'How do you know about us?' Flick asked.

'I know because you were inevitable,' Itzama said. 'Your advent was written in the landscape aeons ago. We knew that you would come.'

'We?'

'I know about the horses because I have seen them.'

'Show them to me.'

'Then find the gate. Look in the earth for it.' Itzama gestured. 'It was around here, I'm sure.'

Flick pushed back his hair and squinted at the ground. 'What do we look for?'

'Its light. The gates were constructed upon places of power, which can never be destroyed. You can only hide them.' He pointed at the ground. 'Dig there.'

'Dig?' Flick felt around and picked up a sharp-sided stone. He dragged it across the dark soil. 'This is pointless.' But even so, he began to dig. He pulled at the moist earth with his bare hands, and it was as if something was pulling him downwards. His digging became more frantic, earth flew up around him, and stones and shards of pottery.

'There,' Itzama hissed in encouragement.

'No light,' Flick said.

'It is violet,' Itzama said. 'You will find it.'

Flick's fingers were hurting now. He had ripped his nails and his skin. But he was compelled to continue, his limbs working automatically. There was something... something. He pulled at the ground, and there was a face below him. A white marble face like a statue. But then it opened its eyes, and the eyes were full of a terrible rage. The mouth stretched in a silent scream. Flick jumped back with a cry as if he'd been punched by a giant fist. He fell heavily and felt his spine jar. Some hideous creature was going to come up out of the earth, and its proximity filled him with a primal, indescribable horror. He knew he was not ready to look through the gate, whatever it was. He was not the one to do it. When Itzama bent down to touch him, he yelled and curled into a ball.

'Hush,' said Itzama. 'You are so close. You found the guardian.'

'No,' Flick gasped. 'There's nothing here, nothing I want to see.' His hands felt numb. He could only hold them against his chest like claws. 'Take me back! Take me back!'

Itzama made a soft sound, and lifted Flick in his arms. Flick wanted only to sink into an embrace that was stronger than he was. He wanted feathers to close over his head. He wanted sleep. It must be so late now. In the outer world, dawn would be seeping over the land, pushing back the purple night. The stars would fade away. Strange how the night revealed as much as it concealed. The earth disappeared into blackness, yet the heavens came to life. Night left no room for the mundane. It could speak only in terms of mystery and in the stars show hints of all that is unknown.

Chapter Nine.

Flick could not remember how Itzama managed to get him back to the cave where they lived. When he first awoke, he thought perhaps he'd had a strange and vivid dream, but then he felt the pain in his fingers and saw that his arms were filthy, his hands cut. Itzama was not there. Flick lay on his back for a while, his mind strangely empty. Then he jumped up and ran to the place where the tunnel led to the underworld. He peered into it, tried to squeeze himself down it, but it was too small, and he could see where it ended in a wall of rock only a few feet back.

'Sorcerer trickster,' he said aloud. 'Are you really what you claim to be?'

Flick went outside to wash himself in the clear water of the stream. He had to take control again, make some sense of what was happening. He knew he'd been offered something amazing the previous night, but also knew in his heart it was not his purpose to discover that knowledge. In that perhaps, Itzama overestimated him. Itzama had said he wanted to teach him, but there had been no teaching so far, only stories and tricks. Flick's caste training within the Wraeththu belief system had never progressed very far. It wasn't that he hadn't been interested in pursuing his studies, or that Seel had openly discouraged it, just that life hadn't really called for it in Saltrock. Flick had lived very much in the real world. If he had used magic it had been nothing more than pouring intention into a meal or into the work he did with the animals. He had liked order and simple rituals of existence.

But magic is in us, Flick thought. Flick thought. We are awake to the world, and that is part of it. We are awake to the world, and that is part of it.

Flick resolved it was time to do something about it. That evening, Itzama reappeared as usual, as Flick was cooking the evening meal. Flick smiled to himself, thinking that the preparation of food seemed to have become his role in life. Itzama came to him at sundown as Seel had always done, hungry after a day's work. Flick did not mind about it. He enjoyed cooking. When he handled the ingredients and worked his personal magic on them, conjuring up the mouth-watering aromas, he felt at peace. He had not realised that before either.

Flick handed Itzama a plate of vegetables fried in rabbit fat, along with the ever-present mushrooms, which had become part of every meal. 'This is magic,' Flick said. 'I take the raw ingredients and create something different from them. I use the energy of fire to transform them.'

Itzama sat down cross-legged beside the fire. 'Yes,' he said, and began to eat.

'So teach me,' Flick said.

Itzama glanced up.

'Isn't that what you said you'd do?' Flick asked. 'I appreciate what you tried to show me last night, but I'm not ready for that. I need to start at the beginning. Among my people, I am Neomalid, that is the second level of the first tier in our caste system. Caste is not to do with social position, as in the old world, but with magical training. I have been taught the basics of manipulating energy, but have hardly put it into practice. If anything, I've forgotten all I know. Now, I need to remember it, and learn more. I need to know myself, and how to transcend fear.'

Itzama smiled. 'I was presumptuous, perhaps, to a.s.sume I could teach you anything.'

'You are a shaman, you say. What does that mean? How is it different to what I do?'

'People like me have a specific function. We leave our bodies to work for our community in the other world. I was taught to alter my state of consciousness in such a way I could walk with the spirits. The spirits give to us the knowledge. We learn from them and pa.s.s on what we know to our people.'

'Spirits like Coyote.'

'Yes.'

'Then I must do this also. Take me with you. Coyote is a trickster, but I have him by the tail and I won't let go.'

'You are a very beautiful woman,' said Itzama.

'Coyote tricks,' Flick said. 'It won't work. I know what I am.'

'You people have a wonderful gift that you think is a toy,' Itzama said. 'You have pa.s.sed beyond human, yet you can't let it go.'

'I don't disagree,' Flick said. 'You're not telling me anything I hadn't worked out for myself. But there are those among us who do have great knowledge and who use the gift properly, if not wisely.'

Itzama paused for a moment, then said. 'I would like to hear the story of how you came to be here. I wanted to ask before, but the time was not right. Are you ready now to tell me?'

Flick laughed. 'I would have thought you'd have read my mind and found that out for yourself.'

Itzama rested his elbows on his knees, and cupped his chin in his hands. 'It is your turn for the story.'

'It began,' Flick said, 'when a har named Cal came to Saltrock, the town where I lived, some years ago.'

Itzama shook his head. 'No, that is not your story. How did you come to be here as you are? What is your beginning?'

Flick put his hands over his face. In the darkness, he looked into the past. 'I'm not sure,' he said, his voice m.u.f.fled through his hands. 'It is like a dream.'

'Try.'

'Something... something had happened,' Flick said. 'I was at home, and we were preparing to leave. Packing. My mother was crying and my father wasn't there. A truck was coming for us and we were going to go someplace else. There was a war going on, but inside the war, yet outside of it, was Wraeththu. It was like a ghost haunting us, a scavenger at the edge of the battle zones, seeking the weakest. There were drugs I had to take, because when the call came no one could ignore it. You just got up, like you were sleepwalking, and went out of the house. You'd find yourself with your nose pressed against a fence, so desperate to get through it, you'd want to push your flesh through the wire and fall into a thousand pieces. You believed that if you did that, on the other side, your body would remake itself and you could walk away, find the source of the call.'

Itzama said nothing. The only sound was the pop of twigs in the fire and the soft call of a nightbird beyond the cave.

Flick looked up, directly into Itzama's eyes. 'I didn't stop taking the drugs, not once. I remember going outside, carrying a box that was so heavy. I remember thinking about all I'd had to leave behind, and I was afraid for the future. They told us there were safe havens, but I couldn't believe it. Everything was falling apart. It felt like the end of the world.

'I saw the big truck and our neighbours were getting into it. People were running around and there was so much noise. There was fire in the sky to the east and the sound of explosions. I remember standing in this little pool of quiet, looking around. Sound just faded away, and it was like watching a silent movie. Then I saw him. Among the trees in the yard opposite. Tall and dark. I saw his long coat, his big boots. He just looked at me. I wasn't afraid. I wasn't even curious. I just thought, that is another way, another road, and it is looking at me. I put down the box and went to him.

'He was har, of course, slinking like the ghost I believed them all to be among the panicking human population. On the lookout, seeking souls. I couldn't hear the call, because of the drugs, but I could see the road. Does that make sense? I had to get away. There was nothing left. It was like a portal opening onto the land of the dead, and it was so easy to walk down it, to walk away. It didn't matter that I might be giving up my life. I was so tired. I wanted to get away from the noise and the fear and the uncertainty. What I felt when I looked at him, was sureness. This was an illusion, but it didn't matter. Something inside me knew that this was perhaps my only chance.

'He took me to a place that was some miles away. We walked there, and hardly spoke. He offered me a drink and it felt good to be walking beside him, swigging liquor like an adult, in this... this unbelievable calm. All around us, the city was burning, but it was like we were spirits, and it couldn't touch us. Military vehicles were screaming past us, and we walked through a place where there was gunfire, but I'm sure that any bullets would have pa.s.sed straight through me without damaging my body. I didn't even know his name.

'We went underground beneath this half fallen tower, and there were about a dozen hara down there, as well as a lot of human boys who'd obviously been taken from the mayhem above. It was then I met Orien. He came to each of us in turn, and asked us questions. Can't remember what. His voice was soft, and he looked to me like an angel, not man, not woman, but something of both. When he put his hand on your head, you could not be afraid. Light came out of him. Before the morning came, he said to me, "I will take you somewhere." Just me. None of the others. We went up into the morning, and the city was obscured by smoke. It wasn't real any more. Everything was so quiet. I thought we would walk into eternity, but Orien had a military jeep and we drove in that instead. We drove for days. Orien took me to Saltrock, and there he incepted me. I became Wraeththu, and it seems as if that was when my life really began. Orien chose Seel to be the one to initiate me into the mysteries of aruna, and we stayed together afterwards. It was perfect, until Cal came...'

Itzama's expression had become troubled. He was staring at the fire.

'How did you escape it?' Flick asked. 'How are you still human?'

'I'm not of this time,' Itzama said.

Flick made a sound of exasperation. 'I've told you about myself. At least repay the compliment.'

'Let's just say it pa.s.sed me by,' Itzama said.

'You were strong enough to resist the call, weren't you,' Flick said. 'But was that the right thing to do?'

'I was not chosen as you were,' Itzama said.

'I wasn't special. Everyone was chosen. Wraeththu were trying to save those who were left.'

'It must be an amazing thing,' Itzama said, 'to find a person and to change them in that way, to make them like you.'

'I can't incept you!' Flick said.

'That was not what I meant. I was simply imagining the great power of it. Hara must enjoy that very much.'

'It's not selfish.'

Itzama uttered a caustic laugh. 'No, it makes the world a better place, does it not? You pa.s.s on the change, the awakening, and then everyone is enlightened and aware.'

Flick bridled at the sarcasm. 'You asked me, I told you. I'm not prepared to justify my kind.'

'The gift is abused. You still fight amongst yourselves, each thinking they know the one true way. None of you do. Not yet. And you will have to work hard to find it, otherwise you will suffer the same fate as humanity.' He made an abrupt gesture with one hand. 'I see now that inception is only the beginning. It does not bestow mastership. It is merely the initiation, like a key to the door of the mysteries.'

'The key...' Flick nodded. 'I dreamed of keys the first night I was here.' He waited a moment, then said, 'Am I first har you've met?'

'In waking life, yes,' Itzama replied. 'It has been interesting to observe you.'

'I'm sure,' Flick said coldly.

'Tell me the rest now,' Itzama said. 'The story you want to cut free.'

Even as he was telling it, Flick was thinking, this is not a good story. It taints whoever hears it. I feel as if I'm betraying my tribe for revealing us to be barbaric and stupid, like humans. Yet what loyalty should I have to Wraeththu? I have been betrayed and abused by my own kind, and the only unconditional kindness shown to me recently has been by a human, a member of the race we have come to replace, to expunge.

Itzama did not look at him as he related the tale. He stared into the fire, as if seeking insight in the flames. And Flick found the more he talked, so the easier it became, and he remembered details he had forgotten. Suddenly, the gleam of morning light upon the handles of his knives in the kitchen seemed as important to the whole as the sight of Cal walking away from the Nayati. Suddenly, the story of his flight from humanity seemed more real than the one he was relating now. This couldn't have happened. It was too terrible, too unbelievable. And yet it had happened.

At the end of it, Flick was weeping. Itzama made no sound, nor reached out to touch him. After some minutes, Flick raised his head, and cried, 'I hate them! I hate them all! How could I have been so stupid, so taken in?'

'It is yourself you hate,' Itzama murmured.

'Yes!' Flick punched his own thighs with both hands. 'I am a fool. How could I let Seel treat me like that? How could I have played Cal's game so willingly?'

'You did it out of generosity,' Itzama said, his voice still quiet and calm. 'You only gave, and if in your innocence, that was abused, you should not judge yourself for it.'

Flick shook his head vigorously, and the cave spun around him. 'I can't help it. I was weak, and yet it was Cal who did it. He ruined our lives. He turned Seel into somehar else. He bewitched me. He bewitched Orien too. All of us.'

'It cannot be undone,' Itzama said. 'There is no point in placing blame. You are far from it now, but you cannot move forward until you let it go from inside.'

'I am so full of hate,' Flick said. 'And it's terrible, the way it makes me feel. It makes me a bad person.' He glanced up at Itzama. 'That is what Orien said, on the night when he fell into trance. He said that his feelings for Cal made him a bad person, and Orien was never that.'

Itzama made a languid gesture with both hands. 'Then that should tell you. Your friend Cal is very damaged, and his pain has become his whole reason for being. Do not follow his path. Do not let this tragedy become your life.'

'I don't want to,' Flick said, 'but what is left for me? Where do I go? What do I do? I think maybe I should go back, but then I know I shouldn't.'

Itzama smiled. 'The whole world is yours, Flick. This is the sanctuary, and you should use your time here to heal yourself. Then you will move on, and find your true path.'

'I miss Seel,' Flick said. 'I miss the har he used to be.'

'Let it go,' Itzama said. He rose to his feet and stretched, then padded into the other chamber of the cave.

Flick sat motionless before the fire. His heart was beating fast and he felt he was in shock, as if Orien's death had just happened. His whole being was weighed down with pain. He could see how easy it would be to become this thing forever, to a.s.sume it was the only part of himself that was real. This was what had happened to Cal and possibly was happening to Seel. He could see now that he'd done the right thing in leaving Saltrock. If he'd stayed, he'd have helped create the world of pain and cement it into place.

Itzama came back to the fire carrying a small clay cup. 'I realise I should not have taken you to the ancient place. You are right. You are not ready for that. But there are other gates. Are you ready to walk the spirit road?'

Flick looked up at him, nodded. 'Whatever it takes. I'm not a great visionary, whatever you might think.'

Itzama handed him the cup. 'Drink this,' he said. 'We will enter the otherworld, and there seek guidance.'

Flick sniffed the contents of the cup, smelled fungus, earth and a bittersweet perfume. 'What is this?'

'The key,' Itzama said. 'Drink half of it.'

Flick held his gaze and half drained the cup. He felt at once as if he wanted to vomit, but swallowed it back. Wiping his mouth, he held out the cup to Itzama.

Itzama took it and sat down beside him. He finished the drink and carefully placed the cup by the fire.

'How long?' Flick asked, still swallowing hard. He suddenly felt very cold.

'Some minutes,' Itzama said. 'Don't be afraid.' He took one of Flick's hands in his own and a sense of warmth crept up Flick's arm. 'You are not alone,' Itzama said.

The physical contact kindled a small flame in Flick's belly. He thought of aruna, of the last time he had been with Cal. Wraeththu needed aruna: what would he do when the desire for comfort and closeness became a sizzling need? If Itzama had been har, they could be together and Flick could experience healing on other levels too. But Nature, or whatever had created Wraeththu, had created safeguards to prevent humans and hara coming together in that way. Thinking aloud, Flick murmured, 'You know what I am? I am poison to you. Do you know that?' He was sure Itzama wouldn't know what he meant, but he had to say it.

Itzama smiled and squeezed his fingers. 'You are the princess in the tower, above an ocean of thorns. I know that. Relax.' He pulled Flick against his body, and Flick rested his head on Itzama's chest. He could hear the man's heart beating steadily, like a ritual drum.

Flick had almost drifted off to sleep when Itzama shifted and said softly, 'Open your eyes. It is time for us to leave.'