The Thief's Gamble

by Juliet E. McKenna

  We kept up our watch while Shiv muttered and gestured over his little silver bowl, all magelight extinguished for safety's sake. Finally he tapped me on the back and I wriggled back to his side.

  'I think I've found some of Darni's books, a couple of volumes of a history by Weral Tandri. They're in a study of some kind, I think it's on the far side, top floor.'

  'Any sign of Geris?' I asked, hoping vainly for a win on this first throw of the runes.

  Shiv shook his head with a sigh. 'None.'

  'Any areas shielded like the boat?' Ryshad looked back over his shoulder.

  'No, I was able to scan the whole place.'

  'Could you show me the inside? It would make things a lot quicker when I go in.'

  Shiv looked reluctant. 'I'd rather not, if you think you can manage. A quick scan is one thing, a detailed survey takes time and power. Remember, those people at the lake were able to pick me out as the magic-user so I suspect they have some way of detecting elemental magic, even if we can't pick out theirs.'

  Sadly, I had to agree with his reasoning.

  'If there are no shields, I'd say there are less likely to be any aetheric defences,' Ryshad said encouragingly. I raised my eyebrows at him and gave him a sceptical look; it was a pretty thin argument but I suppose it was better than nothing.

  So we sat and waited the rest of the day out, getting bored, cramped and hungry. Ballads about great adventures leave out an ungodly amount, I decided. When was the last time you heard a minstrel put in a few verses about his hero getting bored rigid waiting for something to happen, or soaking wet in a rainstorm? Well, at least we didn't have that problem; I nearly remarked on it to Ryshad but decided, given the luck we'd been having on this particular quest, that would just be too much like tempting Dastennin.

  The Guest-house at the Shrine of Ostrin,

  Bremilayne,

  1st of Far-Winter

  Darni vented his irritation on the handle and the bell jangled frantically.

  'Organise some lunch,' he snapped over his shoulder at the startled acolyte opening it.

  'Good afternoon, do forgive my associate.' Casuel made a hasty bow and hurried past. Esquire Camarl followed slowly, his expression thoughtful.

  'What's wrong?' Allin asked, nervously clutching her sewing as the three men shed cloaks damp from the persistent drizzle.

  Darni began pacing. 'We can't find a single captain willing to go out on to the ocean with us.'

  Casuel looked gloomily at a list of names. 'We've been given every excuse from the state of the currents to the dangers of sea-serpents.'

  'I must confess that I am getting a little tired of being treated like an idiot by men who smell of seaweed.' Camarl ran a hand through hair sticky with wind-blown salt.

  'They're just cowards,' Darni spat.

  'No, just cautious, and rightly so at this season.' The Esquire shook his head. 'We're asking these men to risk their lives.'

  A sudden gust rattled the window as if to emphasise his point.

  'We're offering them enough coin!' Darni dropped heavily into a chair. 'Why can't Messire D'Olbriot just order one of them to take us?'

  'They are his clients and many sail in boats he owns.' Faint irritation tinged Camarl's voice. 'However, they make their own decisions and Messire has neither the means nor the desire to coerce them.'

  'We've got to get a boat organised before Planir's people arrive.' Darni's frustration drove him to his feet once more.

  Camarl looked at Casuel, who was sitting morosely hugging his ribs. 'Do you know when that is likely to be, Esquire Devoir?'

  Casuel shook his head tiredly. 'They've got to get a crossing from Hadrumal and that's always a problem in winter. They should make good time overland through Lescar though -there won't be any fighting at this season.'

  'The roads are going to be in an unholy state at this rime of year.' Darni was not mollified. 'Shiv and the others could be in all kinds of danger.'

  'Alternatively, they could be heading home as we speak.' Camarl frowned. 'I would not land on an unknown shore without means of escape. Surely they will have retained their vessel?'

  'I don't suppose it's occurred to Shivvalan to worry about how to get back again,' Casuel muttered sourly.

  'Do you know what's been happening to your friends?' Allin finished her neat darn and bit off her thread.

  'Well, Cas? You've been scrying them, haven't you?' Darni loomed over the table at him.

  'Not as such, not since the last time you asked and they were still on that boat.' There was a defensive edge to Casuel's indignation.

  'Do I have to tell you to do everything?' Darni threw up his hands in disgust.

  'You've been telling me to bespeak Hadrumal at every new chime,' Casuel retorted with a flash of spirit. 'How do you expect me to have the energy for anything else?'

  'Show some initiative, Saedrin curse you!' Darni's voice was beginning to rise.

  Allin hurried to answer a knock on the door, revealing a startled maid.

  'The Esquire asked for tisanes.' She bobbed a nervous curtsey.

  'Thank you.' Camarl watched the girl place her tray on the table and scurry out.

  'I don't think arguing with each other is going to prove very productive,' he observed as he reached for a tisane ball, spooning tiny amounts of dried herbs from the little china bowls on the tray. He snapped the hinged sphere shut with a decisive click. 'I will talk to my uncle and see if he can think of any other mariners we could approach.'

  Camarl placed the pierced silver ball in a cup and added hot water from the jug.

  'I really don't want to spread our business about any more than we've had to already.' Darni reached for a cup. 'We know these blondies have been in this part of the country. Who's to say they haven't still got spies here?'

  'There aren't any yellow-haired people around at the moment.' Allin spoke up unexpectedly. She put her mending aside and began to make herself a tisane.

  'How do you know that?' Darni looked at her, bemused.

  'I've been talking to the maids.' Allin coloured and pushed her tisane ball around in her cup. 'I said my mother's looking to buy some fair hair for a wig and I asked them to let me know if they saw anyone with really pale hair. I said it didn't matter if it was a woman or a man, because I could always ask a man if he had a sister who might be willing to sell her hair, if she was getting married soon.'

  She peeped up through her eyelashes to see the three men looking at her, their expressions ranging from Casuel's irritated disbelief to Darni's surprised approval.

  'I just wanted to do something to help.' Allin hid her face in her cup as she sipped her fragrant drink.

  'I've spoken to you before about gossiping with maidservants—' Casuel began heatedly.

  'Oh shut up, Cas, and make yourself a tisane.' Darni shoved the tray towards him.

  'What if she's put us all at risk of discovery?'

  'You know, you—' Darni caught sight of Camarl's politely disdainful face and clearly changed his mind about what he was going to say. 'If you were any wetter, you'd have ducks landing on your head, Cas.'

  Allin grinned and Camarl rubbed a hand over a sudden smile. Casuel busied himself making a drink, filled with sudden longing for his mother's elegant sitting-room and her tisane tray, complete with everything to the same design, new from the silversmith last Solstice. He was accustomed to better than this collection of mismatched antiques, he sulked.

  Esquire Camarl coughed. 'If there's no word of our adversaries, that's one worry that we can leave simmering on the hearth. However, I do think it would be useful to find out what Ryshad and your friends are doing. Esquire Devoir, are you sufficiently rested to attempt a “scrying”, I think you called it?'

  The urge to withhold his talents out of sheer spite warred with Casuel's desire to ingratiate himself with such a potentially influential gentleman.

  'I can try, but I am very tired,' he said after a pause.

  'Thank you.' Camarl made h
im a courteous bow.

  Casuel rubbed his hands. 'I need a broad, flat bowl and cold water.'

  Allin hurried off obediently to obtain them.

  'Do you have anything that belonged to Shiv or that woman?' Casuel went on. 'I'll need something to focus on, working at this range.'

  Darni rummaged in his pocket. 'Here.' He handed Casuel a rune-bone. 'I took this off Livak when some Dalasorian goatherders were getting a bit irritated with her.'

  'What's he doing?' the Esquire whispered to Allin as they watched Casuel place the oddly heavy rune in the bowl and add water, leaning over and drawing a deep breath which he instantly regretted as pain lanced through his ribs.

  'He's going to bring an image to the water, of the people you're looking for, a sort of reflection.' She watched closely.

  'Can you do this?' Camarl was intrigued.

  'Not yet. But I'll learn.' Allin's eyes were bright with determination.

  'Can I have a little silence?' Casuel snapped.

  Dull green light gradually gathered at the bottom of the bowl, growing brighter and clearer as it rose towards the surface of the water. It shone up into Casuel's drawn features and flickered, casting strange shadows against the bones of his face.

  'That's got it!' Casuel set his jaw determinedly and hung on to the image grimly. 'They've landed, anyway.'

  Darni, Allin and Camarl leaned forward eagerly to see a jumbled vista of grey rocks.

  'There,' Darni said after a long moment. 'In that hollow.'

  Camarl scanned the image. 'They're hiding, but I can't see from what.'

  'Geris isn't with them.' Darni's voice was heavy with disappointment.

  Allin drew her shawl around her shoulders unconsciously. 'It looks very gloomy and cold.'

  Camarl nodded. 'The question is, are they much further north or simply a very great distance further east?'

  'Show us some more, Cas,' Darni commanded.

  'I'll try,' Casuel said through gritted teeth. The image moved slowly, harsh rocks, bleak screes, cowering houses defying the bitter weather, the scrying rising gradually to reveal more of the surrounding land.

  'Do you suppose they're watching that?' Camarl reached to point at the house.

  'Don't touch the water,' Casuel said with some effort and the Esquire pulled his hand back hurriedly.

  Darni hissed through his teeth, thinking. 'I wonder if Geris is in there. If they get him out, they need a way off those rocks and soon. Saedrin, this is so frustrating!'

  'Can't you bespeak them?' Allin asked hesitantly.

  'Not with this spell, not at this distance,' Casuel said shortly; sweat was beginning to glisten on his forehead.

  Darni muttered something under his breath but the others all caught the word 'useless'.

  'Would you like to try doing this yourself?' Casuel snapped, the light of the spell flickering and dimming.

  'It is certainly remarkable,' Esquire Camarl interjected smoothly. 'I've never had occasion to employ a wizard and I had no idea you could perform such wonders.'

  Casuel lifted his chin and shot Darni a look of triumph mixed with contempt before bending his will to the enchantment again.

  'Can you show us any more of these islands?' Camarl began to make notes on a scrap of parchment. 'For when we land.'

  'We?' Darni looked enquiringly at the young nobleman, who grinned back.

  'I feel I should represent D'Olbriot interests when you reach these islands. Messire will be expecting me to look for any opportunities that the family might exploit in this situation.'

  'The idea is to rescue our friends, not to make your Prince even richer,' Darni scowled.

  'The two aims are not incompatible,' Camarl replied firmly. 'The seas are obviously fertile, there might be other resources.'

  'Is anybody watching this?' Casuel demanded crossly and everyone hastily returned their attention to the image in the water.

  An ice-clad mountain fell away, its sides hidden in snow. Below that, long screes of broken rock stretched into bleak valleys with a threadbare covering of scrub and poor grassland. A scatter of lights was virtually all that distinguished a small settlement from the surrounding rocks in the deepening dusk. Any people and animals were out of sight and out of reach of the frost already glistening on the bare faces of the cliffs. Faint tracks were scratched around a patchwork of ragged fields spreading down towards the shoreline where the cold grey sea lapped on the shingle.

  'We need to get an ocean boat inshore.' Camarl frowned.

  Casuel took a shaky breath and the image began to slide along the coast. An inlet appeared, a long bank of stones protecting a lagoon. A second island came into view, a headland and a narrow strait with a chain of little eyots.

  'That's not rock, that's fortification,' Darni pointed. 'Look, that must be a patrol.'

  They watched as a file of tiny figures crossed a causeway over the shallows and disappeared into the irregular precincts of the little watchtower.

  'What are they so keen to defend, I wonder?' Camarl mused. 'Esquire Devoir, could you follow that strait?'

  Casuel nodded silently, now taking short, abrupt breaths. The sea shimmered beneath the moons but the grey land was increasingly indistinct as the twilight deepened to night.

  'Look, shipyards!' Camarl exclaimed suddenly.

  They peered down at the enclave fenced in on the shore; timber stacked around long low huts, a square mast-pond at one end, tiny dots of light bobbing along, suggesting patrolling guards. A clutch of tall ships lay moored at the end of a long jetty.

  The two men looked at each other. 'Where are they getting the wood for ships that size?' they asked at the same moment.

  'Gidesta or Dalasor?' Darni's lips narrowed.

  'Are they taking it or buying it?' Camarl wondered grimly. 'Just what sort of foothold have they got over here?'

  The image wavered suddenly as Casuel carried it high up the side of a cliff. An ice-field shone beneath them, and a reddish glow began to lift the gloom.

  'Fire-mountains!' breathed Darni.

  'Like the Archipelago.' Casuel wiped his forehead with a shaking hand.

  The land sped beneath them until it fell away into a boiling sea. Great gouts of steam rose from the margin of land and water as a river of fire belched molten rock into the seething foam. A little further out to sea, an islet rose up, the graceful symmetry of its cone in stark contrast to the chaos of the waters around its base.

  'Misaen's still busy here,' Camarl commented.

  'I can feel the power of the earth coming back to me through the spell.' Casuel blinked sweat out of his eyes. 'This place is alive with raw elements, the fire, the seas, all of it.'

  Darni stared. 'Is there no way you can translocate me there, Cas?'

  'You know full well a mage can only translocate to places he's physically visited,' Casuel snapped, the light of the spell beginning to dim inexorably.

  'Otrick's combined it with scrying,' Darni objected, hands hovering in impotent exasperation.

  Casuel shook his head and the water was suddenly empty. 'How Otrick hasn't killed himself yet is one of the great unsolved mysteries of modern magic.' He cupped trembling hands around his tisane and drained it.

  'At least they look safe enough at the moment.' Darni's face was twisted with frustration.

  'You're just annoyed that they got there ahead of you,' Casuel said spitefully.

  'That's not the point and you know it,' Darni replied furiously.

  'Surely—' Esquire Camarl raised his voice to speak over them both. 'Surely the important thing is that we find a means of making sure assistance is at hand, when they need it.'

  Darni and Casuel looked at him. 'How?' they said almost in unison.

  Camarl looked thoughtful. 'Just at present, I'm afraid I have no idea.'

  The Islands of the Elietimm,

  1st of For-Winter

  Dusk drew in and the guards on the gate changed. A new contingent marched out from a barracks on the near side of the
compound, which I made a note to avoid. As the officers exchanged what I guessed might be the keys, one hapless soldier was stripped, marched over to a wooden frame and tied to it. I winced as the crack of the lash echoed around the hollow in the hills. Even without Ryshad's spy-glass, we could see the blood streaming from the lad's back. When they finally left him, he was hanging with a stillness that spoke more of death than simple unconsciousness.

  'And you still reckon this isn't like Aldabreshi?' Aiten muttered grimly.

  Ryshad shook his head. 'Flogging troops is discipline, however brutal. Flogging the locals would be more like the repression the Warlords go in for and there's no sign of that. If you're thinking we might get help from the peasants here, I reckon you can forget it.'

  This reminder of our isolation and the danger we could find ourselves in silenced us all and we sat and watched glumly as the night deepened around us. It grew colder and colder and I began to worry about how I would go about picking locks with such stiff, icy fingers.

  'Here.' Shiv passed me a small rock and I was surprised to feel it warm my hands.

  He grinned at me. 'I'm not much good at earth magic but I can do a few tricks.'

  I peered up at the stars and moons; Halcarion's crown was in a different part of the sky but I watched it carefully. When I judged we were well after midnight, I got slowly to my feet, grimacing as I stretched the stiffness out of my limbs, and changed my boots for soft leather shoes.

  'I don't want you scrying after me in case it alerts someone,' I whispered to Shiv, 'but can you enhance your hearing at all?'

  He nodded and I gave a sigh of relief. 'If I get caught, I'll scream the place down. If you hear me, get me out of there fast.'

  I crept carefully down the slope. Loose stones lay everywhere and I didn't want to betray myself with the slightest sound. A straggle of one-roomed houses around the road and the gate provided useful cover and I made full use of the shadows as I slipped round to the side of the compound furthest from the barracks. The walls were all dry-stone-built which gave useful hand- and footholds and I was able to scale it with no real difficulty. I clung there like a squirrel for a while, peering over the top of the wall while I checked it was safe. When I was sure all was as still as a miser's strongroom, I rolled over the top and dropped silently inside. No one shouted or pointed. All the guards seemed to be gathered in the gate-house and I didn't begrudge them the warm brazier glowing through the doorway, not if it kept them inside with no night vision to speak of.