The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure (60 page)

Now that he thought he’d lost Flick for definite, he realised how deep his feelings ran. He’d thought Flick had felt the same. Ulaume was convinced the otherlanes had somehow affected Flick. That damned spooky horse must have carried him off to Immanion the first chance it got.

I should find myself a suicidal Kamagrian,
Ulaume thought,
and together we could pop out of existence. Perhaps there is another world. Perhaps Terez and Lileem are there now.

He drank himself into deeper gloom, stretched out on a hard wooden bench. The dawn had begun, stealing over the land in an annoyingly serene and beautiful way. Ulaume only wanted to shoot the birds that sang rapturously in the oaks that lined the street beyond the yard. He really couldn’t think what would happen to him next. Oblivion seemed the only option.

The sound of voices and doors opening and closing in the house advised Ulaume that Flick and Mima had come home. He wondered whether they had the illustrious Tigron with them. It seemed unlikely such a prestigious har would set foot in a humble dwelling like theirs, even though Pellaz derived from humble beginnings himself. Ulaume felt numb, incapable of rationalising anything. The murmur of voices lulled him to sleep and as he drifted off, he imagined they talked about him, listing his faults. He imagined Pellaz told the others some of the terrible things Ulaume had done with Lianvis and that he should be thrown into a pit full of scorpions. Ulaume could hear them all laughing.

The laughter faded away and Ulaume was back in time. He dreamed of a powerful ritual, of Lianvis taking the life of a human child to curry favour with Hubisag. But when the moment came for the child to die, Ulaume did not help Lianvis kill. Instead, he called upon the dehar Aruhani, who manifested as a har with the lower body of a great serpent. The dehar spat poisonous fire that momentarily blinded Lianvis and his shamans. He carried Ulaume and the child up into the air in a black cloud that hid them from the world. In this cloud, Aruhani said, ‘It is your task to care for the little one now. Go into the wilderness, hide him from danger, and you will be absolved.’

Ulaume woke with a start. His body was drenched with sweat because he was lying in the sun. His head ached in several different places, which made him smile sadly, because that was the sort of headache Lileem always had. He
had
cared for her. She was the child in the wilderness. And now, she had gone. Everything had gone.

‘Ulaume?’

He opened his eyes and a black shadow stood over him. ‘Terez…?’

‘No.’ The figure hunkered down and Ulaume saw that it was Pellaz. ‘It seems that my siblings and I are always confused with one another.’ He looked so different and yet so similar to how Ulaume remembered. Ulaume couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘I’m sorry I’ve caused a problem,’ Pellaz said. ‘I have been meeting Flick for some time, and asked him not to tell you. I shouldn’t have. It’s not his fault.’

Ulaume still could not speak, which he knew was most unlike him.

‘I have heard so many strange and wonderful things. If my story is incredible, yours and Flick’s is no less so. You left your tribe for the sake of a harling that wasn’t even yours. That took guts.’

‘Don’t patronise me,’ Ulaume said, finding his voice. ‘You’ve destroyed my life. Stupid of me to think I could have one.’ He tried to sit up and groaned. The effect of the alcohol would take a couple of hours to wear off, despite harish ability to shrug off the consequences of over-indulgence. He decided to remain lying down, even if it did put him in a position of disadvantage.

‘I have no idea what to say to you,’ Pellaz said. ‘I don’t know you. The har who’s been described to me by those who love you is not the one I met.’

‘We’ve all changed,’ Ulaume said.

‘I haven’t destroyed your life,’ Pellaz said. ‘I’ve only been talking to Flick, nothing more. I’m not trying to lure him to Immanion, if that’s what you think. I just needed a friend.’

Ulaume realised, even through the fog in his brain, that Pellaz was offering a lot. He was Tigron. He didn’t have to explain himself. Flick must have asked him to. It was still too incredible to look upon him. The night of Hubisag’s festival came back to Ulaume. He could remember the smell of the fire. He could remember his frustrated desire. But what made his heart hurt now was the thought of Flick inside the house.

Pellaz sat down on the ground beside Ulaume’s bench. ‘I want to help with finding Terez and Lileem. I was thinking maybe Peridot, my
sedu
, could try to find them. Mima thinks that aruna between hara and parazha opens a portal to another realm. It’s amazing…’ He shook his head. ‘I feel like I’ve been fast asleep and have just woken up to find the entire world has changed.’

‘It has.’

‘Thank you for what you did for Mima. Without you, she would be dead.’

‘That was hardly her sentiment at the time. Anyway, Lileem did it, not me.’

‘You know what you did,’ Pellaz said. He drew in his breath. ‘There were differences between us once. I judged you.’

‘Don’t,’ Ulaume said, ‘this is too embarrassing.’

Pellaz reached out and took a lock of Ulaume’s hair in his hand. ‘I heard what happened with the Uigenna. It must have been…’

‘It was.’ Ulaume couldn’t resist flexing that hair a little. It curled around Pell’s wrist like a tiny snake.

Pellaz just watched it. He didn’t move. ‘Come inside,’ he said.

‘No,’ Ulaume said. ‘I appreciate you coming out here, but I don’t need to hear it from you.’

‘Don’t you?’

‘No,’ Ulaume said. ‘I really don’t.’

Pellaz stood up and Ulaume’s hair dropped from his wrist. ‘I’ll tell him,’ he said.

‘No. Say nothing.’

Pellaz smiled. ‘I understand.’

Ulaume thought about what he’d do if Flick didn’t come out to find him. How long should he wait? He needed to use the bathroom, but didn’t want to go slinking into the house. He didn’t want to walk past them all.

The back door opened, and Ulaume was convinced it would be Mima, coming out to tell him to stop being stupid. But then Flick was there, looking down at him with uncertainty and concern. ‘Lor, do you want something to eat?’

Ulaume sat up. ‘That’d be good.’

Flick hesitated.

‘You’re hovering,’ Ulaume said. ‘It’s all right. I’m fine.’

‘Are
we
?’ Flick pulled a sour face, and then growled. ‘Shit, that was a stupid thing to say. Of course we’re not.’

Ulaume pulled Flick down onto the bench beside him. ‘Do you want us to be fine?’

‘Do you?’

‘Mmm, I might go all human on you and demand some kind of commitment.’

‘I’ve been bad. I’m sorry. It’s been a strange time.’

‘Kiss and make up?’

Flick smiled. ‘OK.’

Mima came out into the yard some minutes later. ‘I hate to break up this fond reconciliation,’ she said, ‘but Opalexian has got wind of Pell being here. We’ve been summoned to Kalalim.’

Opalexian was the most reclusive of Kamagrian. Few hara or parazha ever saw her. It was said that she spent her time in meditation, trying to fathom out what Kamagrian and Wraeththu were, how they had come to be and where they were heading. She was reputed to be so powerful a psychic, it was no surprise her sensitive inner eyes and ears had known that Pellaz had come to her city. His charisma disturbed the ethers. He was too big a presence not to affect the very air in Opalexian’s private chambers.

Hara and parazha drifting home from the festival in the early morning had witnessed Mima and Flick taking a magnificent and clearly powerful har into their home. Comments were made about how
that
particular household seemed to bring strangers home fairly regularly. Word reached Kalalim swiftly and by this time, Opalexian had been shocked out of her predawn devotions by an intrusion of forceful energy. It felt, to her, like an invasion of her city.

Neither Flick nor any of his companions had met Opalexian before. When they’d first arrived in Shilalama, they’d expected to be interviewed by her, not realising how reclusive she actually was. They soon discovered that Exalan was her eyes and ears in the city, her right hand har. When he spoke, it was with Opalexian’s authority. However, that day, when Flick and Mima were taken into Exalan’s private office, he was not alone.

A tall parage with long dark red hair, dressed in a simple black robe, stood before the window, while Exalan was seated behind his desk. The parage had bare feet and her clasped hands were concealed in the voluminous sleeves of her robe. Like Tel-an-Kaa in her true state, she was as androgynous as a har, but with a certain ambience that suggested she was Kamagrian rather than Wraeththu. Her face was beautifully sculpted, with wide almond-shaped eyes and high brows. She did not look very happy. Flick guessed at once who she was.

Exalan did not stand up as Flick and Mima entered the room, which normally he would have done, being a har of precise manners. Flick knew at once they were in deep trouble, and that a side of the Roselane they had not witnessed before might very well be about to manifest. Pellaz had been asked to wait outside, and even though Ulaume had offered to stay with him, Flick wasn’t absolutely sure the Tigron would comply with that for long. No har or parage, however high-ranking they considered themselves to be, should ask the Tigron of Immanion to sit in a waiting room.

‘You have a new outside visitor to your home,’ Exalan said to Mima. ‘May we ask if this is yet another member of your ever-expanding family?’

‘It is my brother,’ Mima said.

‘You seem to have an inexhaustible supply.’

Flick had never heard Exalan be sarcastic before, nor use such a cold tone. His usual guise was of benign and humble servant of the city.

‘It is my brother, Pellaz,’ Mima said, with some defiance.

The tall parage stepped forward. ‘We are aware of his identity,’ she said.

Exalan made a respectful gesture, ‘May I present Opalexian to you, High Priestess and First Parage of this city.’

Mima ducked her head a little, but it appeared awkward and grudging. She was ready for a fight. Flick realised how immense a force the Cevarros could be if they closed ranks. Because Pellaz wanted strong hara around him, he would really benefit from having Mima back in his life. He needed Terez and Dorado too, probably. Flick wondered if the Tigron had realised this for himself yet.

‘Facts,’ said Opalexian in a smooth, reasonable voice. Her tone was low, seductive. She reminded Flick very strongly of someone, but he couldn’t think who. ‘Last night, there was a severe etheric disturbance in my garden. You investigated the phenomenon, were virtually first on the scene. You reported nothing. In the light of day, my staff searched the area and uncovered an amount of clothing and some very strange trace residue of a paranormal event.’

She paused, but Mima offered nothing, her face set into an inscrutable expression.

‘Almost simultaneously with this discovery, I become aware of a very powerful harish force in this city. Its signature is unique. It is the Tigron of Immanion.’

Again a pause, and again Mima’s silence.

Opalexian sighed through her nose. ‘I see. I ask myself if these two events are connected. Where are the other members of your household?’

‘We were not told we all had to come,’ Flick said.

‘Where are they?’ Opalexian asked.

‘We don’t know,’ Flick said.

Opalexian stared at him, and he was sure she could see right into his mind, even though he wasn’t aware of mind touch. ‘I can only take a dim view of the Tigron being invited to my city. You are all aware that it is the wish of the Roselane for the Gelaming, if not Wraeththu as a whole, to remain ignorant of their existence. The Tigron’s presence here puts every citizen in jeopardy. You were given sanctuary here, a home and a life. Is this how you repay us? I am waiting for your explanation, if indeed there is one, beyond the fact that Mima Cevarro cannot surrender her old human ties.’

‘No I cannot!’ Mima said, and Flick put a hand on her arm to restrain her.

‘We can explain,’ Flick said. ‘This is not how it seems. As you know, Pellaz consented to come here. He is sitting outside this room like a common har. I hope you understand the message in that. It is not his intention to cause you trouble. He is here because of me, and because of his family.’

‘Tel-an-Kaa has informed me of the circumstances surrounding your journey to Shilalama. I am aware of Mima’s and Terez’s connection with the Tigron, and of yours. But in this city, all hara, parazha and humans are equal. Such weighty connections have no bearing here, and I had hoped you all felt the same. You accepted our way of life and have benefited from it. Where is Terez and the parage, Lileem?’

‘I think you know,’ Mima said.

‘I would like to hear it from you.’

‘We believe they took aruna together,’ Flick said, ‘with the inevitable consequences.’

‘And you summoned the Tigron here to ask for his aid?’ Opalexian enquired.

‘No,’ Flick said. ‘That was coincidence. I have been meeting him in the mountains for some time. I told him nothing about the Kamagrian, not until last night.’