‘Are you about to tell me you told me so?’ asked Kheda savagely. ‘That we should have killed all who were left and sooner than this?’
Is this my fault, for turning my attention to rebuilding Chazen before we had fully reclaimed it?
‘A magebom with even the slightest power could have hidden himself from all your hunting parties.’ Dev waved the irrelevance away. ‘He probably hasn’t much power of his own, or we’d have seen him lead some fightback before now. But if he’s mastered this trick of summoning a dragon, that’s all he needs to change that. Drawing on the elements around them, that’s the basis of this wild wizardry, that’s why it’s so crude,’ he commented with contempt. ‘With a dragon’s aura at hand, he’s got all the power he could ever use. He can do pretty much anything he fancies.’
‘Only as long as he’s got some way to stop the dragon eating him,’ said Risala with faint hope. ‘How does he do that?’ Kheda looked warily at the barbarian mage.
‘Who knows? I’m making up theories as I go along,’ Dev said bitterly. ‘I have to bespeak Velindre as soon as we can find some suitable metal.’ Petulantly, he kicked a scrap of weathered bark at the flaccid lump of his chain mail. ‘I could have used a helmet but they’re both at the bottom of the sea.’ Because he can see in any pool of liquid but he needs a magical reflection in metal to speak to this confederate of his. Is it significant, that when I’m willing to countenance his magic, circumstances make it impossible for him to use it?
‘Better them than us.’ It took Kheda some effort to sound positive. ‘Let’s build a raft and work our way north through the Snake Bird Islands. If we go well past Dalao before we attempt the crossing, we can ride the current south as we cross it. If we judge it right, we shouldn’t get swept too far past our target, not beyond Balaia at the very worst. We’ll say I saw some omen that drew us to the far side of the current before the dragon attacked.’ The thought of the lie soured his stomach.
No one will challenge my word; I’m the warlord. The people of the domain trust me to seek out and interpret the portents for them, not to lie and feint and deceive. Perhaps that’s all part of the curse of magic staining these islands. How much more evil an omen is this dragons arrival?
‘And another thing,’ he added vehemently. ‘I want no word spoken of any wild mages out there when we get back. We keep that between ourselves. As far as anyone is concerned, the dragon is just a beast like any other.’
‘Hardly,’ Dev objected. Not with magical fire at its command.’
‘Then it’s a magical beast, but it’s still a beast,’ Kheda said resolutely. ‘Bad as that is, it’ll be worse if those who survived the savages and their wizards last year think such catastrophe is coming down on them again:
‘And what will you do when someone stumbles across this wild mage?’ asked Dev sarcastically. ‘I imagine I’ll be as surprised as anyone else,’ Kheda said stolidly.
‘We need to get down to the sea.’ Risala peered through the trees, one hand drifting to the half-moon dagger at her belt. ‘Do you suppose the dragon ate all the savages Shipmaster Mezai said were hiding here?’
‘If it didn’t, I can burn them to charred bones and no one need be any the wiser. We should worry more about those traps the bastards built.’ Dev scooped up his fallen swords. ‘Watch your step, and leave that,’ he said sharply, seeing Kheda bend down to pick up his armour. ‘You can’t wear that on a raft. If we go over, you’ll sink straight to the bottom and be drowned for certain.’
‘True.’ Kheda grimaced. He caught up his own weapons and followed the others down a narrow path between the battered and drought-stunted spinefruit and rustlenut trees.
Though a warlord losing his armour isn’t going to be seen as the best of portents. That’ll have to be another wager against the future. If we can get back to the fleet, if I can send someone to reclaim such a potent symbol of my authority, then won’t that be proof I’m acting in the best interests of the domain, whatever my compromises with the vice of magic?
And what if you don’t get your armour back? Will that mean you were wrong to turn your back on your father’s wisdom, on the precepts that guided the forefathers of Chazen and Daish and every other domain? Is it your deeds to this point that have brought the unfettered evil of a dragon upon everyone?
Apprehension thick in his throat, Kheda followed Dev down the steep slope of the far side of the little island, leaving sufficient wary distance so that any trap catching the mage would miss him. Risala came after the warlord, careful to match her steps precisely to his. The spinefruit trees were more sparsely scattered on this side of the island, which meant that rustlenuts had seized the rains’ recent largesse and were sprouting in all directions. Vicious tangles of strangling vines fought over the open spaces and the ground was riddled with burrows easily as treacherous as any traps.
At least there are no signs of any but animal footprints.
‘Do you suppose the savages ate all the matias?’ Kheda wondered as he jumped to save himself from a twisted ankle when a hollow collapsed beneath his foot. Brindled fur and shreds of dry leaves blew away on the breeze.
‘They’ll be deep underground.’ Sweat darkened the spine of Risala’s ochre tunic. ‘They’ve too much sense to be out in the heat of the day.’
‘Watch your step.’ Dev wiped his forehead with the back of one hand. ‘It’s a sheer drop to those reefs.’ They went on, cautiously, as the trees thinned to reveal crumbling black and grey rock above seas foaming around exposed corals.
‘How do we get a raft down there?’ Risala asked dubiously.
Kheda looked along the shore in both directions. ‘That might be easier.’ He pointed to a dip in the cliff. ‘I think we can get safely into the sea down there.’
Dev was looking inland. ‘I can see a spring.’
Better yet, the damp gully offered a modest sprouting of leatherspear where the twists in the underlying rock forced out the precious water. Kheda drew his belt knife and cut a handful of fleshy spikes. Splitting them lengthways, he slapped them deftly on Dev’s back as the wizard bent to cup his hands under the dripping water. ‘Hold still.’
Dev reared up. ‘Shit, that stings!’
‘Only for a moment.’ Kheda moved to let Risala get to the spring, squeezing juice from the swollen base of a leaf and anointing his own tender skin.
‘Let me help.’ Risala shook water from her hands and took a leatherspear leaf, smearing the viscous sap over Kheda’s back.
Kheda shivered as she pressed her thumbs into the knotted muscles on either side of his spine.
Just the touch of your hands stops my heart. What have I done to deserve such a woman devoted to me, even when I dare not act on my own desire? Will that be my reward, proof that I am doing right, if I can finally see a way to take you for my own that dishonours no one? If you still want me.
‘You sounded very confident about making a raft,’ Dev challenged Kheda as he sliced more strips of leatherspear to soothe his reddened chest. ‘I’ll tell you for nothing that I’m no boat builder.’
‘All we need is the right wood and lashing,’ Kheda told him firmly before quenching his own thirst from the meagre trickle. ‘Risala, you cut vines and we’ll look for some likely trees. And we should all look for gourds. We’ll need something for carrying water.’
‘Let’s get busy.’ She picked her way carefully along the cliff and began unravelling a skein of strangling vine from an outcrop of rock.
‘Dev, we’ll use your swords for the tree-felling.’ Kheda turned to scan the scrubby forest for tandra saplings. ‘I’ll keep mine in case we meet some savage who needs cutting down to size.’
‘Of course, my lord,’ Dev agreed sarcastically as he followed Kheda up to a more level patch on the slope where a few tandra trees were holding their own. ‘So how do you know how to build a raft?’
‘My father, Daish Reik, took me and my brothers out into the domain on hunting trips.’ Kheda pushed a tandra sapling about as thick as his forearm, testing the tenacity of its roots. ‘We spent as much time learning the nature of the seas and forests as we did hunting. He said we needed to know how our people fed and clothed themselves.’ Despite himself, Kheda smiled with wry humour. ‘And he insisted we learn how to feed and clothe ourselves with nothing more than a dagger to hand. He said even the most skilful augur can’t always foretell what’ll happen. Let’s start with this one.’ He stepped back to give Dev room.