'He's all right. Anyway, Shiv, one of the rest of us should have thought of it as much as you.'
Satisfied, I returned to my notes. 'Listen. There's something here we should try. It's described as a concealment, a way of hiding your tracks.'
'What use is that on water?' Ryshad frowned.
'I don't think it means real tracks but whatever it is that the aetheric spell casters pick up on.' I scowled at the document. 'I'm pretty sure that's what it signifies.'
Aiten shrugged. 'Can't hurt to try it.'
I cleared my throat a little self-consciously and ran through the words silently to find their metre.
'Ar mel sidith, ranel marclenae.' I chanted the words but nothing seemed to happen.
'Has it worked?' Ryshad asked curiously.
I felt more than a little foolish. 'I've no idea.'
There was nothing anyone could say to that. We settled down for a tedious afternoon watching grey waves rolling up to meet a grey sky as the boat scooted over the billows. We were all starting to look and feel more than a little grey ourselves by the end of the day.
I hadn't realised I'd fallen asleep but it was morning when Shiv patted me on the shoulder and I blinked up at him, disconcerted.
'Look, my magic's working anyway!'
I turned to see some enormous fish leaping clean out of the water as they headed straight for us. I swallowed my instant of fear when I saw the smile on Shiv's face and wondered what on earth, or in this case, in the ocean, these could be.
'Dastennin's hounds!' Aiten greeted the creatures with a glad cry and I saw Ryshad was smiling broadly as well so I bit down hard on my own nervousness.
The huge fish frolicked around the nose of the boat and I had to admit they had very friendly faces; long, almost beak-like snouts with engagingly curved mouths. They made peculiar squeaking noises as they reared out of the water to look at Shiv and I saw their mouths were full of effective-looking teeth. I told myself not to worry until the others did but could not help jumping when one surfaced next to me and showered me with warm, fetid spray from a hole in its head.
I tried to restrain myself but I had to ask. 'What are they?'
Shiv looked round from feeding a large one. 'They're dolphins, sea animals, like the whale, but smaller.'
I looked at the sleek bodies thronging the waters, triangular fins cutting through the foam.
'You called them?'
Shiv nodded. 'They can tell me a lot about the waters we're in. I need to know when we're going to reach that main current heading south for a start; crossing that's going to take every scrap of power I've got. If we hit it before I realise, we could find ourselves taken right past the Cape of Winds without knowing it.'
'I think proving there's one new continent is enough for this trip.' Ryshad reached over the side to rub an inquisitive head.
'What did you call them?' I was getting more used to the cheerful creatures but kept my hands well inside the vessel.
'Dastennin's hounds. They're sacred to him.' Aiten was feeding them scraps as well. 'They're supposed to be able to travel between here and the Otherworld whenever they want to, not just in dreams or death.'
A cheerful face popped out of the water and looked at me with a convincing air of intelligence.
I bowed and addressed it in formal tones. 'If you've any way of reaching Dastennin or any of the gods, please ask them to get us home.'
The others smiled but no one laughed. As Aiten had said, it couldn't hurt to try.
I gaped as the creatures abruptly ceased their antics and all dived deep into the waters; I looked questioningly at Shiv.
'I've sent them to find out where we are in relation to the currents around about,' he explained. 'They're going to come back from time to time and make sure we're keeping on course.'
He pointed to the unbroken cloud cover above us, the monotony of the heaving ocean and did not need to explain further. I ate a breakfast of cold, raw fish without enthusiasm and wondered how we were going to survive an ocean crossing in an open boat on such a diet.
Shivering involuntarily and not just from the cold wind, I huddled back down into the meagre shelter afforded by the sides of the boat. I glanced over at Gold-throat and saw a studying look in his dark brown eyes. I had seen that look before and the memory chilled me more thoroughly than wind or water. He met my gaze and hatred burned in those black depths, spitting furious, helpless fire as I lunged desperately over the seat to knock him clean out with a blow to the jaw. I can't usually do that, not even to a bound man, but the fistful of gold and silver rings I'd taken from the keep lent a lot of weight to my argument.
'Livak!' Everyone was staring at me as I wrung my hands to ease my stinging knuckles.
'It wasn't him,' I stammered. 'It wasn't him. Those weren't his eyes; his are green, I was seeing brown, nearly black. It was that bastard, the Ice-man, the one from the keep, his father or whoever he is.'
We all looked uneasily at the motionless body and I wondered how much damage I had done with that punch; you just never can tell and that's got more than a few men hanged.
'The leader, the man who interrogated us, he was looking out through this one's eyes?' Ryshad asked after a long silence.
I nodded emphatically. 'I'm sure of it.'
'So he knows where we are?'
'I've no idea.' I shrugged. 'I just didn't want him looking at me like that.'
'Perhaps we should drop this one over the side,' Shiv said dubiously.
'If they are going to catch up with us, he could be the price for our freedom,' Ryshad reminded him.
Aiten half turned, opening his mouth as if to speak, but said nothing as a puzzled expression crossed his face. He blinked and as I looked at him, I saw the light of his genial brown eyes snuffed out like a candle. Dead blackness looked back at me as his face went slack and unknowing.
'Ait!' I screamed in horror as I dodged a sword blow that would have split my skull like a turnip. I fell backwards on to my bottom, which saved me from the follow-up.
Shiv was moving but was a fraction too slow and the next slashing down stroke bit hard into his arm, snapping the bone like a dead branch. He screamed; I braced myself on the seat and kicked out with both my feet to send whatever had been Aiten just moments before stumbling back down the vessel.
Blue light flared all around me as Shiv pulled me backwards through a spell woven from pure instinct. As the dazzle cleared, I felt a wall of air protecting us.
'Ryshad, he's got Ait, the bastard's got into his head.'
Ryshad had not waited to be told before grabbing his blade but the thing that had been Aiten was already turning to face him, sword rising.
They stood poised in a moment's stillness but when the Ice-man made his move, he did not send Aiten's sword at Ryshad; he had him drive it down right through the bottom of the boat, slicing through the oil-hardened leather like calico.
'You bastard!' Shiv spat as he clutched his shattered arm. He grimaced in pain, gasping with the effort, but I saw a tangle of green lines knit the gash in the hides together again, keeping us afloat for the moment.
I cut my sleeve free and sliced it into crude bandages for Shiv's arm. Blood was streaming down his fingers to mingle with the water sloshing around our feet.
'Let me to it,' I ordered curtly.
Shiv moved his hand, I clamped the linen down hard on the spouting gash. He whimpered with the pain and I cursed helplessly.
'Ait, Ait, fight it, throw the bastard out, fight him.'
There was agony in his voice as I looked up to see Ryshad's sword come up to meet Aiten's, a clash that raised sparks from the blades.
I watched with horror knotting my guts as the puppet that bastard Ice-man had made of his friend continued to lash out at Ryshad. There was none of Aiten's usual finesse; the strokes were signalled like those of a first-season militia recruit and I prayed that this meant Ait was fighting to regain control inside his own skull.
Ryshad's face was twisted
with pain and I saw blood on his shirt. I watched with a sinking feeling as I saw Ryshad was not attacking; his sword strokes were all purely defensive. As the Ice-man tightened his hold on Aiten and drew on more of his skills, Ryshad was too slow to respond. Fear of hurting his friend was paralysing him, dooming him.
It was going to have to be me. If Ryshad went down, I could not take on the experience of a trained warrior face to face, whoever was controlling his mind. Shiv was barely conscious now and I shied away from imagining what might happen if he lost control of his spells.
I drew a dagger and moved to the edge of Shiv's barrier, glancing anxiously behind me as I did so. Shiv nodded, face taut with the effort of clinging on to consciousness, knowing what I had to do. I edged forward, as much to ensure I didn't fall out of the wildly rocking boat as to make sure I didn't alert the enemy.
Ryshad lunged forward and I was nearly trodden underfoot as Aiten staggered backwards from a blow to the face. Ryshad had hit him full with the pommel of his sword, blood blew back into my face with the sea spray. I saw the despair on Ryshad's face; that blow should have knocked Aiten clean unconscious into the Otherworld. It had to be the aetheric hold keeping him on his feet. Despair nearly cost Ryshad dear. Aiten's sword flicked forward with something like its old speed and tore a bloody rent down one arm.
I gripped my dagger and wished uselessly for some of my poisons, some of the narcotics I knew could drop a man in his tracks. There was no time. I studied Aiten's back but a heart stroke was too risky; with the boat jouncing underfoot and Aiten lunging back and forth, I chanced hitting a rib, which would be more likely fatal for me. It would have to be a blood stroke, the great vessels in neck or leg. It would drop him fast but would it be fast enough? I just had to pray Ryshad was quick enough to realise what I was doing.
Aiten's feet spread as he steadied himself in the frantically tossing boat. He went to launch a smashing blow at Ryshad's head. As he moved, so did I. Between his legs and up to the inner thigh, I sliced deep into the artery as it left the groin. He stumbled and as Ryshad saw the scarlet gush of life blood, he lunged forward to pin Aiten's arms to his side in a fierce embrace. They sank to their knees in the little boat and Aiten's struggles soon ceased. His head lolled forward on to Ryshad's breast and then sideways; I saw the blackness of possession fade from his eyes, the familiar easy brown returning to pierce my heart. His brow wrinkled faintly and he half opened his mouth as if to speak. Whatever it was went unsaid as he breathed his last in a puzzled sigh and closed his eyes like a tired child.
The agony in Ryshad's face was too much for me to bear and I closed my eyes to blot out the sight of his helpless tears for his friend.
'You bastard, you stinking arsehole, you scum-sucking son of a pox-rotted whore, you're a shit stain on the arse of the world, you'd stuff a pig for pleasure but none would have you.'
I poured out my hatred for the Ice-man in futile obscenities but got no relief. I went to open my eyes again to face the hardness of reality but found I could see nothing.
'You have quite a turn of phrase for a common slut. Still, it enabled me to find you, so I shan't complain.'
The gloom around me lightened with eerie, colourless fire and I saw the Ice-man coming slowly towards me through coiling darkness. I gasped with a terror that almost stopped my heart. What had he done? Where was I? I clutched frantically at my dagger and held it out to ward him off but it was pale and insubstantial in my hand. Shaking like a tree in a gale, I realised he had trapped me inside my own head. I don't know how I knew, I just did.
'You're very astute,' that hated voice agreed, sounding as if he were standing next to me, and I saw the lips on the image move as it floated towards me. I scowled, anger keeping terror barely at bay now the initial shock had passed. I saw the shape was indistinct, fuzzy at the edges; that gave me some measure of strength but, as I watched, it grew lighter against the blackness, more whole, more dreadful.
'I should have paid more attention to you,' he sighed. 'It's just that Geris took such pains to convince me you were nothing more than a bed-warmer, a little feminine comfort servicing him and your conjuror friend.' A revolting anticipation coloured his tone. 'I shall find a lot more to interest me in your mind and your body now I know the truth, shan't I?'
The fear of him let loose inside my mind again was beyond any terror I had known. He could do what he liked to my body; flesh heals and at worst the Otherworld beckons, but to imagine the feel of him in my very intellect again was not to be borne.
'Talmia megrala eldrin fres.' I spat the words at him and the gloom flared scarlet, the image fading for a second.
'Impudent bitch!'
I winced as a lash of pain scored through my head but I repeated the words, screaming at the top of my mind. The darkness lifted for a moment this time and I racked my brains for anything else I could use as I threw the incantation at him again and again.
'You pitiful thing. I have been inside you once, I can do it again.'
I pushed at the coils of malice that threatened to entangle me and walled my reason against him. He knew my mind but that rune reversed meant I knew his; I fought instinctively, not knowing how or why but with all the strength I could summon. What did I have to lose?
I cursed myself for just skipping over the spells in Geris' list, ignoring the unpronounceable words. What I could remember I gasped out and, gibberish though it might be, as I stumbled through the fragments, I felt the whip of his intellect deaden a little, the questing grip on the edges of my mind slipping. The rhythms spoke to memories buried deep inside me and I felt a new surge of hope.
'Marmol, edril, senil, dexil, wrem, tedren, fathen, ardren, parlen, vrek.'
I chanted out the number song of the Forest, nigh on nonsense to the Folk themselves in latter generations but still taught as my father had passed it to me. I shouted out the ancient words and then found a song naming the birds of the Forest; Raven was a game of the Folk long before the rest of the world knew it. I repeated myself over and over as I searched my childhood for meaningless words and cadences that somehow kept the nightmare that was the Ice-man from invading me again.
I could feel his wrath and, more faintly, his confusion; to him I was no more than a child sticking its fingers in its ears and singing a defiant song to drown out a parent's rebukes. It was all I could do but, as any three-year-old can tell you, it's a difficult tactic to beat.
The darkness around me retreated and the terrifying image of the Ice-man drifted for a moment like smoke in a wind. I could feel burning in my wrists and cold in my feet and redoubled my efforts as my senses told me I was still in command of my own body.
'Livak! Livak!' Ryshad's hoarse voice rang in my ears and the Ice-man's curses echoed through my mind in a last burst of fury.
My vision cleared to show me Ryshad's pain-racked face, nose to nose with me. I gasped at the pain of the vice-like grip he had on my wrists.
'Is it you?'
'My eyes are my own, aren't they?'
He stared deep into me, suspicion fading after a long, tense moment.
'It was him?'
'If he tries for you, say the fire chant, old ballads, ancient prayers, old liturgy if you know any. There's power in the words, I don't know why.'
The wind's chill was biting through me and I realised I was wringing wet with sweat, trembling and exhausted like a beast that's been running for its life. My knees buckled and I sank on to the seat, the sickly-sweet smell of blood revolting all around me as the little boat was swung hither and yon by the uncaring seas.
'Rysh? I had to, you do realise that? It wasn't him, it was that bastard who did it but it was the only way.'
I looked up as I stumbled through the broken words but Ryshad was not looking at me. Complete despair such as I have never seen, other than on the face of a man on a scaffold, filled his eyes. I turned to see what he was gaping at and, as we were carried up on a high hill of green water, I saw a thicket of masts coming out of the pale eastern
skies. Sails bellied with a full wind as they sped towards us and long pennants bearing the Ice-man's insignia licked towards us like greedy tongues.
'Trimon save us.' Shiv breathed a heartfelt oath to the god of travellers and I saw him grip the side of the little boat, white-knuckled with effort. My spirits wavered upwards as he turned the nose of the vessel and we skimmed the foaming crest of one swell, then another, then another.
'Oh, Pered,' Shiv said softly as his head sank forwards in total collapse. I lunged forward to keep him from falling clean out of the boat but though I had hold of him I dared not move again in case I upset us all completely. The boat was now broadside on to the rolling waves, rocking sideways and threatening to spill us out. Aiten's body sloshed around in the water steadily gathering around our feet; I saw we were starting to sink as Shiv's spell began to lose its radiance.
'They won't get all of us.' Ryshad moved with sudden fury and heaved the pitiful corpse over his shoulder, his friend's last blood staining his back as he dropped him into the vastness of the ocean.
'Dastennin take you, Ait. Travel well and follow his hounds to the Otherworld, where your deeds will go before you. We'll keep your memory bright here until we join you.'
He choked on the words of farewell and I reached out with my free hand. He grasped it, I held him and we clung together, wordless, helpless, hopeless.
We both jumped as our prisoner suddenly vanished, carried off by some aetheric spell I suppose but to be honest, I really didn't care. I moved to support Shiv as the boat bucked and spun with the gathering winds whipping up the seas around us and finally I wondered if we should just give ourselves up to the greedy waves to spite the Ice-man at the very last. I shivered; it was going to be a dreadful way to die.
The masts came closer and now we could see the long dark hulls of three Elietimm ships. Our boat bucked again, but the jolt did not come from the waves. Another came and I saw a lithe shape slide through the water alongside.
'Dolphins!' Ryshad looked at me with wonder as the pointed fins cut through the spume and began to push our little craft towards the west. A sleek head poked out of the water near Shiv and nodded fruitlessly at him, lunging as if wanting to touch him. I was afraid the beast was going to get us all drowned so I held out Shiv's limp hand to the questing nose.
The Thief's Gamble Page 41