Southern Fire ac-1

by Juliet E. McKenna

  'Did you let Olkai die in agony?' Caid asked abruptly.

  'What?' Kheda looked at the Ritsem warlord, appalled. 'How can you ask such a thing?'

  'Your messages weren't exactly clear.' Caid shrugged awkwardly. 'Had Saril tended her, before you found her?'

  You want someone to blame, don't you?

  'I nursed her myself until she died.' Kheda closed the physic chest with slow deliberation. 'Her women had done all they could; I can't fault their care of her. Then I used every skill my father taught me for her burns but it was plain from the outset she was doomed. I'm sorry. All I could do was ease her pain and believe me I did so. Not that it makes her death any easier to bear, I know.'

  'She was the best of all of us, everyone's favourite. That's why my father let her marry for love of that feckless beachcomber Saril.' Grief twisted Caid's face. 'He said the omens were good. The old fool must have missed something. Saril must have missed every portent this past year, not to have foreseen this disaster.'

  'Magic makes a mockery of every omen,' Kheda reminded him gently. 'You cannot blame Saril for that. I couldn't read any clear portents south of the Serpents' Teeth. At least the miasma doesn't seem to have reached north of there, though. I could read the portents plainly enough once I was back in my own waters.'

  And you cannot imagine what a relief that was, my friend.

  Caid pressed the back of one hand to his closed eyes before speaking with low contempt. 'What is our esteemed ally Chazen Saril doing now?'

  'Fighting to maintain a presence in his domain, so his people may rally to him.' Kheda chose his words carefully for the benefit of any curious ears. 'Sending out scouts and searching out news so that we might have some idea of just what islands these invaders hold and where their magicians might be lurking. We will need to know all we can when we go to drive them back into the southern ocean.'

  Caid's thoughts were still with Olkai and her future. 'She's been taken to a Daish tower of silence? I know I have no rights in the matter but I'd rather see her virtues adorn your domain than go back to Chazen.'

  'It seemed the best thing to do,' Kheda said a little awkwardly. 'With magic rampant in the south, I didn't want all that she was corrupted by it.'

  Caid would have said something but for a rap on the door. Ganil, waiting in silent attendance, opened it to reveal the beardless slave.

  'My lords,' he simpered ingratiatingly. 'Redigal Coron has arrived unexpectedly early. Since you feel your business is so urgent, Ulla Safar invites you to join them both in his audience chamber.'

  'All in good time.' Kheda gestured and Ganil slammed the door in the servant's face.

  'He's playing games with us,' growled Caid.

  'Of course.' Kheda smiled without humour. 'Off balance and hungry, that's how he wants us.'

  As he spoke the door opened again. Ganil's scowl cleared when he saw Telouet carrying a broad platter of freshly prepared fruits and roughly torn bread piled in a basket.

  'We'll keep Safar waiting just long enough to make the point that we're not at his beck and call.' Kheda helped himself. 'And make sure it's not our bellies rumbling that give him an excuse to cut the discussions short.'

  'You talk about me twisting Safar's ears.' Caid chewed the speckled bread with a frown. 'How many insults are you going to swallow from him? This is far too coarse to give to guests.'

  'It wasn't given, it was taken.' Kheda grinned.

  Telouet spoke up at his master's nod. 'The bread's from baskets in the northern servants' kitchen. The fruit's from the anteroom serving the audience chambers of Mirrel Ulla and Shay Ulla. I peeled and chopped it myself.

  'There's no way you had time to go all that way.' Curiosity lit Caid's eyes as he took a slice of melon, careful not to let the juice stain his sumptuous tunic. 'Who—?'

  'Let's go and see if the ladies are ready, shall we?' Kheda took a damp cloth that Telouet was offering and wiped starfruit juice from his fingers.

  'Do we want them in the audience chamber?' Caid stood patiently as Ganil brushed crumbs, real and imagined, from his chest. 'The more people there are, the more confusion Safar will try to sow.'

  'Quite,' Kheda agreed. 'Which is why Janne will be keeping Mirrel and Shay both well away from the four of us. Shall we go?'

  'As you wish, Daish Kheda. Let's show Ulla Safar that it's time to take our business here seriously,' said Caid pugnaciously.

  'Do you remember the way?' Kheda asked out of the side of his mouth.

  'I think so.' But Caid didn't sound entirely sure as they went out into the corridor, slaves dutifully at their heels. At the end of the passage, they climbed the first set of stairs leading to the upper levels of the citadel.

  'East here,' prompted Ganil under his breath when Caid slowed at a junction of identical corridors on the next floor.

  'And north at the next stair after this,' murmured Telouet.

  Kheda and Caid shared a grin but by the time they had negotiated the maze of the citadel and turned into a short passage ending in heavy wooden doors of bluntly carved black wood, both their faces were deadly serious.

  Chapter Seven

  'Announce us, Telouet.' Kheda halted and gave the armoured guards flanking the entrance his most intimidating stare.

  We'll come before Ulla Safar and Redigal Coron with full ceremony or not at all.

  Telouet slid past the warlords to stand menacingly before the door wards. Ganil moved slightly to guard them both from the rear.

  'Open to Daish Kheda, son of Daish Reik, reader of portents, giver of laws, healer and protector of all his domain encompasses,' Telouet challenged, hands on both swords. 'Open to Ritsem Caid, son of Ritsem Serno, ruler, scholar, augur and defender that all his domain may call on.'

  The guards bowed acceptably low and pushed the heavy doors open. Ulla Safar's personal slave was waiting just inside, a naked sword in either hand.

  'Enter and be welcome to bring tidings, share counsel and accept the wisdom of Ulla Safar who is guardian of our health, wealth and justice.' He thrust his swords back into their scabbards with a rushing rattle and stepped back. Telouet held his hands away from his own weapons and moved the two warlords into the room.

  So Safar has a new secretary writing his boasts and one with a taste for the ostentatiously poetic rather than the accurate. Our wives protect the domain's wealth. Let's see if Safar's man has concocted some similar new flourish for Redigal Coron's body slave to declaim.

  The fourth warlord was already seated close by Safar with his back to the long windows shedding the bright sunlight into the wide and lofty room. If need be, it would doubtless accommodate every spokesman from every village even of this vast island. The roof reaching up through two storeys of the citadel above them was held up by pillars of iron wood covered with vines of burnished gold leaf, the hammer beams high above carved into fanciful beasts brilliantly painted: jungle cats, hook-toothed hogs, water oxen and the chattering loals that fanciful children called guardians of the forest.

  One of the gaggle of old attendants that trailed everywhere after Coron had usurped the bodyguard's place just behind the warlord, a white-haired, clean-shaven slave who knelt there submissively. The swordsman was sitting some way further back, a heavily built youth with a bull neck and a hint of arrogance in his boredom. Kheda didn't recognise him but then he rarely saw Coron with the same body slave twice. Redigal Coron looked apprehensive.

  As if we needed to see your expression, Coron, to know you'll be trying to balance toadying to Safar with whatever advice your so faithful adviser whispers in your ear.

  The Redigal warlord was sturdily built with long legs, a good head taller than all the other warlords. Eldest of the four, touches of grey were beginning to show in his hair and beard but he was in no sense past his prime. Well muscled, his dark skin gleamed with health beneath a profusion of topaz and silver jewellery that proclaimed the prosperity of his fertile and peaceful domain. A lively pattern of prancing golden deer decorated his purple sati
n tunic, the archers pursuing them embroidered on his sleeveless overmantle.

  What a mystery it is, that such a well-favoured man should be so spineless. Would I have some answers, if I'd known Redigal Adun? You never told me, Daish Reik, why you disliked him so much. Is he the key to the puzzle of his son's failings? Or is it your faithful companions, Coron, these white-haired zamorin, always at your elbow since before your accession to your father's dignities? Those of us who thought this a passing irritation have certainly been proved wrong; as adopted sons and nephews join the coterie when older retainers withdraw to their extremely comfortable retirement.

  'Are we expecting anyone else?' Caid stood, arms folded, looking down at Safar who reclined among a profusion of cushions at the northern end of the luxurious carpet that filled the enormous room.

  Kheda noted everyone else got a single cushion with a gaudy pattern of pomegranates. 'Shall we sit?'

  'Of course,' Safar said easily. 'Now, let's see if we can't make sense of this panic. You were wise to look for my counsel before letting rumour spread unnecessary alarm throughout the entire southern Archipelago.'

  Kheda took his time settling himself facing their host. Caid completed the compass square and subjected Coron to a searching stare. Coron's slave frowned and leaned forward to whisper into his master's ear. Kheda heard a clink as Telouet knelt behind him in the formal pose of a slave ready to draw his sword and die for his master.

  Let's be sure nothing like that becomes necessary.

  'We didn't expect you until tonight at the earliest.' Caid addressed Coron with a hint of sarcasm. 'I'm pleased to see you chose to make haste, when we must decide how to deal with such obnoxious dangers.'

  'You are the one being too hasty,' interrupted Safar with an unpleasant smile. 'We should read the portents for this council.'

  'I have read the skies every night as we travelled here,' Caid said with barely concealed contempt.

  'As have I.' Kheda spoke loudly to forestall Safar's retort. 'The Horned Fish rises, clear sign that we should not ignore the stars' guidance. The heavenly Ruby counsels courage and unity as it moves from the arc of friendship into the realm of our foes.'

  'It lies in a clear line with the Topaz that marks the year,' added Caid. 'It is plain that these events are truly momentous.'

  'Both those jewels are set in the compass directly opposite the Amethyst, talisman against anger and gem to stimulate new ideas,' Kheda continued, hiding his irritation at Caid's interruption. 'The Amethyst rides with the Pearl of the Lesser Moon, in the sky where we look for signs to our children's fates. The need for our cooperation to safeguard their futures could not be plainer.'

  'Amethyst and Pearl both ride among the stars of the Sea Serpent,' said Coron unexpectedly. 'That is a complex sign where portents can hint at hidden foes and unexpected dangers, for children most of all. We must be careful in our deliberations, you in particular, Daish Kheda, with the Pearl such a potent symbol for your domain.'

  'The Diamond for leadership lies in the arc of brotherhood, cradled within the stars of the Bowl that counsels sharing between friends and allies.' Kheda kept his eyes on Ulla Safar.

  'But the Greater Moon, the Opal, it sits in the arc of self, so we must look to our own instincts to guide us above all else. It shines through the branches of the Canthira Tree that reminds us of the whole cycle of life, death and renewal.' Ulla Safar's pale, animal eyes were all but hidden in folds of fat. 'How else can canthira seeds sprout, if they have not first been scorched by fire? It is my duty to make sure we seek every guidance, as lord of this domain.' Safar half clapped his hands briskly with a rattle of his agate bracelets.

  This is a first, my lord Safar. Your attitude to your divina-tory duties is haphazard at best, unless there's a chance you can humiliate my son or Caid's on the pretext of granting them an honour and then querying every interpretation they make of the plainest portents.

  A dutiful servant scurried into the room carrying a shallow brass-bound cage of white wood. He knelt before Safar, placing the cage on the ground and shuffling backwards, bowing so low he banged his forehead on the ground with an audible thud. Scrambling to his feet, he fled for the doorway.

  Safar leant forward with a grunt, his gargantuan belly impeding his efforts to reach the cage. Opening it, he thrust a fat hand inside and drew out a small green lizard, a fan of black scales crowning its pointed head and a black line running the length of its back down to the tip of its bony tail. 'Are we ready?'

  Without waiting for any reply, the Ulla warlord half dropped, half threw the squirming reptile on to the carpet between them. It landed with a soft thud and crouched down, long toes splayed on the unfamiliar surface, head weaving and cautious tongue tasting the air. It took a few wary steps in Coron's direction before freezing, the scales on its head rising to a startled crest. Wheeling round, it scurried noiselessly towards Safar and disappeared in the cushions plumped at the fat man's back.

  'It would seem the responsibility for guiding our counsels rests with me,' remarked Safar with bland complacency as his body slave began a furtive search among the cushions for the lizard.

  'Though, when dealing with such grave concerns, we should read every augury,' Caid countered with commendable restraint.

  'Let's study the skies at sunset, the clouds and the flight of the river birds,' Kheda suggested.

  You can't have trained those to follow whatever secret scent duped that lizard.

  'Very well.' Safar pretended surprise and made as if to stand up. 'We can gather again in the morning.'

  'You misunderstand me,' said Kheda sharply.

  'We will discuss these threats now,' Caid insisted at the same time.

  'We can consult all available portents to divine our best course before we act,' agreed Redigal Coron cautiously. Behind his shoulder, the white-haired slave was watchful.

  'As you wish.' Safar shrugged his massive shoulders and settled himself once more on his cushions. 'Now, Daish Kheda, just what do you think you saw on some scrubby Chazen beach?'

  Safar's slave had caught the lizard and was making a clumsy attempt to return it to its cage. Kheda looked down and counted four white trumpet flowers and five blue logen blooms woven into the carpet before the creature was caged and removed. He looked up.

  'I don't think I saw anything. I know I saw monsters wrought of foul enchantment leaving my people and Chazen Saril's dead and injured. But that was not the start of it, nor the worst.'

  It seems almost unreal, like some poet's recital of imagined horrors, yet it is so very real, so brutally true. You have to believe me.

  He took a breath and detailed the first alarms rousing the Daish compound before continuing through every aspect of the punishing voyage south and the grief of discovering Olkai Chazen's suffering. Seeing Safar about to interrupt, Kheda gave him no chance, pressing on to explain their unexpected initial successes in the south so rapidly followed by the horrifying setback of the monstrous whip lizards' attack. Telling of Atoun's death prompted a grating shift from Telouet behind him and Kheda saw the Redigal zamorin watching the slave thoughtfully. Clearing his throat, he concluded his stark recital of the events that had sent terror rippling through the southern reaches.

  'For now, Chazen Saril holds a small group of swampy islands on the easternmost fringe of his domain. He is seeking to learn exactly where these invaders are gathered and in what strengths, as well as how many wizards they have to call on. I am keeping him supplied with message birds so he can send word of every new discovery to Rekha Daish. Sirket will alert us to any significant developments while we are here.'

  'You trust the boy to judge what's significant?' Safar's amusement was just short of disbelief.

  'I do, and he has Rekha Daish to advise him.' Kheda replied with determined calm.

  Try casting aspersions on my second wife's wisdom, Safar, when everyone here knows how emphatically your own women always find themselves on the wrong side of the balance in their dealings with her.r />
  'Now you've heard with your own ears what Kheda sent us in sealed and ciphered messages days ago,' said Caid tersely, 'let's not waste any more time going over old ground. We must act!'

  'I see no need for me to act.' Safar smiled with genial unconcern. 'This is no concern of mine. The Chazen domain is many days' passage away even by the fastest trireme.'

  'It'll be your concern all too soon if these magicians come north,' retorted Caid.

  'Unless I mistake Daish Kheda, they show no signs of coming north?' Safar looked at him with polite query. 'They don't even seem to have attacked Chazen Saril again?'

  'Not as yet,' said Kheda tersely. 'I imagine they realise that the imminent storms will make any voyaging too hazardous. I have every expectation that they will come north in strength as soon as the rains have passed, maybe even as soon as the first break in the squalls.'

  Unless they can master water as well as fire and simply ignore the weather. In which case we're all in more trouble than we can imagine. But you can't imagine, can you, any of you? You haven't seen what I have seen.

  Redigal Coron's slave whispered something to him. Coron cleared his throat. 'It would be as well to decide what we might do, should they come north once the rains have passed.'

  'Since your domain and mine will be the first to be invaded,' Kheda agreed with uncompromising harshness.

  'That would certainly give me cause for concern,' Safar assured Coron. The Redigal warlord didn't look convinced.

  More importantly neither does that slave of his.

  'It'll be a little late to be concerned when they're landing on our beaches,' said Caid with biting precision. 'Let's stop them now, before they even think of attacking the Daish or Redigal domains.'

  'But who are they?' pleaded Coron. 'What do they want?'

  'They must want something, whoever they are.' Safar looked more alert. 'What are they seeking from Chazen?'

  'I have no idea.' Kheda didn't mind letting the others see his frustration.