storm (5 page)

            Cal grimaced.  “Congratulations, you hit bone!  No.  Not yet.”  He narrowed his eyes.  “What's going on?”

            “I have no idea what you mean.”

            “OK.  Fine.”  Cal took the wine that was offered to him.  He sipped.  “Mmm.  As dry as your tongue, though just as fine.”

            Caeru smiled fiercely, but inwardly he felt himself slump.  Cal was magnificent.  He could not be anything but Tigron, or Pell's consort.  It was almost surreal to be sitting here talking with him, a har who had been a threatening idea for so long.  Caeru had hated Cal from the moment he'd first heard about him and only later discovered this hatred was, in some respects, justified.  But looking at him now, no matter what he might have done or been in the past, it was no surprise Pellaz had always adored Cal.  Haunted by memories of this exquisite being, how could Pellaz ever have been expected to care for anyhar else?  No wonder he'd loathed the fact that Caeru had ended up at his side instead.

           
What am I doing?
Caeru thought. 
This is pointless.

            “I'm putting a program together,” Cal said as the first course was brought out.  “I think it's important that victims of the atrocities in Megalithica should receive firsthand Gelaming care.  They've been neglected too long.  What do you think?”

            “I don't care.  I just appear at state functions and look pretty.”

            “You could help me.  It's a big job.”

            “I don't want to.  You can't make a difference, so why bother trying?”

            “I have the kind of nature that has to keep trying.  You might have noticed.”

            “You do have a trying nature, that is true.”

            Cal laughed.  “I'm so pleased you enjoy our meals together.  It's a kind of blood sport, isn't it?”

            “So I'm told.  You don't have to come, so I assume you enjoy it too.  Is it the same with Pell?  Are you into being dominated?  Perhaps you still remember the young boy you had incepted into Wraeththu.  It must be quite a shock to see how he's turned out.  And now he has you, bound hand and foot.  Was it worth the trouble?”

            Cal didn't say anything, and Caeru realised he had hit a nerve, perhaps several.  Not good.  That wasn't supposed to be the purpose of this meeting, even if it was almost impossible to rein in the bitterness.  “Tell me your plans,” he said.  “I don't want to help you, but it might pass the time to hear about them.”  He knew Cal would recognise a peace offering when it was given to him.  Apology would be going too far.

            Cal spoke of his dreams, those he had cherished for years.  Caeru realised that Pellaz was perhaps not the only reason Cal was here in Immanion.  He spoke with greater and greater passion as the meal progressed, of how he wanted to help all those hara who had been incepted into violent tribes and who were still hunted as criminals now that the Gelaming had mostly established control in Megalithica.  “It is all about choice,” he said, “and how some hara never had it.  If I'm going to be a Tigron I might as well try to do some good.  Looking pretty is not enough for me.”

            “You never had to go through what I did,” Caeru said.  “Don't judge me.”

            “I know what you went through.  We all went through
something.
  Remember: I was Uigenna.  I have blood on my hands.  You don't.  Pell doesn't expect anything of you, Rue.  In that, you are lucky.”

            “Are you confiding in me?”

            “I wouldn't be so stupid.  It's just a fact, and everyhar knows it.”

            “Calanthe: champion of the underdog.  It's a good image; as good as mine, I suppose, though just as rhetorical.”

            Cal sighed through his nose.  “You are exhausting.”  He pushed his plate away from him.  “Dinner was good.  We eat like kings, while in other places...”

            “Shut up.  I don't want to hear it.”

            “I know.  Not many do.”

            “I'll give you five years at most before you get totally disillusioned and just sit back to enjoy the good food.  Don't you realise what Tigron and Tigrina are?  Carnival attractions.  We're not supposed to have opinions or
do
anything.”

            “That's not true.  Pell does a lot.”

            “Five years, that's all,” Caeru said.

            “I'll prove you wrong.”  Cal stood up.  “Thanks for dinner.”

            “Don't thank me.  I didn't invite you.”

            Cal began to leave the terrace, and for several seconds, Caeru debated what to do next. It might be better just to let Cal go, but then there would be Velaxis' scorn to deal with.

            “Wait a moment,” Caeru said.

            Cal paused.  “Yes?”

            Caeru took a deep breath, and hoped it didn't show.  “Where are you going?”

            “Back to my apartment to gloat over my useless plans.”

            “You don't have to leave.”

            Cal frowned.  “But I thought...”

            Caeru stood up.  “Look, if you really want us to be friends, we could go out tonight.  I'm bored.  I want to visit the high waterfront.  There's a club there, called 'Serpent Sapphire'.  It's a rich har's play pen.  Had good reports.  I want to see it.”

            Cal hesitated.  “Hmm.  Why do you want to go with me?”

            Caeru made a careless gesture with one arm.  “I enjoy our fights.  I'm in the mood to socialise.  Do I need another reason?”

            “I'm not sure.”

            “How brave are you?  Will you do it?”

            “I don't know...”  Cal rubbed the back of his neck.  What would it take to persuade him?

            “Of course, it might embarrass you to be seen in public with me.”

            “It's not that.”

            “Then what?”

            “I can't help suspecting this might just be a ploy to get at Pell, but then I'm unusually paranoid.”

            Caeru laughed.  “Why should he care?  I'm less than dirt to him.  He knows I can't affect his life, or anything in it, one little bit.  This is nothing to do with him.  I just want to go out.  Be Tigron in this sense: escort me.”

            Cal nodded, a little distractedly.  “All right.”

            “Sit here.  Wait.  I'll get ready.”

            Caeru rushed to his dressing room and spent a frantic ten minutes deciding what to wear.  He eventually settled on an understated appearance: simple trousers and shirt of matt black silk.  He smoothed down his hair and cleaned his face of any cosmetics.  Tonight, he did not want to be a pretty bauble.  He wanted Cal to see him differently.

            When he finally reappeared on the terrace, Cal said, “I see.  We are incognito.  Now who's embarrassed to be seen with whom?”

            “Sometimes, there is power in being natural,” Caeru said.  “Tonight I am me rather than  Tigrina.  Don't you know about that yet?”

            “I know about masks,” Cal said.

            They walked through the palace to the covered stable yard, which was surrounded on all sides by high columned galleries.  Fortunately, these had not been too damaged by the earthquakes that had shaken the city when Cal had first arrived.  Caeru asked that an open carriage be made ready for them.  A ride through the balmy evening air would be pleasant.  They would hear the purr of the sea and smell the flowers that hung heavily from the trees along Processional Way.  They could survey what was left of the ruins caused by Cal's elemental fight with Thiede.

            From the moment they sat down in the carriage, Caeru knew that a different kind of tension had arisen between them.  Cal wasn't stupid.  He knew all the games.  He might be wondering which one Caeru was playing.

            'Serpent Sapphire' was situated on that part of the harbour frequented by the high ranking families who lived on Immanion's fabled hills.  If was surrounded by exclusive bazaars, which stayed open into the night and sold unusual items from around the world.  The club itself was affronted by the floor-to-ceiling window doors, which were all thrown wide, so that patrons could sit there to smell the sea and listen to the waves.  An awning, from which ornamentals serpents dangled, extended over the walkway outside.  Beyond the first bar was a series of dim lit rooms, with different snaky themes.  There was no sign of damage to the building, so repairs must have been undertaken very quickly.  Although it was relatively early in the evening, several parties were already sitting at the tables in the bar, presumably having dined there on snake meat.

            This was a club where the high society of Immanion met to dance, get drunk and behave disgracefully in relative privacy.  Exotic hara from the most obscure the tribes around the world acted as valets and escorts.  The club's proprietors had delved deep to the darkest corners to find the most unusual hara, whose skins and hair were strange colours, or who were physically abnormal to some degree.  In the wake of the initial great inception, many isolated tribes had developed in peculiar ways, which were often influenced by questionable magical practices that had soaked them in strange subtle energies.  Such energies caused interesting mutations.

            The first group of socialising hara Caeru noticed included the General of the Gelaming military forces, Ashmael Aldebaran, who was also a member of the Hegemony and a close confidant of Pellaz.  Caeru knew that Ashmael had already accepted Cal completely, which Caeru had taken personally and found extremely insulting.  Never once had General Aldebaran shown any support for the Tigrina.  He'd made no public statement, but everyhar knew he shared Pell's view at Caeru was a scheming and manipulative adventurer.  Therefore, it was hardly surprising that when Ashmael caught sight of Caeru and Cal together, his expression was eloquent in the extreme.  He appeared shocked and puzzled but also intrigued.

            "Oh look, a friend of yours," Caeru said.  "Would you like to join him?"

            Cal groaned in what Caeru supposed was a kind of mild despair and said, "Do we have a choice?  Won't it look odd if we don't?"

            "Let's see," Caeru replied.  "What would appear worse?  Should we sit alone at a table, with the obvious implications, or join a party who are eager to discover why you, Pell's soul mate, are out on the town with me, the dark stain in Pell's life?”

            “Did you plan this?”

            “No.  I would never plan to be in the same room with Ashmael Aldebaran.”

            Even as they were speaking, Ashmael beckoned them over.  He would be considering the fact that it could be no coincidence Cal and Caeru were out together while Pellaz was away from the city.  Caeru could sense Cal's discomfort.  He knew Cal felt he was being disloyal to Pellaz and also that he couldn't understand why he should feel that way.  A small part of him resented it too.  Caeru moved to take hold of Cal's arm, but Cal jerked away before he could make contact.