Northern Storm

Chapter Four

Kheda headed for the door leading from the bedchamber into the hall. Dev followed and slid away towards the rear of the building.

The stocky steward who had been waiting outside the pavilion stepped up smartly and bowed low. ‘It’s good to see you back, my lord.’

‘I’m happy to be back, Beyau,’ Kheda replied courteously. ‘Is everything in good order here? Please, walk with me to my lady Itrac’s pavilion.’

Would you tell me if things weren’t going smoothly or try to fix any problem before I discovered it, rather than come and seek my counsel? How am I ever going to be wholly at ease with this household or they with me? Daish slaves knew they were free to speak their minds at all times, but we’d known each other since I was a child, for the most part. I don’t feel I know anyone here. But never take your servants for granted, that’s what Daish Reik always said, or one day you ‘ll stretch out your hand for something and it’ll stay empty.

‘We’re managing well enough now we’ve a full complement of servants,’ the steward said slowly as they walked across the island into the fast-fading evening light. ‘Hopefuls wash up with every tide but I’m not letting them stay unless they were part of the household before—or unless they look as if they’d be handy with a sword.’ He hesitated, muscular hands clasped behind his stiff back as he walked. ‘I’ve nearly doubled the warriors in your retinue.’

‘Those you’re sending away, are they returning to their homes?’ Kheda glanced at the man as they reached the first bridge over the shimmering water. Beyau’s burly build was ill-suited to the elegantly cut silk of a household slave’s formal tunic and Kheda noted that he still affected the close-cropped hair and beard of a fighting man. ‘Are you giving them all you can to help them rebuild what they have lost?’

‘All we can spare, my lord,’ Beyau assured him fervently before hesitating again. ‘Touai, who is first among my lady Itrac’s attendants, she thinks we could spare more if we weren’t maintaining so many warriors in the residence.’

‘Do we have the same numbers of swords as in Chazen Saril’s day yet?’

Kheda nodded as Beyau shook his head. ‘Then you can take on every likely swordsman until we do. The domain must present a decent Show of force to our neighbours.’

Not that all the swords of the Archipelago could turn aside the magic of the savages, if they invade again. ‘And you’re right to encourage those who are coming back to return to their homes, to rebuild their villages,’ the warlord continued. We need all hands working the land, not outstretched for unearned food.’ Then Kheda hesitated in his turn. ‘All able hands, that is. Are there many coming back unable to make shift for themselves, out of injury to mind or body?’

Is that one of the mysteries we might solve in hunting down the last of the savages? Why did they imprison so many of our people and treat them so abominably?

Beyau looked grim, dark scowl gilded by the sun on the far horizon. ‘Those who were held captive by the savages mostly just come back to die, my lord, if they come back at all.’

Dying of despair as much as the injuries they suffered being starved and beaten and worked till they dropped.

‘Whereas you came back to take up your father’s role.’

Kheda paused to look the thickset man in the eye. ‘Don’t think I don’t appreciate that.’

‘We’ll be ready for them if they ever come again.’ Beyau looked away, out over the southern waters, sword hand straying to the crescent dagger at his belt.

‘We will,’ Kheda assured him.

As long as you keep Dev happy, and keep his true nature a secret, so you can meet sorcerous fire with sorcerous fire. Can you really afford to send him away once he’s satisfied his curiosity about the savages? But what will these people think if they ever uncover such a deception?

Kheda gestured towards one of the islands on the outer edge of the reef where long huts surrounded a pounded expanse of sandy soil. ‘I take it you’re drilling the swordsmen yourself?’

Beyau looked uncertain. ‘I know it’s not my place—’

‘We’re none of us in the places we held before the invaders came,’ Kheda said unguardedly. ‘Your father may have been the residence steward but you were rising fast in the ranks of the guard—Itrac told me as much. There’s no one better to train them, is there? Tell me honestly,’ he commanded, seeing the man’s reluctance.

The steward squared his impressively muscled shoulders. ‘Jevin just isn’t used to assuming command, my lord, and some of the older ones aren’t inclined to take orders from a lad as young as him. I thought it best to step in till you returned.’

‘Good. Then you can continue taking charge until you find someone fit to be raised to captain. Dev’s less experience of command than Jevin,’ Kheda said bluntly, ‘and there’s nothing a barbarian can teach an Archipelagan about swordplay’

No, my lord.’ Beyau’s voice was neutral but a grin plucked at the corners of his generous mouth. ‘Mind you,’ Kheda said thoughtfully, Rekha Daish’s body slave, Andit, he’s both experienced and old enough to command respect among your would-be warriors. Your younger boys could learn some useful tricks from him, if you invite him to share in the daily training sessions while he’s here. I take it Jevin has extended the usual courtesies to him?’

‘I wouldn’t know, my lord,’ said Beyau stolidly, but I was thinking I might breakfast with him and Andit tomorrow.’

So Jevin still needs a hint or two. Let’s hope Andit will know how to give a few tactful suggestions to a lad thrust into precedence over a residence guard with no elder body slave’s example to follow. That wouldn’t compromise his loyalty to Rekha Daish.

They walked across the islet to the next bridge in thoughtful silence.

‘Where are we dining tonight?’ Kheda asked as they crossed the gently flexing planks. ‘And who is dining with us, besides Rekha Daish?’

‘A banquet is to be served in my lady Itrac Chazen’s great hall.’ Beyau didn’t hide his unease. ‘With all the shipmasters invited.’ He waved a hand at the various galleys and triremes safely anchored around the reefs.

‘Whose idea was that?’ Kheda frowned as they reached a sandy nub of reef where walkways branched off in several directions across the corals.

‘I believe it was Rekha Daish’s suggestion,’ Beyau answered neutrally. ‘My lady Itrac agreed it would be a splendid way to celebrate the turn of the year.’

‘Then you must have a great deal to organise. Don’t let me keep you. Unless there’s anything else?’ No, my lord.’ Beyau bowed low.

Kheda dismissed him with a nod and walked on alone.

So Rekha has some plan to show all the shipmasters—

what? That she and I still share the familiarity of husband and wife? That I still find her desirable? That Itrac has none of Rekha’s poise or her daunting experience in the complexities of trade? Itrac must want to make a fight of it, though, otherwise she’d have come up with some reason for the three of us to dine alone. Or would she have thought of that in time? I don’t think I need any omens to tell me this isn’t going to be a relaxing meal.

Seeing Chazen islanders on all sides as well as servants and slaves, Kheda went on his way with a calculatedly carefree expression, acknowledging dutiful obeisance with a smile. By the time he reached the wide island where the first wife of Chazen always dwelt, his face felt tense and his shoulders stiff under the heavy weight of the unspoken expectation he saw on every face.

The central pavilion was huge, a hollow square offering luxurious accommodation for the extended household customary for every noblewoman of an Archipelagan domain. Wings on either side would house her faithful retainers and those craftsmen she summoned from time to time to consult on the domain’s wealth and prospects. Lesser quarters for her countless servants and slaves were tucked discreetly away at the rear.

Kheda went up the broad, shallow steps and pushed open the wide double doors to enter the spacious hall that occupied one whole side of the building. The floor was tiled in soft green and the lofty walls were decorated with hangings of translucent silk painted with seascapes in countless shades of blue. There was room for Itrac to meet with every diver and polisher whose pearls and turtleshell she would trade for the good of the domain.

Two servants were unrolling a thick carpet of mottled-blue silk with white and silver fish darting through a pattern of green seaweed and a border of multicoloured squid. They froze at Kheda’s entrance, along with a waiting crowd of household slaves, their aims full of sapphire cushions. Outdoor servants in undyed cotton appeared at a side door carrying long, low tables and an indignant exclamation died away to nothing as whoever had uttered it realised that the warlord was among them.

‘Don’t let me inten-upt you.’ Waving away dutiful bows, Kheda walked across the hall and out through the tall doors on the far side into the enclosed garden beyond. It was hot and still, the mingled perfumes of vizail, jessamine and white basket flowers heavy in the air. Grey and scarlet shadow-finches were clustered in a corner of their aviary at the heart of the garden and barely chirruped as Kheda passed. Three different gaudy glory-birds in a spinefruit tree watched him without stining a feather.

Kheda walked slowly towards the steps leading to the central entrance to the fourth side of the pavilion’s hollow heart. Doors on either side stood closed and barred. The apartments for those children of the domain grown to an age of discretion and ready to learn all their complex duties from their first mother stood in echoing emptiness.

Even if Itrac invited me to her bed tonight and my seed took root, it would be many years before I had a son grown into his strength or a daughter grown to the wisdom needed to rule in her own right. I had sons and daughters in Daish and I loved them more than I thought possible. Could I ever love children born here in the same way?

Would Rekha come here as a Chazen wife? Janne would have no right to stop her bringing her younger children, the ones below the age of reason—Vida, little Mie and Noi.

You could see your daughters taught all they would need to know to rule Chazen. Vida could be promised to some lesser son of Ritsem or Redigal and the other two married to the heirs of those domains. Ritsem Caid and Redigal Coron were always your friends. Chazen would be more secure in its alliances than it has been for generations. Wouldn’t that be doing your duty by these people?

‘My lord Chazen Kheda.’ Jevin’s precipitate arrival beside him interrupted the perfidious notions that Kheda found so hard to shake off. The youthful slave opened the door with a smile of relief. ‘Your lady wife is pleased to see you.’

‘And Ito see her.’ Kheda recovered himself and went inside.

Itrac Chazen’s personal audience chamber was an airy room floored with the Ulla domain’s most prized lustre tiles. The sunrise-pink walls were hung with draperies of white silk painted with a riot of colourful birds flitting among nut palms and lilla trees. A low table of creamy marbled halda wood in the middle of the floor was surrounded by plum-coloured cushions. Kheda noted a litter of the thin silver cylinders that courier doves carried clasped to their scaly legs and slips of coiled paper fine as onion skin. Reed pens lay across an open inkwell in the midst of them.

‘I was glad to hear you’d returned safely. How fares our domain, my husband?’ Standing by the table, Itrac Chazen wore a gown of sunshine silk shot with a blush of pink, the whispering pleats of the full skirt belted close to her slim waist with a heavy golden chain. The modest bodice rose to a high neck, leaving her slender arms and shoulders bare. She wore a triple-stranded collar of lustrous pink conch pearls and bracelets of the same sea gems. More gleamed in the net of fine braids woven from her own long hair, holding the wealth of midnight locks off her face to cascade down her back to her waist. Subtle paints of gold and shell-pink made an exquisite mask of her eyes and mouth.

Well enough, my lady wife. I visited every major island and every group of lesser ones and the spokesmen brought me word of each village. There were few enough healers bringing illnesses or injuries for my advice and I didn’t need to sit in judgement on any disputes. Our people are busy rebuilding their homes and their lives and looking forward to a better future.’

Whereas you’re looking thinner than is good for you and even Jevin’s skilled hand with a cosmetic brush can’t hide your weariness and apprehension. Though I see determination in your eyes. That’s better than the grief and confusion when we first came here.

Kheda took her hands in his and kissed her chastely on one cheek. His skin was lighter than most in these southern reaches but Itrac’s was paler still, the colour of honey. With the much-mingled blood of the central domains, she was taller than most women hereabouts, with a sparer build. ‘I gather we’re to enjoy a dinner that will be a credit to the domain.’

‘As long as there are fish in the sea and fruit on the trees we won’t go hungry.’ Itrac’s taut smile faded a little. ‘Though I see us tightening our belts before the rains, even with us drying and pickling all the excess.

‘Daish must have some surplus, after Chazen labour helped to plant their sailer and reap their harvest last year,’ Kheda remarked with studied casualness. ‘You might like to propose some mutually beneficial exchange with Rekha.’

‘I gather she had hopes of some more personal exchange with you.’ Itrac’s hazel eyes searched Kheda’s green ones.

Now dashed, sadly for her.’ Kheda surprised Itrac with a grin and a nod at Jevin who was filling two crystal goblets with the pale wine of the Archipelago from a long-spouted ewer of gold embossed with silver sea birds. ‘As I hope Jevin told you. She seems very eager for me to interfere with your trading of the pearl harvest,’ he added sceptically.

‘I’ll bet she is.’ A smile lightened Itrac’s face, her teeth white and even.

Kheda narrowed his eyes as he accepted a goblet from Jevin. ‘That doesn’t sound like a wager I want to take.’ He sipped at the wine: refreshing without being intoxicating.

Because we want all our wits about us for dealings with Rekha. How can barbarians conduct their commerce or their warfare when they are so fuddled with alcohol?

‘I’ve been picking up the threads of the network that brought news to Olkai.’ Itrac’s voice wavered a little at the mention of the domain’s former first wife. ‘Some of her favoured craftsmen have only recently returned from Daish waters and they bring interesting news.’

‘Do they?’ Kheda couldn’t restrain a qualm at the notion of Daish concerns so blithely carried south. Itrac’s eyes shone with glee. ‘The pearl oysters have deserted the Daish reefs.’

‘A barren year?’ The shock left Kheda hollow.

What an appalling omen for Sirket’s first full year as warlord.

‘Which is why Rekha’s come looking for Chazen pearls to help them weather this calamity.’ Itrac’s tone didn’t bode well for the Daish woman.

‘Janne and Rekha are always prepared for a lean year,’ Kheda said slowly. ‘They will have pearls and nacre stockpiled, doubtless enough to settle trades already agreed with the Ritsem and Aedis domains.’

‘Then why is Rekha so desperate to get her hands on our harvest?’ Itrac challenged him. ‘And she is desperate, believe me.’

‘I know,’ Kheda assured her. He closed his eyes, the better to scour his memory as recollection teased him. ‘I think I have it. Rekha made a deal with Moni Redigal towards the end of the last dry season for a shipload of brassware. Redigal is owed a full eighth share in this oyster harvest as it leaves the sea.’

Itrac clicked her tongue. ‘Moth Redigal is always too ready to gamble. So Daish has its brassware in return for a cupful of pearls, if Moni’s lucky.’

‘Daish won’t relish such a bargain.’ Kheda drained his goblet. ‘How can they conceal this disaster, if Redigal boats are out on their reefs waiting for their share of the unopened oysters?’

‘Mori would want pearls equal to an eighth share of a fair harvest, at the very least, as the price of her silence.’ Itrac pursed her lips.

‘Which would seriously deplete Daish reserves.’ Kheda did his best to hide his concern. ‘And they would hardly want to trade the rest in case the reefs prove barren again next year.’

It happened in my grandsire ‘s time: a full seven years when the best reefs were bare and the lesser oyster beds offered only the poorest nacre.

What does this portend, when Chazen has the richest pearl harvest within living memory?

‘So Daish has a grave problem.’ Itrac looked closely at him. ‘And we have an interesting opportunity.’ And I am now of Chazen, not of Daish.

Kheda hid his misgivings in his empty goblet, pretending to drink. ‘How do you propose to make the best of it?’

‘What do you make of the omen in this?’ Itrac’s gaze still held his. ‘That Daish suffers such an ill-fated start to their year? Do we want dealings with a domain facing such misfortune? We have reason enough to shun their waters, after Chazen Saril died while enjoying their hospitality.’

Kheda’s mind’s eye showed him Chazen Saril’s agonised death once again.

Am I billy innocent because I had no notion that Janne was feeding all three of us mussels gathered after a red tide, potentially lethal? The wife of my youth and I had no idea she could be so ruthless, wagering all our lives against her judgement that Chazen Saril’s cowardice forfeited his right to rule and to life, and that my choice to cloak myself in a deceit of death and search out lore to counter the invaders’ magic forfeited any right of return to my own domain.

‘Chazen Kheda?’ Itrac’s pointed prompting struck him harder than Rekha’s slap to his face.

He blinked and chose his words carefully. ‘Whatever this portent means for Daish, we must consider Chazen’s situation. The safest seaways to the rest of the Archipelago run through Daish waters. Crossing open water to Redigal is far more dangerous for our galleys. If we don’t give Rekha something of what she wants, we risk her closing Daish waters to anyone wanting to trade with us. That’s if they have overcome their doubts about our domain’s recovery from the magic that swept over us last year.’

‘Word will have spread fast enough that the wild wizards spurned any wealth born of the seas and only sought gemstones.’ Itrac was scornful. ‘And I want the entire Archipelago to know that our new year is blessed with such a potent omen. I am not about to let Rekha pass off our pearls or our good fortune as her own.’

‘And Chazen needs so many things that you can buy with those pearls.’ Kheda inclined his head slowly. ‘Of course, drilled pearls are more valuable, as are finished ornaments made from the petals and dog’s teeth. But I do have some unwelcome news from my voyage around the domain, Itrac. Many of our best craftsmen fled the invaders to Daish waters and they’re slow to return, whatever Daish Sirket might decree. You might allow Rekha some limited share in our pearl harvest on the strict understanding that such valuable men and women of Chazen be sent home.’

‘Possibly.’ Itrac looked a little mutinous before smiling with new boldness. ‘You’re right to say it would be better to keep our access to their sea lanes. Trade with Ritsem is certainly easier with passage through Daish waters and I’ve a proposal for Taisia. Ulla Safar’s wives are doing all they can to deny Ritsem the limestone they need to smelt the iron ore they discovered last year. Given how little nacre our harvest yields, I propose to burn the oyster shells for lime. We can trade that with Taisia Ritsem for swords and armour.

‘An excellent opportunity for Chazen to help Ritsem and to snub Ulla,’ observed Kheda. ‘And no one will weep to see Ulla Safar’s power as the only purveyor of iron in these reaches undermined.’ / owe Ulla Safar and his pack of bitches every ill turn I can contrive. He would have killed me for pure malice before lifting a finger to help Daish against the invaders. But would all the warriors from the Ulla domain have been any use against magic?

Though without his attempts on your life, you ‘d never have been able to play dead and go in search of lore to combat the invaders’ sorceries.

But the price of that was being landed with Chazen and with Dev. And where is he?

‘Taisia Ritsem sends me plenty of news.’ Itrac didn’t notice his preoccupation, looking down at the message slips brought by the courier doves. Her voice shook a little. ‘For the sake of Olkai Chazen, who was her sister before she was mine.’

‘You could make it a condition of trading pearls with Rekha,’ Kheda said without thinking, ‘that Olkai’s bones are returned from the Daish tower of silence where we laid her.’

He looked through the far window over towards the only other tower on these islands. Out on the most distant islet at the far end of the reef, a tall wall with a single gate ringed a solid pillar. Unrailed stairs spiralled up the outside to the open platform where the most honoured dead of the domain were laid. There were no carrion birds wheeling around in the fading sky. There was nothing to bring them to play their part in returning all that the dead had been to the islands they had lived in, to bind them to the future of the whole domain.

Forgive me, Sekni Chazen, on your own behalf and for the three little children of the domain who died with you. There was simply no way of telling your charred bones from all those others killed here. At least you are buried with your people and your virtues will bless this residence at least.

‘I miss her so much.’ Itrac choked on an abrupt sob and tears spilled from her long painted lashes. ‘Olkai and Sekni.’

‘You did all you could.’ Kheda laid gentle hands on her bare shoulders and felt her trembling with the effort of holding back hysterical weeping. You brought Olkai out of the fires of the wild men’s attack. I used all the healing lore I had. There was just no saving her from such burns.’

Not with more than half her body blistered and blackened by magical fires. One of the kindest and most amiable women I have ever known, from her earliest girlhood as Olkai Ritsem. She was far more wife than Chazen Saril deserved, the best first wife this domain had had in a long while.

‘Perhaps—’ Itrac took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her decorated eyes with careful fingers ‘­it might have been better for the domain if I had died and she had lived.’

Never think that.’ Kheda tightened his grip on her shoulders. ‘When someone dies despite all we can do, we must accept that fate. All we can do is seek to understand the omens in that death.’

‘I’ll never understand why Olkai had to die like that. Omens are your business and trade is mine.’ Itrac twisted free of Kheda’s hands, her chin trembling. But perhaps I’ll make a deal with Rekha for Olkai’s bones. Then I might at least feel her presence in my dreams here.’

‘You will prove as fine a first wife for this domain as she was,’ Kheda said warmly.

‘You’ve seen that in the portents, have you?’ Itrac demanded with sudden brittle anger. ‘When I’m so terrified of dying like Olkai that I spend half my days staring out over the southern ocean, wondering when those savages will return? When every day I spend here reminds me of Sekni and the children she and Olkai bore to Saril, all dead at the invaders’ hands? I wake expecting their laughter and hear only the endless silence in their empty rooms.’

She pressed her hands to her flat stomach. ‘Don’t say it, Kheda. I hear it whispered in corners day after day. I see the way everyone looks at my belly before they look me in the eye, as if all I need is to get with child to make me forget the babies I took in my arms when they were still wet with their birth blood.’ Her voice rose in wild accusation. ‘And don’t tell me all the village spokesmen and half the shipmasters weren’t making tactful enquires after my health on your voyage. Or were they offering up travelling seers to predict an auspicious future for our children, as soon as I care to supply them? Well, I don’t care to, Kheda, not until you can show me a future beyond doubt where I’ll never see those I love murdered by wild men and their vicious magics. And I don’t care if that does send you to Rekha’s bed!’ Is this why Rekha came instead of Janne? Itrac would always have the advantage of youth over Janne’s grey hair and thickened waist. But she’s a bud blighted by drought and uncertainty compared to Rekha in the full bloom of her womanhood. And I see some things remain consistent in my marriages. Such as impossible conversations where I’ll be in the wrong whatever I say. But if I don’t at least try, I’m definitely condemned.

‘Itrac, listen to me.’ Kheda seized her shoulders again and this time he shook her, sending Jevin backwards with a fierce glare when the slave would have intervened. ‘Yes, I’ve had all the veiled hints you can imagine, and some not so veiled. True, the islanders would be greatly reassured if you bore a baby to the domain as token of your confidence in Chazen’s future. If you chose me to father your child, many would feel more certain of my commitment to them and their domain, given that I was not born here.’

He waved a hand at the darkening skies beyond the window where stars were now visible. ‘The Winged Serpent rides in the arc of the heavens where we could seek signs concerning children and serpents of any kind are a reminder of male and female intertwined. None of this gives me any rights over your choices. It is ever a wife’s prerogative to decide when and if to give her husband a child, from the least to the highest born in any domain.’

Itrac stood frozen between his hands. Kheda leaned forward to kiss her cheek once again before speaking more softly. ‘If you invite me to your bed, when you judge that the time is right, I will be honoured. You’re a beautiful and desirable woman. Forgive me if I haven’t made myself clear on that; I wanted to leave you to grieve for Chazen Saril in peace. I know you married him for love more than any affiance. I can wait, and if I find myself in need of companionship in the meantime, Pll find some bedmate who won’t exact the kind of price Rekha Daish would be seeking for her favours,’ he concluded frankly.

‘I’m sorry . Itrac stammered. ‘I shouldn’t have said—’

Kheda shook his head. Don’t apologise. We should have had this conversation long since but that’s as much my fault as yours. And since the subject of children has come up, you should think very carefully whether or not you want to me to father any child of yours. For every learned sage who declares an innocent touched by magic is not stained with it, there’s another who says merely being in the presence of magic taints us. I was in the presence of magic time and again, Itrac, however honest my motives. If you don’t want to risk blighting your baby’s future with such a father, I couldn’t blame you. There’s always Jevin.’ He was careful not to look at the youthful slave. ‘He was a gift from Taisia Ritsem and that domain’s certainly untouched by magic’

Are you untouched by him or have you already turned to him for consolation? Does it matter? I’ve no right to dictate who you may or may not take to your bed and Dev’s presence in my life doesn’t exactly leave me feeling very wholesome.

Itrac surprised the warlord with a tremulous smile. ‘I never thought of that—not Jevin, I mean, but the whole business of the taint of magic’ She shrugged. ‘If just encountering magic contaminates us with its evil, I’ve been touched along with everyone else who survived the savages.’ She shivered despite the warmth. ‘Have you had any news from the triremes to the west? I dream about those wild men out there over the horizon, and all they did to us.’

If a warlord’s prerogative is the reading of omens written in the world around us, it’s women whose dreams link their inner lives to past and future through the unbroken thread of blood.

‘The time has come to make an end of them,’ Kheda said firmly. ‘The portents are clear about that. As soon as we’ve celebrated the alignment of the new year, I’ll summon every swordsman and ship we can call on and cleanse every last isle of the domain. I’ll burn their bolt-holes to black ash and throw their splintered bones into the sea.’

Itrac’s eyes widened at his vehemence. ‘Be careful.’

‘I will be,’ Kheda assured her.

A peremptory knock on the door leading to the garden startled them both and Jevin hastily gathered his wits to hurry over to open it.

Dev stood there, scanning the room with amused curiosity. ‘Are we ready to dine with Rekha Daish in sufficient state to convince her that Chazen is set fair for a successful year?’ The barbarian mage was wearing a plain tunic and trousers of rich brown silk, his paired swords thrust through a wide sash. His coppery skin gleamed with oil and he wore a single earring, a ruby faceted in the fashion of the unbroken lands of his birth.

Not till I’ve seen to your cosmetics, my lady.’ Jevin spoke up apologetically. ‘You’re a bit smudged.’

‘Then there’s a messenger you might like to see, my lord,’ said Dev briskly. ‘If we’ve a bit of time in hand.’

‘I think we can feel free to keep Rekha waiting.’ Kheda kissed Itrac’s mouth firmly now that he didn’t need to be so careful not to mar her face paint. ‘Any lesser wife must expect to serve a first wife’s convenience.’

He followed Dev across the dusky garden and out through the reception hall where everything was nearly ready for the celebratory feast. They skirted servants carefully bringing in tall lamp stands and a slave boy waiting with a pitcher of oil.

‘Green oil, my lord,’ Dev observed with a grin, just to show anyone who might be wondering that Chazen trade-links still reach all the way to the unbroken lands of the barbarous north.’

Kheda glanced around the room. ‘We’re not exactly dressed to match the furnishings, though. That will give Rekha something to gloat over.’

‘Which will doubtless spur Itrac on to make the most profitable trades she can,’ said Dev comfortably, ‘so that she can invite all the neighbouring domain’s women here along with the Daish wives next year, to see hangings, carpets, cushions and everyone’s clothes matched to a shade. Care to make a wager on it?’

‘Was that the first Archipelagan habit you acquired?’ Kheda wondered. ‘Laying bets whenever you get the chance?’

Not that you have any true understanding of testing your perception of the present against the chances of the future. You just seize any opportunity to enrich yourself like the barbarian you were born.

Kheda paused on the outer steps and surveyed the wide expanse of the reef and lagoon. Triremes and galleys had their stern lanterns lit, rocking peaceably at anchor. A woman’s song swelled above the shimmering music of a round harp and laughter rang across the water as the resident islanders welcomed Chazen mariners and Daish newcomers alike to their celebrations. The pungent scents of finger-fish fried in peppery oil and spit-roasted ducks stuffed with herbs made Kheda’s stomach rumble. ‘There’s your messenger, my lord.’ Dev pointed to a drifting lantern and Kheda peered through the half-light to see a small boat picking its cautious way towards the far isle where his pavilion and the observatory stood.

It was a sturdy little vessel of the kind that travelled unremarked between the islands of a domain, with a capacious hold full of useful items. A boat easily handled by two crew and manageable enough for a solitary mariner who knew the ropes of its triangular rigged sail. A boat big enough for someone bold enough to sail across the more open seas to another warlord’s waters and negotiate for the pennants granting safe passage to go and see what was on offer at the beaches where islanders and traders swapped their wares. Kheda felt the first uncalculated smile of the day widen on his face.

Better not run, however much you want to. That would attract attention and someone would jump to a wrong conclusion or start some panic.

He began walking more briskly and, schooling his face into placid affability for the servants and islanders he passed, always kept the little boat in view as it nosed into a modest berth close by the observatory. Leaving the busier pavilions behind, Kheda made his way across the walkways to the far island as rapidly as possible.

Just as eager at his shoulder, Dev was concentrating on watching the little ship easing up to the unforgiving coral. You watch what you’re doing, girlie. That’s still my ship.’

Nice to see you, too, Dev,’ called the female mariner wielding a single weighty oar at the stern. Shipping her sweep, she threw out a heavy anchor that landed on the reef with a crunch. ‘You could come and lend a hand, you idle barbarian.’ She hauled on the rope to make sure all was secure.

Dev spread mock-apologetic hands. ‘My lord would hardly approve of me getting all dirty before such an important evening.’

‘The first thing I want is a decent bath.’ The girl wiped her forehead with the back of one hand before deftly throwing a loop of rope over a mooring post. ‘I’m sick of being all sticky with salt.’

‘Have you brought my Amigal back in one piece?’ Dev laid a proprietorial hand on the rail. ‘You can go aboard and satisfy yourself while Risala tells me her news.’ Kheda held out a hand to the girl. ‘Or at least the most important details. We don’t have long before we have to go and play our parts at Itrac’s dinner table.’

The girl jumped deftly over the little ship’s stern, ragged grey trousers hanging loose on her skinny frame, her overlarge red tunic patterned with faded black canthira leaves. She brushed tousled black hair out of her vivid blue eyes. Where can we talk without some maid bobbing up?’ She cocked her head at Kheda, thin face alert.

‘In there.’ Kheda nodded towards the observatory tower. ‘Dev, stay on deck and keep an eye out. Don’t let anyone interrupt us.’

Naturally, my lord.’ Dev’s face was intent as he climbed aboard the Amigal, keen eyes searching the mast, sail and boom.

No chance of you getting your dinner till he’s satisfied I’ve kept his precious ship safe.’ Risala chuckled as she followed Kheda to the round building at the base of the tower. With only the sun’s afterglow fading fast on the horizon it was dark inside.

‘Wait a moment.’ Kheda felt for the lamp set in a niche in the wall and found the spark-maker beside it. A few snaps and the toothed steel stuck a spark from the glaucous firestone to catch in the tandra-tree fluff. Kheda lit the lamp’s wick and crushed the flame from the tinder with licked fingers.

‘You haven’t forgotten how to do things for yourself, then?’ Risala was amused. ‘With all these slaves and lackeys running around after you again? I take it they’re all still as desperate to serve your every whim?’

‘Desperate to prove to themselves that things are back to normal. I do wonder if Chazen Saril ever lifted a finger for himself,’ said Kheda wryly as he led the way through the open archway to the half-moon hall beyond. ‘We of

Daish used to do the little things for ourselves when it was just us, when there was no one else to be impressed by the devotion of our servants keeping us in indolence. My father wouldn’t have it any other way.

He set the shell-shaped lamp on one of the several tables lining the long room. The warm golden glow reflected back from brass discs of all sizes hung on the walls, each engraved with curving lines like the patterns of tiles on the observatory floor and overlaid with a second disc pierced to the likeness of a net of burnished metal.

‘The ordinary islanders of Chazen were impressed to see you making shift for yourself when need be on your voyage,’ Risala said without preamble. ‘They like that idea much better than having you take them away from rebuilding their homes and re-establishing their vegetable gardens and sailer plots just to dance attendance on you when you visit their villages.’

Kheda was relieved. ‘How many days behind us were you?’

Risala swatted with a bony hand at an importunate insect humming around her head. ‘Five or six, depending on the winds and tides.’

‘Your arrival didn’t cause comment?’ Kheda moved to the unshuttered window and looked out towards the north, now hidden in the night. He pulled the fine cotton curtains closed to baffle the winged night-biters. ‘I didn’t see many boats on the waters as we travelled.’

‘There still aren’t that many people moving around the domain.’ Risala shrugged. ‘But most villages were happy enough to see a poet as they turned their thoughts to the new-year stars.’ She twisted a heavy silver ring set with an uncut emerald around on one finger. ‘And everyone knows poets are mad, so no one really asked why I was sailing alone.’

‘What did you say to those who did?’ Kheda asked.

‘That my brother who had shared the boat with me had drowned when we fled the wild men through a rainy season storm,’ Risala explained, ‘which generally set people off on their own tales of last year’s deaths and disasters.’

‘Are they still burdened by the past?’ Kheda lifted a hand to one of the larger star circles hanging on the wall by the window. The paths of every constellation were incised on the brass plate, heavenly jewels inlaid on the net, measuring bar precisely aligned across it. ‘I read the local omens for the new year wherever we stopped. The portents were positive as far as they went. Were the islanders inclined to take my word on that?’

‘I came across quite a few who’d won wagers with their neighbours over signs that said you were right. There were a few muttering about you not being born to the domain.’ Risala perched on the table by the lamp, bare feet swinging idly. ‘They wondered how you could hope to draw together the threads of the past hereabouts and see how the future would be woven. Don’t let that keep you awake at night. They were generally the ones complaining that you weren’t travelling in the style befitting a warlord and they mostly got short shrift from everyone else.’

She rubbed a hand through her tousled hair and yawned. ‘You wouldn’t have made any friends parading around in silks and jewels. Seeing the domain’s prosperity reflected in their warlord’s finery is all very well in times of peace and plenty, but not when half the islanders have to go naked if they want to launder their one pair of trousers. Most are quite content that you showed your commitment to the domain by driving out the invaders and then by claiming the lordship and manying Itrac when Chazen Saril died. They know full well they’d have been meat for the bone hawks if the domain had ended up without a warlord and Ritsem, Redigal and Ulla had joined battle over it.’

‘If they hadn’t been too afraid of the magic loose down here.’ Kheda moved closer. ‘They’re content not knowing exactly how I drove out the invaders?’ he asked with low intensity. ‘There aren’t too many wondering just how I managed to defeat the wild magic?’

‘There are enough survivors who were held captive in that final encampment and saw the savage mages fighting among themselves.’ Risala glanced involuntarily towards the archway and the darkness outside the hall. ‘Everyone I spoke to is happy enough to believe that a battle for overall power broke out among the strongest invaders and their wizards. No one but the three of us need ever know that it was Dev who started the slaughter with his enchanter’s illusions.’ She managed a crooked smile. ‘I found Bukai’s song cycle very popular, especially when I gave them the poet’s vision of the Winged Snake and the Sea Serpent eating each other’s tails. Everyone agreed the moral of that was more than proven: magic twists men’s natures and sweeps them to disaster like serpents mad with heat frenzy.’

‘Just as long as it doesn’t sweep Dev to disaster while he’s still masquerading as my body slave.’ Kheda pulled a stool out from beneath the table and sat down with a sigh.

‘Indeed,’ Risala agreed dryly, looking down at him. ‘I take it he’s still itching to go and see if there are any wizardly secrets to be learned from the last remnants hiding out in the western isles? The anchorage is full of the news that you’re going to lead a campaign against them instead of waiting for thirst and disease to make an end of them.’

‘It’s time to do it, now that I’ve acquitted my responsibilities in surveying the domain before the new year. There are portents saying as much wherever I look’ Kheda nodded, fingering a crystal inkwell with a silver lid. ‘What were the augurs around the islands saying? Do I need to fear travelling soothsayers muttering dire predictions of disaster under my rule?’

No,’ said Risala slowly. Not that they’re seeing a bright new future of peace and plenty, either. Most are talking about uncertainty, in the future and in the omens, and are sticking to strictly limited and local forecasts.’

‘Which is as good as I can hope for.’ Kheda nodded. ‘What else did you manage to do for me? We really need some means of getting reliable news from the domain, and fast, without having to rely on Dev snooping with his bowls of scrying spells.’

‘I’ve found us eyes and ears on all the big islands and in nearly all the coastal villages, and most are well placed to hear news from inland and from the lesser isles.’ Risala swung her legs, leaning forward with her hands on the edge of the table. ‘We’ve agreed a few basic ciphers and there should be enough boats doing the rounds to carry routine reports soon enough. Though the key men and women need courier doves, for the news we need fast.’ She looked at Kheda, black brows rising to be lost in her ragged hair. ‘I’ll ask Itrac for all she can spare.’ Kheda pushed the inkwell away. ‘I’m grateful for your help, as always. Now you’ve done this . . .’ He hesitated. ‘Don’t forget you’re free to sail north, to go back home, whenever you like. You were Shek Kul’s poet and emissary before you were mine. If you want to return to your own domain to make a new start with the new year, to tell Shek Kul how he helped me find the means to save Chazen—’

‘I think the last thing he’ll want to hear is that his suspicions were right and Dev did prove to be a spying barbarian mage,’ said Risala with a shudder. No, I’ll wait.

When Shek Kul sent me his token, he ordered me to do all I could to make these southern islands safe from the evils of magic. I don’t think we’ve achieved that yet.’ She twisted her heavy silver ring with its uncut emerald.

‘Do you think your lord would understand that we had no choice but to use Dev’s powers as the lesser evil?’ Kheda rubbed a hand over his beard, staring unseeing at the far wall with its array of star circles. ‘He gave us the blend of herbs to dull a mage’s powers.’ Risala laid a hand over Kheda’s where it rested on the table.

‘Don’t you think he intended we should use it to cripple the savage wizards so that we could kill them by less dubious means?’ Kheda looked up at the girl.

‘Which is what we did,’ she pointed out firmly, ‘as far as your friends among the neighbouring warlords and their wives are concerned. You needn’t favour the rest with any explanation.’

‘I don’t think Rekha believes that fireside tale of me as the bold hero, risking my own life to sneak in among the invaders to poison their mages’ cook pots, however far and wide you’ve got village versifiers proclaiming it.’ There was little humour in Kheda’s words. ‘I can’t see her and Janne letting their curiosity lie any time soon.’

‘You still have some of Shek Kul’s powder, don’t you? Couldn’t you show it to Rekha?’ wondered Risala.

‘And feed some to Dev to show her how it works?’ Kheda smiled to take the sting out of his words. ‘Then tell how we half-poisoned, half-blackmailed this mage from the north into using his own enchantments to defeat the sorcerous southerners? Then explain how we didn’t let him die of the wounds he suffered from their spells but patched him up and gave him the protection of being my body slave?’

‘When you put it like that, no, let’s not.’ Risala grinned back but Kheda could see the shadow in her eyes.

The same shadow that lies over me.

‘I don’t imagine Itrac would be any too pleased to learn just what her new lord and master is capable of,’ he said wearily. ‘And you could be certain Rekha would tell her. I don’t think the ladies of Daish want to see me making a success of this marriage they wished on us.’

‘You couldn’t very well do anything but many Itrac.’ Risala sounded indignant, folding her arms across her meagre chest. ‘When Janne Daish refused her further shelter and the domain she was born to spurned her as irrevocably tainted with magic. What were you supposed to do? Let some brute like Ulla Safar catch her, call her rape a man-iage and try claiming the Chazen domain for himself on the strength of wedding the last living survivor of the true warlord’s family?’

‘Since you put it like that, no, not really.’ Kheda shared another brief smile with Risala.

‘Speaking of Itrac, she’s making a fair job of patching up Olkai Chazen’s web of informers,’ Risala said briskly. ‘I found myself nearly tripping over their snares more than once.’

‘What are the islanders saying about Itrac?’ Kheda asked, diverted.

‘Half want to see her waddling around like a broody duck’ Risala was scornful. ‘The other half see that she has far too many tasks as it is to add the trials of pregnancy and childbed.’

‘Let’s hope Olkai’s informers pass on that message loud and clear,’ said Kheda with feeling. ‘And there’s no likelihood of Itrac inviting me to give her a baby any time soon—though Dev has his own explanation for that,’ he added sardonically. ‘Given that no domain would actively seek an alliance with such an insignificant warlord, he says that Saril plainly must have had something else to recom—

mend him to his wives. He reckons Itrac doesn’t want to risk taking me to her bed and finding I don’t measure up.’

‘That sounds like Dev,’ said Risala with contempt. ‘He should let his hair and beard grow in rather than shaving to look like a man’s man or a zamorin, even if he is a barbarian. Then some girl might take him to her bed just for the novelty of it and he’d be a lot easier to live with.’

‘Or even more intolerable,’ countered Kheda.

‘Mind you, there’s no end of speculation around the cookfires as to where you might find a nicely fertile second wife,’ continued Risala, blue eyes bright with mischief. ‘Or even a second and a third, to sit and nurse their swelling bellies while you and Itrac restore Chazen’s fortunes. You fathered enough children for Daish, so there’s no doubt as to your virility.’

‘That’s just what I need.’ Exasperated as he was, Kheda couldn’t help grinning. ‘Some lesser daughter prepared to risk the miasma of magic hereabouts in return for such a rise in her status. Have there been any rumours about who might put themselves forward? Perhaps that explains Rekha’s boldness.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Risala was puzzled.

‘Rekha Daish did her best to seduce me earlier.’ Kheda shook his head with mingled amusement and disbelief.

‘What did you do?’ Risala demanded with unexpected sharpness.

‘What do you think?’ Kheda raised his eyebrows. ‘I made my excuses and left as fast as I could, to try to work out what she was cursed well after.’

Risala cleared her throat.

‘Do you think I was tempted?’ On an impulse he didn’t stop to examine, Kheda reached out and took Risala’s hand.

‘Were you?’ She looked down at him, eyes shadowed beneath her raggedly cut hair.

‘A little.’ Kheda stood up and brushed the black locks away from her face with gentle fingers. ‘That bothers you, doesn’t it?’

‘Yes.’ She didn’t blink, sapphire gaze fixed steadily on him.

‘I missed you so much while we were on that interminable voyage.’ Kheda caressed her pointed chin. ‘More than I realised I would. More than anyone else. I missed having someone I can talk to without weighing every word. I missed having someone I could trust not to judge me. I missed having someone who knows the worst of me and is still my friend.’

‘I just missed you.’ Risala pressed her face against his hand.

‘As for Rekha Kheda shrugged. ‘I’m far more tempted right now.’

‘Good,’ she breathed. ‘It’s taken you long enough to get around to it.’

He bent and kissed her. Her lips yielded, roughened by wind and sun. He could taste the salt on her. Risala reached a hand up to the back of his neck to kiss him harder, demanding more. Kheda broke free to catch his breath. ‘I’ll never hear the last of it from Dev if I get my elegant new clothes all creased.’

‘That’s something else the islanders like about you.’ Risala kissed him again. ‘You’re not some Redigal Coron, to be ruled by your body slave.’ She lifted her other arm up to encircle his neck.

Kheda set his hands on either side of her waist and drew her close, feeling his own passion rising as he kissed her long and urgently. Risala closed her eyes with a sigh of fervent pleasure.

Kheda paused in his kisses, though he still held her tight. ‘Itrac doesn’t need her life complicated by me taking a concubine.’ As he spoke, he slid one hand beneath Risala’s loose tunic, feeling her warm skin, her firm ribs.

She lifted his hand to cup one of her modest breasts. ‘And I can hardly be your eyes and ears if every eye is on me.’

Not if people think you’re anything more to me than my poet.’ Kheda felt her enticing softness harden beneath his palm.

‘Because the servants and slaves will soon spread the gossip.’ She pressed herself against him, claiming his lips with her own.

‘So we really shouldn’t be doing this.’ He kissed her again. Not where anyone might see us.’ No,’ she agreed before kissing the corner of his mouth. ‘It’s foolishness.’

‘I could get used to this kind of folly.’ Kheda shivered involuntarily. ‘But they would call you an old man’s folly.’

‘I’m old enough to know my own mind.’ Risala’s words were muffled by his kisses. ‘And you’re in your prime, not your dotage.’

‘Jevin, is that you? Are we wanted?’ Dev’s voice, artificially loud, rang out in the night beyond the archway.

Risala released him from her embrace and Kheda reluctantly wrenched himself away. ‘And speaking of folly, I have to go and spend a charming evening trying to stop Rekha and Itrac scratching each other’s eyes out before we’ve seen the new-year stars align themselves.’ Despite the heavy footfalls on the steps outside, Kheda kissed her one last time, swift and thorough.

‘I don’t think I have a poem suitable for that.’ Risala slid down from the table and tugged her tunic straight. ‘So I’ll go and get that bath I was talking about.’

Kheda took a deep breath to try to calm his racing blood at the notion of her wet nakedness. ‘Are we going to continue this conversation?’

‘What conversation?’ Dev appeared in the archway.

‘When we can find the time, and the privacy.’ Risala looked at Kheda, her expression eloquent. ‘What’s going on?’ Dev demanded with scant courtesy. ‘Any news I should know about?’

Not as such.’ Kheda walked swiftly past Dev and out into the velvet night where the lamps along the walkways glowed like amber. ‘Just an unexpected turn of events.’ He smiled into the darkness. ‘And a reminder that the unexpected need not always turn out badly.’ He took another long, deep breath and strode towards Itrac’s distant pavilion, leaving Dev hurrying to match his pace.

Though best not get there too soon or Rekha will certainly see that you welcomed another woman’s embraces after you spurned her. This evening’s going to be fraught enough without adding that complication

But what will tomorrow bring, if you and Risala can find somewhere away from the ever-present eyes?