The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure - By Storm Constantine Page 0,201

make a decision,’ Ulaume said and there was bitterness in his voice. ‘I wonder whether Cobweb has told him about me.’

Flick didn’t want to talk about such things. The moment Astral had jumped out of non-reality into Roselane was the moment when Flick’s life had changed for the better. The otherlanes had purified him. He did not want to shut out the past entirely, but neither did he want to dwell upon it. Lying there, he realised he felt so much more serene and complete than Ulaume did. It made him feel sad and protective.

‘Are we chesnari, Flick?’ Ulaume asked, a wistful voice in the darkness. ‘Is that what we are now?’ There was a kind of finality to the question.

‘You are my life partner, and I can’t imagine life without you, so if that’s chesnari, then yes. I suppose so.’

‘Good,’ Ulaume said. ‘At least that means I did something right.’

‘Lor, you did many things right. Don’t be sad. There won’t be many hara on this planet who didn’t do things in the early days they’d rather they hadn’t.’

‘I don’t regret any of what I did,’ Ulaume said. ‘I haven’t become a pious Roselane ascetic, Flick. I wouldn’t be who I am without my history.’

That made Flick think of Cal, a thought he attempted to banish at once.

‘No doubt it’s the same for him,’ Ulaume said, and Flick realised his thought, though swiftly quashed, must have been very loud indeed. After some moments, Ulaume said, ‘I just wish I hadn’t been so stupid with Pell. I really do. Now, he’ll never know who I’m capable of being.’

That sounded like regret to Flick.

Sometimes, Flick wondered whether Astral missed the otherlanes and creatures of his own kind. He knew now that Astral was not a horse, but something that looked like a horse. He told everyone else that Vaysh had taken out of the beast all the things that made him different, but that wasn’t true. Vaysh had indeed limited the extent of communication Flick could have with the creature, but Flick was still sure that when he thought in pictures, Astral understood some of what he was saying.

One morning, they went for a bareback gallop in one of the high meadows. Flick let Astral have his head, and he was clearly in the mood for spring, because he kicked up his heels a few times and nearly bucked off his rider. ‘Hey,’ Flick said, jerking the reins to remind Astral he had a rider. ‘Don’t be mean.’

Astral skidded to a halt and then turned his head to regard Flick with a dark intelligent eye, a lock of his pure white mane hanging over it. If anything, he was the harish equivalent of horse, because surely no normal animal could affect such a seductive expression. Flick sighed and jumped to the ground. He unbuckled Astral’s bridle and smacked him on the rump. ‘Go run, then. Have fun. Find yourself a mare.’

Astral walked around in a circle for a while, sniffing the ground, then with head and tail high, charged off up the valley. Flick knew he’d return in a few hours.

Lileem had packed Flick a generous lunch, a task she had begun to undertake on a daily basis for the whole household recently, as she had become experimental with sandwiches. Now, Flick carried his satchel up the side of the valley, to a rocky platform. Here, he would lie down and stare at the sky for a while. When he was hungry, he would eat. Could life get any better?

Flick stretched out his body on the warm rock, his face wreathed in a contented smile. He listened to the breeze that blew over the higher crags, to the cry of birds. There was nothing else to hear. He was asleep when the shadow fell over him.

‘Flick…’

He awoke at once. Mima had come to him. Something was wrong. He jumped up and turned quickly, facing a figure that was limned against the sun. Not Mima.

‘Terez…?’ He couldn’t have found them there, surely?

‘No, Flick… it’s me.’

Clouds were moving to conceal the sun. The weather could change so quickly. ‘Pellaz?’

‘Yes.’

Flick walked warily around the ledge until the sun was behind him. Perhaps he was still asleep and a stray dream from the past had come to haunt him. But maybe Pellaz really was there, a radiant creature beyond all imagining, a divine version of his former self. His skin was golden brown, his hair a glossy black mane to his waist. His face and body