'Perhaps,' Kheda echoed with distinctly less optimism.
Risala was still wide-eyed. 'How many others have flown for the Archipelago? Can you tell what happened to the white one you made, that ate the blue sky dragon's heart?'
'I thought they'd go into the northern wilds to find
uncontaminated focuses of elemental power ...' Words failed Velindre.
Kheda closed his eyes and took a long, slow breath. 'Can you find out, without risking yourself?'
'As long as I'm ready to shatter the spell if it's subsumed into a dragon's magic again.' Naldeth stared into the empty bowl. 'We had better discuss all the possible tactics we might use against dragons of every colour,' the younger wizard said suddenly. 'And bespeak Planir and every other wizard we trust in Hadrumal, be they friend or rival, and seek their advice. The Council must insist that everyone share any relevant learning they can dig out of the libraries.'
'The time for keeping this all as our little secret has obviously passed.' Velindre was plainly not sorry about that.
'I share some measure of responsibility for all this.' Kheda took Risala's hand and held it tight. 'I had better come with you, when you find out where that beach is.'
'You'll come and help me fight a dragon again?' Velindre tried to sound incredulous. 'Even when it's not in Chazen, or anywhere close by the looks of things?'
'You'll need someone to help you convince the lord and people of whatever domain that might be that you're able to help them.' Kheda glanced at Risala, wordlessly beseeching.
She nodded resolutely, not even seeing his appeal as she looked at Velindre. 'If anyone suspects you're a mage, you'll just see your own hide flayed from your back and nailed to a gate in hopes that will be enough to deter the beast.'
Velindre closed her eyes as a tear glistened behind her lashes. 'I can scry for dragons with an air or a water affinity. Naldeth, if I work the scrying with you, can you look for those tied to fire and earth?'
'I'll help you scry for them but I don't think I'm going back with you to fight them.' His words stunned them all to silence. 'Someone has to stay here and I don't see that I have any choice.' Naldeth's voice strengthened, determined. 'I started all this. I have to see it through.'
'See what through?' Velindre shifted to look severely at him.
Naldeth met her gaze without flinching. 'The mageborn here will be incapable of working magic for a good long while, but sooner or later the echoes of these eruptions will finally die away. Instinctive magic will spark fires when someone's angry or freeze the water in the cup they're holding, just like some apprentice back on the mainland who's over-ready to be sent to Hadrumal. Once that happens, they'll soon stumble into some more powerful spellcraft. You know that.'
'What happens then?' Velindre asked brusquely. 'What will you do?'
'Won't that depend on the people here?' Kheda said tentatively.
'What do you suppose they will do?' Naldeth challenged him. 'Will they have become sufficiently used to living without magical tyranny that they'll refuse to bow their heads to someone crowning himself with feathers or cloaking himself in some lizard's hide because he's discovered some inborn prowess? What if the dragons come back when the elemental confusion subsides? Will the whole sorry system that kept these people in their ignorance and filth simply be resurrected? A generation or more will have to die before all those customs are forgotten.'
Distress flickered across his face. 'Or do you suppose the people will be so determined not to be enslaved again that they will kill all the mageborn — those they know were guilty of abusing them in the past and any others, however young or innocent, that they fear might grow to
be tyrants? They have some way of telling the mageborn from the mundane, we know that much. Do you suppose there are enough of those painted caves to hold all the bodies?'
'I don't know.' The bitter memory of the slaughter the scarred spearman had ordered soured Kheda's stomach. 'But how will you help them, when you don't speak their language or understand their lives?'
'I'll find ways around that.' Naldeth looked at Velindre. 'There will be innocent mageborn here and we're always told that all wizards have a responsibility for all others.'
She looked troubled. 'That's usually in the context of one mage making sure another doesn't misuse his magic to the detriment of all wizardry.'
'Who else is going to teach innocent mageborn here not to follow in the corrupt practices of their forebears?' Naldeth's resolve was unshakeable. 'I'll have an advantage over them long enough to be sure of that.'
'Do you think the Archmage will approve?' Velindre plainly had her doubts.
'Do you want to try explaining to him that we've left mageborn here to either be slaughtered or sucked into a life dependent on abusing their affinity?' Naldeth took a moment to consider his next words carefully. 'Don't you think he will have concerns, when some of the wizards currently on the Council learn of this island and the elements that underpin it? When they learn there have been dragons here, with all the potential power that implies? I'm sure you'll find plenty willing to join you in establishing whether or not more dragons have flown to the Archipelago but there'll be some who'd rather make their way here, if they think there'll be no one to see what they do.'
'I can think of at least two,' Velindre said reluctantly, 'who I really don't trust.'
'If I'm here, there can't be any clandestine visits.' Naldeth gestured vaguely towards the wreckage of his metal leg. 'Not when I can bespeak Planir at a moment's notice with steel and magefire.'
'That might well be advisable,' Velindre agreed slowly.
'What if the dragons come back?' Kheda said sharply. 'They'll see you as a rival, won't they?'
'Then I'll have no qualms about calling for the Archmage's help, and that of any other wizard I can bespeak.' Naldeth smiled humourlessly. 'That will be no time for pride.'
'I see you're quite set on this.' Kheda held out his hand to the young mage. 'Then I won't argue with you. But you should be proud of yourself. This is a courageous choice.'
Naldeth clasped the warlord's hand. 'I don't imagine pursuing dragons through the Archipelago will be any task for a coward.'
'With any luck, there'll only be the one,' the mage-woman ventured. 'I'm sure the others will have flown north to find the purer elements.'
'I've given up trusting to luck.' Kheda looked at Velindre. 'Have you any idea at all how long it will be before you've recovered your magic sufficiently to get us home? You mustn't risk it until you're quite certain,' he added hastily.
'I won't,' she promised fervently. 'But no, I don't know how soon that will be. I'm sorry.'
'What can't be cured must be endured,' Risala said quietly. 'That's what the healers say.'
'And as Naldeth pointed out, we can make our plans while we wait,' Kheda said resolutely.
Risala looked at him. 'Will you look for omens in the heavenly compass tonight, please, just for me? You don't know what you might see.'
Kheda nodded slowly.
If it can't help, it can't hurt. That's something else that healers say, when they have precious little idea what they 're actually doing.
And the compass will turn full circle as we go back to the Archipelago. Where will that leave me, always assuming I don't finally end up in a dragon's belly?
It will leave me doing the task that's before me, as always. But what will I do once that task's done? Perhaps it's time to look beyond it. My life has certainly swung far out of the paths I always assumed I would follow.