'Good afternoon, do forgive my associate.' Casuel made a hasty bow and hurried past. Esquire Camarl followed slowly, his expression thoughtful.
'What's wrong?' Allin asked, nervously clutching her sewing as the three men shed cloaks damp from the persistent drizzle.
Darni began pacing. 'We can't find a single captain willing to go out on to the ocean with us.'
Casuel looked gloomily at a list of names. 'We've been given every excuse from the state of the currents to the dangers of sea-serpents.'
'I must confess that I am getting a little tired of being treated like an idiot by men who smell of seaweed.' Camarl ran a hand through hair sticky with wind-blown salt.
'They're just cowards,' Darni spat.
'No, just cautious, and rightly so at this season.' The Esquire shook his head. 'We're asking these men to risk their lives.'
A sudden gust rattled the window as if to emphasise his point.
'We're offering them enough coin!' Darni dropped heavily into a chair. 'Why can't Messire D'Olbriot just order one of them to take us?'
'They are his clients and many sail in boats he owns.' Faint irritation tinged Camarl's voice. 'However, they make their own decisions and Messire has neither the means nor the desire to coerce them.'
'We've got to get a boat organised before Planir's people arrive.' Darni's frustration drove him to his feet once more.
Camarl looked at Casuel, who was sitting morosely hugging his ribs. 'Do you know when that is likely to be, Esquire Devoir?'
Casuel shook his head tiredly. 'They've got to get a crossing from Hadrumal and that's always a problem in winter. They should make good time overland through Lescar though -there won't be any fighting at this season.'
'The roads are going to be in an unholy state at this rime of year.' Darni was not mollified. 'Shiv and the others could be in all kinds of danger.'
'Alternatively, they could be heading home as we speak.' Camarl frowned. 'I would not land on an unknown shore without means of escape. Surely they will have retained their vessel?'
'I don't suppose it's occurred to Shivvalan to worry about how to get back again,' Casuel muttered sourly.
'Do you know what's been happening to your friends?' Allin finished her neat darn and bit off her thread.
'Well, Cas? You've been scrying them, haven't you?' Darni loomed over the table at him.
'Not as such, not since the last time you asked and they were still on that boat.' There was a defensive edge to Casuel's indignation.
'Do I have to tell you to do everything?' Darni threw up his hands in disgust.
'You've been telling me to bespeak Hadrumal at every new chime,' Casuel retorted with a flash of spirit. 'How do you expect me to have the energy for anything else?'
'Show some initiative, Saedrin curse you!' Darni's voice was beginning to rise.
Allin hurried to answer a knock on the door, revealing a startled maid.
'The Esquire asked for tisanes.' She bobbed a nervous curtsey.
'Thank you.' Camarl watched the girl place her tray on the table and scurry out.
'I don't think arguing with each other is going to prove very productive,' he observed as he reached for a tisane ball, spooning tiny amounts of dried herbs from the little china bowls on the tray. He snapped the hinged sphere shut with a decisive click. 'I will talk to my uncle and see if he can think of any other mariners we could approach.'
Camarl placed the pierced silver ball in a cup and added hot water from the jug.
'I really don't want to spread our business about any more than we've had to already.' Darni reached for a cup. 'We know these blondies have been in this part of the country. Who's to say they haven't still got spies here?'
'There aren't any yellow-haired people around at the moment.' Allin spoke up unexpectedly. She put her mending aside and began to make herself a tisane.
'How do you know that?' Darni looked at her, bemused.
'I've been talking to the maids.' Allin coloured and pushed her tisane ball around in her cup. 'I said my mother's looking to buy some fair hair for a wig and I asked them to let me know if they saw anyone with really pale hair. I said it didn't matter if it was a woman or a man, because I could always ask a man if he had a sister who might be willing to sell her hair, if she was getting married soon.'
She peeped up through her eyelashes to see the three men looking at her, their expressions ranging from Casuel's irritated disbelief to Darni's surprised approval.
'I just wanted to do something to help.' Allin hid her face in her cup as she sipped her fragrant drink.
'I've spoken to you before about gossiping with maidservants—' Casuel began heatedly.
'Oh shut up, Cas, and make yourself a tisane.' Darni shoved the tray towards him.
'What if she's put us all at risk of discovery?'
'You know, you—' Darni caught sight of Camarl's politely disdainful face and clearly changed his mind about what he was going to say. 'If you were any wetter, you'd have ducks landing on your head, Cas.'
Allin grinned and Camarl rubbed a hand over a sudden smile. Casuel busied himself making a drink, filled with sudden longing for his mother's elegant sitting-room and her tisane tray, complete with everything to the same design, new from the silversmith last Solstice. He was accustomed to better than this collection of mismatched antiques, he sulked.
Esquire Camarl coughed. 'If there's no word of our adversaries, that's one worry that we can leave simmering on the hearth. However, I do think it would be useful to find out what Ryshad and your friends are doing. Esquire Devoir, are you sufficiently rested to attempt a “scrying”, I think you called it?'
The urge to withhold his talents out of sheer spite warred with Casuel's desire to ingratiate himself with such a potentially influential gentleman.
'I can try, but I am very tired,' he said after a pause.
'Thank you.' Camarl made him a courteous bow.
Casuel rubbed his hands. 'I need a broad, flat bowl and cold water.'
Allin hurried off obediently to obtain them.
'Do you have anything that belonged to Shiv or that woman?' Casuel went on. 'I'll need something to focus on, working at this range.'
Darni rummaged in his pocket. 'Here.' He handed Casuel a rune-bone. 'I took this off Livak when some Dalasorian goatherders were getting a bit irritated with her.'
'What's he doing?' the Esquire whispered to Allin as they watched Casuel place the oddly heavy rune in the bowl and add water, leaning over and drawing a deep breath which he instantly regretted as pain lanced through his ribs.
'He's going to bring an image to the water, of the people you're looking for, a sort of reflection.' She watched closely.
'Can you do this?' Camarl was intrigued.
'Not yet. But I'll learn.' Allin's eyes were bright with determination.
'Can I have a little silence?' Casuel snapped.
Dull green light gradually gathered at the bottom of the bowl, growing brighter and clearer as it rose towards the surface of the water. It shone up into Casuel's drawn features and flickered, casting strange shadows against the bones of his face.
'That's got it!' Casuel set his jaw determinedly and hung on to the image grimly. 'They've landed, anyway.'
Darni, Allin and Camarl leaned forward eagerly to see a jumbled vista of grey rocks.
'There,' Darni said after a long moment. 'In that hollow.'
Camarl scanned the image. 'They're hiding, but I can't see from what.'
'Geris isn't with them.' Darni's voice was heavy with disappointment.
Allin drew her shawl around her shoulders unconsciously. 'It looks very gloomy and cold.'
Camarl nodded. 'The question is, are they much further north or simply a very great distance further east?'
'Show us some more, Cas,' Darni commanded.