The Wraeththu Chronicles by Storm Constantine, Paul Cashman Read Free Book Online

reared to the sky and water thundered down their glistening flanks. Steam roiled about us like smoke.
     
    "Flick! I want to ask you another question!" I shouted.
     
    Flick screwed up his face again. "Oh no!"
     
    "It's not a forbidden one." I sidled Red up against Flick's pony so I Would not have to scream at him. "Did you ever meet Zack?"
     
    Flick gave me another of his strange, guarded looks. "Yes. Why?"
     
    "I'm just curious, that's all. What was he like?" I tried to keep an insouciant note in my voice.
     
    " What was he like? Wild ... wild and reckless. Witty, courageous, fierce, gorgeous ... do you want me to go on?"
     
    "Yes. What did he look like?" My heart was thudding; I felt breathless. Flick had warmed to the subject.
     
    "He looked like . . . like, I don't know. He was a bit like Cal, only as dark as Cal is fair. High cheekbones, sulky eyes. In a way you remind me Of him; the same temperament I think. That's probably why Cal is kelos Over you. He and Zack were chesna."
     
    "Flick," I said, shaking my head at him. "What the hell are you talking about. You must know I don't understand half of it."
     
    He grinned. "Yes, I know. Kelos is crazy, chesna is ... well, more than friends." A fatuous smile spread across my face. I could not get rid of it.
     
    "Cal is not . . . not kelos, crazy about me, Flick. Surely I'd know if he was."
     
    "Sure. Like you know everything else about Wraeththu."
     
    I could say nothing more. With an ear-splitting screech, 1 panicked Red into a mad gallop; the stinging, flying air lathering my exhilaration. Tomorrow, tomorrow it would begin. My un-harness would soon be nothing but a frustrating memory. The consequences? Oh, I banished them, what I knew, banished them from my mind. It was too much of an exquisite torment to think of them.
     
    Supper was a subdued affair. I avoided looking at Cal, and Flick avidly watched what I was doing. Seel smoked cigarette after cigarette, I had never met such an addict, and Cal looked so glum he did not even notice I was avoiding him. Not exactly a party atmosphere. Surely, we should have been celebrating my approaching Harhune. When we had finished eating, Cal and Flick discreetly left the room. We were in Seel's exotic little salon.
     
    "Pellaz, we have to talk," he said gravely.
     
    I was feeling edgy and hysterical and wished he would smile. I half knew what he wanted to say, but I still felt stricken, petrified inside. He took my hand. His was cool, long-fingered and dry; mine was shaky and sweaty. He turned it over and half-heartedly examined the palm as he spoke.
     
    "You want to be Wraeththu, don't you?" It was not a question and I said nothing, but swallowed noisily. "Tomorrow you can begin your initiation into our way of life. I have to warn you, it will not be easy, and for that reason, you must be absolutely sure you want to go through with it." His dark eyes seemed enormous; I was hypnotized. They stared right into me, peeling away the constructions of ego. I nodded.
     
    "I'm sure. I've come this far . . ."
     
    "That was nothing!" Seel snorted and let go of my hand, which hit the table like a dead fish. He leaned back into the cushions. I felt foolish. It was all so unreal I longed to laugh whilst still stretched transparent by nerves. "You know very little and, frankly, that is the best way to be. I expect you find it very irritating."
     
    "Yes. A bit," I confessed in a quiet voice.
     
    "Hmmm. Well, at midnight, tonight, I will take you to the Forale-house. The Forale is what we call the day before Harhune. You will be cleansed and given instructions. You must eat nothing. Do you understand?"
     
    "Yes." He was so cold, so unlike the Seel I had come to expect over the last day.
     
    "Now, all you need to know is that the Harhune itself is painless. You don't have to be afraid." That was one thing I had not anticipated: pain. It unnerved me that Seel should mention it. "Just think of it like this. In a few days' time it