kiram feared he might collapse. Then Javier released his tight grip. He took up his helmet and pulled it on, hiding his face.
Kiram could hardly make out his dark eyes through the slits of his visor. He was a long expanse of steel and black enamel, like some strange union of mechanism and man.
Most of the other Sagrada students were already armored and standing ready. With the added bulk of enameled steel and chainmail Elezar's large body had transformed into an immense scarlet fortress. Unlike Javier, Elezar shifted, rolling his shoulders and moving his armor as if its weight meant nothing.
"Kiram, you better get your jupon on." Javier's low voice sounded almost hollow from within the armor.
"Sorry." Kiram quickly pulled the jupon over his head and smoothed the yellow silk out over his byrnie. The Tornesal black sun over his chest matched the one enameled across Javier's breastplate perfectly. He hefted up Javier's long sword and his shield the way the other underclassmen held their upperclassmen's weapons.
High in the stands, trumpeters blew out a sharp melody, announcing Prince Sevanyo. By the time the notes stilled, the entire pavilion had gone quiet. In the shaded comfort of his box seat, Sevanyo rose and raised a hand. The large jewels adorning his fingers flashed. "Chosen sons of Cadeleon's great academies, stand before me!"
Kiram followed Javier onto the fighting ground. He held his head up high and looked as proud and confident as he could, though, in truth he was concerned for Javier. Between the muerate and the weight of all this armor Kiram wasn't sure how well Javier would fare. His precise and unusually careful motions were exactly the same as when Kiram had discovered him lying, nearly poisoned to death, in the chapel garden.