Northern Storm

Chapter Three

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the notion of a warlord’s residence without walls. It was strange enough visiting this place when it was Chazen Sari’s. Now that it’s mine, this openness feels more wrong than ever.

‘Well done, Shaiam, we’re here in good time to celebrate the new-year stars.’ Kheda made sure warm approval rang through his words as he called out to the shipmaster. ‘You’ve all earned a consideration when the pearl harvest is gathered in.’

That declaration garnered Kheda loud cheers from rowers bone weary from nine days’ hard labour. He was more concerned with searching the seas ahead for any sign of visiting ships.

What interest does Daish have in the Chazen pearl harvest? What prompted a trading flotilla to sail south when no other domain feels inclined to risk these waters just yet? How long have they been here and what have they done? Who is leading their delegation?

The sun was low in the west and Kheda shaded his eyes with one hand to try to see what vessels might be at anchor within the lagoon surrounding the chain of islets long favoured by Chazen’s warlords as their dry-season home. The ships remained stubbornly anonymous, mere black silhouettes against the vivid orange of the evening sky.

The Mist Dove slowed. Shaiam showed no sign of having heard Kheda’s words of praise, intent as he was on negotiating the maze of reefs that served as the first line of defence for the residence. Yere gripped his steering oars, sitting with back straight and alert for any word from the shipmaster or any signal from the lookouts perched on the projecting bow timbers. Kheda moved to look down over the trireme’s side, Reddish coral crags appeared impossibly close as the galley’s hull slid through the crystal-clear water.; Brilliant fish darted in and out of the crevices with a twitch of their tails. Jaunty painted fools with wide white masks stayed close to the deceptive tentacles of sea flowers vivid as living ruby or golden quartz. Steel and sapphire shoals of blade fish cut circles around the duller humpbacked drift fish idling along. Down in the deeps, cobalt sea stars and giant green-lipped clams sat placidly in patches of rippled whiteness among mossy green fernlike fronds.

Dev came to stand beside Kheda. ‘What by all that’s holy is he doing?’ the barbarian demanded, gazing down incredulously at a figure beneath the water.

‘Fishing.’ Kheda smiled despite himself. ‘He’s a pearl diver in from the outer reefs.’

An islander sat quite motionless on the sandy sea floor near a round bulge of mottled brown coral. A shoal of sunset fish nosed along the contorted grooves incised in the outcrop, turning from orange to yellow as the light struck them. Then everything vanished in a flurry of sand and shimmering scales.

‘See.’ Kheda pointed as the islander emerged from the cloud of sand, kicking urgently for the surface. He had a fish in each hand, his thumbs hooked through their gills, The man surfaced with an explosive gasp for air, treading water for a moment before swimming towards a basket he had left floating between two empty wax-sealed gourds. A rope with a stone on the end was anchoring it against the ebb and flow of the curious tide.

‘You don’t think he’d find it easier to use a net?’ Dev wondered sarcastically.

‘Easier but less impressive where the residence girls are concerned.’ Kheda smiled.

‘I should try that.’ There was a lascivious edge to Dev’s chuckle. ‘If that’s what it takes to get a girl to spread her legs.’

‘You don’t think you might get invited into some maid’s quilts if you just let your hair and beard grow in?’ Kheda queried. ‘Half the girls think you must be a man’s man and the rest keep trying to find a discreet way of confirming you’re zamorin.’

‘Ah, but looking so different—that’s all part of my intriguing barbarian mystery, isn’t it?’ Dev ran a hand over his bald head and clean-shaven chin. But maybe I should let some lass into my secret. That would get me half-way to a decent new-year celebration at the very least.’ He glanced over his shoulder to be sure Yere and Shaiam were still intent on their tasks and lowered his voice still further. ‘How long do you think I could get away with staying down for? A count of a hundred? You could win all the wagers you wanted on me—if you shared the take.’

Kheda quelled the barbarian with a warning glare and the heavy trireme went on to pass through the main channel between the outer reefs without incident. Warlord and wizard gazed at the islands lying within the thorny palisade of corals. Men and women were busy around fire pits dug into the white beaches, others hurrying in and out of the long huts set among the nut palms and neat gardens that patterned each scrap of land. Savoury smoke floating across the evening stillness promised feasting and the rowers below stirred and murmured among themselves.

At the centre of the broad lagoon a string of islets lay like gems in a necklace separated by golden links. With no more than a few buildings on each one, these islands I were linked by chains of bridges.

Which can be cut if needs must, to defend one avenue of attack while Chazen swordsmen take other paths over bridges, ropes and boats to strike back at an enemy from side and rear. Defence doesn’t always mean ramparts. With few enough walk to hide behind, any attackers would always be open to arrows from some direction. And if they did take the buildings, what then? The rulers of Chazen would be long gone. No enemy could hope to maintain a blockade around such an expanse of reef. And what enemy could arrive unexpected, with the bulwark of the entire domain between this warlord’s residence and any peril sailing south from the wider Archipelago?

Kheda looked at the well-tended gardens set here and . there along the innermost islands. Trees and underbrush had been long since cleared to leave only the most carefully selected specimens. The beds around them weren’t planted with sailer grain or kitchen vegetables like the outer islands devoted to the prosaic business of growing food and necessities to keep the warlord’s residence supplied. A wide variety of shrubs and plants was care-, fully tended, some vivid with flowers or brightly coloured leaves, others mere creeping mats of dullness but cherished all the same.

‘I imagine there’ll be a fair few healers come to ask my advice and beg for seedlings,’ Kheda said to Dev.

‘Let them know I’ll make myself available tomorrow afternoon.’ I’ll have more than enough to occupy me till then, even if that will give you all the more time to line your pockets will whatever the most desperate will offer you for a chance to reach my presence ahead of the others.

‘You’ll be letting them take away some of your distilled liquor, I take it?’ Dev shot a sideways glance at Kheda. Because they will use it in tinctures and lotions for healing the sick, not for addling their wits,’ retorted the warlord. ‘And you’ll have no credibility as my slave if anyone sees you drunk, even if you are a barbarian.’

‘So much for the comforts of home.’ Dev glowered. We’ll be toasting the new year with your piss-poor excuse for wine, then, will we?’

Kheda was unmoved. ‘And no one will start a fight like some drunken barbarian or fall down dead tomorrow morning with the blood too thick to flow in their veins.’

‘That’s just a myth to keep your swordsmen clearheaded and you know it.’ Dev stared moodily out over the anchorage. ‘I’d have found plenty of people here willing to trade something shiny for northern liquor or leaf if I still had my own boat.’

‘Then I’d definitely have had you flogged.’ Kheda gave a noncommittal shrug. ‘And I’ve seen more than one man who dropped dead for no more reason than an uncommonly hot day following a drunken night.’ The trireme picked its way carefully towards the innermost islands. The buildings were markedly different from the huts of polished wood and tidy palm thatch elsewhere—here they were stone-built pavilions, some long and low, some hollow squares, all roofed with gleaming turquoise tiles. Broad eaves shaded wide steps on all sides where benches were set for those summoned to their lord or lady’s presence but not yet admitted to the inner courts. Generous windows stood open to the breezes; pale yellow muslin drapes within teased out over the sills here and there. Sturdy hakali-wood shutters were pinned back against the white walls, ready to be closed with the fall of rapidly approaching dusk

‘It’ll be some job packing all this up when the rains come.’ Dev shook his head at the flurry of activity along the shore as servants and slaves hurried to make ready for the trireme’s arrival.

‘It’s that or spend the wet season up to our ankles in water,’ Kheda pointed out. ‘And we’d get blown clear across the domain by the storms in any case.’ Then these luxurious dwellings will be stripped bare of everything up to and including those shutters. House lizards and palm finches can come and go as they wish and the fiercest winds can rush through the buildings unhindered. We will all have sailed north to bigger islands less vulnerable to the whirlwinds, trading the safety of this openness for a very different fortress and relying on the rains to close the waterways to all but Chazen vessels. If I feel an interloper here, how much more will I seem a trespasser there?

The Mist Dove approached her customary berth, careful not to hinder the six-oared supply boats toiling across the lapis lazuli water, weighed down with baskets and bundles for the warlord’s household. Kheda noted the bare patches still scarring the physic gardens and black charring on the trunks of the larger trees.

Should we be risking ourselves by staying? Building hen with the rest of the domain between them and the wider Archipelago had been a sound enough strategy for the rulers of Chazen until invaders appeared out of the southern ocean that everyone believed was an empty waste of water. What use wen all these carefully planned networks of bridges and channels when the savages’ wizards could send fire leaping across the empty air and throw paths of solid cloud across the seas?

Visceral loathing of magic curdled Kheda’s belly.

But you were the one who brought Dev here, as the only hope you could find to battle the savages’ wizards. And you still owe him a mighty debt, after he nearly lost his life n doing so.

Oblivious, the barbarian mage was gazing at the beautiful pavilions. ‘Itrac Chazen has worked wonders, hasn’t she?’

‘Indeed,’ Kheda agreed, his face a neutral mask.

Because what little wealth this devastated domain could salvage has been traded for pretty tiles, costly marbles and whitewash to cover the smoke stains. And men and women have been taken from trying to rebuild their pitiful homes to bring shiploads of clean sand to cover the blood on the beaches.

But how could they believe themselves secure or have any confidence in their future if they did not have their warlord and his lady displaying the pride and honour of the domain in their luxurious home and their lavish household? What other domains would deign to trade with Chazen if all we had to offer was a pauper’s hovel?

He glanced across to one of the anchorages cut into the reef to accommodate any deep-keeled ship visiting this restored seat of Chazen power. A great galley wallowed between sturdy hawsers secured to wooden piles driven deep into the coral. Oars were shipped in their ports on the middle of the three roomy decks, rowers doubtless now resting in the vast cargo holds beneath. Varka gulls wheeled around the tops of the three permanent masts that were always ready to take advantage of any wind that might aid the toiling oarsmen in their voyages between the domains.

My shoulders ache just at the recollection of taking an oar on such a vessel.

‘One of yours?’ Dev asked Kheda as he studied the galley with interest. ‘Daish’s, I mean.’ Kheda chewed his lip. ‘It’s the Sun Bird. Rekha Daish’s favourite ship.’

Her favourite sun birds are the roseate kind barely bigger than the thumb-sized myrtali flowers they feed from. That’s the only gardening Rekha does, cultivating the bushes to attract them. Tiny birds, so dainty and quick, and she names a lumbering hulk for them. Why did she do that?

‘So every man aboard will be loyal to her, with all their hopes of profit tight in her manicured hand.’ Dev regarded the deserted deck of the galley with something perilously close to a scowl.

No Daish islander ever lost out following Rekha’s lead on what to trade and where,’ commented Kheda. ‘And plenty of warlords’ wives reckon they’ve done well if their ledgers come out even when they’ve concluded a deal with her. You can count the number of those coming out ahead of her over the course of a year on the fingers of one hand.’

‘I don’t see Itrac being one of them,’ Dev murmured under his breath.

No, nor do I, but I don’t see Rekha coming here just for trade, not at the very start of the year when everyone should be close to home and family, to share in the celebrations and debate the auguries of such an auspicious day.

Sirket mill be taking the auguries alone this year. I hope they are favourable for you, my son.

‘She’s brought her own triremes, I see.’ Dev squinted at the lithe vessels with their upcurved sterns and prows anchored in the open water of the lagoon.

‘We can hardly take offence at that,’ said Kheda reluctantly. ‘Chazen waters haven’t been overly safe of late.’

Is that why Rekha’s here, rather than Janne Daish? Second wife rather than first wouldn’t be quite suck an ominous loss, Though the loss of Rekha’s acumen would be a grievous blow to Daish. What is she seeking that she reckons worth the risk of this voyage? What has she brought here in those capacious holds and what might she be looking to take away in them’!

The Mist Dove lurched gently as the trireme eased into her berth and those rowers taking a rest from their oars to act as the sail crew hurried to secure the mooring ropes.

‘So what’s the plan when we’re ashore?’ Dev watched islanders ashore throw ropes to enable the trireme’s crew to haul a floating walkway alongside.

‘I’ll go and read the immediate auguries from the obser—

vatory while you see what Itrac’s come up with by way of suitable finery for me.’ Kheda nodded at the modest tower rising three storeys high beyond a low pavilion set alone on the most easterly islet. He grimaced. ‘Then I will greet my present lady wife and we’ll discuss how best to deal with my former spouse.’

‘Do you think there’ll be a cat-fight for your favours?’ Dev chuckled unsympathetically. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t rather sail straight for the western isles and some open, honest warfare?’

‘Just keep your mouth shut and your eyes open,’ said Kheda brusquely.

I’d gag you if I thought I could get away with it. You may make a convincing enough show as a body slave when it comes to fetching and carrying and exploiting all the feuds and affiances of a household but you’re not going to be much use in these skirmishes, barbarian. I can’t send you to practise your sword skills with Rekha’s slave; Andit would know you for a fraud before you’d even drawn your blades. So there’s no chance of discreet backhand communications to temper what might be said in public for reasons of dignity or deception.

Will Itrac be inclined to share whatever she might learn through her Jevin’s not-so-casual conversations? Though he’s as green as she is, both of them out of their depth when it comes to dealing with a seasoned traveller like Rekha. What wouldn’t I give for just one slave as astute and experienced as Telouet? ‘My thanks once again, Shipmaster Shaiam, to you and all your crew. Now, my final order is that you celebrate your new year with all the feasting and merriment that this place can offer you!’ Kheda waved towards a long sand bar in the midst of the anchorage where bonfires and torches were being lit. The pipers from a handful of ships were already playing for a circle of girls dancing between trestle tables being stacked high with platters of meat and steaming cook pots. As the Mist Dove’s crew turned to the prospect with an approving cheer, the warlord vaulted over the trireme’s stern rail without further ceremony.

Dev hit the planks behind him with a solid thump and a jingle of chain mail. ‘I don’t know about you, my lord,’ he said fervently, but I will be truly glad to get out of this armour.’

‘Indeed.’ Kheda strode on ahead to solid ground, taking a fork in the path of raked sand that led towards the observatory tower. Maidservants were coming the other way, all clothed in simple white dresses with embroidery echoing the patterns of the reef fish or the brilliant birds twittering in the trees and shrubs. One carried a basket laden with green leaves wrapped around tiny blue flower spikes, the next a bushel of yellow zera shoots, black earth still clinging to their red roots.

As the girls bowed and withdrew to the sides of the path, Kheda smiled at them. ‘We’ll be greeting the year’s new stars with a fine feast, I see.’

‘Absolutely, my lord,’ one replied, the girls dipping in demure obeisance.

Two men behind hesitated. They carried a turtle between them in a plaited rope sling, its scaled flippers tied tight to the brown and grey shell as long as a man’s leg.

‘We’ll go around you.’ Kheda raised a hand and suited his actions to his words before the turtle hunters could demur. Off the path the ground was sandy, sparse grass soft beneath his feet.

‘Turtle meat’s such a rare luxury in the north,’ Dev observed wryly. ‘I never thought to tire of it, but if you could find a sack of pearls for a side of beef, I’d be truly grateful.’

Kheda spared him a glance as they crossed the swaying walkway to the next small island. ‘I wouldn’t mind a decent-sized deer to roast.’

But I’ll look ver carefully for the snare that comes with it if Rekha offers me one.

Clusters of palm saplings surrounded the pavilion on the furthest island, each one sheltering carefully tended seedlings of red cane and vizail. Servants and slaves hovered on the steps, smiles ingratiating, all dressed alike in cerulean blue, trousers and tunics spotless. Gold and silver clasps shone brightly at wrists and ankles and the men all had hair and beards neatly trimmed and dressed with oil. The women wore fresh flowers woven into their braids or tucked behind turtleshell combs holding flowing black locks away from their round, smiling faces.

Itrac’s doing her best to show Rekha Daish that we of Chazen are no paupers.

Kheda smiled in return and paused to hand Dev his helmet, then unbuckled his swords. ‘Take this inside, all of it.’ He unlaced the neck of his hauberk and, ducking his head with practised suddenness, shook the chain mail down over his body and outstretched arms. As the weight of the metal pulled the armour to the ground with a rattling thump, Kheda stood upright with a heartfelt sigh of relief and ripped off the sweat-stained padded tunic that had protected him from the bruising rings. He relished the touch of the evening breeze on his sweaty skin, then wrinkled his nose at his own odour.

‘Get a bath ready, Dev, while I look for any immediate auguries relating to our return. Send a message to my lady Itrac to say I’ll call on her shortly. Find out if we’re dining with Rekha Daish. Oh, and put the talismans we collected on the voyage in the observatory.’

Ignoring the uncertain glances the resident slaves were exchanging among themselves, he headed for the observatory clad only in his worn and crumpled trousers.

Of course I could just strip off and swim in the sea. No, better not set everyone fretting about how I fail to conduct myself with all the decorum of a warlord. There are always so many eyes on me here. And Daish eyes, too, today. What do they see, now I’m no longer their lord?

Because I am Chazen’s warlord. I chose to seize this domain rather than fight Sirket for the one I was born to. Let’s start this new year remembering that, as I read the skies when the stars align to mark the return of the heavenly compass. But what are the immediate portents for our return? The lowest level of the observatory was a broad circular building roofed with the same turquoise tiles as the pavilion. The tower rose in the centre, a white pillar with its uppermost level open to the sky. Kheda pushed open the door and, ignoring the arches opening to wide half-circular halls on either side, he took the spiral stairs up the core of the tower. The upper floor of glazed black tiles was marked with curling ochre patterns within each quarter of the compass. The carvings on the waist-high balustrade divided each quarter into three. Kheda had no need to read the lyrical script scrolling along the wooden rail, detailing the wisdom of generations in divining the omens that would arise in each arc of the heavenly and earthly compasses. He turned to the east, his expression hard.

Is it significant that it’s customary to look first to the arc of marriage, when I’m about to dine with one former, doubtless angry wife and one quite likely still resentful at being forced into wedding me?

The eastern sky was unhelpfully blank. Kheda dropped his gaze to the lavender-tinted sea below. There was nothing to see; no birds in flight, no ripple running against the flow of the waters. There was nothing cast up on the white sand of a distant barren reef or on the narrow shore below him.

But there is always a portent. Daish Reik told you that. You just need the wit to see it and the skill to read it. Are you still stained by magic, unable to read the signs that tie you to past and future?

He swung around in an impatient arc, scanning the horizon. The setting sun dazzled him. Kheda raised an involuntary hand to shield his eyes.

This is where I should be reading the sky, where the new-year stars, brightest in the sky, rise in direct opposition to the coming dawn. This is where our futures will be seen, my own and the domain’s together. For our futures are as one from now on, aren’t they?

Well, you can’t do that till the sun has set, so what else can you learn from the skies?

Slowly, he turned back to look at the darkening east. Even with the augural constellations barely visible, Kheda knew exactly where they lay. It took him but a moment to calculate where the vibrant jewels that traversed the heavens would appear as the night deepened.

There’s nothing to see in the arc that governs marriage beyond the stars of the Yora Hawk that signify adversaries to hand. I hardly need the skies to tell me that. What I don’t see is any clue as to what lies ahead for me in my dealings with Itrac and Rekha both.

No such confusion clouds the arc of death, next around the compass. The Lesser Moon, the Pearl of the heavens, is a mere nail-paring. With the Pearl the most potent talisman for the Daish domain, is that the final sign for me at the close of the year, that I am truly dead to Daish? The Amethyst shines there, too, gem to counsel reflection and humility in accepting one’s fate.

But even in the arc of death omens, the Sailfish swims through the deep distances of the sky. That’s a symbol of good fortune when it coincides with either moon, and of life, like the sailfish in the sea rising to spawn in the moonlight.

Kheda turned abruptly to look to the arc of the compass opposite the faint sickle of the Lesser Moon and the dimly seen Amethyst.

I should have sought guidance from the heavens before now. There are potent conjunctions in this sky for all who rule. The Diamond will shine there before much longer, gem of clarity of mind, of warding against corruption, talisman for all warlords. It rises in the arc of wealth, both material possessions and those intangible things that a wise man values: peace, health and goodwill. That’s where the Sapphire rides, too, slowest of the heavenly gems tracing through the sky, patient counsellor reminding us to trust our intuition. What do those jewels signify in collaboration with the Sea Serpent’s writhing stars? That’s a sign of mysteries, of hidden forces and conundrums that will be resolved in time. Is that what I must do, bide my time and value what I have, trusting that all will be well?

The hairs on Kheda’s neck bristled as a cool breeze brushed across his back.

But there are calls to action elsewhere in the sky. The Greater Moon, Opal talisman for harmony and truth, shines beside the Hoe that reminds us how a man must toil in nurturing the land that supports us all. Constellation and gem are both in the arc of travel. Is this where my journey has brought me, to a future working for Chazen?

What of the arc of duty? The Ruby calls for courage and shines among the stars of the Spear that reminds all men, rulers most of all, of the need for determination in meeting any challenge. And the Ruby is talisman against fire. With the Emerald there as talisman of valour for all those taking up arms to secure peace. The Topaz that takes a full year to traverse each separate arc of the sky will move into the arc of foes directly opposite, tomorrow when the stars are aligned. Topaz, talisman gem for all who seek wisdom. My path is clear, surely? Let’s start the new year sailing west to put an end to these invaders once and for all.

Kheda looked across the observatory. A line drawn between the Emerald and Ruby and the Diamond and Sapphire cut across one-third of the circle.

The last corner of that triangle should offer a potent sign in the arc of the compass governing honour and ambition. What stars are there? The Canthira Tree, symbol of death and rebirth, whose seeds need the fire that consumes the parent before they can sprout anew.

Can you doubt it any longer, that Chazen is where your future lies, where you must make your mark as man and warlord alike?

Why does such incontrovertible testimony bring no relief but rather an ever heavier sense of burden? Footsteps in the halls below caught Kheda’s ear. He turned his back on the sky and hurried down the stairs. ‘Dev? Is my bath ready? Oh, Rekha—’

His erstwhile wife was standing in the archway that led to the west-facing hall on the ground floor of the observatory. Leaning casually against the plastered stone painted with flowering vines, Rekha Daish was long-limbed and effortlessly elegant. The merest sheen of silver highlighted her dark eyes and a gloss of red softened her tempting lips. Her sleeveless travelling gown was a simple affair of fine rose silk, the lustrous colour flattering the warm brown of her flawless skin. The dress was fastened on each shoulder with a pair of simple silver brooches, her long earrings fashioned to match. A necklace in the same design nestled at the base of her throat and Kheda noted how the low-cut neck of the gown exposed the firm swell of her breasts. A belt of broad silver links emphasised her slender waist and as she took a step forward, he glimpsed the smoothness of her thigh through the side-slit skirt.

‘Kheda.’ Half-smiling, she brushed back a lock of her lustrous black hair that had escaped the confines of an array of silver combs. Silver bangles whispered musically down her arm.

‘Rekha Daish.’ Kheda made a formal bow and laid just the faintest emphasis on her domain name. ‘I didn’t expect to see you at this residence at such a time, never mind in my personal halls. Where’s Andit?’ he asked with scant ; courtesy.

‘Seeing to my unpacking in the guest pavilion on the central isle. I never knew that Chazen Saril collected star circles,’ Rekha mused, with an inconsequential wave towards the westerly hall where lamplight shone on an array of bronze and copper discs hanging on the walls. Then she took a pace forward and laid one slender hand on his bare chest. ‘You look well, Kheda, for a man we all thought dead and lost to us.

Forgive my lack of etiquette, but I had to see you for myself, just the two of us.

His skin tensed at her touch. Her perfume was attar of roses, subtle and intoxicating and powerfully reminiscent of the pale golden blooms, ruby-hearted, that grew only in the compound of the Daish rainy season residence, nowhere else in the entire domain. Kheda looked down at Rekha’s hand, her long fingers tipped with silver-varnished almond-shaped nails.

Beautifully manicured. Just as Dev predicted.

‘It can never just be the two of us.’ Kheda took Rekha’s hand off his chest and stepped away. ‘It never was.’

No,’ she agreed warmly, moving closer once more. We shared our children—’

‘You misunderstand me, my lady of Daish,’ Kheda said sharply. ‘Far more things divide us now, you and me, than ever tied us together. That was your choice, yours and my lady Janne’s.’

‘What of your choice, Kheda, to leave us all mourning you as dead?’ Rekha’s fine features hardened slightly, the tip of her aquiline nose thinning. ‘To set Sirket the challenge of establishing himself as warlord, with him barely grown and in a time of unprecedented upheaval?’

‘Unprecedented upheaval and attack from beyond the Archipelago, with magic no less, something not seen in these southerly reaches for time out of mind.’ Kheda spoke with biting precision. ‘When far from uniting against this appalling threat, our neighbouring domains could only bicker among themselves. Ulla Safar even tried to kill me for his own selfish purposes, you know that.’ He paused to swallow his rising ire.

‘I read the omens and saw the signs telling me I had to go in search of some means to counter these savage sorceries. I couldn’t do that with every eye following me, with the pomp of a warlord weighing me down and hindering my progress through every domain. And I didn’t feign my own death; I merely let people believe that Ulla Safar had finally succeeded in murdering me. Desperate times call for desperate courses, Rekha. I wish I hadn’t had to do it, but isn’t our victory over the savages proof that I was following the right path?’

Though I still have to extricate myself from the mire I’ve landed myself in as a consequence. Where are the signs to show me a way out of this?

‘But what of us—your wives, your heartbroken, grieving sons and daughters?’ Rekha’s dark eyes searched Kheda’s face.

‘I would have come back to you and made all amends I could,’ Kheda said with low fury. ‘It was Janne Daish who made that impossible for me. Go and seek answers from her.’

Neither of them spoke for a long, still moment, then Rekha shifted her gaze to the archway behind Kheda with a shake of her head that sent her long black hair rippling to her waist. The familiar gesture teased Kheda’s memory.

She shakes her head like that when she’s unsure of herself, not that that happens much more often than a moonless night. Or unsure of me—she did that a lot when we were first married.

‘You assuredly saved the Chazen domain from calamity.’ Rekha’s tone was more conciliatory. ‘And it was only right that you should claim these isles with Chazen Saril dead. You certainly earned such a reward with your sacrifices. And don’t blame Janne for doing all she could be sure Daish Sirket was able to continue his rule unchallenged as his reward for securing the domain in such a time of fear and peril. You could only have returned by taking up arms against your own son and none of us would have wanted that.’

‘I’m sure Sirket and I could have settled matters between us, if Janne Daish hadn’t set herself so implacably against my return,’ Kheda said coldly.

And fed Chazen Saril a meal of poisoned shellfish to leave him dead at my feet, to force me into a choice between fighting with my own son to reclaim my birthright or turning to secure this masterless domain before some other of my rivals or enemies did so. Where would Daish have been then? ‘You would never guess what devastation had been done \nere.’ Rekha was looking all around the hallway, her face admiring. She smiled, this time conspiratorial. ‘I would dearly love to know just how you defeated those wild mages, my husband.’

‘That is a Chazen secret, my lady of Daish,’ Kheda replied, unmoved. ‘And I am most assuredly no longer your husband, nor you my wife.’

‘From all I hear, Itrac Chazen is a wife in name only and you’ve taken no concubines or slaves to your bed.’ As she spoke, Rekha’s swift steps closed the gap between them. She laid her elegant hand on Kheda’s chest again, fingertips caressing. ‘You must be having a long, dry season.’ She raised her eyes to his, running the tip of her tongue along her luscious lips. ‘As, of course, am I. We can none of us marry again, me or Janne or Sain, without being forced to choose between abandoning the children we’ve borne to Daish or running the risk of bringing a man to the domain who might rise to challenge Sirket.’

Kheda laughed out loud in sheer surprise. You’re inviting me to your bed, Rekha? Or what, to lay you down on these bare tiles and quench my thirst between your thighs?’ He shook his head, pretending more amusement than he felt. ‘Forgive me, but of all we shared when we were married, lusts of the flesh came a long way down the list. Be honest, Rekha, you only invited me to your bed under the stars you favoured for getting pregnant and you were always swift to call a halt to such pleasures once you had quickened.’

‘You don’t think I might regret such hardhearted practicality?’ She raised one perfectly shaped brow. ‘Or desire what I have lost?’

She pressed against him, so close that he could feel her warmth through the fine silk of her dress, her soft breasts against his bare chest. Perfidious memory reminded him of her nakedness, clad only in the unbound midnight of her hair scented with roses.

Her voice trembled. ‘I wept for you, Kheda, until I had no more tears to shed.’

‘I never thought you hardhearted, Rekha.’ Kheda fought a rising desire to take her in his arms and kiss her. That wasn’t the only thing rising and he backed away, hoping she had not felt his body’s treacherous urgency. ‘I thought you the most clear-headed woman born to any domain I knew and that’s what I prized in you above all else. No warlord’s lady ever served her domain better in her trading. I take it that’s what’s brought you here? But surely you could have waited to see in the new year back in Daish before bringing your proposals for Itrac’s consideration?’

Rekha was making a considerable business of taking out and replacing one of her silver combs. When she looked at Kheda again, her face was calm, her voice composed. ‘Itrac is a dear girl and we are very fond of her, Janne and me, having sheltered her through the crisis that overwhelmed her domain last year. We wouldn’t dream of seeking to take advantage of her in trade, any more than we would one of our own daughters. Ask her yourself.’ Rekha gestured vaguely at the ceiling of the entrance hall with its ornate paintwork. ‘Min-el Ulla would never have let the tiles to reroof these buildings leave her craftsmen if she had known where they would end up. It was Janne and me who persuaded Taisia Ritsem to act as go-between. Now Itrac has her home restored, as was her heart’s desire.’ She sounded genuinely pleased.

‘I’m sure she will be properly grateful for a long time to come,’ agreed Kheda. ‘But I’m still curious to know what brings you here at the turn of the year.’

Rekha folded her arms and looked frankly at him. ‘Every warlord will be reading the omens for trade in the new-year stars and the wives of every domain will be sending the order to ready their fleets. No one will sail with the Greater Moon waning but by the time it’s back to the full, the sea lanes will be thronged with galleys.’

‘So you’re looking to get ahead of the tide?’ Kheda queried sceptically.

‘Precious few will be Voming here,’ said Rekha bluntly. Not to islands stormed by savage magic, where the seas ran red with the blood of slaughtered islanders.’

‘A stain cleansed by the blood of those invaders as soon as I made it safe for Daish and Ritsem to attack without fear,’ Kheda retorted.

Rekha nodded with a regretful moue. ‘Most domains honour you for that, but they still won’t risk their ships and goods in these waters. Not when we are all still unsure how deep the taint of magic runs in Chazen. Not when there are still the remnants of those unspeakable savages lurking in your westernmost isles.’

‘Then I’ll offer you valuable news to take north with you,’ Kheda said curtly. ‘I will be sailing to put the last of them to sword and cleansing fire just as soon as the new-year festivities are done.’

‘How long will that take, Kheda? Even one fugitive can lead a hunting party a merry chase and you dare not leave the smallest of islands until you are sure beyond doubt that not a single savage remains.’ Rekha shook her head. ‘Merchants won’t be sailing this far south, not till word sprearls that it’s truly safe and that won’t be soon enough to save your trade this year. And you need trade to restore this domain. You need tools and seasoned wood to rebuild, pots and cloth and so much else to refurnish your people’s homes. But merchants need not risk your waters. They have plenty of other places to trade their wares. And none of the neighbouring domains’ ladies will risk their standing with their people by ordering reluctant vessels south.’

Her tone became ominous. ‘You need ships and swords in case these invaders return. You need food to see you all through the end of the dry season, until the rains bring your next round of crops to harvest. You need full storehouses so your young men can be spared to train with those swords, rather than spending all their time with their hoes and their hunting dogs just to keep everyone fed.’

Chazen is fully mindful of her responsibilities and I of mine,’ interrupted Kheda.

‘We don’t want to see Itrac fail, Janne and I.’ Rekha moved to stand silhouetted against the evening light falling through the doorway. The silk of her dress was sheer enough that her slender nakedness beneath was clearly outlined. ‘We don’t want to see her rebuffed and humiliated if she tries dealing with the other domains herself. We want to help. We can make the trades for her. We can pass off Chazen pearls as our own.’

Did you think I would miss that calculating glint in your eye, Rekha, if I was satiated with the pleasures of your flesh! Do you think I have forgotten that your body has always been a commodity you trade when it suits you? No harm in that and you’ve often done well by Daish as a consequence. Not this time, though, and I am no longer Daish to admire you for trying.

‘All such matters are Itrac Chazen’s concern.’ Kheda skirted around Rekha to reach the door. ‘She is this domain’s first wife.’

‘First wife?’ Rekha called after him. When she had been third wife and barely wed a year to Chazen Saril, who chose her for her charms far more than her brains, Why shouldn’t he, when there was no reason to expect she’d have such burdens thrust upon her?’

She shook her head, so vehemently that her earrings jingled. ‘Which was all very well, Kheda, but now she has burdens beyond her strength to shoulder. How is she to fulfil all the duties of a warlord’s wives on her own;

Shouldn’t you be looking to your posterity by now!

There’s no sign of her being with child and there’s no chance she will quicken any time soon with you spending all your time apart, each busy about your own duties round the domain and seldom in the same residence inside the same phase of either moon.’

‘Is this why you’re here?’ Kheda rounded angrily on Rekha. ‘What are you hoping for? That I’d plough your furrow for old times’ sake and if you should prove fertile ground, I’d invite you to quit Daish for Chazen? Of course, as mother of this domain’s only child, you would naturally become first wife. Is that it? Are you finally tired of standing in Janne’s shadow?’

Or is Janne’s shadow falling between us here? This smells far more of her perfume than yours, Rekha. Andjanne would know what I have been missing through this long, solitary season. She was the one who first taught me the delights of the marriage bed, when I was just a callow youth and she the sophisticated beauty in her glorious prime.

Rekha’s stinging slap rocked Kheda’s head sideways and scattered his wrathful thoughts. ‘How dare you think I am anything but loyal to Daish,’ she hissed furiously.

‘Excuse me, Rekha Daish.’ He managed to turn his heated thoughts into icy formality. ‘As I’ll forgive you for presuming on our previous acquaintance to risk such a remarkable breach of etiquette in speaking to me like this. I will see you at dinner. I certainly don’t want to see you again before.’

Without a backward glance, he turned and walked swiftly out of the building. Two men pushed themselves away from the outer wall where they had been leaning. Both wore the same vivid blue silk that now clad all the household.

‘Dev.’ Kheda gave a curt nod to either side as they flanked him. ‘Jevin. How long were you there?’

‘Long enough,’ Dev replied smugly. ‘Do you want a poultice for that cheek?’ he asked with unctuous solicitude.

Kheda ignored the barbarian, fixing his attention on the Archipelago-born slave. ‘My lady Itrac will be most interested to learn what Rekha Daish had to say to me.’

‘Yes, my lord.’ There was a certain wariness in the youthful Jevin’s words.

‘Go and tell her everything, you understand me?’ Kheda paused on the steps of his personal pavilion. ‘I’ll bathe and come to her as quickly as I can. I want to know her thoughts on this before we dine with my lady of

Daish.’

‘Very good, my lord.’ Jevin loped off with alacrity. ‘Everything’s ready.’ Dev jerked his head towards the warlord’s personal pavilion. The slaves on the broad steps bowed low. With a grunt of acknowledgement for the hovering steward, Kheda went inside and crossed the cool cream-tiled hall to the bathroom door. ‘Out, all of you.’ His scowl cleared the room of a trio of anxious servants in an instant. Not, not you, Dev. Keep an eye on the path.’

‘There she goes,’ Dev observed, peering through the slatted shutters. ‘At quite a pace for such an elegant piece.’ The drawstring of his trousers was knotted stubbornly tight. Too irritated to try unpicking it, Kheda snapped the cord and kicked the garment aside. Stepping into the deep bath set in the floor, he emptied a ewer of standing water over his head. It was colder, than he had expected on his sun-warmed skin and he gasped. ‘Where’s she heading?’

‘That must be her slave waiting for her at the next bridge.’ Dev moved a little for a better view. ‘Yes, he’s tagging after her like a well-trained hound. She’s going back to the guest pavilion.’

‘To gather her wits in privacy.’ Kheda dipped a handful of aromatic liquid soap from a bowl and lathered his hair and beard briskly.

‘I reckon she might try for some privacy with you again before she goes back home,’ said Dev with lewd emphasis.

‘Then you will play the proper slave for a change and sleep across my threshold to keep her out.’ Kheda washed himself vigorously with a soapy cloth.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Dev with distaste. ‘I’ll find some little maid girl to keep watch on the footbridge and come and warn me if her ladyship goes for a midnight stroll.’

‘Find someone to keep an eye on that galley of hers.’ Kheda began rinsing away the suds that covered him. ‘I want to know exactly when she lets a message bird fly.’

‘Do you want it brought down?’ Dev suggested. ‘I could do that without anyone noticing and you can always blame one of the gull hawks.’

No.’ Kheda ran firm hands over his head and face to force water out of his hair and beard.

‘There have been plenty of Chazen courier doves winging their way home over the last ten days or so, from what Jevin tells me. I’ll go and check if any of them are bringing news from the west. You’ll want to know exactly where the remaining wild men are to be found, so you can plan your new campaign against them properly’ Dev threw Kheda a towel as he climbed out of the bath. ‘And whatever her haughtiness Rekha Daish might say, Itrac is managing to trade with other domains. At least, she’s found someone to give her enough silk to cover your arse in suitable style. Come and see.’

Drying himself, Kheda followed the barbarian through the door that led straight from the bathroom into his spacious bedchamber. Dev lifted two full-sleeved tunics from the broad, low bed. ‘The grey or the tan, my lord?’ he asked with mock obsequiousness.

‘I don’t suppose you thought to ask what Itrac will be wearing?’ Kheda considered the skilfully cut and sewn garments. The grey was a dark hue shot through with blue like a rainy-season cloud. The tan was a warmer colour with a vibrant golden gloss. There hadn’t been time for any embroidery on either, however.

‘As it happens, I did,’ retorted Dev. ‘Yellow, so the lad said.’

‘The tan then.’ Kheda reached for the trousers. ‘What gems do we have to dress it up?’

‘Precious few.’ Dev tossed the tunic across and Kheda pulled it over his head.

‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that any more of the domain’s heirlooms have come to light while we’ve been away?’ The cloth muffled his words.

No such luck,’ the barbarian confirmed as he unlocked a coffer set on a stand beside the bed. ‘I’ll bet Daish and Ritsem skippers are trading them even as we speak.’

‘Keep that opinion to yourself, barbarian,’ Kheda warned, ‘unless you want me to read your fate in your entrails when some mariner guts you. Archipelagans aren’t thieves like you northerners. We’ll find most of the loot with those last savages penned up in the west.’

‘Which is another good reason to finally see them all dead,’ said Dev with happy anticipation.

‘So you can try your hand at plundering the wealth they stole?’ Kheda challenged. Not when Itrac needs those talismans and heirlooms to trade for everything this domain so desperately lacks.’

‘You don’t think she’ll have enough pearls?’ Dev stirred the paltry selection of ornaments in the upper tray of the chest with a disdainful finger. What do you want out of here?’

Not pearls, with this colour silk,’ Kheda commented as he came to pull a fine gold chain out of a tangle of links. He took off his silver ring with its uncut talisman emerald and threaded the chain through it. ‘If you say so.’ Dev shrugged. ‘I never had to play the lady’s maid back home.’

‘Just be thankful I didn’t end up saving your skin by making you a slave to my lady wife,’ Kheda taunted as he slipped the chain over his neck and tucked the ring beneath the neck of his tunic. Do you think you would have liked learning how to paint Itrac’s face and nails? What else have we got?’

‘Turtleshell and that’s about it.’ Dev lifted out the padded silk tray to reveal variegated bracelets polished to a mirror finish.

‘Those will do.’ Kheda pushed a matched pair over his knuckles and thrust heavy gold rings on all his fingers. ‘And that belt.’

‘This one?’ Dev picked out the piece Kheda had indicated with his nod. It was made of plaques of turtleshell joined by chased gold links.

And carefully adjusted to fit me, not Chazen Saril’s greater girth.

‘And anklets to finish the set?’ Dev held out two more pieces with faint derision.

Kheda settled the belt on his hips and secured the clasp before taking the anklets and snapping them around the hems of his trousers, drawing in the loose cloth. ‘You don’t reckon much to turtleshell, do you? Nor pearls, if you’re honest, not for more than they can buy you. Why is that?’

‘Probably because I’m an ignorant barbarian with no understanding of their talismanic value,’ said Dev smoothly,

Or is it because you are a wizard? The savage mages that came with the invaders, they spurned pearls and turtleshell alike, seeking only to loot our gemstones. You claim to have no idea why. Is that the truth? Kheda let that question pass unspoken and unanswered. ‘Whatever Rekha’s plotting, I don’t think we’ll need armoured guards at dinner but you should wear your swords if not your hauberk. Go and get them.’

‘Yes, my lord.’ Sarcasm and relief weighted Dev’s words in equal measure.

‘And now I had best go to see Itrac’ Kheda smoothed his hair and beard, already as good as dry with the heat of the day slow to fade till the sun was utterly set. So we can decide our strategy before we go to dine with Rekha.