Between races they all drank spiced tea and ate candied fish. Nestor and Riossa sketched their surroundings and encouraged Riossa's maid to try Haldiim dishes, though she didn't seem to care for many. Elezar walked through the crowd at Kiram's side. He looked as if he had something on his mind but in typical Cadeleonian style remained silent.
"Is there something bothering you?" Kiram asked at last.
Elezar stole a quick glance to where Nestor and Riossa stood with Riossa's maid at a tanner's stall. They seemed deeply occupied with the kidskin vellum on display.
"Javier's up to something here in the Haldiim district," Elezar whispered. "He's doing something and it's changed him."
"Changed how?" Kiram asked.
"You should tell me. You're the one who brought him here, who keeps inviting him back," Elezar replied. His gaze was intent. "What's he been doing in the Haldiim district this past month? He's not just talking about some water clock, I know that. He comes back haggard with strange burns all over his body."
Kiram wondered how exactly Elezar had spied Javier's burns, but he didn't ask and Elezar went on quickly. "He's been avoiding chapel for weeks and the last three days I think he slept outside in an old oak tree. It's insane."
"He slept in a tree?" That was something from an archaic holy text, wasn't it? Javier really was embracing Alizadeh's Bahiim teachings.
"Yes, up in a tree." Elezar lowered his voice. "And it's not just that, when he's up in the branches I swear.." Elezar suddenly clenched his mouth closed.
"What?" Kiram demanded.
"You really don't know anything about this?" Elezar's expression was disbelieving.
"I've spent nearly every day with you and Nestor, not Javier. How could I know what he's been doing?"
Elezar sighed heavily and then nodded.
"He flickers." Elezar looked uncomfortable even saying the words.
"Flickers?" Kiram asked. "You mean-"
"It's the white hell. He sits up there in the oak with sparks lighting up and dying all around him. It's not just one little flash. It's like a cloud of fireflies-like he's pulling stars down from the sky." Elezar scowled as two women passed close by them, then went on. "Late last night he lit up the entire tree. The branches and leaves blazed white all around him and he looked like.like something from another world. Javier has always liked to show off with sparks and tricks but that wasn't showing off. That was something powerful and unholy."
Kiram remembered the image he'd seen in Calixto's diary of a luminous, tangling tree and Alizadeh talking about igniting the White Tree.
"Unholy"' Kiram repeated. To any Haldiim luminous branches reaching from the earth to the heavens would be just the opposite. But knowing that wouldn't be any consolation to Elezar. "No wonder Timoteo wants him to attend chapel."
Elezar nodded.
Kiram asked, "Do you think Javier is in real danger from the royal bishop?"
"The way things are right now, he might be," Elezar said. "Something's gotten up Lord Quemanor's ass and stirred him enough to think that he has the evidence to have Javier arrested. I don't think Quemanor is bluffing either."
"And if he convinces the royal bishop to move against Javier, what will happen?" Kiram asked.
"We'll give him one hell of a fight." Elezar's hand dropped reflexively to his sword hilt. "Atreau and Morisio are both here for the wedding and they've sworn to stand with him."
Kiram frowned at the thought of a small group of schoolboys holding out against the royal bishop's personal army. They'd be slaughtered.
"What about you?" Elezar asked. "Will you stand with him or run if trouble comes?"
"I'll fight for Javier, no matter what," Kiram said, though the prospect frightened him. The royal bishop was a prince and his men certainly wouldn't abide by the neat rules of a tournament.
Suddenly the scent of hay and goats, the sound of the surrounding crowd, and even the warmth of the noonday sun seemed distant and dull. The cold pain of his final duel in the autumn tournament rolled over him. His forearm ached as if the stitches had once again split apart. How much worse would it be to die in battle?
They needed to find a way out of this that didn't include battle. But why would the royal bishop want to arrest Javier at all when he wielded the shadow curse?
"Has Javier mentioned that Fedeles may be back with us again?" Elezar absently watched Nestor chatting with a Civic Guard.
"Back with us?" Kiram asked but something in Elezar's expression gave him his own answer. "You mean he's better?"
"Maybe fully recovered. If it's true, it would be good. Not that he was ever much of a fighter. But still, if he were here and well again it would mean the world to Javier." Elezar's expression softened for just a moment. Then he pulled himself back. "Morisio swears he saw him in Zancoda, walking with a magistrate and speaking very rationally."
"That's wonderful!" Kiram felt almost giddy with joy. Scholar Donamillo must have broken the curse despite his illness. Kiram had left his engine in working order with the scholar and he wondered if it had made the difference.
But even as Kiram spoke a dark thought came to him. If Scholar Donamillo had driven the shadow curse from Fedeles, then the royal bishop would have to alter his tactics against Javier. A cold dread gripped Kiram.
"If the royal bishop did decide to arrest Javier, how do you think he'd go about it?" Kiram's throat felt dry and his words came out too quiet.
"I don't know." Elezar frowned and for a moment Kiram thought he looked as desolate as Kiram felt at the prospect. But then some Cadeleonian reflex surged and Elezar gave a brutish smile. "He'll want to seize Javier while he's away from Rauma and his own men. If he's going to do it he'll have to move soon, before Prince Sevanyo can get word."
"Soon, and most likely here or at the academy?" Kiram asked.
Elezar nodded. "Even so, Javier has the white hell. The royal bishop knows that and I'd bet my left ball that scares the shit out of him."
Only Javier didn't really have the white hell now. From what Javier had told him, his control over it was touch and go.
"The bishop will need to find a way to restrain Javier," Elezar went on.
"He'll want Javier to go to confession." Kiram suddenly realized. "Once Javier has been given muerate poison he'll be vulnerable."
Elezar's face actually paled. "That would be exactly when he'd want to move."
"Then I suppose it's good that Javier's been avoiding chapel," Kiram commented.
"God, yes," Elezar murmured. "It makes sense now."
"What makes sense?" Nestor asked.
Both Kiram and Elezar spun around. Nestor smiled at them benignly. He carried a thick roll of supple vellum sheets over his left arm. Riossa gripped his right arm with a shy pleased expression while her maid trailed behind them, occupied with a sweet roll.
Elezar scowled at his younger brother but Kiram took heart in Nestor's friendly ease. Talking with Elezar he'd felt like any moment they might both die, but just looking at Nestor Kiram felt the warmth and cheer of their surroundings return. He reminded himself that what he and Elezar had been discussing were only rumors and suppositions. Certainly, if anything were truly wrong, Javier would be the first to know and be the one to tell Kiram.
He noticed that new teams of goats waited on the muddy track and that bets were again being taken.
"I was explaining to Elezar that the red goats were originally bred for their meat, not their milk, so they tend to be bigger and make better racers," Kiram supplied.
"Oh, but the little white ones are very quick and their carts are smaller," Riossa commented. "So if the race is only half the track they get to the finish before the red fellows can work up any speed."
"That's true." Kiram smiled, realizing that Riossa had actually been paying much closer attention to the races than he had.