Southern Fire

Chapter Sixteen

'Suis, at last, what news?' Kheda looked up as the shipmaster entered the cramped cabin the trireme's carpenter had grudgingly surrendered to him. The only reason Kheda was sitting on his roll of bedding was there was no room to pace. Two strides from his neat leather bag of modest possessions by the sternposts would have brought his nose up against the door.

'The Daish domain prospers, from all I hear and all I can see.' The tall man's head nearly brushed the boards of the deck above. 'Everyone seems well fed and well clothed, busy about the usual wet-season occupations. The trading beach is deserted but people are staying close to home, to stay out of the rains as much as from fear of savages.'

'You don't think they'll find our presence here unusual?' asked Kheda bluntly. 'So far from your own waters?'

'Unusual, yes.' Suis chose his words carefully. 'Still, with such strange tidings on the winds, it's not so remarkable that Shek Kul might send a trusted ship south, a trusted shipmaster to see with his own eyes and carry the truth back to the north.'

'So the Daish domain prospers. Do the people expect that to last?' Kheda stared at the solid wall of wood as if he could look through it to the seashore beyond. 'Don't they fear assault from the south? What news of the invaders?'

'Chazen holds the line of the Serpents' Teeth against the savages,' the mariner said in neutral tones. 'Chazen islanders continue to flee whenever they can. From what they say, these villains are making no preparations to come north. Redigal Coron's ships patrol the waters to the west nevertheless while Ritsem and Sarem forces wait in readiness.'

'To sail south as soon as the rains are over,' concluded Kheda grimly.

At anchor in Daish waters. I cannot so much as see my people and they most certainly cannot be allowed to see me, but Daish waters all the same. Do you realise I'm so frustrated by all this that I could cheerfully punch a hole through the hull of your ship?

The shipmaster stood, hands behind his back, wide shoulders hiding the door behind him, easily balanced as the trireme rode contentedly at anchor. 'It may be hoped other domains would send forces to help Chazen Saril whenever he sought to reclaim his rightful domain.'

'Isn't there word of firm alliances, commitments given and rewards pledged?' Kheda asked sharply. 'Are you telling me people don't read Chazen Saril's intentions thus?'

'His men are fortifying their positions on the islets of the Serpents' Teeth.' Suis fixed his gaze on a knothole somewhere behind Kheda's head. 'Building defences that face in all directions, in case the invaders might somehow outflank them, so Chazen Saril claims. Redigal Coron is said to have rebuked him for lack of faith in the Daish domain's ships but Chazen Saril says he fears magical treachery carrying enemy forces into their midst.' The shipmaster paused. 'He is said to argue this possibility makes launching a strike south foolhardy at best.'

Kheda frowned. 'What does he mean by that?'

Suis's reply was precise and neutral. 'Some of those Chazen men holding the Serpents' Teeth against the invaders have been given leave to visit families sheltered in the Daish domain. It is said that they are doing their best to beget children.'

Kheda looked suspiciously at the mariner. 'Men in fear of their lives commonly feel an urgency to plant their seed for a new generation.'

'It is commonly believed hereabouts that Chazen Saril is encouraging his men to give their wives a stake in the Daish domain, by virtue of a child nourished and born within its bounds.'

There was a definite edge to Suis's words that grated on Kheda's ear.

You don't like that, do you? Shek Kul assured me you'd ask no questions and offer no opinions and you've been as unreadable as a blank page, just as he promised, but you don't like that. There's something more, isn't there, if I can ask the right question, to get you to tell me. What wouldn't I give for Atoun at my side, or Telouet, giving me straightforward reports and offering blunt advice?

'The Daish islanders don't believe Chazen Saril will sail south to reclaim his own lands, do they?'

The movement of Suis's broad shoulders might have been the suggestion of a shrug. 'Few here have a favourable opinion of his courage or battle hardiness. He is certainly not spending any great deal of time with his own people and there are few signs that he is making ready to sail south. '

Kheda held his temper in check with some effort.

It's not fair to blame Suis for the time it took to make the voyage. The days at sea might have seemed endless to you but this trireme made this passage faster than you had any right to expect. These oarsmen don't know who you are or what your concerns may be and have never so much as hinted at a question but they've rowed ceaselessly against the full force of the worst of the rainy season weather without complaint. The sail master and his crew haven't so much as uncoiled their ropes, the winds have been so contrary.

Suis stood, patient, expressionless. Silence echoed loudly in the confined cabin.

'Where is Chazen Saril spending his time and what is he doing with it?' Kheda asked brusquely.

'He is presently a guest in the Daish household.' Suis's gaze flickered to Kheda's face before fixing on the stern planks again. 'In the dry-season residence, that is.'

'At whose invitation?' snapped Kheda.

'It is said he is spending a great deal of time with Sain Daish, consoling her over her widowhood and soothing her fears for the fate of her new son,' said Suis carefully. 'She has not travelled with the other wives to their rainy-season residence to the north.'

'Why not?' Kheda was taken aback.

'She gave the domain a son on the very night the rains broke.' Suis looked steadfastedly over Kheda's head. 'Apparently the child is too young to make the journey.'

'Such concerns outweigh the possibility of attack from the south?' Kheda shook his head suspiciously. Inwardly, he exulted.

A son for Sain and such a favourable omen, for the waters of birth to coincide with the rains.

'Daish Sirket has also stayed at the dry-season residence,' volunteered Suis unexpectedly. 'In case any invasion should appear on the horizon and doubtless for other reasons, so the word runs along the shore.

'To protect Sain Daish?' Kheda wondered.

Or to keep an eye on Chazen Saril?

'The word on the wind says Chazen Saril now neglects Itrac Chazen in Sain Daish's favour.' Suis let slip a speculative glance at Kheda. 'Though Itrac Chazen is not said to mind since she is much admired by Daish Sirket.

Wagers are being made over Itrac Chazen quickening with Daish blood.'

Not if Janne and Rekha have anything to say about it. But what can they say about it, if they're not there?

It took considerable effort for Kheda not to say this out loud.

'Is there any word at all of this visitor we're expecting?' he snapped abruptly.

'Not as yet.' Suis looked properly at Kheda for the first time. 'It can't be much longer. May I return to my duties?'

Would you stay, if I said you couldn't return to your deck? No, of course you wouldn't. I have no rank aboard this vessel, not even a name.

'Naturally.' Kheda inclined his head stiffly.

Suis left the tiny cabin without so much as a bow, leaving Kheda to the endless questions that had tormented him throughout this interminable voyage south.

Just what did Shek Kul tell you, trusted shipmaster? Not that you'll tell me even if I ask. There are so many questions I can't ask.

What is Sain thinking of naming her baby, our baby, my new son? Is she recovered from the delivery? Is the child healthy, unblemished? What omens were read at his birth? Did Sirket remember to do all that was needful?

What is Sain thinking of, entertaining Chazen Saril? Is Hanyad warning him off with those dour looks and obstructive excuses he's so good at? What is Sirket thinking of, dallying with Itrac Chazen?

What were Janne and Rekha thinking of, leaving Sain and Sirket alone in the dry-season residence with Chazen Saril's insinuating charms? I suppose they wanted to take the other children as far from danger as possible. They'll be well placed to flee to Ritsem waters, if the worst happens. Haven't they heard these rumours, if they're common currency along the shoreline? Why aren't they discouraging Sirket from this folly with Itrac? Perhaps they've tried. Is Sirket showing them who's warlord now, asserting his independence? Are they allowing him his pleasures, as respite from the demands upon htm?

What is Chazen Saril thinking? If Sirket begets a child on Itrac, she's still married to Chazen. Her first child will be the new heir to the Chazen domain. Is this what Sanl wants? If he sires that child, there could well be whispers about a taint of magic clinging to him. Sirket is demonstrably untouched by any enchantment.

Would Saril be thinking so far ahead? He's never shown that kind of prescience before. He's not even looking ahead to the dry season, to sailing south to reclaim his domain.

Or is he thinking ahead? Is he thinking of something else entirely? Could he be looking to take over the southernmost Daish islands? Surely not. Sirket would fight him, with the backing of Redigal and Ritsem both.

But what if Sirket died, at a wild man's hand or from some pestilence? What if Sain, in her grief, her new Daish son fatherless, turned to wed Chazen Sanl, whose remaining wife was also carrying a child of Daish blood? He would have a claim to rule, as defender of children of the last two warlords so tragically slam, in such ominous circumstances.

Janne and Rekha would have something to say about that, and all their children with them. Though entire families can perish in the same calamity, a fire, sudden illness. Such catastrophe would raise suspicions within the private counsels of Ritsem and Redigal but who could gainsay Chazen if all the signs pointed to sorcerous malice encompassing such deaths? He need be nowhere near, cosily ensconced with Sain in the southern residence.

What are you thinking of? You're weaving frustrated fantasies out of unfounded suspicion because you've been shut up in this cursed cabin ever since we reached Endit waters.

You're imagining convoluted conspiracies because you've nothing better to do.

'Then find something to do!' Daish Reik had never shown any patience with children complaining of boredom 'Think what may be asked of you later, tomorrow, the day after. Make ready, study, plan ahead while you have leisure, so you don't come running to me weeping because you've failed at something.'

Kheda unbuckled the nondescript bag that Shek Kul's body slave had brought him before his departure. He fished out a small lacquered box holding reed paper, pens and an inkpot stuffed with tandra fluff to save spills. Pen hovering over the pristine paper as he wondered what to write, his eyes strayed to another small box that Shek Kul had given him, lid secured all around with wax and stamped with the warlord's personal seal on all four sides.

You've some news for Janne but there's still this messenger Suis has been promising for the last two days. If the messenger can take you to this Dev character, you may well have far more to tell her. How soon can you meet her? This will have to go by whatever courier Suis can find for you. Best to send it to the thousand-oyster isle; that's closer than the rainy-season residence. Either Janne will be there herself or some trusted slave who can send her a messenger bird. Better allow the time for her to get the message and travel to meet you. In the meantime hopefully you'll have talked to this messenger. You can't afford to waste any more time. What can you write? Nothing that might be understood by unfriendly eyes but all Daish Kheda's ciphers died with him.

Kheda drew a swift half circle and below it, larger, a full roundel.

As long as Janne has the wit to read that for the Lesser Moon's half and the Greater's full, that gives her fifteen days. That can be a wager against the future, that I'll have something to tell her. Her journey will doubtless catch Chazen Saril's eye. Maybe he'll look away from Sain and Sirket for a while.

Rolling the reed paper tight, he found a small stick of wax in the box of writing materials and held it in the flame of the candle lantern Suis had grudgingly granted him to light this confinement. He sealed the tiny roll of paper with a thick wax drop and opened the door to the trireme's oar deck.

'Sail master Falce.' Kheda cleared his throat politely. 'Could you take this message to Shipmaster Suis, please. I need it taken to an outer reef known as the thousand-oyster isle. There's a tower of silence there.' He proffered the paper. 'There will be someone there to take it.'

'Very well.' Falce hadn't quite perfected Suis's immobility of face. His thick brows rose before he accepted the sealed roll with a shrug declaring louder than any words this was none of his business and he intended keeping it that way.

As the sail master took the ladder to the stern platform, Kheda found himself rebelling at the thought of going back into hiding. He took a deep breath of the fresher air and welcomed the light falling between the side decks to illuminate the gangway between the banks of oars, even if the sky overhead was the inevitable rainy-season grey.

He approached a couple of the rowers who were methodically checking the thole pins and oar ports. 'Is there anything I can do to help?'

One of the men looked at him, curious. 'Do you know how to check an oar lashing?'

'I do.' Kheda slid into one of the bottom seats, where the lowest of the three ranks of rowers toiled. There was a powerful stench of sweat, legacy of the rowers' unquestioning obedience to Shek Kul's command for a fast passage south. Kheda found the rope holding the oar to the thole pin had indeed worked slack. He tightened it as Ialo had taught him, bending hopefully to peer out through the oar port. The leather sleeve rigged against foul weather blocked his view.

'You've done that before.' A rower on the topmost seat above surprised him. 'And got an oarsman's calluses,' the man added as Kheda looked up.

'Tai!' Back on the gangway, Fake rebuked him with a sharp look. 'Less chat, more work.'

Kheda bent to checking the next convoluted knot and the next, and then the one after that. Working in companionable silence, he and his new shipmates were well on their way through checking the topmost rank of oars when Suis appeared down the ladder from the stern platform and nodded with slow significance.

'Yes?' Kheda moved out into the gangway as Suis came down the ladder.

'Your message is sent.' The shipmaster stood to one side. 'And the message you've been expecting has arrived.'

Kheda slowly rubbed leather oil from his hands as a slender girl descended from the stern platform. Undernourished, with stains of exhaustion beneath blue eyes that were almost as black as her hair, her much worn clothes were heavily travel-stained. She held up a tightly sealed packet of oiled paper, looking expectantly at Kheda.

'In the cabin.' Kheda followed this unlikely courier through the door with a nod of thanks to Suis. He relit his candle lantern, shaking fingers fumbling with his spark maker, and shut the cabin door tight. There was no seal on the wax sticking the oiled paper together. Kheda cracked it open to find a few lines of nonsensical writing. He tugged the leather thong over his head. The girl sat on the floor, tousled head hanging wearily.

'If you're the man I think you are, you'll find the cipher key in that.'

Kheda twisted Shek Kul's heavy silver ring until he could see the inscription inside, a meaningless circle of letters and symbols, unless you had the wit to lay it on your hand with the talisman gem aligned with the north and then to start reading from the arc where the heavenly Emerald would be riding high come nightfall. Kheda looked at the first letter of the message and found the same symbol within the circle of the ring. It was the ninth from the arc of health and daily duty. Mentally running through the usual alphabet, Kheda identified the letter T. That was a promising beginning. He reached for his writing box before recalling Daish Reik's rebukes.

'Why bother with a cipher if you're going to write the words out clearly for any spy, thief or nosy servant to happen across iff

He worked his way through the message in the safety of his own head and looked at the girl. 'Who gave you this? Where can I meet him?'

'No one gave it to me.' The girl looked up, her eyes bright and challenging. 'I wrote it myself. Read it back to me, to prove you're the man my master bids me help.'

'It says, "I like duck stewed with water pepper and served with sailer dusted with tarit seed.'" Kheda leaned against the wooden wall. 'Water pepper grows wild just about everywhere here but what have you got to trade for a fat duck? And that's a dish that wants long, slow cooking. I don't think we've got time for that. I prefer my sailer plain or dressed with a little scalid oil.'

'Can't abide the taste.' The girl grinned at him.

Kheda stayed stony-faced. 'Where is he?'

'Close enough.' The girl shrugged. 'Or if he's moved, he'll be easy enough to trace.'

'Have you got a boat?' At her nod, Kheda caught up his belongings. 'Let's go.'

'My master's message told me finding this man was life or death to you.' She rose but held the door shut. 'If you come with me now, there's no going back, you do understand?' Her low voice was peculiarly intense.

Kheda leaned forward to stare into her vivid blue eyes. 'Not when I've come this far.'

Motionless for a moment, the girl nodded abruptly. 'Come on then. We don't want to spend the rest of the rains chasing him.' She slid through the door, running lithely up the ladder to the open deck.

Kheda followed more slowly. Suis was on the stern platform, looking all around, broad shoulders tense.

'There's no one to see you, if you're quick.'

'I imagine this is goodbye.' Kheda held out his hand. 'Thank you.'

'I merely do as my master bids me.' All the same Suis smiled, if only for a moment. 'His word holds good, if you ever find yourself in the same anchorage as us, needing a passage.'

'Come on!' The girl was already disappearing down a ladder slung over the trireme's stern.

Kheda looked down to see her boat was a little skiff; single-masted, triangular-sailed, such as coastal fishers used. He looked uncertainly up at the clouds, darkening as the afternoon turned towards evening. Then he dropped his bag and bedroll down and slid down the rope ladder, smiling despite himself at the touch of fresh air after the stuffy lower deck of the trireme.

'Give me those.' The girl thrust his belongings under the stern thwart where she sat. She checked the breeze, one hand on the tiller, the other on the rope that governed the sail. 'Give us a push off and then get the oars out.'

'Yes, shipmaster,' Kheda said meekly.

The girl grinned at him. 'You want passage in my boat, friend, you pay for it by making yourself useful.'

Kheda dutifully pushed them away from the lofty side of the trireme and took the oars. A few hard pulls took them out of the big ship's shadow and the sail bellied in the wind. Shipping the oars, Kheda moved to the prow, away from the danger of the sail's boom. He allowed himself a look at the islet they were leaving. High seas lashed by the rainy season's vicious winds had strewn detritus along the white sand beach but the few houses among the palms looked in good repair, storm shutters mounted solid against the weather.

These people are secure enough, as long as the invaders come no further north. Until these invaders come north. Unless a way can be found to stop them coming north.

'Where do we find this Dev?'

The girl kept her attention on the sail. 'What do you know of him?'

Kheda curbed his impatience. 'I know that he's a barbarian, with some kind of ties to their wizards, some knowledge of their magics.'

The girl's face remained impassive. 'That doesn't worry you?' She caught the breeze deftly and the skiff surged through the water.

'It worries me,' said Kheda frankly. 'But foul enchantments devastating the Chazen domain worry me more. I want to know how to fight them. I've travelled up and down the Archipelago in search of any such lore. Your master told me Dev might know something I can use.' Their course was leading them south and east, he noted. 'Are you looking to pick up the current to take us out around the windward side of the domain?'

'I'm surprised you know these waters well enough to tell.' The girl looked curiously at him. 'You're setting yourself against these wild magics? Who are you to be taking such a burden on yourself?'

'That's not important.' Kheda smiled to take the sting out of his words. 'For the present.'

The girl shrugged as far as was possible with both hands fully occupied 'Whoever you are, you're taking more on you than you can know, if I take you to Dev.' The warning in her voice was unmistakable.

'The man's a vice peddler, Shek Kul told me that,' said Kheda slowly. 'As well as a dealer in information. Shek Kul believes he takes word of Aldabreshin affairs to some northern barbarian lord who supplies him with his liquors and dreamsmokes. It seems he has some dealings with barbarian wizards as well. '

'Dev's a wizard himself, without a doubt.' A shudder ripped through the girl that set the sail sheet rattling and the little boat's course jerked abruptly. 'That's what I meant about no going back. I've been wholly caught up in one of his enchantments. Stay with me and you'll be touched with the same stain. I can still put you ashore and you can give up this foolish quest of yours.'

'He's a wizard?' Kheda stared at her. 'What is he doing in these waters? Allying himself with these invaders?'

'Spying on them for his own purposes.' The girl shivered again. 'He's fascinated by their magic'

'He understands it?' asked Kheda.

'Enough to save us both from being ripped to pieces by it with magic of his own.' The girl looked helplessly at him. 'Do you believe someone caught up in magic innocent of intent can shed its taint?'

Mouth open, Kheda found he was lost for words.

'Do I put you ashore or not?' she snapped irritably. 'I don't want to lose him. I have to tell Shek Kul what he is and knowing where he sails is even more important than ever now.'

'Take me to see him,' Kheda said slowly. 'I have spent too long searching for some understanding of these wild men and their magic to turn back now, even if it does mean dealing with a wizard. My intent is honourable; that should surely protect me from stain, and simply asking some questions shouldn't imperil me.'

And you've already been caught up in the miasma of the savages' magic, in any case.

'Who are you,' the girl wondered, baffled, 'to run such a risk?'

'I'm Daish Kheda.' He looked round at the empty sea, not even a red-beaked seabird to hear such a dramatic declaration. 'Defending these waters, these people, it's the duty I was born to.'

'Daish Kheda is dead.' The girl steered the skiff carefully away from a foam-crested reef. 'Daish Sirket was proclaimed warlord.'

'We had no choice, if I was to search for such lore unhindered.' Kheda challenged her with a thrust of his jaw. 'I will not return to answer for the deception until I have some means of challenging these invaders' wizards to set against it. Betray me for who I am and I will denounce you as touched by magic'

'Naturally,' the girl said without rancour. 'Much good it would do you. With everyone running scared of magic, you'd likely be stoned for your pains.'

'True enough,' Kheda acknowledged with an unexpected lifting of his spirits. 'We're entangled in each other's secrets now, so can we trust each other?'

'I think so.' She looked steadily at him as the little skiff rocked over rising seas now they were further from the shore. 'We most assuredly cannot trust Dev.'

'How so?' Kheda asked. 'Apart from his being a wizard?'

The girl steered the bucking boat through a maze of white-crested troughs. 'He's entirely without scruple,' she said finally. 'He'll get a man drunk enough to wake up blind, to learn some trifle he's seeking. When he can get a girl to sail with him, he'll offer her up willing or not, if that's the price of a juicy morsel of gossip from some panting brute. He boasts of addling freeborn islanders into stupidity and trading them into slavery just to make friends with a pirate shipmaster.'

'To learn some secret?' Kheda was uncertain of her meaning.

'Just because he can, sometimes,' the girl replied dourly. 'To see if he can get away with such wickedness.'

'The corruption of magic is said to stain bone deep,' commented Kheda with distaste. 'Why doesn't Shek Kul just have him killed and be done?'

'That was his intention, when he'd found out just who Dev sells his information to and what that person might want with the inner dealings of the Archipelago. I imagine he'll see him dead regardless, now it's definite the man is a wizard.' The girl looked thoughtful. 'If he can be killed before he realises his peril.'

Kheda shivered as a spray of foam spattered across his back. 'Tell me about the magic, and about the savages. If the Daish domain is to find any means of fighting them, we have to know more about them.'

'You'll have to trust that I'm telling the truth.' The girl took a deep breath. 'I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it myself.'

By the time she had finished her incredible tale, she was having to shout above the clamour of a rising storm. The clouds had darkened to a pitch hue and rain was coming down in torrents. An awkward clash of waves sent a wall of green water crashing over their prow, leaving the little skiff knee deep. Kheda was already bailing out with a battered tin pot that came floating out from beneath the foremost thwart and redoubled his efforts. He was soaked to the skin, clothes clinging to his body, so chilled that he ached from head to toe.

The girl was just as drenched, ragged hair flattened, plastered across her honey-coloured face in black streaks, lips pale with cold. She clung to the tiller and to the rope governing the close-reefed sail, arms brutally wrenched by the wind's callous changes of direction.

When he'd got the water in the skiff's bottom down to a manageable level, Kheda worked his way awkwardly to the stern, every lurch threatening to throw him over the side. There was little point trying to make himself heard over the crash of the seas and the gale that was thrashing ropes and canvas into frenzy. He pointed wordlessly to the tiller. The girl let him take it, wrestling grim-faced with the vicious wind for mastery of the scrap of sail that was all they dared risk. Kheda sat beside her, the tiller gripped in both hands. The boat rocked and danced. Rain and sea alike battered them relentlessly in a tumult reflecting the turmoil of Kheda's own thoughts.

The stakes get higher with every turn of this game. Dealing with a barbarian claiming knowledge of northern wizardry is one thing; how do I deal with a proven user of magic? But what do I do, if I don't? Where else am I going to find any hope for my domain? If we live through this storm, it must surely be an omen. It must surely be a sign that we're following a path for the ultimate good of the Daish people, even if it does take me to a self-confessed wizard.

The girl's painful pinch on his cold arm startled him.

'We have to round that headland,' she yelled. 'I must lower the sail or we'll be driven on to the rocks.'

'Do it.' The boat rocked alarmingly as she crawled forward and brought the circumscribed sail crashing down, dragging the spars hastily out of his way. Kheda held out his hand, pulling her back to take over the tiller as he moved to the middle thwart and retrieved the oars. Rowing was agony, his chilled and strained muscles protesting with every stroke. Several times the rocking of the skiff left him pulling against empty air instead of sea with a sudden jerk that tore at his shoulders. Unable to see where they were headed, he fixed his trust in the girl clinging to the tiller, grim-faced as she looked beyond the little boat's prow. Kheda heard the crash of sea over rocks, the growl of surf on a stony shore. He ducked his head and pulled harder.

'Dev's ship!' The girl's cry, half relief, half apprehension, made Kheda look up.

He realised they had fought past the headland to win the relative calm of the leeward side. The seas were still running fast and furious but the oars no longer fought him so frantically. Twisting to look over his shoulder, he saw a small trading ship riding at anchor in the most sheltered part of the bay, sails furled and hatches tight barred.

Kheda shouted to the girl. 'If he's aboard, we ask for shelter. If he's not, we sit out this storm in the ship and think what to do next in the morning.'

She nodded fervent agreement and Kheda bent over the oars for one last effort. They reached the Amigal with a bump that set the ship rocking but the girl managed to reach up and grab the rail. Before Kheda could stop or help her, she swung herself aboard.

'Throw me a rope,' she yelled.

Kheda hastily tossed the oars into the bottom of the skiff and scrambled to the prow. He threw her the bow rope with numb, awkward hands and she caught it with a clumsy grab. As she wrapped it around the bigger ship's rail, Kheda retrieved their sodden belongings, hurling everything he could find up to the Amigal's deck. Bags landed with dull thuds and Kheda belatedly remembered Shek Kul's sealed box.

That'll be another sign, if that's survived intact.

'Come on.' The girl leaned over the rail, her hand outstretched.

Once aboard, Kheda looked uncertainly at the close-fitted stern hatch. 'Do you think he's here?'

The girl bit her lip. 'Only one way to find out.' She bent to pull the brass ring sunk into the hatch. As she did so, the wood rose up and smacked into her fingers.

'Risala, you ungrateful little bitch, what a surprise to see you here.' It was a genial enough greeting, apart from the actual words. 'You've brought company? Who said you could do that?'

'We're dying of wet and cold out here,' the girl said indistinctly, sucking on her stinging hand. 'Give us some shelter for pity's sake.'

'Plenty of shelter ashore.' But the man climbed up the ladder to open the hatch wider. 'All right, get in before we all drown.'

Kheda took the hatch and the man disappeared. The girl, Risala, gathered up their belongings and half slid, half fell down the ladder. Kheda followed as quickly as he could, pulling the hatch closed behind him. Dev was already back in his hammock, one leg dangling over the side, a horn cup resting on his belly cradled in both hands.

Kheda twisted the ring on the inner face of the hatch, turning a sturdy brass bar to secure it. He turned to Dev, composing his face to suitable gratitude. 'Thank you for taking us aboard.'

'Don't thank me yet,' Dev said cheerfully. 'I'll cut your throat and throw you overboard if you get on my nerves, won't I, Risala?'

'Doubtless,' she said shortly. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering uncontrollably. 'Just let us get warm and dry first.'

'Best get out of those wet things.' He leered at her.

'I'll change through there, thanks.' She jerked her head towards the main hold.

'Let you loose with my stock?' Dev raised his eyebrows. 'I think not.'

'Why don't you and I go through, Master Dev?' suggested Kheda tentatively. 'Risala,' he stumbled over the name and hoped he'd heard it right. 'You can change in here.'

'I don't know why my lady thinks her modesty is worth protecting. All right then, it'll give me a chance to see what you're made of. The curiosity in Dev's face was undisguised. He swung himself out of his hammock and took the lantern from its hook. 'You can work by feel, girl. I want a better look at your friend here.' He unlocked the door and gestured Kheda through.

'Look all you want.' Kheda pulled his saturated tunic over his head with some difficulty, the cloth clinging to his skin. 'There's not much to see.' He tugged at the drawstring of his trousers, the knot swollen and tight.

'I don't imagine that's what the ladies say,' Dev said slyly, raising the lantern.

Kheda registered the man's hairless chin for the first time. 'If you're a man's man, I'm sorry to disappoint you,' he said curtly.

He turned his back on Dev, shed the trousers and dug in his bag for other clothes.

'If there's anything dry in there, I'll eat it,' the other man mocked.

Kheda didn't turn round, wiping water from his body as best he could with his wrung-out tunic. 'If you've anything dry for us to wear, we'd be in your debt,' he said with carefully calculated mildness.

'Why should that interest me?' Dev's words were an unpleasant blend of scorn and amusement.

'I thought you were a trader.' Kheda shook out the pair of non-descript trousers Shek Kul's slave had given him for a change of clothes. They didn't actually drip but that was their only advantage over the garment oozing a puddle on the boards by his feet. 'Don't you trade in obligation?'

'When it suits me,' Dev allowed. 'It doesn't happen to suit me just now,' he added maliciously.

Kheda stepped into trousers that clung unpleasantly to his legs. 'Risala, are you dressed?'

'Yes.' She pushed open the door and the lamplight showed her in a thin dress clinging damply to her skinny body.

'Very fetching,' Dev admired before turning his attention back to Kheda. 'Has she told you what I am?'

'A vice peddler, selling liquor and leaf, dreamsmokes and the like.' Kheda leaned against the barrels he'd dumped his bag on, hands behind his back. 'And a wizard.'

'You came to see if it was true, did you?' challenged Dev. 'Another halfwit of a poet?'

'I'm a soothsayer,' replied Kheda.

'I asked him if he could purify me after being touched by your magic,' Risala said instantly.

'Is that so?' Dev raised a hand and a red haze enveloped Kheda. Enveloped in warmth, he nevertheless froze with shock, his spine a column of ice and dread. Dev snapped his fingers and the mist vanished. 'How will you do that when you're just as tainted?'

Kheda licked his lips and found them dry. In fact, he was entirely dry, clothes, skin, hair and beard, and the bone-deep chill was receding fast. He cleared his throat. 'There's a school of thought that argues an innocent victim of magic is not so deeply mired in it as someone who deliberately seeks out or effects its use.'

'Effects its use?' Dev echoed unpleasantly. 'Do any of these great Archipelagan thinkers know anything about effecting magic's use?'

'I really couldn't say,' Kheda shrugged.

'I really wouldn't think so,' retorted Dev. 'You know nothing, you Aldabreshi with your soothsayers and your stargazers and your books full of lore on what's to be read in a deer's innards.'

'I know I'm chilled half to death.' Risala could barely get the words out, her teeth were chattering so much. 'You can spare some wine to warm me, you bastard.'

'I'll do better than that' With a negligent wave of Dev's hand, the same red glow swirled around her 'A cup of wine isn't a bad notion, mind. Then you can tell me what brings you back to me.' He shot a sideways smirk at Kheda. 'Other than my prowess as a lover.'

Kheda caught the speculative glint in the wizard's eye and kept his face impassive.

I've had better men than you, and worse, try to rile me into indiscretion, you tedious little barbarian.

He smiled at Risala who was shaking out the stiff and crumpled folds of her dry dress. 'I don't suppose this makes your contamination too much worse.'

'Ah, you wouldn't have touched her, not while she was so dirty with magic' Dev turned to choose a bottle from an all but empty basket. 'That's why you're so keen to purify her, so she'll open her thighs out of gratitude? Sorry, friend, she's not worth the bother.'

'Still so keen on the sound of your own voice, Dev.' Risala wasn't rising to the bait either. 'Any chance you'll start speaking sense any time soon?'

'Make yourself useful and find the cups.' Bottle in one hand, lantern in the other, Dev jerked his head towards the miscellaneous storage boxes. 'You, soothsayer, back in there.'

Kheda dutifully returned to the stern cabin, followed by Risala. Dev hung the lantern on its hook and turned to lock the door to the hold. Kheda and Risala shared a glance and he saw his own determination mirrored in her face.

'If you're stained by my magic, I don't suppose the crime of tasting my wine will worry you too much.' Dev grinned genially as he twisted the wax-sealed cork out of the bottle. 'Let's have a drink, girl.' As Risala held out two horn cups, he sloshed dark red wine into them. 'There you go, soothsayer'

Kheda wordlessly accepted a cup.

'Be careful,' Dev warned, sarcastic. 'You can't go back to drinking that goat's piss you people call wine, once you get a taste for this.' With remarkable deftness, he got onto the hammock, found his cup and refilled it, feet swinging.

'Wizard or not, I'd take you for Aldabreshi.' Kheda sat down on the battered chest on the opposite side of the cabin. 'From some northern domain and with barbarian blood, but certainly born in the Archipelago.' He sipped cautiously, blinking rapidly as the powerful perfume of the wine momentarily overwhelmed him. 'Are you one of us?'

'Did you find some way to escape execution once the magic warping you became apparent?' Risala's blue eyes were speculative over the rim of her cup. She sat on the chest beside Kheda, her thigh pressing against his.

'Not me.' Dev took a swig of wine. 'I'm a barbarian, born and bred. None of your soothsayers ever saw that, friend.' He grinned cheerfully.

Kheda studied him. 'What could a barbarian wizard seek in the Archipelago, at the risk of his own hide?'

'That's my business, pal.' Dev scowled as he emptied his cup. 'I'm more interested in yours. This is my ship, so I'll ask the questions. What brings you hunting for a mage? And don't give me any tripe about helping the poor little soiled poet girl. I might believe it if you were looking to lift her skirts but I don't see that.'

'You're an astute man,' observed Kheda.

'I'd be long dead if I wasn't.' Dev saluted him with his cup. 'What really brings you to me? Apart from a glossy trireme all the way from northern waters.' He shook his head at Risala. 'You didn't think I'd let you go, did you, girlie? I've been keeping a wizard's eye on you, just in case you went selling my secret to some bastard who'd come looking to nail my skin to a fortress door.' He refilled his cup as he spoke. 'I was thinking it was a shame I had no one to make a wager with, against you two making it here alive, when I saw you fighting that storm.'

'Would you have done anything about it, if we'd foundered?' Risala stood up and took the bottle from Dev.

'And pollute you further with my filthy magic?' Dev pretended concern.

'There are worse magics than yours abroad in these reaches,' said Kheda curtly. He reached out and took the wine bottle from Risala.

'That interests you, does it?' Dev swung his feet idly but his eyes were alert.

Wizards cloak themselves in lies and twist anything they touch out of true. Can you read my words? Let's see how much truth I can tell you without you seeing the whole.

'Let's get down to business.' Kheda set his empty cup on the floor. 'I've offered counsel to the Daish domain before now and, for reasons I don't propose to share with you, I'm under a great obligation to the lady Janne Daish. I want to repay that debt by finding some means to frustrate this magic that's brought such destruction to the Chazen domain, before it can come north to devastate the Daish islands.' He raised an emphatic finger. 'Not that Janne Daish has any knowledge of my intent. You can't use that against her.'

'You think you can fight back against those savages and their magic? You're an idiot. All you Archipelagans, you're ignorant, magicless fools.' Dev gestured for the wine bottle. 'You cannot fight those with wizardry bred in their very bone.' For the first time, he sounded entirely serious, even without malice.

'You could.' Kheda jerked his head towards Risala beside him. 'She told me as much.'

'I could, true enough.' Dev swung up his feet and lay back in his hammock, tipping the last of the wine into his cup. 'I did, very effectively, I might add. What's that to you, soothsayer? Suborning magic will see you skinned along with me and her head on a spike, just for good measure,' he concluded with happy malice.

Kheda picked up his cup and drank the heady wine slowly before putting into words the furious debate he'd waged with himself, even as he and Risala had fought their way through the storm.

You've come too far, at the cost of too much pain, for you and all those you love to give up now.

'The malice of magic is what stains whatever it touches. These savages, they've proved themselves vicious beyond belief. Would dealing with a wizard to find some way to fight them, if that's the only way to fight them, would that be so very evil?' He looked at Risala, desperate to see some agreement in her eyes.

She looked at him, biting her lip, before shivering suddenly. 'I wouldn't like to stand before any warlord and plead that case for his mercy.'

'I once read an argument where magic was likened to a crystal prism,' Kheda said to her, beseeching. 'Splitting the pure light into broken colours. A second prism can restore the light. Might using a wizard's knowledge to quell magic not be the lesser of the two evils?'

'Pardon me for interrupting your philosophical debate—' Dev tossed the empty wine bottle into the air. 'Your assumption—'

A blue light sparked inside the dark green glass and died at once. The bottle crashed to the floor and shattered.

'Arseholes!' Dev sat up straight, mouth open. He waved a hand at the lamp, which burned on steadily, golden glow unaffected. He half jumped, half fell from his hammock. 'What have you done, you bastards?'

'Mind the glass!' Risala warned, drawing her feet up to the top of the chest, hugging her knees.

Dev ignored the dull green shards scattered across the boards, glaring at Kheda. 'What have you done?'

'Tamed your magic, for the moment.' Kheda hoped he'd dusted the last of the powder he'd taken from Shek Kul's box from his fingers. 'I'd rather have your cooperation willingly but I'll force you if needs be.'

And thank you for that ancient concoction, great lord of Shek, even if you had no idea if it would work, as you were scrupulously honest in explaining.

'You think you can force me to work magic for you?' spat Dev. 'By taking it from me? What is this, one of your useless talismans actually working for a change?'

'I can't force you to help me,' Kheda said tightly. 'But I can keep you helpless and deliver you up to the rulers of the Daish domain. We can both swear to your wizardry and throw ourselves on their mercy and see you skinned alive to purify us both and ward the evil of the invader's magic from the domain.'

'Daish Sirket would owe us a tremendous debt, if we could offer him the protection of such a rite, to strengthen his men and those of Chazen, when they sail south at the end of the rains,' Risala said boldly.

Kheda could feel her trembling, as she pressed close against him. 'I imagine Daish Sirket and Chazen Saril would share in the ritual. There would surely be omens to be read in the mirror of your liver, in the coils of your entrails. If you will not tell us willingly how we might defeat these invaders, perhaps your death will serve our purpose despite you.'

Read the truth in that, you bastard, because if that's all the good I can wring from your twisted carcass to help my domain, then I swear I will do it. Even if I die for it myself.

'You just try it, pal.' Dev launched himself at Kheda, heedless of the glass on the floor.

Risala darted away to one side and Kheda ducked the other. Sharp pain in his feet slowed him and Dev bore him down to the floor, reaching for his neck with strangling hands. Bucking his hips to try and throw the lighter man off, Kheda thrust a fist upwards between the wizard's forearms. He couldn't manage a hard punch to Dev's throat but it was enough to loosen his grip. Kheda forced his other arm up and knocked the mage's hands aside. Dev's forehead came down to butt him and Kheda rolled his head aside to take the blow on his cheekbone. The pain of that was enough to make him gasp but it was Dev who yelled.

Kheda blinked away tears to see Risala's sharp fingernails drawing blood in the wide neck of Dev's tunic. Rising to his knees with a roar of anger the wizard swung round an arm but he couldn't reach her. A wrench of his shoulders instead pulled Risala around to trip over Kheda's legs. She went sprawling across the splinter-strewn floor but, clinging to Dev, she dragged him with her. Kheda scrambled up and flung himself at Dev, his greater weight knocking the mage flat. Glass crunched beneath them.

Ignoring the needle-sharp pains in his knees and shins, Kheda straddled Dev's hips, pinning the mage to the boards. Warding off Dev's blows with one forearm, he landed a jarring punch on the wizard. Dev's head jolted as his lip split.

'He's got a knife!' Risala had seen him scrabbling for something beneath his tunic and seized his hand. Leaning on it with all her weight, she bore it down to the floor. Kheda held it down with one knee and caught Dev's other hand in a vice-like grip, muscles built by half a season's rowing bunching beneath his tunic sleeve as he fought the wizard's wiry strength. With his free hand, he grabbed Dev's jaw and thumped the mage's bald head hard against the floor.

'Don't think you can get me to kill you, just to save you from the augur's knife,' he hissed.

Twisting his head free, Dev managed to bite Kheda between thumb and forefinger. Kheda punched him again, under the jaw, snapping his teeth shut.

'He doesn't have to be unmarked, does he, not like a sacrificial animal?' Risala panted with triumph as she held up the knife Dev had tried to use on Kheda. Steel caught the lamplight. 'Can't you hamstring him, to keep him from escaping? Cut the tendons in his arms as well. They all seem to wave their hands around to work their magic'

'All he has to be is a wizard.' Kheda let his full weight press down on Dev.

'Working magic has nothing to do with using your hands, you stupid bitch.' The mage writhed beneath him.

Kheda took the knife from Risala and shoved the point between Dev's snarling teeth. The mage's instinctive recoil left him with a sharp cut in the corner of his mouth.

Kheda lent forward to look Dev in the eye. 'The last time a wizard was caught and killed in the Safar domain, they cut his tongue out ahead of time, so he couldn't curse anyone.'

Dev froze, tense but still, and Kheda slowly withdrew the knife.

'I shouldn't have waited to see if you drowned. I should've summoned the waves to sink you myself.' Dev winced and rolled his head to spit blood away. 'If I'd known you were going to be this much trouble. I could have done with consulting a soothsayer, couldn't I?' he added with vicious wit.

Kheda matched his sour humour. 'You're the one in charge here.' Laying the knife alongside Dev's throat gave the lie to his words. 'It's your choice. Help us against these invaders and their magic or see your blood shed in hopes that it will protect the Daish domain. What would you rather do?'

'Suppose I do help you?' Dev's jaw jutted belligerently. 'What do I get out of it?'

'Besides a whole hide?' Kheda didn't have to pretend surprise. Cramp threatened in his thighs and he shifted a little. Needles of glass pricked his shins, a stickiness of blood warm on his skin.

'I thought you weren't a man's man.' Dev tested Kheda's weight with a suggestive twist of his own hips.

'You won't distract me with your nonsense.' Kheda pressed the knife harder into the leathery skin of Dev's throat.

'Don't you want revenge on the invaders?' Risala's taunt turned both men's heads. She shook her head at Dev. 'Don't you want to make that mage in the dragon-hide cloak pay for sending those tentacles to slap your sorry arse and try ripping you limb from limb?'

'Revenge isn't worth so much,' said Dev tightly. 'I'll want something I can trade for real value.'

'Pearls? Turtle shell?' Kheda shrugged. 'What's so funny about that?'

Dev licked at the corner of his mouth, the knife cut painfully pulled by his unexpected chuckle. 'Those wizards down south don't reckon much to pearls or turtle shell. They want gems, the bigger the better, talisman stones for preference.'

'That's what was in the coffer?' Risala asked.

'You're not the only one I've been keeping an eye on.' Dev slid a sly glance towards her.

'Why do they want talisman gemstones?' demanded Kheda.

'So many questions.' Still pinioned, Dev nevertheless tried to shrug. 'Every answer has its price, you must know that much, soothsayer.'

Kheda looked down at the wizard with undisguised contempt. 'If you're paid, well paid, with pearls and jewels as well as your worthless life, will you help us?'

'What does a penniless soothsayer with a slut of a poet in tow have to pay me with?' scorned Dev.

Tell him who you are and you give yourself over to his mercy. Is there any other way to win his assistance? Isn't this a wager that'll prove your cause, one way or the other?

Blood pulsing in his throat, Kheda kept his voice as calm as he could. 'I can reward you with more riches than you can imagine, fool of a barbarian. I am Daish Kheda, warlord of that domain.'

'And I'm the Emperor of Tormalin,' scoffed Dev breathlessly.

'You don't have some magic to know he's telling the truth?' Risala was genuinely surprised.

'You people do have some foolish notions about what magic can do.' Dev shook his head as far as he was able. 'Prove it.'

'Who else but a warlord would have the secret of disarming a wizard?' Kheda smiled with confident pride to mask his inner incredulity at what he was doing. 'Who else but the Daish warlord would risk himself in dealings with a mage in order to fight the magic that threatens his people? Why else would I hand you the valuable gift of knowledge of my true identity, if I wasn't trying to buy your cooperation.'

'Why does everyone else think the Daish warlord is dead?' retorted Dev, now trying in vain to find some purchase for his feet on the slippery deck.

Kheda pressed his weight down harder. 'Do you imagine I could have gone on such a quest with every eye on me, every tongue speculating as to what I might be planning?'

Dev's eyes narrowed. 'I don't imagine many other warlords would be too pleased to know what you're doing.'

'Then you can imagine what I'll be paying you, to keep your mouth shut about exactly how we drive these wizards out of the southern reaches,' countered Kheda coldly.

'Will you help us?' Risala demanded.

'I'll think about it.' Dev closed his eyes for a moment. 'If you haven't crushed the life out of me.'

'I'll let you free if you give your word not to fight again.' Kheda's own legs begged him to stand up.

'My word?' mocked Dev, his spirit returning. 'The word of a foul, deceitful, perverse wizard?'

'A wizard with no powers at present.' Kheda looked down at him, unblinking. 'A wizard I can hand over to any number of warlords who'll be only too happy to flay him alive.'

'You've already made a start on that, you bastard.' Dev's breath hissed between his teeth. 'I'll be no cursed use to you if I'm dead of blood poisoning.'

'Give me your word.' Kheda let his full weight press down again. 'If you keep it, that'll be worth some payment in its own right.'

'Show us we're wrong about wizards, we stupid Aldabreshi,' added Risala, her scepticism plain.

'I swear, by all that's holy—' Dev caught himself. 'By the fire that burns within my very bones, that I will help you fight the invaders and their wizards, just so long as you pay me all that you can. Betray me—' He paused and glared up at Kheda. 'And I will melt the flesh from your bones with sorcerous fire that will leave a stain on these islands for a full cycle of the heavens.'

Kheda got up, trying to disguise the shudder that racked him at those words. 'Good enough.' He paused, held Dev down with one knee and cut the key cord from around the bald man's waist. 'I'll hold these for the present, just to help keep you honest.'

Groaning, Dev rolled over. The back of his tunic was stained with blood and bright with broken glass. 'What have you done, drugged me? I don't feel doped but I can't feel the slightest touch of the elements.'

'That's my secret,' said Kheda shortly. He sat on the chest and grimaced as he picked glass out of his shin. 'Risala, can you get some wine to wash out everyone's wounds? And something to sweep up this glass?'

'Get the white brandy,' snapped Dev. 'In the basket with the blue withy rim.'

When Risala returned, stubby black bottle and a threadbare besom in her bloodied hands, Dev sat up and pulled off his tunic. 'See if you can clear up your new lover's mess.'

She didn't bother replying, simply handing the bottle to Kheda, before sitting to begin picking the fragments out of Dev's skin.

'Shit, that's sore!' Dev grabbed the brandy from Kheda and took a long drink.

Risala took the bottle from him and sluiced his wounds with the spirit.

'You're a lousy nurse, girlie,' Dev gasped.

'Find another,' she said unsympathetic, tearing a strip from his ruined tunic to wipe away the welling blood.

'I'll go ashore in the morning.' Kheda finished sweeping the broken glass into a pile and began gingerly tending his own wounds with a liquor-soaked scrap of cloth. 'Find the makings of a poultice for us all.'

'This is all the medicine I need.' Dev snatched back the bottle and glared at Kheda. 'Get lost and let me get some sleep.'

Kheda walked stiffly over to unlock the door to the hold. 'You sleep in here.' He went into the gloom to retrieve his soggy belongings.

'You can take your hammock,' Risala said sweetly.

'I'll thank you to remember I'm the owner of this ship, girlie.' Dev unhooked his hammock from the beams nevertheless, carrying the bundle of sailcloth and blankets through into the darkness. He slammed the door emphatically behind him. Kheda locked it.

'Keys, please.'

Kheda threw the bunch. Risala caught the cord and unlocked the big chest, pulling out hammocks and blankets.

Kheda reached up to hook one end of a canvas length to the beam. 'Do you think he can see in the dark?'

'Who cares?' Risala shrugged as she secured the other end. 'Do you think he can hear us?'

'Depends how much of that white liquor he's drunk.' Kheda helped her with the other hammock.

'When will he get his powers back?' asked Risala in a low voice as she shook out a blanket.

Kheda took it, pleasantly surprised to find it herb-scented and free from damp. 'I'm not entirely sure,' he said softly.

'What did you do?' Risala moved closer, voice dropping to a whisper.

'Shek Kul gave me a powder,' mouthed Kheda, unable to restrain a grin. 'He found the concoction in some ancient book of lore. I had no idea if it would work but I put it in his wine. A warlord's son is raised to be wary of poisons. That teaches you all the moves to spice someone else's drink.'

Risala raised herself on her toes to speak close to his ear. 'Could you do the same to the invaders' mages?' She smelled of warm dry cotton and clean hair. Her black locks had dried to a feathery tousle.

'Perhaps.' Kheda allowed himself to feel a little hope. 'Do you suppose they're all sots like Dev? Could we get them to drink it in one of his barrels of wine?'

Risala surprised both of them with a slightly hysterical giggle. 'Do you think it could be that easy?'

Kheda sighed ruefully. 'I very much doubt it.'

Risala swung herself into her hammock with a flash of honey-coloured legs. 'Do you want to put the lamp out?'

You sound like Efi not wanting to be left in the dark.

'No, not for the moment.' Kheda got into his own hammock and tucked the blanket around himself.

'Do you suppose Dev will still be there in the morning?' Risala wondered wearily.

'Let's worry about that then, shall we?' Kheda's cuts were stinging and he couldn't quite decide if his bruises or his much-abused muscles ached more. 'Thanks for your help. He might have had me if you hadn't caught his knife hand.' A new thought struck him. 'He called you a poet. Are you one?'

'I'm a lot of things, when I have to be.'

I recognise that note in a woman's voice as well. If you were Janne or Rekha talking, a determined roll over would leave me next to a silent back.

Risala couldn't roll over in a hammock but she pulled her blanket up over her chin all the same, hiding her eyes.

'Good night.' He reached out and snuffed the lamp.

I'll settle for being warm and dry, not dead with a wizard's blade in my guts and, finally, after all these endless leagues, not so very much alone. We can pursue all these other puzzles in the morning. We've got this far; that must be a sign in our favour.