Southern Fire ac-1

by Juliet E. McKenna

  'What's going on?' Risala wondered, anxious. 'They can't see us, can they?'

  'I don't think so.' Kheda kept his eyes fixed on the shore. 'I hope not,' he added with some alarm as the savages scattered, this time with purpose that became all too familiar. Some carried panels ripped from the houses to the boats, lashing them together with crude vine ropes. Others hauled sacks and bundles out to pile them on the shore. The rest began breaking down the crude stockade and driving their captives down to the water.

  'They can barely walk.' Kheda winced as the grievously mistreated Chazen islanders stumbled and crawled across the sands, their captors forcing them on with blows and kicks.

  Dev let out an explosive breath and cackled with delight. 'That's got them on the move!'

  'What has?' asked Kheda, exasperated.

  Dev ignored him. 'Risala, hang on to that tiller. We need to get on our way before any of that lot get close.' The sails swelled with unnatural wind as he spoke and the Amigal dipped and shivered.

  'What did you do?' Kheda persisted.

  'Later.' Dev held out an insistent hand. 'The map.'

  Kheda handed it over, doing his best to contain his frustration.

  Dev studied it for a moment before flicking at a carefully inked cross with a newly pared fingernail. 'That one.' Giving the paper back to Kheda, he sat and turned his back on them both as he lay and rolled himself in his blanket, pulling a fold over his head.

  Risala looked at Kheda, uncomprehending. 'Is that it?'

  'So it would seem, until we. reach this encampment.' Kheda showed her the map. 'Which won't be long. They have all moved close together, Dev was right.'

  'The wind's in our favour and it's building.' Risala looked up at skies now dappled with thickening cloud.

  Kheda grimaced. 'There'll be rain tonight. Let's hope we can get all this done before it arrives.'

  'I think it'll be over one way or the other,' Risala said grimly. 'All those log boats and rafts are following us.' Turning her back on them, she gripped the tiller tight, as if her urgency would somehow force the Amigal on.

  'I'll get those arrows tipped.' Kheda lifted the hatch to the cabin below. 'We'll want something to hand, if any savage mage catches us while Dev's still snoring.'

  In the dimness of the lamplight in the main hold, he worked rapidly to blend half of Shek Kul's powder with a little sailer pottage and some of the fish-scale glue. He counted out the arrows. Thirty for him. Thirty for Risala. Half the ripping arrow heads, half the piercing missiles. He carefully tipped them with the paste, resolutely turning his thoughts away from the odds against them as he set them to dry.

  That done, a new thought struck him. He went to look again in the chests where he'd found the bows. In the bottom of one, Kheda found a selection of daggers, old and new, plain and ornamented, some in styles he recognised and others entirely unknown to him. In among the sinuous shapes of the central domains, there was one with the curved blade and cross-braided handle of Daish. It was old, the silk braid dark with grime and sweat, the leather of the scabbard cracked and peeling away from the wood beneath.

  Let this be an omen then, that I am right in coming back to fight for my own with whatever weapons come to hand.

  Kheda tested the edge with a careful finger. It was as blunt as the crude knife he'd stolen from the Ulla domain farmer. Rummaging in the chest he found a whetstone and set about remedying that. He had just about restored the dagger to a state Telouet would have grudgingly approved when he felt the Amigal change course. Returning swiftly to the deck, Kheda saw Dev throwing aside his blanket and striding to the rail, expression one of intense concentration. As before, Kheda could see absolutely nothing happening ashore until the savages all roused as one man, thrown into utter confusion.

  When they reached the next island, the pattern repeated itself, as it did on the following island and the one after that. By the time they had left all eight of the savage mages surrounded by encampments in chaos, Kheda's frustration was all but choking him and he had honed the Daish dagger he had claimed and the Viselis blade to an edge sharper than any razor. He watched the final island on the course Dev had plotted grow closer and closer. Finally he couldn't stand it any more. He strode down the deck to Dev.

  'Just what are you doing?'

  Dev was leaning on the Amigal's rail, breathing heavily. He hadn't moved since they had fled the uproar wreaking havoc on the last savage wizard's encampment. 'Now would be a good time for that white brandy.' There was a dangerous light in his dark eyes.

  Kheda fetched a bottle without comment. The stopper came out with a shrill squeak. Dev took a long swallow of the aromatic liquor and jerked his head towards the stern. 'The girl will want to see this, I daresay.'

  Kheda followed him and stood beside Risala. She was looking back along their wake. Kheda looked too. More than one of the invaders' log boats was visible in the distance, single-hulled vessels speeding ahead of the bigger raft-like ships. All were hurrying along the same course, hastening towards the mage with the dragon-hide cloak.

  'Don't forget to look ahead as well,' Dev warned with a taunting grin. 'Don't run my ship on to any rocks.'

  'In a channel this wide?' Risala retorted. 'Even you could steer it falling down drunk.'

  'I could thread the Amigal in and out of the Serpents' Teeth dead drunk.' Taking another pull from the bottle of brandy, Dev smiled cheerily at her. Then his face turned serious. 'Just so you know, this is what I was showing each of those wizards.'

  Dev concentrated on the empty air between the three of them and a faint golden glow began to build. A disc formed, coalescing into a perfect image of a beach. The radiance took on a greenish hue and diminutive trees and bushes flourished around the edges. An encampment appeared, larger than any they had just visited, with three corrals for captives and towering piles of booty heaped between them, crudely covered with palm thatch ripped from the ravaged huts of the village.

  Kheda took an involuntary pace backwards and Risala's sudden clutch at the tiller put a visible kink in the Amigal's wake.

  Where are the people? There are no people.

  A snap of Dev's fingers put paid to Kheda's unspoken bemusement. Two figures appeared, disproportionately large for the floating scene but all the more identifiable for that. One was the savage wizard with the dragon-hide cloak. The other was Dev, or at least Kheda guessed it was, from the bald head and arrogant stride. If it was Dev, he was dressed in more finery than Kheda would have guessed the wizard could boast.

  The mage chuckled as the two little figures squared off against each other. Risala and Kheda both jumped as flames erupted around the dragon-hide wizard. The illusory blaze died away and a miniature sandstorm enveloped the Dev image. In the next breath, it exploded outwards in a ring of fire that broke, curled back on itself and wrapped around the dragon-hide mage. This time the flames didn't yield, rising every higher and shrinking inwards to a tight pillar of fire. The tiny Dev waved a hand and the blaze died away. There was nothing left of the dragon-hide mage but a twisted heap of scorched scales. The real Dev snapped his fingers and the illusion vanished.

  'That's what you've shown the other invading mages?' Kheda stared at the empty air, the brilliance of the magic still seared on his vision.

  'It is,' Dev confirmed. 'Which is why they're all scurrying along to see if it's true. If it is, they're doubtless eager to grab as much of Dragonhide's loot as they can.'

  'And when they find out it isn't true?' Kheda asked with a frown.

  'They'll have to explain themselves to Dragonhide.' Dev was unbothered. 'He'll want to know why they've all turned up, full of concern and clutching empty sacks. That should keep them arguing for a while.'

  'Is that what you're going to do to him?' Risala's voice shook slightly.

  'I don't know.' Dev shrugged. 'I'll give it a cursed good try, though. It depends what he throws at me.' Kheda saw that dangerous glint was back in his eye as the wizard took the helm from Risala, who yielded it wi
thout argument. 'We're going to make landfall just this side of that headland. Dragonhide's camp's in the bay beyond, so we'll cut across to a vantage point I've scryed out.'

  Kheda watched the green, impenetrable shore gliding past. 'Won't they have patrols out, watchmen posted?'

  'They don't bother with things like that.' It wasn't entirely clear who was the target for Dev's scorn; Kheda or the savages.

  'They're so confident.' Kheda shook his head. 'So arrogant.'

  'Nothing's happened so far to make them think you Archipelagans are much of a threat.' Dev shrugged. 'The Chazen islanders all fled like rats from a burning granary. No one's come south from Daish, or any other domain, to make so much as a recce, not since you and Chazen Saril were sent running back north like whipped curs. Besides, I imagine they know just how fearful you people are of any magic. That's probably what encouraged them to attack in the first place. And with Dragonhide on your side, would you be bothering to send out patrols?'

  Kheda couldn't contest that, much to his annoyance.

  'Get yourselves armed and ready to go.' Dev hauled on the tiller and turned the Amigal towards the shore. He looked up at the sails, one hand raised to guide the wind.

  Retrieving bows and arrows from the hold, Kheda handed Risala a full quiver. He brushed the flights of a bundle of arrows loosely tied with twine. 'Those are the ones for the wizards.'

  'I wouldn't have minded a chance for a little practice, to acquaint myself with this bow.' She looked up at him, eyes huge with apprehension. 'I can hit a chequered fowl on the run, or at least, I used to be able to.'

  'A savage is bigger than that, mage or no.' Kheda smiled reassurance as he handed Risala a belt carrying a broad jungle blade, pair to the one that hung heavy and clumsy at his hip. 'Here. If they see us shooting and come for us, we run as far and as fast as we can.'

  She drew the newly honed Viselis dagger from the second sheath on the belt. 'What's this for?'

  'In case we can't run fast enough. In case you need some alternative to being thrown into a stockade.' Kheda tried to recall something Daish Reik might have said that would be encouraging in their current situation. Nothing came to mind.

  'Thank you, I think.' Risala glanced at Dev, who was still intent on guiding the Amigal to his chosen spot. 'What about him?'

  Kheda hesitated. 'We have to trust he's as good as he claims to be.'

  'It's not at all how I imagined it, the reality of magic' Risala shook her head slowly. 'Even when Shek Kul told me it was my turn to shadow Dev, and I knew he suspected him of being a wizard, it never seemed quite real, not until I saw him wreaking havoc with a flick of his wrist and a handful of light.'

  Kheda looked at Dev. 'Not so bad as you imagined, or worse?'

  'Both.' Risala shrugged. 'How does it seem to you?'

  'It's the only means to drive out these savages who are threatening my people.' Kheda set his jaw. 'That's all that matters.'

  'I don't care if it taints me; I hope whatever magic's hiding us doesn't fail.' Risala was looking at the flotilla of log boats and rafts behind them, closing rapidly now that the Amigal had turned aside from her original course.

  Kheda tensed with her as the savages grew closer and closer, before cutting straight across the curve in the Amigal's wake. They swept past, unswerving in their determination to reach the wizard with the dragon-hide cloak and find out just what might be afoot. Standing in their narrow boats, the savages dug their long, thin paddles deep into the sea, the clumsy rafts scudding along on foam tainted with the lurid green of wizardry. Kheda breathed a sigh of relief to see every dark, scowling, vicious face turned forwards, intent on rounding the headland.

  The Amigal lurched as Dev brought her alongside a deeply undercut bank where a fast-flowing stream coursed down a steep hillside to join the sea. The ship bobbed in a pool of momentary calm.

  'Get us moored good and fast!' Dev barked.

  Kheda and Risala didn't argue, hurrying ashore to force the Amigal's anchors down into the clinging earth. Finally satisfied the flukes were as deep as he could drive them, Kheda looked up. 'Where's Dev?' As he spoke, the mage emerged from the stern cabin. Kheda stared.

  Risala stood upright and whistled under her breath. 'Just what else have you got hidden in that hold?'

  'I thought I should dress for the occasion.' Dev grinned, brushing a negligent hand down the shimmering white silk of his lavish gold-embroidered tunic. 'Since they seem so keen on gemstones—' He rattled a heavy gold bracelet loaded with rubies red as gouts of blood. There was another on his other wrist. 'Let's see if they can get these off me.'

  'Where did you get those?' Kheda couldn't decide if the sizeable stones in the gold collar Dev wore were garnets or rubies but those were definitely diamonds striking fire from the sun in his many rings and in the anklets clasping his trousers tight.

  The dangerous light in Dev's eyes was bright. 'The vice trade has its rewards.'

  'You're not going to look so pretty once we've hacked our way through that.' Risala looked up at the steep, tree-choked slope of the headland.

  'Want to wager on that?' Dev's smile broadened wickedly. 'A little shiny jewel of your own you'd care to share with me?'

  Risala hesitated. 'Since you mention it, no.'

  'Come on. The light's beginning to fade.' Kheda headed for the only suggestion of a break that he could see in the closely tangled berry bushes. Pulling the broad, heavy blade free of his belt, he began cutting a path. By the time they were halfway up the slope, he was all but exhausted, having to force himself on through the clinging vines and the cloying, humid heat. Looking up between the sprawling canopies of the lilla trees, he saw the sunlight was turning distinctly yellow. The day was drawing towards a close.

  If we don't hurry, it'll be too dark for either of us to worry about our lack of archery practice.

  By the time they reached the top, Kheda was dripping with sweat. He could hear Risala panting behind him and turned to see her wiping her forehead with a shaking hand, seed burrs clinging thickly to her sleeve. Bloodsuckers hovered all around them. 'Dev?'

  'Right here.' The wizard appeared behind Risala. His gleaming tunic was unspotted by sweat and there wasn't so much as a smudge of grime on him nor a fly within arm's reach.

  'Get down.' Kheda was too tense to be impressed. 'They might see you.'

  'That's the whole idea,' murmured Dev but he ducked down to join Kheda behind a tangle of striol vine. 'Come on. We've got to get closer. I've scried out the best spot.'

  Stooping, he led them through the clinging greenery to an irregular fold in the land that offered a clear view of the beach, looking straight down the line of the wide ditch with its bristling spikes. Risala hung back, stringing her bow, face taut with determination. Kheda crouched low, his own arrows ready to hand.

  If they look up, they'll see us. They'll be on us like hounds on a nest of jungle kits. We won't stand a chance of getting away, not this close. We'll just have to hope they don't look up, then, won't we? Daish Reik always said men rarely look above their eyeline unless they have good reason. We'd better not give them reason till we have to.

  The scene below was almost the same as the miniature Dev had drawn in his spell, with the three stockades and the ragged heaps of booty piled among the plundered houses of the village. Not quite the same though. Now the beach below the wide spiked ditch was crowded with log boats and rafts hauled up out of the water. Knots of cowering, beaten prisoners were being driven ashore by gangs of spear-waving savages. Some of those newly arrived on the beach were defending the loot they had brought with them. Others looked on the verge of attacking each other. The dragon-hide mage's followers were blocking any passage through to the village itself, five and ten deep and loudly free with their scorn for whatever the newcomers were claiming. Belligerent shouts rose high into the air, pierced by the occasional scream of pain.

  Kheda shivered. 'Are they all here, the wizards?'

  'Most of them.' Dev scanned the shore. 'S
ee him in the spotted-cat skin, he's probably the most powerful still holding out against Dragonhide. He's on good terms with that one.' Dev pointed to a savage boasting what looked like a shimmering blue breastplate.

  'What is he wearing?' Kheda wondered.

  'Butterfly wings, hundreds of them all threaded together.' Dev shrugged. 'His people bring them to him. I've seen him in a stand-off with that one over there, so I'd say they're about as powerful as each other. You definitely want to drop those three first.'

  Kheda peered down to the sand. 'Who else are we to kill?'

  'Our friend with the green wreath.' Dev took a moment or two to find him. 'And that lad in the palm crown. I saw him working with Yellow Paint.'

  'Look!' Risala interrupted with an urgent whisper. She pointed to a prodigious fleet of log boats rounding the headland on the far side of the bay.

  Dev narrowed his eyes and then smiled. 'Now we can start the fun.' He handed Kheda his spyglass. 'See him in the biggest raft. Him and Catskin have had a few trials of strength but I've seen them both back down before forcing an end to it.'

  Kheda lowered the spyglass, nauseated. 'He's wearing a necklace of hands.'

  'He gets them off loals his men catch.' Dev was dismissive. 'Now, see those two on the beach; the one with the logen garland around his waist and that one all cross-hatched in red mud, they've both paid visits to our many-fingered friend, separately mind you, not together. They haven't given him tribute as such, probably because that would win them a visit from Dragonhide but they've both sent him hands from the loals that their hunters bring in.'

  Kheda turned the spyglass to the village side of the defensive ditch. 'Where is the dragon-hide wizard?'

  'He won't show himself until I call him out,' said Dev slowly. 'There, by that middle stockade, the man with the sharks' teeth necklace. He's been running errands for the other two who've tied their ships to Dragonhide's stern rail.' He glanced at Risala. 'That's our friend in the feather cloak and the chancer in the lizard skin, remember them? They're best of friends now.'