Kheda shoved aside the chart he had been altering and reached for a wide brass star circle instead. A few turns of the star net over the base plate of the heavens told him what he already knew: the positions of the heavenly jewels and constellations in the compass changed nothing.
Both moons are together in the arc of foes. Opal and Pearl are both talisman against dragons. Why? Is Dev right to suspect that the beasts prefer the four stones he tells me that barbarians associate with the perversions of magic? Does that mean I should be wary of any conjunction involving Ruby or Sapphire or Emerald? But there’s no amber in the sky and he says that’s one of their elemental jewels. How could barbarian beliefs affect our reading of the heavens anyway?
We still haven’t seen the dragon, so that’s some reassurance that I was right to see protection in these two days in the entire year that the moons meet in this reach of the sky. None of the men would have followed me back here if I hadn’t been able to point to that. And the Sailfish is there in the same arc, and that’s a good omen when it rides with either moon. And the shoals of squid have come with the rains, to spawn in the moonlight and feed islanders, beasts and birds alike. That’s surely a good omen that the natural order is unshaken by the dragon’s magic.
But where is any portent to encourage me to believe that we can defeat this creature? Both moons are waning. If we could see beyond the clouds, the Greater would be little more than a shaving of gold and the Lesser has passed its full. Will our success or failure depend on Velindre arriving before the conjunction of these talismans loses its potency?
Kheda stared at the star circle and did his best to ignore the repeated clink of the bottle against the rim of Dev’s cup.
What of the rest of the heavenly compass? The Ruby is at the quarter turn from both moons in the arc of travel, talisman against fire set among the stars of the Winged Snake. Does this mean that the beast has already left us? Are we finally free of its unnatural fires? No one’s seen it for days on end now. Well, we’ll find out when Velindre arrives. We’ll let Dev recover his magic and see if the beast comes down on us again. As long as she’s some hope of killing it when it does.
He forced himself to concentrate on the jewels dotted around the star circle’s net.
The Amethyst lies directly across from the Ruby, where the Mirror Bird spreads its wings protectively over those as close as kin. Can I believe that the Mirror Bird’s fabled ability to turn aside magic will protect Risala? And Itrac? The Mirror Bird promises clear sight of the future, but the Amethyst warns against arrogance. And it’s a jewel to promote true visions through dreams. Should I have agreed when Itrac offered to sleep beneath the tower of silence, to see if the wisdom of the past might show her some insight into the future?
Kheda’s head jerked up and he stared out into the black night, towards the unseen tower where the most worthy dead of Chazen were laid so that their substance might be carried across the whole domain, rather than confined to the isle where they were buried.
‘How long are you going to be shuffling paper?’ Dev scowled at him from the other side of the observatory. ‘Aren’t you tired?’
‘Are you?’ Kheda traced the pierced brass of the star net with a thoughtful finger.
‘I might be,’ grunted Dev, ‘if I drink enough of this.’ He reached for the blue bottle again.
Do you think I’m staying wakeful out of sympathy, because you’re tormented by your surrender to the potion that dulls your magic? Or because I find I still don’t wholly trust you, even if you’re a wizard in name only at the moment. I wish I knew which it was.
‘I’ll bet Itrac’s lying awake down below warming her quilts for you. Don’t you think you’d find more fun between her thighs?’ Dev sneered unpleasantly. ‘Or if you want to keep staring up at the stars, I’m sure she could get on her knees—’
‘Shut up.’ Kheda turned his attention resolutely back to the star circle. ‘The liquor’s making a fool of you again:
Dev slumped back on his stool. He leaned forward and rested his chin on his folded forearms, staring silently at the lamp once more.
Kheda rubbed at the crease between his brows as he studied the patterns in the pierced and engraved brass.
If this was going to be a truly significant conjunction, the Diamond would make the fourth point of a square. It doesn’t. If it were just one step back around the compass, the warlord’s gem, in the arc of duty, would be showing me that the may forward is to attack. But that conjunction’s impossible. None of the other jewels could be in their present arcs with the Diamond in that reach of the sky. It’s caught in the meshes of the Net, in the arc of marriage. And I am husband in flesh as well as in name to Itrac now. We are bound together. Does the Net, symbol of unity, join with the Diamond’s aspect as talisman of fidelity to tell me our union is essential to support the domain? What does that mean for me and Risala, when I desire her like no other woman I’ve ever known?
He surveyed the piles of books, some still crisp-paged, their leather stiff, embossed gilt gleaming in the lamplight. Many were much older, reduced to limp decrepitude. Some were so worn that even daylight couldn’t reveal whether they’d originally been bound in black or blue. Kheda sighed and reached for one whose pages were edged with grime, the leather flap that should fold over to secure the precious wisdom with engraved brass clasps entirely missing.
‘Let’s see if Chazen Sari’s great-great-grandsire saw anything in the earthly compass at this same moment in the heavens’ dance. Then we’ll go to bed.’
‘What?’ Dev looked up as a rattle of wind-tossed drops against the window panes covered Kheda’s last words. The mage managed a wry half-intoxicated smile. ‘At least your rains came in good time. Isn’t that a positive omen?’
‘It is,’ Kheda agreed slowly. ‘And there were none of the usual quarrels towards the end of the dry season.
‘You don’t think folk had more on their minds than bickering over vegetable plots or wood-cutting shares?’ Dev’s mood hovered precariously between amusement and contempt.
The shocking slam of a heavy door in the silence of the sleeping halls below cut off his next words. Footsteps and voices sounded on the stairs.
‘That’s Tasu,’ Dev said, gathering up his cup and bottle to hide them below the table.
‘It’s Risala.’ Kheda stood up, kicking his stool away. His hand went to his thigh, to the message slip hidden in his pocket.
Dev’s eyes narrowed. ‘You were expecting her.’
Kheda didn’t answer, moving to open the door. ‘It’s all right, Tasu.’ He smiled at the sleep-fuddled servant clad only in a hastily clutched wrap. ‘Go back to bed.’
Risala appeared behind the old man. ‘We didn’t mean to wake you,’ she apologised softly, but we saw the light in the observatory and we have news for our lord that cannot wait.’
News and books, so I see,’ Tasu said thickly. ‘Let me dress—’
‘The books can wait till the morning, Tasu,’ Kheda inten-upted.
‘If you’re sure, my lord.’ The old man did his best to cover a yawn with one hand, the other clutching the length of cotton around his wrinkled, sagging belly. ‘I am,’ said Kheda firmly. ‘Good night.’
‘Good night, my lord.’ The old man turned reluctantly to ease past Risala and, further down the stairs, someone Kheda did not recognise at first.
He looked at Dev and, at the wizard’s nod of confirmation, studied the newcomer more closely. She looked much the same age as him and Dev. Her face had lost the smoothness of youth and lines of age and experience traced faintly around her eyes and mouth. They would deepen with laughter or anger, he realised, not yet fixed and immutable as they would be ten or fifteen years hence.
The magewoman he had glimpsed in Dev’s indistinct spells had certainly changed. Voyaging the length of the Archipelago through the dry season’s fiercest heat had tanned her pale skin to a golden brown and bleached her hair to the whitest blonde. Tall for a barbarian woman, she was easily the height of most Aldabreshin men, and with her angular features, cropped head and masculine garb in dark-grey cotton, her appearance was far from feminine. She still looked exotic but her brown eyes should reassure most people that she had some Archipelagan blood.