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Moon went home alone to the Reliquary and directly to his father's rooms.  Snake, as usual, was sitting in his chair with his eyes closed.  He must do that for most of the time.  Did he live in the past or in some other realm?

            Moon sat down in a ray of sunlight before his father and for some moments studied Snake's countenance.  He wasn't wearing his eye-patch and his face was the most serene that Moon had even seen it.  Snake was a mystic, gentle like Fawn.  It was impossible to imagine he had ever been any other way.  “Father,” Moon said.  “I must speak with you.”

            Snake inhaled through his nose.  “I know,” he said, without opening his eyes, although a crease appeared in his brow between them.  “I had a dream last night.  An old dream.  You are too curious.”

            “Is it true?”

            Snake opened his eyes and gazed at his son.  The serpent eye glowed with its own fire, the pupil enlarged.  Moon hoped he wouldn't have to be more specific.  He hoped Snake was intuitive enough to sense what he meant.

            “Yes,” Snake said at last.  “I do not know why the Firedogs believed it was a good idea to tell you that, but yes, it is true.  Life was very different then, Moon.  You cannot imagine it.”

            “But I
was
conceived in love, wasn't I?”

            Snake smiled and leaned forward to touch Moon's face.  “Yes, there is no other way.  In the beginning, we were all playing a game, perhaps Silken as much as I.  It was a cruel children's game, a legacy of what we had been before.  He and I always wanted each other, but there was pretence and pettiness.  There was a rivalry among tribes, bitter feuds and betrayals.  We grew up, Moon.  You did not grow from the cruelty, but from what came afterwards.”

            “Tell me about your brother.”

            “A sorcerer came and took him from us.  He must have been a Gelaming agent.  This was before I was Wraeththu, but not long before.  For a long time, I believed my brother to be dead, but then I saw him reborn.  News came to me of the Tigron in Immanion and he bore my brother's name.  He has never changed it.”

            “Hawk spoke to me of the shadow behind the throne and that because of it Gelaming are the enemy of all Wraeththu.  What did he mean?”

            “It is not a proven theory, but rather an assumption.  It is believed that whoever or whatever created Wraeththu controls the Gelaming.  Uigenna have always believed that.  They did not want to be controlled.  They wanted to be free.  They would not be puppets and because of that their excesses were often extreme.  They sought to overturn order, to create chaos, to break down all that was, so that true rebirth could occur.”  Snake smiled sadly.  “For those who talked about it, that was the justification.  Of course, for the majority of Uigenna hara, they simply enjoyed being in control themselves.  They enjoyed being bullies.”  He leaned back in his chair again and stared up at the cracked ceiling.  “Our leader, Wraxilan, climbed a mountain one time, because his campaigns exhausted him.  He needed solitude.  Alone, he had a vision and it changed him.  When he returned to us, he was not the same, and soon he left us.  The tribe fell apart, for although it was comprised of many different factions, Wraxilan was their heart.  He held them all together.”

            “What was his vision?” Moon asked.

            Snake shook his head.  “Nohar knows.  He had many secrets and I was not close to him.  He took his secrets with him and remade himself.”

            “Like your brother.”

            “No.  Wraxilan did what he did in full awareness, but my brother did not.  He was used.  This I know for sure.”

            “How?”

            “Perdu,” Snake said.  “I spoke to him in trance and he told me.”

            “Who is he?”

            “A spirit, maybe.  A dead har.  A guide.  A god.  A living har with a strong ability.  I have no idea.  He is like an angel of doom.  He speaks to me only when something terrible will happen.”

            “You've spoken with him recently, haven't you?” Moon said.

            Snake nodded.  “Yes, it was he who told me a seer had found me.  Soon the Gelaming will come.  I know you don't feel it, and think older hara are paranoid, but it is inevitable, Moon.”

            “We could leave,” Moon said.  “We don't have to stay here and wait for the end.”

            “We do,” Snake said, “because it is not the end.”

            “Are you afraid?”

            “Yes, because of what he will have me do.  And I am afraid for you, because he will want you close to him.  You look like he did when he was young.  He will look for himself in you.”

            A thrill coursed through Moon's body.  Until that moment, the Tigron hadn't had a face for him.  “Will he hurt me?”

            “I doubt it, although he will lead you into danger, because he is in such danger himself.  Hawk isn't wrong, Moon.  There is more to Wraeththu than any of us know.  We, the clans, are free, but not for long.  I don’t want to be part of what will come.  I want to live and die in this place, alone with my memories.  In Wraeththu, the Cosmic Joker shook the world and the outcome could have been paradise or hell.  It just happened to turn out to be hell.”

            “How is it hell?” Moon persisted, sensing finality in Snake's words and therefore the possibility he would be dismissed.

            “Humans were asleep; they were sheep.  Wraeththu were born with open eyes, but most of them chose to close them.  That is hell.  Stupidity, greed, selfishness, fear – most of all fear.  Hara seek to emulate the great empires of human history.  It is a travesty.  Everything has sunk back to how it was before, except the things that made humanity great have been destroyed.  We live in a rubbish heap.”

            “We don't build,” Moon said.  “I thought about that recently.”

            “A lot of hara do,” Snake said gently.  “What you see here does not reflect the rest of the world.  The Uigenna are broken, Moon.  Many hara of the clans were once Gelaming captives, victims of sophisticated forms of torture, who were later released like viruses to infect their communities.  Infect them with terror, despair and weakness.  Raven is such a har.”

            “And Hawk?”

            “Yes, and Hawk.  He cannot remember it, but we are all sure that is what happened to him.  It is what happened to Terzian, leader of the Varrs.  It happened to many strong hara.  The Varrs were our strongest allies, but once Terzian died they became Gelaming, whatever name they gave themselves.  Without such as Terzian and Wraxilan, the rest of us were lost.”

            “We still have leaders,” Moon said.  “What about Great Jaguar Paw and the others?”

            Snake was silent for a moment, then said, “Imagine that all hara of the clans have been blinded and maimed by Gelaming, but that our conquerors have allowed a few hara to keep one eye, one hand and one foot.  Those are our so-called leaders, Moon.”

            Moon reached out and touched his father's withered foot.  He said nothing, but tears filled his eyes.

            “Yes,” Snake murmured softly.  “Now you see.”

For several weeks after this conversation, Moon watched the lake and the roads into the city.  Many had been closed with rubble by the humans who had sought to protect themselves, and since then, the clans had created toll gates on the remaining arteries into the city.  Moon did not know what he was looking for, or even if the Gelaming, should they come at all, would arrive by conventional means – on a boat or by road.  But one thing his conversation with his father had given him was a sense of imminence.  He did not doubt Snake's words.  He knew the Gelaming would come.  He imagined them as a might army that would set fire to the clan houses, round up all hara as slaves.  But as is so often the case with anything you imagine in advance, the reality when it arrived was somewhat different.

Chapter Twelve

Roselane is a harsh country late in the year.  Its raw and primal landscape channels the energy of encroaching winter in blistering winds, flesh-stripping rain and storms that can pull the most ancient oak from its roots and toss it across the valley to lie like a slaughtered giant upon the cold, unforgiving earth.

            Parazha and hara of the Roselane make preparations quickly for the dark months.  The dehar of summer dies early upon the mountain slopes and his harsh winter brother stocks up his arsenal even before the last leaves have fallen from the trees.  But lights in Shilalama are bright at night, fires are stocked high and doors locked fast against the storms.  It makes a har feel truly alive to walk into a heated kitchen, stamping the cold from his feet, to discard his thick coat and gloves and sit down to a meal in convivial company.  So it was for Pellaz and Cobweb, because Pellaz had made no formal announcement of his arrival in Shilalama, but went directly to the house of his friends, Flick and Ulaume Sarestes, and his sister, who lived with them.  Mima had not seen Pellaz since Cal had disappeared from Immanion, and had not even set eyes on Cal since the day he'd seduced her brother away from him – it might as well have been a million years ago.  She was fiercely protective of her kin and not short on opinions.  Pellaz knew he'd have to endure her ranting scorn (which was merely the outraged voice of her love for him), and did so stoically.  He could sense that Cobweb was surprised he endured her tirade without defending himself.

            “You are a fool,” Mima said, even before the first course was finished at dinner.  “You should never have let him back in.  I knew something dreadful would happen.”  She cast fierce glances in the direction of Ulaume and Flick, whom she felt confident shared her view.

            “You think Opalexian can help you,” Flick said to Pellaz.  It was not a question.

            Pellaz nodded.  “I think so.  I am not completely sure that what happened to Rue was anything to do with Cal.”

            Mima snorted eloquently.  “You just never grew up, that's your trouble.  A teenage crush has informed your entire life.  Now, you have risked ruining everything because of it.  Well done.”

            “Mima, that's enough,” Ulaume said, which was unusual, because he was the first to say bad things about another har, given the opportunity.

            “She's right,” Pellaz said simply.  “But knowing that doesn't change anything.  Now, I have to make changes.”

            “What do you think, Cobweb?” Flick asked, diverting attention, which was entirely usual, as he was always the first to put balm on a wound.

            “I think we are close to facing what we really are,” Cobweb replied.  “Thiede was a shield.  Now he's gone.  The Gelaming are not all-powerful, and the world isn't ready to drop like a ripe fruit into their hands.  What happened to Pell's child is the beginning, that's all.  I've a feelings something important has been overlooked.”  He turned to Pellaz.  “It's strange, but I feel very uncomfortable about being away from home.  It's connected with Galhea, I'm sure of it.  Something threatens us.”

            “What do you mean?” Pellaz said.