Northern Storm

Chapter Twenty-Two

The beach on Boal was a long bank of pale sand crowned with low tangles of midar. Violet flowers glowed among the long glossy leaves outspread to welcome the rains. Ragged furrows in the sand showed where the horn-backed turtles had crawled up the beach under cover of night to dig their nests and lay their eggs.

Kheda walked carefully down to the water’s edge to stroll along the firm, wet sand. Every now and then an adventurous ripple nudged at his toes. He looked down to see his feet still bruised where someone had trampled them in the chaos of the cloud dragon’s death. His face was still scabbed from the hail’s assault.

But everything is healing. Everyone is healing. And the families of those that died are honoured for the sake of those who fell fighting for Chazen’s future.

He looked along the gentle curve of the shore to the far headland where a solitary pinnacle of shaped white stone rose from a grove of nut palms.

I suppose it makes sense for Itrac to visit this particular tower of silence. Boal is where they were first attacked by the wild men and their magic, her and Chazen Saril and Olkai Chazen. I wonder what she will see in her dreams. Will echoes from those peaceful days offer her hope for an untroubled future? Or will any guidance from the past be lost in the chaos of recent events?

There’s not much I can do about that. But I can rid this domain of the last distortion of magic.

He walked towards Velindre, who was sitting some distance down the beach. Still dressed in her guise of zamorin scholar, she was leaning back on her hands with her long legs outstretched as she stared up into the sky, intent on the clouds scudding up from the south. A breeze tousled her fine blonde hair, now grown to a softness that nevertheless did little to threaten her imposture. The lines in her face were carved deeper than before, skin burned by sun and wind taut over her angular features.

‘There’ll be rain this afternoon.’ Kheda walked up the beach to the dry sand beyond the high-water mark. Mindful of the carved ironwood box he was carrying, he sat beside the magewoman.

‘Indeed.’ Velindre’s thoughts were on something else entirely.

‘You’ll be returning to your home soon, so I brought you this.’ Kheda placed the wooden box carefully on her lap.

‘What?’ Velindre dragged herself away from contemplating the skies and frowned. ‘What’s this? I want that dragon’s egg—’

‘And you’ll get it,’ said Kheda curtly. ‘This is something else.’

Velindre opened the lid of the box to reveal a plain casket of rock crystal. Iridescent dust inside sparkled in the sunlight. She went to lift the lid.

Kheda held her hand back. ‘Don’t open it.’

‘Why not?’ she asked suspiciously. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s all that remains of Dev.’ Kheda stared out over the turquoise sea, far away across the deeper blue of the open ocean to the far horizon where the sea couldn’t be distinguished from the line of turbulent clouds presaging the next wave of rainstorms. ‘And I don’t want it blowing all over this beach. Come to that, the winds from the south could carry some part of him over the entire Archipelago.’

‘Which would not be a good thing.’ Velindre looked down at the casket. ‘All things considered.’

‘You burn your dead on the mainland, so Risala tells me,’ Kheda continued with distant courtesy. ‘We don’t do that here, we don’t know your rites—but I gathered what ashes I could, in case you wanted to inter them somewhere.’

‘Fire may be the ultimate purification but you still don’t want whatever remains of Dev making any claim on Chazen’s future.’ Velindre sounded bitter.

‘Whatever good he did for the domain is honoured in the tales of his death in my service that are being told around the evening fires,’ Kheda said slowly. ‘That will suffice for his legacy.’

Velindre carefully lifted the crystal casket up and studied the contents as best she could. ‘The gems that were crushed to powder, they’re all mixed in with the ash.’

‘I couldn’t see any way of separating them.’ Kheda shrugged. ‘Or any point, come to that. Magic was woven into his very being in life.’ Velindre smiled reluctantly. ‘What about those gems that were driven into the walls of the cave? Have you recovered those?’

We have.’ Kheda allowed himself a brief, ruthless smile. With them most likely wholly ill omened, as Dev said, we’re keeping them separate and they are only to be traded with domains like that of Ulla Safar. He’s long wished me ill, so I see no harm in sending him all the bad luck I can, in return for things we need to rebuild Chazen.’

‘Which is being rebuilt apace now that galleys have come from Redigal and Aedis and even Ritsem and Jahal,’ Velindre observed.

Now that word of our victory over the dragon is spreading,’ Kheda agreed. ‘And now we have pearls to trade and a fine harvest of turtleshell.’

‘And most prized of all, dragonhide,’ said Velindre pointedly. ‘And all the other talismans you won.’

‘Quite.’ Kheda continued staring out to the southern sea.

Doesn’t this prove I was following the right course, that Chazen’s trade is so quickly restored, with so many keen to share in our good fortune?

‘Has anyone remarked on the fact that the second dragon had no gem at its heart?’ Velindre’s voice was neutral as she nodded at the faceted ruby hanging from the golden chain in the open neck of Kheda’s russet silk tunic.

No,’ Kheda said slowly. ‘I don’t suppose anyone noticed, in all the confusion. If anyone does think of it, they’ll doubtless assume I hold it for the sake of the domain.’ He glanced at her. ‘I’m curious about the scales and teeth taken from the cloud dragon. When it was dying, it was all but disintegrating, but no one’s come to me saying their trophies have turned to dust. The lengths of hide sent to Itrac are as sturdy as any other lizardskin.’

‘I’m just as curious,’ Velindre admitted frankly, still holding up the crystal casket and studying the contents. ‘I imagined it would all crumble away to nothing. Perhaps I’ve stumbled across something Azazir didn’t know. Or he knows something he didn’t care to share with me.’ She sighed. ‘There’s so much we don’t know about dragons.’

Kheda did his best to hide his distaste. ‘Surely what you’ve learned and seen means you’ve valuable lore to take back to your island of Hadrumal, along with Dev’s ashes.’

‘And the dragon’s egg.’ Velindre looked quizzically at the warlord. ‘Are you trying to get rid of me?’

‘Yes,’ Kheda replied bluntly. ‘The sooner all magic and all trace of it are gone from Chazen, the better for all of us and our future.’

‘You certainly want Itrac’s child born under the most favourable auspices possible.’ Velindre nodded with understanding.

Kheda was surprised. ‘I am glad you appreciate that.’

‘I understand a good deal more about Aldabreshin ways than you realise, my lord Chazen.’ Velindre set the casket with Dev’s ashes carefully back in the ironwood box. ‘I had plenty of time to read on the voyage south and every domain has a tradition of fine scholarship, even if we in the north are ignorant of it.’

‘I’ll be happy to supply you with all the books you want for your journey home.’ Kheda smiled tightly. ‘As well as our fastest trireme.’

‘I don’t need any boat. I can return to Hadrumal in the blink of an eye.’ Velindre closed the intricately carved lid of the box gently. ‘And I’ll take this token of Dev’s life and death back with me. He had no family that he ever acknowledged and few enough friends in Hadrumal, but there are those who should know of his fate and some who could learn from it.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Kheda honestly. ‘You must know we believe a man’s life isn’t done when he dies. Much that he was lives on, as long as those who knew him live on after him.’

‘I don’t imagine many mages will think of Dev in those terms,’ Velindre said sardonically.

Kheda got to his feet. ‘Let me know when you’re planning to leave and I’ll make sure the egg is delivered to you.’ He hesitated. ‘You will be discreet. Perhaps you should set sail with Risala for some outlying island. If anyone asks we can say you took a merchant galley north.’

‘If she can spare the time from spreading your carefully rehearsed version of events around Chazen.’ Velindre looked up at him, hazel eyes like golden onyx in the sun. ‘Or canying it to trusted traders and her friends in other domains. As I said, Chazen Kheda, I know more than you think. And just what do you propose to do for Risala?’

Kheda was thrown by the abrupt change of subject. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The girl’s in love with you.’ Velindre lifted a hand to shade her narrowed eyes. ‘Can you give her anything better than some precisely calculated share in your favours? Are you capable of returning her love, with Itrac canying a child that will link you to Chazen for all your futures?’

‘That’s none of your concern,’ Kheda retorted roughly.

‘She’s still young enough to see everything in absolutes of dark and light.’Velindre let her hand fall and returned to staring out to sea. ‘You could hurt her very badly’

‘I value her certainties.’ Kheda looked away inland but the bank of the beach hid the seldom-used residence from him. ‘Risala can see that all I have done has been for Chazen’s good and Daish’s before that. She knows all that I have done and does not condemn me.’

And I never thought to burn with such desire for a woman. No, more than simple desire. Is this truly love

‘Then be certain that what you do for her is for her own good.’ Velindre’s sharp tone interrupted his thoughts. ‘I’ll return to Hadrumal soon enough but I shall want your safe conduct to travel in the Archipelago again.’

‘What?’ Kheda shook his head in instinctive denial. No.’

‘You owe me a considerable debt, Chazen Kheda.’ Velindre stood up, brushing sand from her white cotton trousers. ‘And Dev said you were an honest man, someone to be trusted. Being such a scoundrel himself, he should know. I choose not to be repaid in pearls or gems or anything else. I have that right, you must agree?’

‘Archipelagan customs are for Aldabreshi—’ Kheda began.

Velindre overrode him. ‘It’s been custom for years beyond count that anyone choosing to live in the Archipelago should be counted as Aldabreshin, whether they were born slave or free, islander or mainlander, man, woman or zamorin?

‘Everyone living in the Archipelago is bound to a domain,’ Kheda retorted. ‘You’re not.’

Nor was Dev.’ Velindre shrugged. ‘But doesn’t rendering some signal service to a domain entitle a traveller to ask for a right of residence?’

‘Dev was an object of suspicion to several warlords,’ Kheda shot back, choosing to ignore that question. ‘Ask Risala. Shek Kul, her lord that was—he told me to find Dev in the first place. If he’d had proof, Dev would have died the death of all who use magic in these islands long since.’

‘But he didn’t have proof,’ retorted Velindre. ‘If Dev can live in the Archipelago without being discovered, I’ll bet I can. Isn’t that how you test your fate in these waters, with such a wager?’

‘Only when something of the utmost value is at stake,’ countered Kheda swiftly.

‘I wouldn’t risk myself for anything less,’ Velindre assured him. ‘I will be searching for something of tremendous value, to mages and Archipelagans alike.’

‘We hold no values in common.’ Kheda shook his head vehemently.

‘I’m not talking philosophy or morality,’ said Velindre caustically. What about more practical values of safety and security?’

‘What do you mean?’ Kheda looked askance at her. ‘You recall I told you about the currents in the air, those in the highest heavens, that I can draw on for my magic?’ Velindre gestured up towards the sky. ‘I’ve been studying them since we came here and I’ve a few notions that might interest you. I don’t think these winds normally reach these latitudes. I think they blow over the open ocean for the most part. Something has driven the torrent of air north.’

‘Why should that interest me?’ snapped Kheda.

‘Because I believe that fire dragon rode those winds to come here,’ Velindre replied calmly. ‘And if one dragon can do that, so could another and another, who knows? Don’t you want some warning if that’s likely to happen?’ She waved her hand across the flat expanse of the shore. ‘Those savages who landed here to bring magic and slaughter, where do you suppose they came from?’

‘You’ve no more notion than I have,’ scoffed Kheda angrily.

Velindre agreed, but I think they were following that current of wind in the high heavens, either by reading the clouds or seeing the element alive within it. I think they knew that dragon would be coming here and they wanted to be ready, with whatever gems and food they could gather, before it came.’

She looked inland to the wind-tossed trees, thoughtful. ‘I don’t believe they came here to take your land. I think those mages were fighting among themselves to establish who was powerful enough to use that dragon’s aura. Perhaps only the strongest would be able to hold the beast off with his own magic. I don’t think they’ve any notion of creating a simulacrum of a dragon with elemental power. Why should they, if they have true dragons? If a wizard could win a dragon’s trust so that it wouldn’t simply kill him as some rival, its aura would give him elemental power beyond imagining to draw on.’

Kheda heard fear and desire in equal measure in her voice.

And you’re the only wizard who knows any of this, now Dev is dead. Shouldn’t I kill you here and now, to stop you carrying such dangerous knowledge away with you?

Velindre rounded on him. ‘So what will you do if some wild wizard comes here with a true dragon ready to do his will? What will you do if another untamed dragon rides that highest wind to land on your shores? Or perhaps I should say “when”.’

Once you start dealing with magic, you can never be free of it, can you?

Gooseflesh rose on Kheda’s arms. ‘What will you do for us?’ he demanded. ‘To help us in such circumstances? If I let you travel the Archipelago under Chazen protection?’

‘I’ll go back to Hadrumal first, to consult our libraries and those few mages I can think of who may be trusted with this theory and not seduced by its possibilities.’ Acerbic, Velindre ticked off her points on long, nail-bitten fingers. ‘Secondly, I’ll look for any other sources of dragon lore on the mainland. Then I’ll come back to the Archipelago and search Aldabreshin scholarship for any useful knowledge. That would be much easier with a Chazen dagger at my belt and some token of yours to back me.’

‘We know nothing of dragons,’ Kheda interrupted. ‘That’s why I had to turn to you barbarians!’ Velindre shook her head. ‘I don’t mean dragon lore. I’m thinking of mariners’ tales of galleys driven out into the ocean by some misfortune. I want to hear of any strange ships washed up in these southern waters or unknown birds blown ashore by some freak storm. AH those things would be taken for portents and recorded somewhere, wouldn’t they?’

‘What good would such lore do you?’ demanded Kheda.

Velindre’s face was hard and cold. ‘These dragons and these wild men, they must live somewhere. I’ll be looking for any clues as to where we might sail to find them. Don’t you want to know where such an enemy is to be found? Don’t you want to find out what manner of threat they pose to this domain and all the rest of the Archipelago? Don’t you want to have some chance of putting an end to their evil?’

‘You talk of evil, when you’re a mage.’ Kheda threw up his hands, to stop himself drawing a knife on the wizard woman. ‘Haven’t I done enough harm by bringing wizardry into these reaches? Why should I help you find out secrets you can use to your own twisted advantage?’

‘I’m not seeking advantage, magical or otherwise.’ Velindre shook her head slowly. ‘You say I’m ignorant of the Archipelago and Aldabreshin ways but believe me, Chazen Kheda, you’re just as ignorant of wizardry as it’s practised in the north. Which is hardly surprising, if Dev was your only guide,’ she allowed, looking down at the carved wooden casket on the sand between them.

She chose her words carefully. ‘Every mage of Hadrumal, from the Archmage down, would see these wild wizards as just as much of a threat as you do. We spend our lives stepping around fear and prejudice, careful not to reawaken resentments or old tales of magical abuse. Rumour of unbounded magic in the hands of southern savages would soon run rife through the ports of the mainland coast. We wizards might not be flayed alive but we could well find ourselves shunned or stoned or worse.’

‘I fail to see how that’s my concern,’ Kheda said resolutely.

‘You call us ignorant barbarians, in the north, and up to a point that’s true. We know very little of the Archipelago and the bathers you set against our ships have stopped us learning more. You have some responsibility for our ignorance,’ Velindre challenged him. ‘If rumour of wild magic in the south runs loose, I can see you paying a price for that obduracy. Do you suppose ignorant northerners are going to make any distinction between dark-skinned, dark-eyed Aldabreshi who have no magic and the dark-skinned, dark-eyed sorcerous invaders driving them north? Because you’ll have no choice but fleeing north if a wizard with a true dragon doing his will comes here. The Shockwaves will run the entire length of the Archipelago to wash Aldabreshin up on barbarian beaches.’

‘You’re just trying to frighten me.’ Kheda shook his head to deny her words.

‘Is it working?’ Velindre shot back. He looked at her. The soft rush of surf and the scent of the midar flowers drifted through the tense silence between them.

‘You’re painting as black a picture as you can imagine,’ Kheda said at last. ‘I think the chances of such calamity are small. But I wouldn’t wager against some new danger coming out of the southern ocean.’

‘Then let me help you make ready for it,’ Velindre pleaded. ‘Yes, I have my own reasons for wanting to fathom this mystery and I don’t expect you to understand them. Does that matter when we both have much to gain as well as much to lose?’

‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend?’ Kheda quoted the old precept with a wry twist to his mouth. ‘In a pinch, perhaps, but such friends often prove faithless.’

‘What other choices do you have here?’ Velindre was unmoved. ‘Aren’t I the lesser of two evils?’

‘That’s what I thought about Dev,’ Kheda pointed out. ‘Our alliance may have benefited me but it hardly did him much good, did it?’

‘Aren’t we all responsible for the choices that lead us to our individual fates?’ Velindre countered. ‘You’ll be safe enough among the travelling scholars if you answer every question with another one.’ Kheda sighed and rubbed a hand over his beard, careful of the grazes on his face. ‘I’ll give you a token of safe conduct, so you can say you’re travelling in the islands under Chazen protection. Though I warn you, there’ll be plenty of domains where that’ll be of little worth. In return, I expect you to bring me any clue you discover as to where these savages live. You said something about using the clouds to trace this current of air that the dragons rode. I want to know if there’s any way I can read it in the skies myself, to know when we are in danger and when we are not.’

‘Fair enough.’ Velindre nodded.

Kheda forestalled her next words with a curt hand. ‘If you’re discovered to be a wizard, I shall not lift a hand to save you. I cannot imperil Chazen like that. I will forswear myself and give my oath you stole my token as well as deceiving me as to your sex and your unnatural powers.’

Velindre pursed her thin lips for a moment then nodded. ‘I can live with that.’

‘You wouldn’t say that if you were truly Aldabreshin,’ Kheda said swiftly, ‘lest there was an omen in such words.’

‘Should I hope so, or hope not?’ Velindre wondered dryly.

‘Go back to the residence.’ Kheda dismissed her with a curt jerk of his head. ‘We’ll sort out the details later.

Velindre studied him for a moment, then bent to pick up the box containing the casket with Dev’s ashes. ‘Till later.’

Kheda heard her slip in the loose sand as she climbed the long bank, muttering some incomprehensible oath as the stubborn midar plants scratched at her feet. Out across the water, he watched the rain clouds approaching.

The stars turn and bring rainy and dry seasons one after another. Every year the new-year stars return to realign themselves with the heavenly compass. Even the furthest jewels of the heavens eventually return to the same points, even if it takes an old man’s lifespan to see it. Everything is the same and yet everything is different. Everything is affected by what has gone before. Some sages say everything happens in the same instant, outside of time as we know it.

How could I have expected this to be an end of it all? There are no ends, any more than there are beginnings. Everything depends on everything else. These calamities depend on far more than I can see or hope to understand. What do I know of dragons or magic or these hidden wizards of Velindre’s? What do I want to know of such things?

So what are you going to do? Are you going to sit on your hands and lament your misfortune like some beggar or slave refusing to acknowledge the part he has played in his own fate? Or are you going to lose yourself in mystic contemplation of the infinite like some soothsayer starving himself to death for fear of making a wrong choice?

No man can halt the wheeling skies any more than he can stop the passing of the days and his life with them. All he can do is watch for the omens to guide him to better choices. Let’s see what lore Velindre brings back to show us some path to keep ourselves safe from these wild mages and their dragons. If she manages to make good on such a promise, won’t that be an omen, in itself?

He turned away from the uncommunicative sea and looked at the distant tower of silence.

In the meantime, I have offered up another innocent hostage to the future by getting a child on Itrac. I owe her the best future I can contrive, as my wife, as recompense for all she has suffered in the past, even if that was none of my doing. If I can do this, if I can see Chazen’s people set fair, perhaps that will balance the account against my involvement with magic.

If I can put an end to this magical danger once and for all, even if it means working with Velindre, perhaps that will outweigh the compromises I have made. Perhaps I can earn myself a better future. Perhaps I can earn the right to make choices for myself alone. Perhaps Risala will be able to wait for me.