Master Ignacio was a man-strong and brutal-but no more than that. His very physicality implied weakness of some kind. He could be exhausted; he could be injured. Studying him now, all his snarls and shouts, Kiram thought that a skilled swordsman would be wise to exploit the war master's quick temper to draw him out, make him overreach.
Not that Kiram was a skilled swordsman. Reminding himself of that, he averted his gaze from the war master's face and concentrated on the lesson. Firaj responded to the commands that Master Ignacio shouted across the arena and Kiram moved with his mount. He felt a certain pleasure at the thought that he was learning nearly as much from his horse as he was from the war master.
After Kiram had brushed Firaj down and spent a few minutes making much of the old gelding, he followed Nestor out of the stables.
Flecks of snow drifted lazily from the white afternoon sky.
Javier waited outside, apparently unperturbed by the cold, a dusting of snowflakes in his dark hair. "You certainly look smug, Kiram."
"He does, doesn't he?" Nestor agreed.
"I'm just relieved to be able to enjoy the day," Kiram replied. "And I'm looking forward to this evening."
Javier and he shared the briefest smile before Javier slyly averted his eyes.
"I'm not." Nestor gave the dormitory a particularly condemning glare. "Have you noticed what's been coming out of the kitchen lately? There's been no fresh meat in weeks and now even the sausages are beginning to look like cabbage and oats. It's going to be nothing but cabbage for the rest of the winter, I know it."
"Don't abandon all hope just yet, young Grunito" Javier looked more pleased with himself than usual as he spoke. "Supply wagons just arrived, and not only did it look like they were weighted down with sides of beef, but there were mail deliveries as well. Probably the last of the year."
"Anything from my mother?" Kiram asked.
"As always," Javier replied. He glanced to Nestor. "Are you game to help haul the damn thing up the stairs?"
"For more of those marzipan pears I'd haul the crate all the way to Anacleto." Nestor's face flushed with a strange excitement that bordered on lust.
The three of them muscled the creaking, wooden crate up the stairs to the tower room. Despite the dozens of other students gawking at them from the staircase, Nestor strode into Javier's room as if it were no different from any other room in the dormitory.
"Are you sure you should let them all see that?" Concern tinged Javier's voice. "If the holy father finds out you've been in here, you could end up spending your whole dinner reciting the prayer of Our Immaculate Father."
"If Kiram can face down a bear, then I figure I can manage the holy father," Nestor replied.
"I didn't really face down a bear so much as run away from it," Kiram corrected.
"You still faced it. You just had the good sense to run away right after that" Nestor shrugged. "In any case Holy Father Habalan wouldn't miss his own supper just to watch me pray."
"True enough," Javier agreed.
With the bulk of Kiram's tools now up in the room with them, they made short work of prying the crate open. As always they discovered bags of candies nestled amongst the packages Kiram's mother had sent. Javier found a silk satchel of hard toffee tucked between two bright winter scarves. Kiram handed out the foil- gilded almonds he found atop a sheaf of writing papers. Nestor sniffed out the marzipan pears before Kiram even had the small box open. Kiram handed the candies over to Nestor and then lifted out a pair of lined leather gloves. A note from his sister Siamak wished him warmth and thanked him for the Solstice gifts he'd sent, even though she hadn't been able to resist the temptation to open them early.
Alizadeh had sent a book of Bahiim texts to Javier and a silver quill pen for Kiram and a short note with a Solstice blessing that mentioned neither his meeting with the Circle of Red Oaks nor replied to any of Kiram's letters. Rafie had enclosed a variety of powdered medicines in case Kiram or any of his friends fell ill. Like his husband he wrote no letter, just enclosed a packet of instructions.
Nestor sniffed one of the dry poultices and wrinkled his nose. "I think I'd have to be dying to take that."
"The instructions say-" Javier paused, concentrating on Rafie's looping Haldiim script. "-it's to be mixed with wine-no, wait not wine. An alcohol that's stronger than wine."
"You can read that?" Nestor gazed at Javier in surprise. Kiram didn't bother to express his own curiosity anymore. Javier would never tell him just where or how he had developed his grasp of the Haldiim language.
"I've picked a little up from Kiram." Javier didn't look up from the paper but went on reading slowly. "Mix with a strong alcohol to produce a plaster. Apply it to a wound to keep it from turning foul."
"Smells foul enough on its own." Nestor returned the bag to the small chest with the other poultices.
Then came the thick sheaf of papers from Kiram's mother recounting news of his family and friends. They seemed to all be doing well. His older brother Majdi would be back from sea this spring. Both his sisters were helping his mother keep up with the Solstice candy orders and his father had managed to go another season without setting his workshop on fire.
Musni and his wife were both in good health; though, Kiram's mother added with distinct disapproval, Musni had been seen in the company of street snakes more than once in the past few months.
Hashiem Kir-Naham-Kiram couldn't help but notice the extra flourishes with which his mother wrote the man's name- was doing good business at his mother's pharmacy and had asked after Kiram on three separate occasions. He had even been so thoughtful as to send a Solstice gift along in this very package.
Kiram sat back on his bed, feeling suddenly fatigued and more aware of the ache in his calf than he had been all day. He tried to imagine what his mother would make of Javier as a prospective suitor for her son. A hell-branded Cadeleonian nobleman with a penchant for sleight of hand and a group of friends who were little more than highborn ruffians. He certainly would never be an obedient pharmacist's son.
Noticing Kiram's attention, Javier asked, "Something wrong?"
"I'm just feeling a little done in. My leg's started to hurt some."
"Shall we try your uncle's plaster?" Javier asked.
"We don't have any alcohol, do we?"
"Atreau does. Under his bed," Nestor offered. "Helps to warm girls up when they sneak up to his room."
"Your upperclassman is certainly prepared for all occasions, isn't he?" Kiram laughed and then shook his head. "Thanks, but I'll be fine so long as I get off my feet for a little while."
"All right, you lie there and Javier and I will open up your boxes for you."
Kiram nodded his agreement and the two of them set to work while Kiram lay across his bed on his stomach, watching. Javier's choice of box yielded two wheels of cheese, a box of dried sugar fish and then three bottles of writing ink. Nestor's face lit up when he open up a box of candied fruit, all decorated and arranged to look like a lover's garland. A small card fell from the box and Javier picked it up. He frowned as he read it silently.
"This is beautiful!" Nestor drew in a deep breath of the fragrant garland. Even from where he lay Kiram could smell the mixture of spiced candy and citrus fruit.
"What's the card say?" Nestor asked Javier.
"Don't know. I couldn't read the handwriting," Javier replied with a shrug. He handed the card to Kiram and Kiram tried not to feel mortified as his eyes fell across the words:
Most beloved youth, I pray that I do not offend in sending something so simple to someone so much more delectable. I await your return as the tulip longs to penetrate the warm earth of spring.