“Ashore, please,” I said fervently.
“I’ll get some blankets.” Ryshad ushered Shiv and Pered out, the tall mage still scowling. Sorgrad followed, escorting Larissa out with flattering courtesy, ’Gren sauntering along behind.
“Would he be so admirably eager to learn if the lady mage were not quite such a beauty?” Temar wandered over, face disapproving.
“What was it interested you in studying Artifice with Guinalle, back in the way back when?” I smiled just enough to take the edge off my words. I was certain Sorgrad’s main ambition was getting his hands on Larissa’s staylaces but no one criticises my friends but me. Well, me and Halice.
Temar coloured. “It’s late. I’ll see you in the morning.” Allin jumped up from the stool where she’d sat all but unnoticed and hurried after him.
“Good night.” I left Usara finding comforts for Guinalle that she’d never have looked for herself and went outside, yawning, to meet Ryshad just where the crushed plants around the hut yielded to gritty sand. He had an armful of blankets and we made ourselves comfortable in a discreet hollow.
He lay back and held out an arm. I curled into his embrace and he held me tight.
“Are we doing the right thing?” I asked him. Bold plans made with trusted allies and a reinforcing drink in your hand have to stand up to scrutiny in the cold light of dawn, if they’re not to lead to disaster.
I counted five echoing heartbeats in his chest before he replied. “I can’t see what else to do.”
“Oh, very reassuring,” I grumbled.
“No, I didn’t mean that.” Ryshad shifted slightly so he could wrap both arms around me. “We have to get these pirates out of the islands and we need magic, wizardry to do that. We daren’t risk Shiv and ’Sar or anyone else, if these Elietimm can use Artifice to leave them for dead while they’re at it. For all Guinalle’s skills, she’s certainly no inclination to use aetheric magic to attack people and, frankly, I doubt she’d know how to, even if it came down to a fight between them. It’s just not her way. So you’re right. We need to kill the Ice Man. We’ve seen him trying to cause trouble everywhere he can; pirates this time, in the Mountains last year, in the Archipelago before that. Kellarin will never be safe as long as he’s there. It’s simple.”
“Simple.” I echoed. “I hope it will be.”
“We got out alive last time, didn’t we?” Ryshad kissed my hair. “And we didn’t know what we were facing, nor yet have magic to back us, not after Shiv got that smack on the head.”
I turned my face to him, dim in the darkness. “Geris or Aiten didn’t get out.”
“Geris didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body, from what you’ve told me, nor yet a suspicious one.” Ryshad cleared his throat. “So he never stood a chance. Ait, poor bastard, he was just cursed unlucky.” He sighed. “But he always said if the dawn turns up your death runes, there’s nothing to be done about it.”
“I prefer to make my own luck,” I muttered.
Ryshad hugged me close. “We know what we’re dealing with and we’ve got Shiv, Sorgrad and ’Gren to back us.”
“Yes, we have.” I craned my head back to kiss his bristly cheek. “You need a shave.”
“In the morning,” he yawned. “Now go to sleep.”
Since there was nothing else I could do, I did.
Shernasekke, Islands of the Elietimm,
2nd of For-Summer
With everyone agreed that Ilkehan must die, we’d woken to a day of ceaseless activity that somehow managed to be incredibly tedious. By the time we were standing between Larissa and Allin, with Usara and Shiv discussing who should act as focus for their nexus of magic, all I felt was relief that we were finally leaving. That was before I remembered just how revolting it felt to be flung across the leagues by wizardry. I can’t begin to describe the solace of gravel crunching beneath my boots. I ground my feet just to hear the noise again. A few deep breaths helped settle my stomach and the painful ringing in my ears faded to be replaced by a soft murmur of surf. I knuckled my eyes to try and clear the yellow flashes obscuring my vision.
“Are you all right?” Ryshad steadied me with concerned hands.
“Just about,” I said with some irritation. “You seem fine.” He grinned sympathetically. “I don’t get seasick either.” I looked round for the others. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Sorgrad said absently, deep in thought about something.
I managed a slight smile. “How long before you work out that trick?”
“Give me time,” winked Sorgrad.
“Don’t try translocation without me or ’Sar around,” Shiv told him seriously. “Not until you get the hang of it. With a dual affinity, you’ll end up—”
“Why are we waiting for someone to come and cut our throats for us?” demanded ’Gren impatiently.
Ryshad looked around the rocky beach. “Let’s find some cover.”
There was precious little on offer. Dark rubble was strewn over sands the colour of wood ash, the grey sea lapping the shallow shore. Slews of stinking weed tangled between the boulders, hiding hollows and pits to sink the unwary up to their knees. Out to sea, the mists of the late afternoon blurred the line between water and sky. They could have been hiding a double handful of ships for all I could tell. We had to get off this exposed shore.
Ryshad headed for a scar worn by feet, human or animal, where the pebbles rolled up beneath a sharply undercut bank topped with a stretch of dusty green turf. We all looked cautiously over to see a stretch of scrubby grassland running up to a steep ridge of broken rock. Greater heights beyond were blunt and sere and, even in this first half of summer, topped with a rime of white that could only be snow. These dismal islands felt half a world away from the rich lushness of Suthyfer, even if Temar’s charts said different.
“Does this look familiar?” Sorgrad shifted the satchel he wore to his other shoulder.
“Yes.” I’d have laughed in the face of anyone who’d told me I’d come back to these islands. But here I was and, worse, it was my own god-cursed idea.
“Close enough, Shiv.” Ryshad grinned at the mage whose answering smile betrayed his relief.
“Come on.”
’Gren was already on the top of the bank, looking in all directions, dagger ready.
“We want to bear that way.” Shiv had a map, thanks to Pered’s assiduous work with pen and ink all morning while the three of us scoured every memory of our previous visit here. ”That village is over yonder, so hoods up.”
Ryshad and I obliged while Sorgrad ostentatiously ran a hand over his own golden head. “Try to look like we belong, ’Gren.”
“For the moment,” Gren chuckled with happy anticipation.
“Let’s not get close enough for anyone to wonder.” I didn’t imagine there were too many redheads hereabouts and we didn’t want anyone seeing we were armed, never mind Ryshad and Shiv’s dark colouring.
We moved off and, away from the scour of the wind, I saw summer had swathed the few stunted trees in leaves. “There’s barely enough forage for an unfussy donkey,” I said uneasily to Ryshad. “We should have brought more food.”
“Carrying too much will just get us noticed.” He continued scanning the flat plain.
“Don’t worry,” Sorgrad smiled. “We’ll be honoured guests before nightfall and fed to suit.”
“What was that?”
’Gren halted and we all stood still.
I heard a faint scrabbling and what could have been a warning voice, muffled and incomprehensible. “Where’s that coming from?” A faint shiver ran down my spine.
Sorgrad dropped to his knees and we all did the same.
“What are you doing?” he said, surprised.
“The same as you,” I told him tartly. “Why?”
He nodded to a hole in the turf. “Whatever’s making your noise is down there.”
“That’d be a tight fit for a hungry rabbit.” Ryshad got up, brushing fine, dusty earth from his breeches. “I don’t think we need worry.” Wary amusement lessened the tension in the air.