Western Shore

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Naldeth's best speed was still barely sufficient to keep them from dropping behind the wild men. The village warriors were increasingly avid to join this new battle. Trying to find the sun whenever the meagre canopy of nut-tree branches grew thin over stretches of rocky earth, Kheda judged they were heading very nearly due west. He did his best to gauge their progress through the unfamiliar terrain but was still taken by surprise when the ground rose up and he saw the spearmen slipping over the crest of high ground that marked the eastern side of the tree-dwellers' dry valley. As they crouched to avoid being skylined, the tall trees with their dense, dark leaves barred their way down the slope, obscuring their view of the western bank.

Does this dry stream bed mark some boundary between the cave dwellers behind us and these people who owe fealty to the cloaked wizard and his black dragon?

Kheda looked northwards upstream and then down and saw the scarred spearman and the stooped hunter doing the same. Their eyes met and they nodded agreement. The warlord turned to Risala and Naldeth as the scarred spearman gave brisk orders to the village warriors.

'We'll make for that.' Kheda pointed upstream to a break in the tall buttressed trees. As they drew closer, he saw that some calamity had ripped through the forest, tossing the mighty trunks down the slope like twigs to leave a broad swathe of broken ground running down to the dry stream bed.

The village warriors gathered in the shade of the forest edging the destruction. On the western bank the tree-dwellers' broad fire pit smoked untended. The dry stream bed was entirely devoid of life. So was the sky. The scarred spearman slid beside Kheda and pointed to movement up among the platforms and shelters that clung to the trees on the far side of the stream and in the shadows around the thick boles.

'Where's their wizard?' Kheda asked Naldeth, not taking his eyes off the settlement. 'Where's that black beast of a dragon?'

'They got wind of our approach.' Risala shrugged that off. 'Do you think any of them will be circling around to attack us from behind?'

Kheda glanced over his shoulder to see the stooped hunter turning a reassuring number of spearmen and a few archers to look for just such a threat. Then he was startled by raucous shouts from their wild allies. A group of village spearmen advanced to stand at the top of the bare, broken slope, waving their spears and yelling defiance. The rest waited hidden, braced and ready. The scarred spearman grinned at Kheda.

Naldeth frowned. 'Those tree dwellers would be fools to launch any assault up this slope.'

'And our spearmen can't run into battle from here.' Risala was equally puzzled. 'They'll exhaust themselves crossing the stream bed before they get there.'

'I've no idea what they're thinking.' Kheda gave voice to his frustration. 'How am I supposed to be a warlord when I can't even talk to the men I'm sending into battle?'

'Don't worry.' The mage stared intently across the narrow valley. 'This is my battle.'

Risala carefully drew a white-fletched arrow from her quiver. 'Where is he?'

Fresh shouts from the village spearmen drowned out

her words. Their tone turned from hostile to mocking. Some among the tree dwellers weren't proof against such taunting. A handful advanced from the darkness beneath the mighty trunks to wave their own spears and yell scathing retorts. This simply spurred the wild men on the ridge to new derision. A flash of colour startled Kheda, then another. The village wild men were hurling the wings they had hacked from the murderous birds down the slope, to lie dulled with dust on the dry stream bed's margin.

'What does that signify?' Risala was mystified.

Kheda slowly shook his head. 'They don't like it. Look.'

More tree dwellers advanced into the open, adding their angry shouts to the commotion echoing back and forth across the dry valley. Those village warriors armed with bows launched a storm of salvaged arrows into the sky. Tree dwellers looked up vacantly, wondering what the hissing rain might be.

'So they did understand me,' Kheda said with bitter relief.

Most of the tree dwellers had the wit to scurry backwards for the shelter of the trees. Those too slow fell screaming with wounds to arms and legs. A few thrashed in agony in the sandy stream bed as shafts driven deep into their bodies or faces were the death of them. The village spearmen roared, exultant, and the newly fledged archers launched a second flight of arrows. This time a cloud of dust sprang up from the dry stream bed to stop the missiles, weighing them down with dirt that matted their tousled fletching.

'Where is he?' Naldeth scoured the far bank for the wizard in the beaded cloak.

'Is the dragon anywhere close?' Risala was searching the rocks and shadows.

Kheda took an envenomed arrow and carefully nocked it on his bowstring.

'Leave their wizard to me.' Naldeth's bloodshot eyes were calm as he gazed over the valley.

'They are coming out to fight.' Risala readied her own bow as the clouds of sand in the stream bed subsided to show the tree dwellers rapidly advancing, shaking their spears and shouting with new boldness. The wild bowmen launched another cascade of arrows, thinner this time. Too many had already emptied their quivers. A curtain of dust swirled up just ahead of the advancing tree dwellers and the arrows slid down it, their threat blunted. By contrast, the tree-dwellers' slingstones shot straight and true through the haze and struck several village spearmen, prompting cries of pain.

'Naldeth?' Unable to see who had been wounded, Kheda tried in vain to pick out any obvious leader among the advancing enemy. 'The wizard?'

'I can't see him.' Risala was equally frustrated.

Naldeth stood motionless, rapt in remote contemplation.

Kheda staggered as the ground shook beneath his feet. The village spearmen's shouts turned to dismay as the hard-packed ridge crumbled beneath their feet. Torrents of flowing earth knocked men off their feet. As the soil turned to insubstantial sand around their roots, several of the lofty green trees fell too. They crashed downwards, ripping branches from their neighbours and crushing everything where they landed. The swathe of disintegration widened, splitting up the village spearmen. Some were forced down the face of the slope, others scrambling backwards away over the crest. Triumph edged the tree-dwellers' belligerence. Their leading spearmen broke into a run, now more than half-way across the stream bed.

Incongruous among the consternation spreading through the village spearmen, Naldeth chuckled. A glow of ochre light spread through broken ground and the

powdery soil turned solid once again. The magic raced away down the slope and spread across the valley. The tree dwellers retreated apprehensively and Kheda saw they were right to be concerned. The sand of the dry stream bed swirled around them like water, ripples spreading. Soon they were sinking up to their knees. Ripples grew into steeper peaks, breaking with a spume of dust and surging mercilessly over the tree dwellers like a stormy sea.

As one man flailed frantically, he splashed the man next to him with great gouts of dirt that filled his eyes and mouth. Choking, the unfortunate clawed at his face, losing his own struggle to stay afloat. As he sank, he clutched at the nearest man, only to drag him down too. Both vanished beneath the flowing soil. Some had the presence of mind not to struggle, trying to float on the shallow waves of fluid earth, the boldest even using their spears as makeshift paddles.

'There he is.' The young wizard wasn't looking at the tree dwellers drowning in the sand. All his attention was focused on a solitary figure emerging from the shadows on the far bank.

The tree-dwellers' mage gestured wildly, his beaded cloak flapping. For an instant, there was silence in the valley. Then the surviving tree dwellers fought their way free of the clinging sand and ran back towards their wizard, pursued by the jeers of the village spearmen.

'Let's see what you make of this,' Naldeth murmured.

A surge of white water thick with broken timber and other detritus crashed down the valley. The flood drove ragged boulders to carve new channels, unearthing the bodies of tree dwellers overwhelmed by Naldeth's first spell. Those still alive and too slow to reach the far bank were unable to resist the torrent sweeping them away downstream towards the wide river bisecting the grassy plain.

The wild wizard strode forward, making throwing motions with his hands. Fissures gaped and gulped down the flood. Stream-tossed rocks ripped themselves from the mud to hurl themselves at Naldeth, shattering into a shower of lethal fragments as they came close. The young mage raised a hand to draw an arc of amber radiance over his head that spread in a flash to cover all the exposed spearmen. The rain of broken stones came thicker and faster, only to bounce off the magelight and rebound from tree to tree with dangerous speed.

'Kheda!' Risala pointed and the warlord saw that the tree-dwellers' warriors had regrouped and were making their way back across the muddy stream bed while the village spearmen could only cower beneath Naldeth's magic.

Kheda looked up at the amber shield. 'Can I fire through this?' he shouted urgently.

Naldeth didn't answer. Abruptly the hail of stones ceased. In the next breath, Naldeth's shield blinked away. Village spearmen raced down the slope to join battle with the foremost tree dwellers. With the enemy coated with mud and sand, it was impossible to tell friend from foe.

'I daren't fire anywhere close to that melee with this bow,' Risala spat with frustration.

As he looked in vain for the tree-dwellers' wizard, movement out on the stream bed caught Kheda's eye. He gaped and swallowed hard. 'Shoot that!'

'But he's already dead.' Risala stared in horrified disbelief.

The broken corpse of a tree dweller had staggered to its feet. The man's face was crushed to an anonymous ruin and the lower half of one arm had been torn away. As Kheda watched, the bones brightened with amber magic and lengthened into lethal spikes. The bones of the corpse's other hand burst through his dark fingers, curling

into murderous claws. A second body lurched upright. Magelight shimmered around his head and his skull reshaped itself into a deadly maw somewhere between a terrible bird's beak and a lizard's crushing bite.

Risala's bowstring thrummed beside Kheda. He fired too. The white-fletched arrows both bit deep. Neither walking corpse flinched, or veered from their determined path towards the combat now spreading across the stream bed. Magelight flickered around more bodies, forging still more vile creations. All the village spearmen were charging down the slope now, shouting reassurance to their fellows and menace to their enemies.

'Wait!' Kheda shouted fruitlessly.

Only the scarred spearman halted, looking back.

Kheda ripped the hacking blade from his double-looped sword belt and tossed it down the slope. The spearman grinned and scrambled back up to get it before racing down into the fight with a blood-curdling yell.

'Kheda—' Risala choked with horror.

The first dead tree dweller had come up behind a village spearman who was intent on dodging a foe's crushing club. The corpse drove its bone claws deep into the village man's back, ripping out bloody handfuls of flesh. The man fell, writhing and screaming, as the monstrous corpse stepped over him to attack the next spearman. The village warrior drove his long spike of fire-hardened wood clean through the misshapen thing. It simply kept walking, the spear sliding through its body as it reached out gory talons to rip away the man's face.

'Naldeth!' Kheda found the breath frozen in his throat as the village spearman who had just died reared back up onto his feet. Dark ochre light racked the dead man, wrenching him this way and that. White bone shot out through his chest and back as his ribs thrust outwards, covering him in deadly spines. The corpse reached for a

man who had just been fighting at his side and crushed him in a lacerating embrace.

'All right, Kheda, there are some evils that must be stopped.' All the young wizard's attention was concentrated on his outstretched hand. His unsheathed dagger stood upright, balanced on its pommel, slowly spinning. The steel blade burned with a searing gold that rivalled the sun.

'What are you going to do with that?' With the vivid outline of the dagger still scarring his vision, Kheda saw the tree-dwellers' wizard standing on the far bank. He blinked and knuckled his eyes.

No, my eyes aren 't playing tricks on me.

One of the great trees on the far side of the dry valley was tilting drunkenly. It began to topple slowly over, silently, with no sound of snapping roots or breaking branches to betray it. The wild wizard was oblivious, all his attention consumed by the burning metal still balanced on Naldeth's palm. The ensorcelled blade was spinning so fast it was a blur.

Kheda saw with relief that the degraded corpses the wild wizard had driven into battle had fallen back down, quite dead - for the moment, at least. He braced himself as the ground throbbed beneath his feet. Risala dropped to one knee, still looking for some target for her ready arrow. The throbbing became a low pulsing noise and grew louder, rapidly building to a physical torment. Kheda found himself fighting violent nausea and a swelling, inexorable dread.

Tears of pure terror streamed down Risala's face, her hands trembling so much she couldn't have hit any target even if her numbed fingers had managed to loose her arrow.

The whole fight down on the stream bed had broken into confusion. The village spearmen were fleeing, scrambling

over the fallen trees or cowering, hands covering their ears, clubs and spears abandoned. The archers had thrown away their bows. The tree dwellers were faring no better. Several of the wild men had collapsed, vomiting. Others were curled like animals on the ground, hiding their heads in their arms, knees drawn up, heedless of any enemy. The pulsing noise went on, unrelenting.

'Naldeth—' Kheda choked on bile flooding his mouth as the tormenting sound rose to a new pitch. He threw away his makeshift bow and wrapped his arms around Risala, as if his own body might protect her from whatever catastrophic magic was about to engulf them.

The noise stopped. In the silence, the giant tree behind the wild wizard finally collapsed. It fell toward the stream, swift and true. The upper stretch of its trunk struck the wild wizard unerringly on the top of his head and the branches threw a swishing pall over his bloody remains.

Naldeth said something heartfelt and incomprehensible in his native Tormalin and threw away his dagger. He wrung his hands, wincing.

Kheda saw the deep scar burned into the young wizard's flesh. 'What did you do?'

'I tricked him.' His clothes rank with sweat and his bloodshot gaze ghastly, Naldeth nevertheless grinned like a boy caught in mischief. 'These wizards draw all the elemental power that they can find into themselves and then just throw it out in whatever way seems best. So I drew as much earth magic as I could reach into that dagger. There's no subtlety to their battles, so all he could imagine me doing was somehow turning that weapon and the power within it back against him. So he put all his efforts into trying to steal back the magic'

Kheda glanced at the dagger and saw that the steel of the blade was blackened and distorted while the sandy soil

around it had fused into a dirty-brown glass lump. 'So he didn't notice a tree about to fall on his head.'

'Unfortunately for him.' Naldeth sniffed with a disdain reminiscent of Velindre.

'You managed another victory without a slaughter of innocent women and children.' Risala was still standing within the circle of Kheda's arms.

'That's something, isn't it?' Naldeth smiled crookedly.

'Let's hope Velindre's managed to keep the cave dwellers alive.' Kheda looked around to see how their allies were faring. Most were scrambling to their feet, ashen beneath their coating of dirt and grease, grabbing spears more to lean on them for support than with any intent of fighting. Across the valley, the tree-dwellers' women and children were climbing slowly down from their platforms and shelters, wailing and throwing themselves to the ground in abject surrender.

Risala looked up and down the dry stream bed now so drastically reshaped by flood and magic. 'Where was his dragon when he needed it?'

'I don't know.' Naldeth shivered involuntarily. 'I couldn't have pulled off that trick if it had been anywhere close.'

'Would you know if it was attacking Velindre?' Kheda looked at the forest back beyond the crest of the valley's eastern edge.

'Oh yes,' Naldeth assured him.

'Has it truly just given up and gone away?' Disbelieving, Risala was still looking around.

'There must be other places on this island with easier pickings.' All the same, Kheda wasn't convinced.

'Perhaps.' From his tone, neither was Naldeth. 'But dragons aren't known for backing away from a fight.'

'So if it returns to finish this fight, you and Velindre will need that ruby egg.' Kheda looked out across the valley beyond the tree-dwellers' settlement.

'Then let's make for the Zaise.' Risala pulled free of his embrace.

'How do we do that without taking this army with us?' Naldeth wondered.

'Let's just go.' Kheda searched for the scarred spearman among the village warriors and beckoned him forward. The warrior stepped up readily, dirty face alert. He clutched Kheda's hacking blade, the broad steel clotted with blood. Kheda encompassed the whole force with a sweeping gesture and then cut down with one hand to divide them. He found the stooped hunter in one half and pointed over to the abject tree dwellers. Holding the man's gaze, he pointed to the bloody hacking blade and shook his head slowly, his expression forbidding. The stooped hunter nodded slowly, some unidentifiable emotion clouding his brown eyes. Hoping he had made himself clear, Kheda turned his attention to the scarred spearman standing with the remaining warriors and made as if to push them all away, back towards the caves and Velindre. The scarred spearman nodded readily and called out to other hunters. The wild men began moving away, purposefully, some with a definite spring in their step.

'I think they appreciate a victory where they're not leaving half their friends dead behind them,' Risala observed.

Kheda looked at Naldeth. 'Are you fit to fight any more today, if we do run into that dragon?'

'If it's that or be blasted into dust.' The young mage rubbed at his beard, bruises of tiredness under his discoloured eyes looking as if the bloodstains were spreading. 'But I'd rather not, if we can possibly avoid it. And the sooner we recover that ruby the better.'

'Come on, then.' Kheda turned to tackle the treacherous slope down to the stream bed.

Naldeth let slip an incomprehensible Tormalin oath.

Turning, Kheda expected to see the young mage struggling with his false leg on the broken ground. Instead he saw a fiery ring of elemental magic shimmering on Naldeth's steel thigh.

A bespeaking.Kheda recalled Dev's name for the spell.

'What's happened?' Vehndre's voice echoed through the magic of fire and steel, harsh and tinny.

'We've killed their wizard and sent the tree dwellers running in all directions.' Naldeth sounded more resigned than proud. 'We're on our way to recover the Zaise?

'Some of our spearmen are taking charge of the tree dwellers but the rest should be making their way back to you.' Kheda wasn't sure if the magewoman could hear him.

'Get back here with the ship as fast as you can.'

Even allowing for the distortion of the spell, Kheda could hear strain in Vehndre's clipped words. 'Has something happened?'

Naldeth peered into the scarlet circle, frowning with growing concern. 'What's the matter?'

'Just get back here. We need the Zaise —' This time there was no mistaking the catch of a sob in Vehndre's voice.

'Is it the dragon?' Naldeth clenched impotent fists.

'No.' Velindre rallied. 'There's no dragon or any wild mage here and I can hold off anything short of that till you get back.' A treacherous quaver shook her voice and the spell blinked into nothingness.

'Give me an arrow, a feather, something to burn.' Naldeth held out a hand to Kheda 'I'll bespeak her and—'

'There's something wrong.' Risala looked uncertainly at Kheda.

'Yes.' He waved away Naldeth's hand. 'But whatever it is, it's not so wrong that Velindre couldn't use her magic

to speak to us, and she didn't ask us to come straight back to her.' Kheda began walking cautiously down the slope. 'And she's right. We need the Zaise. We can probably get back to her as quickly with the ship as we could by walking.'

'Naldeth,' Risala said abruptly, 'what gemstone would an earth dragon seek above all others for its egg?'

'Amber,' the wizard replied readily. 'Not rubies.'

'I think we'd know if the black dragon had found the Zaise.' Kheda drew his sword as they advanced across the mud. The stooped hunter and his contingent of spearmen were just reaching the tree-dwellers' settlement. A few looked curiously at the mage and the two Aldabreshi but none made any move to follow them.

'We can be grateful for the awe that wizards inspire around here,' Naldeth said sardonically.

'They all appreciate that you're well able to take care of yourself.' Kheda was relieved to find that he could see clearly through the tall forest on the far side of the stream bed for a reassuring distance.

The spiny underbrush thinned out as they left the bank behind and the sturdier, more densely leaved trees soon gave way to the twisted nut trees with their scanty foliage. Kheda kept his sword drawn all the same, Risala tense with vigilance at his side. The dappled, spindly trees grew sparser still and Kheda saw grey rock and parched brown earth ahead ending abruptly in the knife-like cliff. He searched the ragged edge outlined against the western sky for any possible hint of a lurking dragon.

'Do you remember exactly where that cave is?' He tossed the question back over his shoulder.

'Yes.' Naldeth was toiling up the slope with scant breath to spare.

'Which way do we go from here?' Gripping the hilt of his sword, Kheda walked warily out into the open. The

sun beat down with unrelenting fury and the sea breeze offered no more than an illusion of coolness. A moment after it brushed Kheda's forehead, he realised it was as hot as a furnace breath. The headache that had been stubbornly lingering since the assault of the cloaked wizard's magic assailed him with new force.

'There.' Naldeth pointed unerringly to a rocky protrusion.

They made haste towards it, fresh sweat beading every

brow.

A thought chilled Kheda despite the punishing heat. 'Naldeth, can you get the Zaise out of that cave on your own? If Velindre was using magic on the waters to keep

it there—' .

'It's easier to unpick an antipathetic element than it is to work with it,' the young mage said curtly. 'I see you re learning something about magic,' he added with the faintest

of smiles.

They reached the bluff and gathered in what little shade it offered There was no lessening of the heat.

'I haven't the energy or the inclination to be subtle about this.' Naldeth's chest heaved as he laid both hands on the rock and pressed his face up against the stone. The rock cracked with a violence that shook the barren cliff top. Ochre light shimmered around Naldeth's fingers and the solid rock turned to glittering sand that flowed down to heap up around the wizard's feet. A shift in the wind blew a pale plume out over the cliff edge. Naldeth spread his hands and the void in the rock widened, ruddy-golden magic still pouring from his hands.

'There you are.' He coughed, brushing dust from his filthy tunic. Wincing, he blew on the raw score burned deep into his palm.

'I've salves for that on the ship.' Kheda saw that a narrow passage had been driven through the rock to join

the irregular stairway Naldeth had made for them when they'd landed.

It feels as if that was half a lifetime ago.'Let's get the Zaise and see what's upsetting Velindre.' Naldeth went ahead of them into the darkness, a dutiful breeze clearing away the dust for him.

'Let's hope nothing's gone seriously awry.' Kheda held out a hand to Risala. She took it and they followed the young wizard.

'Watch your step.' Naldeth's voice echoed eerily up from the depths of the cave. 'I've marked your path.' Amber footprints glowed on the rock, casting just enough light to show them where to tread.

'So I see.' Kheda moved slowly, waiting for his eyes to grow more accustomed to the gloom. The cool of the cave was welcome after the heat outside, though it did little to relieve his headache and the aftertaste of bile still burned his throat.

I've herbs in my physic chest to brew a cure for that too. We are returning to some sort of normality.

He saw a lantern casting a pool of light onto the Zaise's deck. Naldeth was taking the lid off the water cask lashed to the rear mast. The wizard dipped a cupful and the distant splash of the falling drops echoed softly before the sound of his thirsty drinking drowned it out.

Kheda concentrated on walking safely down the dark stair. Behind them, the gloom deepened as the footsteps Naldeth had left glowing on the rock snuffed out one by one. Looking back, Kheda saw the narrow entrance like a white blade cutting through the darkness.

'Watch where you're walking,' Risala chided him.

'You've no cure for a broken neck in your physic chest.'

Kheda turned obediently to catch up with the fading

footsteps. He finally reached the lowest ledge and jumped

down onto the deck of the ship with Risala, still holding

her hand. The thud of their landing reverberated in the confines of the cave. The deck felt stiff and dead beneath his feet, none of the movement of a living ship stirring.

Naldeth handed them both cups of water. I'll unpick the anchoring spell as soon as we get the ruby up on deck.'

Risala drained her cup. 'Are you sure it won't draw the black dragon to us?'

'Why do you need it on deck?' Kheda drank deep, relishing the cool water cutting through the sour dryness closing his throat!

'After opening up this cave, I can't work any more magic without it,' Naldeth retorted. 'You've no idea how exhausting magecraft can be.'

'We do.' Risala lifted the lantern from its hook on the mast.

Kheda saw that Naldeth's face was more drawn than ever. 'We saw what wizardry cost Dev.'

Naldeth said nothing, disappearing into the dark stern cabin. Kheda followed, with Risala's lantern throwing soft light and harsh shadows to either side. As they dropped down into the rearmost hold, Kheda tasted a breath of home in the still air. There were the herbs Beyau favoured for keeping the Chazen household's clothing chests free of weevils and an unexpected sweet scent of preserved velvet berries.

He looked into the blackness where his physic chest lay. 'Let me get you something for that burn on your hand.'

'Later. We have to get back to Velindre.' Naldeth was opening the door into the middle hold. The penetrating mineral smell of ground oil and sulphur overwhelmed all the other scents.

Kheda suddenly imagined the whole boat catching fire in the blackness of the cavern. 'Stay here with that lantern.' As Risala waited, he went after the young mage.

He found Naldeth waiting in the fore hold. The wizard was leaning on a rough-hewn wooden chest, all his weight resting on his hands, his head hanging.

Kheda looked at the sacking lump behind the chest that was the unnatural ruby. 'Is it still dead?'

'As dead as Dev,' Naldeth said bleakly.

What do we do if Naldeth collapses on us? I can't see the two of us getting theZaise out of this cave without magical aid.

'Are you all right?' As Kheda asked the question, he was struck by its pointlessness.

The mage heaved a sigh that shook him from his tousled head to his steel toes and dirty sandal and forced himself upright. 'I'll feel better when we can get this gemstone further away from the water and closer to the rocks. Then I can draw on the sympathy between elemental fire and the earth.'

'If you say so.' Kheda tried to pull the rope-bound bundle out from its hiding place. It was heavier than he had expected and solidly wedged. He heaved and it came free with a jerk. Hefting it in his arms, Kheda returned to the welcome glow of Risala's lantern in the rearmost hold.

She eyed the awkward bundle with misgiving. 'Let me go up first, and you can pass it up to me.'

'It's heavier than you think,' Kheda warned her.

She climbed up and crouched to reach down through the trap door. Hauling himself one-handed half-way up the ladder wasn't easy, nor was swinging the sacking bundle up so that Risala could grab the binding ropes. Kheda gave it a shove to help Risala drag the weight over the edge of the trap and climbed up after it. Naldeth pressed close behind him on the ladder. Kheda saw an unwelcome eagerness on the mage's tired face as he reached for the ropes to help the warlord carry the burden while Risala led the way out onto the deck with her lantern.

'Let the air touch it.' Naldeth reached for his dagger only to find an empty scabbard.

'Here.' Reluctantly, Kheda handed over his own belt knife.

Thumping the dust-caked knee joint of his metal leg to make it bend, Naldeth knelt and slashed at the hemp bindings. The sacking fell away to reveal the crazed glassy surface of the ruby egg. Licking his cracked lips, the wizard rubbed his hands over the dulled jewel, heedless of his burned palm.

Kheda caught his breath as an infinitesimal scarlet spark stirred in the heart of the gem.

The lantern light flickered as Risala trembled. 'Are we sure this won't bring a dragon down on us?'

'There are dragons here whatever we might do.' The wizard leaned forward, sliding his hands down the curved sides of the egg as if he were caressing a naked woman. 'If I'm going to hold them off, I'll need this.' The glow strengthened. Naldeth sank down and laid his face on the egg's upper surface. He closed his bloodshot eyes as the ruby light cast strange shadows, disfiguring his amiable features.

Kheda's throat closed as his memory irresistibly recalled the horrific fire that had consumed Dev. The scarlet flames had burned the flesh from his face, making a death mask of his skull and boiling his eyes in their sockets, all while the wizard had still been drawing breath. And Dev had relished the embrace of the devouring fires, lost in the ecstasy that was his communion with the element even as it was stealing his life away.

But then the fire in the egg was alive, with a pulse like the beat of a heart. That spark of life would have become a new dragon. This new flame is steady. It doesn't even flicker like a normal fire.

Kheda tried to hold on to that frail reassurance as the crimson glow strengthened.

The deck lurched suddenly and he staggered sideways. Risala's lantern went swinging to throw crazy shadows in all directions. Water slapped against the rocks in the cave and Kheda realised he could hear the sound of surf breaking against the rocks outside for the first time.

Naldeth knelt upright and grinned, quite his old self. 'That's Velindre's spell over the sea broken. Give me a hand up.'

Kheda helped the mage to his feet. 'Can you get us out of here?'

'Not as smoothly as she would have done,' Naldeth said wryly, 'but this ship is solidly built.'

'What do we do with that?' Risala looked mistrustfully at the ruby egg, though the scarlet glow within it had faded to little more than a pinprick of light.

'Put it in the stern cabin.' Naldeth headed for the stair to the steering oars platform with a new spring in his step. 'That'll be close enough for me to use it for elemental focus.'

Kheda bent to take a handful of the sacking that the ruby egg was nested in.

Risala stooped on the other side to do the same. 'It would be easier to toss it in the water if it draws a dragon to us if it's on deck,' she muttered.

'I don't know if that would save us,' Kheda replied as they dragged the uncanny egg through the doorway into the stern cabin and wedged it as best they could between bundles of bedding.

'What do we do now?' Risala asked in the shadows. 'Are we staying to see how far and how fast the bloodshed we've started today spreads through these wretched people? We can't just blame Naldeth now. There's blood on all our hands.'

'I know,' Kheda acknowledged frankly, 'but at least

fewer died than might have. We can thank their magic for that. As for what happens next—' He shook his head. 'First, we had better find out what's distressing Velindre. Then we can make plans—' He held Risala tight as the Zaise lurched. The ship's wooden sides scraped along the rocky ledge as Naldeth's magic forced the vessel out of the narrow anchorage.

'Plans to go home?' Risala looked up at him, her face tense.

He looked down at her. 'How can we leave these people now we've started this? If they go into battle without a wizard, if there's a wizard or a dragon set against them, they'll just be slaughtered.'

'How can you be any kind of warlord here when you can barely make yourself understood and you don't understand a word of their language?' she protested. 'What about Chazen?'

'What's best for Chazen, as far as I can see at the moment, is having turmoil spread in this land to keep men and dragons alike occupied here.' He gazed at her helplessly. 'I wish we hadn't got ourselves into this, but we did and I can't see a way out of it, not yet.'

Risala pulled herself free of his embrace, her expression lost in the gloom. 'Naldeth will need our help rigging the sails.'

Back out on deck, eerie magelight glowed purple around the masts and side rails as Naldeth's wizardry dragged the Zaise towards the cave entrance. As the daylight strengthened, the colours of the ship emerged from shades of black and grey. The magelight lightened to lavender and then to a clear blue as the ship slid out onto the open ocean. Surf seethed around the hull as Naldeth wove skeins of wizardry around stern and prow to force the vessel around. Seabirds wheeled overhead, their shrill cries rising above the sound of the waves.

Risala heaved a sigh and looked at her soiled garments. 'At least we can celebrate our victory with some clean clothes.'

Kheda couldn't recall ever hearing anyone sound less joyful. He followed her into the stern cabin and pulled up the trap door once again as she delved into a bundle of creased cotton. 'I'll tend to that burn of Naldeth's.'

After the awkwardness of fetching up the dead dragon's egg, carrying his physic chest up the ladder was comparatively simple. As he climbed back up, the coffer under one arm, he averted his eyes from the ruby. He could not ignore it, though. Scarlet brilliance was seeping through the lattice of cracks on its surface to throw a web of mage-light around the wooden walls. Risala followed him back out on deck, her arms full of clothes, kicking the stern cabin door shut to slam behind her.

Up on the stern platform, Naldeth was smiling broadly, eyes distant as he wove blue magic with an amethyst hint around the Zaise. The ship cut a straight path through the submissive seas, scorning the waves that would have pushed her towards the merciless rocks.

'You don't need the sails?' Kheda knelt to set his physic chest down and snapped open the latches.

'Not now.' Naldeth chuckled, his weariness seemingly quite forgotten.

'That egg was the death of Dev.' Kheda searched for the particular pot of leatherspear salve that he wanted.

'I know,' the mage acknowledged, somewhat sobered, 'but you don't know how good I feel now, Kheda. It's not just being able to focus my fire affinity through the gemstone. Velindre was right - I've been using more magic in these past few days than I've done all year. The more I exercise my affinity, the stronger my magic becomes.' He smiled wryly. 'Now I understand just why our esteemed Archmage spends so much of his time

finding unimpeachable reasons for all wizards, himself included, to use the bare minimum of magic required.'

'Power is always a temptation, whatever its nature, as I believe you've reminded me before.' Kheda stood up with a scrap of cotton and a stoppered vial of feathereye tincture. 'Let me see your hand.'

Naldeth flinched as the warlord cleansed the burn. 'I had my hands read by a soothsayer when I was sailing the Archipelago with Velindre.' He looked down at the shiny red score obliterating the creases of his palm.

'Did he foresee any of this?' Risala wondered, looking up from the deck, a clean tunic in one hand.

Naldeth shrugged. 'He did say my life would be taking an unexpected course.'

'Show me a seer that doesn't.' Kheda restoppered the vial of astringent lotion. 'All they have is vagueness to swap for their meat and drink on the trading beaches.'

'How can you say that?' Risala was more puzzled than angry. 'How can you say the beliefs of generations and countless domains mean nothing, just because you have lost your faith in them? Don't you think we might not have got so mired in this mess if you had been reading the right omens?'

'I did meet one soothsayer who had some very interesting predictions.' Naldeth was ready to explain.

Kheda found himself disinclined to listen. 'This is hardly the time or the place to debate such things.' He dressed Naldeth's burn with the leatherspear salve and a light bandage of fine gauze.

'No—' Then Naldeth stammered and blushed, retreating back to the tiller.

Kheda realised Risala was stripping naked down on the deck. She slung a bucket into the sea and washed herself briskly. He slid down the ladder-like stair and returned his physic chest to the stern cabin. Wordlessly, Risala

offered him the bucket and he washed in turn, gasping at the bracing chill of the water on his warm body. Still not speaking, she tossed him clean clothes, redolent of different herbs used to ward staleness from stored cottons in some other reach of the Archipelago.

It would be so easy to tell Naldeth simply to turn this ship's prow to the south, to round that cape and sail away east, leaving this strange and dangerous land. Velindre could find us with her magic, couldn't she? But when we return to the Archipelago, will I arrive to find I've lost Risala?

Kheda fetched scouring paste, rag and oil and cleaned his sword and his dagger, polishing them till they shone. Risala brought dried meat and fruit from some store, taking a share to Naldeth, still without a word. They ate, all remaining silent, watching the broken cliffs subside and the broad mouth of the river open up before them. The Zaise bucked as Naldeth's magic drove the ship through the turbulent water where the river's muddy flow forced itself out into the surging sea. The wide mudflats stretched away on either side.

'Watch the skies.' Kheda searched the sandbanks with their tangled tussocks of grasses.

Risala shaded her eyes with her hand. 'There's nothing to see, not even birds.'

Kheda noted the same lack of life across the fertile mudbanks. There were no birds, no sign of any animals. He called up to Naldeth. 'Has all the wizardry used in this valley today frightened everything away? How far does magic's influence reach? Does it taint the water, or the air?'

'Look over there.' Risala pointed at a pillar of smoke that was rising from the far edge of the grasslands on the northern bank, just a little eastwards of their own position.

'It's an ordinary fire,' Naldeth called, unperturbed.

Kheda tried to judge the intervening distance. 'And nowhere near the cave dwellers.'

'Isn't it near where we left Velindre?' Risala stood beside him, tense.

'She could let us know if she were in trouble, couldn't she?' Kheda tried to swallow his own apprehension as he realised Risala was right. 'Come on, we'll see more from the stern.'

They climbed up the ladder to join Naldeth.

'Isn't that the tree-dwellers' valley?' Risala turned to point to a shallow notch in the undulating land where it ran away westwards towards the broken shore.

'I think so.' Still looking inland, Kheda saw that the fire was rather more than half-way between the caves and the tree-dwellers' settlement.

That's the direction we fled in the night, when we met that old woman and she showed us shelter.

'Naldeth, if Velindre were in trouble, could she use this magic of yours to find the Zaise ? Or would the spell just carry her to the cave where we left it?'

'I don't think anyone's ever tried translocating to a boat while it's under sail.' This new idea evidently intrigued Naldeth. 'What—'

A gang of wild spearmen appeared on the north bank. Shouting and waving their spears, they beckoned to the Zaise and Kheda recognised several faces, even through their covering of grease and filth.

'I take it those are our friends?' Naldeth wrapped a skein of blue light around his burned hand and hauled the prow around towards the north shore regardless.

'They don't look too happy to see us,' Risala said slowly.

'No,' Kheda agreed, 'but they don't look as if they're about to attack us either.'

'They look more apprehensive than anything.' Naldeth's

newfound high spirits faltered for the first time. 'Velindre would have found a way to warn us, if there was danger.'

'There's definitely some kind of trouble.' Kheda studied the faces of the men waiting on the bank.

A good number of the men offered a studied blankness just short of defiance. Others were more openly nervous, their eyes flickering from Kheda to Naldeth. A few gazes slid to Risala with a hint of guilty appeal.

'Velindre had better not be hurt.' Naldeth's tone hardened.