Dev asked the questions, challenge in his voice coloured with insulting disbelief. The woman replied with cold precision in her incomprehensible tongue, strange eyes fixed on Kheda all the while. She finished speaking and silence rang loudly across the open observatory. The only movement was the ceaseless whirling of the circle of brilliant magic on the mirror.
Dev let out a slow, contemplative breath. ‘She’s talking about a long trip but as luck would have it, she can make most of that journey by magic. The last bit will be the trial and then, assuming she can find the man she’s looking for ...’ He shook his head reluctantly. ‘If she can find him, yes, he should have the lore we need. Whether he’ll share it is another question altogether.’
‘Promise him gems, pearls, whatever it takes,’ Kheda ordered tersely. ‘Your barbarian coin, if need be.’
‘He won’t be interested.’ Dev laughed derisively. ‘He’s long past interest in such trifles. If Velindre can’t convince him to share what he knows, no promises of riches will shift him.’
‘And if she can?’ Kheda asked.
‘Then we should certainly have something to make any dragon think twice about plundering Chazen,’ said Dev softly.
‘Do you think she can achieve this?’ Kheda demanded. ‘Do you trust her? Is pursuing this worth our while? Tell me honestly, Dev.’
‘If anyone can convince the wizard she’s talking about to share his lore, she’s the woman to do it. And it’s not as if we have any other bright ideas, is it?’ He looked up at Kheda. ‘I’d say the odds are better than even money. I’d take that bet.’
The woman said something, shifting her gaze to Dev who nodded reluctantly.
‘If she can persuade him to talk, she’ll be at Relshaz barely a day later. What will take the time will be getting her down here, which is plain stupidity—we don’t have time to sit here with our thumbs up our arses while she takes a pleasure cruise.’ Turning back to the woman he began talking again, objections rapid and angry. She shook her head, mouth stubborn.
‘Dev, shut up for a moment.’ Kheda closed his eyes, the better to think. ‘Can she undertake to be in Relshaz in forty-five days, near enough?’
‘You’re planning on flogging a trireme crew half to death?’ Dev looked up at him, incredulous. ‘When did a Chazen trireme last make that voyage so fast?’
‘Can we survive this dragon’s presence that long?’ Risala asked tersely.
‘What other choice do we have?’ Kheda waved her question away. ‘Just ask her,’ he snapped at Dev. Shaking his head in disbelief, the mage obliged. The wizard woman’s emphatic nod needed no translation. ‘Will she be able to recognise a Chazen trireme in the docks of Relshaz?’ Kheda continued. ‘Kheda,’ Risala warned. She pointed and he saw the residence steward Beyau heading purposefully for the footbridge leading to the observatory isle. Waiting impatiently through a rapid exchange between the mages, Kheda handed Risala the key to the door at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Get down there and tell Beyau to come back later. Tell him I’m still reading omens.’
Risala nodded and ran lightly down the stairs.
‘Dev,’ Kheda said, calculating quickly, ‘the Greater Moon is waxing. Tell the woman to be in Relshaz at the end of its next complete cycle, the one after this when it’ll just about coincide with the Lesser Moon’s darkness. Do you understand? I don’t know what that would be in your barbarian calendar.’
‘Sometime around the thirtieth of Aft-Spring, my lord, depending on which almanac we’re using,’ Dev said with heavy sarcasm. He said something brief to the woman in the spell, with a note of warning. Then he blew out the taper and the magic vanished to leave the polished metal shining vacant and uninformative in the sun.
‘I need a drink before my brain boils.’ Dev abandoned the mirror on the observatory’s tiles and headed for the stairs.
‘Wait. We’re taking omens, remember?’ Kheda heard Risala talking to Beyau below. He nudged the lustre-trimmed square of the mirror with his foot. ‘Does this have to be intact for your magics? The frame, I mean, not the metal.’
Dev halted at the top of the steps, puzzled.
‘Take this and keep it with your own gear.’ Kheda drew his dagger and bent to pick up the mirror. He reversed the blade and carefully stabbed at the delicate glass tiles with the brass hilt. The glaze splintered and crackled under his assault. ‘You don’t use any other mirror for that bespeaking enchantment, do you understand me? Now sit down. I said I was going to read mirror omens for the domain and I intend to.’
Dev didn’t reply, simply snorting as he went to sit in what little shade was offered by the waist-high wall encircling the observation platform.
Kheda picked up the undamaged mirrors he had brought up with him and left on the wall’s broad rail.
In times of confusion, hidden truths can often be seen more clearly in reflections. Isn’t that what you were always taught! Perhaps, but do you honestly think you’ll see any omens with the memory of that magic clouding your mind?
He studied the mirror bird on the back of the copper mirror for a moment before flipping it around. Lifting the mirror so that he could see the open horizon and the empty sea behind him, he moved slowly, shifting his feet little by little until he had surveyed the entire circle of the compass as it was reflected in the shining metal. The vista remained entirely, unhelpfully blank.
He heaved a sigh and began again. This time Risala appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘I told Beyau you were busy. He asked for you to send word as soon as you’re free to see him.’
‘There’s not a lot to keep me here,’ Kheda said heavily.
‘Wait till moonrise, that’s a more auspicious time for mirror omens,’ she suggested softly.
Dev spoke up from the far side of the observatory. ‘You were talking about looking in Chazen’s library for any useful lore. We could do that and be in the cool. You Archipelagans might know something that would wipe that smirk off Velindre’s face. Stronger things have happened. I wouldn’t mind seeing that,’ he concluded, a trifle vindictively. ‘Even through a bespeaking.’
Risala dismissed the wizard with a wave of her hand, her eyes on Kheda. ‘Let’s get out of the sun.’ The warlord nodded and headed for the stairs. They were wide enough for Risala to tuck herself beside him and slide her hand into his.
‘That’s enough of that.’ Dev pushed past into the library. ‘Where are the keys to the bookcases?’ Next to the ceromancy bowl.’ Kheda laid the mirrors he had carried down on the table.
Risala stood by Dev’s shoulder, surveying the books, and pulled out a thin tome bound in stained scarlet leather, age darkening the edges of the pages. ‘It would be no bad thing if we could keep the domain safe without magic,’ she said in a low voice as she laid the book flat and opened it carefully.
‘I think that’s rather less likely than this woman of Dev’s finding what we need.’ Kheda scanned the crabbed, faded writing where some long-dead scribe had dutifully recorded the omens and predictions of some Chazen forelord, along with verdicts on the accuracy or otherwise of his interpretations. ‘I only hope we don’t end up paying too high a price. She looks the type to drive a hard bargain.’ Risala glanced at Dev, who had moved to examine a second bookcase. ‘How are you planning to get her here from Relshaz? You can’t leave the domain. You can’t abandon Itrac to cope with all this alone.’
‘Which is why you’re going to be my envoy.’ Kheda laid a hand on hers.
‘What?’ Risala stared at him, open-mouthed.
‘You’re the obvious person to send. You’re my poet, so that’s your excuse for searching out lore. You’re from the northern reaches and we’re telling the other warlords hereabouts we’re looking for lore from the north, something like those herbs that helped us to bring down the wild wizards.’
‘Since you put it like that,’ Risala acknowledged reluctantly.
‘You can take a message to Shek Kul while you’re about it. We owe him that much and who knows, he might even have some ancient learning about dragons to share with us.’ Kheda stroked Risala’s hand absently. ‘Have you ever been to this place, this Relshaz?’