Lord of the White Hell book Two lotwh-2 (16 page)

All the Bahiim want is to keep their secrets. He will break our pact and strip you of my protection.

Alizadeh laid his left hand on the medallion in Javier's hands.

NO! Yassin shrieked.

White light exploded from Javier and gushed over Alizadeh. Flames burst up over Alizadeh's prayer clothes and a scorching wind tore through his leather cloak. At his feet the spring grass blackened.

Instinctively, Kiram started forward to Alizadeh's aid but Rafie held him in a tight grip and whispered, "He knows what he's doing, Kiram."

Alizadeh uttered a low guttural word and drove his right hand into Yassin's translucent body. He closed his hand into a fist and the fire of the white hell suddenly died.

Javier swayed on his feet but caught himself. He seemed dazed, his eyes only half open. In front of him, Yassin stared at Alizadeh like a fearful child. He clamped his flickering hands around Alizadeh's forearm, clearly trying to wrench himself free but could not.

"I am Alizadeh Lif-Moussu, little ghost, and I will not harm you or your ward." Alizadeh tone was gentle but he didn't pull his hand back from where it seemed to grip Yassin's heart. "Tell me how you came to be Javier Tornesal's guardian."

Yassin shuddered in Alizadeh's grip.

I bound myself to Calixto and to his bloodline. Between his blood and my spirit we opened the shajdi- We became the white hell that drives back the Mirogoth invaders.

Yassin gave Alizadeh a defiant glare.

"So you were," Alizadeh agreed with that same indulgent smile that Kiram had often seen him offer to impudent youths. "But that was long ago. Calixto Tornesal has been dead nearly a hundred, years. The Mirogoth tribes are allies to the Cadeleonian kings. What are you doing now, Yassin Lif-Harun?"

Uncertainty crept into Yassin's expression. His entire body faded a little, allowing Kiram to clearly see the branches of oak behind him.

I keep the pact.

Yassin regained a little solidity with this affirmation, though Kiram could still see straight through his legs.

I remain between life and death holding the shajdi open. I wait.

"You wait?" Alizadeh asked.

Kiram thought he saw longing in the ghost's wavering features.

I wait for Calixto.

"To join him?" Alizadeh asked.

Yassin nodded.

"But you can't," Alizadeh said softly. "You trapped yourself between death and rebirth when you opened the shajdi. You can't find Calixto now, can you?"

Yassin shook his head and then glared at Alizadeh as if he were to blame.

If the Bahiim had done their duty, if they had defended the kingdom against the Mirogoth devils, then Calixto and I could have lived.-we could have been together.

The anguish in Yassin's words made Kiram shudder.

"History is full of wrongs and regrets." Alizadeh considered the ghost. "Will you let me set this one right?"

You wish to break the pact.

Alizadeh shrugged. "Calixto's descendant needs to possess the shajdi fully if he is to destroy a curse. While you stand between him and that, he and his family suffer."

I protect him.

"Too well," Alizadeh chided the ghost.

You want to steal the shajdi for yourself!

At this Alizadeh gave the kind of a hard, cruel laugh that Kiram had never heard from him before.

"If that was my wish," Alizadeh leaned close to the ghost, and his voice grew chilling, "then I would have already ripped the shajdi from the boy's flesh and devoured his heart. I was a master of the Black Fire before I became a Bahiim, little ghost. I have fed on the souls of guardians far stronger than you."

Alizadeh flexed his fingers inside the ghost's chest and a shudder passed through Yassin's faint body. To Kiram's horror, Javier gasped and choked as well. Then Alizadeh opened his hand, allowing Javier to draw in a steady breath.

"It is not my intention to steal from your ward." Alizadeh's voice went soft again. "I am offering to teach him what you cannot. To do so you must allow him to stand in the fire of the shajdi unprotected should he choose to. Will you do that for him?"

Yassin gazed at Javier. His expression seemed to radiate tender concern.

If he takes the shajdi, then there will be no need for me.

"You could join Calixto then," Alizadeh said. "I would see to it that you were freed."

Yassin smiled and he looked almost luminous. I will allow you to teach him, if that is what he wants.

"If it is what he wants," Alizadeh agreed.

Alizadeh lifted his hand from the medallion and whispered a word. The medallion slapped back against Javier's chest and the ghost vanished. Javier jerked slightly, stumbling to the side. Alizadeh reached out but Javier managed to find his balance. He drew in a deep breath and looked around as if he'd just awoken and wasn't sure of where he stood.

"I feel like I was dreaming just now," Javier said. "Did you see him, Kiram?"

"I saw him." As Kiram started to rise, Rafie at last loosened his grip. Only as Rafie released his arm did Kiram realize how tightly Rafie had held him. His bicep felt bruised.

As he drew near Kiram saw the sweat beading Alizadeh's brow and the exhaustion in his face. He leaned heavily on his cane.

"I wish you weren't such a show off." Rafie slipped up to Alizadeh's side and wrapped a supporting arm around his back. He helped Alizadeh down into his low seat at the base of the old oak.

"Are you all right?" Javier crouched down beside him.

"Of course." Alizadeh gave both Javier and Kiram a bright smile. "I just like to have Rafie fuss over me, you know."

"No doubt you'll love the tonic I'm going to make you drink," Rafie replied.

Alizadeh made a sour face. "Can't it wait? I think Javier and I still have a few things to discuss."

"You have the two hours it will take me to pick the duera flowers and brew your draught." Rafie ran his hand across Alizadeh's brow, brushing gold ringlets of his damp hair back from his face. "After that you must rest."

Alizadeh caught Rafie's hand and kissed his palm. Kiram found the exchange relieving after so much strangeness but Javier flushed deep red and then averted his gaze to the grass.

Kiram wondered how a small gesture could fluster Javier when a ghost springing up from his body hardly gave him a moment's pause. But then hells, lost souls and black curses had always been part of Javier's life. The existence of a ghostly guardian was probably far less startling than two men displaying the gentle affection of lovers.

As he took his seat beside Alizadeh, Kiram attempted to put his own shock at the sight of the ghost into perspective. Perhaps the ghost of an ancient genius, trapped in a medallion and charged with the guardianship of the Tornesal bloodline, was no more shocking than two men kissing on the open street. Maybe it would seem normal if he were a Bahiim and had spent years apparently fighting curses and hunting shapechangers and eating people's hearts.

Alizadeh had really said that, hadn't he?

There was nothing forbidding or cruel in Alizadeh's countenance now as he smiled tiredly at Javier. Still Kiram felt unnerved by the new perception that there were dangerous, adult aspects of Alizadeh-and doubtless Rafie- he knew nothing about.

A
lizadeh said, "I've extracted a promise from your ghost to allow you to take on the full force of the shajdi."

Javier nodded, appearing so calm that Kiram envied him.

"But I won't teach you unless you are willing to accept the responsibility of a Bahiim." Alizadeh batted at the smoking holes in the front of his prayer shirt. Then he seemed to belatedly notice that the rest of his clothes as well as his cloak were scorched and burned through in places. He gave Rafie a crooked smile. "Why do I bother with clothing at all?"

"Because your ass gets sun-burned, otherwise. I'll find you something less charred to wear." Rafie strode across the garden and disappeared through the kitchen door.

"I would perish without you," Alizadeh called after him and then turned his attention back to Javier. "I imagine you'll want some time to think about this."

"As a Bahiim I will be able to break the curse, yes?"

"Yes," Alizadeh replied. "In fact it would be your sacred obligation to do so."

Javier frowned thoughtfully. "Can I ask why you're willing to teach me but you won't just break the curse yourself if it's a Bahiim's obligation?"

"I'm bound by an old oath and foolish modern politics," Alizadeh replied. "Right now the Bahiim circles are controlled by several younger conservatives who would like to forget what it once meant to be Bahiim. They're happy blessing feasts, officiating weddings and funerals. They don't want to reclaim the responsibilities of controlling and safeguarding the shajdi. They certainly don't want to take on curses or the monstrosities of the shadowed realms. To them it's a relief that all the ancient shajdis are sealed and that the old Bahiim have sworn not to open any new ones."

"The shajdis were sealed to keep King Nazario from controlling any of them when he was purging the country of Haldiim," Kiram quickly explained, before Javier had to ask.

"Every single shajdi?" Javier raised his dark brows.

"It was a desperate time," Alizadeh said. "All of us who were in possession of the shajdis sealed them and accepted a blood oath, which forbade us from opening any shajdi until the White Tree in the Circle of Red Oaks was again illuminated."

Kiram stared at Alizadeh, caught by the revelation in his words. "You were there? Then?"

Javier too stared at Alizadeh. Even exhausted and streaked with soot, he hardly looked forty.

"I was there and I took the oath, but none of us thought that it would hold for so long. We expected to be in hiding for a few months then gather at the Circle of Red Oaks. Between us we would still have had enough power to ignite the White Tree. But Nazario's purge lasted fifteen years. By the end he had hunted and killed so many of us that we were too few to reignite the White Tree. Now there are hundreds of Bahiim but they have grown indifferent to our obligations. They talk about demon hunting as if it were philosophy and shajdis as if they were metaphors."

Alizadeh's gaze shifted to Javier. "But it would only take one with the fire of an open shajdi to reignite the White Tree. And once that was done the oath would be ended. The Bahiim would have to disperse and battle the demons of this world once again."

Kiram wasn't quite sure how to respond to Alizadeh's words. After all only a year ago he himself had thought that shajdis were metaphors rather than reality. Javier, however, had never labored under any such misconception and Kiram could see that he was at ease with Alizadeh's ideas.

"I see," Javier said after a moment. "So, you need me as much as I need you."

"It's an opportunity for us both," Alizadeh agreed. "But unlike yourself, I can afford to be patient. Other shajdis will be stumbled upon. For me waiting only means enduring an easy life among lazy peers. But you, Lord Tornesal, are facing a curse that will not relent until it has destroyed your entire line."

Pain flickered through Javier's expression. Kiram shot Alizadeh a hard glare.

"It's the truth, Kiram." Alizadeh shrugged and settled back more comfortably against the oak. "I'm only asking that Javier consider it."

"There's nothing to consider. As you say, I don't have the leisure to pretend that there is," Javier stated flatly. "Most of my family has already been killed. My one remaining cousin is going mad."

"Javier, no!" Kiram couldn't keep silent. "You can't do this. If anyone in the Cadeleonian church found out that you'd taken a Bahiim's oaths, they'd charge you with heresy. They'd kill you."

"Not if I legally converted," Javier spoke as if this was the first thing anyone would have thought of. "Technically I'd be a heathen, not a heretic. Bishop Seferino set the precedent in 1298 when he judged a Cadeleonian woman who had converted to her Haldiim husband's beliefs. The royal bishop accepted the ruling, which makes it valid as lord's law. At the worst I'll be scourged, excommunicated and exiled."

Javier's quick, offhanded response made it clear that he'd already been considering conversion. That made perfect sense. He'd been reading ancient Haldiim texts even before he'd met Alizadeh and he'd obviously been familiarizing himself with Bishop Seferino's most obscure writings. He had put more than an afternoon of thought into this.

Still the danger of it made Kiram's heart race. "Are you listening to yourself? Scourged? You'd be whipped bloody. Excommunication would strip you of your title, your lands, and your name. Everything! And on top of that you'd be exiled to a desert in Yuan or the Mirogoth forests or some other terrible place."

"Weren't you suggesting that we run away to Yuan just a few months ago?" Javier arched a black brow and flashed that handsome, arrogant and-at this moment-infuriating smile of his.

"I wasn't thinking that you'd take steps to make it a legal necessity," Kiram snapped. He could feel his face flushing. How could he bring that up in front of Alizadeh?

"I'm not planning on being found out." Javier brushed Kiram's hand with his own but then drew back. "This has to be done. Fedeles is losing his mind, you were nearly killed, and I will be hunted by this curse all of my life. If I can save him, protect you and free myself, it's worth the risk."

Kiram clenched his jaw, not wanting to admit anything and yet unable to deny Javier's reasoning. He glanced to Alizadeh, who watched them both in calm silence.

"Isn't there any other way?" Kiram asked.

Alizadeh's response was a simple, "No."

The plainness of his response struck Kiram with far more force than any number of arguments could have. The single word felt irrefutable.

Kiram glared down at the scorched circle of grass, and noticed the two patches of green leaves where Alizadeh's feet had shielded the plants beneath. White clover blossoms poked up from between the verdant blades of grass.

Javier had made his choice. And in his place, Kiram knew he would have done the same.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Kiram asked and he noted the relief in Javier's expression.

"Not here, not yet," Alizadeh told him. "But if you'd tell Rafie what we're doing I'd appreciate it."

"What are you going to be doing?" Kiram stood.

"We'll try opening the shajdi without Calixto's medallion. We should be done by the fourth bell."

"I'll tell Rafie." Kiram eyed Alizadeh. "If you hurt Javier I'll never forgive you."

Javier looked embarrassed and Alizadeh just laughed at the warning. "I wouldn't risk incurring your wrath, Kiram. Have no fear. Javier will be perfectly safe with me."

Kiram found Rafie in his office. Instead of the desk a businesswoman would have used a large marble pharmacist's table stood at the center of the room. Medical tomes and jars of dried herbs filled the shelves. Rafie was engaged in grinding dark violet flowers in one of several mortars. Kiram noticed the fresh, white prayer clothes folded at the side of the table.

Rafie was neither pleased nor surprised to be informed that Alizadeh had decided to begin Javier's training that afternoon.

"I should have known he wouldn't wait." Rafie handed Kiram a small clay jar. A milky cream filled the red interior. It smelled a little like cut grass.

"Halda salve," Rafie informed Kiram. "You should take it with you after your duke and my Bahiim are done."

Kiram resisted the urge to poke a finger into the cream. Instead he closed the jar and set it aside.

"I don't suppose any of this has made you rethink your decision to become involved with a Cadeleonian nobleman?"Rafie inquired.

Kiram suppressed a laugh. It wasn't as if he had carefully considered a relationship with Javier and then decided to become involved. Reason had nothing to do with any of it.

"It doesn't change anything." Saying the words made him feel stronger, more assured.

"Well, then you'd better pay close attention, because you may well need to know a few of these things when you find yourself fleeing into the Mirogoth forests." Rafie beckoned Kiram to his shelves and handed him a book titled The Physician's Garden: Poisons and Cures.

Kiram spent the next two hours learning to recognize and prepare the most basic of medical herbs. Halda for burns, duera for pain, yellow coinflower to cleanse, and sunvine to waken.

While Rafie displayed and explained the habitat and preparation of each plant, Kiram cleaned, peeled, and then ground the white pulpy mass of a halda root into a creamy salve. He plucked and crushed deep violet duera flowers with wax-dipped fingers to keep the juice from numbing his hands. Twice he mashed his thumb while attempting to crush the slick seeds of a sunvine. A pungent, earthy smell rose off the dried heads of the coinflowers as they steeped in hot water. Kiram wasn't sure if he liked the fragrance or not. Either way it made him sneeze.

Very distantly Kiram heard the city bells ringing. Rafie carefully siphoned the duera Kiram had made into a vial, then sealed that with a daub of black wax.

'There's enough in that vial to kill a grown man, you realize," Rafie said.

"I'll be careful," Kiram assured him.

"Yes, you should be very careful if it comes to that." Rafie gazed intently at Kiram. "Cadeleonian beer will hide the taste and color of duera and so will a beef stew, but remember that duera burns off if it boils."

Kiram wasn't quite sure of what to say. He couldn't imagine poisoning someone, but clearly Rafie could. Perhaps he even had.

Rafie met his shocked silence with amusement. "I'm not telling you to go out and murder people, Kiram. I'm just telling you how it can be done-either to you or by you. Someday you may need to know."

"Haveyou needed to know?" Kiram couldn't keep from whispering despite the fact that they were alone.

"Yes, I have," Rafie replied. "And fortunately I reheated the stew enough to boil off most of the duera before I ate it. I was dazed for most of a week but I survived."

Before Kiram could pursue the subject farther, Javier leaned in through the doorway. His hair looked as if it had been whipped by storm winds and his skin shone, both with a sheen of sweat and the pink glow of a slight sunburn. That, combined with Majdi's red coat and the sword he wore, lent Javier the definite look of a sun-beaten pirate.

"You look like you've just come back from sea."

"I feel more like I've been walking on the sun," Javier said.

Kiram could see his fatigue in the way he leaned against the doorframe. His muscular arms hung languidly and his dark lashes shadowed his eyes. Kiram thought he hadn't seen Javier look so tired and pleased with himself since he took the Grand Champion's cloak at the autumn tournament.

"We've finished. Alizadeh wants to know if he can have those clothes now."

Rafie scooped up the clothes and withdrew to the garden without comment, leaving Kiram and Javier alone.

Kiram picked up the jar of halda salve that Rafie had shown him how to make. "You need a bath and a bed."

"Are you offering yours?" Javier asked.

"You know that I am."

Javier's lips parted as if he would make some flippant remark. But then he simply smiled.