Northern Storm ac-2

by Juliet E. McKenna

  Kheda slid Risala a sideways grin. ‘I’m glad you’re here to keep him honest.’

  She didn’t see his smile, intent on Dev’s rapid exchanges with the distant wizard woman. ‘They’re disputing who might have these journals and who she should ask next.’ Risala shook her head slowly, eyes still fixed on the mirror, her voice running low beneath the arguing mages. ‘She’s insisting she knows what she’s looking for. She’s sure these journals will hold all the lore we need. It’s just finding out who has them. I don’t think Dev’s convinced.’

  Kheda could hear that for himself, along with the rising note of defiant argument in the woman’s words. Now she’s talking about having to go on some journey to find out what we need to know,’ Risala continued hurriedly. ‘She says that’s the best way to be certain, something about going to the source. I

  think there’s a joke there but I don’t follow. Dev’s not amused. He seems to think there are people who’ll know what we need closer to hand. He doesn’t see why she can’t do whatever it takes to win them over.’ She broke off, frowning as the conversation flowing back and forth through the enchanted mirror threatened to degenerate into a shouting match.

  ‘Dev.’ Kheda yielded to his frustration and turned around.

  ‘What?’ snapped the wizard before silencing the distant woman with a curt word.

  ‘Is she truly on the scent of some lore that can help us? Do you believe that much?’ Kheda demanded. ‘Do you trust her?’

  ‘She wants this lore worse than you do.’ Dev laughed unpleasantly. ‘It’s just a question of the quickest way to find it. I’d stick to searching the archives at hand if it was me but she wants to make a trip—’

  ‘Whatever she chooses to do, how soon does she think she might have some lore we can use against the dragon?’ Kheda interrupted. ‘Honestly? We need to know how long we have to hold the beast off for.’

  ‘And what’s the longest it might take her,’ added Risala. ‘If things don’t go as well as she seems to expect,’ Kheda agreed.

  ‘Hope for the best but plan for the worst.’ Risala quoted one of Kheda’s precepts back at him with a grin. Dev posed the question in his rapid barbarian tongue. Kheda listened with frustration to the uncanny, unintel—

  ligible conversation between the mages. The mirror burned with a red-gold radiance vivid even in the bright sunlight. The magewoman was a distant image, featureless as she gesticulated.

  Hope for the best but plan for the worst. You cannot wait till you have all possible information before making plans. You will never have all the facts. Make your best plan based on knowledge, experience and instinct, and act upon it. Believe you are right. If it turns out you were wrong, deal with the consequences as and when they arise, and never admit to self-doubt. You did not make an error, because that was the best plan of action at the time. You cannot change the past, only the future, so make a new plan, the best you can in the here and now.

  That’s what your father told you and that’s what you taught Sirket. It sounds so simple to be a warlord. But won’t relying on some accursed wizard’s best guess inevitably lead me into error?

  What else can I do? Isn’t this woman’s guess better than nothing? I have to base my actions on something. The people of Chazen must believe I have a plan or we’ll lose them to their fears. Lose your people and you’ve lost your domain. First and last, that’s the ultimate reality of being a warlord. The wizard woman’s distant reply had been going on for far too long to be a simple answer. Tension crawled between Kheda’s shoulder blades along with sweat prompted by the punishing sun. Dev responded with some lengthy, forceful protest, his tone ugly.

  ‘What is she saying?’ Kheda asked with growing concern.

  ‘That she won’t just tell Dev what she learns regardless,’ Risala answered, her voice tense with anger. ‘She’s saying she wants to come here, to see the dragon for herself. Then she’ll share what she finds out. Unless we agree, she won’t tell us a thing.’

  ‘How does she propose to do that?’ Kheda saw that Dev was crushing the end of the taper in his hand, knuckles white around the beeswax. His scorn sprayed the mirror with spittle that vanished as soon as it touched the radiant metal.

  The distant wizard woman’s face filled the magical void burning in the surface of the mirror. The contrast with Dev was startling. This wizard woman was all barbarian with blonde hair drawn back off a curiously ageless face, though she was plainly no longer in the first flush of youth. There was no softness in those angular bones, no yielding in the thin-lipped mouth speaking with clipped precision. Her eyes were a surprise,—brown where Kheda would have expected blue, though paler than any he’d ever seen on an Archipelagan. They were also wholly resolute.

  ‘She isn’t going to back down over this,’ he said quietly to Risala.

  ‘She certainly looks determined,’ the girl agreed. Kheda spoke up. ‘How does she propose to come here?’ he asked Dev. ‘I thought you said a wizard couldn’t go somewhere they’d never been.’ Dev ignored him, still arguing furiously with the woman. Her replies by contrast were icily calm.

  ‘She can’t ever have travelled in the Archipelago,’ commented Risala. ‘She’d have been enslaved before she got further than the northernmost reaches looking like that, never mind getting skinned for being a wizard.’

  ‘She knows she’s got the whip hand over us all, though,’ Kheda said with reluctant resignation.

  ‘She knows she needs an escort. She just said so.’ Risala rubbed a hand through her black hair, frowning. ‘She wants a ship sent to Relshaz to fetch her.’

  ‘That’s madness.’ Kheda stared at her. ‘There’s the entire length of the Archipelago between us. We haven’t that time to waste.’

  ‘She’s adamant.’ Risala looked at him. ‘She’s not going to give way on it.’

  ‘How soon?’ Kheda took a step forward and shook Dev’s shoulder roughly. ‘How soon can she get to Relshaz with this dragon lore? If she can bring us what we need to be rid of the beast, I will send a ship. If she can’t guarantee to help us, tell her I won’t waste any more time on this and I certainly won’t send her men or a vessel we need in Chazen.’

  The woman abandoned her dispute with Dev, her eyes shifting to look straight at Kheda. He stifled a shudder of revulsion.

  Scrying is one thing. The intimacy of this communication is quite another.

  Dev asked the questions, challenge in his voice coloured with insulting disbelief. The woman replied with cold precision in her incomprehensible tongue, strange eyes fixed on Kheda all the while. She finished speaking and silence rang loudly across the open observatory. The only movement was the ceaseless whirling of the circle of brilliant magic on the mirror.

  Dev let out a slow, contemplative breath. ‘She’s talking about a long trip but as luck would have it, she can make most of that journey by magic. The last bit will be the trial and then, assuming she can find the man she’s looking for ...’ He shook his head reluctantly. ‘If she can find him, yes, he should have the lore we need. Whether he’ll share it is another question altogether.’

  ‘Promise him gems, pearls, whatever it takes,’ Kheda ordered tersely. ‘Your barbarian coin, if need be.’

  ‘He won’t be interested.’ Dev laughed derisively. ‘He’s long past interest in such trifles. If Velindre can’t convince him to share what he knows, no promises of riches will shift him.’

  ‘And if she can?’ Kheda asked.

  ‘Then we should certainly have something to make any dragon think twice about plundering Chazen,’ said Dev softly.

  ‘Do you think she can achieve this?’ Kheda demanded. ‘Do you trust her? Is pursuing this worth our while? Tell me honestly, Dev.’

  ‘If anyone can convince the wizard she’s talking about to share his lore, she’s the woman to do it. And it’s not as if we have any other bright ideas, is it?’ He looked up at Kheda. ‘I’d say the odds are better than even money. I’d take that bet.’

  The woman
said something, shifting her gaze to Dev who nodded reluctantly.

  ‘If she can persuade him to talk, she’ll be at Relshaz barely a day later. What will take the time will be getting her down here, which is plain stupidity—we don’t have time to sit here with our thumbs up our arses while she takes a pleasure cruise.’ Turning back to the woman he began talking again, objections rapid and angry. She shook her head, mouth stubborn.

  ‘Dev, shut up for a moment.’ Kheda closed his eyes, the better to think. ‘Can she undertake to be in Relshaz in forty-five days, near enough?’

  ‘You’re planning on flogging a trireme crew half to death?’ Dev looked up at him, incredulous. ‘When did a Chazen trireme last make that voyage so fast?’

  ‘Can we survive this dragon’s presence that long?’ Risala asked tersely.

  ‘What other choice do we have?’ Kheda waved her question away. ‘Just ask her,’ he snapped at Dev. Shaking his head in disbelief, the mage obliged. The wizard woman’s emphatic nod needed no translation. ‘Will she be able to recognise a Chazen trireme in the docks of Relshaz?’ Kheda continued. ‘Kheda,’ Risala warned. She pointed and he saw the residence steward Beyau heading purposefully for the footbridge leading to the observatory isle. Waiting impatiently through a rapid exchange between the mages, Kheda handed Risala the key to the door at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Get down there and tell Beyau to come back later. Tell him I’m still reading omens.’

  Risala nodded and ran lightly down the stairs.

  ‘Dev,’ Kheda said, calculating quickly, ‘the Greater Moon is waxing. Tell the woman to be in Relshaz at the end of its next complete cycle, the one after this when it’ll just about coincide with the Lesser Moon’s darkness. Do you understand? I don’t know what that would be in your barbarian calendar.’

  ‘Sometime around the thirtieth of Aft-Spring, my lord, depending on which almanac we’re using,’ Dev said with heavy sarcasm. He said something brief to the woman in the spell, with a note of warning. Then he blew out the taper and the magic vanished to leave the polished metal shining vacant and uninformative in the sun.

  ‘I need a drink before my brain boils.’ Dev abandoned the mirror on the observatory’s tiles and headed for the stairs.

  ‘Wait. We’re taking omens, remember?’ Kheda heard Risala talking to Beyau below. He nudged the lustre-trimmed square of the mirror with his foot. ‘Does this have to be intact for your magics? The frame, I mean, not the metal.’

  Dev halted at the top of the steps, puzzled.

  ‘Take this and keep it with your own gear.’ Kheda drew his dagger and bent to pick up the mirror. He reversed the blade and carefully stabbed at the delicate glass tiles with the brass hilt. The glaze splintered and crackled under his assault. ‘You don’t use any other mirror for that bespeaking enchantment, do you understand me? Now sit down. I said I was going to read mirror omens for the domain and I intend to.’

  Dev didn’t reply, simply snorting as he went to sit in what little shade was offered by the waist-high wall encircling the observation platform.

  Kheda picked up the undamaged mirrors he had brought up with him and left on the wall’s broad rail.

  In times of confusion, hidden truths can often be seen more clearly in reflections. Isn’t that what you were always taught! Perhaps, but do you honestly think you’ll see any omens with the memory of that magic clouding your mind?

  He studied the mirror bird on the back of the copper mirror for a moment before flipping it around. Lifting the mirror so that he could see the open horizon and the empty sea behind him, he moved slowly, shifting his feet little by little until he had surveyed the entire circle of the compass as it was reflected in the shining metal. The vista remained entirely, unhelpfully blank.

  He heaved a sigh and began again. This time Risala appeared at the top of the stairs. ‘I told Beyau you were busy. He asked for you to send word as soon as you’re free to see him.’

  ‘There’s not a lot to keep me here,’ Kheda said heavily.

  ‘Wait till moonrise, that’s a more auspicious time for mirror omens,’ she suggested softly.

  Dev spoke up from the far side of the observatory. ‘You were talking about looking in Chazen’s library for any useful lore. We could do that and be in the cool. You Archipelagans might know something that would wipe that smirk off Velindre’s face. Stronger things have happened. I wouldn’t mind seeing that,’ he concluded, a trifle vindictively. ‘Even through a bespeaking.’

  Risala dismissed the wizard with a wave of her hand, her eyes on Kheda. ‘Let’s get out of the sun.’ The warlord nodded and headed for the stairs. They were wide enough for Risala to tuck herself beside him and slide her hand into his.

  ‘That’s enough of that.’ Dev pushed past into the library. ‘Where are the keys to the bookcases?’ Next to the ceromancy bowl.’ Kheda laid the mirrors he had carried down on the table.

  Risala stood by Dev’s shoulder, surveying the books, and pulled out a thin tome bound in stained scarlet leather, age darkening the edges of the pages. ‘It would be no bad thing if we could keep the domain safe without magic,’ she said in a low voice as she laid the book flat and opened it carefully.

  ‘I think that’s rather less likely than this woman of Dev’s finding what we need.’ Kheda scanned the crabbed, faded writing where some long-dead scribe had dutifully recorded the omens and predictions of some Chazen forelord, along with verdicts on the accuracy or otherwise of his interpretations. ‘I only hope we don’t end up paying too high a price. She looks the type to drive a hard bargain.’ Risala glanced at Dev, who had moved to examine a second bookcase. ‘How are you planning to get her here from Relshaz? You can’t leave the domain. You can’t abandon Itrac to cope with all this alone.’

  ‘Which is why you’re going to be my envoy.’ Kheda laid a hand on hers.

  ‘What?’ Risala stared at him, open-mouthed.

  ‘You’re the obvious person to send. You’re my poet, so that’s your excuse for searching out lore. You’re from the northern reaches and we’re telling the other warlords hereabouts we’re looking for lore from the north, something like those herbs that helped us to bring down the wild wizards.’

  ‘Since you put it like that,’ Risala acknowledged reluctantly.

  ‘You can take a message to Shek Kul while you’re about it. We owe him that much and who knows, he might even have some ancient learning about dragons to share with us.’ Kheda stroked Risala’s hand absently. ‘Have you ever been to this place, this Relshaz?’

  ‘Yes, once,’ Risala said slowly. ‘And Shek galleys trade there regularly. I can find out what I need to know.’

  ‘The Green Turtle was our escort back here and that’s the fastest trireme in Chazen. The shipmaster can have my authority to claim any man he wants from any other crew in the anchorage.’ Kheda looked towards the securely locked door, the seas invisible beyond. We’ll promise each man all the pearls he can hold in his cupped hands on his return. That will do more than whips to make them row faster. The shipmaster will get a sack of them when he arrives back, as long as you can tell me that no gossip about your destination ended up floating around the trading beaches.’

  ‘But what if something happens while we’re away?’ Risala laid her own hand over Kheda’s.

  ‘Then we will have to cope with it as best we can.’ Kheda looked into Risala’s eyes. ‘And I will at least know you are safe.’

  Can you see everything that you mean to me? Do you know all that I would my to you, if we were alone and free of this?

  ‘I don’t want to be safe if you’re not,’ she said, meeting his gaze levelly. ‘But all right, yes, I’ll do this, so we can be safe together.’

  ‘How are you planning on explaining Velindre away?’ Dev asked suddenly, turning from a bookcase further down the room, a heavy volume bound with lacquered wood resting open on his forearms. You saw her face; she couldn’t be anything but a barbarian. What possible business could she have to be travelling the whole
length of the Archipelago? Curious eyes will follow you all the way back, my girl, and Velindre hasn’t got my experience of keeping her magecraft hidden,’ he concluded with frank concern.

  ‘She’ll just have to play the slave.’ Kheda smiled despite himself. ‘Picture that face of hers through Aldabreshin eyes. What would you think if you’d never seen her before, if you didn’t know who or what she was?’

  Dev’s eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t follow you.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Risala with sudden comprehension. ‘I do. Of course. Yes, that should work, with a bit of planning.’ She broke off, eyes distant.

  Kheda looked at Dev, deadly serious. ‘Assuming this magewoman is as good as her word, we still have to hold this dragon at bay, or keep running from it, from now till the Summer Solstice or later, unless we’re uncommonly lucky with the winds and the tides. If you’ve any ideas ‘

  ‘I think you’d better see this,’ Dev interrupted.

  ‘You’ve found something?’ Kheda took a step and then realised the mage was looking out of the window over the southern ocean. ‘What is it?’

  ‘The dragon,’ said Dev simply.

  ‘Where?’ Kheda ran to the window, Risala at his heels.

  The dragon was a dark shape, far away, high in the cloudless sky.

  ‘Is it coming this way?’ Kheda tried to swallow the apprehension choking him.

  ‘I’m not sure.’ Dev frowned.

  Risala watched the distant creature. ‘Do you suppose anyone else has spotted it?’ she asked with hollow hope.

  Shouts of alarm ringing across the lagoon answered her barely a breath later.

  ‘Outside,’ Kheda ordered. As he unlocked the door and stepped out, he looked towards Itrac’s pavilion. A flurry of maidservants was hurrying her towards him, clustering close as if her presence would somehow protect them from the beast.

  ‘We may not need to disguise the magewoman after all.’ Risala shrank back into the shadow of the doorway.

  Kheda flinched as a couple of arrows loosed by over-ambitious archers clattered uselessly on the wooden walkways.