Southern Fire

Chapter Seventeen

'I thought you said one of these savage mages was camped on this shore.' From his vantage point in the Amigal's prow, Kheda turned to look suspiciously at Dev.

'Last time I scryed.' Dev yanked on the tiller to turn the ship closer to the rocky shore. 'Somewhere hereabouts. There's a village he was taking for his own.' Above a wall of broken boulders, a stretch of grass dotted with palms separated white surf from the denser green of tangled brush rising up a steep slope.

'Then why risk sailing up in plain sight?' snapped Kheda. 'We should anchor and reconnoitre on foot.'

'Have you seen anyone to raise an alarm?' countered Dev. 'Any of those log boats? Not that they'll see us, not before we see them. I've woven an enchantment to be certain of that.'

'You take too much on yourself, wizard.' Kheda's skin crawled at the thought of unseen magic clouding the air all around him.

'Fretting about the taint on your future?' mocked Dev. 'I don't answer to you, not about magic. Does anyone answer to you, what with you being dead?' He smiled cheerfully.

'I can't see anyone ashore.' Just forward of the mast and knuckles white as she gripped the rail, Risala peered intently into the shadows beneath the trees.

'It's the same as everywhere else,' said Kheda bleakly. 'Everyone not captive has fled.'

Fled north to the Daish domain, and the longer they stay there, the less likely they are to ever return home. The Daish domain just cant support that many people. That many Chazen people will give Chazen Saril substantial backing if he does decide to try deposing Sirket.

Risala turned to address Dev. 'Where's this village?'

'You mean that one?' the wizard enquired sarcastically.

As the Amigal turned an abrupt corner in the shoreline, Kheda saw a narrow landing where the rocks gave way to a meagre length of coarse, many-hued sand. There was little left of the village that had flourished there. Some of the houses looked to have collapsed, all four walls falling outwards at once, palm thatch scattered in every direction. Others seemed to have been crushed inwards; walls toppling one on top of the other, roofs left intact and aslant on unsteady heaps of splintered wood. Sailer granaries, up on stilts, were piles of debris pierced by posts. The fowl houses mostly looked as if a giant foot had stamped on them and great gouges scarred the unkempt vegetable plots where weeds were revelling in the moist untended soil.

'Could it have been a whirlwind?' wondered Risala uncertainly. 'Or a water spout?'

Kheda shaded his eyes with a hand. The rain clouds were holding off for the moment and the sun sparkled bright on the sea. 'There's no damage to the tree line. A whirlwind would have cut a path inland or along the shore, not just demolished the houses.' He turned on Dev. 'Is this some wizard's work? Could they have seen us coming? Are you sure they can't spy on us, as you're spying on them?'

'The correct term is scrying,' said Dev coldly. 'I've seen no sign that they know how to work any magic of that kind. They don't even realise when I'm scrying on them, I'll bet my stones on it.'

'It's all our necks you're wagering.' Risala glanced over her shoulder.

'Where has this wizard gone, the one that did this?' Kheda persisted.

'I don't know.' Dev saw something he didn't like in Kheda's expression and his tone soured. 'I've been looking the length and breadth of these isles to find out what wizard is where. I haven't been watching each one to see how often he takes a squat or a piss. Trust me on this or the deal's off. I gave my oath I'd help you but I don't have to keep it, not if you're going to disbelieve me. Where shall I take you? The Daish dry-season residence? What about you, girlie? Ready to tell me who you're spying for yet?'

Trust. Ok, I trust your magic, most assuredly, after seeing you draw pictures out of nothing into a bowl of water, proving beyond doubt that a wizard's insidious spying can reach anywhere. It's trusting you at my back, believing you wont somehow betray me, that's what I'm finding the real test.

Risala spoke up before Kheda could decide on a response. 'Let's go ashore and see just what happened.'

Kheda stared into the thick brush beyond the village where undergrowth flourished anew in the rain. 'Do you suppose there'll be any Chazen islanders able to tell us what went on here?'

'I can't even see a house fowl come back looking for grain,' Risala said sadly.

Dev deftly steered the Amigal round so the stern drifted into the grudging beach. 'Get the skiff, girlie. You, make sure we're secure.' He looked at Kheda and nodded towards the twin-fluked anchors. 'I don't fancy swimming for the ship if she drifts. There's sharks in these waters.'

Kheda hefted the heavy weight of the bow anchor and glanced at Risala. 'Do you want to stay aboard, keep watch out to sea?'

'I want to see what's gone on ashore.' She shook her head stubbornly.

Kheda threw the anchor over the Amigal's prow and hauled on the rope until he was confident it was dug deep into the rocky sand of the sea bed. Risala fetched the skiff round from its tether at the Amigal's stern and smiled up at him as he dropped the second anchor. Kheda lowered himself lightly into the little vessel and took the oars. Dev joined them, gazing all the while at the beach. Reaching the shore in a few strokes of the oars, the three of them dragged the skiff up out of the reach of the sluggish waves.

'They were building defences,' Risala remarked. A ditch had been dug halfway across the grassy slope, though pointed stakes that had been stacked together were now scattered like straws in a wind.

'Much good it did this prentice sorcerer,' chuckled Dev with cruel amusement. 'I told you these people are more interested in fighting each other. I don't see them taking on any other domain at least until the end of the rains.'

'You said they were penning up prisoners like animals?' Kheda couldn't see anything like the stockades Dev and Risala had described.

'Looks like they were keeping them locked up in the huts.' Dev had already reached the splintered remains of what had been a substantial building.

Kheda joined him, kicking at a solid pole with floorboards still attached. 'Berale wood, seasoned, oiled against white ants, snapped like kindling.' The rough reddish inner grain of the splintered wood showed like a wound against the dark surface, polished with years of use.

'The sailer's long gone.' Risala looked worried. 'I don't know what the Chazen people will be eating come the dry season, even if we do drive these wizards out.' She kicked at the end of a fallen roof truss. A litter of damp thatch slid away unexpectedly.

Her yelp startled them both. Dev was instantly four steps back towards the shore as Kheda reached for Risala, other hand drawing the dagger he'd taken from Dev. 'What is it?'

Risala shook herself like a hound coming out of the rain. Setting her jaw, she pointed at two corpses twisted in an ugly embrace, the shifting palm fronds releasing a foetid stench of death. Insects scurried away from the intrusive daylight.

'They may yet tell us something.' Kheda sank down to a crouch and looked closely at the two dead.

'Necromancy?' queried Dev, moving closer for a better look.

'You're not working any spells over them.' Kheda spread a hand protectively over the bodies.

'I thought you meant you were going to work some rite, for speaking to the dead.' Dev folded his arms and looked at Kheda, bright-eyed. 'That's long been the rumour in the north, what with all your people's insistence on past being linked to present and future. No? That's a shame. That would have been worth something to me.'

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' Kheda didn't know whether to be more appalled or bewildered by the notion.

'Can we discuss barbarian ignorance some other time?' Risala had turned away from the pathetic corpses. 'There's no saying when the savages might come back.'

'See what you can see; I'll see what I can find.' Dev wandered off.

Kheda looked down at the bodies. One was an old man with close-cropped hair and a grizzled beard and a paltry string of turtle shell beads around his neck. The other was a woman, her age-weathered skin sagging and wrinkled, dark eyes glazed in death. Neither showed much visible decay beyond the predation of carrion flies. Steeling himself, he lifted the man's clenched hand from the old woman's stomach. It moved limp and loose, a fisherman's calluses hard on the palm. 'They're not long dead, a day or so.'

'What killed them?' Risala asked softly.

'Hard to say.' Kheda examined the old fisherman's head with gentle hands. 'There's no wound that I can see.'

'There's blood on her neck,' Risala pointed out, swallowing hard.

Catching his lower lip between his teeth, Kheda moved the old woman's grey plait aside. Blood was clotted dark in a thin score around her neck. 'That didn't kill her. Something was ripped off her neck, a cord or necklace.' Kheda sighed, shaking his head as he stood to look down on the bodies with all the detachment he could muster. 'There's some bloating but they're so thin, I think they were starved by their captors. When this happened, whatever happened—' He gestured, baffled, at the wreckage of the prison and the wider destruction beyond. 'The shock, their weakness, I think they just died.'

'Why take prisoners and then treat them so badly?' Risala's puzzlement mirrored Kheda's own.

'Why take prisoners at all? What use is a domain with no one to work it?' Kheda scrubbed a handful of earth through his hands.

'Do you suppose they'll take the land for themselves?' Risala looked around uneasily.

'There's no sign of it, is there? If you're not interested in slaves, why not give them a clean death?' Kheda sighed. 'This is what threatens my own people, if we cannot find a way to stop it.'

'Or worse.' Risala's eyes were dark with apprehension. 'We still don't know what they want their prisoners for, if it's not to make them slaves.'

'Come, see what I've found.' Dev's shout rang with cruel satisfaction.

Kheda and Risala exchanged a glance before walking over to join the mage, who was crouching among the ruins of another hut.

'I told you there was a mage camped here.' Dev glanced up before looking back to something pinned beneath a fallen beam. 'Mind yourselves.'

Risala and Kheda stepped back hastily as the heavy beam, taller than Kheda and as thick as his thigh, flipped up and toppled away at Dev's negligent gesture.

'Was that him?' Risala gasped, appalled.

Dev chuckled. 'Not so pretty now, is he?'

Kheda stared at what had once been a man. 'Was he racked?'

'Not the way you mean.' Dev kicked at one of the corpse's mangled, contorted arms. Every joint had been pulled apart, knobbly ends of bones clearly separate beneath stretched yet unbroken skin. His legs had been similarly wrenched out of their sockets, thighs at an impossible angle beneath his hips. 'No signs of binding, no bruises.'

'Magic did this?' Kheda looked at the dead man's face, jaw hanging dislocated, teeth startlingly white in the clotted mess of blood choking his mouth. His head was misshapen, skull plates separated beneath the mud-caked bristly hair, eyes ruptured into oozing ruins surrounded by crude sweeps of reddish paint.

'I'd say so.' Dev nodded with satisfaction. 'You remember me saying he looked like the lowest in the pecking order?'

'I remember you saying you needed to see these wizards working their magic, to devise a means for us to work against them,' challenged Kheda. 'What does this tell you?'

'That this weakling has been picked off by one of his rivals. I saw him having some sort of parley with another of his kind a while ago. He ended up handing over loot and prisoners. Someone must have decided to take the rest. The wild men who'd been following him will all have gone along with the new top dog.' Dev kicked contemptuously at the body before glancing at Risala. 'I don't think that fight we saw between those two mages was anything out of the ordinary. I think you get to wear a fancy cloak by killing your way up the ladder.' He grinned at Kheda. 'More than one warlord's seized power that way.'

Kheda ignored the taunt. 'Can you tell what happened here?'

Faint blue light glittered momentarily over every ruined house and hut. Dev laughed as Kheda shivered and Risala recoiled from the tumble of splintered wood beside her.

'Someone knew how to work powerful magic with the air.' He kicked the body again. 'I don't know what element this fool had an affinity for but he didn't get a chance to use it. His enemy's magic ripped him apart, then did the same for his petty little holding. Whoever was responsible has another notch on his staff, or whatever these people use for a symbol of their power.'

'This is how it's done among your kind?' demanded Kheda.

Dev looked up angrily. 'My kind do nothing like this. This is crude, brutal magic, strongest wins and subtlety be cursed. We of the north, we prefer refinement in our enchantments, working to an understanding of the nature of magic, exploring every nuance of its potential.' He gestured at the dead mage with frustrated contempt. 'This is smashing an oyster with a building hammer and not caring if you crush the shell, the flesh and any pearl within it all into powder. My magic is sliding in a careful knife, winning yourself nacre, pearl and something to eat all at the same time.'

Kheda was unimpressed. 'Does this tell you how we may fight them?'

'No,' Dev said slowly. 'Though I think I know who'll be next on the list, if someone is rolling up the weaker mages hereabouts. I wouldn't mind seeing that fight. If I can see how these people use their magic, I can think of ways to work against them.'

'Do you mean you'll scry to see them fight?' Kheda looked dubiously at the wizard.

'Oh, no, I need to be there,' Dev assured him cheerfully. 'You can't tell who's winning a cockfight if you're standing outside the pit.'

Risala had been delving cautiously in the wreckage of a hut. 'They left the turtle shell and the pearls again.' She stood up, brushing her hands against her ragged trousers.

'If they scorn such wealth in favour of jewels, they're bound to go north sooner or later.' Kheda looked grim. 'That's where the Archipelago's gems are to be found.'

Dev nodded to Risala. 'Gather that lot up and get it aboard.'

'What gives you the right to rob these people?' Kheda challenged him immediately.

'Who's left to rob?' protested Dev. 'Anyway, you said I'd be well paid. We can call this something on account.'

'You go looting on your own,' Kheda said coldly. 'Once you've worked your spying magic to be sure no one's sneaking up on us. We'll bury the dead before we leave here.' He turned his back on the wizard and Risala dutifully followed him back to the lifeless couple.

'At least they died in their rightful place.' She looked around helplessly. 'Is there anything to dig with?'

'Go and look.' Kheda knelt to score a line in the damp turf with the dagger he'd taken from Dev and kept for himself, even if it was an undistinguished Viselis blade. He began levering the grass up. 'Otherwise it'll have to be our hands.'

'No sign of anyone around here at all.' Dev waved cheerfully, throwing aside a scoop of sea water in a broken pot.

'Keep looking. We don't want to be taken unawares.' Kheda concentrated on peeling back the stubborn turf.

'I don't want to be caught any more than you do.' The wizard waved a negligent hand. 'Though anyone with a pennyweight of sense will be sleeping out the heat of the day under a tree.'

Risala returned with two hoes, one with a charred handle, the other broken but still serviceable. 'This is the best I can do.'

Kheda took the broken tool. 'Then let's do our best for these two.'

The heat of the day seared their bent backs as they dug. Dev plundered the wreckage of the savage mage's hut, fetching sacks from the Amigal, and loading them with turtle shell and pearls, whistling insouciantly.

Is it the magic staining your bones that makes you so obnoxious? Or did you come to hide in the Archipelago because you'd made enemies of all your fellow wizards?

'Hitting him probably isn't the wisest thing to do.' Risala nodded at Kheda's tight grip on his hoe with a rueful grin. 'Though it might be worth it, to stop him whistling.'

'He's doubtless just trying to provoke us. I have a daughter, Efi, with a similar talent.'

'What do you make of this riddle?' Risala paused, leaning on her hoe to wipe the sweat from her forehead. 'Why are these people here? What do they want? They're not looking to settle, not from what we've seen. They're not planting any crops, not even husbanding their supplies. They're taking slaves or prisoners at least but that's all wrong as well. I don't know how things happen in the southern reaches, but when Danak Sarb killed Danak Mir for the domain, Danak Mir's people were given over to the troops for whatever use they cared to make of them; they were sold for slaves, kept for concubines, just raped and discarded. I haven't seen any sign that these savages have laid so much as a finger on the Chazen women. What do they want? They're not even taking the pearls and turtle shell that bring this domain its wealth.'

'They want gemstones, we know that much.' Kheda shared her bemusement, jabbing his hoe into the earth in frustration. 'Why are those so valuable to them, to these wizards, that they'll risk deaths as foul as that?' He jerked his head back towards the dead and disjointed mage.

'I don't think it's about gems or land or women, willing or not,' said Dev unexpectedly, stopping to eavesdrop on their conversation. 'It's about whatever those wizards can give their followers. It must be something so tempting, so wonderful that they'll risk being ripped apart by someone else's wizardry, that these warriors will follow just for the chance of seeing their man win the prize.' The mage's eyes were dark and mysterious. 'I wonder what that prize might be.'

'What could be here that a wizard would want?' Risala protested. 'We don't have magic in the Archipelago.'

'You do at the moment and you want rid of it.' Dev went on his way, preoccupied by his speculations.

Kheda straightened up and considered the depth of the grave they had dug. 'This should do.'

Risala hurried to catch Dev as he came up from the shore. 'Give me one of those.' She took a cotton sack from his hands and ripped it along its seams, ignoring his protests. Returning, she handed Kheda a length of cloth, wrapping another tight around her mouth and nose. 'Let's get this done.'

The cloth muffled Kheda's sigh as he bent to take the old man's shoulders. Risala reached for his feet. The old man wasn't heavy. Beetles scattered as they lifted the corpse away, pale worms wriggling frantically over the damp, stained ground. There was no way to lower the body into the grave so they had to let it drop with a dull, unpleasant thud. The old woman was lighter still and landed with a muffled thump. The stench of disturbed death rose from the corpses and Kheda began hastily raking dirt into the hole while Risala scattered soil over the foulness where the bodies had lain.

'Do you suppose this will help their families, if they are still alive?' she wondered, words tight in her throat.

'It can't hurt.' Kheda looked across to the rising heart of the island. 'And their presence should do something to counter the past evil for anyone living here in the future.'

'What do we do about him?' Risala jerked her head towards the wrecked hut where the savage mage still lay.

Kheda scraped a last slew of soil across the grave and pulled the cotton rag from his face, using it to scrub away the sweat. 'We burn him. Fire purifies.'

Risala twisted the cloth between her soiled hands. 'Do you suppose we can ever be cleansed, after so much dealing with magic?'

Kheda heard a desolate note in her voice. 'I fully intend to free myself of all taint,' he said firmly. 'Just as soon as we see a way clear to freeing this domain of all these savage wizards. Let's make a start by burning this one and then we can see if Dev's any notion of making good his boasts about getting rid of the rest.'

'Thatch will get the fire started.' Risala caught up an armful of brittle fronds. 'We want hardwood after that, to burn hot.'

'The hotter the better,' agreed Kheda, pulling dry floorboards from the ruins of another building.

He was kneeling, trying to catch a spark in a tuft of fibres teased from the cotton rags, when Dev sauntered up.

'Why are we setting a smoke signal to draw every enemy eye?' wondered the wizard sarcastically.

Kheda didn't look up. 'You wanted to find out who killed him, didn't you?' The tow flared and Risala cupped her hands around the fledgling flame. Kheda fed it with torn pieces of palm frond.

'Find out, yes. Fight off his hordes, no.' The flame faltered and Dev laughed. 'I can do that for you.'

'No,' Kheda said curtly, carefully tending the smouldering tinder. 'We're trying to cleanse the magic here, not brand the very rocks with it.'

Dev snorted, annoyed. 'If you're not done when I'm ready to sail, you can paddle to the next island.'

Kheda didn't answer, though he kept a sideways eye on the Amigal as he and Risala built the fire ever higher over the dead mage.

'That should see him burned to ashes,' said Risala with satisfaction as she threw a final chunk of wood on the blaze.

Kheda nodded. His mouth was dry as dust.

The ashes will remain. We'll just have to hope for a good storm to wash the foulness away for the sea to dilute.

Once aboard the Amigal, Dev snapped brusque orders at them both. 'Get the anchors up. You, girl, help me raise the sail.'

Once he'd broken the anchors' determined grip on the sea bed, Kheda slung a bucket tied to a length of rope over the side. 'Fetch some of that white brandy, please,' he called out to Risala.

Dev was using the stern sweep to drive the little ship into deeper water. 'Got a taste for it now?'

Kheda knelt to scrub his hands in the bucket of water. 'Where are we going?'

'A couple of islands over yonder.' Dev nodded in an easterly direction. 'One mage with a sizeable mob was camped in a village split either side of a narrow strait. I've just had a look over there and now there are two of them staring each other down. I'd say one or other of them killed the one you've just toasted.'

'Two mages sounds like more trouble than we want to meet head on.' Kheda scoured his hands red with the balled-up remnants of the cotton rag.

'Which is why we'll anchor some way off and approach them through the forest.' Dev's reply surprised Kheda.

'What do we do with this?' Risala reappeared holding a stubby black bottle.

'Wash your hands.' Kheda shoved the bucket towards Risala with one foot while pouring a generous measure of spirits over his own hands.

'How many ways have you people got for wasting good liquor?' shouted Dev with irritation.

'Account it against the pearls you just got.' Kheda fished his spark maker out. One snap of the metal wheels ignited the alcohol and he plunged his hands into the bucket. 'It doesn't hurt too much,' he assured Risala with a grin.

She held out her dripping hands mutely, eyes wide.

'When you're quite done messing around, trim that cursed sail,' growled Dev. 'Before we wreck on that reef.'

Once she had quenched her hands, Risala hurried to the mast's ropes. Kheda moved to throw the water from the bucket over the leeward rail.

Is there any point trying to read whatever signs there might be in the cast? Would there be anything to see in water already soiled with magic, in seas that must be running with the taint? Will even the heaviest rains and the fiercest storms ever be able to scour these isles clean of sorcery?

He flung the water away, without looking to see how it flew through the air. Risala appeared at his side and handed him a leather water bottle. 'Want to learn how to sail this ship?'

Once he'd quenched his considerable thirst, helping Risala with the ropes gave Kheda something to concentrate on for the short voyage to the next island, to drive out the recollections of those Chazen dead and to still the ongoing debate with himself about just what he was going to do, to see these wizards driven out of the Archipelago.

Dev steered the little ship deftly into a secluded cove, barely beaching the hull on the shelving sand. 'Get us secure.'

Kheda and Risala didn't argue, each deploying an anchor before splashing ashore through waist-deep water. Dev soon joined them, turning for a moment to gaze intently at the Amigal.

'Is that magic?' Kheda watched, bemused as the vessel shimmered like something seen through a heat haze.

'Quiet as you can through the brush. I don't want to use any more magic than absolutely necessary.' Hefting a broad hacking knife, Dev led the way through the tangle of shrubs and saplings with unerring confidence.

Kheda gestured to Risala to follow the mage and brought up the rear, one hand on his dagger hilt, glancing backwards every few paces to make sure they weren't being stalked in turn. The noontide jungle was still and silent, the heat pressing down like a palpable weight.

A dry clear day, just when we could have done with rain to keep all these savages close to their huts and give us noise to cover our steps. What kind of omen is that? Are you leading us into some disaster, wizard? Though Daish Retk would have thought you a fair enough hunter, you move stealthily enough. I wonder what places you have been sneaking around, to learn all our secrets for your unwholesome trade.

Then again, you move just as quietly, Risala, and you're still a puzzle to be solved. What places have you visited for Shek Kul? What news have you sent him, in return for what reward I can't guess at? How do you send him your news? At least I feel certain I can trust you.

Kheda abandoned such musings when Dev halted up ahead, raising one hand in warning. Risala crouched low on the scrape of a path. Kheda moved cautiously to one side for a better view. They were on a tree-cloaked rise above a scatter of storehouses and modest dwellings much like the ones they'd seen ripped apart by magic. A narrow strip of shallow water patterned with corals separated the two halves of the village. Across the water from their vantage point, a wider beach boasted racks of drying nets and a row of fishing skiffs much like the one Risala sailed.

Kheda saw invaders lounging on both sides of the strait. In twos and threes, they were taking their ease beneath the broad shady eaves of the huts they had claimed; roughly equal numbers on both sides of the narrow strait. Quilts had been plundered to soften the ground, bright embroidery now wet and dirty, though the Chazen islanders' clothes had been scorned; the savages still only wore their brief leather loincloths. Archipelagan food hadn't found much more favour. Gourds and jars of carefully hoarded foodstuffs had been opened, sampled and tossed aside. Flies clustered around preserved fruits discarded to rot and the darkness would see bigger vermin sneaking towards a side of smoked deer meat left half eaten over a fire, curling in the sun.

Every skiff had been holed, gently curving hulls splintered and gaping. The little vessels had been dragged aside, shoved askew, left at the mercy of tide and storm. Their sails had been stripped away, some entirely, some leaving rags drooping from remnants of cut and tangled ropes. Most of the nets had been slashed, others burned, blackened remains hanging from the racks of scorched wood. Up beyond the high-water mark, a neat row of the invaders' log boats was drawn up like black tally marks on the sand, each one tethered to a firmly rooted stake.

'No beach defences as yet,' Dev murmured, sinking low to the ground. 'There're your stockades.'

'One for each side of the water,' Kheda noted, joining him. He could see heads huddled inside the wooden walls of the crude prisons in a vain attempt to find some shade.

Bark still clung to the posts, leaves wilted and brown on half-snapped twigs, Trampled scars in the forest showed where trees had been hacked down, the trunks split, driven deep into the ground and lashed together with vines. Single vines, bristling with the rootlets ripped from the trees, not even plaited into anything like a rope. Kheda noted there was no sign of any gate in either tightly fitted circle.

Dev was looking at the crude log boats. 'Whoever these people are, they're certainly not carpenters.'

Risala was keeping watch at their backs. 'Or fishermen. Or farmers.'

'We know they're warriors. That's enough if you simply steal to meet your needs.' There were plenty of weapons in plain sight, the same stone-studded clubs and spears of fire-hardened wood that he had seen before. Kheda glanced at Dev. 'Does being ruled by wizards give you the right to leech on the toil of others?'

'It gives you the power.' Dev laid a hand on Kheda's arm. 'Hush.'

The door of the biggest hut on their side of the water was opening. One of the savages lounging outside hurried in, head bowing like a river bird bobbing for fish. A stir ran through the other invaders, men rising to their elbows or sitting up, all their attention on the big hut.

That prompted curiosity on the far side of the water, the men gathering into fours and fives, some plucking spears from the sandy ground. A single runner hurried to hammer on the door of what had once been a sailer granary. Some of the savages strolled down to the water's edge, insolence in every line of their bodies. One waved a rough-hewn club and shouted unintelligible taunts. Scathing response and counter-insult echoed between the beaches.

'We'll need to move quickly if they come this way,' Kheda said urgently to Dev.

'They won't follow us through a wall of fire.' Dev was offhand. 'I can keep one between us and them until we can get back to the boat. This is just the usual bluster. I've seen plenty of it, though I've no idea what they get so heated about.'

To Kheda's relief, the activity on the beach subsided, most of the savages returning to their indolence, only a few remaining to continue the posturing. 'Your magic can't tell you what they're saying?'

I've spent my life being warned of all the evil magic can do. Now I find myself with this wizard as my most unwelcome ally, all he tells me is everything he cannot do.

'Not my spells.' Dev was unbothered. 'Sometimes they give up after tossing a few insults around, the wild men that is. Other times they come to blows, until one or other wizard calls his dogs to heel. We're not going to learn much from that.' His gaze fixed on the sparkling edge of the strait below and a malicious grin slowly curved his thin lips. 'I think I'll stoke the fire a little.'

The water glittered in the sunlight and slowly, imperceptibly, began to shimmer with an uncanny green light owing nothing to the sun above. Lapping on the sand, falling back and lapping again, the sea began to reach higher, every ripple advancing further up the shore towards them. The green glowed brighter, colouring the foam cresting the little waves. The water began to surge forward around the invaders' log boats. The emerald radiance darkened around them, gouts of spray scattered on the breeze as the boats began rolling, floating free in the magic's embrace.

The desultory shouts of derision on this near side of the water turned to yells of anger as the wild men saw what was happening. Some of the savages waded thigh deep into the water, grabbing at the boats. A crash reverberated around the trees and startled crookbeaks fled shrieking as the door to the big hut flung back. An invader whose whole body was patterned with yellow handprints strode out into the sunshine. He flung one hand out in front of him and the green light in the water retreated into the depths. The painted wizard stood on the sand and looked across the water to the sailer granary where the runner had taken his news. Amber light glowed and the ground began shifting beneath the posts holding it up. The timbers twisted and cracked as their foundations vanished.

A handful of savages emerged in a hurry, the first one stumbling as the sandy ground flowed away beneath his feet. Behind him, a man crowned with a fresh green wreath of leaves swept his hands around in a quelling gesture. The ground stilled and his laughter rang out over the increasing abuse the two bands of warriors were throwing across the water.

One wild man raced forward, brandishing a spear. Skidding to a halt on the water's edge, he sent it soaring across the water, straight at the wizard with the wreath of leaves.

'There's always someone too stupid to see sunset,' sighed Dev with scant sympathy.

The spear exploded into a shower of splinters and two blasts of magic, one from the wreath wearer and one from the painted mage, knocked the hapless savage off his feet. Wrapped in coils of green and golden light, the man screamed once before he collapsed in a heap.

'See, only wizards kill wizards,' Dev explained conversationally.

Risala sank down to kneel close to Kheda. He laid his hand over hers as grassy light crawled all over the split tree trunks making up the prison enclosures. 'Dev? What are you doing?' He winced at the feebleness of the despairing shrieks from the unseen captives.

'Not a thing, not any more.' Dev's face was rapt with fascination. 'Shut up and let me see what they're about. Wizards only kill wizards but they can do a lot to discourage the spear-carriers. '

The vines tying the stockade together were glowing green and writhing as they uncoiled themselves from the wood. Wild warriors shouted with alarm as the tendrils curled speedily across the sand, catching at feet and ankles, tying up anyone they caught. Any man trying to free himself found his hands ensnared as well. Several fell heavily to the ground and one yelled with rising terror as a questing tendril looped around his neck.

The yellow-painted wizard made a sweeping gesture and the vines crackled into brittle fragments laced with crimson light. As his men tore the dry remnants away, their leader lifted his hand in a slow arc and the water in the strait quivered. A swollen wave ran up the beach on the far side of the strait, water bulging with amber radiance. The ripple left the water and continued up through the sand, the ground rising and falling like a shaken cloth. Most of the invaders were knocked clean off their feet. Even the men clustered around the wreath wearer staggered.

He alone stood upright, unaffected, and his retaliation was immediate. A storm of green light flashed around the village below them. Cries of pain outstripped the shouts of anger and men hugged themselves in agony, thrusting hands beneath their armpits. Some fell to the floor, clutching at their feet, others clapped hands to their faces.

'I don't suppose you people know what frost nip is.' Dev sounded more amused than concerned. 'This is getting nasty'

The yellow-painted wizard spared no attention for his suffering followers. He swept both hands towards the far side of the strait and this time the ground turned to liquid mud beneath the wreath wearer's forces. Wild men sank up to their knees, the mud spreading in all directions as they tried to climb out. The painted wizard clapped his I hands together with a golden flash that rivalled the sunlight and they found themselves struggling in solid earth once again.

'Predictable.' Dev was unmoved. 'Though effective. They're well and truly stuck,' he chuckled.

'What now?' The screams from the despairing prisoners tore at Kheda's nerves and Risala's hand tightened around his.

He might have said more but a brilliant green light swirled above the strait, aquamarine deepening to a dark ominous jade. The storm of magelight rushed ashore, a dense cloud obscuring everything, sounds of suffering sunk beneath its roaring. As suddenly as it had come, it was gone, leaving the beach strewn with men clutching gashes to their arms and legs or holding hands to bruised and bloodied heads. The sand was littered with pale, glittering shards and the breeze momentarily carried a chill breath brought down from the highest mountain's night.

'If you fancy a wager,' Dev remarked, 'my money goes on the lad with the leafy wreath. An ice storm like that is no easy trick in this heat—'

'Look, they're getting free of the ground.' Risala was watching the far side of the strait where the wreath wearer's men were freeing themselves, hard dry ground breaking up beneath the determined assault of clubs and spears.

The yellow-painted mage strode to the water's edge, still ignoring his wretched followers' sufferings. He flung out a hand directly towards the wreath wearer, who screamed and clutched at one leg, the lower bone snapping audibly, splintered ends ripping through his skin to bloody his frantic hands. The yellow-painted mage's men raised a ferocious cheer, drowning out the opposing force's insults. Risala quailed beside Kheda, pulling her hand free to muffle her ears. Kheda put an arm around her shoulders and held her close, but found himself unable to look away as, fallen to his knees, the wreath wearer punched at the painted mage, as if he could strike him where he stood.

The yellow-painted mage staggered backwards. Wounds appeared on his arms and legs, lengthening, his limbs swelling, skin splitting like overripe fruit to reveal a mossy light within soon lost beneath gouts of blood and corruption. Kheda coughed at the foul stench of gangrene floating up as the savage wizard fell to the sand, twisting and gasping in agony.

'That's interesting.' Dev leaned forward, keen curiosity in his dark eyes.

The yellow-painted mage rolled on to his belly, head whipping from side to side. He was entirely alone as his minions abandoned the beach. Twisting around and dragging himself to his knees, the yellow-painted mage raised one hand to throw vivid coils of amber magelight over the water. The enchantment scooped up stinging whips of sand, hurling rocks like slingshot. None of the magic came within a spear length of the wreath wearer. He looked as if he was laughing, his own followers bowing and congratulating him even as they too retreated with alacrity for the safety of the trees.

The wreath wearer sent a delicate tracery of emerald light floating across the water. A new sound rose above the strangled agony of the yellow-painted mage and the wretched whimpering of the unseen prisoners. Slowly at first, then gathering pace and volume, it was the unmistakable hum of swarming insects.

'We have to get out of here.' Memories of the foully distorted whip lizards that had killed Atoun choked Kheda. 'Whatever he's calling up, they could be as long as your arm.'

'We're in no danger.' Dev shook off his hand. 'Look.'

Seeing the insects were a normal size was scant comfort to Kheda. They were coming from all directions, abandoning the discarded food, winging in from the forest all around. They clustered around the injured wizard, covering his festering wounds, innumerable wings gleaming, rainbow colours jewel bright in the sunlight. Carrion beetle carapaces made a shimmering carpet on the ground as they appeared out of nowhere. The yellow-painted wizard's screams were choked as torrents of insects filled his eyes, ears and mouth.

The savage mage swept flies and beetles alike away in a sandstorm but only for a moment. The magic fell away into confusion as he clawed at his throat with frantic hands, his own blood coating his fingers. Falling backwards, he thrashed from side to side in convulsions, back arched so viciously only his head and his heels touched the ground.

Silence abrupt as a thunderclap fell as he died. The insects were stilled, the savages on both sides of the strait frozen, even the wounded stifling their torment. The wizard crowned with the wreath of leaves rose to his feet and limped slowly to the water's edge on the far side of the strait, his broken leg whole again. The painted mage's men immediately prostrated themselves, hands outstretched in supplication. All of the wreath wearer's own followers looked tensely at him, weapons in hand.

The savage wizard nodded and his own men began dragging their log boats down to the sea. Paddling across the narrow stretch of water, some headed for the big hut where the dead mage had dwelt, reappearing with coffers and sacks of loot. Others began ripping down the wall of the prison enclosure, taking the split logs down to the water and lashing together crude platforms to lie across pairs of log boats. The painted mage's erstwhile followers threw aside their weapons and cowered, abject, until the newcomers clapped them on the shoulder in welcome, returning their weapons with nods of approval. Once accepted, they eagerly joined in transferring all the painted mage had amassed to the wreath wearer's store of plunder.

Kheda tensed as the huddled misery of the Chazen islanders was laid bare. They weren't even trying to flee, hiding their faces from any hope of freedom.

Risala's words echoed his own thoughts. 'Isn't there anything we can do to rescue them?'

'And give ourselves up to that bastard?' Dev spoke almost absently, watching the wreath-crowned mage intently. 'No, I'm not going up against him or any of his kind until I've thought all this through.'

Risala looked at Kheda, face drawn. 'There's nothing we can do?'

'We can bear witness,' he said harshly.

To what all Daish fates will be, if I do not find some way to defeat these evil savages.

Having ransacked the huts, the wild men turned to breaking down the remnants of the stockade and dragging out their terrified captives. Cowering and wailing, Chazen islanders were forced on to the improvised rafts with blows and kicks, women dragged by their hair, men by their beards. Once across the strait, they were thrown to the ground in front of the wreath-crowned wizard. He nodded with perfunctory approval to the cringing savages now pledging their allegiance with fervent obeisance. His original followers were pulling apart the walls of their own prison enclosure, driving the new captives inside to join those already there.

'They're not going to have room to breathe,' Risala murmured with growing concern as another raft load were forced within the wooden walls.

'Much these savages care,' muttered Kheda wrathfully. 'Haven't we seen enough?'

'No.' Dev shook his head determinedly. 'I need to get down there, see what's been done to the ground, to that mage, if I'm to get any measure of their magic'

Kheda looked at Risala, who shrugged helplessly. They sat beneath the bushes and waited. The wreath wearer got the pick of the plunder his men brought over from the dead mage's camp. His only interest was in small coffers that disappeared into his own hut. The savages lit fires with kindling bows and threw grain, fruit and meat all together in the biggest cook pots they could find. The smell of food made Kheda's belly rumble but the sight of the dead mage below being devoured by the insects the wreath wearer had summoned effectively killed his appetite.

Risala nudged him some while later and proffered a water skin. Kheda drank deeply, gratefully, and thanked her with a smile.

'Looks like they're on the move.' Dev hadn't taken his eyes off the scene below.

Kheda looked down to see the savages making more rafts from their log boats and crudely split planks. The loot from the wreath-crowned mage's hut was piled high on the biggest and the wizard stepped aboard to lounge idly on a heap of plundered quilts. The rest of his enlarged retinue made ready to leave, breaking open the stockade and dragging out the stumbling, sobbing captives. They were lashed into groups of five and six with vines tied around their necks and forced aboard the other rafts. A sizeable number were left behind, either moribund or dead. The savage warriors boarded those log boats that remained, standing upright and long paddles in hand. They surrounded the flotilla as it moved off.

'I don't know how they do that.' Kheda shook his head.

'A fair amount of it's magic' Dev pointed to green-tinted water flowing against the run of the tide to carry the wreath-crowned mage's boat away down the strait. The rest followed, the savages barely having to make a stroke. Before long, they all disappeared around a jutting angle of the undulating shore.

'Dev, scry for him,' Kheda said urgently. 'We have to know where he's going.'

'I can find him again, any time I want to.' Dev gazed at the body of the dead mage with an avidity that raised the hairs on the back of Kheda's neck. 'I need to work out what he was doing with his magic before I try mine against him.'

Kheda gripped the wizard's arm with a firmly restraining hand. 'We wait till we're sure they're not coming back.'

They waited. The day began to cool and the scatter of clouds above merged and thickened. A spatter of rain fell and then drifted away. The birds of the jungle chattered softly in the trees as they gathered to feed. Sudden rustles in the underbrush turned Kheda's head, Dev's too. Kheda gripped the hacking blade; Dev raised a hand outlined in ruddy light. A rounded hump of brindled hide briefly broke through the dark glossy leaves of a berry bush.

'Just a hog.' As Kheda spoke, a couple of striped hoglets emerged from the underbrush, little noses rooting in the leaf litter.

'Good eating, if you can catch them,' observed Dev. The hoglets startled at his voice and darted back into cover.

Dev looked at Kheda. 'Our friend with the leaves isn't coming back and I want to see all I can before dark.'

'All right.' Kheda nodded reluctantly. 'Risala, stay here, keep watch for us, please.'

She didn't object. Dev was already heading down to the village and Kheda had to hurry to catch him.

'What are we looking for?' he asked, drawing level with the northern mage.

'Give me the blade.' Taking it, Dev dug the broad, square tip into the soil. 'How much rain has this place had over the last run of the moons?'

Kheda rubbed earth dry as dust between his fingers. 'You'd think it was the end of the dry season.'

'One or other of them drew all the water out, as part of his spell casting. If you can call it spell casting,' Dev commented thoughtfully. 'Their magic is pure instinct.'

That meant nothing to Kheda so he moved to look more closely at the dead wizard, now a rotting sprawl of slack limbs beneath the crawling insects. The corpse looked as if it had lain unburied for days. 'How does magic do this?'

'Not sure. Effective, isn't it?' Hefting the blade, Dev cut deep into the meat of the corpse's thigh. The squelching sound and the stink made Kheda's gorge rise and he backed away.

Going pale enough to betray his barbarian blood, Dev nevertheless held his ground, prodding the dark slime oozing over the thirsty ground. 'There's no bone in here, just spongy fragments and bits of sinew.' Retreating, he studied the smears and nameless scraps sticking to the blade for a moment before stabbing it into the dusty soil to clean it as he stared across the water to the other beach. 'But that's not what he did to our friend in the wreath. His leg bones snapped, turned all brittle. How did he do that, I wonder? How did our friend in the leaves undo it?'

Kheda looked at the ground all around him, scattered with broken pots, discarded cloth, twisted lengths of wood. He frowned and bent to pick up a dagger. The blade was pitted and stained with rust, eaten clean through in places. 'Dev, what about this? This isn't just suffering from the rains.' He held the hilt in one hand and pressed on the tip of the blade with careful fingers. The metal twisted and crumbled.

'An Archipelagan would go bladeless before he'd carry something like that.' Dev looked around and retrieved one of the invader's stone-bladed axes. 'Obsidian,' he remarked.

'Why?' demanded Kheda. 'They could have gathered all manner of blades from Chazen by now. Why still use fire-hardened wood and stone shards?'

'Magic,' grinned Dev. 'If fire and water rust the blade in your hand, you're dead meat. If cold shatters a piece of stone, chances are you'll still be left with enough sharp edges to cut someone's throat. A wooden spear or a club will still gut someone or bash out their brains even if it's warped or split.'

'Oh,' said Kheda.

So however many swords Daish, Redigal and Ritsem can raise against these savages, they'll most likely be useless unless we can rid the invaders of their wizards.

'Have you seen what you needed to see?' he demanded savagely of Dev. 'Can you tell me how to fight these people or not?'

Dev strolled back to the contorted corpse of the savage mage. 'This is a strange magic, my oath on it. As near as I can make out, it leeches the essential strength from the natural elements around the wizard.'

'What happened to him?' Kheda gestured towards the foul remnants of the invading wizard.

'Our friend in the leaves has a natural power over water.' Dev sounded fascinated. 'Once this fool lost his concentration, or whatever was protecting him from the other man's magic, his lungs, his brain, every tissue in his body filled with fluid.'

'Will knowing this help us defeat them?' Kheda asked. 'Can you tell us how to fight them?'

'You can't,' Dev said bluntly. 'I told you that before and I'm even more certain now. You need magic to fight magic and you people have none, thanks to your age-old folly and prejudice. Didn't see this coming, did you, with all your fancy predictions?'

Kheda barely managed to stop himself hitting the barbarian wizard. He wheeled away instead and stared out across the water.

'Besides, it's not enough to know how to beat these people. A wizard would have to know how they lose, how not to lose himself.' Dev took one last look at the fallen wizard and began walking back towards the rise where Risala waited. 'They all seem very closely tied to their inborn element. That could be a weakness. Most can only use one or two elements and really struggle with what-ever's antithetical to their affinity. It's only the lads at the top of the pecking order who can use all four elements from what I've seen, the one wearing the lizard and that bastard in the dragon-hide cloak. That's not to say the others can't, of course, and I've no idea if they can manage blended magics, quintessential enchantment.'

Kheda let the wizard's meaningless words wash over him as he looked up at the sky, still cloudy but with no rain falling. 'We have to come up with something before the end of the rainy season.'

'Like I said, pal, you can't fight magic, not without magic' Dev laughed unpleasantly.

Kheda halted and seized the barbarian mage by the shoulders. 'Can you do it? You talked of testing your magic against these mages. Could you defeat them?'

Dev knocked Kheda's hands aside. 'Give me one good reason why I should.'

'You wanted payment.' Kheda struggled to keep the distaste out of his mouth, for this foul, venal man and for the unforeseen impulse that had driven him to ask for Dev's help.

'Truth often speaks through chance-heard words.' I hope you were right, my father. I hope I'm right. We talked of fighting fire with fire, back in Derasulla. I never thought it would come to this but now it has, can I step back, when I have seen the fate that waits for my people?

The libraries are full of dire warnings of wizards cutting down armies with their magic. These savages did as much. Are these wizards of the north stronger? Have I just wasted my efforts in seeking out this Dev, risking my future, even my life on a false omen?

'All the gems and pearls in the Archipelago won't do me much good if I'm not alive to trade them,' Dev was saying. 'Even if I live through a fight with these mages, if word gets out I'm as good as dead. I don't reckon much to my chances of fleeing the length of the Archipelago.'

'I could see you safely to the unbroken lands,' Kheda insisted tersely. 'I can send you on a fast trireme, with your body weight in pearls.'

And burn the ship to the waterline once you're off it.

'That's a handsome offer.' Dev laughed and waved an airy hand in the direction the leaf-crowned mage had taken. 'How do you hope to make good on it? Even supposing I come up with a means to fight these wizards -' he raised a warning hand to silence Kheda, '— besides provoking them into fighting each other, because I don't imagine that will work again, there are still hordes of these foot soldiers on every eyot and rock. Who's to say they won't spring another mage from somewhere, wherever they came from in the first place?'

'We will find some means of alerting Daish's allies to sail south as soon as the wizards are dead,' Kheda insisted stubbornly. 'Once they have no magic, we can kill the wild men and their blood on the tides can warn any they've left against sailing north.'

'That'll be a good trick if you can do it,' said Dev scornfully.

Kheda waited until they had rejoined Risala before speaking. 'I have something to tell you.' He hesitated.

'He wants me to fight these wild mages for him,' said Dev with spiteful pleasure.

Risala nodded slowly. 'I thought he might.'

'You did?' Kheda looked at her astonished.

'You have no choice, I can see that.' He saw his own desperation mirrored in her pale eyes. 'What else can we do? How can we fight this magic without magic? If we can stop this madness before it destroys the Archipelago, even if our lives are forfeit for it…' She fell silent.

'I've no intention of forfeiting my life to anyone,' Dev said aggressively. 'And if you two reckon to sail to your doom, you can do it alone. If we're doing this, we do it with a plan that sees us all coming out of it with a whole hide and, as far as I'm concerned, as much payment as the Amigal can hold.'

'Can we do it?' Kheda demanded. 'Can you do it?'

'Can you beat that mage in the dragon-hide cloak?' Risala challenged him.

'That's what I want to do. I've a few notions that might set us along that path,' replied Dev with a secretive smile. 'But I can't cut down hordes of savages for you. You have to find some way of bringing the Daish and Chazen forces down on them as soon as the wizards are out of the balance.'

Kheda nodded slowly. 'I need to speak to Janne Daish and find out exactly what the southern warlords are thinking. There's a place in the Daish domain where we agreed to meet. I sent her a message when I arrived back in the south. If she's got it, she should be there for the full Greater Moon.'

'We should be able to make that.' Risala looked dubious. 'Can we afford such a delay though? What will these savages be doing in the meantime?'

'They'll be doing whatever they please, my girl,' said Dev with amusement. 'And there'll be precious little you can do about it, or me, come to that, not for the moment. Don't get your braids in a tangle. There's still plenty of rain to come, so I don't suppose they'll be moving north any time soon. Besides, the longer we wait, the more of them will kill off their neighbours, if we're lucky. The more of their battles I can see, the better idea I'll have of their weak spots. I'm more concerned about what you do, Daish Kheda, if your lady Janne doesn't turn up. What are you going to do, come back from the dead and try rallying the domains on that account?'

'That would certainly get everyone's attention.' Kheda grimaced. 'The trick would be getting them to fight battles for the Chazen islands instead of clamouring for explanations and accusing me of bad faith and each other of sharing in some conspiracy. I'd rather have the savages safely killed before I have to get caught up in all that.'

'You are going to have an awful lot of explaining to do when this is all over,' commented Risala thoughtfully. 'Not least how you managed to find the means to defeat these sorcerers.'

Kheda heaved a shaky sigh. 'That will just have to be our secret, won't it? To save all our skins. Agreed?'

'Absolutely,' said Dev robustly.

'Risala?' Kheda looked at her, beseeching. 'Would you keep such a secret from your master?'

'To save my own skin?' She smiled at him but he could tell she was trembling. 'Don't worry. I saw what happened to Kaeska Shek. I've no wish to suffer her fate. I'll die on the day appointed to me but I've no wish to bring it forward.'

'Come on then!' Dev startled them both with a sudden clap of his hands. 'Let's get aboard the Amigal and find a safe and sheltered anchorage where we can come up with a decent, detailed plan that might have a hope of success.'