Noon came and the shifting wind carried us tantalising scents of cooking fish.
'I'm starving,' Aiten groaned. 'Smell that!'
He looked at me speculatively. 'I don't suppose there's any chance you could slip down and lift us something?'
'Be serious!' I spared him a rueful look. 'I'd stick out like a eunuch in a brothel.'
'I thought the whole point about eunuchs was they didn't stick out, not in brothels or anywhere else,' Aiten grinned.
'Will you two be quiet,' Shiv hissed, unamused. I suppose this wasn't the most appropriate time for silly jokes.
'Look over there!' Ryshad was still studying the village and we all followed his gaze. A group of men had gathered on the landward side of the houses and were loading up with packs heavy enough to make me wince even at this distance.
'Let's follow them.'
We worked our way carefully round the stone ridge that encircled the little settlement, looking down on the men as they formed themselves into an orderly line and headed off up the coast. We kept roughly parallel with them and found ourselves moving into a flatter, less rocky stretch of land. Cover became more scarce again and we had to sprint from stone walls to ditches cut in the close-cropped turf, trusting Shiv's magic to keep any casual gaze sliding over us.
There was a delay when the pack-men reached a river where yet more people were out on the estuary mud, dealing with nets fixed to catch fish brought up by the tides. A cliff rose high on the far side; small figures on the ledges gathered eggs from the nests of the seabirds who were shrieking their indignation and attacking with beak and claws. I shivered. That was an ungodly climb to attempt on damp rocks, with your hands busy and birds shitting on your head.
We waited until our pack-men were safely over and then picked our way cautiously over the wet sands, Shiv leading the way to keep us out of hidden pools. My boots kept out the water, but we were all getting thoroughly cold now and I was relieved to see we were heading inland once we'd crossed the river. Hills rose to give shelter from the wind and we hit a levelled road, which made the going much easier, although we still had to dash for the cover of the scrubby bushes which lined the route whenever Shiv's questing magic revealed that somebody was approaching.
As, on one of these occasions, I sat sucking a hand skinned by the vicious thorns of the local vegetation, I noticed something on one of the stone posts that marked out the road. It was a crude device of lines and angles set in a square. Where had I seen that before? Had it been on the fishing boats? I'd thought it was just decoration.
We moved on and, now I'd noticed it, I spotted the emblem on all the road posts. I was so busy wondering what it could signify that I nearly walked straight into Ryshad's back when we turned a curve in the road to be greeted by a cluster of buildings. The pack-men had arrived at a compound. A large house stood two storeys high in the centre, surrounded by a high wall lined with smaller buildings. It was as busy as the village we had just left but the buildings were not nearly so crammed together; I guessed space meant wealth in a place where every scrap of usable land had to be tilled. A slab carved with the emblem I had been following was set high above the gate, where brown-liveried guards stood alert.
'Looks like we've found the chief's house,' I murmured, moving next to Ryshad.
He was looking around with a frown. 'It's not a very defensible site. Attackers could get on this high ground and simply pour rocks or arrows in.'
'You don't know what magic defences they've got,' Shiv remarked, a reminder I could have done without.
We crouched in a secluded niche in the rocks and watched as the pack-men waited patiently in line. None of them sat down or slipped off their packs. They just stood until they were called forward to have their loads taken by men from the compound. People were busy in stores and workshops; I heard the ringing hammer strokes of a smith at work and there was another sound that I couldn't place until I saw men dusted with flour carrying sacks out of a low building. What was missing was any sound of water or sign of smoke from a forge.
'How are they powering a mill?' I whispered to Shiv.
He frowned and closed his eyes, hands spread flat on the rocks. Confusion wrinkled his brow for a moment then he opened his eyes. 'Heat is coming up from under the ground, hot water too, and steam. They're using that somehow.'
We looked at each other, wide-eyed; these people were certainly inventive.
'Fire mountains must have made these islands,' Ryshad breathed. 'Like the Archipelago, after all.'
The line of pack-men shuffled forward and I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. A man was making some sort of list on a wooden tablet and I watched him carefully; we wanted information so I wanted to see where this particular piece was taken. Eventually he put a cover over his list and headed for the main house, entering without challenge or ceremony.
'Do you think you can get in?' Ryshad passed me the spy-glass and I studied the settlement.
'If all I have to worry about are the walls and the windows, it'll be no problem.' I turned to look at Shiv. 'Have you any way of telling if there are magic defences?'
He shrugged helplessly. 'Nothing elemental, but I can't say if there's anything aetheric.'
I frowned. 'I don't mind taking risks but I prefer to do it when I know I'm after something worth the gamble.'
Ryshad got the obvious question out just ahead of me. 'Can you tell if any of the things you had stolen are in there?'
Shiv held up a hand, already rummaging in his pack for his scrying oils. 'Let's see.'
We kept up our watch while Shiv muttered and gestured over his little silver bowl, all magelight extinguished for safety's sake. Finally he tapped me on the back and I wriggled back to his side.
'I think I've found some of Darni's books, a couple of volumes of a history by Weral Tandri. They're in a study of some kind, I think it's on the far side, top floor.'
'Any sign of Geris?' I asked, hoping vainly for a win on this first throw of the runes.
Shiv shook his head with a sigh. 'None.'
'Any areas shielded like the boat?' Ryshad looked back over his shoulder.
'No, I was able to scan the whole place.'
'Could you show me the inside? It would make things a lot quicker when I go in.'
Shiv looked reluctant. 'I'd rather not, if you think you can manage. A quick scan is one thing, a detailed survey takes time and power. Remember, those people at the lake were able to pick me out as the magic-user so I suspect they have some way of detecting elemental magic, even if we can't pick out theirs.'
Sadly, I had to agree with his reasoning.
'If there are no shields, I'd say there are less likely to be any aetheric defences,' Ryshad said encouragingly. I raised my eyebrows at him and gave him a sceptical look; it was a pretty thin argument but I suppose it was better than nothing.
So we sat and waited the rest of the day out, getting bored, cramped and hungry. Ballads about great adventures leave out an ungodly amount, I decided. When was the last time you heard a minstrel put in a few verses about his hero getting bored rigid waiting for something to happen, or soaking wet in a rainstorm? Well, at least we didn't have that problem; I nearly remarked on it to Ryshad but decided, given the luck we'd been having on this particular quest, that would just be too much like tempting Dastennin.
The Guest-house at the Shrine of Ostrin,
Bremilayne, 1st of Far-Winter
Darni vented his irritation on the handle and the bell jangled frantically.
'Organise some lunch,' he snapped over his shoulder at the startled acolyte opening it.