‘Only if the mage raising the creature is scrying in this direction.’ She sounded entirely unconcerned, smiling as she tilted her head back, revelling in the wind’s caress on her face. We’ll do something a little more dramatic to draw his eye this way, when we’re ready.’
‘When will that be?’ demanded Dev at once. ‘Soon enough.’ Velindre stared up into the clouds. Kheda did the same. The sky was a broken mosaic of blue and white, shuffled by the winds that were driving the rains up from the open ocean. The warlord looked back over his shoulder to see a darker line of denser cloud gathering on the southern horizon, turning the azure of the sea to a deep slatey blue. ‘There’ll be a bad storm before the day’s out.’
‘Then let’s get this done before it arrives,’ said Velindre breezily.
Kheda couldn’t contain his scepticism. ‘It’s as simple as that?’
Neither wizard answered, both intent on the skies. ‘Breakfast?’ Risala offered in a low voice. ‘Please.’ Kheda smiled.
‘Take the tiller.’ She unwrapped a fold of white muslin on the seat beside her to reveal torn lengths of unleavened sailer bread wrapped around pale curd cheese. ‘How long have you kept this boat stocked and ready to sail at a moment’s notice?’ she wondered, amused.
‘Since at least ten days before you could possibly have returned,’ Kheda admitted. He took a blushing avori pear plump with all the sweetness of the first rains.
Dev turned around with a cocky smile. ‘I told him he needed to do something more than sit around with his thumb up his arse till the dragon arrived to bite my head of
Kheda frowned and tested the tiller. The Reteul didn’t respond, cutting an uninterrupted line through the waters,
He looked over the stern and caught a fleeting glimpse of palest blue radiance curling through the boat’s arrow-straight wake.
‘You have grown bold, Velle,’ jeered Dev. ‘You never used to be so confident that you could emulate Otrick.’
‘Look up there, Dev,’ Velindre challenged. ‘Up as high as you can. Use your element’s sympathy with the air. See that?’
Kheda and Risala stared up into the sky along with the bald mage before sharing a shrug of incomprehension.
‘There’s nothing there,’ she whispered. ‘Is there?’
Not for us.’ Kheda chewed on the leathery bread. The sharp tang of the cheese sat uneasily with the misgivings roiling in his stomach.
‘I see. . Dev’s voice trailed off, bemused. ‘Something, yes. It’s so swift’ He stood motionless, astounded.
‘It’s the very highest and fastest of winds. It flows in narrow bands drifting across only a few latitudes,’ observed Velindre. ‘You may take that as an omen in your favour, Chazen Kheda, that the power I need to summon your dragon happens to be available in this domain. If you’re so inclined.’ Her voice was wholly neutral.
‘Can we trust any portent offered by a mage?’ Risala wondered under her breath.
‘At least she doesn’t mock such things outright like Dev.’ Kheda shrugged. ‘Perhaps that’s a sign in itself. I don’t know.’
‘What I can’t tell is where this savage mage is finding a comparable source of elemental fire,’ the magewoman continued pensively. ‘Have you felt anything when you’ve seen the dragon?’
‘The creature’s aura has always overwhelmed me.’ Dev looked around the horizon before fixing on the rapidly approaching rocks of the Serpents’ Teeth. ‘Let’s get this wild wizard here and I’ll find out what’s fuelling his magic,’ he promised with feral intent. ‘And I’ll turn it against him.’
‘Do you get the feeling we’re riding in the hollow of a tempest?’ Risala murmured beside Kheda.
‘Just as long as it blows this dragon back out to the southern ocean,’ responded Kheda grimly, ‘along with whatever invaders are still clinging to its tail.’ What little appetite he had deserted him and he tossed the half-eaten bread over the stern with an apologetic grimace at Risala. ‘Let’s see if you can make good on your bragging, Dev.’ Velindre was walking back to stand between the stern and the mast. ‘There’s nothing to be gained by delay.’
She raised her hands, one stretched forward and one aft. Blue light flickered all around her and the Reteuh sail bellied outwards at the thrust of a wind laced with azure sparkles. Kheda recoiled from the crackles of vivid sapphire light crawling over the tiller.
‘Just leave it,’ Velindre said calmly. As she gestured with one down-turned palm, the tiller adjusted their course just a fraction. With her other hand upraised, she curled her fingers slightly upwards. The ropes of the rigging shifted themselves, sliding obediently to trim the sail. Satisfied, Velindre halted them with a sideways cut.
‘Sit down and enjoy the ride,’ advised Dev with a wide grin. ‘She knows what she’s doing.’
‘You should try rounding the Cape of Winds with me,’ Velindre challenged with a hard smile of her own. The Reteul surged forward at speeds far in excess of anything Kheda had imagined possible. The prow rose high in the water, bouncing as it scorned the rolling swells. Risala slid from the stern seat to sit on the deck, holding on tightly to the rail. Kheda joined her, reaching round her shoulders to take a firm hold himself. Risala shuffled backwards into the crook of his arm and he pressed himself closer. Velindre stood unconcerned in the middle of the deck, as easily balanced as if she were on solid ground.
‘Do you suppose this little display will catch our friend’s eye?’ Dev couldn’t quite match her insouciance, forced to shift his feet every now and then.
‘You said they seem limited to their own element for the most part.’ Velindre ushered the magical wind a little around to the east. ‘I think it’s up to you to do something spectacular with fire. Besides, I’ll need to gather my strength.’
‘Already?’ Dev scoffed. ‘I could take on half the Council and scorch their arses black.’ He laughed gleefully.
‘Let’s concentrate on whipping this one mage into submission,’ suggested Velindre. At the snap of her fingers, the sapphire light laced around the tiller glowed more brightly. ‘And this is a wizard who can summon a dragon, don’t forget. None of Hadrumal’s Council can do that.’
Risala gasped as a massive wall of spray came crashing over the bow and surged down the deck towards them.
Dev brushed it aside with a scarlet flash of magic that instantly reduced the water to lingering steam. ‘There’ll be two who can, once we get back,’ he promised exultantly. ‘Then we can raise a dragon to chew on anyone who gainsays us.’
Kheda flinched as a ragged dark rock passed terrify-ingly close to the Reteul’s rail. Wind-tossed spume spattered his face.
By all means, please do. Rid us of this beast and go wherever you wish as long as it’s beyond Archipelagan waters. Do whatever you want with whatever arcane secrets you’ve uncovered, just as long as you do it as far away from here as possible. Go away to make as much trouble as you like among your fellow mages. Perhaps that will stop anyone else as dangerous and devious as you insinuating their evil into our lives.
He felt Risala trembling beside him. He was shaking,
I
too, from the chill of wind and sea as well as cold apprehension. They both tensed as the boat slowed to an abrupt halt.
‘I can’t concoct serious fire magic out here on the water.’ Dev looked around, brow furrowed. Not something that will catch our wild friend’s eye.’
‘That looks like a good place to mount our challenge.’ Velindre pointed and the Reteul made a stomach-churning wheel.
Kheda rose gingerly to his knees to see where the mage-woman was taking them.
They were nearly at the far western edge of the chain of reefs and dark rocks that had separated Chazen waters from Daish since time before record. Here the outcrops were larger than those in the east, more akin to the humped coils of a monstrous sea serpent breaking through the turbid foam. The rocks rose sheer from the water, ridged and steely grey, resolute as they defied the crashing waves. Here and there stunted tangles of nameless shrubs clung to the topmost crags, among countless nests of white moonfishers and pied coral-divers built safely above the water.