A perfect place for an ambush too.
He slowed and stopped, then glanced over his shoulder. 'What is this diversion of yours, eyrie-master? I'm not so sure I shall like it.'
'Wait here if you will, Your Highness. I will fetch them to you.'
'And who will you fetch?' Something about Meteroa's manner made Jehal uneasy.
'No one who means you any harm, Your Highness.'
Jehal looked behind him again. His knights were emerging from the woods, funnelling into the cleft between the rocks.
'This is not a good place to stop, eyrie-mas-' He broke off. Emerging from the shadows between the stones, three riders approached, their horses stepping slowly in the sand. They were strange folk, dark-skinned with overly ornate clothes studded with gold and jewels and dazzling rainbows of feathers. They stopped a dozen paces short of where Lord Meteroa waited, dismounted and bowed.
Taiytakei.
The middle one, who wore the brightest clothes, came a few paces closer and then carefully knelt in the sand.
'Your Holiness,' he said. 'We pay homage on this auspicious day.'
With slow deliberate movements, like a cat stalking its prey, Jehal dismounted. He drew nearer, never taking his eyes off the man.
'Sea traders,' he whispered. He glanced at Meteroa. 'What is this?'
'We bring you a gift,' said the dark man. 'A gift for you, O mightiest of princes, to honour your wedding day.'
Jehal forced a smile. 'Forgive me, but it is said that the Taiytakei do not deal in gifts, only trade, and that what may appear at first as a gift will always turn out to have a price.'
The kneeling man beckoned one of his fellows, who brought over something under a cloth and then quickly withdrew. 'We wish nothing more than to bring to you what you desire, and take from you that for which you have no need.' Slowly, the man placed the object on the ground and then backed away, still on his knees. When he reached the others, he rose and turned. All three of them mounted and rode slowly away.
Jehal watched them go, and only when they were long gone did his eyes move slowly to what they had left behind. He took a step towards it.
Meteroa jumped off his horse.
'Let me, Your Highness.'
'Why did you bring me here?'
'Forgive me, my Prince, but I will show you. The Taiytakei wished to give this to you in person and in private. You will see why.' Meteroa tore away the cloth. Underneath was an exquisite box carved from black wood, inlaid with vermilion and gold.
'Open it.'
Meteroa lifted the lid. Inside lay three strips of plain silk, two black and one white, and two tiny golden dragons with ruby eyes.
'Pretty.' Jehal shrugged. He would have said more, but one of the golden dragons turned its head and looked at him.
Meteroa pulled out one of the silks and snapped the box shut. 'Best that others do not see,' he murmured. 'Here.' He handed Jehal a strip of black silk. 'Wear it around your eyes. You will not be disappointed.'
Jehal smiled. Meteroa seemed to be in deadly earnest, and so he wrapped the black silk across his eyes. Immediately the world seemed to shift and shimmer. Voices spoke inside his head: You are the speaker in waiting, and we are the gift of the Taiytakei.
For a moment he thought he saw himself, as if looking through another's eyes. He ripped away the silk. Meteroa was still holding the box, but now he had it slightly open again. Four glittering ruby eyes peered up at him.
'In the sunlight they can fly. Or when you will them to,' murmured Meteroa. 'Wear the silk and they will obey your thoughts. They will see and they will listen and you will have their eyes and ears. There will be no secrets you cannot unlock.' He closed the box again and smiled. 'Was I wrong, Your Highness, to bring you to the Taiytakei, so that you might receive their gift?'
'No.' Jehal shook his head in wonder. 'No, Eyrie-Master, you were not wrong.'
He looked at the box and grinned to himself. You are the speaker in waiting…
20
Knights
Rider Semian, when he came back the next day, didn't bring only gold. Three more dragons arrived with him, and on the back of each dragon were three knights. Semian himself brought the alchemist. They landed on the same gravel flats in a flurry of wings and spray. Sollos watched while the alchemist and the riders dismounted and rearranged themselves. Most of the knights stayed on the ground, crouching cautiously behind a protective wall of shields with the alchemist in the middle, while the dragons took to the sky again.
Archers. They're afraid of archers. Which made Sollos think of the last time he'd watched a dragon-knight hand over a purse full of gold to a mysterious stranger.
He stood his ground, out in the open, waiting. Kemir was beside him. Curly Beard and his friends had scuttled off to hide among the trees and watch. Semian emerged from the midst of his men and advanced slowly, looking around, scanning the shore of the lake. Up above, the dragons circled.
Sollos bowed. 'Riders,' he acknowledged. He knew some of the other dragon-knights only by their faces. Despite two weeks of sharing a camp together, they'd never asked his name, never called him anything except sell-sword. Not one had spoken to him other than to order him around.
Semian gave him a disdainful look. 'Where are your outlaw friends, sell-sword?'
'Hiding and waiting to see what you do. Did you bring the gold, Rider?'
'One hundred coins. They may have the other half when we have found the dragon.'
Sollos silently clenched his fists. 'That's not going to work, Rider. They know perfectly well that you'll simply burn their village if they try to steal from you. They expect you to burn it anyway, before you leave.'
'I will honour our bargain if they do the same.'
'I don't doubt it, Rider, but these people are used to King Valmeyan's men, and the King of the Crags is hated here. They expect nothing but treachery and betrayal, and they're not wise enough in the ways of the world to know the different between one knight and another. They probably haven't even heard of Queen Shezira.' Sollos sighed. 'I suppose we'll have to wait until tomorrow for the dragons to come back, and then another day for the rest of the gold.'
'Sell-sword, they will either take us to the dragon today or they will burn. That's the only offer I will make. A hundred gold is a fortune for most men.'
Sollos gritted his teeth. Yes, it would have been. He shook his head and held out his hand. 'Then give me the gold and I'll see what I can do.'
'No, sell-sword, I will give it to them myself, when they have taken us back to their settlement.'
'With all respect, Rider, that isn't the arrangement.'
'Then change it.'
Sollos shrugged. 'If that's what you wish, but I certainly won't be coming with you. I say again, Rider: these people fully expect your dragons to burn their village whether they honour our bargain or not. Once they've got your gold, I can't see why they shouldn't simply murder us all in our sleep. Either way, your dragons will burn their homes.'
Semian seemed to consider this. 'Then what arrangement do you suggest?'
'These men and women have not seen your white dragon, Rider, but they have heard of others who have and they will take us there. We have to go to another settlement, a smaller one, about ten miles from here. We go directly there. They'll come with us to show us the way. Tomorrow morning, when we're somewhere between here and there, you give them the gold. One or two of them will stay to take us to the man who's seen the white.' It had taken almost an entire day of arguing with Curly Beard to find an arrangement they could agree on.