Western Shore ac-3

by Juliet E. McKenna

  'We do.' Naldeth took up this new discussion with relish. 'But we see those days as left in the dust of the trail behind us. We look to our next step on the path, on the way to something new and better. You've been building triremes in the same way for generations. Every mainland shipwright is searching for some way to improve his craft. Your seers and sages tread the same circles as those who've gone before them, reinterpreting the same stars and omens. Kvery mainland philosopher is looking for new ways of thinking, towards a more rational understanding of the world.'

  'A man who looks inward might come to a better understanding of himself, and his place within the world.' Kheda looked over at Velindre. 'Are you mages all climbing this endless ladder towards some greater understanding?'

  'Climbing it and treading on each other's fingers in our haste to be first to reach some new nuance of elemental knowledge,' she said caustically.

  ' I thought you enjoyed sailing the Archipelago because of the lack of questions, Naldeth,' Risala remarked slyly. 'You've said how restful it must be knowing your place in life and having everyone else know it just as clearly.'

  It's certainly a welcome relief from the exacting expec-tations of some of our more competitive colleagues,' Velindre agreed.

  'You've not stayed in the place you were born to.' The young wizard turned to Risala. 'Shek Kul was your warlord, wasn't he, in a northerly domain?'

  'He's a just and powerful warlord who keeps his people in peace and prosperity, as his father did before him.' Risala scraped blood from a gutted fish's backbone. 'They don't have to ask where their next meal is coming from or if some rival warlord's triremes are about to seize their island. They're happy for their lives to follow the same course year after year.'

  'But you weren't?' Naldeth persisted.

  'The stars marked out a different path for me,' Risala said sunnily. 'We're not all going round in circles.'

  'So you became a poet?' Naldeth looked for Risala's nod of confirmation. 'And a spy.'

  'Confidential envoy,' Risala corrected him with a grin.

  'A new role where you nevertheless trade on the fact that people in the domains you visit will just see the poet and satisfy themselves with all the assumptions that go with such an occupation,' Velindre mused.

  'Whose side are you on in this argument?' Kheda wondered.

  'I wasn't aware we were taking sides,' the magewoman replied serenely.

  Risala looked at Kheda with a smile that melted his heart.

  You're the one person mho sees me for who I truly am in all this confusion that has overwhelmed my life. You 're the one person who doesn't burden me with expectation or assumption. But will you ever accept that I cannot believe in omens any more?

  'I'll wager Aldabreshin seers and barbarian philosophers share the ability to tire the sun with their talking.' Kheda walked across the deck to pick up the bucket of fish guts beside Risala, bending to kiss the top of her head before dumping the rank contents over the rail. 'Do you really

  have no idea how far it is to our destination, Velindre?' Keeping tight hold of the rope tied to the bucket, he let it fall into the sea to rinse itself before he hauled it up again full of clean water.

  Risala came to stand beside him and began scrubbing fish blood and slime off her hands. She stopped, mouth open. 'Kheda, look—'

  'A bird.' Kheda narrowed his eyes to make out this newcomer more clearly. 'And not another zaise.'

  It was considerably smaller than the great white wanderers and more solidly built, akin to the coral gulls of the long-distant Archipelago. Not so closely akin, though. It had dark-brown undersides to its wings and a mottled belly as well as rusty-red legs. As it came closer, squawking on a rising note, Kheda saw a vicious downward hook to the point of its beak. It dived into the residue of fish guts floating on the water.

  Velindre came to join them. 'It seems to think it's at least half-fish.'

  In the clear seas, they could all see the strange gull folding its wings close to its body to undulate through the waters more like a fish than a bird.

  'I don't want to hook that.' Kheda hastily dumped the bucket on the deck and began pulling in his fishing line hand over hand.

  'A bad omen?' Naldeth bent to rinse his own hands in the bucket of seawater.

  'Did you see that beak?' Kheda retorted. 'Would you like to try getting close enough to beat out its brains and pull the hook out of its gullet?'

  He dumped the tangle of line on the deck and looked Up from his task to see Velindre hurrying up the ladder to the stern platform. 'That's no ocean bird,' she called over her shoulder. 'We must be closer to land than I thought.'

  Risala grinned at Kheda. 'You can take the foremast.'

  'Thank you,' he said with a grimace. 'Stow those fish, Naldeth. We don't want to lose our supper if that bird's a scavenger.'

  The boat's calm passage made climbing the ladder-like ratlines to the top of the mast easy enough, though Kheda still did his best not to glance down. The deck seemed all too narrow and all too far below him, surrounded by far too much sea for him to fall into.

  Though presumably Velindre would catch me.

  He braced himself in the rigging and looked out to the west and to the north. On the far horizon he could see a billowing drift of white cloud.

  'What can you see?' Naldeth was pacing the deck in frustration, his rocking, stiff-legged gait setting the bucket of fish swinging alarmingly.

  'Clouds caught by high ground,' Risala called out from the aft mast. 'There's land ahead.'

  The curious gull or one very like it swooped past Kheda, startling him with its rising cry. Choking back a curse, he pressed himself against the knotted ropes.

  'Loose the sails.' Some breath of magic brought Velindre's calm words clearly to his ear amid a rush of newly summoned wind.

  Kheda did so as quickly as possible and made his way back down the ladder of ropes with a treacherous tremor in his arms and legs.

  We Aldabreshin have the sense to stick to oars and square-rigged sails that you can manage from deck. Only mad barbarians would risk climbing up and down masts in ocean seas.

  Risala met him on deck. 'Shall we keep watch from the prow?' The rising breeze tousled her black hair and tugged at the hem of her loose blue tunic.

  'Let's.' Kheda nodded amid the flap and creak of the newly liberated canvas.

  The ship rose and fell beneath their feet as it had not done for days on end. Velindre's magic scorned the natural indolence of the air and lashed it into motion. Glimmers of sapphire blue threaded through the lively gusts filling the Zaise's sails, as the ship left the windless seas and the strange current that had carried them this far. The ocean swells grew taller again, blunt billows rising and falling and edged with the barest lacing of spume.

  Kheda held on to the ship's rail with both hands, Risala safe between his arms. The white bank of cloud on the horizon waited motionless as the Zaise soared over the dull blue waters towards it. Kheda felt the chill wind teasing his wiry brown hair.

  Naldeth came up beside them, peering straight up into the sky.

  'Have you seen some more birds?' Kheda squinted upwards too.

  'I thought I'd keep an eye out for dragons,' the mage said slowly.

  'Look.' Risala pointed down into the water.

  'A tree branch.' Kheda's heart pounded with absurd relief. 'We're definitely approaching land. Though that's not from any kind of tree that I recognise,' he added doubtfully.

  'Do you want a closer look?' Naldeth raised a ready hand glowing with ruddy magelight as the branch floated away.

  'No.' Kheda concentrated on the clouds ahead, piling high into solid white banks reminiscent of those above the fire mountains and scarps of higher ground on the larger islands within the Archipelago.

  Almost imperceptibly, the sea took on a greener hue, and here and there they spotted drifts of weed. More gulls appeared like the first, and other smaller creamy birds with pale-blue heads and darker wingtips, diving after unseen prey.
A squabbling trio floated past perched

  on another sodden tree branch, heedless of the rise and fall of the ocean.

  Kheda studied the fluffy fragments torn from the misty bulk growing closer on the horizon. It was strange to see clouds scudding towards them while the wind pressed his tunic to his back. He bent to speak into Risala's ear over the noisy rush of water beneath the prow. 'I want to talk to Velindre.' She nodded and he made his way back along the unsteady deck.

  Velindre's eyes were bright as she directed the steering oars with one hand and twisted the easterly wind to her bidding with the other. 'What can you see?'

  'There's all manner of detritus in the water.' Kheda paused half-way up the ladder. 'Are you sure there hasn't been some storm in these reaches?'

  'No.' The magewoman was adamant. 'Whatever this elemental coil is, it's not a storm.'

  'As soon as you know what it is, let me know.' Kheda slipped back down the steps and returned to the prow.

  Dark smudges appeared on the horizon below the swelling white clouds. It still took an age to reach the islands, even with Velindre summoning all the elemental air within reach. She abandoned concealment and the Zaise sails crackled with azure radiance. The wind blew scraps of magelight away to fall into the foaming wake, glittering briefly before the water snuffed them. The waters were turbid now, choked with sand swirling away in patterns drawn by submerged currents. Weed and broken trees thudded against the Zaise's hull and Kheda was glad of the double planking at stem and stern.

  'This reminds me of the days after a whirlwind struck Shek waters, when I was still apprenticed to Gedut,' Risala commented speculatively. 'He composed a poem about it.'

  'Velindre says she sensed no storm.' Kheda drew Risala

  back with him. 'Let's see what we can see from the stern platform.'

  The land ahead was breaking into a chain of dark islets riven by narrow channels.

  If there are wizards or even dragons, I want to be beside a mage I've seen calling lightning out of a clear sky and bringing down a dragon with a rival beast of her own creation.

  Risala hesitated. 'You'll keep watch, Naldeth, so we don't run aground on anything?'

  'Yes, of course.' The young wizard's eyes were unfocused. 'There's a peculiar tangle of elements here,' he breathed.

  Disquiet prickled down Kheda's backbone as he hurried the length of the ship, Risala's hand in his. 'Velindre—' he began as he climbed the steps after Risala.

  'Naldeth's enjoying a rush of blood to his affinity, I take it?' Velindre sounded amused. More to the point, as far as Kheda was concerned, she was clear-eyed and wholly composed. 'There's been wild fire magic at work here.'

  'How recently?' demanded Kheda.

  'It's difficult to tell,' Velindre said thoughtfully. 'Long enough ago for storms to have doused it pretty thoroughly.'

  'There's nothing that could set your cargo alight?' he persisted. 'If Naldeth hasn't got his wits about him, we could burn to the waterline.'

  'I'd say not,' Velindre replied, offhand.

  Kheda wasn't overly reassured.

  Could whatever accursed enchantment is rousing Naldeth's wizardry stir that dragon's egg down in the hold? Why did Velindre bring it here?

  Kheda chewed his lip as they sailed on and dark rocks rose up on either side of the Zaise in the fading light towards the day's end. A few of the blue-headed

  gulls hopped insouciantly along invisibly narrow ledges, chattering among themselves.

  'Can you see anything?' Kheda scanned the broken facets of dull brown stone that seemed to absorb the sinking sun's glow rather than reflect it.

  'Nothing bigger than a bird.' Risala was keeping alert watch on the far side of the stern platform.

  Velindre gestured at the masts and the sails drew themselves back to the spars to be lashed tight by snaking ropes. 'Let's have as clear a view as possible.'

  Kheda's disquiet grew as the channel narrowed and they sailed into shadows the setting sun did not penetrate. The waters grew dark and forbidding, a rank odour floating over the surface.

  'What's the draught of this hull?' he asked dubiously.

  'I'll know to within a finger's width of water if we can sail on or not,' Velindre assured him.

  Kheda looked down over the stern platform's side, the magewoman's confidence notwithstanding. The water was stained dark with rotting vegetation hanging in clumps stirred by their passage. Stirred but not washed away. He realised what he was seeing. 'There are trees under this water.'

  Risala looked around, puzzled. 'Is this a river in flood?'

  'No.' The magewoman looked thoughtful. 'This is salt water, not fresh.'

  Naldeth came hurrying back from the prow, his false foot loud on the planks. 'This isn't a channel between two islands.' He climbed deftly up the ladder, scarlet magelight bright in the joints of his steel leg. 'This used to be a valley. This whole expanse of land just sank.'

  'How?' Kheda looked from the young wizard to Velindre.

  She chewed her chapped lower lip. 'I've really no idea.'

  'Let's find out,' Naldeth urged impatiently.

  The Zaise slid silently over the drowned trees. The

  channel or valley, whichever it was, turned an abrupt corner around a shattered cliff where a steep scree tumbled into dark shadows. The sky opened up above them as the heights retreated on either side. A long expanse of sluggish water stretched ahead to a sloping shore rising out of the lapping sea. Dead trees bristled with split and broken branches. Those closest to the water were stripped of all branches and bark to leave bare spikes jutting up from muddy ground that reeked of decay. The Zaise slowly advanced, faint blue magic shimmering like marsh light around her. Something grated along the underside of the hull.

  'Velindre?' Alarmed, Kheda couldn't help himself.

  'I told you, I can gauge the depth of the water beneath us,' she reminded him. 'And whatever happened here happened long since.'

  Kheda surveyed the desolation. 'Did magic do this?'

  Naldeth shook his head. 'I've no idea.'

  Something dropped into the water with a plop that echoed around the valley.

  'There.' Risala pointed at ripples in the murky water.

  A blunt scaly snout caught the light. A lizard as long as Kheda's arm was swimming across the drowned valley. It reached a dead tree and climbed rapidly up it. Pot-bellied and short-tailed with sprawling legs, its stubby toes were tipped with needle claws that dug deep into the lifeless wood. A ridged red crest ran down its back.

  'That's no beast I know,' said Kheda.

  'There's no magic to it.' Naldeth sounded disappointed.

  Odd angularities among the stubs of a handful of storm blasted trees caught Kheda's eye. 'What's over there?'

  The air shone oddly around Velindre's eyes. 'Something was built in the trees,' she said slowly.

  'So there were people here.' Kheda searched the shore with new intensity, his hand going to his belt knife. He remembered his weapons stowed unheeded down below. 'Risala, fetch my swords for me, please.'

  'Are these people still here?' She didn't wait for an answer, dropping down the ladder and disappearing into the stern cabin.

  'You won't need those.' Naldeth turned in a slow circle, one hand raised with a scarlet flame dancing on his palm.

  'These wild mages can sense some new wizard working his magic in their territory,' Kheda rebuked him.

  'Then they can learn who they're dealing with,' retorted Naldeth, his flame flaring.

  'If there was anyone here to be drawn by magic, we'd have seen them by now.' Velindre waved at the sapphire magelight glistening on the Zaise's rails. 'All I'm sensing is the echo of old enchantments among the elemental chaos.'

  'Do you remember how fast a dragon can appear?' Kheda challenged.

  The boat's blunt prow nosed through the clouded water. As they drew nearer to the muddy shore, they saw that a platform of lashed logs had been fixed into notches gouged deep into the trunks of the stricken trees.
Walls of woven twigs were broken and splintered, any roofing long since torn away.

  Kheda looked beyond the makeshift building to piles of debris cast up by successive storms. 'Those are the hollowed logs the savages use for boats.'

  'The wild men who came to plague the Archipelago lived here?' Risala climbed up the stern ladder and handed Kheda his swords. 'They fled this disaster and came to steal our lands and we killed them.'

  'Did we kill them all?' Irresistible hope rose in Kheda's chest. All the same, he doubled his sword belt around his

  hips and thrust the scabbarded blades securely between the overlapping loops.

  The Zaise slid sideways through the water to brush up against a mottled grey trunk with a few remaining scabs of black bark. They could all see the ragged marks where the heartwood had been gouged out of the log with crude tools and rough points had been shaped at each end.

  'What were they fleeing?' Naldeth sounded disappointed. 'The dragon? Do you think it pursued them?'

  'As best we can tell, they were expecting it to follow them,' Velindre reminded him.

  'It was only the wizards and their warriors who came to attack us.' Risala gazed around the eerie valley. 'We never saw any women or children or elders. Perhaps they stayed behind.'

  Kheda joined her in scanning the barren slopes. 'To die here, without their men or magic to sustain them.'

  Have we come all this way for nothing?

  Somewhere a bird screeched and drilled into a tree with a resonant burr that shattered the silence.

  'But what happened?' Naldeth persisted. 'What about the dragon? Did it live here before it followed the wild men to Chazen?'

  'I think we should investigate a little further,' Velindre concurred and the Zaise obediently eased away from the dead trees. The ship retreated slowly back along the bright reflection of the cloud-strewn sky between the dark waters mirroring the sombre heights on either side.

  Kheda looked up. 'Dusk comes later and more slowly in these reaches but we don't have much daylight left.'

  'I can give you all the light you want,' Naldeth saidscornfully.

  'Setting a beacon to draw anyone or anything that might be curious about us?' challenged Kheda.