Angel Isle

by Peter Dickinson

  “Fifteen,” she said.

  “Twelve and a half.”

  “Done. Have you any idea where they come from? They were obviously set into some larger piece.”

  “That’s right. I was told it was looted from the hoard of some warlord way out beyond the Great Desert.”

  “Mind if I just run my crystal over them? There’ll have been power stones in something like that, like as not. They could have picked a bit of magic up, in which case I’d need to think again.”

  “Go ahead,” said Ribek easily, Benayu having already dealt with the problem. “And then perhaps you’d care to join me for a glass of wine while we settle a price…”

  “Thought so,” whispered Benayu. “She’s not going to let pleasure interfere with business. She’ll take him to an eating house and point him out to a couple of thugs she knows. They’re going to waylay him on his way back to the inn and take the money off him. I’ll let him know, but the way things are going they may be doing a bit more than having a glass of wine together tonight, and we’re going to need to leave early. Idiot! Who can you trust?”

  “She’s wearing a love charm, isn’t she?” said Maja defensively. She had no idea how she knew that was what it was. It just had to be.

  “He’s still an idiot. I’d better hang around here for a bit and keep an eye on him. I’ll tell him what’s up and hope he comes to his senses.”

  “He isn’t going to.”

  “In that case I’ll find a quiet place where we can meet in the morning and tell him where it is in case he doesn’t get back to the inn tonight. You’d better go back yourself now and have a bit of a rest. Even with Jex’s help you’re going to find picking up all this stray magic all the time pretty tiring at first. Do you want me to show you the way?”

  “I think I can find it.”

  He was right about both things. Already half dazed by the ceaseless petty bombardment from every corner of Mord, she got lost almost at once. In the end by pure luck she came to the inn from the wrong direction.

  Sponge welcomed her back to their room with a thump of his tail on the floorboards. Saranja still slept unstirring, so she curled up in one of the other beds and almost immediately herself fell into deep and dreamless sleep. At some unknown nowhere in that peaceful oblivion, a voice of stone spoke faintly in her head.

  “Maja.”

  “Jex! Are you all right? I can only just hear you. How can we get you back? Can we help? Do you know what’s been happening?”

  “No, you must tell me. Normally I exist simultaneously in two separate worlds. When your companion spoke a certain name, the shock of her utterance was such that I was forced to withdraw from your world, leaving behind only an extension of myself, which is now in the shape of the stone pendant you carry. Being stone, it can neither see nor hear, and exists only to absorb some of the magic around you, without which I cannot live.

  “Communication between my separate worlds is difficult when I do not exist fully in one of them. We are now in the nowhere between the worlds. I am speaking to you and not to Benayu because the pendant is under your pillow, and yours is the younger and more flexible mind. Even so, it is accessible to me only with considerable effort and only when you are asleep. So tell me now all that has happened since your companion spoke that name on the mountainside.”

  It took some time, only there seemed to be no such thing as time in this dream between the worlds.

  “You have done well,” said Jex when she had finished. “I grieve for Fodaro, a good man, and brave, and wise. Yes, you can help me, and, since you cannot succeed in your quest without me, you will need to do so.

  “First we must restore me to my true balance. Saranja could do this anywhere and at any time, simply by holding the roc feathers in one hand, bound by the strand of the Ropemaker’s hair, and the pendant that you have under your pillow in the other, and then speaking his name. This will set off a major magical spasm similar in kind to the one which originally created the imbalance, and provided that I am ready for the event I will be able to exploit this to restore myself to my natural condition. But the process would send out an extremely powerful signal, more than Benayu can ward or screen, and I will not be there to absorb any part of it. It is certain to attract the attention of the Watchers. They will be already on the alert after the spasms back at the pasture, and the destruction of two of their number who came to investigate the first of them.

  “Our best chance is to attempt to conceal the event among a complex of other equally powerful events, if we can. There are some of my kind who exist in the same mode as me. I cannot communicate with them in my present imbalance, but I can listen to what they tell each other. They have some knowledge of the Watchers’ doings. They say that something of the sort that we are looking for appears likely to happen near the eastern port of Tarshu. The Watchers have somehow learned that the Pirates are preparing for a major raid and are gathering to repel it. I suggest that you take me to Tarshu and we will make the attempt. It is some distance, and you dare not travel by magical means, so you must leave Mord as soon as you can.

  “Farewell, Maja. I shall not be able to speak to you for a while, other than in an emergency.”

  “Good-bye, Jex. And good luck. And thanks. I’ll tell them.”

  She was not surprised by his last sentence. Even in her sleep she had been straining to hear. No, it had not been a dream. That was real.

  She was woken by the triple thwack of Sponge’s tail at the sound of his master’s returning footsteps. Saranja must have woken to the sound too, and was starting to sit up as Benayu came into the room, slamming the door brutally behind him.

  “Where is this?” she said, dazed with her long sleep. “Why’s it so dark? What’s up? You look—”

  “We’re in an inn at Mord,” he said harshly. “You’ve been asleep for three days. You ought to be dead, if you want to know. There’s a stone in Zald-im-Zald that was making you tireless, but you pay for it after. Two days ought to have killed you, and you’d been wearing it for ten. I suppose the roc feathers must have kept you alive somehow.”

  “Where’s Ribek?”

  “Ribek?” he snarled, and told her.

  “He swears he can handle these two thugs,” he added. “The woman told them she’d be keeping him with her till dawn, but I took the money off him to be on the safe side.”

  “Men!” growled Saranja. “They’ve got just one idea in their heads!”

  “It wasn’t his fault really,” said Maja. “She was wearing a love charm.”

  “I still hate men. And what if he isn’t as good as he thinks he is and these fellows are too much for him? Where does that leave us? Is there anywhere I can watch from and not be seen, just in case?”

  “There’s an archway a little way down across the street. Room for all three of us, as well as Rocky. Then if we’ve got everything packed up we can be on our way as soon as the gates open.”

  “That’ll have to do. Where’s the latrines? I’m bursting.”

  “I’ll show you—I’ve got to take Sponge out,” said Benayu.

  “I’ve got a message for us from Jex,” said Maja. “He talked to me in a dream, only it wasn’t a dream. He says we can’t find the Ropemaker without him, and he told me how we can get him unstuck in a way the Watchers won’t notice. It’s rather complicated. And it’s really scary.”

  “Tell us when I get back,” said Benayu more calmly. “We won’t be more than a couple of minutes. I’ll order some food on the way up. Come on, boy.”

  Usually when Maja tried to tell someone about what had seemed a vivid dream, all its sharp certainties seemed to go vague and unreal as she spoke. This wasn’t like that. The single stony voice seemed to be still in her mind, putting the exact words into her mouth as she needed them, though in places she wasn’t sure she really understood them. It didn’t take long. Saranja and Benayu listened without interruption. Their meal arrived as she was finishing. By the time they settled down to it the night outs
ide was fully dark.

  Saranja ate with a wolf’s hunger after three days and three nights without food, and her whole body wasted by the magic-driven energy-use of the ten days before. Benayu ate in silence, but more steadily now that he had magical matters to brood about.

  “Yes,” he said at last. “That’s the best we can do. I’ll settle up tonight and we’ll start before dawn.”

  CHAPTER

  5

  The stars were barely beginning to fade as they followed Benayu through the warren of darkened streets. Saranja had padded Rocky’s hooves, so that even he made barely a sound. Somewhere near the market they turned into the pitch darkness under an archway and waited. Maja took Rocky’s bridle, leaving the other two free to act, if they needed to.

  A little later they saw two men come silently along the street and stop near an ornate porch, further along on the opposite side of the street, and in their turn start to watch as if for something to happen beyond them. Time passed. At last a door opened, sending a glow of soft light out into the night. The two men disappeared into the shadows of the porch. Ribek came out of the lit door and turned. A woman followed him onto the doorstep and bent to kiss him, then retreated. The door closed, and Ribek strolled toward the five watchers, whistling softly.

  He was just past the porch when the two men rushed him, their bare feet almost noiseless on the paving. He seemed unaware of their attack until, at the last instant, he skipped to his right, swiveling as he landed, with his left leg swinging out to hook the first man’s feet from under him. His momentum carried him smoothly into a single dance-like step and counter-swivel, with his right foot punching neatly into the hollow at the back of the second man’s knee. The man yelled as he fell. The first man was halfway to his feet when Ribek kicked him in the abdomen and he tumbled forward, his curses replaced by retching gasps.

  “It’s called kick-fighting,” said Ribek, informatively. “Your friend warned me you’d be waiting for me.”

  He left them, walking fast and no longer whistling. As he passed the archway the others came out and fell in beside him.

  Approaching the south gate of Mord, Maja became aware of its gate ward, very like the first one, but less old and without the underlying presence of blood. At the same time, almost concealed by it, she sensed an intense, steady, focused beam of magic. Yet another Eye. Faint, as if coming from far away, but at the same time powerful—the same effect she’d felt emanating from the strange little house they’d passed soon after entering Mord. There was something else about it. Unlike the other Eye and the one at the northern gate, it wasn’t built into the masonry of the gate, but added later. Much later.

  She tugged Benayu by the sleeve.

  “I think there’s two Eyes on this gate,” she whispered. “One of them’s warded, though. And I think it’s new.”

  He stopped and concentrated. The others waited.

  “I can’t feel anything except the old gate guard,” he said. “But if you’re sure there’s something there that must mean it’s got a powerful ward, so you’re right. Bother. You three are probably safe to go on, but you’d better split up. Ribek can take Sponge, and Saranja and Maja can wait a few minutes and then ride Rocky through. I’ll come my own way and meet you further down the road. Don’t wait for me. I can travel faster than you, and we want to get on.”

  The dawn mists had melted away into a clear still morning when they came to a small stand of lime trees growing close beside the road. As they passed it a pigeon came gliding down onto the roadside turf, strutted for a moment and became Benayu.

  “Know I was there, Maja?” he asked.

  “I didn’t feel a thing—not even when you changed.”

  “Great. Shape-shifting’s small stuff, mind you. You didn’t notice my screen, either? Then we’re getting somewhere. I’ll need to find out a lot more about screens if I’m to operate at all out in the Empire.”

  They headed south all morning, stopping for their midday meal at the bridge over the river that they had seen from the escarpment. This meant both river traffic and road traffic, so there was a small market, with stalls selling food for man and beast. There was also a horse dealer, buying from travelers who’d come this far by road and were now journeying on by water, and selling to those going the opposite way. Saranja looked the horses over and Ribek made a show of doing so, while Maja and Benayu watched from the side. Using the same technique that they had with the jewel dealer in Mord, they bought a couple of nags, and saddles and harness from one of the stalls, so that henceforth all four of them could ride.

  The new horses’ characters emerged as the days went by. Pogo was a flighty gray gelding, inclined to shy at trifles whenever he was bored. Levanter was an amiable idiot. If a horse could get something wrong, he got it wrong. Rocky was manifestly glad of their company, but at the same time tolerated no nonsense from either of them, and kept them in line quite as much as their riders did. Pogo was immediately besotted by him, while after a few days Levanter seemed to decide that his best hope of doing the right thing was to copy whatever Rocky did. This worked reasonably well once Ribek had learned to allow for it if he wanted him to do something else.

  Late that first afternoon the road reached the southern limit of the plain. They had just moved in under the first trees when Maja stiffened, suddenly aware of something large and powerful coming swiftly from the south. It was horrible. She recognized it at once, the same sudden nausea of the spirit that she had felt just before the explosion back at the sheep pasture, while she and Ribek and Saranja had been waiting to cross the old ford.

  “Benayu!” she shouted. “Watchers coming! Fast! That way!”

  He stared south for a moment, then slithered from the saddle, closed his eyes and stood motionless, pale with concentration. Maja could sense his protective network weaving itself around him. Still concentrating, he reached out and pulled her inside it.

  “All right,” he said. “Grab hold of Jex in your other hand, Maja. Hang on to your feathers, Saranja. You should be all right, Ribek. Just take Pogo…Now!”

  The wave of change swept down over the woods and broke across them like silent thunder, felt as a sudden electric tension in the air, enveloping Benayu’s screen for one aching moment, and then gone. The jar of it pulsed down Maja’s arm to the hand that held Jex, who seemed for that moment to soften into living flesh and then was granite again. Rocky neighed and kicked. She opened her eyes to see Benayu close beside her, breathing heavily, pale and sweating, and beyond him Saranja and Ribek struggling to control the horses. That wasn’t the only reason why they looked shaken.

  “They’re doing a sort of generalized sweep as they go,” muttered Benayu. “Checking out any serious magicians they pick up. How did it feel, Maja?”

  “Your screen? All right, I think. Not as if it was anywhere near breaking.”

  “Why now, all of a sudden?” said Ribek. “It’s four days, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t get it,” said Benayu. “And Maja says that second Eye on the southern gate was new. I don’t think that first fellow I trapped in the cottage would have been up to putting it in. You’d have known, Maja, wouldn’t you, if any more actual Watchers had shown up?”

  “Yes, I think so. Only not if they came in secret.”

  “They weren’t making much of a secret coming just now,” said Saranja.

  “Somebody put the new Eye in,” said Ribek.

  “I don’t think it was Watcher stuff,” said Maja. “That’s got a funny yucky feel. I felt it just now when they went over.”

  Benayu sighed in anxiety and frustration and shook his head.

  “No point in guessing,” he said. “All I know is the further we are from Mord, the better.”

  The road wound mainly uphill through wild country, ancient woods, tangled with undergrowth and half-fallen trees, alternating with stony, scrub-covered hillside. They met a few travelers going north, but apart from one or two battered roadside sheds didn’t see a building until they came
in the dusk to an official resting camp, with fees and bribes to pay, but food and fodder to be bought, and other travelers for Ribek to question casually about the possibility of crossing the country southeastward to visit a sister he hadn’t seen for sixteen years. She lived at a town called Parangot, down beyond Tarshu, he said. He was told he’d need to make a long twelve days’ journey south before he found a good Imperial road, twice as much making the crossing and then, well, it depended how far south of that his sister lived. They hadn’t heard of Parangot. Not surprising, as he’d made it up, but someone happened to mention that it was a good thirty days on from where they were to Tarshu.

  As they slept under the stars Jex spoke in Maja’s dreams. His voice seemed only slightly less faint and strained than before.

  “I have important news. Some of my friends are now aware of me, and have spoken directly to me, though I still cannot answer or question them. Our road south is closed to us. The Watchers have been wholly preoccupied with preparations to meet the coming attack on Tarshu, and were not prepared to lose any more of their number until that was finished, so sent only a junior magician to investigate the loss of two of themselves beyond Mord, and then a more experienced one to investigate the first one’s disappearance.

  “This work is now finished. My supposition is that meanwhile this second man must have discovered something that they believe to be connected with the coming assault by the Pirates. Hence the urgency with which fresh Watchers have now arrived.

  “Once at the pasture, they will speak with the shepherds and look into their minds, and search for magical traces in the cottage where Fodaro lived with Benayu. I think we must assume that they will then know whose brother Fodaro was, and from that perhaps guess whose son Benayu may be.