'You'd do that?'

'Of course. I don't want the Freyh.e.l.lan having any claim over you. You might think he's a saint, but he's still har, and leader of his tribe. Only an idiot would pa.s.s up having that much influence in the Hegemony. If Abrimel's disgraced, and our son is kept in hiding, your pearl is the next in line. How loyal is Sheeva?'

'Loyal enough not to countenance outside interference in Aralisian matters, I'd say.'

'Better call him in, then.'

'Go and find him.'

Cal stood up, but Pellaz reached for his hand to keep him by the bed. 'Cal, I hope we are still in love.'

'Course we are. Soul mates. Love that transcends death, s.p.a.ce and time. Everyhar knows that. We're a legend.'

'Galdra was my Terzian. I don't want to deceive you about that. He still is.'

'I know. But he's not here, and I am. And I will fight for you, Pellaz. I realised that the minute I saw you joined to some har who wasn't me. I was in two minds about coming back here, but now I know. This har I'm in love with, he's not the one I took to Saltrock. He's somehar else. Sometimes, he drives me to distraction, sometimes I could weep for love of him, but I want to get to know him better, regardless.'

'Thank you.'

'Don't go away. I'll be right back, loyal Sheeva in tow.'

'No, you don't understand. Thank you.'

Cal shook Pell's hand a little. 'It's OK. Don't go all strange on me. You look mad. Relax.' Cal blew a kiss and went out the door.

'That's all I ever wanted to hear,' Pellaz said, aloud to the empty room.

Prisoners in Immanion were confined in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Hegalion. There were no proper imprisonment facilities, because the Gelaming had no need of them. However, Abrimel har Aralis, traitorous son, had to be held somewhere. The Hegemony had yet to decide his fate.

Velaxis had been the har to tell Caeru about Abrimel. Fortunately, the parage Katarin was still in Immanion. On the evening that Velaxis arrived with his bad tidings, and Caeru descended into a fit of grief and horror, Katarin was able to offer her support. For hours, the Tigrina ranted that everyhar was mistaken: Abrimel had been bewitched, brainwashed, manipulated. He would not believe Velaxis's calm repet.i.tions of the facts. Abrimel himself had confessed to joining forces with Ponclast. He had no remorse about it. Eventually, Caeru had ordered Velaxis from his presence, and announced their friendship was over. He spent the rest of the night weeping in Katarin's arms.

The following day, Caeru sent a messenger to summon Velaxis back to his apartment. Velaxis came at once, and made no mention of the previous evening's events.

'I want to see my son,' Caeru said. 'Can you arrange that?'

'Of course,' Velaxis said. 'I'll accompany you.'

'Thank you,' Caeru said.

They rode in a covered carriage to the Hegalion and entered it through a back door, so that nohar saw the Tigrina arrive. Deferential officials, clearly embarra.s.sed by the situation, conducted Caeru and Velaxis to the bas.e.m.e.nt. Here, Abrimel sat on his bed in a small room with no windows. An uneaten meal lay on a table nearby. He looked very ill, his face sunken, his hair matted. Caeru uttered a cry and rushed to embrace him, but Abrimel did not return the gesture.

'Is it true?' Caeru asked.

'Yes,' Abrimel said. 'I am now a prisoner of war.'

'Pell will do something,' Caeru insisted. He knelt at Abrimel's feet, his son's limp hands clasped in his own.

'Do what?' Abrimel asked. He looked over Caeru's head at Velaxis. 'Do you know what they intend to do?'

'No,' Velaxis said. 'It hasn't yet been decided. At best, you're looking at some kind of exile, certainly in confinement.'

'Will the pious Gelaming stoop to execution?'

Caeru uttered a wail.

'No,' Velaxis said, 'that is more the style of your erstwhile chesnari.'

'Don't call him that!' Caeru said. 'He wasn't that.'

'He was,' Abrimel said. 'We had a son.' He looked at Velaxis again. 'Is Ponclast dead? Nohar will tell me.'

'I don't know,' Velaxis replied. 'Pellaz didn't kill him. He was exiled. That's all I can tell you at this point. You won't be seeing him again.'

'What of our child?'

'It was not found in Fulminir.'

Abrimel pulled his hands away from Caeru's hold and put them over his face. He did not weep, perhaps because every last tear inside him had already been wept.

Velaxis came to Abrimel's side and put a hand on the top of his head. 'I'll do what I can, Bree, I promise. Cal will speak for you. You are not without some support.'

Bree lowered his hands. 'I don't want his support!'

'You're in no position to be fussy about that,' Velaxis said. 'Whatever your feelings for Cal, you should know he will always champion those who need his a.s.sistance. I'll make sure of it.'

'I still love you, Bree,' Caeru said. 'You are still my son. I don't care what you did.'

'You're adept at that, I know,' Abrimel said callously. 'Anyhar can trample over you, and you'll still come back, tail wagging! I wished you dead. I wished you all dead!'

Caeru knew he should feel hurt by those words, but all he heard was the bewildered ranting of a child. He took Abrimel in his arms, and kissed his face.

Abrimel threw back his head and let out a ragged howl. It seemed to go on for ever.

Caeru kept hold of him, weeping for both of them. He had lost two sons. It was too cruel.

When they went back out into the sunlight, Velaxis took Caeru's arm. 'Let's go for a drink,' he said. 'Let's go for a walk.'

Caeru nodded. 'It feels wrong... being free. Vel...?'

'Yes?'

'Can't anything be done?'

'He has no remorse, Rue. You have to accept that. Pell treated him with indifference, and this is just the way it's turned out. Nohar could have foreseen this. Nothing can change it. You just have to learn to live with what is.'

Caeru shook his head. 'I should hate Pell for it, but I can't. Why did Bree go this way, Vel? Why did it happen? It didn't have to.'

'It just did,' Velaxis said. 'He made his choices, that's all.'

'Take me to see him every day, for as long as he's here.'

'If that's what you want.'

They went down to the harbour and watched the ships for a while. The Freyh.e.l.lan fleet had gone. Immanion was peaceful, and felt strangely empty, now all the tribal delegates had left. Hara went about their business as they'd always done. Nohar recognised the Tigrina, standing upon the quay, throwing stones into the water. A breeze came softly from the south, smelling of flowers, even though the leaves were falling from the trees along the quayside avenue.

'I can smell the future,' Caeru said.

Velaxis stood behind the Tigrina and put his arms around him, pressing his hands against Caeru's stomach. 'You've lost less than you know,' he said.

Epilogue.

Galhea looked as if it had been abandoned years before. Forever had been ransacked, presumably by Teraghasts who'd returned to finish off any hara remaining in the area, but at least it was still standing.

Cobweb walked with Snake through the house, and in every room a hundred memories a.s.sailed him.

'It will be different,' Snake said. 'But that will not make it less than it was before.'

Cobweb stood in the centre of the main living room, where all the long windows had shattered, and took Snake in his arms. 'Cobweb is dead,' he said sorrowfully.

Snake kissed the top of his head: he was so much taller than Cobweb now. 'No he isn't. Far from it.' He began to undo the braid of Cobweb's hair, pulling it out of confinement so it fell around them in a cloudy ma.s.s. They shared breath in the dying light, leaves blowing in from the terrace around their feet.

Swift and Seel came in from the garden; they'd wanted to spend some moments at Ithiel's grave, beneath the cedars by the lake. Swift looked sombre, his eyes were wet.

'So,' Cobweb said, pulling away from Snake. 'Dinner. I'll go and see if Yarrow and Bryony have got the kitchen in any kind of order yet. Swift, scour this house and the town beyond if necessary for alcohol, preferably sheh. Tonight, we celebrate in the ruins. We shout at the future. You'd better be ready for it.'

Swift smiled a little. 'I think I need to be drunk to see beyond the mess and imagine this as a home again.'

'It will be,' Cobweb said. 'Knock down some walls. Build others. Let's change things we'd never have changed before.'

'I like the idea of a converted attic,' Snake said. 'With roof lights to look at the stars. We can sleep there.'

'Good idea,' Cobweb said. 'We've never made use of the attics and they're huge. We'll make new rooms.'

Cobweb went to the kitchens, wishing he was as optimistic as he'd sounded. In fact, the state of the house depressed him utterly. When he looked at stairs, in the main hallway, where shards of the fallen chandelier lurked dangerously amid the rubble, he saw Swift coming down to his Feybraiha celebration, so many years ago, a beautiful young har trembling at the brink of maturity. In the kitchen, he saw Ithiel, leaning against the frame of the open back door, and the summer stableyard beyond. When he laid eyes on Yarrow, helping his staff clean up, Cobweb saw a ghost of past festival preparations, pots bubbling on the range, the table piled high with food. Bryony was a human girl again and somewhere upstairs, an interloping har named Cal took aruna with Terzian, who was hopelessly besotted. Some things in the past it was better to forget.

'Tonight, we all eat together,' Cobweb said to Bryony. 'All the staff, everyhar. Do we have enough?'

'Just about,' Bryony said. 'Yarrow had somehar go out to the fields and fetch a lamb. It's quite big.'

'Good.'

Families were returning to the town, coming down from the cloud forests, and along the old roads that led to the sea. When he went out into the garden, Cobweb saw the light of fires below the hill. He heard voices singing. And there were Moon and Tyson riding back from town up the long driveway; magnificent hara, the flowers of Galhea. Ferany would not visit Forever for some time, Cobweb thought. But what must be must be. Not everyhar could have a happy ending. This moved his thoughts to Azriel and Aleeme, who were still under Gelaming care, too sick to be moved via the otherlanes or overland. For now, Cobweb had sent Aleeme's harling to Lisia, for if anyhar could help the wretched child, Lisia was the one. They would have to wait and find out what Aleeme felt about the whole experience, but Cobweb himself was uncomfortable with the idea of a child of pelki being reared in his home.

Cobweb waved to Moon and Tyson and went back into the house. Snake was waiting for him. 'I watched you there outside,' he said. 'You needed time alone.'

'We are never alone,' Cobweb said. 'This is something I've learned, and there are no benevolent angels or kindly G.o.ds to watch over us. There is something else, and it's watching us through the tall gra.s.s.'

'We have dehara,' Snake said. 'We are not defenceless.'

'That's true. And we have Lileem. One day...'

'A parage I hope very much to meet in person,' Snake said. 'Tonight, I must dance. I haven't danced for many years.'

'We'll dance,' Cobweb said. 'We'll dance with dehara.'

Arm in arm, they rejoined their family. Outside, the fields spread out beneath the moon and the sky went on for ever. The world looked just the same.

end.