‘Do you think that’s significant?’ Kheda looked down the length of the ship to the prow where Velindre stood, tall and slender in her guise of a zamorin scholar.
Can we trust her, when she grieves so openly for this base creature she created? She seems to mourn it more than Dev. But she’s shown us where it is, when she could have concealed it and let it die unseen. She really wants that ruby egg.
‘I don’t know.’ Risala shrugged. ‘It certainly can’t hurt to have so many hands raised against the beast. I doubt it’ll be that easy to kill, even wounded.’ She twisted the silver chain of tiny shark’s teeth around one finger. ‘But we can only go onwards.’
Is that more wisdom in chance-heard words? Or simply a statement of the blindingly obvious? Does it matter? We’re committed now.
The Gossamer Shark’s helmsman and shipmaster were both down on the rowing deck. Kheda lowered his voice nonetheless. ‘Has she let slip any hint that the creature could have found gems to strengthen itself?’
Risala shook her head with complete conviction. ‘She says it’s weakening fast.’
‘There’s been no word of it making any attacks,’ Kheda mused quietly amid the hubbub of the anchorage. Not where it could have found sapphires for its sorcery.’
‘Plenty of people have seen it on the wing, though.’ Risala glanced at him. ‘She was right—you couldn’t have kept it quiet.’
‘Let’s hope this course of action all turns out for the best, then.’ Kheda shoved the wide belt drawing his hauberk close firmly down on to his hips. The dagged edge of his bronze-ornamented chain mail chinked softly against the gold-embossed metal plates of his leather leggings.
A time to look every measure the warlord, I think
‘Your swords, my lord?’ Risala proffered two scab-barded blades and the double belt to secure them. The swords were not a matched pair: one was Kheda’s, the other had been Dev’s.
Kheda took the weapons, face impassive. You’d make a fair body slave.’
‘Sorry, my lord, I’m not going up against that creature.’ Risala shuddered, and then her face betrayed a new concern. ‘Who is going to be at your shoulder?’
‘Mezai for one.’ Kheda nodded down into the depths of the trireme. ‘Along with Ridu, Eshai and probably the whole sail crew.’
Down on the rowing deck, every man was abandoning his oar to don some scavenged chain mail or a thick leather jerkin. The Gossamer Shark’s contingent of trained swordsmen moved slowly among the rowers, handing out a miscellany of swords. Eshai, the helmsman, earned himself a sharp rebuke from one of the armoured warriors for trying an amateurish parry in the confined space.
‘I couldn’t ask you to stand at my shoulder again.’ Kheda smiled, his words soft. ‘You’ve already gone into more danger on my account than anyone should have had to face.’
‘I’ve been wondering where the stars stood at my birth,’ Risala remarked wryly, ‘and what the soothsayer missed, or chose not to tell my mother, for fear she’d faint dead away.’
‘I’ve more need of you here anyway.’ Kheda’s tone hardened as he gazed at Velindre. ‘Keep a close eye on her. She’ll regain her full strength once the creature is dead.’
‘What do you suppose she’ll do?’ asked Risala apprehensively.
‘I hope she’ll disappear in a lightning flash and leave us loudly thankful that we’re rid of such an unexpected and dangerous deceiver.’ Kheda sighed. ‘I don’t suppose she will. She’s set on having that ruby egg.’
Is it truly dead? There’s been no new spark of life within it. Could the death of this cloud dragon give it some new power?
‘What can she want with it?’ Risala was as mystified as Kheda.
‘I don’t know and I don’t want to know,’ he said firmly. ‘And I don’t really want her revealed as anything more than a zamorin scholar.’ Kheda looked at Risala, his face grim. ‘Can you kill her if she betrays any sign of magic when the beast dies?’
Risala nodded slowly. ‘Yes, my lord.’
Seeing the pain in her eyes, Kheda had to fight a powerful impulse to fold her in his arms. At that moment, Shipmaster Mezai came swiftly up the ladder from the rowing deck. Kheda busied himself donning his double-looped sword belt and securing the twin scabbards on his hips.
‘Are we ready, my lord?’ The mariner was wearing a hauberk showing signs of rust only recently scoured away and with some fierce dents in the solid metal plates inset to protect his vitals. He gripped a heavy blade more suited to forcing a path through virgin forest than to swordplay.
‘We are,’ Kheda said resolutely. Mezai summoned the whole ship’s crew with a rousing shout. ‘Come on, lams, let’s have the beast! For the Mist Dove and everyone who died on her!’
Kheda bade Risala farewell with silent eyes as he waited his turn to climb down the stern ladders as virtually the Gossamer Shark’s entire complement spilled along the side decks. As he slid down the last few rungs to the damp sand, he turned to see countless eyes fixed on him. Hunters from the hills of Boal and Esabir brandished their square-ended hacking blades. Lads with them carried bundles of the sturdy lances that could bring down a hook-toothed hog. Most sweated uncomplaining beneath the thick hide tunics they more usually wore to save themselves from a goring by some water ox, with high collars to foil the tearing neck-bite of a jungle cat springing from a tree.
Fishermen rested on their long, barbed spears, some bare-chested, more with some attempt at armour fashioned from latticed knot-tree bark more commonly used for crab traps. Youths without either weapons or armour stood burdened with swathes of heavy net and coils of thick pitch-blackened rope. Men more used to sailing the domain in search of trade were ready to join the hunters and fishermen. Like the Gossamer Shark’s crew, they clutched a motley selection of weapons and a curious array of armour, new and old, in styles drawn from every local domain of the Archipelago and some from far beyond.
Is that some sign, that merchants and mariners can arm and armour themselves so readily when only a warlord’s designated warriors are supposed to carry swords in his service? Dev used to trade in forbidden weapons, didn’t he?
Thrusting away that painful thought, Kheda picked out the bowmen lending their strength to this enterprise. A few carried their bows in hopes of seeing some weakness where a shaft might pierce the dragon. Most of those he recognised as archers from the Chazen residences carried the polearms that usually gathered dust, stored against some disaster when the untrained household would be the last line of defence.
Slaves and servants are all the defence the residence has at the moment. I hope no opportunistic pirate thinks to attack Itrac while every eye and blade is turned against this dragon. At least that bastard Ulla Safar’s too far away to try taking such advantage, even if he did hear some rumour of what was going on. The Chazen swordsmen were drawn up in precise troops amid the milling crowds, steel hauberks bright, polished helmets gleaming even in the dull overcast. Kheda looked for Ridu but couldn’t see him. He set the thought aside resolutely and took off his own helmet so that his face could be seen more clearly and an immediate hush fell around him. Ripples of silence raced outwards until the only sound was the idle play of the sea. Every face turned to Kheda: openly anxious, taut with apprehension, all utterly deteimined.
‘You are here to do Chazen a great service today.’ The words sounded thin and insincere in Kheda’s ears. He cleared his throat. ‘We have a difficult and dangerous task ahead of us. We are looking to kill a creature bigger than any I have ever hunted—and if any of you have ever tried harpooning a sea serpent or a whale anywhere near as big, I’m amazed you’re here to tell the tale.’
Nervous laughter shivered through a few people. His next words killed it.
‘This creature has magic to call upon as well as its size and strength. I don’t know what it may try, to confuse us or kill us, but we must expect it to wield its unnatural powers. We must not let this undermine our resolve. We must fight our way through such attacks to kill the creature itself and that will put paid to such malevolence. We will end this evil blighting Chazen.’