Northern Storm

Chapter Seven

Is this my death? Burned to oblivion with magical fire? No one foresaw that for me.

What does it mean for Chazen, for Daish, for all those of my blood? Will this portent be robbed of its force if no one knows the manner of my death?

White light blinded him, searing through eyes screwed tight shut. Heat enveloped him, hotter than the murderous noon of the dry season’s height, menacing and oppressive. It was pressing in from all sides, through his armour, through the padded tunic beneath, to scald his skin with his own sweat. This can only be the start of the pain. How bad will it get before I am truly dead?

He felt as light as ash blown on the wind. There was no hard deck beneath his feet, nor cold sea drowning him even as it quenched the all-consuming fire. Then Kheda found one sensation to puzzle him as he waited for the final agony. Whoever is holding my hand is going to break my fingers if they’re not careful.

The light went out like a snuffed candle. Kheda’s legs buckled and he fell to his hands and knees, feeling soft leaf mould instead of deck planking. The smell of hot metal prompted confused recollection of a visit to Ulla Safar’s famous foundries. Raising a shaking hand to scrub the dizziness from his eyes, he burned his forearm on the breast of his hauberk, the sweat coating him hissing against the hot steel. ‘Shit, shit, shit, shit.’ Dev’s profanity slowly penetrated Kheda’s bemusement.

The warlord opened his eyes to see the wizard frantically unbuckling his sword belt. The steel of Dev’s hauberk was blued all across the front, like one Kheda recalled a novice warrior leaving incautiously close to a hot fire.

He couldn’t help himself. Kheda laughed, but as he sat back on his heels, his own chain mail seared the back of his knees even through his trousers. He scrambled to his feet with a curse of his own as Dev began struggling out of his hauberk, doubled over and shaking himself like a wet hound. ‘Let me help.’ Risala stretched out trembling hands towards Kheda, the blue of her eyes rimmed with white and her jaw clenched tight.

No, it’s too hot.’ Kheda used the tail of his belt to push the leather back through the buckle, dark curves scored on the leather by the hot brass. Bending over, he shed the hauberk in one swift movement. It hit the ground with a rushing rattle and a faint charred smell. Kheda straightened up, panting, and ripped off his steaming under-tunic, the cotton blackened. The touch of the gentle breeze on his bare skin was both welcome and painful.

How did we get here? Magic—it must have been. One more debt you owe Dev. One more taint to foul you.

They were in a small clearing in the middle of a dense tangle of forest.

No, don’t.’ He caught Risala’s hands as she moved to embrace him. ‘I’m burned. Are you?’ he asked urgently.

No,’ she said with belated realisation.

‘You can thank your lucky stars you weren’t wearing any armour.’ Dev stood bare-chested like Kheda, holding well-muscled arms away from his sturdy body. ‘Curse it, this smarts.’

Keeping hold of the hand that wore Shek Kul’s ring,

Kheda kissed Risala’s fingers fervently. Better burned than dead.’

‘You’re the healer. Can you see any plant that will take the sting out of this?’ The wizard’s barbarian skin was distinctly paler where his clothes habitually protected him from the sun. His back and chest were an angry red just short of blistering.

‘Leatherspear, that’s what we need.’ Kheda looked around for pale-green spikes tipped with black among the clustering rustlenut saplings. He swallowed, his throat dry and rough. ‘And water.’

‘Where is it?’ Risala looked up, squinting through the tattered canopy of a spinefruit tree for a glimpse of the dragon. She was shaking faintly, her fingers still entwined with Kheda’s. ‘And where are we?’ Dev didn’t seem to hear them, eyes distant, face twisted with fury. ‘The bloody thing sank my boat, my AmigaV A furred vine coiling up the spinefmit tree burst into crimson flame.

‘Dev!’ Kheda said sharply.

‘I traded the length of the Archipelago in that boat for ten years and more,’ the wizard growled, looking up at the obstinately empty sky.

The vine disintegrated in a flare of scarlet fire, leaving a black score wrapped around the tree.

Kheda crossed the glade in a few rapid steps. ‘Dev!’

‘Cursed bloody worm!’ The black furrow in the grey bark began to smoulder, edges glowing golden.

‘Dev!’ Kheda slapped the wizard hard across the face, his hand ready to add a back-handed blow. ‘Get a grip on yourself!’

‘Before you set this place alight,’ Risala added harshly Dev blinked and the unreasoning rage faded from his eyes. ‘You obviously don’t know how dangerous it is to hit a wizard in a temper.’

‘I’m surprised you lasted ten years in these islands if that’s what happens when you lose your temper.’ Kheda nodded at the charred spinefruit tree.

‘A lot you know.’ Dev rubbed a hand over his bald head and winced.

‘Where are we?’ Risala moved to the edge of the clearing.

‘On the island where we first saw the dragon,’ Dev said heavily. ‘A wizard can only use magecraft to go somewhere he’s already been. I didn’t think there’d be anyone to see us here.’ His expression challenged them both.

‘You could hardly take us back to the residence, I suppose,’ Kheda acknowledged tersely. Appearing out of thin air in a blaze of magic would take some explaining. Would Itrac believe some obliging eccentricity of the dragon had thrown us home? Or would she just have you killed, for the sake of the domain, since you were so plainly suffused with sorcery, warlord or not, willing or not? ‘Someone will send a ship from the fleet to look for us, once we’re overdue . . Risala broke off, biting her lip. ‘But they’ll be looking for us in the wrong stretch of the sea.’

‘Which at least is a problem we can do something about,’ countered Dev, his anger still simmering. ‘Or would you rather have been burned to cinders by the dragon?’

Kheda looked to the north, the sea hidden by the scrubby forest. ‘The fleet will have seen the dragon, I suppose, even though we were out of sight.’

‘Do you think they believed all that goose grease about you needing to take the omens around an empty horizon?’ wondered Dev.

‘It was the truth,’ retorted Kheda. ‘And I’ll continue to seek all the guidance I can in the earthly and heavenly compasses until you come up with something better with your magics and your barbarian friends.’ Though I saw no omen to give me any clue we were about to be attacked. Was the dragon already bearing down on us, corrupting the patterns of nature?

‘Well, I can get us back to the residence now.’ Dev rubbed his hands together and grinned. ‘If you can think of a likely spot where we can arrive unseen.’ He shifted his gaze to Risala. ‘And if you can come up with some tale to explain how we got there, mistress poet.’

‘This carrying us away with magic, that’s what you did before.’ The girl looked at the barbarian mage, frowning. When that wild mage found you and me spying on him?’

‘Yes.’ Dev shrugged.

‘That was just you and me and not nearly so far as this,’ Risala said slowly. You couldn’t have kindled a candle after that. You were exhausted.’

‘But this time your magic’s getting away from you, Dev.’ Kheda gestured at the scarred spinefruit tree. ‘Here and before, when you tried scrying on the beach. What’s going on?’

‘We may not know much about wizards but we know you.’ Risala fixed the barbarian with a piercing stare.

Dev opened his mouth and then shut it, as if he had changed his mind about what to say.

We tell Aldabreshin children that someone who opens their mouth and then forgets what they were going to say was about to tell a lie. Does the same hold true for barbarians?

Kheda pressed Risala’s hand against his thigh.

‘It’s the dragon,’ the wizard said finally. ‘It’s a magical creature. It has a magical aura. I drew on the beast’s own magic to get us here. I don’t think it even noticed.’ He grimaced, rubbing the back of one hand across his forehead. ‘I’ve got a heartache, but nothing worse than I’d deserve after a late night drinking white brandy. I’ve enough magic within me to cany us somewhere closer to the ships. How about that for an idea?’

Kheda looked at Risala. ‘When he did this to you before, did you end up parboiled in your own sweat?’ She shook her head and he looked back at Dev. ‘Then why did it happen this time?’

Dev looked at him for a long moment. Sable finches chattered insouciantly in the trees. ‘It’s like I said: the dragon has an aura. My magic got away from me with that much raw elemental fire filling the air. That’s the element I have an affinity with.’ He sounded more resigned than angry, then his voice strengthened with his usual cockiness. ‘And now, forewarned is forearmed. Believe me, keeping my hide whole as a wizard in the Archipelago has taught me more fine control of discreet magic than any mage of Hadrumal possesses. It won’t happen again.’

‘It had better not,’ Kheda said stiffly. ‘If it does and you’re seen, you’ll be hunted till some mob has skinned you alive and nailed your hide to a pole. And I won’t be able to lift a finger to save you.’

‘Can’t we get off this island without magic?’ Risala walked a few paces away and looked from one side of the clearing to the other. ‘And come up with a story to explain where we went? The sooner the better.’ She glanced at Kheda. ‘Word of this dragon will fly around the islands faster than the beast itself. If rumour that you’re dead follows, your whole rule could be fatally undermined.’

Kheda nodded grimly. ‘And if some courier dove takes that rumour beyond the domain, who knows who will chance the danger of these waters for the sake of claiming our pearl harvest..’

Could Janne talk Sirket into sending Daish warriors?

He resolutely set aside such worries. ‘We have to get back to the fleet. If they’ve seen the dragon, they’ll have fallen back to the rendezvous point on the far side of Dalao.’

‘Unless the dragon sank them, too,’ Dev inten-upted with a scowl.

‘We just have to hope the beast didn’t.’ Kheda sighed heavily.

‘That’s a wager we’ve no choice but to take,’ agreed Risala.

‘We can build a raft, but we’ve the current to cross.’ Kheda looked reluctantly at Dev. ‘Could you use your magic to save us from being swept away?’

Never mind that,’ said Dev brutally. ‘We need to go hunting whatever wild mage summoned this dragon. You’ve no notion what a wizard could do with that amount of power to call on. He’ll take this domain away from you in a matter of days and there’ll be nothing you can do about it.’

‘But we killed all the wild mages,’ protested Risala with a touch of despair.

‘What if we only killed those who were strong enough to make a fight of it?’ countered Dev. ‘You saw how they fought among themselves, to the death. I reckon there was someone with the sense to keep his head down.’

‘Are you about to tell me you told me so?’ asked Kheda savagely. ‘That we should have killed all who were left and sooner than this?’

Is this my fault, for turning my attention to rebuilding Chazen before we had fully reclaimed it?

‘A magebom with even the slightest power could have hidden himself from all your hunting parties.’ Dev waved the irrelevance away. ‘He probably hasn’t much power of his own, or we’d have seen him lead some fightback before now. But if he’s mastered this trick of summoning a dragon, that’s all he needs to change that. Drawing on the elements around them, that’s the basis of this wild wizardry, that’s why it’s so crude,’ he commented with contempt. ‘With a dragon’s aura at hand, he’s got all the power he could ever use. He can do pretty much anything he fancies.’

‘Only as long as he’s got some way to stop the dragon eating him,’ said Risala with faint hope. ‘How does he do that?’ Kheda looked warily at the barbarian mage.

‘Who knows? I’m making up theories as I go along,’ Dev said bitterly. ‘I have to bespeak Velindre as soon as we can find some suitable metal.’ Petulantly, he kicked a scrap of weathered bark at the flaccid lump of his chain mail. ‘I could have used a helmet but they’re both at the bottom of the sea.’ Because he can see in any pool of liquid but he needs a magical reflection in metal to speak to this confederate of his. Is it significant, that when I’m willing to countenance his magic, circumstances make it impossible for him to use it?

‘Better them than us.’ It took Kheda some effort to sound positive. ‘Let’s build a raft and work our way north through the Snake Bird Islands. If we go well past Dalao before we attempt the crossing, we can ride the current south as we cross it. If we judge it right, we shouldn’t get swept too far past our target, not beyond Balaia at the very worst. We’ll say I saw some omen that drew us to the far side of the current before the dragon attacked.’ The thought of the lie soured his stomach.

No one will challenge my word; I’m the warlord. The people of the domain trust me to seek out and interpret the portents for them, not to lie and feint and deceive. Perhaps that’s all part of the curse of magic staining these islands. How much more evil an omen is this dragons arrival?

‘And another thing,’ he added vehemently. ‘I want no word spoken of any wild mages out there when we get back. We keep that between ourselves. As far as anyone is concerned, the dragon is just a beast like any other.’

‘Hardly,’ Dev objected. Not with magical fire at its command.’

‘Then it’s a magical beast, but it’s still a beast,’ Kheda said resolutely. ‘Bad as that is, it’ll be worse if those who survived the savages and their wizards last year think such catastrophe is coming down on them ^again:

‘And what will you do when someone stumbles across this wild mage?’ asked Dev sarcastically. ‘I imagine I’ll be as surprised as anyone else,’ Kheda said stolidly.

‘We need to get down to the sea.’ Risala peered through the trees, one hand drifting to the half-moon dagger at her belt. ‘Do you suppose the dragon ate all the savages Shipmaster Mezai said were hiding here?’

‘If it didn’t, I can burn them to charred bones and no one need be any the wiser. We should worry more about those traps the bastards built.’ Dev scooped up his fallen swords. ‘Watch your step, and leave that,’ he said sharply, seeing Kheda bend down to pick up his armour. ‘You can’t wear that on a raft. If we go over, you’ll sink straight to the bottom and be drowned for certain.’

‘True.’ Kheda grimaced. He caught up his own weapons and followed the others down a narrow path between the battered and drought-stunted spinefruit and rustlenut trees.

Though a warlord losing his armour isn’t going to be seen as the best of portents. That’ll have to be another wager against the future. If we can get back to the fleet, if I can send someone to reclaim such a potent symbol of my authority, then won’t that be proof I’m acting in the best interests of the domain, whatever my compromises with the vice of magic?

And what if you don’t get your armour back? Will that mean you were wrong to turn your back on your father’s wisdom, on the precepts that guided the forefathers of Chazen and Daish and every other domain? Is it your deeds to this point that have brought the unfettered evil of a dragon upon everyone?

Apprehension thick in his throat, Kheda followed Dev down the steep slope of the far side of the little island, leaving sufficient wary distance so that any trap catching the mage would miss him. Risala came after the warlord, careful to match her steps precisely to his. The spinefruit trees were more sparsely scattered on this side of the island, which meant that rustlenuts had seized the rains’ recent largesse and were sprouting in all directions. Vicious tangles of strangling vines fought over the open spaces and the ground was riddled with burrows easily as treacherous as any traps.

At least there are no signs of any but animal footprints.

‘Do you suppose the savages ate all the matias?’ Kheda wondered as he jumped to save himself from a twisted ankle when a hollow collapsed beneath his foot. Brindled fur and shreds of dry leaves blew away on the breeze.

‘They’ll be deep underground.’ Sweat darkened the spine of Risala’s ochre tunic. ‘They’ve too much sense to be out in the heat of the day.’

‘Watch your step.’ Dev wiped his forehead with the back of one hand. ‘It’s a sheer drop to those reefs.’ They went on, cautiously, as the trees thinned to reveal crumbling black and grey rock above seas foaming around exposed corals.

‘How do we get a raft down there?’ Risala asked dubiously.

Kheda looked along the shore in both directions. ‘That might be easier.’ He pointed to a dip in the cliff. ‘I think we can get safely into the sea down there.’

Dev was looking inland. ‘I can see a spring.’

Better yet, the damp gully offered a modest sprouting of leatherspear where the twists in the underlying rock forced out the precious water. Kheda drew his belt knife and cut a handful of fleshy spikes. Splitting them lengthways, he slapped them deftly on Dev’s back as the wizard bent to cup his hands under the dripping water. ‘Hold still.’

Dev reared up. ‘Shit, that stings!’

‘Only for a moment.’ Kheda moved to let Risala get to the spring, squeezing juice from the swollen base of a leaf and anointing his own tender skin.

‘Let me help.’ Risala shook water from her hands and took a leatherspear leaf, smearing the viscous sap over Kheda’s back.

Kheda shivered as she pressed her thumbs into the knotted muscles on either side of his spine.

Just the touch of your hands stops my heart. What have I done to deserve such a woman devoted to me, even when I dare not act on my own desire? Will that be my reward, proof that I am doing right, if I can finally see a way to take you for my own that dishonours no one? If you still want me.

‘You sounded very confident about making a raft,’ Dev challenged Kheda as he sliced more strips of leatherspear to soothe his reddened chest. ‘I’ll tell you for nothing that I’m no boat builder.’

‘All we need is the right wood and lashing,’ Kheda told him firmly before quenching his own thirst from the meagre trickle. ‘Risala, you cut vines and we’ll look for some likely trees. And we should all look for gourds. We’ll need something for carrying water.’

‘Let’s get busy.’ She picked her way carefully along the cliff and began unravelling a skein of strangling vine from an outcrop of rock.

‘Dev, we’ll use your swords for the tree-felling.’ Kheda turned to scan the scrubby forest for tandra saplings. ‘I’ll keep mine in case we meet some savage who needs cutting down to size.’

‘Of course, my lord,’ Dev agreed sarcastically as he followed Kheda up to a more level patch on the slope where a few tandra trees were holding their own. ‘So how do you know how to build a raft?’

‘My father, Daish Reik, took me and my brothers out into the domain on hunting trips.’ Kheda pushed a tandra sapling about as thick as his forearm, testing the tenacity of its roots. ‘We spent as much time learning the nature of the seas and forests as we did hunting. He said we needed to know how our people fed and clothed themselves.’ Despite himself, Kheda smiled with wry humour. ‘And he insisted we learn how to feed and clothe ourselves with nothing more than a dagger to hand. He said even the most skilful augur can’t always foretell what’ll happen. Let’s start with this one.’ He stepped back to give Dev room.

‘He wasn’t wrong.’ The mage unsheathed his swords, passing his second blade to Kheda.

Daish Reik often said there’s vital truth in chance-heard words. Could he have foreseen something in my future to make him suspect that I might need such skills?

Dev began hacking at the tree. Light as it was, the sappy, fibrous wood caught at the steel. ‘Careful,’ warned Kheda. ‘You don’t want to break the sword.’

Dev freed the blade, considered his next move and then renewed his assault. ‘So he had you making rafts?’

‘More than once.’ Kheda used Dev’s second blade to cut down wrist-thick rustlenut shoots.

‘Mind your back.’ Dev pushed at the tandra sapling and it toppled over, the last fingers of wood linking the trunk to the ragged stump snapping with a sharp crack.

‘Another handful of those and we’ll have enough for a raft.’ Kheda stuck Dev’s sword in the ground and drew his dagger to strip the bark from the rustlenut wand.

‘What happened to your brothers?’ Dev asked bluntly as he threw down a second sapling to crush more burgeoning tandra shoots.

‘I thought you knew enough Aldabreshin etiquette to avoid such questions.’ Kheda concentrated on carving a deep notch into both ends of the rustlenut wood.

‘It’s just you and me here now.’ Dev was unrepentant. ‘So were you Daish Reik’s firstborn or just the eldest left alive because you were chosen to become the acknowledged heir? I know you people beat the odds by manying off inconvenient elder daughters barely out of their leading strings to change their names, and sons that don’t measure up vanish, never to be mentioned again.’

‘I was Daish Reik’s eldest child.’ Kheda slowly peeled a second length of rustlenut with his dagger tip. ‘Thus his heir without any need for such subterfuge.’

Dev paused to wipe sweat from his forehead and cocked an inquisitive brow. ‘But you said you had brothers. Most warlords make sure they have a few spares, in case one of your noxious Aldabreshin fevers gets the first one. What happened to them?’

‘That’s none of your concern.’ Kheda stripped bark with a rasp of his blade.

Daish Reik taught us all to meet every challenge one step at a time as well. Right from the days when he had us building rafts to see if any of us were fated to drown, relieving him of the decisions that are a warlord’s heaviest burden and gravest responsibility.

‘And you call us barbarians.’ Dev grunted as he chopped at the next tree, ripping out chunks of fibrous wood. ‘What are you going to do with any surplus sons Itrac presents you with?’

Kheda finished notching the second rustlenut wand and tossed it aside. ‘That’s between me and her.’

‘What is?’ Risala asked, her scratched hands full of coiled vine, her face curious.

Dev chuckled and concentrated on bringing the next tandra sapling down.

‘Something that doesn’t concern Dev,’ Kheda said shortly. He took up the mage’s second sword again and began slashing the twigs and leaves from the tandra logs.

Risala studied him for a moment before sitting to twist deft double cords from the wiry vine.

‘I wouldn’t be doing my duty as your faithful slave if I didn’t remind you of your duty to get a son or two on Itrac,’ Dev said piously as he joined Kheda in crudely shaping the logs. ‘I’ve heard at least one lot of gossip saying you went looking for a zamorin slave so as not to be outclassed, since Janne Daish plainly cut off your stones and locked them in her jewel case before sending you into exile in Chazen.’

‘And you didn’t care to give them the lie by letting them know you’re no such thing?’ demanded Kheda, stung.

‘I couldn’t find any gourds that weren’t worn-eaten,’ Risala announced into the tense silence, winding her vine cord into hanks. ‘We’ll have to land as we go to find water.’

‘So where are we building this raft? Here or closer to the water?’ Kheda gathered up the sticks he’d been working on.

‘Here’s as good as anywhere.’ Risala stood up and looked at him expectantly.

Kheda searched her face.

No sign of your true feelings. Is that for my benefit or Dev’s?

‘Let’s get the base lined up.’ He bent to drag the tandra logs close together. ‘Dev, you take that side.’ Once the tandra logs were pressed close together, Kheda slid a rustlenut wand under one mismatched end of the putative raft and laid a second across the top. He pressed the notched, springy wood together and nodded at Dev. ‘Keep those ends together. Risala, lash them as best you can.’

The tandra logs shifted and squeaked as Risala secured the rustlenut struts mercilessly tight with the vine cord.

‘I can’t hold it much longer,’ Dev warned, his bare shoulders bulging with effort as he pressed down on the wood.

Risala didn’t waste any time winding cord around the notches Kheda had cut to secure the lashing on the other side of the raft. Now for the other end,’ she nodded.

Not bad,’ Dev allowed grudgingly a few moments later as they all straightened up. ‘How do we steer it? And we’ll need paddles.’

‘Pass me that cord.’ Kheda stretched out a hand to Risala. ‘Dev, cut a notch in between the first two logs on either side, at this end.’ As the wizard set to with his dagger, Kheda lashed a pair of rustlenut stakes into a sturdy cross. ‘We tie this fore and aft to keep it upright and make a sweep to go in the crook,’ he explained as he fixed its two feet at the end of the raft. ‘And yes, Dev, we need a couple of paddles.’

‘I’m getting some water before I do anything else.’ Dev stumped off along the cliff edge towards the meagre spring, peeling the remaining shreds of leatherspear from his chest and tossing them aside. ‘What were you talking about?’ Risala asked quietly, coming to stand close to Kheda.

He caught her around the waist, bending to kiss her swiftly. Her lips were dry, the skin around them paradoxically damp. She smelled of fresh sweat and old leaves. ‘He wanted to know what became of my younger brothers when my father died and I declared myself warlord in his place.’

‘Do you want to tell me?’ Risala asked with studied neutrality.

‘I want no secrets between us.’ Kheda held her close and looked into her eyes. ‘Daish Reik’s deathbed decree offered them the choice of a quick, painless death or castration and passing into my hands as zamorin slaves. All but two chose the latter and went to serve Daish unnoticed as spies in other warlord’s households.’

‘A better Fate than living zamorin, blinded and imprisoned like Chazen Saril’s brothers.’ Risala shivered despite the heat. ‘Does Itrac know this?’

No,’ said Kheda with belated realisation. ‘We’ve never discussed it. But she must know I agreed with Janne, Rekha and Sain that they could all keep one son, and send any others to be raised far away. I wanted Sirket to have brothers to stand at his back but not close enough in age to sharpen their daggers to stick in it.’

‘You should talk to Itrac about it,’ Risala said, blue eyes serious.

Dev was coming back and she made to move away, but Kheda held on to her. ‘If we come through this to a future where you might give me children, their lives will be wholly in your hands,’ he assured her. She twisted free of his embrace. ‘Let’s get a drink and make those paddles.’

After Kheda had taken his turn at the trickle of tepid water, they fashioned three crude oars in stolid silence.

Kheda picked up one end of the raft. ‘We should be able to get into the sea down there without breaking our necks.’

Dev lifted the other end and Risala followed with an ungainly armful of paddles and swords. They moved carefully to the dip in the cliff where a dark pool of clear water was sheltered by a greenish-brown outcrop of coral battered by surging waves.

Kheda looked at Dev. The wizard nodded and they threw the raft into the water. Kheda jumped after it, kicking out as the water closed over him, shaking his head to clear his eyes as he broached the surface. The raft bobbed placidly and he pulled himself aboard, lying flat so as not to overturn it. Catching his breath, he rose carefully to his knees.

‘Here!’ Dev tossed the crude paddles down to Kheda.

The startled warlord caught the first two but the third skittered off the knobbly planks into the water. ‘Don’t throw the swords!’ He laid a sweep in the crock of the cross-frame and forced the ungainly craft closer to the cliffs to retrieve the errant oar.

‘I’m a barbarian, not a complete fool,’ said Dev scornfully.

Risala made a neat dive into the sea, swimming around the raft to climb on to the opposite side from

Kheda.

‘Get in as close as you can.’ Dev was lying on the cliff, reaching down at full stretch to offer the swords. Kheda used the stern oar to drive the raft closer to the rocks. Risala reached up and took the swords as an opportune swell lifted them.

Dev jumped into the sea feet first, sending spray in all directions. He bobbed there for a moment, scouring dirt and dust from his reddened chest. ‘Shit, this stings.’

‘Salt water will do a scalding like that no harm.’ Kheda lashed the stern sweep securely into its frame. ‘But the sun will leave me dried out like trail meat without a shirt to cover my back.’ Dev eased himself warily aboard the raft. ‘Let’s have a paddle.’

With Risala and Dev kneeling, fending off gently before paddling furiously against the implacable thrust of the waves, Kheda wrestled the clumsy vessel through the tortuous maze of corals using the stern sweep. There was no respite out in the open water. Some stray thread of the southern current seized the little raft, threatening to sweep them into the wider waters beyond the island. ‘You steer.’ Kheda shook Risala by the shoulder. He kept firm hold of the stern oar as she clung to him, manoeuvring gingerly around the tiny craft. She took the steering oar and passed him her paddle with a resolute nod.

Kheda let go of the steering sweep and knelt to join Dev in driving the raft beyond the merciless current’s reach. The knots and lumps of the tandra wood dug painfully into his shins and the searing sun hammered down on his head and back. He was sweating freely, though the breeze snatched away the beams of perspiration on his forehead and chest. It seemed an eternity before he realised that the pull of the water below the raft had slackened. Kheda felt breathless with relief as much as from the exertion They were within bowshot of the next scrap of island.

‘Do we want to land for a rest?’ Risala was clinging resolutely to the stern oar, feet planted wide on the rough-hewn logs, her bare brown toes gripping the wood. She nodded at a break in the reef that offered access to the beach.

‘Let’s get around this island and see how we’re faring.’ Kheda looked at Dev, who was resting his improvised oar across his thighs, bald head thrown back, his eyes closed. The wizard jerked a single nod of consent.

They made better speed now, beyond the grip of the current, but the new danger was drifting too close to the mottled, foam-wreathed reef running parallel with the shore. They crawled along the shoreline. Kheda stopped looking at it. It seemed that every time he glanced up, the same stubborn cluster of nut palms had barely shifted to mark their painful progress.

‘Let’s land when we’re past the next strait,’ Risala said tightly.

‘And find a spring,’ rasped Dev. ‘We’ll have to wait till it’s cooler before we go on.’ Kheda found he was nearly mute with cloying spittle and swallowed painfully. ‘Or we’ll all end up dead of heat prostration.’ We’ll just have to take our chances with the fleet still being at the rendezvous point.

They toiled on until the raft slipped sideways into the mouth of a channel running between the little islet and a lump of thickly wooded land that tantalised with a moist green scent.

Dev looked down the channel. ‘Shit!’

‘Savages!’ The raft dipped as Risala’s shudder ran down the steering oar.

Kheda dug his paddle deep into the water, fear lending energy that put his weariness to flight. ‘They’re not looking this way.’

Not yet.’ Dev matched him stroke for stroke. ‘It looks like a whole horde of those hollow log boats of theirs.’ Risala kept watch as she wrenched their course around towards the far shore.

The rocky ledge ahead was steeply undercut by the ceaseless waves. Kheda looked desperately for some place to land as wild wordless cries echoed down the strait. ‘What are they doing?’

‘They’re not after us,’ Risala said with breathless relief. ‘They’re attacking some of their own.’

‘Mezai said the trireme crews heard screams in the night,’ Dev puffed.

Kheda pointed urgently with his dripping paddle. ‘There, behind that boulder.’

They pushed the raft through an awkward eddy and on to a narrow shelf of sand behind a tumble of broken rocks.

‘You’d think they’d be too busy running from Chazen swords to bother slaughtering each other,’ Dev observed as they hauled the raft out of the water. Kheda peered out over the water but the trees hid the battle from view. We’d better hide until they’ve gone away. We’ll never outrun them on open water—those log boats of theirs are cursed fast.’

‘We can look for a spring, can’t we?’ Risala set a hand on the hilt of her dagger.

Dev settled his swords in his belt. ‘I don’t suggest we stand and fight if we bump into anyone.’

No, we cut and run,’ Kheda agreed. ‘Let’s try to see what’s happening. Best we know what’s behind us before we go any further.’

He led the way cautiously through the welcome shade of the forest. Defiant yells crushed inarticulate cries of pain that were pierced in turn by desperate screams. Rage and agony struggled for supremacy in the bitter cacophony.

‘This way.’ Dev pushed past Kheda towards the water, where reflected light rippled through the thinner trees.

Risala halted. ‘I’m going to find a spring or some fruit or something. I’m parched.’

Kheda stopped, torn. ‘Shout if you see anything dangerous.’

‘More dangerous than Dev?’ Risala’s half-smile lifted Kheda’s spirits just a little.

Kheda pushed cautiously through a dense screen of tassel-bevy bushes to find a finger of pocked and pitted rock thrust out into the strait. Dev was already lying flat on the rough sandy ground, chin resting on his interlaced hands, intent on the scene before him. Careful of his swords, Kheda lowered himself to join the wizard. The rock was hard and gritty under his bare stomach.

‘It’s the usual mayhem,’ Dev said thoughtfully. ‘The attackers from over yonder are getting the worst of it.’ Some way off, though still too close for comfort, the flotilla Kheda had seen as they rounded the point was attacking an invader’s encampment on this larger island. Not built in the ruins of a Chazen village, that’s something to be thankful for.’ He spoke the thought aloud.

The invaders had merely cleared a wide swathe of trees and brush, using the lumber and leafy branches to fashion crude shelters. There were a few blackened scars where cookfires had burned and some heaps of unidentifiable detritus.

Dev’s dark eyes were fixed on the fighting. The shallow boats that had come over from the outlying island had almost reached this near shore when savages lying in wait had launched their own hollow log boats from the cover of bushes running down to the water. They hadn’t gone straight for their foes but had paddled out to the middle of the channel to cut off their retreat before driving them on to the hostile shore. The wild men fought out on the water, riding their perilous vessels as they stabbed and smashed at each other with wooden spears and stone-studded clubs. The dull thud of bludgeoning and the sharp crack of bone was a counterpoint to aggressive yells and pain-filled screams.

The two mobs of savages were indistinguishable from each other. Their brief leather loincloths were virtually the same colour as their skin and all were impartially plastered with crude designs in pale paint, swirls and spirals and palm prints. All had their hair caked in mud, some decorated with feathers or leaves. None boasted the gaudy cloaks or brightly coloured garlands that the savages’ mages usually affected.

Is it just the knowledge that their enemy’s wizard can rust the very weapons in their hands that keeps these people from using metal to offer and receive a cleaner death? Or do these wild mages choose to keep them in such barbarism, all the better to rule them?

Sickened, Kheda watched an uneven fight turn into a massacre. The rough and ready weapons were brutally effective. Men disappeared into the sea, some with screams cut short by the smothering water, others stunned and silent, not a hand outstretched to save themselves. Bodies washed up against those who had nearly reached the shore. There was fighting on the waterline now, desperate attackers swinging murderous clubs against new foes racing out of the forest with blood-curdling cries.

No sign of magic,’ Kheda said with hollow relief. Precious little sign of tactics, either.’

‘Why do you suppose they’re gathering up the bodies?’ Dev squinted across the bright water.

A noise behind them sent both men reaching for a sword, hearts whipping round, ready to spring to their feet.

‘I found some setil melons by a little stream.’ Risala had halted a prudent distance back. She displayed the warty green globes in the lap of her tunic. What’s going on?”‘

‘They’re killing each other.’ Kheda took a melon and, slicing off the top, scooped yellow seeds out of the vivid red flesh with his knife.

‘This lot’s doing most of the killing.’ The wizard also took a melon and cut himself a hunk, spitting the seeds out as he chewed.

‘Are they killing them or taking them prisoner?’ Risala sat in the cover of the scrubby shoreline trees. ‘Is there a stockade for captives?’

‘Hard to say’ The melon’s aromatic tartness quenched Kheda’s thirst astonishingly fast. He waved away tiny black flies that had appeared from nowhere.

‘They didn’t dig any ditch or plant a palisade.’ Dev bared his teeth to scrape the last flesh from the melon skin.

Kheda sucked on another piece of melon as he watched the triumphant savages sweep the debris of the battle back towards their own shore, bodies and log boats alike mere bobbing brown shapes. A few of the defeated wild men staggered to their feet in the shallows, only to be felled with lethal thrusts of wooden spears.

‘They don’t seem overly concerned with keeping them alive,’ Risala observed with distaste. Dev snapped his fingers at her. ‘Give me a melon, a whole one.’

Risala tossed him a knobbly green fruit without comment.

‘What are you doing?’ Kheda watched the wizard slice off the top and scoop out the seeds, staring intently into the hollow.

‘If there’s no wizard, then there’s no one to tell them they’re being scried on.’ He shrugged. ‘If there is, then that’s one question answered at least and we can make a run for it.’ He broke off as he saw something in the juice.

‘What is it?’ Kheda pressed close to the mage to get a look at the spell.

‘See for yourself.’ Dev swatted at the greedy flies obscuring his view.

Kheda peered into the melon to see the victorious savages piling bodies in a crude heap. Some were plainly dead, hearts distorted with wounds, shattered bone and grey ooze pale against their dark, matted hair. Others still struggled feebly, gasping for air that shattered chests could no longer supply, spitting bloody foam as broken ribs tore their innards. Wooden spears jutted from pierced bellies and limbs, welling dark blood against pale timber barely dried.

‘Dev!’ Risala darted forward to snatch the melon and hurl it out into the water.

‘What the—?’ Dev gaped at the girl.

Kheda froze, looking to see if any distant savage had heard the sudden splash.

A flap of great leathery wings reverberated along the strait. Kheda grabbed for Risala and pulled her down beside him, sheltering her body with his own. The noise of wings came again, rending the air with a sound like tearing calico. The savages raised an exultant ululation.

‘What’s going on, Dev?’ Kheda demanded in a harsh whisper.

Dev’s eyes were wide and wondering. ‘Cursed if I know,’ he hissed, frustrated. ‘And I won’t be scrying to find out.’

Frantic drumming of spears and clubs on the hollow log boats echoed along the strait, volume swelling, pace increasing. It stopped, cut off by the thunderous crash of the dragon’s landing.

Did it really make the earth shake or is that just my imagination running riot?

Kheda moved as far forward as he dared, to the edge of the rocky promontory where the three of them lay.

The dragon had landed and was crouching in the middle of the area the savages had cleared. Its lashing tail smashed a scatter of crude shelters. The wild men were all prostrate on the ground, not moving even when the beast’s mighty tail sent broken timbers thumping down on their unprotected bodies. The dragon threw back its head and roared, an ear-splitting, unearthly sound penetrating flesh and bone. Flocks of panic-stricken birds surged up from the forest all around. Even the pied forest eagles that had few foes to fear burst screeching from the trees and fled.

Kheda reached for Risala and she held his hand tight. The warlord spared Dev a glance. ‘Are you all right?’

‘It’s the magic. I can feel it.’ Dev’s eyes were wide and bright and the breath was shaking in his chest, as if he had a fever. ‘I’ll be all right,’ the mage said through clenched teeth, ‘as long as it doesn’t come any nearer.’

Kheda shared a glance with Risala that told him they were in unspoken agreement.

If it does, that’s when we start running. And don’t you dare follow us, you star-crossed barbarian. The dragon roared again, not so loudly this time, more intimidation than challenge. Rising to its feet, it stalked towards the tangled heap of dead and dying savages. It snapped at the helpless victims and severed limbs fell from its mighty jaws as it tossed its head back to swallow.

‘Stars above.’ Kheda watched, aghast, unable to look away.

‘So that’s how you stop a dragon eating you,’ Dev said with a strained attempt at sarcasm. ‘Make sure you’ve taken enough prisoners to fill its belly.’

‘Is that why the invaders didn’t care that their captives were too old to be useful slaves?’ Risala wrinkled her nose. ‘They just wanted meat on hand in case a dragon arrived?’

‘But none of their wizards summoned a dragon last year.’ Kheda looked at Dev. ‘Why not?’

Dev glared back. ‘I’ll weave a quick net of elemental air to grab one of those shoving his face in the dirt, shall I? We’ll hope he’s managed to learn enough Aldabreshin to explain, shall we?’

‘Look.’ Kheda extracted his aching fingers from Risala’s fierce grip with some difficulty and laid his hand on top of hers. Down on the shoreline, a single figure rose slowly to his feet from among the huddled mass of savages. ‘Is that their wizard?’

‘The one bastard astute enough to discard anything that would single him out for death at our hands?’ Dev narrowed his dark eyes, sweat beading his forehead.

There was nothing to distinguish this wild man from the rest. The beast paused in its grisly feast and regarded him, cocking its massive head quizzically. It opened its mouth, rags of flesh dark on its white teeth, and hissed, low and menacingly.

The man kept his eyes lowered, not meeting the creature’s burning gaze. Head bowed, he reached into some recess of his scant loin cloth and threw something in the dust before the dragon. Its head darted down and the scales fringing the back of its neck fanned out. Tongue flickering, the beast rumbled deep in its throat, making the air throb. Losing interest in the meat scattered around it, the dragon crouched, hind legs coiled beneath it, front legs bent, claws digging into the sand. The light at the centre of its lurid red eyes shone fiery gold.

The solitary bold savage walked slowly to one of the remaining shelters. The dragon’s brilliant gaze tracked his every step. The great beast froze, motionless, as the man ducked inside. He reappeared almost immediately with a wooden chest. Still with that same measured pace, he approached the dragon and set the brass-bound box down just within striking distance of its long neck. Then his nerve broke and he scrambled backwards, tripping over one of his companions to go sprawling in the dust. He cowered, drawing up his legs like a terrified child, one arm impotently lifted to ward off the dragon’s murderous bite.

The creature ignored him, stretching out its head to sniff at the coffer. Dusty earth stirred around its forefeet as it dug its claws deeper into the ground. Its forked tongue flickered out, tasting the dark ironwood and the tarnished bindings. Then, with the same delicacy it had shown when extricating the hapless Chazen warriors from their armour, it extended one forepaw and drove a claw into the top of the chest. One powerful twist broke the coffer into kindling and the dragon sniffed at the contents. What is he giving it?’ Risala asked, baffled.

‘Is that the mage we must kill?’ demanded Kheda.

‘I don’t sense any hint of magic in the man,’ Dev said slowly. ‘It’s hard to be sure, though, with the dragon filling the whole island with its aura. Only . . .’ His voice trailed of

Kheda couldn’t recall when he had last seen uncertainty in the barbarian’s eyes. ‘What?’

‘To be a wizard, you must be mageborn and have an innate affinity with one or more of the essential elements of nature,’ Dev said slowly.

Born to twist and corrupt nature.

‘I know that.’ Kheda bit down on his distaste.

‘It’s like any skill—there are some with more aptitude than others. There are some with so little capacity that all the training in the world won’t make them useful.’ Dev nodded towards the dragon still intent on nosing at the fragments of the little chest, ignoring the wild men prone all around. ‘I think we did kill all the wizards. If that man is magebom, I don’t reckon he’s got anything more than negligible ability in the ordinary way of things. But he can draw enough strength to work plenty of mischief if he can keep the dragon close at hand—if he can keep it from eating him.’

‘How can we kill him?’ demanded Kheda.

‘With that thing playing watchdog?’ Dev chewed his lip. ‘I can’t see us doing that. Still, it should take him a few days to work out what to do with his new power. And just having the dragon around might promote a few other new wizards from the spear-carriers. Maybe they’ll start fighting each other. Maybe we’ll get lucky.’

‘What will the dragon do then?’ Kheda wondered with a hollow feeling of dread.

Not a lot, I would hope,’ said Dev. ‘As long as there are plenty of dead for it to eat.’

‘He knows what else to give it to keep it happy,’ added

Kheda thoughtfully. ‘What do you suppose that is?’

The dragon was lying down now, tail curled around its haunches, forefeet cradling whatever the wild man had given it. Stretching out its long neck, it plucked another lifeless body from the heap of dead and slowly ate it with an audible crunching. Sliding backwards on their bellies and elbows, the surviving savages retreated into the forest.

‘It’s gems. It has to be,’ Risala said suddenly. ‘The invaders were never interested in other loot. They’d barely take more food beyond what would fill their bellies after a fight.’

‘Why give gems to a dragon?’ Kheda looked at Dev.

‘I don’t know.’ Vindictively the wizard crushed a fly crawling on a scrap of melon rind. ‘Velindre might, but I’m not bespeaking her within fifty leagues of that thing, even if I had the means to do it.’

‘We need to get away from here.’ Kheda tried to see where the savages had gone but the all-concealing foliage made that impossible.

‘We’ll take some melons with us.’ Risala crawled backwards to j nut palm and, cutting a few fronds, began plaiting them rapidly. ‘And we need hats in this sun.’

‘You were quick off the mark back there,’ Dev said grudgingly as he glowered at the contented dragon. Nothing like the thought of being eaten alive to sharpen the ears.’ She shuddered.

Kheda waited impatiently until she had finished the basket. He shovelled melons into the lopsided container and gathered it up. Hot and sticky with juice and sweat, dust and grit coating his arms and chest, the weight of the basket ground painfully against his skin. The discomfort was nothing compared to the torment of this new threat to Chazen.

A dragon. Which looks quite happy to stay as long as these savages keep feeding it their can-ion. Whose very presence may be enough to give these wild men new mages. We barely survived their last assaults backed by their murderous sorceries.

‘There you go, my lord.’ Dev tossed a crudely woven hat to Kheda. ‘Sony if it’s not quite suitable for your dignity.’

‘I’ll let it pass, just this once,’ Kheda said dryly as he clapped the hat on his head.

They reached the shallow shelf in the rock where they had left their raft.

‘Would these new wizards lose their magic if we could drive the dragon off or lure it away?’ Kheda asked suddenly.

‘Probably,’ Dev said slowly.

‘Would the dragon kill them if they lost their magic?’ Kheda shot back. Would they lose their hold over it?’

‘If you managed to feed them some of Shek Kul’s cursed herbs?’ Dev was quick to see where Kheda’s thoughts were leading and scowled beneath his own palm-fringed hat. ‘Making them no more than zamorin as far as magic goes? Perhaps. I don’t know.’

Kheda set his jaw resolutely. ‘Then let’s think how we might do one or the other.’

‘I’d rather see. if Velindre’s got some lore to help us,’ objected Dev disagreeably.

Wouldn’t it be better if we could rid ourselves of this new danger without resorting to magic? Using Dev last year was the lesser of two evils but you are still cursed with that evil, if this dragons appearance is anything to go by.

‘We’ll have to see.’ Kheda glanced over his shoulder. There was neither sign nor sound of the dragon moving from its resting place and he breathed a little easier.

‘The trip won’t get any shorter for us hanging around.’ Risala gathered up the paddles as Dev shoved the raft into the sea.

‘We’ll each take a turn steering.’ Kheda passed the basket of melons to Dev as the wizard balanced ^gingerly on the raft. ‘You first, Risala.’ He handed her on to the raft and she took firm hold of the steering oar. ‘Then me.’ Dev was threading a spare length of cord through the spars holding the logs together, lashing the basket down. ‘I’m not paddling you two all the way home and I’m not risking magic that could draw some wild wizard after us.’

‘Ready?’ asked Risala, shoving her own hat backwards on her head.

‘Ready’ At Kheda’s nod, the two men began paddling.

No one wasted breath in talking as they worked their way along the coral-crusted shore and into more open water. Kheda spared half an eye for any sign of wild men among the trees as he pondered their predicament.

Could we find some means of killing the dragon or driving it away? Will this woman of Dev’s find some lore to help us? Will there be any sign presaging such good fortune when there’s a wizard involved? Will there be any sign showing me which is the better choice for Chazen?

First things first: we have to keep this dragon from laying waste to the domain while we wait for some salvation from these northern wizards or for inspiration as to how we might save ourselves.

Let’s take a leaf out of that bold savage’s book. It wants meat first and foremost. Very well. We send every trireme and warrior Chazen has to call on to round up every last one of these savages. We hold them captive on the islands closest to the beast. If the dragon comes, it can feast on them. The rocky end of the island sank beneath the turquoise waters, reaching out long fingers of many-coloured coral. In the open waters beyond, an undulating russet reef guided them into a calmer channel between two barren islets rising barely a handspan above the rippling waters.

Though there’s no telling where the dragon might go. Best make ready for its arrival anywhere in the domain. Tell the islanders to surrender their ducks and hens. Hunters will have to snare as many deer and forest hogs as they can. Will that sate its appetites? Or has it only got a taste for human flesh? Crude as they were, their palm-frond hats helped to baffle the punishing sun and the calm waters in the sheltered channel made for easier paddling. Kheda slowed and scooped up water to rinse his sticky hands and face and to wash some of the dust from his chest. Dev, take a turn steering.’

What of its other appetites? Risala must be right. It must be gems that savage gave it. Why does it want gems? Does that matter? Stick to the question at hand. How do we stop it devastating the domain? The gift seemed to placate it. Is that what we must do? Pour out what little wealth Chazen has just to keep the beast from causing mayhem?

He paddled on, curbing his longer stroke to match Risala’s determined efforts.

It has to be worth a try. Isn’t one life worth more than even the finest talisman gem? Then that’s another reason to take the battle to the remaining savages, to take back the jewels they have stolen. But can we do it without being eaten by the dragon ourselves?

Dev used the stern sweep to help drive the raft on and Kheda recalled the barbarian’s expertise in managing the ill-fated Amigal single-handed.

A scatter of irregular reefs demanded all their attention. Wider isles further off baffled the prevailing wind and the sun struck up a dazzling sheen from the water. They left the treacherous uncertainty of the corals and found themselves crossing a shallow stretch of sea rippling crystal clear over white sands. Invisible currents sent the carpets of sea grasses below swaying around the grazing turtles. The raft’s shadow crossed the path of a smaller turtle. It shied away, rolling over to show the pale under—

side of its mottled grey and brown shell as it flailed its scaly flippers.

The invaders scorned turtleshell and pearls when they looted. I suppose that means the dragon has no interest in such things. Is that ill fortune for Chazen or good luck? Do we lament that our own resources cannot save us or rejoice that we don’t have to squander the pearl harvest to buy off this monster? ‘There’s good eating on one of those,’ Dev remarked.

‘Got anything to catch it with besides magic?’ Risala looked at Kheda. ‘You’ve been rowing longer than anyone. You should take a turn at steering.’

‘How long have we been at this? How far have we come?’ Kheda tried to stand and discovered how cramped and stiff his legs were. His stumble almost overset the raft before he caught the stern oar and managed to recover his balance.

Dev muttered something derogatory under his breath as he settled himself to another stint of paddling. Risala shot the wizard a filthy look.

Kheda scanned the seas and islands ahead and a flash of white caught his eye. ‘What’s that?’ Dev and Risala both looked up.

‘Where?’ she queried.

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘Over there, past that easterly island.’ Kheda watched the wing of pale canvas disappear behind a clump of nut palms.

‘I see it.’ Dev let his paddle trail in the water. The boat reappeared on the other side of the islet. ‘Do you think it’s one of ours?’ Risala looked back at Kheda for reassurance. ‘We’ve never seen the invaders using sails.’

‘If it isn’t one of ours, it soon will be.’ Dev made sure his swords were secure in his belt before setting to with his paddle once again.

‘I don’t want any bloodshed,’ Kheda warned sharply. Not unless there’s nothing else for it.’

With a dragon in the islands, we don’t need the ill omen of Chazen blood spilled in Chazen waters by Chazen steel.