The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure - By Storm Constantine Page 0,248

we have an understanding,’ Opalexian said. ‘The time for initial preparation draws near.’ She glanced at Mima. ‘Your brother and I have much to discuss. Can you provide us with a private room?’

‘Of course,’ Mima said. There was an icy edge to her voice.

‘Also, the moment that Lileem is fit to talk, send me word. She must speak to no one, including yourselves, until she has spoken to me. Is that clear?’

Mima inclined her head. ‘As cut glass.’

‘Good. Now, if you would be so kind, conduct Pellaz and I to the private room.’ Opalexian took in all the occupants of the room with one sweeping, chilling glance. ‘This household is nothing but trouble. I expect it is the influence of Cevarro blood. Now Thiede can have two of them on his hands. I almost pity him.’ She smiled at Pellaz. ‘But, of course, the best is yet in store for him. Are you ready, tiahaar?’

Pellaz stood up. ‘More than so.’

Lileem was quite ill for some weeks after her return. Every day, she’d sit out in the garden, in a chair beneath the apple trees, her hands lying loosely in her lap. She didn’t talk much and she didn’t read. She was consumed by grief.

In the otherworld, her feelings for Terez had been frozen, but once she’d regained consciousness, in her new bed in the new house, they came crashing back. She felt exactly how she’d felt on the night of the festival, when she and Terez had taken aruna together. Her first thoughts were of him, and the first thing she said to Ulaume, who happened to be in the room when she awoke was, ‘Where’s Terez?’

From the look on Ulaume’s face, she feared that Terez had died. But then Ulaume told her the truth. She would never see Terez again. As if losing him wasn’t bad enough, she also had to contend with another, perhaps deeper, sense of bereavement. Although in many respects she was glad to be home, she found she missed the otherworld. At night, when she looked at the sky, she yearned for the majestic splendour of the wheeling alien stars. When the sun rose, she thought of the incredible sunrises she had seen. She wanted to see them again. But it was not just for the magnificent landscape that she grieved. She was sure that some unbelievable truth about Wraeththu and Kamagrian lay hidden in the library. Her stone book had not survived the journey to this world, and that was sad, because she’d wanted so much to share it with Flick.

Part of me stayed behind, she thought. I am still there, wandering through the corridors, seeking, seeking.

The only thing that might have made the loss of the otherworld bearable was being able to be with Terez and that was not possible.

So much had happened to her friends in her absence: the new house, new jobs, a harling for Flick and Ulaume, and most important of all, Pellaz. She’d missed all that, and it hurt. Mima cared for her still, but now she had a roon friend in Almagabra too. Things were not the same.

Perhaps to cheer Lileem up and to bring her back into their family, Flick and Ulaume decided to undertake a blood-bond ceremony. It would be like a festival. It would be a happy day. Lileem tried to be interested, but she felt so tired all the time. Every morning, she woke up thinking she had something important to do. Then she’d remember where and who she was, and that the important thing had gone.

Opalexian came to the house and questioned her in a gruelling manner and Lileem was too weak not to tell the truth.

‘You must never do this again,’ Opalexian said. ‘You do understand that, don’t you? Pellaz and Mima risked their lives for you, as did the sedim. You cannot be so selfish as to put those who care for you in such a position again.’

‘But the library,’ Lileem said. ‘It’s important.’

‘You saw what you wanted to see,’ Opalexian said. ‘The dehara exist because you and Flick dreamed them into being, fuelled them with your thoughts. That is how all gods are created. You take the formless stuff of creation and shape it with your mind, as you shape statues of clay with your hands. It’s my belief you were in a realm of pure thought. You and Terez created a world around you, because your senses needed it. You might have gone insane, otherwise. Perhaps there was no