JULIEN

II

Chapter 27

Scherzo

The 'little party' actually included just about everyone who was connected to Julien with the notable exception of his father, who would certainly have been present for this celebration if Julien had been an ordinary boy of the Nine Worlds. But Julien had put his foot down. He was perfectly happy to please his friends by celebrating the Kouwa Djoung Neh, or 'Gushing of the Elixir of Life', but he flatly refused to share that sort of celebration with his parents. He loved them, certainly, but they had nonetheless spent a great deal of time, either intentionally or not, filling him with shame about anything at all to do with those parts of his anatomy that he usually kept hidden. He was absolutely determined to keep them away from his private life from now on.

Tenntchouk was there, and so was Tannder, each of them accompanied by a companion who was determined to watch out for their well-being. It now looked as if Tannder was going to recover more or less completely and would be able to return to his normal duties after a further ten days or so of rest. Tenntchouk would need a bit more time before he was able to sail again, but his morale was nonetheless good and he was clearly happy to be there.

Master Sandeark had done a tremendous job, so much so that Julien made a mental note to check with Dennkar that the mathematician hadn't been spending his own money on the feast. Every item of food had been chosen, as was traditional, because it chimed, either explicitly or indirectly, with the subject of the celebration. For example, a mildly alcoholic beverage that was served in crystal glasses had a pearly appearance that wasn't so very different from that of the famed 'Elixir of Life'. Large dishes of small sweet or salty items were served alongside little golden sausages. Some dishes looked innocent enough until you found out what they were called, which was invariably something replete with double-entendre. In fact there was not a single fruit or vegetable there which, either by its name, its shape or its supposed aphrodisiac properties, failed to evoke the happy event that they were celebrating. The finest (not to say most suggestive) products of the Art of Sweet and Pastry-makers were also there to be sampled and enjoyed.

In accordance with custom Karik, whose Kouwa Djoung Neh had been the last one before Julien's, was in the chair and had the job of offering and controlling the toasts and compliments. He performed this important duty with flair and charm, calling on each person in turn to say a few words about Julien's personal attributes or hidden charms, a process which the subject of their eulogies found deeply embarrassing. His mortification, and the hilarity of the other guests, reached its peak when Ambar, probably spurred on by the demon from the decanter, used his beautiful singing voice to offer a parody of a classic song, praising the reflection of the setting sun on the down which, like the auburn grass that surrounds the upright Stone of Ent'alem in the autumn, decorated the base of Julien's Wondrous Member.

“But,” he concluded in his superb singing voice, “no nectar flows from the cold rock, no desire stirs the stone...”

And he followed the wonderful resonance of his final note with the incongruous spoken comment, “And the Stone is far too big, anyway.”

At least his friends were kind enough to spare Julien some of the more physical aspects of this type of party: nobody asked him to season their cup with a few drops from the Sacred Spring, and nobody asked if they could try tasting it direct from the source. Their restraint was actually quite impressive, given that Julien had no idea that this sort of thing was virtually traditional: normally guests would certainly have succumbed to the positively priapic atmosphere by doing exactly that. Instead they kept the fun and games to what was acceptable to Julien, and even Ambar – who, like Dillik, was obviously wearing nothing beneath his laï – finished the evening without making a move on his virtue. Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't intending to stay awake long enough for something to happen once they were safely in bed and it was plain from the way Julien kept having to rearrange his own clothing that he would definitely be interested. And tonight Ambar had no intention of sharing him with anyone!

oo0oo

Chapter 28

Intermezzo

“Hey, Julien – it works! We can do it!”

Dillik's 'whisper' would have woken up a hibernating bear. The boys had chosen to spend the night with Tannder and Karik at the house on Rüpel Gyamtso lake, and Julien could tell from the grey light filtering through the curtains that the sun had not yet risen. He was tempted to turn his back on the boy and try to get back to sleep – he hadn't had much so far, even though there was a favourable two-hour time difference between here and the Burrow. But instead he turned his head and faced him.

“Quiet!” he said in a low voice. “Not so loud, or you'll wake everyone up! What's the matter?”

“Xarax and I can dream together!”

“Well, good for you. I'm sure it's fascinating.”

“It's way better than that!”

“You can tell me about it later. I need some more sleep.”

“Well...”

“All right, what else?” asked Julien with a sigh.

“Will you take me to have a pee?”

“You're having a laugh! Don't you ever think about anything else?”

“But it's normal, isn't it? I mean, what with the party last night... anyway, you promised!”

“What am I supposed to have promised?”

“That I could taste!”

“All right. I'd forgotten, that's all.”

“Well, I haven't forgotten!”

“I will let you taste, but I didn't say when!”

“That's cheating!”

“You might as well go,” said Ambar's voice from behind a pillow. “You know he won't leave you alone until you do.”

Julien decided to give in gracefully, so he got up, brushed Dillik's nose with a kiss and led him off to the Imperial Villa's luxurious main bathroom.

Oo0oo

Breakfast, which they shared with Tannder and Karik, was nice and late, so everyone was fully awake. The conversation was more or less monopolised by Dillik, who chatted away enthusiastically, not about the flavour of Julien's still fairly limited virile essence – Dillik was old enough to have a little discretion, after all – but about the incredible experience of a dream shared with his beloved Xarax.

“We've been trying since we first met!” he said. “Nobody had ever been able to do it before, but we didn't care, and Xarax was sure it was possible. Nobody believed him – I don't think even Julien really thought we could do it, even though if anyone could have thought it was possible it should have been him...”

Everyone knew the background, but nobody wanted to spoil the story or steal his thunder, and so everyone kept quiet and just looked at him attentively, while Julien tried to look contrite, like an unbeliever who has seen a miracle.

“Usually when he tries I wake up and I forget what I was dreaming about,” Dillik told them. “Then he stays with me – in my head – until I fall asleep again, and then he tries to go to sleep himself. Just doing that is hard enough. But he said that the hardest thing of all has been becoming aware that I'm dreaming without it waking him up and then starting to dream himself. Eventually he managed to do that, but then he found that, like most people, he couldn't control what he was dreaming. So he was just dreaming on his own and so was I. It didn't work, so he got back out of my head and that usually woke me up. But tonight it worked!”

“So what was it like?” asked Niil.

“It was... it was fantastic! I was a haptir and a boy at the same time. But when I say 'a haptir' I don't just mean any haptir – I mean I was Xarax! And at the same time I was Xarax feeling that he was me... it's a bit hard to explain. But we were really happy. And we were dreaming, sort of together. First we dreamed one of his dreams – at least I think it must have been because I'd never seen anything like it. We went into a palace. I think it was the Emperor's Palace, only I can't be sure. Anyway, we flew along some corridors. Then we flew over mountains – that was really beautiful! And after a bit we sort of turned into me, I think – we were on Niil's trankenn and we were running through lots of passageways. Then I saw Julien and I think we must have become Xarax again because we were sitting on Julien's shoulders. And then I woke up. I know when I tell it like that it doesn't sound like much, but really it was...”

“Don't worry,” said Tannder. “I think we all know how impossible it is to tell someone else about a really good dream. But I believe that Xarax did achieve something unique. Honourable Xarax,” (the haptir was sitting quietly on Dillik's lap) “I think you just started exploring a completely new country. Let me be the first to congratulate you.”

“He says he doesn't really deserve congratulations,” said Dillik. “All he was doing was trying to find ways to get closer to his friend. He also says that he doesn't have the words to express his happiness. As for me, though, I can say that the best thing of all about dreaming with Xarax is that I can still remember everything clearly. Normally if I have a dream I've forgotten it by breakfast time.”

“That does sound like a good thing,” agreed Julien. “Just out of interest, can you remember what you were doing on my shoulder before you woke up?”

“Well... that's it, really: we just woke up.”

oo0oo