"You didn't win, did you?" Nestor looked strangely hopeful.
"I wish," Kiram said. "No, Javier took care of Genimo."
Nestor's eyes went wide. "Did he kill him?"
"No, he didn't even hurt him. He just scared him. And Genimo deserved what he got." Kiram scanned the rows of students crammed in around the long wooden tables, searching for Javier. He had not seen him since last night. This morning when Kiram had first woken, he'd discovered Javier already gone. Only the faintest hint of the woody scent of his soap lingered in the washroom and the tub had been perfectly dry. Kiram guessed that Javier must have woken very early, perhaps even before sunrise.
"You haven't seen him, have you?" Kiram asked.
"Genimo?" Nestor asked. "Not this morning. He's probably hiding from Javier."
"I was thinking of Javier, actually." Kiram took another taste of his porridge. It wasn't so bad. He supposed that if he got hungry enough he might even begin to appreciate its paste-like qualities. He imagined that his mother would have sieved it to make some kind of edible glue for one of her sugar bouquets. His uncle might have used it for a medicinal plaster.
"Chapel," Fedeles announced.
Kiram looked at him, unsure of what had prompted the statement.
"Javier's taking his penance in chapel," Fedeles clarified. He looked and sounded so reasonable that it surprised Kiram. Nestor also took note, squinting at Fedeles over the rims of his glasses. Then Fedeles' sober expression melted into a wide smile. He stroked one of the heavily defaced pages of his book. "Lunaluz. Ghosts are looking for him."
"Well, ahm, actually Fedeles is probably right." Nestor sounded as if he couldn't quite believe what he was saying. "Not about ghosts, but about Javier being at chapel. If he did assault another student, then he's probably submitting himself for penance."
"What do you mean, penance?"
"We all have to submit to chapel punishments when we sin." Nestor pulled a distasteful scowl. "But Javier, being hell-branded, is much more vigilant than the rest of us. Ever since that groom was killed he's taken penance weekly. My brother Elezar says that the punishments keep the white hell from growing stronger."
"What kind punishments are they?" Kiram disliked the sound of all this.
He couldn't help but think of the filthy, bleeding Cadeleonian penitents who whipped themselves outside the churches of Anacleto during the week they called Our Savior's Misery. Once, when he had still been a child, he had witnessed two zealous penitents lashing each other's genitals with wire whips. His mother had clamped her hand over his eyes but he had already seen flesh ripping away in fatty globs. Droplets of blood and gore had spattered the sleeve of his shirt. For weeks after that Kiram had woken, shouting and thrashing from violent dreams.
"Sometimes Holy Father Habalan orders bleedings, sometimes caning," Nestor said blandly. "It all depends on the sin and the circumstances. No matter what he'll give Javier muerate poison to keep the demon in him weak throughout the physical punishments."
The porridge in Kiram's mouth suddenly felt too thick and sticky. He forced himself to swallow it, and then shoved his bowl aside.
"He shouldn't be punished for defending me from Genimo." Kiram started to his feet but Nestor caught his arm and pulled him back down to the bench.
"He could have called one of the scholars over if he had wanted to," Nestor said. "He knew what he was getting himself into. You'll only embarrass him if you go running in and make a scene like some girl. It'll make both you and Javier look. strange."
"But no one should have to suffer for doing the right thing."
At this, Nestor just rolled his eyes. "You're making too much of the penance. Javier does it all the time. We all do. Only crybabies like Ladislo make a production of it. If Javier really did protect you, then respect his decision and don't embarrass him. It'll be for your own good."
"How can his pain be for my good?"
"It's not a bad thing to have the whole academy know that your upperclassman will take his responsibility to protect you seriously. You know, before you got here, Atreau got into an outright brawl with the Helio twins on my account and he had to do a full week of penance for it. But after that everyone in the school knew that Atreau wouldn't just stand by and let certain things happen to me."
"What about your brother? Wouldn't he protect you?"
"Oh, of course." Nestor grinned. "Elezar just about killed Cocuyo Helio for spitting on me. You can tell the twins apart now because Elezar broke Cocuyo's cheekbone and it didn't heal quite straight."
Kiram involuntarily searched the dining hall for the whip- thin Helio twins. Nestor was right; Cocuyo's right cheek was slightly too flat to be a perfect match to his brother Enevir's jutting features.
"But that's not my point," Nestor went on. "I'm not rooming with my brothers, and they won't always be able to protect me, especially if the king sends me to serve in a neighbor's lands. But now everyone knows that even if I'm away from my family Atreau will defend me. And more importantly for Atreau, everyone knows that the Grunito family is allied with him now. So now he's got Elezar and Timoteo both on his side in a fight."
"Yes, but it's not going to do Javier any good to have everyone know that he's allied with the Kir-Zaki family. No one here even knows my family."
"Kir-Zaki of Kir-Zaki Candies? Everyone eats them." Nestor rolled his eyes as if Kiram were thick as a pillar. "But, yes, you're right that Javier doesn't need allies. But you do. You can bet that all the bullies and bastards in the academy-especially the twins-have been waiting for someone to do something to you to see if Javier would ignore you or if he would do his duty. Now everyone knows that suffering penance isn't going to keep Javier from protecting you."
"But wasn't rescuing me enough? Doesn't that prove that he'll defend me?" Kiram challenged.
"No." Nestor frowned at him intently. "The penance is the most important part. It shows everyone that he's serious. You know, it's almost like a kind of ceremony. It proves the strength of his conviction. It shows everyone that he doesn't care how much he may suffer, he'll still beat the crap out of anyone who threatens you."
"I guess I understand that," Kiram admitted, though he thought the entire matter sounded brutal and primitive. "But I don't like the idea of someone else being whipped on my account."
"Don't worry about that. Javier is tough. He'll probably just shrug the penance off. Father Habalan isn't all that harsh anyway." Nestor lowered his voice. "My mother hits a lot harder."
Kiram smiled at that.
He wondered if Nestor was right about the penance. Maybe he was overreacting. If all the Cadeleonians accepted penance regularly, they couldn't all be enduring hideous whippings.
"I'm more worried about you and me right now." Nestor carefully cleaned the small lenses of his spectacles and then replaced them on his nose. "I imagine we're both going to have to keep clear of Genimo from now on. He's the type to hold a grudge."
"Do you think Fedeles is in danger, then? Isn't Genimo his upperclassman?" Kiram asked.
Fedeles just gave an oddly amused snort.
"Genimo would have to be suicidal to do anything to Fedeles. Javier would flat out kill him. He's said as much." Nestor lowered his voice slightly. "Don't tell anyone I said so but Genimo is Fedeles' nanny really. He has to keep track of him, give him baths, brush his hair, and make sure he gets to Scholar Donamillo for his treatments."