'I can tell you that once we were great. The Uigenna were hunters, not carrion eaters. This land was ours. Now we hide in ruins. If I am mad, it is not because of old injuries, but because I have no hope, because I know the end will come, and there will be no broken stones to hide us. If Snake has the sight, so do I, but there is no comfort in it. I see, as he does, the shadow behind the throne in Almagabra. Our way was to fight it, to unmake it, to become ourselves. The Gelaming are ignorant. They are the enemy of all Wraeththu. Enjoy the sun, harlings, enjoy it while you can. Now I have said enough and the words are sour.'

Hawk got to his feet and walked off slowly. Neither Moon nor Ember sought to detain him.

Ember puffed out his cheeks and exhaled noisily. 'Nothing like good news, is there!'

Moon stood up. 'They live in the past too much, all of them. Who would want to come here and take what we have? What is there to take?'

'Hara,' Ember said, also rising to his feet. 'There is always that.'

Moon went home alone to the Reliquary and directly to his father's rooms. Snake, as usual, was sitting in his chair with his eyes closed. He must do that for most of the time. Did he live in the past or in some other realm?

Moon sat down in a ray of sunlight before his father and for some moments studied Snake's countenance. He wasn't wearing his eye-patch and his face was the most serene that Moon had ever seen it. Snake was a mystic, gentle like Fawn. It was impossible to imagine he had ever been any other way. 'Father,' Moon said. 'I must speak with you.'

Snake inhaled through his nose. 'I know,' he said, without opening his eyes, although a crease appeared in his brow between them. 'I had a dream last night. An old dream. You are too curious.'

'Is it true?'

Snake opened his eyes and gazed at his son. The serpent eye glowed with its own fire, the pupil enlarged. Moon hoped he wouldn't have to be more specific. He hoped Snake was intuitive enough to sense what he meant.

'Yes,' Snake said at last. 'I do not know why the Firedogs believed it was a good idea to tell you that, but yes, it is true. Life was very different then, Moon. You cannot imagine it.'

'But I was conceived in love, wasn't I?'

Snake smiled and leaned forward to touch Moon's face. 'Yes, there is no other way. In the beginning, we were all playing a game, perhaps Silken as much as I. It was a cruel children's game, a legacy of what we had been before. He and I always wanted each other, but there was pretence and pettiness. There was rivalry among tribes, bitter feuds and betrayals. We grew up, Moon. You did not grow from the cruelty, but from what came afterwards.'

'Tell me about your brother.'

'A sorcerer came and took him from us. He must have been a Gelaming agent. This was before I was Wraeththu, but not long before. For a long time, I believed my brother to be dead, but then I saw him reborn. News came to me of the Tigron in Immanion and he bore my brother's name. He has never changed it.'

'Hawk spoke to me of the shadow behind the throne and that because of it Gelaming are the enemy of all Wraeththu. What did he mean?'

'It is not a proven theory, but rather an a.s.sumption. It is believed that whoever or whatever created Wraeththu controls the Gelaming. Uigenna have always believed that. They did not want to be controlled. They wanted to be free. They would not be puppets and because of that their excesses were often extreme. They sought to overturn order, to create chaos, to break down all that was, so that true rebirth could occur.' Snake smiled sadly. 'For those who talked about it, that was the justification. Of course, for the majority of Uigenna hara, they simply enjoyed being in control themselves. They enjoyed being bullies.' He leaned back in his chair again and stared up at the cracked ceiling. 'Our leader, Wraxilan, climbed a mountain one time, because his campaigns exhausted him. He needed solitude. Alone, he had a vision and it changed him. When he returned to us, he was not the same, and soon he left us. The tribe fell apart, for although it was comprised of many different factions, Wraxilan was their heart. He held them all together.'

'What was his vision?' Moon asked.

Snake shook his head. 'Nohar knows. He had many secrets and I was not close to him. He took his secrets with him and remade himself.'

'Like your brother.'

'No. Wraxilan did what he did in full awareness, but my brother did not. He was used. This I know for sure.'

'How?'

'Perdu,' Snake said. 'I spoke to him in trance and he told me.'

'Who is he?'

'A spirit, maybe. A dead har. A guide. A G.o.d. A living har with a strong ability. I have no idea. He is like an angel of doom. He speaks to me only when something terrible will happen.'

'You've spoken with him recently, haven't you?' Moon said.

Snake nodded. 'Yes, it was he who told me a seer had found me. Soon the Gelaming will come. I know you don't feel it, and think older hara are paranoid, but it is inevitable, Moon.'

'We could leave,' Moon said. 'We don't have to stay here and wait for the end.'

'We do,' Snake said, 'because it is not the end.'

'Are you afraid?'

'Yes, because of what he will have me do. And I am afraid for you, because he will want you close to him. You look like he did when he was young. He will look for himself in you.'

A thrill coursed through Moon's body. Until that moment, the Tigron hadn't had a face for him. 'Will he hurt me?'

'I doubt it, although he will lead you into danger, because he is in such danger himself. Hawk isn't wrong, Moon. There is more to Wraeththu than any of us know. We, the clans, are free, but not for long. I don't want to be part of what will come. I want to live and die in this place, alone with my memories. In Wraeththu, the Cosmic Joker shook the world and the outcome could have been paradise or h.e.l.l. It just happened to turn out to be h.e.l.l.'

'How is it h.e.l.l?' Moon persisted, sensing finality in Snake's words and therefore the possibility he would be dismissed.

'Humans were asleep; they were sheep. Wraeththu were born with open eyes, but most of them chose to close them. That is h.e.l.l. Stupidity, greed, selfishness, fear most of all fear. Hara seek to emulate the great empires of human history. It is a travesty. Everything has sunk back to how it was before, except the things that made humanity great have been destroyed. We live in a rubbish heap.'

'We don't build,' Moon said. 'I thought about that recently.'

'A lot of hara do,' Snake said gently. 'What you see here does not reflect the rest of the world. The Uigenna are broken, Moon. Many hara of the clans were once Gelaming captives, victims of sophisticated forms of torture, who were later released like viruses to infect their communities. Infect them with terror, despair and weakness. Raven is such a har.'

'And Hawk?'

'Yes, and Hawk. He cannot remember it, but we are all sure that is what happened to him. It is what happened to Terzian, leader of the Varrs. It happened to many strong hara. The Varrs were our strongest allies, but once Terzian died they became Gelaming, whatever name they gave themselves. Without hara such as Terzian and Wraxilan, the rest of us were lost.'

'We still have leaders,' Moon said. 'What about Great Jaguar Paw and the others?'

Snake was silent for a moment, then said, 'Imagine that all hara of the clans have been blinded and maimed by Gelaming, but that our conquerors have allowed a few hara to keep one eye, one hand and one foot. Those are our so-called leaders, Moon.'

Moon reached out and touched his father's withered foot. He said nothing, but tears filled his eyes.

'Yes,' Snake murmured softly. 'Now you see.'

For several weeks after this conversation, Moon watched the lake and the roads into the city. Many had been closed with rubble by the humans who had sought to protect themselves, and since then, the clans had created toll gates on the remaining arteries into the city. Moon did not know what he was looking for, or even if the Gelaming, should they come at all, would arrive by conventional means on a boat or by road. But one thing his conversation with his father had given him was a sense of imminence. He did not doubt Snake's words. He knew the Gelaming would come. He imagined them as a mighty army that would set fire to the clan houses, round up all hara as slaves. But as is so often the case with anything you imagine in advance, the reality when it arrived was somewhat different.

Chapter Twelve.

Roselane is a harsh country late in the year. Its raw and primal landscape channels the energy of encroaching winter in blistering winds, flesh-stripping rain and storms that can pull the most ancient oak from its roots and toss it across a valley to lie like a slaughtered giant upon the cold, unforgiving earth.

Parazha and hara of the Roselane make preparations quickly for the dark months. The dehar of summer dies early upon the mountain slopes and his harsh winter brother stocks up his a.r.s.enal even before the last leaves have fallen from the trees. But lights in Shilalama are bright at night, fires are stoked high and doors locked fast against the storms. It makes a har feel truly alive to walk into a heated kitchen, stamping the cold from his feet, to discard his thick coat and gloves and sit down to a meal in convivial company. So it was for Pellaz and Cobweb, because Pellaz made no formal announcement of his arrival in Shilalama, but went directly to the house of his friends, Flick and Ulaume Sarestes, and his sister, who lived with them. Mima had not seen Pellaz since Cal had disappeared from Immanion, and had not even set eyes on Cal since the day he'd seduced her brother away from home it might as well have been a million years ago. She was fiercely protective of her kin and not short on opinions. Pellaz knew he'd have to endure her ranting scorn, (which was merely the outraged voice of her love for him), and did so stoically. He could sense that Cobweb was surprised he endured her tirade without defending himself.

'You are a fool,' Mima said, even before the first course was finished at dinner. 'You should never have let him back in. I knew something dreadful would happen.' She cast fierce glances in the direction of Ulaume and Flick, whom she felt confident shared her view.

'You think Opalexian can help you,' Flick said to Pellaz. It was not a question.

Pellaz nodded. 'I think so. I am not completely sure that what happened to Rue was anything to do with Cal.'

Mima snorted eloquently. 'You just never grew up, that's your trouble. A teenage crush has informed your entire life. Now, you have risked ruining everything because of it. Well done.'

'Mima, that's enough,' Ulaume said, which was unusual, because he was the first to say bad things about another har, given the opportunity.

'She's right,' Pellaz said simply. 'But knowing that doesn't change anything. Now, I have to make changes.'

'What do you think, Cobweb?' Flick asked, diverting attention, which was entirely usual, as he was always the first to put balm on a wound.

'I think we are close to facing what we really are,' Cobweb replied. 'Thiede was a shield. Now he's gone. The Gelaming are not all powerful, and the world isn't ready to drop like a ripe fruit into their hands. What happened to Pell's child is the beginning, that's all. I've a feeling something important has been overlooked.' He turned to Pellaz. 'It's strange, but I feel very uncomfortable about being away from home. It's connected with Galhea, I'm sure of it. Something threatens us.'

'What do you mean?' Pellaz said.

Cobweb furrowed his brow. 'I don't know. Just a feeling of vulnerability. Perhaps I think of myself as Galhea's shield. I can't be away long.'

'What would threaten Galhea?' Mima asked. 'The problem, as far as rogue hara see it, is Immanion. Surely, there aren't enough autonomous Uigenna left in Megalithica to be a worry?'

'It isn't Uigenna,' Cobweb said. 'I don't know what it is, or even if it derives from this plane of existence, but it's there, like a shadow. I can almost see it.'

'The otherlanes,' Pellaz said abruptly. 'Is it like what I experienced there?'

'I sensed nothing on the way here,' Cobweb replied, 'and I was intentionally on the alert, but then the otherlanes are infinite. That doesn't prove anything.'

'Pell,' Flick began, then frowned and shook his head.

'What?' Pellaz asked.

'I don't know, it's going to sound insane, but do you think you should try and contact Lileem?'

'That's impossible,' Pellaz said. 'You know it. She made her decision to leave this world and she's gone. I can't go and rescue her again. For a start, she doesn't want anyhar to.'

'Opalexian said that she thinks Lileem will return to us, with important knowledge, when she is needed. Perhaps that time is now.'

All were silent for a moment. The mention of Lileem's name made those who knew her remember how and why she was no longer with them. She had broken the first rule of Kamagrian and had taken aruna with a har, namely Pellaz and Mima's brother Terez, which had opened up a portal into a strange otherlane realm. Lileem and Terez had been sucked right into it. After some years, Pellaz and Mima had managed to bring them back to earthly reality, but the risks had been great. Also, Lileem could no longer be happy in the world of her birth. Eventually, she had found a way back to the realm she'd left behind. Her intention had been to devote her life to study in a bizarre black library of stone books she had found there. She had been convinced the secrets to all creation had lain hidden there.

'It wouldn't hurt to mention it to Opalexian when you see her,' Flick said into the silence.

The following morning, Pellaz and Cobweb went to Kalalim, Opalexian's temple palace in the heart of Shilalama. The Kamagrian leader had been aware of their presence in the city, but had given Pellaz time to orient himself. The truth was that she had been waiting for this visit for a long time. It didn't make it any easier once it was upon her, however.

She received her visitors in a small parlour, where the light was dim and the air very hot, owing to the voracious fire that raged in the hearth. 'This year, I feel the cold,' she said to Pellaz and pulled a thick woollen shawl closer around her shoulders. Her hands looked very white, and the delicate tracery of veins within them was clearly visible.

Pellaz thought that Opalexian appeared worn thin. She was Thiede's sister, in type if not in blood, so perhaps that was hardly surprising. She might have orchestrated his removal from the world, but Pellaz suspected she missed him too. Perhaps also, because of their relationship, Thiede's absence diminished Opalexian in some way. 'Will you talk to me?' Pellaz asked.

Opalexian sat down in a chair next to the hearth and put her slippered feet on the fender. 'I will always talk to you.'

'Honestly,' Pellaz said. 'The truth.'

'As much as I can,' Opalexian said. She glanced at Cobweb. 'You can attempt to read me as much as you like. It will make no difference.'

Cobweb said nothing.

'It has occurred to me I was a fool to trust you,' Pellaz said. 'It is possible you took advantage of my feelings, when a more honest parage might have attempted to make me see sense. You indulged me, and now I wonder whether you should have done. I don't think it is a puzzle to you at all. You always knew, didn't you?'

'I knew that Thiede should be removed from power in Immanion,' Opalexian said, so ready a confession that it came like a smack in the face to Pellaz. 'But I also knew that the power should be transferred to you and to Cal. It was the way things were meant to be. Thiede shouldn't have made you in the first place, if he wasn't ready to relinquish his power to you. He chose well, Pellaz. I have never doubted that, but I'm not sure he projected his mind into the future to see what you would become. He didn't know what he created.'

'Flattery won't work,' Pellaz said. 'The truth is that I'm out of my depth and have no idea what to do. That's why I'm here now, being honest with you. For the good of all our people, I would appreciate the same courtesy. I'm a.s.suming you're aware of all that's transpired in Immanion?'

Opalexian inclined her head. 'Naturally, my agents have reported to me.'

'And your thoughts on this matter are?'

Opalexian smiled rather grimly. 'If you are expecting me to confess I ordered a pearl to be cut from the belly of your consort, you will be disappointed.'

'I will be more disappointed if you don't deny it.'

'No, I did not do that, nor did I order it. Although I can appreciate why you would see me as a suspect.' She stretched her toes towards the fire. 'I don't know who or what did that, Pell, but we must all accept the fact that the child might still live.'

'You sound as if you think that would be a bad thing,' Pellaz said.

Opalexian nodded slowly. 'I know. It's because I wonder who has it, and what they intend to do with it. What I don't know is how much Thiede knew, how much he hid from us all, or what he knows now. I've thought about it a lot. I've wondered whether that was why he could never step off the stage to make way for you. He lived alone with his dilemmas.'

'Do you regret what you did?'

'Yes,' Opalexian answered shortly. 'I can see that you're not ready to take on Thiede's mantle.'

Pellaz went cold.

'You asked,' Opalexian said. 'You wanted honesty. Does knowing the truth make you feel better?'

'You are as powerful as he was,' Pellaz said.

'It's not just down to power. Knowledge is equally important. Awareness. The strongest warrior can be bested if he is attacked in the dark from behind. If he is shot from a distance.'

'So we are defenceless against whatever threatens us?'

'Not entirely. But I'm afraid we have to wait for them to make another move. Believe me, I have worn out my seers trying to scry and quest for information. I have been in trance myself for days, to no avail. Something runs before me in the darkness. Sometimes, I hear its laughter.'

'Are you with me?' Pellaz asked, aware even as he spoke of Cobweb's mistrust for the Kamagrian leader. But Pellaz had to trust her. He did not have enough faith in himself.

'I am not against you,' Opalexian answered. 'But you know I have made decisions about my life and also Kamagrian as a whole. I do not know how much I can offer you, other than my thoughts.'

'That is not good enough,' Pellaz said. 'Neither for Wraeththu nor Kamagrian. You can't hide away any more, Lex. You got rid of Thiede, now you must face up to your responsibilities.'

'It was never that simple,' Opalexian said sharply. 'You make it sound like a petty feud.'