‘Evil bringing its own fate down on itself, my lord.’ Dev secured the jewel chest and stood up. ‘We’ll hope that holds true, my lord.’ Mezai sounded more hopeful than certain, though.
‘There’s no disgrace in running from a dragon.’ Dev grinned. Do you think there’s any ship in any domain that wouldn’t do the same?’
Kheda gripped Mezai’s shoulder, looking him in the eye. ‘I’ll want you and your ship ready when the Green Turtle gets back. Then we’ll pursue the beast with whatever lore they might have in the north for driving such predators away.’
‘Can’t be that difficult, if barbarians can do it.’ Mezai made a valiant attempt at a joke but there was suspicion in his eyes as he glanced at Dev.
‘Let’s be thankful we had a barbarian to hand to remind us they’re plagued with dragons in the north, along with their wizards,’ said Kheda with casual indifference. ‘And since there are still barbarian kings and princes uneaten to trade with the northern Archipelago, they must have some means to stop the beasts laying waste to their lands.’
‘There haven’t been dragons around the Cape of Winds in three generations, my lord,’ Dev assured him obsequiously. Not since the last of them was hunted down and killed.’
‘And since barbarians can never resist bragging, doubtless there’ll be some record of such events in one or other of the domains that touch on the barbarian waters.’ Mezai looked around to make sure his crew weren’t forgetting that.
‘Indeed.’ Kheda paused, as if a thought had just occurred to him. ‘Of course, we’ll keep the beast’s lust for gems to ourselves. If it chases any other domain’s ships and they don’t know how to distract it, that will serve them right for encroaching on our waters, won’t it?’
‘Yes, my lord.’ There was some distaste in Mezai’s assent.
Kheda took one last discreet look at the trireme’s crew as he turned to climb down the ladder to a waiting rowing boat. There were some unfriendly eyes following Dev as the supposed slave waited near the stern ladder.
Are you all reassured by my apparent confidence or wondering if I am an utter fool to rely on a barbarian slave’s word? I certainly don’t know what we’ll do if the dragon turns up to prey on Chazen’s more densely populated islands. How many jewels does it take to buy a life from the beast? Will pandering to it just encourage it to stay where there are such easy pickings?
‘We’ll go to the courier-dove lofts as soon as we’re ashore,’ he said briefly to Dev as the barbarian climbed carefully into the boat. ‘I want to know exactly what’s happening in the west. There should be dispatches from the Mist Dove by now.’
‘Indeed, my lord.’ Dev waited as the jewel coffer and physic chest were lowered from the trireme and stowed them safely beneath the little boat’s stern thwart. Kheda shifted his feet and glanced at the two youths side by side on the central thwart.
Are you reassured to see me in silks, apparently confident that I don t need armour here in the heart of my domain? Or have you heard that I lost my hauberk thanks to the dragon?
Kheda carefully drew the fronts of his sleeveless mantle of midnight-blue gossamer across the knees of his emerald silk trousers. The overgarment was sewn with pale-green feathers around the shoulders and hem, matching the panels of embroidery on the front and back of his round-necked tunic, where azure roundels of feathers each framed a hawk’s head.
I remember this mantle. So now I’ve taken Saril’s clothes as well as his domain, his residences and his remaining wife. And my erstwhile wife took his life. Are the people here going to look me in the eye or spit in it?
‘Let’s get your lord ashore,’ Dev said breezily to the rowers.
The two youths shared a dubious glance before leaning into their oars, keeping their eyes on their own feet as they rowed.
Kheda felt Dev stir beside him and saw the barbarian open his mouth, a glower cutting a deep line between his angular black brows. Kheda silenced him with an unceremonious elbow to the ribs. One of the rowers looked up only to drop his gaze immediately as he caught the warlord’s mildly questioning gaze.
Noise all around pressed in on their tense silence.
Crewmen from the great galleys shouted instructions to the islanders down in their little boats. Warning calls rang out as unwieldy loads were manhandled down the steep stairs fixed on either side of the massive ships’ sterns.
Muffled hammering floated out of the oar ports as the ever-toiling carpenters laboured in the hidden holds.
Above decks, rowers were making good wear and tear sustained by rowlocks and oar sleeves.
There were small open galleys with just a single bank of oars and fishing skiffs everywhere. More had followed in their wake from every village the warlord’s fleet had passed on the voyage to Esabir.
Are you hoping my presence will somehow protect you from the dragon? I’ll do all I can, but are there enough jewels in the domain to turn its attention from so much easy meat?
‘Looks like life got back to normal hereabouts pretty swiftly’ Dev was watching the local fishermen vying for space on the beach, eager to sell their loads of crab and lobster to Itrac’s household cooks. ‘This was one of the last islands taken by the savages,’ Kheda said neutrally. ‘And one of the first to be relieved by Redigal Coron’s ships.’
‘We’re not going to go hungry, are we?’ Dev watched flat-bottomed boats rowed by local women in gaily patterned gowns bringing baskets piled high with all manner of leafy greens or succulent roots brushed carefully free of soil. Other boats carried crates of ducks or village fowl blinking balefully at trussed braces of silver jungle birds, their heads hanging limply from deftly wrung necks. ‘Look, my lord,’ he said fervently. ‘Red meat.’ He pointed to the motionless dappled flank of a hill deer still tied to the pole some hunting party had used to carry it out of the forest.
‘It was an honour to serve you, my lord.’ As the rowing boat grounded on the steep beach, the two boys hastily drew their oars inboard and leapt out to drag the unwieldy vessel ashore as far as they could. ‘Thank you.’ Kheda walked carefully up the boat to climb over the prow. Dev.’
Hearls turned on all sides, conversations fading away. Kheda nodded and smiled to islanders and residence servants who stopped in their tracks to bow low. He glanced back to see Dev loftily rewarding the two boys with a few tokens from the pearl harvest before recovering the warlord’s jewel and physic chests.
‘What now?’ Dev hurried to catch up, the twin coffers balanced on his muscular shoulders.
‘We accept our welcome with all the pleasure we can muster.’ Kheda continued smiling to all sides as they gathered an eager train of islanders and children wide-eyed with excitement. We want these people as pleased to see us as we are to see them.’
These people who served Chazen Saril long and loyally, who haven’t seen me for more than a day at a time because
/ still feel such an interloper here. Am Ito try buying their loyalty with pearls just as I try to buy that dragon s forbearance with gems?
They passed beneath the vicious maw of the sea gate where three separate portcullises hung ready to slice down through the arching vault pierced with holes promising a rain of death by spears, boiling water or worse for any enemy caught between them. The compound beyond the beach wall was thronged with activity as newly arrived servants and those who remained here year round scurried to make everything fit for the warlord and his lady. Bows were rapid, even perfunctory, and no one paused to trail after Kheda. Goats tethered here and there to keep the grass cropped short watched all the activity with slant-eyed indifference.
‘Is there a back way out of this rat trap?’ Dev glanced uneasily at the fortifications ahead and behind. ‘There must be. Chazen Saril may have sought peace but his forefathers didn’t overmuch.’ Kheda looked ahead to the residence. ‘That’s something you need to find out. And you had better make sure you know your way around by nightfall, for both our sakes. I won’t inspire much confidence if I get lost in my own residence.’