The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure - By Storm Constantine Page 0,111

know I can help you. First, you must help me.’

Ulaume had met few hara he considered stronger than himself. In Terez, he feared he might have met his match. The Cevarros were clearly a singular breed and their inception to Wraeththu could mean more to harakind than any could have envisaged – for good or ill. Somewhere, another one could still be running around with a rogue band of hara. It was anyhar’s guess how Dorado might have developed, but Ulaume doubted he was a faceless rank and file har of low caste.

For two days, Terez kept Ulaume in the high attic room, and it was not as if Ulaume wanted to leave particularly. Something inside him was faintly repulsed by the dark force that surrounded him and took possession of him, but it was also intriguing and in some ways addictive. It reminded Ulaume of his best days with Lianvis, when they had explored higher realms together, lost in the delirious waves of focused aruna. Terez was careful not to deplete Ulaume, because he clearly did not want to damage the thing that could replenish him. He seemed to be knowledgeable and skilled in the arts of aruna, which should be impossible, because he couldn’t have been trained prior to inception. It occurred to Ulaume that Terez might have received otherworldly instruction or else he acted upon instinct. What was certain was that Terez was hungry for energy and power. And he was cunning, because he knew that in pleasing Ulaume, he got what he wanted. Part of the contract between them was information.

Ulaume heard about how Terez and Pellaz grew up together, Terez being a year younger than his brother, while Dorado was a couple of years older than Pell. Pellaz had not known it, but Terez had been awake for most of the night while Cal had conducted his big seduction. He had heard some of what had been said, even though Pell and Cal had talked, for the most part, in whispers.

‘I fell asleep, and dreamed I left home with them,’ he said, ‘but when I awoke, it was too late, because they were gone. For a long time, I hated Pell for that, even as I mourned his loss. But I knew I only had to wait, and I was right, because eventually the… others came.’

‘Who killed your family,’ Ulaume said. ‘Didn’t you feel anything about that?’

‘They were no longer my family,’ Terez answered. ‘I could not allow myself to feel pain. I had to endure whatever it took and be strong enough to do so. I had to follow Pell.’

As perhaps, Ulaume thought, he had always done.

‘Do you ever think of your human family?’ Terez asked.

‘No,’ Ulaume said, and it was true.

‘Then don’t expect me to,’ Terez said.

‘But Mima is here. She is… well, we’re not really sure what she is, but she’s not quite human any more.’

‘She and Pell were very close,’ Terez said. ‘She was never like the other girls. If she has found a way to survive in this new world, then I respect her for it.’

‘There are some tribes,’ Ulaume said, ‘that… even within Wraeththu have a bad reputation. There is a darkness to you, Terez. I’m sure you know that. Could it have come from your inception? Who were the hara that incepted you? Can you remember anything about them?’

Terez glanced at Ulaume keenly. ‘I was with them for such a short time, but one of them, he taught me many things. He told me about Kakkahaar, your tribe, and some of the others. He told me who were his enemies and who were not.’

‘Are Kakkahaar enemies of his?’

‘They are not to be trusted.’

Terez had spent a week with the hara who’d ransacked his home, and at the end of this time, one of them had incepted him. Althaia had caused him to lose track of what happened next. Mercifully, he could not remember that it had been Mima who’d dragged him away from his newfound family.

Flick or Mima brought trays of food to the room and left them outside the door, which Ulaume regularly collected. On the evening of the second day, he took all the scraps and plates downstairs and found all his companions in the kitchen, who went silent when he walked in.

Then Flick said, ‘We were just debating whether to break down the door to your room. We wondered what had happened to you.’

‘Still alive,’ Ulaume said. He glanced behind him, closed the door by