Idol of Glass by Jane Kindred

draped in its side-carriage, but Jak took comfort in the fact that Ahr was once again the companion on this journey.
    At Temple Ra, Jak was announced and sent into Merit’s study, where Merit received Jak with a look of pleasure and surprise—and misgiving, when neither Ahr nor Ra followed.
    â€œJak.” He smiled warmly, hazel eyes crinkling as he took Jak’s hands and pressed them. “ Isch birrahtta Ahr? Eht ischem birraht Ra? ” Though Jak hadn’t picked up sufficient Deltan from Ra to understand Merit’s words, it was clear enough that he was wondering at their absence.
    Jak let go of Merit’s hands and lifted the urn from the canvas bag that had protected it, holding it out to Merit. “Ahr is with me.”
    Merit’s face drained of color as he took the jar, and he fell back into his chair and clutched the vessel to his chest. “ Nai. Nai Ahr.” He looked past Jak as though he expected to see someone else. “MeerRa?” When Jak’s head shook, Merit set the urn on his desk with a tender stroke and put his head in his hands. Jak knelt beside him, one arm stretched over his shoulder, and Merit leaned against Jak’s support and shook with tears he couldn’t contain. Jak held him, unable to do the same.
    When Merit quieted, Jak withdrew and attempted to explain the worst of it. The room had drained of the sun’s orange color, and a servant had come to light a fire on the hearth. Waiting until the servant left, Jak stood before it, warming hands that didn’t need warming.
    â€œMerit.” Jak couldn’t bear to look up at him. “Ahr died at the hands of Ra.”
    Merit rose and came to the hearth, shaking his head with a quizzical lift of his brow.
    Jak looked at him, eyes telling more than language could. “Ra.” Jak pointed violently at the urn on the desk. “Ra killed him.” Merit looked back at the urn, frowning, and Jak put a hand on his shoulder. “Ra killed him.” Jak made a striking gesture with the other hand. “ Ra killed Ahr.”
    Merit stared into the fire as Jak’s hand fell from his shoulder. As a former litter-bearer to the Meer, he still had the strong, proud build, though like many with his fair coloring, his hair was already mostly white. Despite that outward evidence of aging, he had the bearing of a man not long past his prime. Yet now, in an instant, he seemed to age before Jak’s eyes, drooping as though he were old and frail.
    â€œ Meneut, ” Merit whispered. “ Kesuth ?” Jak knew this word meant “why”.
    Instead of the room Jak had occupied on the previous visit, Merit had quietly and without mention had Ahr’s room made up for Jak in the midst of his own mourning. Though he was acting prelate of Rhyman, it seemed Lord Minister Merit would always be the unassuming and devoted servant at heart. Jak had wanted to ask after Pearl, wondering why he wasn’t about, and how Merit was going to break the news to him, but there hadn’t seemed to be the right moment. The boy had known such a hard life, and he’d taken to Ahr instantly when Ra brought him to the temple after rescuing him from that horrid cage at Soth In’La. Jak supposed one more night of letting Pearl believe his friend would still be coming back to him was only a kindness.
    One of Pearl’s drawings hung over the bureau at the end of the bed, a magnificent rendering of the courtyard arch of the temple with the garden in bloom. Jak examined it closely, amazed at the detail. Pearl had made a special inscription for Ahr at the bottom, and Jak leaned closer to read it: Forget Pearl when you look on this. It seemed an odd way to sign a drawing. Whoever this “Pearl” was, she must have given the drawing to Ahr as a parting memento, signed ironically. Jak smiled fondly, knowing Merit and Ahr had ended up as lovers. Perhaps Ahr had been breaking hearts among the young women