The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure - By Storm Constantine Page 0,139

to manifest, impatiently in a line. Therefore, when they returned to the ‘Esmeraldarine’ and found Terez there, sitting with Ulaume on the roof, she was not surprised. He hadn’t sought them out for so long, she had begun to wonder if he ever would again, but now, here he was, the creature of dark, sharing a drink with Ulaume in the last of the sunset. Lileem was pleased to see him.

‘Terez wants to talk to us,’ Ulaume said as Flick and Lileem jumped aboard. His tone was tense. ‘Flick, you must persuade Mima to hear this. It’s important.’

Flick sighed. Mima would be hiding below deck, seething with all the complicated bitter emotions Terez’s proximity inspired in her. While Flick went to reason with her, Lileem sat down. Her head was aching in three different places. She felt dizzy.

‘You have grown a lot since the last time I saw you,’ Terez said to her. ‘It’s uncanny.’

Lileem had nothing to say to this. ‘Have you brought us anything?’

Terez produced a leather bag. ‘Not much. Some trinkets.’ He pulled an object out of the bag and passed it to her. ‘Here, it’s yours.’ It was a small white carving of a har, very beautiful. He wore an ornate head-dress and the detail was astounding.

‘It’s lovely,’ Lileem said, turning it in her hands. ‘So delicate. I wish I could carve like this. Does it represent anything?’

‘Yes,’ Terez said. ‘It is the Tigron.’

‘Somehar’s god?’

‘In a way. I’ll explain when the others are here.’

Lileem held out the little carving to Ulaume, but he would not take it. He was frowning, and his composure was ruffled. This meant Terez had told him something he didn’t like, something that endangered his control of life. Ulaume always hated things like that, especially so since the episode with the Uigenna. He was superstitious about the carving. Lileem was so full of curiosity, she forgot about how frightened and threatened she’d felt only minutes before. She enjoyed mysteries.

Flick emerged from below deck, with Mima following, her face set into a surly expression. She had her arms folded and everything about her was closed in and hostile. She would never forgive Terez for what he’d said and done in the past and she couldn’t forgive herself for what she’d done, either. Lileem wished Mima would let it all go. Terez had been denied a life with the Uigenna, but surely that was for the best. What did Mima have to feel bad about now? Terez did not appear unhappy. He didn’t appear anything. Well, perhaps, there were reasons for regret, after all.

‘What’s so important?’ Flick said, sitting down beside Terez.

Terez held out his hand to Lileem. ‘The carving,’ he said.

Lileem handed it to him and he passed it to Flick.

‘Somehar else is inventing gods,’ Lileem said.

Flick examined the carving. ‘It’s well crafted, but what’s so important about it? If other hara are creating dehara, it’s not that surprising.’ He held out the carving to Terez.

‘Look again,’ Terez said. ‘That is the Tigron of Immanion, the king of the Gelaming, if you like. The ruler of all Wraeththu.’

‘Well, they were bound to do that sooner or later,’ Flick said. ‘They think highly of themselves. Personally, I don’t have a king and never will. I won’t buy into Gelaming power fantasies.’

‘His name is Pellaz-har-Aralis,’ Terez said. ‘The carving is stylised, of course, so don’t look for resemblances.’

Flick glanced again at the carving, then fixed Terez with a stare. ‘What are you suggesting?’

‘I travel widely in this land,’ Terez said. ‘I get to hear many things. I make sure I do. I’ve never stopped searching for my brothers, and my feet led me to what was once Varrish territory. It was there I met a har who came from Almagabra. He was Gelaming, attached in some small capacity to the noble house of Parasiel in Galhea, the home of Swift the Varr, now presumably Swift of the Parasiel, who has earned himself fame as a Gelaming lap dog. The har I met told me that Thiede had created himself a king and that his name is Pellaz.’

‘No,’ Flick said. ‘Don’t think it. It’s impossible.’

‘No it isn’t,’ Ulaume said, in a low voice. ‘You know that. This is what everything has been leading to. It makes sense of your story, Flick, about Pell’s inception and Thiede. This was the plan no har knew about. He never died. Cal was deceived.’

‘He couldn’t have been,’ Flick said. ‘It was too raw and real for him. I don’t believe