Northern Storm

Chapter Nineteen

Kheda saw Risala stir with the dawn. The Reteul was slowing as the wind lost its strength with the passing of the night and the sea was a calm grey, barely a shade different from the sky above. The rain-bearing winds from the south that had driven the little boat through the night had drawn a coverlet of high cloud across the sky and the rising sun’s light was a mere pearly glow.

Is that any kind of omen? More importantly, will that make any difference?

Risala resolutely threw aside her quilt. ‘Do you think that cloud will thicken enough to bring rain or blow away to the north?’

‘This early in the wet season, either could happen.’ Kheda smiled as she rubbed her face with her hands, yawning widely. ‘Good morning.’

‘Just.’ She peered around at the featureless horizon. ‘Where are we?’

‘Dev said he wanted somewhere empty of people and I’m not about to argue with that—’ Kheda broke off, unable to stifle his own yawn. ‘We’re about half a morning’s sail from the middle of the Serpents’ Teeth. There are some barren islands where we can anchor. Then our friends from the north can try tempting this beast to its death.’

Risala looked at him critically. ‘You need some rest before we do that. Just give me a few moments.’ Getting up with a groan, she walked to the head of the boat to relieve herself. On her return, she stopped at the cask of fresh water lashed to the base of the mast. She splashed water over her face before cupping a drink with her hand. ‘Take the quilt and get some rest. It’s going to be a busy day.’

‘Don’t let me sleep through the excitement,’ he said wryly as he surrendered the tiller.

The quilt was still warm as he wrapped it around himself, pulling a fold up to shade his eyes. He was so weary that the faint scent of Risala’s perfume stirred no more than uncomplicated longing before sleep claimed him.

Dev’s voice waking him some incalculable time later was far less welcome.

‘You know why women rub their eyes when they wake up?’ the wizard was saying, mischief in his voice. ‘Because they haven’t got stones to scratch, that’s why. The question is what do zamorin do? Have you got the answer to that one, Velle?’

‘Shut up, Dev.’ The magewoman sounded bored. Khcda rolled over and blinked in the bright sunlight as he pushed the enveloping quilt aside. He could feel the Reteul rushing through the water with renewed energy and a brisk wind raised gooseflesh on his drowsy skin as he sat up. ‘Where are we?’

‘A good question.’ Dev scowled. He was leaning against the rail on the far side of the deck. ‘Just within sight of the Serpents’ Teeth.’ Risala smiled briefly from her seat in the stern before turning all her attention to the seas ahead. ‘You’d better take the tiller, if you know these waters. The winds and currents seem to be fighting among themselves.’

‘You’d better not wreck my new boat, girl,’ Dev warned. ‘That won’t happen while I’m aboard.’ Velindre was standing just forward of the mast, gazing upwards, her arms outstretched. Not now.’

‘It feels good, doesn’t it?’ Dev cracked his knuckles, looking as dangerous as Kheda had ever seen him. ‘Oh yes.’ Velindre glanced over her shoulder and Kheda saw new energy in her face. Her pale golden hair seemed brighter than before and her tanned skin looked smooth and sleek. The gaunt hunger and shadows that had disfigured her eyes were gone.

More than a good night’s sleep has restored you. And you, Dev. I had let myself get too used to having you around, doing my bidding, even before you agreed to have your magic stifled. Foolish of me. As foolish as one of those warlords who raises some jungle cat from a kitten or keeps whip lizards in a garden to awe his visitors. Sooner or later such beasts turn on their captors without conscience or understanding.

‘It’s just like my bitch of a mother always said,’ Dev declared with vicious amusement. ‘You don’t truly value something till it’s taken away from you. I don’t know about you, Velle, but I’ll be dead before I sun ender my affinity again!’ He paced around the deck, light on his feet, weight balanced like a wrestler, hands straying between his dagger hilt and his swords. In his sleeveless tunic, his arms looked more muscular than ever, veins and tendons taut.

Just looking for someone to fight.

Dropping the quilt down the hatch into the hold and securing the wooden trap door, Kheda tried to stifle his disquiet at being on a ship with two mages in full command of their wizardry. He walked to the stern and sat beside Risala, resting his hand next to hers on the tiller.

‘If you use magic to bring us to a safe harbour, won’t that draw the dragon to us before we are ready for it?’ He looked past Velindre to gauge the ferocity of the breaking seas and gusty winds around the distant black rocks of the Serpents’ Teeth.

If we’re sunk here, we’re dead, no question of it.

‘Only if the mage raising the creature is scrying in this direction.’ She sounded entirely unconcerned, smiling as she tilted her head back, revelling in the wind’s caress on her face. We’ll do something a little more dramatic to draw his eye this way, when we’re ready.’

‘When will that be?’ demanded Dev at once. ‘Soon enough.’ Velindre stared up into the clouds. Kheda did the same. The sky was a broken mosaic of blue and white, shuffled by the winds that were driving the rains up from the open ocean. The warlord looked back over his shoulder to see a darker line of denser cloud gathering on the southern horizon, turning the azure of the sea to a deep slatey blue. ‘There’ll be a bad storm before the day’s out.’

‘Then let’s get this done before it arrives,’ said Velindre breezily.

Kheda couldn’t contain his scepticism. ‘It’s as simple as that?’

Neither wizard answered, both intent on the skies. ‘Breakfast?’ Risala offered in a low voice. ‘Please.’ Kheda smiled.

‘Take the tiller.’ She unwrapped a fold of white muslin on the seat beside her to reveal torn lengths of unleavened sailer bread wrapped around pale curd cheese. ‘How long have you kept this boat stocked and ready to sail at a moment’s notice?’ she wondered, amused.

‘Since at least ten days before you could possibly have returned,’ Kheda admitted. He took a blushing avori pear plump with all the sweetness of the first rains.

Dev turned around with a cocky smile. ‘I told him he needed to do something more than sit around with his thumb up his arse till the dragon arrived to bite my head of

Kheda frowned and tested the tiller. The Reteul didn’t respond, cutting an uninterrupted line through the waters,

He looked over the stern and caught a fleeting glimpse of palest blue radiance curling through the boat’s arrow-straight wake.

‘You have grown bold, Velle,’ jeered Dev. ‘You never used to be so confident that you could emulate Otrick.’

‘Look up there, Dev,’ Velindre challenged. ‘Up as high as you can. Use your element’s sympathy with the air. See that?’

Kheda and Risala stared up into the sky along with the bald mage before sharing a shrug of incomprehension.

‘There’s nothing there,’ she whispered. ‘Is there?’

Not for us.’ Kheda chewed on the leathery bread. The sharp tang of the cheese sat uneasily with the misgivings roiling in his stomach.

‘I see. . Dev’s voice trailed off, bemused. ‘Something, yes. It’s so swift’ He stood motionless, astounded.

‘It’s the very highest and fastest of winds. It flows in narrow bands drifting across only a few latitudes,’ observed Velindre. ‘You may take that as an omen in your favour, Chazen Kheda, that the power I need to summon your dragon happens to be available in this domain. If you’re so inclined.’ Her voice was wholly neutral.

‘Can we trust any portent offered by a mage?’ Risala wondered under her breath.

‘At least she doesn’t mock such things outright like Dev.’ Kheda shrugged. ‘Perhaps that’s a sign in itself. I don’t know.’

‘What I can’t tell is where this savage mage is finding a comparable source of elemental fire,’ the magewoman continued pensively. ‘Have you felt anything when you’ve seen the dragon?’

‘The creature’s aura has always overwhelmed me.’ Dev looked around the horizon before fixing on the rapidly approaching rocks of the Serpents’ Teeth. ‘Let’s get this wild wizard here and I’ll find out what’s fuelling his magic,’ he promised with feral intent. ‘And I’ll turn it against him.’

‘Do you get the feeling we’re riding in the hollow of a tempest?’ Risala murmured beside Kheda.

‘Just as long as it blows this dragon back out to the southern ocean,’ responded Kheda grimly, ‘along with whatever invaders are still clinging to its tail.’ What little appetite he had deserted him and he tossed the half-eaten bread over the stern with an apologetic grimace at Risala. ‘Let’s see if you can make good on your bragging, Dev.’ Velindre was walking back to stand between the stern and the mast. ‘There’s nothing to be gained by delay.’

She raised her hands, one stretched forward and one aft. Blue light flickered all around her and the Reteuh sail bellied outwards at the thrust of a wind laced with azure sparkles. Kheda recoiled from the crackles of vivid sapphire light crawling over the tiller.

‘Just leave it,’ Velindre said calmly. As she gestured with one down-turned palm, the tiller adjusted their course just a fraction. With her other hand upraised, she curled her fingers slightly upwards. The ropes of the rigging shifted themselves, sliding obediently to trim the sail. Satisfied, Velindre halted them with a sideways cut.

‘Sit down and enjoy the ride,’ advised Dev with a wide grin. ‘She knows what she’s doing.’

‘You should try rounding the Cape of Winds with me,’ Velindre challenged with a hard smile of her own. The Reteul surged forward at speeds far in excess of anything Kheda had imagined possible. The prow rose high in the water, bouncing as it scorned the rolling swells. Risala slid from the stern seat to sit on the deck, holding on tightly to the rail. Kheda joined her, reaching round her shoulders to take a firm hold himself. Risala shuffled backwards into the crook of his arm and he pressed himself closer. Velindre stood unconcerned in the middle of the deck, as easily balanced as if she were on solid ground.

‘Do you suppose this little display will catch our friend’s eye?’ Dev couldn’t quite match her insouciance, forced to shift his feet every now and then.

‘You said they seem limited to their own element for the most part.’ Velindre ushered the magical wind a little around to the east. ‘I think it’s up to you to do something spectacular with fire. Besides, I’ll need to gather my strength.’

‘Already?’ Dev scoffed. ‘I could take on half the Council and scorch their arses black.’ He laughed gleefully.

‘Let’s concentrate on whipping this one mage into submission,’ suggested Velindre. At the snap of her fingers, the sapphire light laced around the tiller glowed more brightly. ‘And this is a wizard who can summon a dragon, don’t forget. None of Hadrumal’s Council can do that.’

Risala gasped as a massive wall of spray came crashing over the bow and surged down the deck towards them.

Dev brushed it aside with a scarlet flash of magic that instantly reduced the water to lingering steam. ‘There’ll be two who can, once we get back,’ he promised exultantly. ‘Then we can raise a dragon to chew on anyone who gainsays us.’

Kheda flinched as a ragged dark rock passed terrify-ingly close to the Reteul’s rail. Wind-tossed spume spattered his face.

By all means, please do. Rid us of this beast and go wherever you wish as long as it’s beyond Archipelagan waters. Do whatever you want with whatever arcane secrets you’ve uncovered, just as long as you do it as far away from here as possible. Go away to make as much trouble as you like among your fellow mages. Perhaps that will stop anyone else as dangerous and devious as you insinuating their evil into our lives.

He felt Risala trembling beside him. He was shaking,

I

too, from the chill of wind and sea as well as cold apprehension. They both tensed as the boat slowed to an abrupt halt.

‘I can’t concoct serious fire magic out here on the water.’ Dev looked around, brow furrowed. Not something that will catch our wild friend’s eye.’

‘That looks like a good place to mount our challenge.’ Velindre pointed and the Reteul made a stomach-churning wheel.

Kheda rose gingerly to his knees to see where the mage-woman was taking them.

They were nearly at the far western edge of the chain of reefs and dark rocks that had separated Chazen waters from Daish since time before record. Here the outcrops were larger than those in the east, more akin to the humped coils of a monstrous sea serpent breaking through the turbid foam. The rocks rose sheer from the water, ridged and steely grey, resolute as they defied the crashing waves. Here and there stunted tangles of nameless shrubs clung to the topmost crags, among countless nests of white moonfishers and pied coral-divers built safely above the water.

The sea was not to be scorned. The grey stone was disfigured from waterline to the highest ragged knife edge. Every face was dappled with pockmarks gouged by the incessant spray. Plants that had thought to colonise the lower ledges raised only bleached, dead fingers in mute warning to any that might follow. Here and there the ripping tides had forced their way through some weakness to carve a new path, joining forces with the waters beyond to wear the stone down into submission. Pillars that had once been sturdy bastions stood alone, undercut by the ceaseless sea, frozen in the endless instant before they fell to be lost for ever beneath the waves.

‘You can see some safe anchorage?’ Kheda couldn’t restrain his disbelief.

‘Beyond that one.’ Velindre pointed unperturbed through the impenetrable barrier of a sheer grey outcrop. At her bidding, the sail billowed with blue light and swung around. Blithely ignoring the vicious turmoil of the currents, the Reteul danced around the end of the rocky islet. Buoyed on a raft of sapphire light, the little boat eased backwards to nestle snugly in the embrace of a cup-shaped hollow. The cliff edge aloft was a man’s height or perhaps a little less above the top of the mast.

‘How are you going to be able to hold my boat secure in here if you’re throwing all your magic into summoning this cloud dragon?’ demanded Dev.

‘How can we hide it?’ Kheda was already dragging anchors from the lockers beneath the stern thwart. ‘I don’t fancy trying our luck swimming home, and the beast has decided that sinking boats is a sound tactic before.’

‘Where can we hide?’ Risala looked up at the unforgiving barren face of the cliff above, a rope held indecisively in her hand. ‘We’ve no part to play in this.’

‘Give me that.’ Dev took an anchor from Kheda and swung it in one hand. The iron flukes glowed red and when Dev threw it, the anchor sank into the stone, melting the splintered rocks like wax. ‘We could work a spell together to hide the boat,’ said Velindre thoughtfully. ‘Then your magic would secure it.’

Nexus magic?’ Dev paused before throwing a second anchor to bite deep into the rocks with a triumphant hiss. Who’ve you been sharing yourself with back in Hadrumal?’

‘Just give me your hand.’ Velindre ordered, exasperated.

As Dev raised his arm, the magewoman laced her fingers with his. Ruby light oozed from between their tight-closed palms, trickling down Dev’s forearm. Velindre frowned and a dusky purple suffused the wizardry, tuning the magic to a dull amethyst. Pressed close together, their arms were coated with the opaque radiance. Their gazes locked, the magewoman’s hazel eyes staring deep into the bald wizard’s; Dev’s eyes were so dark brown as to look black. The glow of overt magic faded and as it did so, the deck beneath Kheda’s feet faded with it. The wood shimmered and reappeared before vanishing once more.

Like some mirage of a distant vessel carried up over the horizon to offer an always ambiguous portent. Even with the reassuring solidity of the planks under his feet, Kheda took a step backwards as the deck continued to come and go beneath him. ‘Does this sorcery hide us as well?’

The question turned Velindre’s head. Dev assaulted her cheek with a rough kiss, pressing his body close to hers with blatant suggestion. ‘We always were good together, weren’t we?’

‘Probably.’ Velindre pulled herself free of Dev with a look of contempt. ‘I won’t be working any conjoined magic with you in Hadrumal, nor doing anything else with you, not unless you learn some finesse. No wonder they call you a barbarian hereabouts.’

“Probably” doesn’t fill me with confidence.’ Kheda looked at Risala.

‘There are hollows in the rock where you can hide if you want to,’ Velindre said impatiently. ‘The dragon will have better things to think about than you two.’

‘I’ll show you finesse if that’s what you want. How do you think I kept my hide whole in these islands?’ Dev cracked his knuckles absently, surveying the looming cliff above. But I thought you wanted fiery uproar to summon this wizard and his dragon. I need solid ground beneath my feet if I’m going to do that.’ As he spoke, he vanished. ‘Where . ?’ Kheda looked up to see Dev standing on the edge of the crumbling precipice.

Risala stood, head tipped back, expression dubious. ‘How . . . ?’

‘Allow me.’ Velindre’s spiral of azure light carried the three of them up to the heights before Kheda or Risala could say anything more.

‘This is better.’ Dev was looking along the broken line of the Serpents’ Teeth, the rocks disappearing into the distance. ‘There’s fire beneath the seabed here. Deep, but not too deep.’

‘Don’t do anything just yet,’ warned Velindre. ‘It’ll take me a little while to summon a cloud dragon.’

‘We’ll leave you to work uninterrupted.’ Kheda’s sarcastic courtesy went unnoticed by either wizard. ‘Over there.’ He tugged at Risala’s hand and led her towards a storm-carved hollow where a trio of resolute nut palms had laid claim to what little soil and moisture the winds and rains let fall on the undulating top surface of the rock. Kheda saw they had persisted there for some years, for all they were barely taller than his head. Earl successive season had seen the new fronds yellow and wither to fall down around the ridged trunks in tattered curtains.

‘It’s some cover, I suppose,’ he muttered, unconvinced.

‘I can’t see anything better,’ agreed Risala glumly. ‘But we’re no threat to the beast. There’s no magic in us.

Nor in half the people it’s eaten so far,’ Kheda said incautiously.

Wasn’t there? Many learned warlords have judged those encountering wizards, however innocently, to be soiled. Most agree there’s an irrevocable stain left with those mho have suborned magic for their own purposes. Will the dragon smell that on you, sniffing you out wherever you hide? What of it? You’re committed now. You brought this magic to this domain. Can you complain if it becomes the death of you, if that’s the cost of freeing Chazen from the dragon? Would you have it any other way?

The mages were still standing in the centre of the island, talking about something, gesturing. Risala sat cross-legged between the nut palms, tugging at the wholly inadequate bather of damp and musty fronds. Kheda eased in beside her, the rock cold and unyielding beneath the thin layer of soil. He welcomed her warmth pressed against him as he watched the wizards’ animated discussion.

‘Is this how wizards treat the barbarians in the unbroken lands, disrupting their lives at any whim or fancy?’ He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, cupping his chin in his hands. ‘Don’t the men of the north resent that? Not that they could do much about it, I suppose.’

‘Velindre says they have little enough to do with the mainlanders.’ Risala’s comment surprised him. ‘None of the wizards seem that interested in them, nor in anything much beyond the whys and wherefores of their own power, as far as I can tell.’

Before Kheda could think what to make of that, the eerie glow of magelight erupted on the far side of the rock.

Velindre stood stock still, hands cupped before her, her eyes downcast and intent on the empty air she cradled. A gossamer filament of faintest blue radiance drifted downwards to fall in lazy coils in her palms. The thread thickened and brightened, shining azure drawn taut between the gathering magic in the magewoman’s hands and the unimaginable realms of the skies above. The coil of enchantment wound into a ball, the brilliance darkening to a vivid sapphire. The sphere swelled, summoning ever more magic. The thread of light became a solid shaft of piercing blue. Wind whirled around Velindre, whipping up a spiral of dust crackling with miniature lightning, darkening with every spin.

Unmoved, she stood in the centre of the vortex, the hem of her tunic not so much as stirring, trousers hanging loosely from her narrow hips. She was concentrating on the magic building between her hands. A new light began to glow in the innermost heart of the sapphire. It might have been blue to begin with but within moments it was too bright to look on. Too bright for anyone but Velindre, who stared at the burning mote unblinking, her face a mask of cold fire.

Dev’s magic was a ruby inferno by contrast. Wherever he had summoned the power from, he was using it to send gouts of scarlet fire jumping around the entire rock. Balls of flame bounced hither and thither, trailing blazing veils of crimson light. Wherever they landed, the rock melted into incandescence, white heat dying as soon as the magic sprang away. Bright gold faded through blood red to leave black and splintered craters in the grey rock. Dev laughed like a madman, sending blistering spheres ricocheting around the barren islet, gesturing wildly. Ruby light crackled between his outspread fingers. Abruptly he swept his hands together and the burning globes raced to join in a towering pillar of flame. The wizard thrust his hands forward and the column split into two, into four, soon divided into a dizzying infinity of spears wrought of scarlet fire. As Dev swept his hands out and around, the flaming shafts obediently surged forward to surround him with a stockade of burning magic. The flames danced and shifted, now hiding the wizard, now revealing him exulting in his power.

‘It’s not so difficult to catch the bastard’s eye!’ The bald mage wheeled around and made as if to throw something. One of the incandescent shafts of fire soared high into the sky.

Kheda watched the flaming lance shoot straight as an arrow towards a shadow falling out of the brilliant sun. Dev’s magic exploded into a shower of glittering fragments as the dragon met the missile with a blast of blazing breath. It swooped across the scarred island, the clap of its wings like thunder.

Kheda crouched impotently within the wilted circle of nut palms as the leaves rattled and shivered beneath the massive beast’s passing. The breath was frozen in his chest, blood pulsing in his temples. Risala scrabbled for his hand and he gripped her fingers tight.

‘Any time you’re ready, Velle,’ bellowed Dev hoarsely. He sent another spear of flame hurtling up after the dragon, and another, and another. The great beast lashed at the first with its tail, shattering it into crimson shards. Wheeling around in midair, it smashed at the next with a forefoot, striking sparks with its claws as it cut the threat to pieces. Another blast of fiery breath melted the last into nothingness. With a deafening flap of its mighty wings it soared high into the sky, roaring with exultation.

Velindre stood remote and isolated in the midst of the whirling column of dust. The shaft of sapphire light encased her now, magic flowing unceasing into the painful, seductive blue-whiteness hovering between her hands. In the instant before the entrancing brightness overwhelmed Kheda’s sight, he saw the individual bones of her hands dark against the radiance. Then he had to look away or be blinded. As he rubbed his watering eyes, a shadow momentarily darkened the shaft of light from sapphire to slatey blue as the great fire dragon circled around it. It made as if to strike at the magic with its mighty tail but recoiled before the blow landed, tumbling through the sky, wings ungainly and uncoordinated. Seeing its pale underbelly exposed, Dev sent spear after spear of blazing light at the creature. For an instant, Kheda caught his breath in sudden hope. Scarlet was spreading in the angle between the dragon’s foreleg and breast. It faded and Kheda realised with a chill that it was Dev’s magic fading away. The sorcerous shafts had merely shattered on the dragon’s impervious scales. The fire dragon landed at the far end of the islet with a thud that made the whole rock shudder. It crouched, then rose up to stand tall on its massive legs. Long neck extended, it moved its head from side to side, making an untroubled survey of this new challenge. Ignoring Velindre, still frozen within her wizardry, the great beast stalked towards Dev. The barbarian mage’s defences continued to weave their dance around him. Now he was also ringed by a channel of molten rock, but the gaps between the blazing shafts were becoming wider. Earl cast of a blazing lance had thinned his fiery stockade. With a sweep of his hand, the bald mage brought all the shimmering flames together to form a wall of fire between himself and the great creature. The dragon advanced until its blunt snout was almost touching the blazing bather. Then it paused, its claws grating on the grey rock.

Has it seen us? Surely not. The wizards are between us and it. They’re its enemy. So what do we do when it has killed both of them? What will it do to us?

With a furious bellow, the dragon reared up on its hindquarters and began tearing at the fiery wall with its foreclaws. It ripped away great gouts of flame, tossing scarlet fragments into the air. Dev stepped backwards, gesturing as he sought to recapture his magic. His mouth was open, but his words were lost beneath the deafening roar of the incensed dragon. Some of the blazing wreckage spun backwards at his command, thrusting itself into the widening gaps. More escaped his frantic efforts, plummeting into the sea to be lost in a flare of vapour or soaring high to evaporate in the turbulent sky. However hard the wizard worked, the dragon was ripping away the bather faster than he could repair it.

Where is this dragon that the magetvoman promised us? Isn’t Dev her friend? Surely she won’t let him die?

But Velindre was still standing motionless within the sapphire core of the spiral of whirling dust. Kheda looked up to see clouds gathering high, high above, where the uppermost winds were pierced by the needle of Velindre’s magic. Risala screamed as the great dragon tore apart the last scraps of Dev’s defences and pounced.

Kheda felt a yell torn from his own throat as a massive flash of lightning struck the rock. A great concussion knocked him and Risala both back against the blasted nut palms. He scrambled up to crouch among the smoking remnants of the palms’ stubby trunks and scrubbed at his eyes to clear his dazzled vision. Both wizards had vanished. Now there were two dragons facing each other across the empty rock.

The newcomer’s scales were white, the pure white of towering clouds beneath a brilliant sun. Pale blue-grey shadowed the angles between its lithe legs and rangy body, the colour of high, fine cloud against an early morning sky. The spines raked along its back and down the length of its whipping tail were translucent as ice, shimmering with untamed magic. The creature extended its wings slowly, the fine membranes touched with gold like the glow the sun might cast against a fine haze of twilight cloud. Wings bating, the cloud dragon stood tall on its hind legs and hissed a challenge, clawed forefeet extended. Its knifelike talons were bright with the iridescence of a cloud passing before a full moon. Its teeth shone moon-white in its long, lean mouth, flickering tongue the palest blue. Narrow and cunning, its eyes blazed with sapphire fire.

The fire dragon waited, motionless, weight balanced on all four feet, wings half-furled against its sides. Its red—

gold flanks were dusted with grime thrown up from the scarred grey rock, coppery claws dull with soot. It sank down until its pale gold belly flattened against the ground, mouth half-open, running its scarlet tongue around its white teeth. All the while it kept its liquid ruby eyes fixed on the newcomer and the crimson scales fanning around its head bristled. Only its tail moved, a ripple slowly passing down the great muscular length of it, twitching the ridged spike at the tip to and fro.

So this must be it. What can I learn here, to pass on to the future, in the unlikely event that I get out of here alive?

Kheda studied both dragons with the dispassionate curiosity born of a calm beyond terror. He began to notice some differences. The cloud dragon was pristine, untouched by age or strife. The fire dragon showed evidence of a life lived hard. Several of the thick scales that armoured its backbone were ragged with broken edges. The ridges of the spike of its tail showed nicks and gouges. Further up its tail, the regular pattern of its red-gold hide was interrupted by darker, smaller scales. A similar scar marred the hindquarter closest to Kheda. One of the claws on that foot was snapped off short and the rest were chipped.

As the fire dragon opened its mouth a little wider, Kheda noted that its teeth were as white as he remembered but lacking the unsullied brilliance of the cloud dragon’s maw. The fire dragon’s fangs were more ivory in hue and, towards the back of the creature’s mouth, slightly-stained. One was missing, leaving a bloody hole in the dragon’s jaw where a new tooth was just beginning to appear. Its coppery lip was torn there and the creature’s scarlet tongue kept returning to run lightly over the sore spot. Where the cloud dragon was light and lithe, full of energy, the fire dragon’s movements were slower and more calculated. It was bigger and heavier. Older, Kheda realised, and somehow wiser. Its eyes were different from the cloud dragon’s. The white beast’s sapphire gaze shone with ferocity, pure and simple. The fire dragon’s eyes burned with cunning as well as aggression. It bided its time, weighing up its opponent, waiting for this challenger to make the first move.

The cloud dragon sprang aloft and in the same lithe movement ducked its alabaster head to send a cloud of white vapour at the fire dragon. The red dragon was gone before the freezing breath struck, not into the air but springing forward to the spot the cloud dragon had just vacated. Behind it, the rock cracked and split, blackened craters rimed with frost defying the tropical heat.

Long neck outstretched, the fire dragon breathed a torrent of scarlet flame up at the cloud dragon’s belly. The white dragon shot upwards but the blaze just reached it, catching its trailing tail. The icy spike clouded and dark blue oozed between the white scales. The creature screamed in outrage and turned to dive before abruptly thinking better of that tactic. It shot away sideways barely in time to avoid meeting a second furnace blast full in the face. Recovering with startling speed, it reversed direction to send another cloud of its own freezing breath to envelop its foe.

This time the fire dragon did spread its wings and take to the sky, leaving the icy mist to roll harmlessly across the sloping rock and tumble to the sea below. The cloud dragon shot straight for the red dragon, wings beating, neck outstretched, mouth agape in a lethal snarl. It vanished in a ball of fire, not exhaled by the fire dragon but simply bursting out of the empty air to envelop the white beast. The blazing sphere contracted like the pulse of a beating heart. It shattered outwards, riven by countless bolts of lightning. The cloud dragon was revealed, white scales scorched blue-black around the edges and wing membranes blistered, raw patches oozing cobalt blood. The creature seemed oblivious of its injuries, still intent on attacking the fire dragon hanging impossibly in the air before it.

It was impossible: the real dragon wasn’t there to be attacked. The freezing blast of the cloud dragon’s breath merely enveloped a shimmering apparition wrought of the fire dragon’s own magic. Appearing out of the air behind the white dragon, it sank the coppery claws of one forefoot into the meaty flesh of the cloud dragon’s haunch, just above its tail. Flames burst from the wound and crawled across the cloud dragon’s hindquarter. The creature writhed and twisted, snapping at the fire dragon in agony. The fire dragon ripped its claws free and slashed at the cloud dragon’s eyes. The white beast recoiled just in time but still suffered a deep gash across its muzzle. I .aching out with its tail, it caught the fire dragon in the belly, more by luck than intent. The fire dragon was knocked off balance just long enough for the cloud dragon to flee, the frantic beat of its wings shattering the air.

Bruise-coloured purple blood oozed from the wide gash in its back to trickle down its tail as it shot straight up into the sky. The fire dragon chased it with a startling turn of speed and found itself enveloped in a smothering fog whipped up from the warm sea below. The vapour glowed briefly from within and evaporated to reveal the fire dragon turning its head in all directions, searing the sky with its fiery breath as it searched for its enemy.

The cloud dragon was high above and seized its chance, folding its wings close to fall through the air, all four feet extended below, talons shining in the sunlight. It landed full on the fire dragon’s back and dug in its claws, twisting its head down and around, intent on sinking its teeth into the back of the other creature’s head. It failed and tried again but found it could make little impression on the shield of rugged, solid scales.

As the cloud dragon worried at its neck and clawed the scales from its flanks, the fire dragon fought to stay aloft with mighty strokes of its vast wings. Despite its endeavours it sank through the sky, borne down by the weight of the cloud dragon towards the deadly embrace of the waters below. Bright scarlet blood glistened on its torn sides, drops spitting as they fell to pit the surface of the sea. The fire dragon lashed at its white tormenter with its heavy spiked tail, striking unerringly at the gaping wound in the cloud dragon’s hindquarter time and time again.

The white dragon couldn’t stand it. Releasing the fire dragon, it shot away, screaming its rage and anguish. The red dragon pursued it, glowing with reignited ferocity. The red-gold of its sides shone like flame, brilliant under the full force of the sun. The beats of its great scarlet wings were slower than the frantic flapping of the cloud dragon, but every stroke took it closer, inexorably closing the gap between them. With every beat of its wings, it glowed hotter, its ruby eyes burning with determination. Within moments it was close enough to snap at the cloud dragon’s dulled and soiled tail.

The fire dragon bit and held and ripped its head sideways, pulling the cloud dragon bodily back through the sky. With a flap of its mighty wings, it embraced the white beast. With its muscular legs, the red dragon forced the cloud dragon’s gold-tinted wings close to its sides and, stretching out, entwined its neck and tail with the trapped creature’s. The glow suffusing the fire dragon grew ever more intense and the white dragon began to burn. Its pale flesh charred, blackness spreading from the lethal brightness of the fire dragon’s touch. Blue blood clotted dark and dried before it had a chance to flow. The membrane of the cloud dragon’s wings split and curled away to leave the fine azure bones exposed before they, too, cracked and broke.

The cloud dragon screamed in uncomprehending fear and pain, its long, lean head writhing against the brutal bluntness of the fire dragon’s muzzle. The red dragon held on tight, falling with its dying rival, tongue flickering across the cloud dragon’s muzzle. Its eyes were unblinking ruby malevolence lit with points of fire as the cloud dragon’s eyes dulled, their sapphire light extinguished. The two beasts fell, still entangled, on to the next rocky outcrop in the chain of islets. The impact sent knives of shattered stone in all directions and the rock where the dragons had landed vanished in a cloud of vapour laced with fire and lightning.

Is it gone? Have the wizards finally made good on their promise? Is this an end to it all?

Kheda sprang to his feet, he couldn’t help it. Risala was at his shoulder, so close he could feel her trembling. He threw an arm around her shoulders and held her close, trying to see what had become of the dragons.

The fog of magic, dust and mist faded. The cloud dragon was gone. The fire dragon remained. It lay sprawled on the damp rock, its vibrant colours muted. The scales of its back were the colour of clotted blood, its underbelly a dirty orange where wounds oozed dull crimson. Only its eyes were still bright, brilliant ruby lit by points of white-hot fire.

‘It’s not dead,’ breathed Kheda, horrified.

‘Where are the wizards?’ Risala pulled herself free of his arm and looked around, eyes white-rimmed in her ashen face.

‘Let’s get out of here before it recovers enough to fly.’ Kheda ran to the cliff edge and looked down at the Reteul. ‘The mages, they’re on the boat,’ he shouted back over his shoulder. He looked again and saw that the Reteul was rocking dangerously in its niche, no longer buttressed with magic. He winced as a slopping wave drove the vessel against the rocks with a grating noise. ‘Get us down there!’ he yelled urgently to Velindre.

She looked up at him, pale beneath her tan, tears smeared across her cheeks. ‘No, no magic. We can’t risk it. I’ll throw you a rope.’

Kheda stood, fuming, as she searched for one. ‘Dev! Show her the locker!’

The bald wizard was sitting on the deck, head hanging, hands pressed to his temples.

Risala came up beside Kheda. ‘Dev!’ The bald mage didn’t respond. ‘Here!’ Velindre had found a rope and slung a length awkwardly aloft. It barely reached half the distance between them before it fell back short

‘Throw the coil, not the end,’ yelled Kheda, frustrated. Velindre’s second attempt was better aimed and Risala grabbed the rope out of the air.

Kheda seized the Aldabreshin girl’s arm as she stepped perilously close to the broken edge of the cliff. ‘Let me have that. You go first.’ He took the rope out of her hands and slung it around his waist, setting his feet finnly on the dusty rock. ‘Slap some sense into Dev. We have to kill that beast before it recovers. I’ll cut its throat with my own sword if that’s what it takes.’

‘If you can.’ Risala didn’t look at him, concentrating on tying the rope securely around her thighs. Kheda braced himself as she began climbing down the ragged cliff. Several heavy jerks and one startled curse told him when hand—or foothold in the rotten rock betrayed her. Then the slackness in the rope announced her arrival on the Reteul’s deck. He moved to the edge of the cliff and looked down, just to make sure.

‘Is there anything you can tie the rope to?’ Risala looked up at him, face concerned.

Kheda judged the distance to the stubby remnants of the nut-palm trees and shook his head as he tossed the rope down to her. ‘I’ll just have to risk it.’ He knelt to study the split and pitted stone, absently scooping up dust to dry his palms.

Put everything else out of your mind. Concentrate on the task in hand. Distraction can kill you. Forget dragons and wizards and magical trials. Your world is this cliff and your only business is finding solid hand and footholds in the rock.

He moved slowly, testing every ledge and crack with toes and fingers. He could see where he was putting his hands but his feet were blind: the angle of the cliff made looking down too hazardous. The crash of the seas reverberated around the hollow, drowning out encouragement and advice from the deck below. Kheda closed his ears to all the voices, focusing his attention on testing each new step, each new handhold. Never lifting more than a single hand or foot from the rock at one time, he forced his body mercilessly against sharp edges chiselled by wind and wave.

A shout of warning sounded beneath him an instant after a slippery ledge crumbled beneath one foot. Kheda clung to the rock with sweating hands and did his best to drive the toes of his other foot into some inadequate crevice they had found. The beat of his heart in his ears sounded as if it were echoing back from the stone he had his face pressed against. Once he was sure he was secure, he tested the cliff with his free foot. A minuscule ledge resisted some pressure then broke away. He stretched and found a larger foothold but that also fell away to crash on to the Reteul’s deck, startling cries from below. Kheda carefully withdrew his unsupported leg and turned his head as far as he could, his chest against an uncomfortably prominent point of rock. The Reteul’s mast danced before him, ropes taut against the varnished wood. Warily, he tried to look down to judge the distance but found himself committed as he lost his grip. Half-jumping, half-falling, he dropped to his hands and knees on the Reteul’s deck with a bruising thud, falling forward and sideways.

‘Are you all right?’ Risala was at his side in an instant.

He stood up. ‘I’ll survive.’ His feet and the arm he had fallen on ached abominably. ‘We need to get this boat out of here.’ He looked expectantly at Velindre. ‘And where are my swords? Dev, can we finish the beast with steel?’

The magewoman was weeping silently, tears flowing down her frozen face. We can’t sail out of here with my magic’ Her voice was soft and low but steady enough. ‘The dragon would be on us in an instant.’

‘You won’t rid your domain of such magic by sticking a sword in that dragon.’ Dev looked up, voice loud and harsh. ‘I know what it’s been doing with those gems. I could feel it. It’s made itself real. It’s escaped the mage who made it—’

No mage made that creature,’ Velindre interrupted furiously. ‘That’s a true dragon. It was never a simulacrum.’

‘Your spell could never have beaten it? Then it’s won.’ Kheda spoke the dire realisation aloud. ‘It’s here to hunt and fly wherever it wants and all you can do is draw it down on us.’

‘Is there no way you can put an end to it?’ Risala demanded frantically.

‘I don’t know,’ shouted Dev furiously. He dragged himself to his feet and Kheda saw that the wizard’s hands and face were seared with shallow burns glistening in the sun. He gestured wildly in the direction of the unseen dragon. ‘Yes, it’s a true dragon and that’s one reason it brought down your pitiful beast, Velle. That dragon is used to fighting and using its magic for its own spells. You’ll have to come up with something a cursed sight more clever for it to stand a chance of coming off best.’ He turned his withering scorn on Kheda. ‘And it’ll be up and flying and burning us to a crisp before you could stick your sword in it, you fool!’

He winced and licked at a split in his lower lip. ‘All right, Velle, what do you make of this? It’s used the rubies from those caches of gems we fed it to focus elemental fire somewhere off to the south. I can feel that much, now that the beast’s wounded, now that it’s drawing its aura back into itself. That’s how it’s healing itself,’ he warned bitterly. ‘So what do we do now, Velle?’ He raised his blistered hands in helpless fury. Because that’s a true dragon which will soon be back at the height of its powers with enough gems cached to draw on all the elemental fire between here and the central domains. You were saying they were territorial? I’d say this is that creature’s territory now, my lord Chazen Kheda—’ The fire dragon’s chilling bellow drowned out the rest of his words. Its mighty wings ripped through the air and it soared above them, heedless of the insignificant boat in the hidden hollow. It looked magnificent once more, underbelly bright as polished metal, vast against the darkening sky.

‘Can you raise a stronger dragon?’ Kheda seized Velindre’s shoulder and shook her violently. ‘Something mighty enough to defeat that creature?’

‘I don’t know.’ She wiped fresh tears from her eyes, still looking after the rapidly vanishing fire dragon. ‘Perhaps.’

‘How?’ demanded Dev, scathing.

‘From an ocean tempest,’ she retorted.

‘If we had one to hand,’ mocked Dev. ‘And if we didn’t all drown while we were about it.’

‘Dev.’ Kheda snapped his fingers to get the bald mage’s attention. ‘What is this focusing of magic you’re talking about? Has the beast made something that it relies on, something we can destroy?’ You said killing the dragon would deprive this mage we believed had summoned it of his magic’ Risala was following Kheda’s reasoning intently. ‘Can we deprive the dragon of its magic if we scatter its hoard of gems?’

‘If that weakened it, could you summon a dragon that might truly kill it?’ Kheda demanded of Velindre once more.

‘If it was weakened and, more importantly, distracted,’ she said slowly. ‘If I had a truly enormous storm to draw on. But those don’t appear to order, and like Dev said, by the time one came down on us, we’d be too busy trying to stay alive to be working magic’

‘I can tell you when a tempest is coming.’ Kheda brushed aside her objections. Would working your magic lessen such a storm’s ferocity, if you were warned in good time?’

‘Yes.’ Growing interest rose above Velindre’s wretchedness.

‘You hope,’ scoffed Dev.

Kheda silenced him with an upraised hand. ‘You said you felt this focusing of elemental fire, Dev. Can you still feel it? Could you find where the beast has hoarded its gems?’

Dev stared at him, silent for a moment. ‘Yes,’ he said finally.

‘Would scattering the hoard bring the dragon down on us, without us having to betray ourselves with your magic?’ Kheda looked from the bald wizard to the magewoman and back again. ‘You could use your magics together to attack it? If I could forecast a storm coming?’

‘Possibly.’ Some spark of his usual boldness lit Dev’s red-rimmed eyes as he looked at Velindre. ‘Focusing magic through a single gem, for a single, limited purpose, that’s done seldom enough in Hadrumal. This creature’s using a whole hoard to draw on the elemental fire all around, channelling power ceaselessly to itself.’

‘There’s no record of anyone from Trydek down having any notion of how to create such an all-pervasive spell,’ Velindre said with wonder. ‘Do you think any of the element masters would have any idea how it’s doing it? Maybe Azazir—’ She broke off with a shudder.

‘Don’t think you’re leaving now to go and debate with your fellow mages,’ interrupted Kheda harshly. ‘I’ve had enough of taking your orders.’ Dev’s hand went to his dagger hilt. ‘And I’m not playing your slave any more!’

‘Oh, stop it,’ snapped Velindre. ‘What do you want to do, Dev? Paddle the whole length of the Archipelago without using a flicker of magic, just to return to Hadrumal and tell the Council you found a true dragon, that it is somehow focusing unimaginable power through a hoard of gems but you’ve no notion how? That you were too scared to try to find out?’

‘You’re calling me scared?’ Dev drew his knife in one swift motion to threaten Velindre.

Taking him by surprise from his blind side, Risala knocked it out of his hand. Don’t be a fool, Dev!’

‘Enough,’ shouted Kheda. ‘Dev, that creature’s too close. It’s making you mad!’

The four of them staggered as the Reteul rocked violently.

‘The first thing we need to do is get safely away from here.’ Risala looked uneasily at the rocky walls enclosing them.

‘Easier said than done without Velindre’s magic,’ sneered Dev.

‘I don’t claim to be any kind of sailor without it.’ The female wizard looked grim-faced at Kheda. ‘But I can pull on a rope if you show me the right one.’

‘Risala, the two of you see to the sail,’ Kheda ordered. ‘Dev, get the stern oars out and let’s move out into the channel. We’ll take it as slowly as we can and you fend off while I steer.’

Still scowling blackly, Dev looked for a moment as if he was going to protest or refuse. Then he turned to free the long sweeps from their lashing below the rail.

Kheda moved to see what damage had been done to the rudder by the unyielding rocks.

Splintered edges but sound enough. Sufficient to get us out of here, at least. And then where to? Not back to any residence, that’s for certain.

There’s no going back for any of us till we’ve rid Chazen of this dragon or died in the attempt.