The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure - By Storm Constantine Page 0,161

done can’t be that…’

‘Flick!’ Ulaume said sharply. ‘We have to go. I’ll explain later.’ He wasn’t looking forward to the explaining part.

Leef had stood up. He appeared faintly aggressive. ‘You go,’ he said. ‘I can bring Flick back later.’

‘No,’ Ulaume insisted. ‘He has to come now.’

‘But why?’ Flick said, his expression confused.

Then his face went blank. He was no longer staring at Ulaume but past him. Ulaume turned at once, but he already knew Seel would be standing there.

Cruel, he thought. Too cruel.

‘You don’t have to go,’ Seel said. ‘Not on my account.’

Flick clearly could not speak. Seel was the last person he expected to run into, even if he had, as Ulaume suspected, harboured private and conflicting hopes of finding Cal here.

‘It’s good to see you,’ Seel said, approaching the table. ‘We were all very worried about you, Flick. It’s been so long. It’s good to know you’re all right.’

What an assumption, Ulaume thought.

‘Seel,’ Flick said. ‘I never… What are you doing here?’

Ulaume thought Flick would be angry, because in his place Ulaume certainly would have been. But in Flick’s voice, he heard that terrible sweetness, which was just too much.

‘He is Swift’s consort,’ Ulaume said. ‘He lives here now.’ He went to stand behind Flick and put his hands on Flick’s shoulders. ‘There’s nothing to say, believe me. This is why we should leave.’

‘What did you say to him?’ Flick said bitterly. ‘What?’

‘Nothing bad,’ Ulaume said. ‘Come on.’ Flick’s body was rigid beneath his hands.

‘You can’t just leave,’ Seel said. ‘We should talk.’

‘What about?’ Ulaume snarled. ‘How you treated him, froze him out, ordered him around like a slave, let him walk out of your life without a single word, and then forgot about him so easily?’

‘Lor, shut up,’ Flick said. ‘Don’t.’

‘It was years ago,’ Seel said, ‘and none of your business, har.’ He dismissed Ulaume from his attention. ‘Things happened back then, Flick; many I’m not proud of. Why are you here? If Fate didn’t want us to meet, you wouldn’t be, surely.’

‘We’re here to see Swift, not you,’ Ulaume said. ‘Not that there’ll be much chance of that now.’

Seel sat down opposite Flick, who was staring at his folded hands on the table. ‘What do you want to see Swift about? Maybe I can help.’

Flick glanced up. ‘It’s…’

‘Don’t tell him anything,’ Ulaume said, digging his fingers into Flick’s shoulders. ‘Don’t.’ At that moment, he caught the eye of the silent woman sitting beside Seel, and for some reason he got the impression she was strongly with him on that point. Had Flick told her about Mima and Lileem?

‘We heard Pell was alive, that he was Tigron,’ Flick said. ‘Is it true?’

Seel nodded slowly. ‘Yes. It is true.’

Flick lowered his head to the table, and rested his forehead on his hands for some moments. All was silent; Chelone and Leef no doubt desperately wishing they were elsewhere.

Flick raised his head again. ‘You have seen him?’

‘Yes,’ said Seel. ‘I went to Immanion. I went to work for Thiede. Things were not how they seemed.’

Ulaume could not see Flick’s expression, but he could feel the shudder of his breath. ‘So Orien died for…’ Flick swallowed thickly. ‘Cal didn’t need to kill him.’

‘There was never any reason why Cal should do that, whether Pell was alive or dead,’ Seel said. ‘If you hadn’t left Saltrock, you would have been part of this, Flick. It’s just that none of us knew. Pell will be relieved to hear that I’ve seen you.’

‘Oh, come on!’ Ulaume spat. ‘You’re not being hard enough! Surely you can think of something more cruel to say than that!’

Seel glanced up at him, his expression cool. ‘Will you keep out of this? I don’t want to have to ask Leef and Chelone to remove you. I know who and what you are, Ulaume. I remembered while I was following you here, because I’ve heard all about you. It does not cheer me to find Flick in your company. You call yourself Colurastes, but that’s not the whole truth, is it?’ He smiled coldly. ‘You are, after all, Ulaume of the Kakkahaar, aren’t you?’

‘Was,’ said Ulaume. ‘Might I ask who told you about me?’

‘Pellaz,’ said Seel, clearly also recalling the earlier conversation in the house and how Ulaume was mimicking it, ‘but you were never a consort of his, were you?’

‘Stop it!’ Flick said. ‘This does no good. We came here to find out about Pell and this is part of it.’ He reached up and touched one of