Western Shore ac-3

by Juliet E. McKenna

  As Hinai added her agreement, Kheda saw Elio Redigal looking expectantly at Janne Daish. Janne looked blandly back at the Redigal wives before turning to her son, her face unreadable.

  Sirket squared his shoulders. 'Given all that Daish owes the Chazen warlord and his lady, our promise of alliance is scant repayment. I offer it nevertheless and we'll make good our debt with ships and men if need be.'

  'Your goodwill eases my mind more than you can know, much as I hope there'll be no need for anyone to raise arms in Chazen's defence.' Kheda was glad to be speaking the truth again. 'I'll take my leave of you, with my heartfelt thanks.'

  'You're leaving now?' Ritsem Caid was quite taken aback.

  'There's nothing to be gained by delay.' Kheda walked towards the nursemaids cradling Olkai and Sekni, Itrac at his shoulder.

  Redigal Coron sounded uncertain. 'As long as one has taken appropriate time for reflection.'

  Kheda took Olkai from her nurse and held her close, breathing in her soft, seductive scent. 'If I am to regain my faith in the future, I must put myself in its hands.'

  / am doing this for you, my new daughter, for you and

  your sister, and for all my children and everyone else in this domain and Daish. Even if no one can know just what it is I'm doing.

  He kissed Olkai's feathery dark hair and handed her back to her nurse, feeling a raw pain barely assuaged by the solid weight of Sekni replacing her in his arms.

  'Where will you go?' Sirket asked with barely masked distress. 'You'll need a ship—'

  'I know where I need to go. Do you see that small boat anchored over by the observatory?' Kheda looked up at Itrac as he kissed Sekni, still sleeping soundly, and handed her back to Touai's second daughter. 'It belongs to a zamorin scholar who brought me lore about dragons last year, lore that helped us find where they were laired after they had wounded each other in their battles. Now I understand the omen in the zamorin's unforeseen return. The boat is called the Reteul. Zorat, Litai, do you understand?'

  Ritsem Zorat looked wide-eyed at him. 'The reteul is a bird of good omen,' he stammered, 'a reminder to trust in the past and hope in the future because each bird sings the same song as those that laid them in the egg and teaches it in turn to those as yet unhatched . . .' He fumbled to a halt and looked desperately at Redigal Litai.

  'The birds of any one island share a particular song that no others know.' The youth twisted his hands around one another. 'We can see a good omen for your safe return in that.' His voice rose to a question as he looked desperately at his father.

  Kheda smiled broadly at the other warlords. 'My lords of Redigal and Ritsem, you can be proud of your heirs. And even though I find I must leave, my lords, my ladies, please stay awhile to enjoy my lady Itrac's hospitality.' Kheda indicated the islands of the residence with an expansive hand. 'You're welcome to use my library

  to help you divine whatever meaning the heavens hold for your own domains.' He looked from Coron to Caid and then around at the whole gathering. 'I hope to see you soon with a clearer understanding of what the future holds for Chazen.'

  And I'll be going now, at once, while you 're all too stunned to really take this in. Before one of you comes up with all too many good reasons why I shouldn 't.

  Seeing Itrac was too occupied with presenting a serene countenance to the gathering to speak, he kissed her swiftly and walked rapidly out of the pale-pink tent. He had crossed the first walkway towards the observatory isle before rapid footsteps came up behind him.

  'My lord,' protested Beyau, 'let me see that this Reteul is properly supplied with food and fresh water. You can't be leaving without so much as a change of clothes—'

  'Go back to my lady Itrac, Beyau.' Kheda kept his eyes on the path. 'She'll have ever more need of you while I am away and you've never failed in your duty to Chazen. Don't start now.'

  Beyau halted, stricken. 'Yes, my lord.'

  I'm sorry, Beyau, I know you don't deserve that, but I have to shake you off. I'll just have to share Velindre's wardrobe.

  Stifling a wholly inappropriate smile at that notion, Kheda lengthened his stride and left the burly steward standing in the middle of the short bridge. Slaves and servants slowed in their tasks as he passed them, looking at each other with shrugs of incomprehension. Kheda ignored them all, heading straight for the Reteul rolling gently in the modest berth beyond the observatory.

  Where is Velindre? She had better be aboard. We're only going to get away with this if we leave at once.

  He jumped over the rail and landed on the Reteul's deck with a solid thump. A tanned and bony hand

  instantly threw open the hatch to the single hold below. 'Who's there?' the magewoman barked.

  'Stay down there.' Kheda saw that the sail was rigged and the little boat ready to depart. He moved quickly to unlash the ropes securing the Reteul to the mooring posts.

  'What did you do?' the unseen magewoman asked. 'What are they all doing? I thought we were going to spend the day bamboozling everyone with divinations.'

  'Circumstance played into my hands and I took the chance it offered,' Kheda said curtly. 'I've convinced everyone that I will be better off seeking insight on my own for a little while. For the moment, I hope everyone's busy agreeing with everyone else that this is plainly the only course open to me. That and reassuring Itrac that I haven't run mad,' he added caustically.

  'So we're leaving before it occurs to anyone that you might be suffering from too much sun?' Velindre sounded amused.

  Kheda moved to the long stern sweep and used it to push the little boat deftly out of the coral's embrace. 'Coron will spend the rest of the day in my library looking for omens that might explain my actions. Ritsem Caid won't do anything until he's thought through all the implications this might have for his current campaign to isolate and undermine Ulla Safar. With luck, Beyau will be sure to have Jevin let Ganil and Prai know that I am hoping to make some contact with Ulla Orhan while no one is looking to see what I'm doing.'

  'We haven't time for any distractions like Orhan.' Velindre began climbing the ladder up from the hold. 'As soon as we sail west—'

  'I'm sailing just as far as this burned isle where your associate is holding Risala,' Kheda said baldly. 'Then we'll discuss what we're doing next.'

  Velindre stared at him. 'You said—'

  'No,' Kheda cut her off. 'You presumed. This is as much as you're getting from me, Velindre, for the moment at least. Or do I anchor over there and go back to tell everyone I've changed my mind? I don't imagine anything will surprise them today.'

  'Very well, my lord.' The magewoman's sarcasm was withering. 'Once we join up with Risala, we shall see, shan't we? Are we sailing straight to join her or do you want to circle a few islands to see if anyone's spies are tracing our wake?'

  'If anyone sees us setting our course to the burned island, we'll hope they assume I'm revisiting events of these past two years in hopes of seeing my path to the future.' Kheda grunted as he strove to scull the boat into clear water. 'And I don't imagine Redigal Coron or Ritsem Caid will want to offer the insult of having me followed. More to the point, if they think I might find Orhan, or discover where he is, they'll want to be able to deny any such knowledge in good conscience if Ulla Safar does catch up with him and cut him into pieces.' He leaned into the oar again. 'The Daish domain is in such disarray that neither Sirket nor Janne will think to send curious eyes after me and Itrac certainly won't.' Kheda felt a qualm at his callous deceit. 'She thinks I'm going to retrieve Chazen Saril's bones and we agreed when we married that the wider domain shouldn't ever know where I laid him to rest, in case malcontents gathered there.'

  Velindre sat on the edge of the hatch. 'How long will it take for word to reach Ulla Safar that you've gone off on your own again?'

  'He doubtless has spies in Redigal and Ritsem.' Kheda slowed in his sculling to catch his breath. 'But they won't know anything until Taisia and Moni have enciphered the news for their courier doves and sent word to
their

  sister-wives. Then some covert bird has to fly north to Derasulla.' He looked at the nut palms to judge the prevailing breeze before fixing Velindre with a stern eye. 'Then you can use your magic to make sure there's no threat setting sail from Ulla waters before we discuss just what we do about this western isle of yours.'

  'Naturally,' Velindre agreed with suspicious meekness.

  Kheda looked warily at her for a moment. 'You had better see to that sail. I want to be well beyond the outer reef before it occurs to Redigal or Ritsem to look for a merchant galley flying their domain's pennant out on the trading beach.'

  'Why would they do that?' Velindre went to adjust the ropes at the little boat's mast.

  'To make note of every line and plank of this ship,' Kheda said succinctly. 'So they'll know you the next time they pass you on the sea lanes. And they'll be looking for you, make no mistake.'

  'With the intention that I'd enjoy their hospitality until I'd given up everything I knew or suspected about where you might have gone?' Velindre suggested flippantly. 'Along with anything that might possibly explain this aberration of yours?'

  'Just be grateful Ulla Safar isn't still here.' Kheda scowled. 'You wouldn't expect to escape him without being tortured to give up your secrets.'

  'I heard enough tales about Safar on my travels.' Velindre shivered as she looked around the lagoon. 'Just let that oar trail in the water.'

  Kheda felt the deck shudder beneath his feet. 'Magic?'

  'None that anyone will notice,' Velindre assured him. 'I know better than that.'

  'Just what have you learned about Aldabreshin attitudes to magic, after sailing the Archipelago for half a year?' The oar thrummed in his hands and Kheda realised

  that a discreetly cooperative current was sweeping them towards the closest break in the outer reef.

  'That largely theoretical prejudices have flowered into active hatred of all wizardry, thanks to the arrival of those wild men and the cruelty of their onslaught.' Velindre looked at the triangular sail and it bellied obediently with just enough wind to carry the Reteul forward. 'Which gives me reasons of my own to want to put an end to their predations.'

  'And what would those be?' Kheda slid a sideways glance at her.

  You sound as if you were born in these waters and even if you don't look like the rest of us, you 're convincing enough as azamorin slave of barbarian blood. But you 're more different from me and mine than even the most barbarous pale-skinned northerner from those unbroken lands. I mustn 't forget that.

  She surprised him with her candid answer. 'I like the Archipelago, Kheda. Each domain has a fascinating history and poems and legends as elegant and sophisticated as the most accomplished mainland literature. I've met all manner of wise and friendly people, from highest rank to none. I'd like to be able to sail these waters without hiding who and what I am. I wish I could counter fable with some truths about us wizards from the north,' she added wryly. 'We mages of Hadrumal are nowhere near as numerous and as all-powerful as Aldabreshin tales make us out to be. We keep to ourselves much of the time, mostly debating how to win the respect due to our powers without striking such fear into the mundane populace that they turn on anyone suspected of magebirth. There's no hope of persuading you Archipelagans of the reality of wizardry if those wild mages reappear with all their vile abuses of magic. Come to that, if tales of the invasions here and of

  dragons overflying these islands reach the mainland, I can see life for some of my associates there becoming far more uncertain.'

  'How many wizards are there in the north?' Kheda wondered, not for the first time.

  'Magebirth isn't that common.' Oblivious to his curious gaze, Velindre watched the foam framing their path through the outer reef. 'Think about those savages that invaded. Every wizard was backed by several hundred men without any magic within them. Those men must have had wives and mothers and sisters, and then you can count in the men too old to fight as well as children at their mother's knee.' She grinned with an irritating superiority. 'I don't think we need worry about finding wild wizards standing shoulder to shoulder on this unknown island.'

  'I wouldn't bother counting the old and infirm.' Kheda raised his voice as they passed through waters noisy with surf. 'They get fed to the dragon.'

  'Which is an obscenity every northern wizard would abhor,' Velindre said with sudden loathing. 'I've read enough Aldabreshin philosophy on my travels to know that your sages condemn the abuse of power, from warlords down to some swaggering bully of a village spokesman. We wizards of Hadrumal condemn the abuse of magical power just as thoroughly.'

  'Condemning it is one thing.' Kheda hauled up the stern oar and stowed it by the side rail. 'Doing something about it is quite another. The philosophers are eloquent on that subject.'

  'Which is why we should both want to see just what we're dealing with out in that savage land.' Velindre narrowed her eyes as the ship surged forward on the open sea, a strong wind filling the sail with scant need for magic. 'You have to come with us, Kheda. You've done the most

  difficult bit — getting away from Chazen. You can't waste this opportunity.'

  'We'll discuss it when I see that Risala is safe and well.' Kheda watched the Brittle Crab turn on her station around the arc of the reef. The fast trireme looked expectant, oars poised and projecting either side of the brass-sheathed beak of her ram. He held his breath but no signal horn sounded from the inner islands to set the vessel pursuing them.

  Velindre turned to him with a question of her own. 'What's so ill-omened about this burned island where she insisted we hide up?'

  'It's where Chazen Saril's younger brothers were kept after being blinded and made zamorin on his accession.' Kheda didn't like the distaste he saw on the magewoman's face. 'It's also where I first encountered those wild men and their wizards, when I brought Daish triremes and swordsmen down to see why Chazen ships were fleeing into our waters with tales of fire and mayhem in the night. I went there with Chazen Saril.' He tensed at the recollection and his voice turned accusing despite himself. 'We were attacked by monsters. Magic twisted lizards and birds and the crabs on the shore into abominations that ripped my men to pieces.'

  It's also where we laid Chazen Saril's putrid corpse when we brought it back in shame and secrecy from Daish, on the darkest night in the five-year cycle of the heavenly compass. None of this is omen or portent. You just realised it was the safest place to hide this wizard Velindre wished on you, didn't you, Risala? Because no Chazen islander would dare set foot there or even sail close enough inshore to see who might be anchored there.

  'I recall Dev saying you destroyed the monsters by setting the whole island alight?' Velindre queried.

  'Fire is the ultimate purification,' Kheda confirmed shortly.

  'I don't know how your philosophers are squaring that with that dragon blasting Chazen with flaming breath last year,' the magewoman mused with sly provocation. 'A crude measure, but still, I gather it was effective. I imagine you weren't facing the most powerful wizards in that invasion, if they couldn't quench the flames.'

  'I have no idea.' Kheda looked ahead to the white-rimmed lumps of indistinct green dotting the horizon.

  Will I find you convinced you 've seen some omens on that wretched isle, Risala? Will you be hoping I will see something to restore my belief in such guidance? You're the only one who knows I laid Chazen Saril in the blackened ruins of the pavilion where his brothers had been imprisoned. Did I still half-believe such an act might have a power to influence the days to come? I know you did. But my disillusion with portent and prophecy runs deeper than ever nowadays.

  The only other person who knew where we laid Chazen Saril was Dev, and Dev's dead. He was powerful enough to fight the strongest of the wild wizards who came to plague us and he nearly died of it. He tried to turn his magic against the fire dragon and that was truly the death of him. How powerful are these wizards of this unknown isle? How many of them might there be? fust how strong is
Velindre, or this new wizard that she's brought with her? Are they equal to whatever perils might lurk on this mysterious island? Can I risk finding out that they are not and dying for their arrogance? What will become of ltrac and the babies?

  They'll be defended by Ritsem and Redigal and Daish besides, that's what will happen if I don't return. Can I risk not knowing what lies beyond the western horizon? Could I return to Itrac and try to live in any kind of peace of mind now that I know this unseen land could be nurturing who knows what manner of magical threat?

  The vista ahead of him was empty of answers. The Reteul flew on over the turquoise waters as if driven on as much by his urgent questions as by the magewoman's magic.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  How long will this place smell of burning? How far does the breeze carry the decaying breath of this place, to remind passing ships of what happened here? Does it keep them away?

  Kheda watched the blackened isle rising above a slew of jagged reefs just high enough above the water to give a foothold to tenacious tangles of grey-stemmed midar. The tormented screams of dying Daish warriors echoed loud in his memory.

  My swordsmen, my faithful captain Atoun, ripped apart by whip lizards transmuted to something half-way between animal and man by the wild mages. My first encounter with magic that was as foul as I had always believed it. Yet I come here now in a barbarian wizard's company, finding myself increasingly persuaded that she alone can show me what threat to the domain lies beyond the horizon.

  'We could have been here last night.' Velindre sat on the Reteul's stern thwart, one hand on the tiller.

  'This isn't a shore I wanted to come on in the twilight or with a contrary wind.' Kheda adjusted the angle of the sail.

  We did kill all the monsters, didn't we? Surely nothing could have survived.

  The Reteul continued on her way, the morning breeze negating any need for magic. Both magewoman and warlord wore the loose unbleached cotton tunic and trousers of zamorin.