Western Shore ac-3

by Juliet E. McKenna

  Risala began running, dragging Kheda mercilessly with her. 'We have to get back to the river.'

  He ran, his chest heaving, and saw she was bleeding from fresh cuts inflicted by the cruel grasses he had thrown her into.

  'Here,' she gasped, finally stopping. 'We should be able to cut straight through to the bank where we left the Zaise.'

  Kheda caught her in his arms and held her close, feeling her heart beating hard and fast against his bare chest. He realised he was spattered with the dead bird's blood. 'We'll just have to hope the smell of that slaughter over there is drawing any other predators.'

  Risala sounded determined. 'There are two of us. We should be able to scare off one of those lizards at least.'

  Kheda risked raising himself to his full height to see over the grasses, relieved beyond measure to see a lazy curve of gleaming water turning towards them. 'Velindre

  or Naldeth should be able to see us once we reach the bank. I assume they'll make themselves visible to us.'

  'Let's hope so,' Risala said fervently.

  They began forcing their way through the lacerating grasses once again. Kheda barely noticed the stinging of fresh cuts as he tried to make sense of what they had seen.

  What is this place, where men eat lizards and are prey to birds themselves? What manner of birds were those? Yora hawks, like those in myth and legend? Are we going to meet mirror birds and winged snakes next? Why not? Horned fish and sea serpents are real enough, if rare enough to be called portents whenever they show themselves.

  I've been in border skirmishes and full-blown battles, never mind leading my men against these savages and that dragon of Velindre's. I've seen men die for the causes they believed in, good and ill. I've killed men with my own blade, when I had no other choice. Why is it so much worse to see men torn apart by animals simply intent on filling their bellies?

  He realised Risala was talking to him. 'What were those things?' she asked a second time. 'Are we going to find other creatures drawn from constellations walking this land?'

  'They were just birds.' He couldn't restrain a shudder despite his resolute tone.

  'Just giant birds, along with hideous lizards, in a land where dragons swim in the seas.' There was the faintest of tremors in Risala's voice. 'You still don't believe there are any omens to be read here? What do you suppose any other Aldabreshin seer would make of all this?'

  'That's no concern of mine.' Kheda saw the sun shining off the river through the haze of grass. 'I just want to get back to the Zaise.''

  They emerged onto the crumbling bank and looked upstream and down, trying to get their bearings. Kheda was inexpressibly relieved to recognise the choke point where the low muddy islet split the meandering waters

  of the main channel. He was surprised to see they had come some distance past it. He was more perturbed to see no trace of the Zaise, not even the distorted shimmer of Naldeth's magic wrapped around the ship.

  'Where are they?' Risala looked around.

  A faint shout from the far bank startled them both. The words weren't in the Tormalin tongue or any Aldabreshin dialect. It came again.

  'Can you see anyone over there?' Kheda hid his sword behind his back, trying not to be too obvious about it.

  Will we be recognised as strangers at such a distance?

  The distant bank was a sea of swaying grass, scored here and there with the narrow paths worn by lizards or whatever else lived in this strange place. The plain extended a good deal further on that side of the river before the swell of the land rose up to meet the fat spiny plants and twisted trees.

  'Have they gone to hide somewhere else?' Risala bit off the words, frustrated. 'Do you suppose she's scrying for us?'

  'I don't know.' Movement on the far side of the river caught Kheda's eye. Away in the distance, a wide bluff jutted out from the valley side into the grassy plain. Another gang of savages were picking their way cautiously down a bare earthen slope facing the river that was somehow resisting the encroaching woodland. All the spearmen carried burning torches and, despite the bright sun, Kheda saw the unmistakable unnatural scarlet of magefire.

  'There.' Risala choked on her relief.

  'Where?' Kheda looked upstream but couldn't see a thing.

  'Just wait a moment.' Risala stared intently at nothingness.

  Kheda saw a shallow furrow carved in the silty water fade and disappear. In the next instant, the Zaise blinked

  into view, Naldeth beckoning frantically from the stern platform. Wild shouts rang out across the grasses from the distant bluff, startled outrage plainly audible. The ship drifted closer and vanished again.

  'So much for their magic not attracting any notice,' Kheda commented bitterly as he began pushing through the rustling grasses, heading as quickly as possible for the invisible ship.

  'Are we going to be safer ashore or aboard?' Risala wondered with equal terseness.

  'I really don't know.' Kheda stumbled as a chunk of the undercut bank fell away beneath his feet to land in the water with a resounding splash.

  Risala caught his hand and pulled him back. 'I suppose we'll find out.'

  As they approached the last point where they had seen the ship, Kheda tried to make out where these newly arrived wild men and their mage might be. It proved impossible to see where the savages had gone once they'd reached the bottom of the barren slope and disappeared into the grasses.

  Does that wild wizard have a dragon to call on? The mages who came to the Archipelago came to woo that fire dragon. What do we do if some dragon appears here? I've seen one sink a trireme, never mind a ship the size of theZaise. Dev saved me from drowning. We should have made a pact — that Velindre would save Risala, and I'll take my chances with Naldeth.

  The Zaise flickered into sight once again, looking strangely flat like a reflection in polished metal.

  'Come on!' Naldeth's agonised whisper sounded loud in Kheda's ears, as if the mage were standing next to him.

  The wild men on the far side of the river were shouting, definitely getting closer. Kheda saw scarlet flames advancing

  through the distant grasses, along with the fire-hardened points of brutal wooden spears.

  The ship disappeared just as Kheda dropped down from the dry bank onto the treacherous mud. Risala landed beside him with a squelch and slid a few paces. He grabbed her hand.

  'Run.' Velindre's calm voice floated between them.

  'Where to?' demanded Kheda.

  'Just do it,' the magewoman insisted, unseen.

  With Risala's fingers interlaced with his own, Kheda tried to run across the slippery mud. Inside a few paces, his feet had left the moist slickness, sinking instead into a spongy nothingness that sloped rapidly uphill. It was worse than running in soft sand; his aching calves and thighs protested. He ignored the discomfort and hurried on, trying not to look down. He didn't even want to contemplate the apparent emptiness ahead reaching all the way to the far river bank.

  Something caught him across the shins with an agonising crack and he tumbled headlong onto the deck of the now wholly visible Zaise. Risala landed on top of him and rolled away, cursing under her breath.

  'We have to get out of here.' Naldeth stood on the main deck, a flicker of scarlet light tangled around his outstretched hands.

  'I'd say so,' Kheda hissed. Biting his lip, he rubbed his bruised legs.

  'Can they see us?' Risala was still crouching on her hands and knees.

  'I hope not.' Velindre was standing up on the stern platform, shaking the remnants of a cerulean flame from one hand. She raised the other to the stern mast where the half-sail obediently bellied with a sapphire-laced wind.

  'Can you see them?' Kheda got slowly to his feet and headed for the ladder at the stern.

  'Stand still,' Naldeth warned. 'Don't disturb the spells.'

  All the youthful wizard's attention was focused on the magelight between his hands. He stretched his hands a little wider apart and Kheda saw fine threads of magic catching
the light, floating outwards in all directions. The warlord stood motionless where he was.

  Slowly easing herself to a sitting position, Risala looked dubiously around. 'Can they hear us?' she whispered. 'If they can't see us?'

  Naldeth spared her a brief glance. 'Not if we keep our voices down.'

  Velindre's hazel eyes were fixed on the half-furled sail, her other hand guiding the steering oars several paces behind her.

  Fighting a pointless urge to sink below the Zaise's deck rails to hide, Kheda watched the wild men reach the thinner grasses fringing the far bank. Savages naked but for loincloths carried the mage-lit torches and their long vicious spears. The wild wizards followed, striding unhindered through the inhospitable grasses which parted before them, sending ripples running away like water.

  'Two wild wizards,' Kheda said softly. 'And they are wild women.'

  Both wore wraps of soft leather tied just above their breasts and reaching to mid-thigh. Their long, coarse curls were knotted around dense clusters of vivid red and purple feathers and both carried themselves with an ominous assurance.

  'Do you suppose they answer to him?' breathed Risala.

  A third savage mage strode forward to stand on the undercut lip of the bank, between the feather-crowned women. Where the wild spearmen wore the usual brief clouts of stained hide, this man wore a belt of plaited cords with a panel of wooden beadwork hanging at his groin. All around the rest of the belt scraps of lizard hide were

  tied, interspersed with what looked horribly like hanks of black, tangled hair. He wore a band of pale-grey feathers tied just below one knee and another around one wrist. Shrugging back a heavy cloak of long blue-green feathers that could only have come from the monstrous birds that had attacked the cave dwellers, he turned to the two women, gesturing upstream and down.

  'So that's a wild wizard.' Naldeth stole a quick glance before returning all his attention to his spell-casting.

  'Can he see us?' Kheda couldn't see any clue on the savage mage's face. He couldn't actually see his face, he realised with a shudder. The man wore a bleached white skull as a mask, stark against his profusion of dark, matted locks. The empty eye sockets of the skull stared after the invisible ship, framed by the downward curve of the ridged horns once flourished by whatever beast had given up its life for the wild mage's adornment.

  'Probably not.' Naldeth didn't sound as certain as Velindre had done, as the Zaise slipped silently away downstream.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Wild wizards, like the ones who burned the fleeing people of Chazen alive. Like the ones who twisted harmless animals into monsters to slaughter my swordsmen.

  'Where are we going?' Kheda forced the words out.

  'Back out to sea,' Velindre said tersely, 'before that mage thinks of whipping up a sandstorm.'

  Because coating anything invisible with dust would leave it plain for all to see.

  'The rawest apprentice in Hadrumal would have done that by now.' Naldeth drew his hands together, lacing his fingers tight. The whiteness of his knuckles belied his contempt for the savages standing confused on the rapidly receding river bank.

  'Won't he sense your magic?' Faintest blue magelight still shimmered around the half-sail, countering the sea breeze coming inshore. Kheda moved closer to Risala.

  'Not unless he's quicker witted than he has been so far.' Nevertheless, Velindre raised a hand and the sapphire radiance faded to a bare memory staining Kheda's vision.

  'He wasn't so slow-witted.' Kheda couldn't help himself. 'He found us, didn't he?'

  'That wizard couldn't see us,' Naldeth said stubbornly. 'I'll take my oath on it.'

  'AH he knew was that something was awry,' Velindre agreed. 'He didn't know what.'

  'Then how did they just happen to arrive so soon after we sailed inland?' snapped Kheda.

  'The smoke could have drawn them,' Risala said reluctantly. 'From the hunters' fires.'

  'I suppose it's possible,' Kheda allowed grudgingly.

  'Once they were close enough, their wizard could have felt some disturbance in the elements.' Velindre considered the puzzle, ignoring Kheda's irritation. 'Though I'm certain he didn't know what it was.'

  Naldeth nodded his agreement. 'If he had any notion, he would have brought down some magic on us.'

  'Or some dragon,' interjected Risala.

  'At least we know there are still mages here.' Kheda dismissed the cooling remnants of his anger. 'As well as potentially dangerous numbers of wild men. That's what we came to find out—'

  'You're proposing we go back to the Archipelago immediately?' Velindre was still gazing back up the river. 'To sit and wait for their attack?'

  'We don't know that they will attack again,' protested Naldeth.

  'We don't know that they won't,' Kheda said grimly.

  And I still don't know what we'd do if they did.

  The younger wizard shook his head stubbornly. 'Surely this isle is big enough for their needs. It's not as if a land this size could blow itself apart and sink like that outlying chain.'

  'We still don't know for certain why those savages from that drowned island sailed east to Chazen instead of coming here.' Risala grimaced, absently rubbing at a sore welt on one forearm.

  'If we took a day or so to get a little closer to those mageborn, we might glean some better understanding of their magic' Velindre caught her bitten thumbnail between her white teeth, brow clouded with thought. 'Finding some weakness in their wizardry could prove vital if they do come to the Archipelago one day. That

  masquerader in the feather cloak has an affinity with elemental air but he wasn't drawing on the breezes around him. I'm sure he has some tie to a dragon. I could feel it.'

  Instantly Risala looked up. 'Is it anywhere close?'

  'Let me read the breezes.' Velindre stared into the sky with disquieting eagerness.

  'Just don't bring it down on us.' Kheda turned to Naldeth. 'Were those women with feathers in their hair mages as well?'

  'I'd call them mageborn rather than mages,' the young wizard said slowly. 'One of them was keeping the torches alight with a fire affinity but I don't think she could do much more than that.'

  'Not without a fire dragon's aura to draw on.' Velindre was still intent on the cloudless sky.

  'The wild wizards who came to the Archipelago had lesser mages hanging around them, to begin with at least,' Risala said thoughtfully.

  'And we never really understood why.' Kheda looked around dubiously.

  'We don't know anything about them.' Velindre was unperturbed. 'Which is hardly surprising after barely a day sailing this coast. We came here to reconnoitre, Kheda. Will you at least spend another day seeing what we might learn?'

  'One more day,' he conceded.

  Because there are indeed too many questions still unanswered, and I have come too far for all this to be for nothing. And Risala and I are not alone, defenceless against evil wizardry. But is the confidence of these northern mages wholly justified or am I just seeing more ofDev's arrogance?

  The Zaise slipped back down the muddy channel towards the maze of rivulets cutting through the sand bars defying the surging sea. Kheda's countless scrapes and

  scratches began to throb unbearably. He realised he was still gripping his bloodied sword and clenched his fist around the hilt all the tighter to fight the urge to scratch at his itches. Finally he lost sight of the savage mage in the receding grasslands.

  'We had better find somewhere to hide the ship without magic if we're going ashore,' Naldeth said irritably, 'in case some elemental concealment catches a wild wizard's eye.'

  'Or a dragon's.' Velindre leaned against the tiller to turn the prow of the Zaise towards the north, beyond the river mouth. 'Let's see how the land lies this way.'

  Kheda couldn't decide whether to be reassured or irritated by the magewoman's calmness.

  All these scratches are doing nothing for my temper. And I had better clean this sword before we go ashore again.

&n
bsp; 'If we're going ashore again, what are we going to do?' Risala frowned, rubbing harder at her forearm.

  'I suppose we could find out where that masked mage lives,' Kheda said reluctantly. 'Or see how he deals with those wretches in those caves, assuming he crosses the river.'

  'Do you suppose he has any dealings with them?' wondered Risala. 'They can't have had any magic, or they'd have used it to drive off those vile birds.'

  'Those caves are probably as good a place as any to make for once we've hidden the ship.' Taking Risala's hand away from the score she was absently inflaming, Kheda looked at Naldeth. 'Have you any experience of stalking game?'

  'I wouldn't know how to begin without using my magic' The young mage was looking ahead to the jagged cliffs where the high ground on either side of the grassy plain broke on the seashore. 'Velindre, there are caves inside these rocks.'

  This dark-grey stone was unlike any they'd encountered so far, fractured by the ceaseless battering of the ocean and smeared with the white droppings of unfamiliar seabirds that bickered on ledges fringed with meagre vegetation.

  Kheda couldn't see any opening big enough for a man to slip through, never mind a boat.

  'Getting into some sea cave might be easy enough,' he warned, 'but remember that we have to get out again, whatever the tide.'

  'And we may not be wanting to use magic to do it.' Risala moved closer and he welcomed the reassurance of her presence beside him. She pulled away with a hiss as his sweat seared one of her grazes.

  Kheda bit his lip against the sudden pain clawing at his own arm. He took Risala's hand. 'Come on, let's find my physic chest.'

  They left Velindre scanning the skies and Naldeth absorbed studying the inhospitable cliffs.

  Risala followed Kheda through the door to the stern cabin. He set his blood-clotted sword carefully down and bent to pull open the trap door to the aft hold.