'You think you can force me to work magic for you?' spat Dev. 'By taking it from me? What is this, one of your useless talismans actually working for a change?'
'I can't force you to help me,' Kheda said tightly. 'But I can keep you helpless and deliver you up to the rulers of the Daish domain. We can both swear to your wizardry and throw ourselves on their mercy and see you skinned alive to purify us both and ward the evil of the invader's magic from the domain.'
'Daish Sirket would owe us a tremendous debt, if we could offer him the protection of such a rite, to strengthen his men and those of Chazen, when they sail south at the end of the rains,' Risala said boldly.
Kheda could feel her trembling, as she pressed close against him. 'I imagine Daish Sirket and Chazen Saril would share in the ritual. There would surely be omens to be read in the mirror of your liver, in the coils of your entrails. If you will not tell us willingly how we might defeat these invaders, perhaps your death will serve our purpose despite you.'
Read the truth in that, you bastard, because if that's all the good I can wring from your twisted carcass to help my domain, then I swear I will do it. Even if I die for it myself.
'You just try it, pal.' Dev launched himself at Kheda, heedless of the glass on the floor.
Risala darted away to one side and Kheda ducked the other. Sharp pain in his feet slowed him and Dev bore him down to the floor, reaching for his neck with strangling hands. Bucking his hips to try and throw the lighter man off, Kheda thrust a fist upwards between the wizard's forearms. He couldn't manage a hard punch to Dev's throat but it was enough to loosen his grip. Kheda forced his other arm up and knocked the mage's hands aside. Dev's forehead came down to butt him and Kheda rolled his head aside to take the blow on his cheekbone. The pain of that was enough to make him gasp but it was Dev who yelled.
Kheda blinked away tears to see Risala's sharp fingernails drawing blood in the wide neck of Dev's tunic. Rising to his knees with a roar of anger the wizard swung round an arm but he couldn't reach her. A wrench of his shoulders instead pulled Risala around to trip over Kheda's legs. She went sprawling across the splinter-strewn floor but, clinging to Dev, she dragged him with her. Kheda scrambled up and flung himself at Dev, his greater weight knocking the mage flat. Glass crunched beneath them.
Ignoring the needle-sharp pains in his knees and shins, Kheda straddled Dev's hips, pinning the mage to the boards. Warding off Dev's blows with one forearm, he landed a jarring punch on the wizard. Dev's head jolted as his lip split.
'He's got a knife!' Risala had seen him scrabbling for something beneath his tunic and seized his hand. Leaning on it with all her weight, she bore it down to the floor. Kheda held it down with one knee and caught Dev's other hand in a vice-like grip, muscles built by half a season's rowing bunching beneath his tunic sleeve as he fought the wizard's wiry strength. With his free hand, he grabbed Dev's jaw and thumped the mage's bald head hard against the floor.
'Don't think you can get me to kill you, just to save you from the augur's knife,' he hissed.
Twisting his head free, Dev managed to bite Kheda between thumb and forefinger. Kheda punched him again, under the jaw, snapping his teeth shut.
'He doesn't have to be unmarked, does he, not like a sacrificial animal?' Risala panted with triumph as she held up the knife Dev had tried to use on Kheda. Steel caught the lamplight. 'Can't you hamstring him, to keep him from escaping? Cut the tendons in his arms as well. They all seem to wave their hands around to work their magic'
'All he has to be is a wizard.' Kheda let his full weight press down on Dev.
'Working magic has nothing to do with using your hands, you stupid bitch.' The mage writhed beneath him.
Kheda took the knife from Risala and shoved the point between Dev's snarling teeth. The mage's instinctive recoil left him with a sharp cut in the corner of his mouth.
Kheda lent forward to look Dev in the eye. 'The last time a wizard was caught and killed in the Safar domain, they cut his tongue out ahead of time, so he couldn't curse anyone.'
Dev froze, tense but still, and Kheda slowly withdrew the knife.
'I shouldn't have waited to see if you drowned. I should've summoned the waves to sink you myself.' Dev winced and rolled his head to spit blood away. 'If I'd known you were going to be this much trouble. I could have done with consulting a soothsayer, couldn't I?' he added with vicious wit.
Kheda matched his sour humour. 'You're the one in charge here.' Laying the knife alongside Dev's throat gave the lie to his words. 'It's your choice. Help us against these invaders and their magic or see your blood shed in hopes that it will protect the Daish domain. What would you rather do?'
'Suppose I do help you?' Dev's jaw jutted belligerently. 'What do I get out of it?'
'Besides a whole hide?' Kheda didn't have to pretend surprise. Cramp threatened in his thighs and he shifted a little. Needles of glass pricked his shins, a stickiness of blood warm on his skin.
'I thought you weren't a man's man.' Dev tested Kheda's weight with a suggestive twist of his own hips.
'You won't distract me with your nonsense.' Kheda pressed the knife harder into the leathery skin of Dev's throat.
'Don't you want revenge on the invaders?' Risala's taunt turned both men's heads. She shook her head at Dev. 'Don't you want to make that mage in the dragon-hide cloak pay for sending those tentacles to slap your sorry arse and try ripping you limb from limb?'
'Revenge isn't worth so much,' said Dev tightly. 'I'll want something I can trade for real value.'
'Pearls? Turtle shell?' Kheda shrugged. 'What's so funny about that?'
Dev licked at the corner of his mouth, the knife cut painfully pulled by his unexpected chuckle. 'Those wizards down south don't reckon much to pearls or turtle shell. They want gems, the bigger the better, talisman stones for preference.'
'That's what was in the coffer?' Risala asked.
'You're not the only one I've been keeping an eye on.' Dev slid a sly glance towards her.
'Why do they want talisman gemstones?' demanded Kheda.
'So many questions.' Still pinioned, Dev nevertheless tried to shrug. 'Every answer has its price, you must know that much, soothsayer.'
Kheda looked down at the wizard with undisguised contempt. 'If you're paid, well paid, with pearls and jewels as well as your worthless life, will you help us?'
'What does a penniless soothsayer with a slut of a poet in tow have to pay me with?' scorned Dev.
Tell him who you are and you give yourself over to his mercy. Is there any other way to win his assistance? Isn't this a wager that'll prove your cause, one way or the other?
Blood pulsing in his throat, Kheda kept his voice as calm as he could. 'I can reward you with more riches than you can imagine, fool of a barbarian. I am Daish Kheda, warlord of that domain.'
'And I'm the Emperor of Tormalin,' scoffed Dev breathlessly.
'You don't have some magic to know he's telling the truth?' Risala was genuinely surprised.
'You people do have some foolish notions about what magic can do.' Dev shook his head as far as he was able. 'Prove it.'
'Who else but a warlord would have the secret of disarming a wizard?' Kheda smiled with confident pride to mask his inner incredulity at what he was doing. 'Who else but the Daish warlord would risk himself in dealings with a mage in order to fight the magic that threatens his people? Why else would I hand you the valuable gift of knowledge of my true identity, if I wasn't trying to buy your cooperation.'
'Why does everyone else think the Daish warlord is dead?' retorted Dev, now trying in vain to find some purchase for his feet on the slippery deck.
Kheda pressed his weight down harder. 'Do you imagine I could have gone on such a quest with every eye on me, every tongue speculating as to what I might be planning?'
Dev's eyes narrowed. 'I don't imagine many other warlords would be too pleased to know what you're doing.'
'Then you can imagine what I'll be paying you, t
o keep your mouth shut about exactly how we drive these wizards out of the southern reaches,' countered Kheda coldly.
'Will you help us?' Risala demanded.
'I'll think about it.' Dev closed his eyes for a moment. 'If you haven't crushed the life out of me.'
'I'll let you free if you give your word not to fight again.' Kheda's own legs begged him to stand up.
'My word?' mocked Dev, his spirit returning. 'The word of a foul, deceitful, perverse wizard?'
'A wizard with no powers at present.' Kheda looked down at him, unblinking. 'A wizard I can hand over to any number of warlords who'll be only too happy to flay him alive.'
'You've already made a start on that, you bastard.' Dev's breath hissed between his teeth. 'I'll be no cursed use to you if I'm dead of blood poisoning.'
'Give me your word.' Kheda let his full weight press down again. 'If you keep it, that'll be worth some payment in its own right.'
'Show us we're wrong about wizards, we stupid Aldabreshi,' added Risala, her scepticism plain.
'I swear, by all that's holy—' Dev caught himself. 'By the fire that burns within my very bones, that I will help you fight the invaders and their wizards, just so long as you pay me all that you can. Betray me—' He paused and glared up at Kheda. 'And I will melt the flesh from your bones with sorcerous fire that will leave a stain on these islands for a full cycle of the heavens.'
Kheda got up, trying to disguise the shudder that racked him at those words. 'Good enough.' He paused, held Dev down with one knee and cut the key cord from around the bald man's waist. 'I'll hold these for the present, just to help keep you honest.'
Groaning, Dev rolled over. The back of his tunic was stained with blood and bright with broken glass. 'What have you done, drugged me? I don't feel doped but I can't feel the slightest touch of the elements.'
'That's my secret,' said Kheda shortly. He sat on the chest and grimaced as he picked glass out of his shin. 'Risala, can you get some wine to wash out everyone's wounds? And something to sweep up this glass?'
'Get the white brandy,' snapped Dev. 'In the basket with the blue withy rim.'
When Risala returned, stubby black bottle and a threadbare besom in her bloodied hands, Dev sat up and pulled off his tunic. 'See if you can clear up your new lover's mess.'
She didn't bother replying, simply handing the bottle to Kheda, before sitting to begin picking the fragments out of Dev's skin.
'Shit, that's sore!' Dev grabbed the brandy from Kheda and took a long drink.
Risala took the bottle from him and sluiced his wounds with the spirit.
'You're a lousy nurse, girlie,' Dev gasped.
'Find another,' she said unsympathetic, tearing a strip from his ruined tunic to wipe away the welling blood.
'I'll go ashore in the morning.' Kheda finished sweeping the broken glass into a pile and began gingerly tending his own wounds with a liquor-soaked scrap of cloth. 'Find the makings of a poultice for us all.'
'This is all the medicine I need.' Dev snatched back the bottle and glared at Kheda. 'Get lost and let me get some sleep.'
Kheda walked stiffly over to unlock the door to the hold. 'You sleep in here.' He went into the gloom to retrieve his soggy belongings.
'You can take your hammock,' Risala said sweetly.
'I'll thank you to remember I'm the owner of this ship, girlie.' Dev unhooked his hammock from the beams nevertheless, carrying the bundle of sailcloth and blankets through into the darkness. He slammed the door emphatically behind him. Kheda locked it.
'Keys, please.'
Kheda threw the bunch. Risala caught the cord and unlocked the big chest, pulling out hammocks and blankets.
Kheda reached up to hook one end of a canvas length to the beam. 'Do you think he can see in the dark?'
'Who cares?' Risala shrugged as she secured the other end. 'Do you think he can hear us?'
'Depends how much of that white liquor he's drunk.' Kheda helped her with the other hammock.
'When will he get his powers back?' asked Risala in a low voice as she shook out a blanket.
Kheda took it, pleasantly surprised to find it herb-scented and free from damp. 'I'm not entirely sure,' he said softly.
'What did you do?' Risala moved closer, voice dropping to a whisper.
'Shek Kul gave me a powder,' mouthed Kheda, unable to restrain a grin. 'He found the concoction in some ancient book of lore. I had no idea if it would work but I put it in his wine. A warlord's son is raised to be wary of poisons. That teaches you all the moves to spice someone else's drink.'
Risala raised herself on her toes to speak close to his ear. 'Could you do the same to the invaders' mages?' She smelled of warm dry cotton and clean hair. Her black locks had dried to a feathery tousle.
'Perhaps.' Kheda allowed himself to feel a little hope. 'Do you suppose they're all sots like Dev? Could we get them to drink it in one of his barrels of wine?'
Risala surprised both of them with a slightly hysterical giggle. 'Do you think it could be that easy?'
Kheda sighed ruefully. 'I very much doubt it.'
Risala swung herself into her hammock with a flash of honey-coloured legs. 'Do you want to put the lamp out?'
You sound like Efi not wanting to be left in the dark.
'No, not for the moment.' Kheda got into his own hammock and tucked the blanket around himself.
'Do you suppose Dev will still be there in the morning?' Risala wondered wearily.
'Let's worry about that then, shall we?' Kheda's cuts were stinging and he couldn't quite decide if his bruises or his much-abused muscles ached more. 'Thanks for your help. He might have had me if you hadn't caught his knife hand.' A new thought struck him. 'He called you a poet. Are you one?'
'I'm a lot of things, when I have to be.'
I recognise that note in a woman's voice as well. If you were Janne or Rekha talking, a determined roll over would leave me next to a silent back.
Risala couldn't roll over in a hammock but she pulled her blanket up over her chin all the same, hiding her eyes.
'Good night.' He reached out and snuffed the lamp.
I'll settle for being warm and dry, not dead with a wizard's blade in my guts and, finally, after all these endless leagues, not so very much alone. We can pursue all these other puzzles in the morning. We've got this far; that must be a sign in our favour.
Chapter Seventeen
'I thought you said one of these savage mages was camped on this shore.' From his vantage point in the Amigal's prow, Kheda turned to look suspiciously at Dev.
'Last time I scryed.' Dev yanked on the tiller to turn the ship closer to the rocky shore. 'Somewhere hereabouts. There's a village he was taking for his own.' Above a wall of broken boulders, a stretch of grass dotted with palms separated white surf from the denser green of tangled brush rising up a steep slope.
'Then why risk sailing up in plain sight?' snapped Kheda. 'We should anchor and reconnoitre on foot.'
'Have you seen anyone to raise an alarm?' countered Dev. 'Any of those log boats? Not that they'll see us, not before we see them. I've woven an enchantment to be certain of that.'
'You take too much on yourself, wizard.' Kheda's skin crawled at the thought of unseen magic clouding the air all around him.
'Fretting about the taint on your future?' mocked Dev. 'I don't answer to you, not about magic. Does anyone answer to you, what with you being dead?' He smiled cheerfully.
'I can't see anyone ashore.' Just forward of the mast and knuckles white as she gripped the rail, Risala peered intently into the shadows beneath the trees.
'It's the same as everywhere else,' said Kheda bleakly. 'Everyone not captive has fled.'
Fled north to the Daish domain, and the longer they stay there, the less likely they are to ever return home. The Daish domain just cant support that many people. That many Chazen people will give Chazen Saril substantial backing if he does decide to try deposing Sirket.
Risala turned to address D
ev. 'Where's this village?'
'You mean that one?' the wizard enquired sarcastically.
As the Amigal turned an abrupt corner in the shoreline, Kheda saw a narrow landing where the rocks gave way to a meagre length of coarse, many-hued sand. There was little left of the village that had flourished there. Some of the houses looked to have collapsed, all four walls falling outwards at once, palm thatch scattered in every direction. Others seemed to have been crushed inwards; walls toppling one on top of the other, roofs left intact and aslant on unsteady heaps of splintered wood. Sailer granaries, up on stilts, were piles of debris pierced by posts. The fowl houses mostly looked as if a giant foot had stamped on them and great gouges scarred the unkempt vegetable plots where weeds were revelling in the moist untended soil.
'Could it have been a whirlwind?' wondered Risala uncertainly. 'Or a water spout?'
Kheda shaded his eyes with a hand. The rain clouds were holding off for the moment and the sun sparkled bright on the sea. 'There's no damage to the tree line. A whirlwind would have cut a path inland or along the shore, not just demolished the houses.' He turned on Dev. 'Is this some wizard's work? Could they have seen us coming? Are you sure they can't spy on us, as you're spying on them?'
'The correct term is scrying,' said Dev coldly. 'I've seen no sign that they know how to work any magic of that kind. They don't even realise when I'm scrying on them, I'll bet my stones on it.'
'It's all our necks you're wagering.' Risala glanced over her shoulder.
'Where has this wizard gone, the one that did this?' Kheda persisted.
'I don't know.' Dev saw something he didn't like in Kheda's expression and his tone soured. 'I've been looking the length and breadth of these isles to find out what wizard is where. I haven't been watching each one to see how often he takes a squat or a piss. Trust me on this or the deal's off. I gave my oath I'd help you but I don't have to keep it, not if you're going to disbelieve me. Where shall I take you? The Daish dry-season residence? What about you, girlie? Ready to tell me who you're spying for yet?'
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