Aedis and Redigal rowers make up more than half the Thorn Circle’s crew. Even their carpenter’s from Ritsem Caid’s domain. What choice did I have? Chazen has few enough triremes left after all the invaders’ destruction and less than half the mariners needed to man them. And why shouldn’t I believe men seeking to better themselves by helping to rebuild Chazen when opportunities prove limited in the domains that bore them?
Kheda gestured towards Nyral’s dagger. ‘When you come back to the residence anchorage we should have Chazen knives for you all.’
‘Thank you, my lord.’ There was a marked lack of enthusiasm in the mariner’s voice.
‘It has always been my practice to reward loyalty.’ Kheda kept his face impassive despite noting a scowl fleet across the helmsman’s face. ‘As well as punishing laxity, naturally.’
‘My lord?’ Nyral looked puzzled but his henchmen’s expressions verged on insolent.
‘You have been lax, haven’t you, to allow these vermin to dig in like sand lice on a lizard too sluggish to move?’ Kheda gestured at the wretched captives now firmly bound hand and foot. ‘I don’t want to contemplate any alternative explanation.’
‘I’m not quite sure what you mean, my lord.’ Nyral’s words were polite but uncertainty hooded his eyes as he tried to work out his safest course here.
‘You’ve either been lax in your watch on these reaches or you’ve allowed these people to make landfall.’ Kheda shrugged. ‘What next? Will we find pirates preying on this pitiful domain, once you’ve let them spy out Chazen’s seaways?’
‘We’ve been patrolling the lesser channels, my lord,’ Nyral insisted with a hint of defiance.
Not very effectively, if this is any example of your diligence,’ countered Kheda calmly. ‘Have you built a full chain of beacons yet?’
‘We’ve done all we can but we need metal fire baskets, my lord,’ Nyral protested with every appearance of sincerity. ‘We daren’t set a blaze without one and the season grows drier every day.’
Which is one honest answer, at least. Itrac Chazen hai better add iron to the list of things she needs to trade for. The pearl harvest is going to have to be truly spectacular if she’s to secure half the things we need.
‘So if you haven’t been busy setting beacons, how do you explain your laxity in letting these vermin sneak past and make themselves at home?’ Kheda gestured towards the captives once again.
The Thorn Circle’s rowing master and helmsman slid each other dubious looks behind their shipmaster’s back.
‘We can’t be everywhere at once, my lord.’ Nyral shrugged broad shoulders with scant contrition. Kheda took a moment to pretend to consider this defence, looking past Nyral and his henchmen to the Thorn Circle’s side decks. The fast trireme’s rowers were surveying the carnage on shore, hearts close together in discreet deliberation.
Counting heads and realising that they’re outnumbered, as well as seeing that these men have had a taste of blood today. Besides, I am the warlord here. I’ve proved it in this fight
Does anyone really want to raise his sword against me and find no one follows his lead? ‘So you simply didn’t know these vermin were here?’ Kheda shook his head.
No, my lord,’ said Nyral with belated regret.
‘Yet you were close enough to hear our horns and come to see what was amiss?’ Kheda wondered, apparently puzzled.
‘A stroke of fortune, my lord.’ The boldness in Nyral’s voice ebbed away. ‘We came as fast as we could, to lend our strength to yours.’
The Thorn Circle’s rowing master and helmsman were looking past Kheda to the belligerent half-circle of the Mist Dove’s swordsmen with growing apprehension.
‘I’m glad of it.’ Kheda nodded. ‘And since you admit your dereliction, I am inclined to be merciful. You will merely be flogged and chained to an oar in the lowest bank of the Mist Dove until Shipmaster Shaiam is inclined to release you.’
Nyral’s face turned ugly and he took a pace forward before abruptly freezing.
Kheda took a step forward to match the shipmaster’s, gripping the man’s forearm so he couldn’t go for his knife and leaning close. ‘Do you want me to ask those new slaves if anyone recognises you and your ship? If they’ve paid for your blindness with loot or their women’s favours? I’ll get whatever answer I want and you can settle your account with your head. No one will lift a finger to save you.’ As he spoke, Kheda felt an unnatural tension in Nyral, the muscles cording his arm shuddering as if the man strained against invisible bonds. He looked the shipmaster in the eye and saw panic there instead of rebellion. Nyral’s jaw worked beneath his beard, the man struggling to speak even as his own mouth refused to obey him.
Dev, you disobedient, bloody-minded, lizard-eating barbarian.
As quick as that thought came to him, Kheda drew his own dagger and sunk it to the hilt into Nyral’s unprotected midriff. Pulling the mariner towards him, he drove the blade deeper and twisted it up behind the man’s ribs. Dev already had a drawn sword at the throat of the Thorn Circle’s helmsman and Shaiam had his own dagger levelled at the fast trireme’s rowing master. As Kheda stepped back, heartsick and withdrawing his dagger with remarkably little blood, Nyral collapsed dead to the damp ground. The other two men from the Thorn Circle dropped to their knees, arms outstretched, hands nowhere near their belt weapons.
‘You two can pay his penalty, for standing with him,’ snarled Shaiam. The Mist Dove’s swordsmen seized them, four or five to each unresisting man, and dragged them away. Bring me a lash!’ Shaiam bellowed as he stalked after them.
Everyone else retreated to leave Kheda and Dev isolated on the water’s edge.
‘I thought flogging was the sailmaster’s job, what with all that hauling on ropes to build the shoulders,’ Dev commented lightly. ‘Though I suppose Shaiam’s got the muscles to make a decent enough job of it.’
‘Why did you do that?’ Kheda glared at the wizard with discreet fury. ‘How could I let Nyral let live after you had wrapped him in the toils of some cursed enchantment?’
‘What was I supposed to do? Let that bastard cut your throat for you while the rest of us stood there with our hands down our trousers?’ Dev was unmoved. ‘Maybe you could have taken him in a fight. I’m no augur but I could see that turning into a battle that would leave this bead knee-deep in blood if the Thorn Circle’s men decided to make a fight of it. As long as I’m playing your body slave it’s my duty to keep you alive, and you know I’m no swordsman.’ Dev looked down at NyraPs lifeless body and poked it with one foot. ‘Anyway, what have you lost besides one half-competent and likely corrupt shipmaster? All these men have just seen you act with the resolution of an awesome warlord. That’s no bad trade for one life.’ The wizard turned from the corpse at his feet to speak softly into Kheda’s ear. ‘Besides, what are you going to do about it?’
‘I do not wish to rule these people through fear,’ said Kheda through gritted teeth.
‘And you can be as generous and kindly as you like when your rule is truly secure,’ Dev retorted. ‘In the meantime, settle for knowing that everyone hereabouts is cowed by your ruthlessness. Now we can sail back to the residence without worrying what’s going on behind our backs. After you’ve done whatever you people do to celebrate your new year, we can sail west.’
‘We’ll certainly sail west as soon as possible,’ Kheda assured him grimly. ‘I’ve decided I want every last mud-painted, feather-wearing savage dead. If you can learn anything that serves your purpose while we do it, that’s your affair.’
‘You’re finally talking about a proper campaign to hunt them out?’ Dev was openly surprised. No more of this slowly drawing a noose around them to see if thirst and heat can do the job for you?’
‘I can’t afford to keep those triremes in the west if we need our trade routes hereabouts guarded. We plainly can’t trust Nyral and his like and word of the pearl harvest will soon spread, especially if Daish galleys are finally risking these waters again.
Come to that, I want to show Daish all the triremes we can muster until I know how the wind blows in that quarter.’
Kheda looked at the wizard, unsmiling. ‘So yes, it’s time to put an end to those last skulking invaders, even I if it does cost us Chazen blood. I’ll find another body slave from somewhere and you can go looking for whatever it is you think you’ll find among them. That should settle all accounts between us. As soon as they are all dead, you can sail north and lose yourself wherever you see fit. Then I can concentrate on looking to this domain’s future without the dubious benefit of your particular services.’
Chapter Three
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the notion of a warlord’s residence without walls. It was strange enough visiting this place when it was Chazen Sari’s. Now that it’s mine, this openness feels more wrong than ever.
‘Well done, Shaiam, we’re here in good time to celebrate the new-year stars.’ Kheda made sure warm approval rang through his words as he called out to the shipmaster. ‘You’ve all earned a consideration when the pearl harvest is gathered in.’
That declaration garnered Kheda loud cheers from rowers bone weary from nine days’ hard labour. He was more concerned with searching the seas ahead for any sign of visiting ships.
What interest does Daish have in the Chazen pearl harvest? What prompted a trading flotilla to sail south when no other domain feels inclined to risk these waters just yet? How long have they been here and what have they done? Who is leading their delegation?
The sun was low in the west and Kheda shaded his eyes with one hand to try to see what vessels might be at anchor within the lagoon surrounding the chain of islets long favoured by Chazen’s warlords as their dry-season home. The ships remained stubbornly anonymous, mere black silhouettes against the vivid orange of the evening sky.
The Mist Dove slowed. Shaiam showed no sign of having heard Kheda’s words of praise, intent as he was on negotiating the maze of reefs that served as the first line of defence for the residence. Yere gripped his steering oars, sitting with back straight and alert for any word from the shipmaster or any signal from the lookouts perched on the projecting bow timbers. Kheda moved to look down over the trireme’s side, Reddish coral crags appeared impossibly close as the galley’s hull slid through the crystal-clear water.; Brilliant fish darted in and out of the crevices with a twitch of their tails. Jaunty painted fools with wide white masks stayed close to the deceptive tentacles of sea flowers vivid as living ruby or golden quartz. Steel and sapphire shoals of blade fish cut circles around the duller humpbacked drift fish idling along. Down in the deeps, cobalt sea stars and giant green-lipped clams sat placidly in patches of rippled whiteness among mossy green fernlike fronds.
Dev came to stand beside Kheda. ‘What by all that’s holy is he doing?’ the barbarian demanded, gazing down incredulously at a figure beneath the water.
‘Fishing.’ Kheda smiled despite himself. ‘He’s a pearl diver in from the outer reefs.’
An islander sat quite motionless on the sandy sea floor near a round bulge of mottled brown coral. A shoal of sunset fish nosed along the contorted grooves incised in the outcrop, turning from orange to yellow as the light struck them. Then everything vanished in a flurry of sand and shimmering scales.
‘See.’ Kheda pointed as the islander emerged from the cloud of sand, kicking urgently for the surface. He had a fish in each hand, his thumbs hooked through their gills, The man surfaced with an explosive gasp for air, treading water for a moment before swimming towards a basket he had left floating between two empty wax-sealed gourds. A rope with a stone on the end was anchoring it against the ebb and flow of the curious tide.
‘You don’t think he’d find it easier to use a net?’ Dev wondered sarcastically.
‘Easier but less impressive where the residence girls are concerned.’ Kheda smiled.
‘I should try that.’ There was a lascivious edge to Dev’s chuckle. ‘If that’s what it takes to get a girl to spread her legs.’
‘You don’t think you might get invited into some maid’s quilts if you just let your hair and beard grow in?’ Kheda queried. ‘Half the girls think you must be a man’s man and the rest keep trying to find a discreet way of confirming you’re zamorin.’
‘Ah, but looking so different—that’s all part of my intriguing barbarian mystery, isn’t it?’ Dev ran a hand over his bald head and clean-shaven chin. But maybe I should let some lass into my secret. That would get me half-way to a decent new-year celebration at the very least.’ He glanced over his shoulder to be sure Yere and Shaiam were still intent on their tasks and lowered his voice still further. ‘How long do you think I could get away with staying down for? A count of a hundred? You could win all the wagers you wanted on me—if you shared the take.’
Kheda quelled the barbarian with a warning glare and the heavy trireme went on to pass through the main channel between the outer reefs without incident. Warlord and wizard gazed at the islands lying within the thorny palisade of corals. Men and women were busy around fire pits dug into the white beaches, others hurrying in and out of the long huts set among the nut palms and neat gardens that patterned each scrap of land. Savoury smoke floating across the evening stillness promised feasting and the rowers below stirred and murmured among themselves.
At the centre of the broad lagoon a string of islets lay like gems in a necklace separated by golden links. With no more than a few buildings on each one, these islands I were linked by chains of bridges.
Which can be cut if needs must, to defend one avenue of attack while Chazen swordsmen take other paths over bridges, ropes and boats to strike back at an enemy from side and rear. Defence doesn’t always mean ramparts. With few enough walk to hide behind, any attackers would always be open to arrows from some direction. And if they did take the buildings, what then? The rulers of Chazen would be long gone. No enemy could hope to maintain a blockade around such an expanse of reef. And what enemy could arrive unexpected, with the bulwark of the entire domain between this warlord’s residence and any peril sailing south from the wider Archipelago?
Kheda looked at the well-tended gardens set here and . there along the innermost islands. Trees and underbrush had been long since cleared to leave only the most carefully selected specimens. The beds around them weren’t planted with sailer grain or kitchen vegetables like the outer islands devoted to the prosaic business of growing food and necessities to keep the warlord’s residence supplied. A wide variety of shrubs and plants was care-, fully tended, some vivid with flowers or brightly coloured leaves, others mere creeping mats of dullness but cherished all the same.
‘I imagine there’ll be a fair few healers come to ask my advice and beg for seedlings,’ Kheda said to Dev.
‘Let them know I’ll make myself available tomorrow afternoon.’ I’ll have more than enough to occupy me till then, even if that will give you all the more time to line your pockets will whatever the most desperate will offer you for a chance to reach my presence ahead of the others.
‘You’ll be letting them take away some of your distilled liquor, I take it?’ Dev shot a sideways glance at Kheda. Because they will use it in tinctures and lotions for healing the sick, not for addling their wits,’ retorted the warlord. ‘And you’ll have no credibility as my slave if anyone sees you drunk, even if you are a barbarian.’
‘So much for the comforts of home.’ Dev glowered. We’ll be toasting the new year with your piss-poor excuse for wine, then, will we?’
Kheda was unmoved. ‘And no one will start a fight like some drunken barbarian or fall down dead tomorrow morning with the blood too thick to flow in their veins.’
‘That’s just a myth to keep your swordsmen clearheaded and you know it.’ Dev stared moodily out over the anchorage. ‘I’d have found plenty of people here willing to trade something shiny for northern liquor or leaf if I still had my own boat.’
‘Then I’d definitely have had you flogged.’ Kheda gave a noncommittal shru
g. ‘And I’ve seen more than one man who dropped dead for no more reason than an uncommonly hot day following a drunken night.’ The trireme picked its way carefully towards the innermost islands. The buildings were markedly different from the huts of polished wood and tidy palm thatch elsewhere—here they were stone-built pavilions, some long and low, some hollow squares, all roofed with gleaming turquoise tiles. Broad eaves shaded wide steps on all sides where benches were set for those summoned to their lord or lady’s presence but not yet admitted to the inner courts. Generous windows stood open to the breezes; pale yellow muslin drapes within teased out over the sills here and there. Sturdy hakali-wood shutters were pinned back against the white walls, ready to be closed with the fall of rapidly approaching dusk
‘It’ll be some job packing all this up when the rains come.’ Dev shook his head at the flurry of activity along the shore as servants and slaves hurried to make ready for the trireme’s arrival.
‘It’s that or spend the wet season up to our ankles in water,’ Kheda pointed out. ‘And we’d get blown clear across the domain by the storms in any case.’ Then these luxurious dwellings will be stripped bare of everything up to and including those shutters. House lizards and palm finches can come and go as they wish and the fiercest winds can rush through the buildings unhindered. We will all have sailed north to bigger islands less vulnerable to the whirlwinds, trading the safety of this openness for a very different fortress and relying on the rains to close the waterways to all but Chazen vessels. If I feel an interloper here, how much more will I seem a trespasser there?
The Mist Dove approached her customary berth, careful not to hinder the six-oared supply boats toiling across the lapis lazuli water, weighed down with baskets and bundles for the warlord’s household. Kheda noted the bare patches still scarring the physic gardens and black charring on the trunks of the larger trees.
Should we be risking ourselves by staying? Building hen with the rest of the domain between them and the wider Archipelago had been a sound enough strategy for the rulers of Chazen until invaders appeared out of the southern ocean that everyone believed was an empty waste of water. What use wen all these carefully planned networks of bridges and channels when the savages’ wizards could send fire leaping across the empty air and throw paths of solid cloud across the seas?
Northern Storm ac-2 Page 7
