‘Gold? I thought the Resistance’s coffers were empty.’
‘They are.’
‘This is your own money?’ Caldason raised his eyebrows.
‘I’ve never seen you look bashful before, Zahgadiah,’ Serrah told Darrok.
‘Shut up,’ he replied, his cheeks colouring.
‘It seems you’re growing more partial to the cause every day,’ Caldason said.
‘It’s on loan. I expect it back if you don’t use it.’
‘That’s generous. Thank you.’
‘Don’t go all mushy on me, Reeth, I couldn’t stand that. Just look after my damn gold.’
‘As far as the sorcerer fraternity’s concerned,’ Phoenix volunteered, ‘we’ll be supplying some magical protection, and a small armoury of munitions. Not a lot, but as much as we can spare.’
‘Appreciate it,’ Caldason responded. ‘Though I feel happier with a good length of tempered steel any day.’
‘You don’t know what you’re going to meet out there. You’re searching for Founder artefacts, remember, and we have no real idea what might be defending them. You need all the safeguards you can get.’
‘Who’s going to be on board to handle the magic?’
‘I’d like it to be me. Unfortunately that’s a little too much for the Council to swallow. They say I’m needed here to direct the island’s magical defences. The same goes for the other sorcerers we have, given how pitifully few our numbers are.’
‘So who, then?’
‘Kutch.’
‘Whoa. That’s a hell of a responsibility for the boy. No offence, Kutch.’
‘I can do it, Reeth,’ the apprentice protested. ‘Phoenix has been training me. You said I could go anyway, so I might as well make myself useful. I can help keep us out of trouble.’
‘And who’s going to keep trouble from bothering you?’
‘I will,’ Serrah stated. ‘I’ll keep an eye on Kutch; you concentrate on the search.’
‘Got it all worked out, haven’t you?’
‘Yes. You know how scarce resources are. It’s a miracle we got the Council to agree to this venture at all. The trade-off is that you’ve got to take what’s on offer, like you said about this ship.’
Caldason grinned. ‘Looks like I haven’t got much choice.’
‘Too right. Live with it.’
‘I hate to inject a note of hard reality into this,’ Phoenix interrupted, ‘but you do realise this is probably all academic, don’t you?’
‘I know it won’t be easy,’ Caldason said, his attitude sobering.
‘Let’s look at exactly what that means, shall we? Covenant, and some other scholars of the noble art, believe the ancients left a store of knowledge which we call the Source, although it’s unlikely that’s what the Founders themselves called it. Assuming it’s a reality and not just conjecture, we don’t know what it is or if it survived.’
‘I’ve heard all this.’
‘It bears repeating. We think the Source is connected in some way to the Clepsydra. Not that we really know what that is either. We have a hunch, which we dignify by calling it a theory, based on incomplete fragments of Founder lore open to many interpretations, as to roughly where these mysteries might be hidden. We have no idea what might be defending them. And if the Source should ever be discovered we’re far from certain we could understand it, let alone make use of it.’
‘Those sound like the kind of odds I’m used to.’
Phoenix frowned. ‘There’s no call to be flippant about this, Caldason.’
‘I was never more serious. However slim the chance, for me and for what’s left of the Resistance, I’m going to take it.’
‘Very well. In which case I can perhaps offer a little help in narrowing down the possible location you seek.’
Using his forefinger, the wizard swiftly drew a shimmering rectangle in the air, then made a hand gesture. The oblong began to fill with colours and shapes before clarifying to an expanse of blue-green overlaid with innumerable specks.
‘This is the area of the ocean where we suspect the Clepsydra isle’s located,’ Phoenix explained. ‘Over the past few months my colleagues and I have been extensively researching such records as we have to try and pinpoint the site more accurately. We haven’t met with complete success. Far from it. And let me caution you again that what we’re doing is highly theoretical and could be wrong-headed. But we believe we can reduce the options…so.’ He touched the glamour map near its top right-hand corner, where the specks were most numerous. Instantly, the chart dissolved, to be replaced by a close-up of the section he’d indicated. The specks had grown to blobs with more definable, irregular shapes. ‘Our best guess is that what you seek lies within this cluster.’
‘That’s, what? Forty, fifty islands?’ Caldason estimated.
‘Approximately, yes. Still a sizeable number but nowhere near the hundreds making up the entire group.’
‘How big are they?’ Pallidea wondered, gazing at the floating chart.
‘The largest are no more than about a tenth of the size of the Diamond Isle. The majority are much smaller, and some are little more than rocks. Which may have some bearing on your search, Reeth, if we were to assume the very smallest are the least likely locations. But of course, not knowing what form the Source or indeed the Clepsydra takes, we can’t necessarily make that assumption.’
‘Well, it’s some help I suppose,’ Caldason said.
‘I’ll see that your skipper has a copy of this,’ Phoenix promised. He waved his hand. The map faded to golden embers, and died, leaving a sulphurous whiff in the brittle air.
‘Things seem to be progressing well,’ Darrok judged. ‘At this rate you’ll be able to set off pretty soon, Reeth. Or at least once we’ve done something about Rukanis.’
‘I should have asked before, I suppose, but I hope my absence won’t hinder your being able to deal with the pirates.’
‘I think we’ll manage without you for a while,’ Darrok responded dryly. ‘After all, I’ve been defending this place for quite a few years already. Without any outside help.’
‘Ouch,’ Serrah mouthed.
‘Besides,’ Darrok went on, ‘I’ve unfinished business with Vance, as you know, and I think it’s something I’d rather like to settle personally.’
‘That I can understand,’ Caldason granted.
‘So I reckon the best thing we can do now is-’
‘What the hell is that?’ Serrah pointed inland.
They all looked to a patch of level grassland beyond the beach. A strange contraption was slowly making its way across the sward. It was an open wagon, unremarkable in itself, except that it lacked shafts or a horse to pull it. Somebody clad in blue robes sat in the driver’s seat, but with their hands in their lap, having no need of reins.
‘Ah,’ Phoenix said. ‘That’s Frakk, a sorcerer who escaped here from Bhealfa. An independent; not a Covenant member or anything.’
‘But what’s he doing?’ Serrah wanted to know.
‘Testing a very ingenious idea. A carriage powered by magical essence. In fact, he could be the only person who fled here not out of conviction but pique.’
‘What?’
‘He tried to get various people interested in it back in Bhealfa. He even approached the paladins with the contraption. Apparently demonstrated it for the Bastorrans themselves, no less. They treated it as a joke and subjected him to public humiliation, and very nearly a whipping. He was so outraged he threw in his lot with the Resistance and brought the idea to us.’
‘It’s weird.’
‘But clever,’ Darrok said. ‘One of those notions that seems so simple you wonder why nobody thought of it before. Phoenix here has been helping with some modifications.’
‘Yes,’ the wizard confirmed. ‘It used to run on a store of magical energy carried on board. Now were getting it to run by drawing its motive force directly from the power grid.’
‘I thought it was original enough to warrant the allocation of some resources,’ Darrok explained.
‘It’s certainly original,’ Caldason agreed, watching as the device bumped across its muddy field. ‘But what are we going to use it for?’
Darrok shrugged. ‘Damned if I know.’
13