insoluble problem of finding an accurate position. 'Dead reckoning just won't do,' she complained. 'Women's estimates always differ, no matter how good they may be. There isn't even a decent map to be had anywhere.'
Coruna mentioned the efforts of theorists in Achaera, Conahur, and other civilized states to use the Heaven-Fire's altitude to determine position north and south of a given line. Imaza was aware of their work, but regarded it as of little practical value. 'You just don't see it often enough,' she objected. 'And most of the crew would consider it the worst sort of impiety to go aiming an instrument at it. That's one reason, I suppose, why Shorzona shipped only Umlotuans. We don't worship the Heaven-Fire—our gods all live below the clouds.' She cut herself a huge quid of liangzi and stuffed it into her capacious mouth. 'Anyway, it doesn't give you east and west position.'
'The philosophers who think the world is round say we could solve that problem by making an accurate timepiece,' said Coruna.
'I know. But it's a lot of gas, if you ask me. A sand-glass or a water-clock can only tell time so close and no closer, and those mechanical gadgets they've built are worse yet. I knew an old skipper from Norriki once who kept a joss in her cabin and got her position in dreams from it. Only had one wreck in her life.' Imaza grinned. 'Of course, she drowned then.'
'Look,' said Coruna suddenly, 'do you know where the hell we're going, and why?'
'To the Sea of Demons is all they told me. No reason given.' Imaza studied Coruna with her sharp black eye. 'You don't know either, eh? I've a notion that most of us won't live to find out.'
'I'm surprised that any crew could be made to go there without a mutiny.'
'This gang of bully girls is only frightened of Shorzona and her warlock granddaughter. They—' Imaza shut up. Looking around, Coruna saw the two approaching.
In the morning light, Chryseir did not seem the luring devil-man of the night. He moved with easy grace across the rolling deck, the wind blowing his tunic and his long black hair in careless billows, and there was a boyish joy and eagerness in him. The pirate's heart stumbled and began to race.
He chattered gaily of nothing while he and the old woman ate. Shorzona remained silent until she was through, then said curtly to the two women: 'Come into the cabin with us.'
They filled Coruna's tiny room, sitting on bunk and floor. Shorzona said slowly, 'We may as well begin now to learn what you know, Coruna. What is the truth about your voyage to the Xanthi?'
'It was several seasons ago,' replied the corsair. 'I got the thought you seem to have had, that possibly I could enlist their help against my enemies.' She smiled mirthlessly. 'I learned better.'
'What do we know of them, exactly?' said Shorzona methodically. She ticked the points off on her lean fingers. 'They are an amphibious non-human race dwelling in the Sea of Demons, which is said to grow grass so that ships become tangled there and never escape.'
'Not so,' said Coruna. 'There's kelp on the surface, but you can sail right through it. I think the Sea is just a dead region of water around which the great ocean currents move.'
'I know,' said Shorzona impatiently, and resumed her summary: 'Generations ago, the Xanthi, of whose presence women had only, been vaguely aware before, fell upon all-the islands in their sea and slew the people living there. They had great numbers, as well as tamed sea monsters and unknown powers of sorcery, so that no one could stand against them. Since then, they have not gone beyond their borders, but they ruthlessly destroy all human vessels venturing inside. Queen Phidia III of Achaera sent a great fleet to drive the Xanthi from their stolen territory. Not one ship returned. Women now shun the whole region as one accursed.'
Imaza nodded. 'There's a sailor's legend that the souls of the damned go to the Xanthi,' she offered.
Shorzona gave her an exasperated look. 'I'm only interested in facts,' she said coldly. 'What do you know, Coruna?'
'I know what you just said, as who doesn't?' answered the Conahurian. 'But I think they must have limits to their powers, and be reasonable creatures—but the limits are far beyond woman's, and their reason is not as ours.
'I didn't try an invasion, of course. I took one small fast boat manned with picked volunteers and waited outside the Sea for a storm that would blow me into it. When that came, we ran before it—fast! In the rain and wind and waves, I figured we could get undetected far into their borders. So, it seemed, we could, and in fact we made it almost to the largest island inside. Then they came at us.
'They were riding cetaraea, and driving sea serpents before them. They had spears and bows and swords, and there were hundreds of them. Any one of the snakes could have smashed our boat. We ran for land and barely made it.
'We hadn't come to fight, so we held up our hands as the Xanthi leaped ashore and wondered if they'd just hack us down. But, as I'd hoped, they wanted to know what we were there for. So they took us to the black castle on the island.'
I remember the whole time as if it were a dream. There were treasures beyond counting. I saw gold and jewels from the sea bottom, mixed in with human skulls and the figureheads of drowned ships. The light was dim and blue, and there was always fog, and noises for which we had no name hooting out in the gloom. It stank, with the vile fishy smell they have. And the walls seemed to have a watery unreality, as I said, shifting and fading like smoke. You could smell sorcery in the very air of that place.
'They kept us there for many ten-days. We'd brought rich gifts, of course, which they accepted ungraciously, and they housed us in a dungeon under guard. They didn't feed us so badly, if you like a steady fish diet. And they taught us their language.'
'How does it sound?' as Chryseir.
'I can't make it come out right. No human throat can. Something like this—' They stiffened at the chill hissing that slithered from Coruna's lips. 'It has words for things I never did understand, and it lacks many of the commonest human words—fear, joy, hope, adventure—' Her glance slid to Chryseir—'love—'
'Do they have a word for hate?' asked Shorzona.
'Oh, yes,' Coruna grinned without humor. After a moment she went on: 'They wanted to know more of the outside world. That was why they spared our lives. When we knew the language well enough, they began to question us. How they questioned us! It got to be torture, those unending days of answering the things that hissed and gabbled at us in those shadowy rooms. It was like a nightstallion, where mad happenings go on without ever ending. Politics, science, philosophy, art, geography—they wanted to know it all. They pumped us dry of knowledge. When we came to something they didn't understand, such as—love, say—they went back and forth over the same ground, over and over again, until we thought we'd go crazy.
And at last they'd give up in bafflement. I think they believe humans to be mad.
'I made my offer, of course: the loot of Achaera in exchange for the freedom of Conahur. They—I might almost-say-they laughed. Finally they answered in scorn that they could take whatever they wanted, the whole world if need be, without my help.'
Momentarily Coruna was cold as the memory of that wet dark place of evil shuddered through her mind. 'I can't tell you much about it. They have great powers of sorcery, and the place seemed somehow unreal, never the same —always wrong, always with something horrible just beyond vision in the shadows.
Shorzona's eyes glittered. 'Did you find out anything of their powers?' she asked eagerly.
'A little. They put any human magician to shame, of course. I saw them charm sea monsters to death just to eat them. I saw them working on a new building on the island—they planted a little package somewhere, and set fire to it, and great stones leaped into the air with a bang like thunder. I saw their cetaraea cavalry, their tamed war-snakes—oh, yes, they have more powers than I could name. And their numbers must be immense. They live on the sea bottom, you know—that is, their commoners do. The leaders have strongholds on land as well. They farm both sea and land, and have great smithies on the islands.
'Well, in the end they let us go.
They were going to put us to death for our trespass, I think, but I did some fast talking. I told them that we could carry word of their strength back to humans and overawe our race with it, so that if they ever wanted to collect tribute or something of the sort, they'd never have to fight for it. Probably that carried less weight than the fact that we had, after all, done no harm and been of some use. They had no logical reason to kill us—so they didn't.' Coruna smiled grimly. 'We were a pretty tough crew, prepared to take a few Xanthi to death with us even if we were disarmed. Their killing-charms seem to work only on animals. That was another reason to spare us.
'One of their wizards was for having me, at least, slain. She said she'd had a pre-vision of my return with ruin in my wake. But the others—laughed?—at her, at the very thought of a human's being dangerous to them. Moreover, they pointed out, if that was to be the case then there was nothing they could do about it; they seem to believe in a fixed destiny. But the idea amused them so much that it was still another reason for letting us go.' Coruna shrugged. 'So we sailed away. That's all, And never till now did I have any smallest thought of returning.'
She added bleakly after a moment when silence had been heavy: 'They have all they want to know from my visit. There will be no reason for them to spare us this
Witch of the Demon Seas Resailed Page 4
