The Wraeththu Chronicles (35 page)

Vaysh sat next to me. "Don't talk like that, there's no point."

He was dressed in green again. I put my hand tentatively on his back and the material was warm; which surprised me. He let me stroke him, like cats do when they're in the mood. It was possible to pretend, but I was sensible enough not to push it too far. I couldn't tell if he liked me touching him. "What has Thiede got planned for me?" I asked.

"You will have to ask him."

"I intend to. Do you suppose he is watching us now?" Vaysh looked over his shoulder at me.

"It's best not to think about that, Pell."

"Make me think of something else then," I said. It slipped out before common-sense could block my throat. Vaysh kept on looking at me, straining his neck, but I still could not tell what he was thinking.

"I thought you were in mourning," he remarked. Perhaps he was trying to make me feel guilty, or perhaps he just wanted me to say that Cal was no longer important. Whatever the reason, it was pointless after what he knew about Rue.

"The truth is, Vaysh," I said, "that the time to mourn is sometime in the dead of night, alone, in bed. That's when I think, or get lonely. Nobody will ever take Cal's place, nobody. But don't think me shallow because I want company. I am Har; end of statement." I felt him sigh, through my hand. "I can't help you," he said.

"I'm not even sure if I want to. Oh Pellaz, I thought I'd got myself in order! What are you trying to do to me?"

"I don't think you're as cold or unfeeling as you like people to think," I suggested carefully. He did not comment. "Perhaps," I continued, "living with Thiede it was easy to imagine that you were ..." He still did not move away. Every time I said something, I expected him to. I was desperate to bring out the real Vaysh; but my motives were not entirely unselfish. I could sense his confusion and only lay there, projecting all the sensuality Thiede had given me, tormenting him.

"I don't know," he murmured, his hands clawing each other in his lap. "I don't know ..." I still did not appreciate how deeply he had been scarred. Wriggling around on the bed, I put my head in his lap (his hands flew up to his neck), and stared up through his hair.

"What color is it, naturally?" I asked, reaching up to put my fingers in it. Vaysh's face was so grave

"Light colored," he said.

"The color of light . . ."

"No, just sort of yellowish, only darker..." Evening light shadowed his face. He stroked my face with his cool, white hands. "No more than this, Pell," he said, in his softest, gravest voice. I closed my eyes and smiled.

On the plans of the Hegemony and shattering ice

I could not remember where I was at first, waking up alone, opening my eyes to the swaying canopy above my bed. Then I smelled the air, purer than any other I had ever breathed. I had closed all the windows before retiring; someone had been in to open them. For a while I just lay there, staring at the fluttering folds of muslin over my head. My room did not catch the morning sun (an oversight?); outside the terrace was in shadow. I tried to imagine what it would have been like if Cal had been here with me; vividly picturing his cynical amusement. He would never have been comfortable here, not under these circumstances. I realized that when the time came for me to find him again, I would be ashamed to admit what Thiede had made of me. I feared his scorn.

Attica, or Cleis (I could not tell which, as they both looked the same to me), knocked on my door and entered the room without waiting for my answer. Breakfast awaited me. Would I dress first? I shook my head, leached for a robe to cover my nakedness and walked out ahead of him.

The table was decorated with flowers. Their incense perfume filled the room. Seating myself at the head of the table, I requested that Vaysh should join me. I was already eating by the time he sat down. As expected, the food was elegant and meticulously prepared, meticulously designed. Vaysh was robed in his favorite green and still sleepy. I had noticed it always took some time for him to wake up properly.

"Thiede will summon you today, I expect," he said, helping himself to minute portions of the food. I put my hand over his wrist and he looked at it with interest.

"You no longer stop me touching you, I see," I remarked.

He managed a bleak smile. "I trust you," he said. "I wonder what Thiede will say to you."

"I'm wondering what to say to him," I replied bitterly.

Cleis and Attica brought us coffee in a tall metal pot and cleared away the food before we could help ourselves to more.

"They appear to be hurrying," Vaysh observed. His meal had only been half-eaten.

Right on cue, the door swept open and my attendants all but threw themselves to the floor. Thiede, dressed in black and gray wolfskin, strode past them.

"Good morning Pellaz, Vaysh," he announced. "Ah coffee, good."

He sat at our table and snapped his fingers. My attendants moved in a blur to fill his outstretched hand with a brimming cup haloed by steam.

"Do you like your new home, Pellaz?" He looked around him. "I'm pleased with these apartments; they've turned out very well.

I was silent, remembering all too clearly the last time we had met. It was difficult to equate that kind of Thiede with the one who sat here now though. Less awesome, he appeared to have put aside the trappings of terrible power; no-one could exist comfortably like that all the time. Thiede is very hard to look at directly, because his beauty is so alien and stark. It is easier to look at his nose (aquiline, with delicately flared nostrils, of course), or his amber eyes or his cruel yet smiling mouth, but difficult to take in everything altogether. He is taller than most hara and his flaming red hair looks dyed, which it isn't. From the history books of Man, the nearest people I can compare him to are Salome and Alexander the Great combined in one body, with a dash of the witch Medea and the magician Merlin for good measure. He is deadly, but lovely, a little insane but clever. Shrewd Hara take great pains never to offend him although, mercifully, he rarely takes offense at anything.

Vaysh stood up and excused himself from our presence. Left alone with me, Thiede stared thoughtfully into my eyes for several harrowing minutes. "I'm very pleased with you," he said.

"You compliment only yourself," I replied.

Thiede threw back his head to laugh. "Oh, you have such spirit, Pellaz. You are ninety percent yourself and ten percent me, if that much. I expect you feel obliged to be annoyed at how I've taken control of your fate ..."

I did not answer. Thiede looked at me wryly. "I shall arrange a coronation for you. That will be an excuse for a celebration. I do so like celebrations, don't you? Your title will be Tigron; Tigron of Immanion and of Wraeththu." He folded his arms which had been gesticulating wildly.

"Forgive my ignorance, Thiede, but what exactly is my purpose? You are the true ruler of Wraeththu, that's obvious. Why do you need me?"

The smile never moved from his face. "I need you because you will rule well, Pellaz. I'm not interested enough to spend all my time attending to the affairs of the little hara. You must have seen; they are in such a mess. They need government, central government."

I put aside further objections to comment on what I thought was his simplistic view of things. "Thiede, I hate to sound pessimistic, but has it ever occurred to you that the majority of the tribes of Wraeththu, who most need controlling, will fanatically resist anyone trying to wrest their autonomy away from them?"

He leaned forward and squeezed my arm. "Ah, Pellaz, this is what I was looking forward to! Your rational little mind wrestling with the problems of administration!"

"Thiede, there must be a hundred Gelaming capable, and more knowledgeable than I, of becoming Tigron. I don't understand; why me? All this fuss, what you put me through, what is it for?"

Thiede affected an expression of being downcast. "Pellaz, what must I do with all the power at my command? Call it a whim, if you like, but I had the desire to make you what you are. I wanted a new start, a new king, a stranger. Someone like you. You are still young, but I have always been able to see your potential."

I leaned back in my chair. "That is reasonable, I suppose. I hope you are right about me."

"I am. Now, as to the problems of establishing order that you mentioned. For the most part, of course, our authority must be implemented by force; distasteful though such measures are to the Gelaming. There are trouble spots, that must be cut out, and swiftly. You will have under your control an impressively adequate army; you shall meet your generals later. Obviously, major decisions of a strategic nature must be left to them. The majority of our tribes, however, will welcome my organization. Everyone shall benefit." He took a few mouthfuls of the coffee, staring out of the window. "I must begin to spend more time here in Immanion," he said. "It is the jewel of Wraeththu cities.

"Thiede," I began, having been thinking of it for some minutes, "how much of my life is an open book to you?

He carefully replaced his coffee cup on the table. "You don't smoke much, do you." He removed a slim cigarette case from a top pocket. "This is one of the advantages of our hygiene-conscious bodies. They clean up after everything, even tar."

He offered me one and I accepted.

"These luxuries were not always available to me," I said, leaning forward to the flame he offered me. "Why won't you answer me?"

Thiede fidgetted in his seat. "Some sacrifices are necessary, for someone in your position, Pellaz."

"Privacy being the first of them, I suppose?"

"The very first." He inhaled deeply and blew perfect smoke rings at the ceiling. "I had to study you, to be sure."

"And since?"

He smiled and reached to pat my cheek. "Not always, my dear, not always. You handled Vaysh with princely sensitivity last night, though. You have a knack of getting your own way with people, haven't you; of making them love you. I'm very proud."

"Thiede, don't ever watch me with anyone," I insisted, "It can't be necessary now."

He raised an eyebrow at my audacity. "True, true; but I enjoy it. Vaysh is an interesting creature. Why didn't you reintroduce his miserable frigidity to the delights of aruna? He's not as disabled as he likes to make out."

I cannot understand why I was still shocked by anything Thiede could say. "I'm not going to discuss Vaysh with you," I said. "Whatever you did to him was despicable, merciless . . ."

"How do you know that?"

"He told me ... some of it." Thiede sighed. "Ah, well, what happened to Vaysh was an accident; unfortunate, but still. . . . He's yours Pellaz. Do as you like with him. Be liberal with the famous healing touch and the ever attentive ears. ... A pleasing challenge, I'm sure." He stood up. "Take time to relax, this morning. Have someone bring you to my apartments for lunch. Then I can introduce you to your staff."

"All of them at once?!" I cried.

"Oh, Pellaz, Pellaz; you are of my flesh, my blood, my essence. All these Hara are below you and you must believe that. They are naturally wary of you, but I have every confidence that you shall win them over." He squeezed my shoulder. "Until later then."

After he had left me, Vaysh came back into the room. "I listened at the door," he said.

"You and Thiede have a lot in common, it seems," I retorted, but I was not angry with him. Now I would not have to repeat everything, although some things I would have preferred Vaysh not to hear. "I am not what Thiede thinks I am," I complained.

"Think positively," Vaysh replied. "It is fairly safe to assume Thiede knows better than you."

My attendants reappeared and inquired whether I needed assistance to dress. Why not? I thought. I sneakily enjoyed being pampered.

"It's your birth-sign," Vaysh said scathingly

I had found a box of jewelery in my bedroom and gave Attica and Cleis a different earring each. That way I could recognize them by looking at their ears. They thanked me effusively, the earrings must have been worth a fortune. I was no expert; cheap and expensive generally looked the same to me. Attica was the most talkative of the two. Because of the gift, he offered me some advice.

"It is not my place to say this, of course, but watch out for the one called Ashmael. He will try to trip you up."

"What, literally?" I had visions of flying, head first, into Thiede's apartments.

Attica did not laugh. "The word is, he disagrees with Thiede bringing you here. It is only rumor, of course, but many think he would have liked to see himself as Tigron of Immanion. No disrespect to you, my lord, but there are others who will say that he deserved the title; he is popular."

"Thank you, Attica," I said, awkwardly. Obviously, if spoiled, my two attendants were going to prove a fertile source of information. However, I was not blind to the fact that it could work two ways; I would have to watch my tongue. I asked them what their duties were and where they lived. It appeared that, since my arrival, their sole function was to attend to my needs. At present, they resided in a humbler region of the palace.

"It would be more convenient, I think, if you were to move into one of the empty rooms here," I said. They exchanged a glance of surprise.