Southern Fire ac-1

by Juliet E. McKenna

  'Dev's here!' Risala hung over the Amigal's rail.

  Kheda wiped water out of his eyes, seeing Risala as no more than an outline against the first shimmer of the rising moon.

  The Lesser Moon, just at half, distant and aloof, on the cusp of decline, so soon to be lost in the return of the greater jewel, but biding its time, knowing the next cycle of the heavens will see its full riding unchallenged in an empty sky.

  Kheda swam for the rope Risala had thrown down for him. 'Where is he?'

  'I can't get any sense out of him.' Risala was bloodied with scratches, dishevelled and exhausted, but there was a light of terrified triumph in her eyes. 'What's happened to him?'

  Dev was huddled at the base of the Amigal's mast. Kheda knelt and pushed him upright against the wood. The wizard's head lolled as he grinned crazily at Kheda, dark eyes rolling. The fine silk of his tunic was stained and scorched, his gaudy jewellery clotted with dried blood, the very metal broken and twisted. His arms were scored with deep scratches still oozing sluggishly. Even in the failing light, Kheda could see appalling bruises through the tears in Dev's trousers, one foot darkening and swelling with the hint of broken bones within.

  'Didn't realise, did he? What was he was doing, drawing more and more elements into himself? I could do it, though, matching him turning himself wrongways out and upside down.' Dev waved a feeble, broken-fingered hand and Kheda saw all the nails were torn, thumbnail wholly missing. 'He didn't know what I could do. It's all very well, calling that kind of magic, as long as you've got somewhere to send it.' Dev licked ineffectively at the spittle coating his chin. His lip was split, there were bite marks on his chin and his bald head was scraped raw in places. 'You're as screwed as a tuppenny whore on market day if you've nowhere to go with such power. I slammed the door on him good and proper, didn't I? Bet Kalion couldn't have done it, nor yet Planir, not hardly, not likely. What say I challenge one of them to try it? That's how the savages do it, prove who's best. Who's still standing at the end, that's your man, not whoever can make the most friends in the halls and copyhouses.'

  Kheda silenced the wizard's ramblings with a slap to the face that echoed across the deck. Dev looked at him, mouth open, shocked. Kheda could feel Risala's astonished eyes boring into his back but there was no time to explain.

  'Get some of that brandy of his, quick!' He seized Dev by the shoulders and shook him. 'The moon, Dev, look at the moon. Remember, we have to send the sign, to bring the other ships down here. There are still hundreds of those savages. They're everywhere. They'll kill us if they find us. We need Daish men and Chazen to come and reclaim the domain. The moon, Dev, you have to raise a cloud to colour the moon!'

  Loose and boneless in his grasp, the wizard blinked, bleary-eyed, trying to focus on the distant half circle of light in the darkening sky. 'The moon?'

  Risala appeared at Kheda's shoulder. Kheda propped Dev up with one hand to his chest and took the stubby black bottle, pulling the stopper free with his teeth. He spat the cork aside, coughing as the reek of spirits bit at his throat. 'You said you could do it, remember? You said you could lift sand high enough into the air to colour the moon for anyone looking from Daish lands? You promised me you could do it!' He forced the neck of the bottle between Dev's flaccid lips and tipped white brandy into the wizard's mouth.

  Dev choked and coughed on frenzied giggles. 'A cloud to colour the moon? I said I could do that?' He reached for the bottle with clumsy hands.

  'You did. You swore it.' Kheda wrapped the wizard's fingers around the brandy. 'Don't tell me you can't, not after everything you've done today!'

  Hands trembling, Dev took a long swallow of liquor, his body shaking like a man in the grip of fever. 'You saw it,' he said, husky with emotion. 'You saw it all. I did it, matched that Dragonhide and more. Didn't know if I could. Didn't tell you that.' His laugh was little more than a hysterical gasp.

  'Can you colour the moon?' Kheda thrust his face close, forcing the wizard to meet his gaze. 'You told me you could do that! Was that the truth?'

  Dev sat up a little straighter, grip on the bottle firmer, face turning ugly. 'No man calls me a liar,' he snarled breathlessly.

  'I'm not calling you a liar.' Kheda sat back on his heels. 'I'm asking you to prove yourself.'

  'That wasn't proof enough?' Dev gestured in the vague direction of the carnage beyond the headland.

  White brandy sloshed from the bottle to land cold on Kheda's bare arm and sting his scratches viciously. He tasted it on the air, sharp and spicy. 'Can you do it or not?

  Furious, Dev hurled the bottle down the deck. The throw too feeble to break it, it rolled away leaving a glistening trail of brandy on the planks. 'Watch this, you ignorant pig of an Archipelagan!'

  With a sweeping motion of one hand, Dev cast a swathe of faint red out towards the island. The magelight spread and faded and Kheda's heart sank as the last vestiges melted away into the ground. He turned away, sick at heart.

  It's not going to be over then. There'll be no rest for you, no return home in triumph, not with these wild men still plaguing the Daish domain. How can we gather a force to fight them, before they summon some more of their iniquitous wizards?

  'Look at that,' whispered Risala, awestruck.

  Kheda opened his eyes to see red magelight rising from the shore; thicker now but dimmed, spreading like a mist but heavy with dust and debris from the ground. Dev thrust his other hand upwards and a shaft of searing blue light soared up to challenge the cold light of the first stars. It drew the haze of powdered earth inexorably upward, higher and higher, finally breaking like a fountain to be lost in the vastness of the sky. The dust kept on rising from the island, the magic darkening and deepening. The blue light carried it up, threads and flurries twisting and knotting.

  Kheda waited, heart pounding in his chest. Slowly a shadow edged across the half circle of the distant moon, barely more than imagination at first but little by little thickening to a veil of red.

  'That's your sign?' asked Risala.

  Kheda nodded. 'It's a portent that everyone should be able to read. If Janne's done her work, it'll bring all the ships south. That should be swords and arrows enough to kill every last one of these accursed savages.' Hope twisted in his chest like the piercing blade of a dagger.

  The magical radiance vanished like a snuffed candle. Dev fell to the deck with a heavy thud and Kheda and Risala dropped to their knees either side of him.

  'He's barely breathing,' said Risala with consternation. 'What do we do?'

  What does one do with a wizard? You were always taught magic was dangerous, destructive, corrupting. You've seen it for yourself and the slaughter that even a few mages can encompass. What does one do with a wizard? One kills it as one would a venomous snake.

  He's helpless, unconscious. He's a mage who can scatter a beach full of armed men by turning their very weapons against them. He's a man who can burn men to char and ashes without so much as laying a finger on them. You've a dagger to hand, a Daish dagger no less. Cut his throat and who would ever blame you? Cut his throat and there's no one to tell Chazen Saril, Ritsem Caid or anyone else that you suborned sorcery as the only way of driving out these savages.

  You don't think this barbarian, this traitor and vice peddler, you don't think he'll bleed you of every advantage he can, in return for his silence? Kill him now and there's no one to bear witness to you using his power to pervert the very skies in raising an omen that is pure falsehood. Kill him now and his blood might even cleanse you of the taint of magic that must surely stain you to the bone. You're no innocent victim, not any more; you've mired yourself neck deep in sorcery.

  But there would be a witness. There'd be Risala. Are you going to kill her as well? She would truly be an innocent victim. Are you going to forswear yourself to Shek Kul, when he asks her fate? Don't you owe him better than that, for the secret of the powder and sending Risala to you? You'd never have found another way to drive out these invaders.

&nbs
p; Don't you owe even Dev his life, vile though he may be, in return for doing what you could not, killing the mages who have given these invaders their overwhelming supremacy? Besides, there are hundreds of these savages still plaguing these islands, hundreds of islands to clear and reclaim. What if Dev hasn't seen all the mages? What if there are still some more to be found? Sharkteeth very nearly got away. What if more come from overseas, to find out what has happened to their fellows? It might happen, this season or next, there's no telling, not without Dev and his mirrors of water and sorcery. What will you do then, if you've no wizard to call on? Shek Kul's powder won't last for ever and there's no telling if you'll ever find out just what it is made of.

  Kheda straightened Dev's contorted limbs. Cold sweat covered the mage, making the dried blood coating him shine like fresh wounds. 'We get him into his hammock. I don't know what ails him; I imagine it's something to do with the magecraft. He said it could exhaust him. All we can do is let him sleep and see if he wakes.'

  If he doesn't, then I'll think through the significance of that omen when I've had some sleep myself.

  Kheda looked across the prostrate wizard to Risala. 'I know it's nightfall but we should sail to a safer anchorage. Then we'll head for the thousand-oyster isle. I said I'd meet Janne there. She'll know what's going on across the domain. We can work out what to do next together.'

  Chapter Twenty-One

  'Have you seen any Chazen boats?' Kheda stood over Dev as the wizard peered into his scrying bowl held between his bandaged legs. The inky water tilted as the Amigal rode the broad swell of the open waters.

  'No,' said Dev shortly. 'Pass me the chewing leaf.'

  Kheda bent to pick the wash-leather bag from the deck where the roll of the ship had carried it. 'Look to the east. See if you can see any more triremes.'

  'Give me that.' Dev looked up, cuts and grazes on his face liberally coated with salve. He held out his hand, the bruises on his arm now a myriad colours, mocking the magic that had armoured him in battle. 'Chewing leaf won't blunt my scrying abilities but the pain in my foot might. Or the spell could go awry. Do you want your friends seeing that?' He nodded towards the tall tower on the thousand-oyster isle now in plain sight.

  Kheda hesitated then handed him the little leather pouch. Dev tugged out a dark, wrinkled leaf, wadding it up and shoving it in his mouth. Kheda did his best to contain his impatience as the mage's jaw worked and the lines of strain on his face lessened a little.

  'So, Chazen ships over to the east. Let's see if we can find any there.' He bent over his bowl and little shapes danced in the light flickering over the surface.

  Kheda turned away.

  He'd be scrying whether I wanted it or not. He's no more wish to be sunk and killed by some hysterical Redigal trireme than me or Risala. He may as well tell me what I need to know while he's at it. But I need not look myself, not if I'm to leave all this magic behind me. Not now I'm finally to go home again.

  'Kheda.' Risala's call from the tiller carried a warning note.

  He looked at the rapidly approaching islet to see a faint thread of smoke rising into the clear sky. 'Can you see a boat?'

  'It's way over there.' Kheda looked to see Dev gesturing towards the distant island at the head of the chain leading back into the Daish domain. 'It's a fast trireme, swordsmen all along both decks.'

  'It must be Janne,' Kheda said slowly. 'She's here ahead of time.' He smoothed down his tunic, not a good fit since it had been cut for Dev but decent silk and better than anything else he might wear. At least the sleeves were long enough to cover the worst of the scratches scabbing his arms. The ivory twist of the dragon's tail made a fine enough ornament, if an unusual one, and he had Shek Kul's silver and emerald cipher ring to prove he had some claim to respect. 'Dev, I asked you to look for Chazen ships to the east.'

  'I have and there aren't any to be found, not north, south or anywhere else,' replied the wizard with a robustness giving the lie to his manifold injuries. 'They haven't shifted from the Serpents' Teeth.'

  There were no words to express Kheda's exasperation. He ran a hand over his neatly combed beard. The breeze was cool on the back of his neck, exposed where Risala had deftly trimmed his hair.

  'Where do you want me to anchor?' Risala was scanning the shoreline.

  'On the beach, in front of the tower.' Kheda made an abrupt decision. 'I've done with skulking and hiding.'

  'Only once you've set Janne Daish spreading the word that we're not to be touched,' Dev said firmly. 'With a full description of the ship as well as me and the girl.'

  Kheda nodded curtly. 'You'll be free to head north, as soon as you wish.'

  'Don't want us spreading inconvenient stories?' There was a taunting glint in Dev's one eye that wasn't still swollen. 'Embarrassing you in front of your lady wife.'

  'It would be the last thing you did and you know it,' Kheda retorted, unsmiling.

  No one spoke as Risala guided the Amigal into the shore. Kheda slid over the rail into the tethered skiff, splashing as he rowed through the shallow water to the beach.

  Janne was sitting alone on the sand, tending a small fire of driftwood and dried dune grass.

  She looked up with a faint smile as he hauled the skiff beyond the waves. 'Kheda.' Janne was wearing a pale yellow tunic of modest cut and trousers of finely woven cotton gathered at the ankle with golden chains. Her hair was an unadorned braid hanging down her back, her single necklace a plaited rope of tiny pearls, while her rings and bracelets were plain gold bands.

  'Janne.' Kheda found he wasn't at all sure what to do. All his much-rehearsed words of explanation seemed out of place now he found himself greeting his wife in modest dress and unassuming surroundings rather than justifying himself to the first wife of the Daish domain arrayed in all her splendour before the ominous height of a tower of silence.

  Longing for the warmth of her arms around him, her perfumed softness within his embrace overwhelmed him but taking her in his arms wasn't really an option with her concentrating on poking her fire. He saw she had raked ashes and embers over serried rows of pale shells planted in the sand. 'White mussels?'

  She nodded briefly. 'I thought we should eat together again.'

  'How was your voyage here?' Kheda sat down beside her.

  'Quite appalling.' Janne prodded the sand with the charred end of the stick in her hand. 'Have you seen what these savages did to the people they captured?'

  'Something of it,' Kheda said cautiously.

  Janne looked at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. 'Men and women dead of thirst when the rains have brought us rain to last all year. Children locked in pens like brute beasts and left to starve. Sirket sends me word of some new atrocity from every island that Daish forces reclaim. Even if they're alive when we find them, half are dead inside a day or so. We're burying them in pits, stacked like firewood, thin as sticks. What were they doing, Kheda, these savages? What were they doing all this for?'

  'I don't know,' Kheda said helplessly. 'All I can tell you is they are dead, the men who planned this, who led these invaders.'

  'The wizards?' Janne looked sharply at him.

  Kheda nodded firmly. 'All dead.'

  I certainly wasn't going to object to Dev making sure of that with his scrying.

  Janne said nothing, concentrating on her cooking shellfish.

  Feeling increasingly unsure of himself, Kheda looked around the empty shore. 'How goes the campaign to retake the Chazen domain?'

  'Well enough.' Janne set down her stick and shifted her position slightly. 'The hardest task is making sure every island is truly clear of these savages. Bands here and there still make night raids on villages that we had thought safe, though without their magic to back them, our swordsmen kill them quickly enough.'

  'Our losses?' Kheda swallowed painful apprehension. 'And of our allies of Redigal and Ritsem?'

  'Not insupportable,' Janne answered distantly.

  'What of Chazen Saril?' Kheda tried to mo
derate his anger but his words rang harsh along the shore.

  Janne rose to her feet and dusted sand from her rump. 'Ask him yourself.'

  'What?' Kheda was entirely confused.

  'Chazen Saril,' Janne called out commandingly. 'Come here.'

  'Daish Kheda.' Chazen Saril sidled around the tower of silence with a nervous smile. 'I never thought I'd see you again.'

  'I thought I'd see you and your ships in the vanguard of any assault to reclaim your domain.' Kheda saw no reason for restraint. 'Why are your ships still huddled around the Serpents' Teeth while others sail to shed their blood for your benefit? What are you thinking of?'

  'My children, my Sekni, my Olkai.' Chazen Saril had lost considerable weight and his skin hung in loose jowls. Apprehensive, his eyes were dark in bruised hollows. 'That's who I think of. That's who I see when the dawn mocks my restlessness or when dreams tear apart whatever sleep exhaustion forces on me. I see them dying. I see the fire and lightning defiling them. I see savage wizards laughing over their dead bodies and planning the enslavement of my people. That's all I think of, Kheda.'

  'You have much to grieve over, truly.' Kheda hardened his heart against the desperate appeal in the man's words. 'But you have to set that aside and look to your duty to your people!'

  'How?' Saril asked in genuine bemusement. 'How can I look them in the eye and claim their fealty, when they've suffered so much, when I could do nothing to save them? I cannot face them—'

  'Who will lead them if you don't?' Kheda interrupted, enraged.

  'Ritsem ships are bringing their swords to clear out the savages, Redigal too, and Daish. All of you have more claim than me on these people's gratitude now.' Tears spilled helplessly from Chazen Saril's eyes. 'I've no way to repay any of you for coming to our aid. You may as well hold whatever you can salvage from the ruin of my islands.'