The Wraeththu Chronicles (150 page)

Gazing in wonder at the tarnished splendor of Phaonica, I followed Vaysh through halls and corridors, stepping over tumbled furniture and tapestries that had fallen from their hangings. Vaysh told me, "Caeru will be at his wits end. Probably demented." He smiled. "Maybe even dangerous. May I stay and watch this?"

"It is my opinion that you and Pell encourage each other in a rather harsh treatment of the Tigrina," I said, which was meant to sound serious, but came out rather mocking.

Vaysh shrugged. "You're probably right. But you haven't had to put up with him."

"Isn't it rather sad? I can't help feeling sorry for him."

"Oh, Cal, you disappoint me! Pell always admired your clever sarcasm. Don't feel sorry for Caeru, just let your talents rip!"

If Pell had learned to be hard, I at least had learned to be somewhat more understanding. "Tell him I've come for dinner," I said.

Vaysh grimaced, pushing aside an obscuring torn curtain, and knocked upon a high, studded door.

The nervous face of a servant appeared round the door. "Tell the Tigrina the Tigron is here to see him," Vaysh ordered imperiously. He looked at me and repeated with jarring sincerity, "Tell him the Tigron has come for dinner." We walked inside. The place was a mess, dark with an air of desperate desolation."Vaysh," I said. He raised an eyebrow in anticipation.

"OK, I know. I can go now. You don't have to say it, although I must point out that I don't often take orders from the Tigron."

"I didn't say a word."

He smiled. "No, you don't have to. Have fun."

I wandered alone further into the room, a small, once-elegant antechamber with many doors leading off. One was open and I could see a lean, black-haired har in the room beyond picking stuff up off the floor. His face seemed somehow familiar, so I went and stood in the doorway.

"Need any help?" He looked up at me. I was a stranger, but disaster brings people closer, so he said, "No, it's OK, I'll manage. I've been away. They called me back today. Is Thiede really dead? What's happened exactly?"

"A coming of age," I answered. "Destruction, rebirth, you know, that kind of thing." The har smiled, wiped his hands.

"You've lost me! I can't get any sense out of my hostling either. Did you want to see him?"

"That depends on who your hostling is!"

"Sorry." He held out his hand. "I'm Abrimel, the Tigron's son." I took the hand and clasped it warily. Stupid of me. I hadn't anticipated that Caeru may have already produced an heir, neither had Pell seen fit to mention it. Probably because, bearing in mind the Wraeththu life-span, by the time Pell was ready to hand over his throne, Abrimel would be too old to take it on. However, the young har's existence did bring

home to me that once upon a time Caeru and Pell must have been locked together in something other than hostilities. I could see the resemblance to Pell in Abrimel's face; that was the familiarity I'd sensed. "Caeru is your hostling then."

He nodded. "Yes. He's around somewhere. Sorry, I don't know you. Should I? Do you want me to fetch him?"

"No, I should already have been announced. My name is Cal. You may have heard of me." I decided it would be better not to mention my new titles as yet.

Abrimel's face clouded instantly, though he was polite enough to try and conceal it. "You could say your name is familiar," he said. "Is my father alright?"

"Yes. Whatever you may have heard, don't judge me until you've spoken to him."

"My father won't speak of you to me."

"I think he will now."

Abrimel pursed his lips and threw down the bundle of clothes he'd been gathering up. Caere's clothes; elegant and destroyed. "I hadn't planned to visit the Tigron until tomorrow," Abrimel said. "Caeru needs me more at the moment. As I said, I can't get any sense out of him. What do you want him for?"

"I think you should speak to Pellaz about it," I said, thinking this was something I was definitely not going to deal with myself. This was family business, and although I suppose I should look upon myself as a member of the family, I was just a new member, and therefore exempt from the bulk of internal quarrels. Abrimel was uncertain.

"I'm not going to harm Caeru in any way, I promise you. Please, go and speak with your father."

"Has he sent you here?"

"Yes."

"Right!" Abrimel stalked out, his face dark with a hundred bursting questions. I smiled to myself, bent down, picked up the fallen clothes and draped them over a chair. When I stood up, Caeru was standing in the doorway staring at me. From the look on his face, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd produced an axe from behind his back and run screaming right at me. He didn't. He just said, "Get the hell out of here. Now!"

"You're not pleased to see me, are you," I said lightly. Imminent attack was still not unlikely. His fists were clenched by his sides, his hair in disarray, his clothes torn and dusty, his face scratched and marked with dry blood. He looked as if he hadn't slept or washed for several days, yet he was still undeniably lovely, possessing the sort of attractiveness that would let him look well-dressed in the proverbial sack.

"I know what's happened," he said, ignoring my remark. "You think I'm stupid, don't

you. Both of you do."

"I'm here for dinner," I said. "Do let's try to be civilized."

"Civilized! You've wrecked my home!" he screeched, waving his arms at the torn room. I instinctively backed away as he advanced toward me, still shrieking his displeasure.

"Look!" I said, when he was just inches away and I was pressed against the wall. "Cut the crap, Caeru. I'm Tigron, Pell's Tigron, not you. We have to talk. No-one's telling you to pack your little spotted hanky and leave. So calm down, remember who you are and get your people to serve us dinner, OK?"

He snorted in a fit of repressed, seething rage. "It'll have to be on the terrace," he said in a strangled voice. "The rest of this place is just ruins."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Just a little messed up."

"The terrace," he said. "Would you care to follow me?"

It was evening out there, warm and fragrant. All the tiles turquoise beneath my feet. From the balcony we could see the half-tumbled towers of Immanion stark against a blood-red, smoky sunset. The sea beyond them gleamed like polished metal. A wrought iron table had been set out hurriedly, draped with a fringed cloth. Huge, cushioned chairs from some forlorn salon inside had been arranged on either side and looked rather incongruous. One of the clawed, wooden feet was broken.

"You'd better learn to be friendly," I said.

"Is that blackmail or just a simple threat?" Caeru responded, sitting down gracefully.

"Neither. Get it into your head, Tigrina, if you are the Tigron's consort, in view of all that's happened, you are now also mine." I let this statement sink in before sitting down. Caeru remained silent, probably stunned. I admired the view, wafted a napkin over my knees. The servants brought us wine, offered a glass to Caeru to taste which he waved away. I took it. "Very good," I said. "Pour the Tigrina a large glass." Caeru stared fixedly at the table, at his servant's shaking hand. Wine splashed onto the cloth. "This is a farce. I cannot eat," he said. "Did you mean what you said? It's too disgusting to contemplate."

"More disgusting than what you've been living before?" I enquired delicately.

Caeru put his head on one side and sighed. "OK, I'm tired, I'm exhausted; I cannot fight. If it's going to save time and agony, I give in. I give in! What is it you want me to do?"

"Nothing. Just drink your wine and eat. Ashmael wants to call an emergency meeting of the Hegemony. That'll be tomorrow now, I suppose, although it's leaving it rather late . . ."

"No, that'll be tonight," Caeru corrected, looking at me thoughtfully. "They don't waste time. I expect they'll send for you when they're ready." "You mean after they've finished talking about me behind my back." (Aha, a suspicion was forming; an unpleasant one.) "Yes." (That confirmed it.) "Do you attend such meetings?"

"If it concerns me, yes. If it doesn't, no. Same as everyone else. Tonight I will definitely be there."

And so would I! I'd had some vague ideas floating around in my head concerning the Tigrina ever since my confrontation with Thiede, albeit abstract ones. I gave in to a warm feeling of resentment that my beloved had shooed me off to deal with Caeru, thus getting me out of the way, so that he could call the meeting of the Hegemony and start it without even telling me. The old Pellaz would never have done that. OK, at times his naive honesty had grated on my nerves, but at least I'd always known what was going on in his head. Now, I was not so sure. Cue deja vu concerning my observations about beautiful hara being clever, cunning or powerful. Pellaz was frighteningly beautiful and I was no longer sure I could strike any of the other qualities from his list of characteristics. Now, he must think me naive! If we were to exist together, as we must, emotions must be put aside. Clearly intense wiliness was called for. I still had the ace up my sleeve. No my darling; you will not push me around. Not completely.

The first course was served. Spiced fish in aromatic sauce with wafers of toast. Caeru

sucked a slice of lemon, but wouldn't eat. "Don't you trust me?" I asked. The food was

very good. "What a stupid remark!"

"Why? I can make life a lot better for you if I want to, and, of course, if you want

me to." I'd already swiftly knocked back two glasses of the wine which was extremely

potent.

"Oh, can you indeed! I'm very grateful!"

"Yes, you should be. If Pell is a beast to you, it's because he's been bitter and misled, that's all. There's no reason why things can't improve between you now. It can't always have been this bad, can it? Conception, for example, demands more than mere lust to achieve."

Caeru's lips had gone pale with rather more than just lemon-juice. "I expect the ability to shock people is one of your more outstanding talents, is it? Am I supposed to be impressed? What happened between the Tigron and I in the past is none of your business, and as for you being able to improve things between us, which in itself is a conceit beyond comprehension, haven't you forgotten just one thing? Doesn't he now have you here for him to love?" Caeru put up his hand and shook his head as soon as he'd finished speaking as if to negate that last remark.

"Ah, but as I said earlier, Pellaz and I should be looked upon as one entity now. Don't you think I have a say in our emotional life as well as our political one?"

Caeru shook his head again in confusion. "Cal, are you just stupidly romantic, or do you know something I don't?"

I smiled secretively. "Just eat," I said, "then go and have a wash and comb your hair. Come with me to the Hegalion. Let's surprise them."

The Hegalion stood unmarked, a vast, imposing building, about half a mile from Phaonica. As Caeru had intimated, the meeting of the Hegemony was well under way by the time we got there. Perhaps the place had been cleaned up before the meeting started; there was no sign of debris. Polished columns and dark, carpeted stairs lent an air of solemnity. As soon as we were noticed standing in the hall, an usher in black livery hurried noiselessly forward, bowed to the Tigrina. He conducted us up a sweeping flight of stairs and through the main door of the grand chamber. I saw Pellaz sitting at the head of a long, low polished table, his chin resting on his fist. A number of hara were spaced out around the table listening to someone who was standing up to speak. Surprise, surprise. It was Ashmael. The public gallery was full to capacity, with fidgetting hara all dressed in what was left of their best clothes. Pell looked up and saw me, instantly alert, perhaps wondering how I'd got there. Then he glanced briefly at the Tigrina who,was standing a little behind me and a barely perceptible sneer crossed his face. I could tell what he was thinking. He had decided that Caeru wanted to cause him discomfort by bringing me here. Let him think that for a while. It didn't matter. All went silent. Then someone offered to show me to a seat, and a ripple of whispered conversation traveled round the gallery.

"No," Pell ordered, as I went to sit down, "he sits here by me! Cal?" Caeru was already seated, staring at his fingers on the table. I took his hand, hauled him from his seat and dragged him up the room with me. I think he was far too mortified to protest. Pell looked me in the eye, speculatively. He was trying to imply: "No, the Tigrina sits down there with the others," without actually saying it. He also knew I was going to ignoreit. The sussuration of noise had ceased, and now a profound silence filled the hall of the Hegalion as everyone held their breath in anticipation. They were all watching me, all waiting, wondering what was going to happen next. Pell's chair was higher than the rest. Now he was watching me wearily, but there was a slight smile on his face. I could tell that in a way, he was proud of my independent action, but he would still try to fight me. I wouldn't let him. Pell had had his taste of power; he expected to be obeyed by all but Thiede.

I stood up on the dais, Caeru at my side. I turned my back on the Tigron and faced the Hegemony. Ashmael was smiling widely with sheer delight. I addressed them all. I said, "I am disappointed that you have all seen fit to begin this meeting without me. Especially after I have come such a long way to be here, and accomplished so much for our race in such a short time. For that, I am indebted to our sister race, the Kamagrian, especially their high priestess Opalexian, without whose help the progression of Wraeththu would not be possible." A fierce grumbling of surprise echoed