‘You’ve no more notion than I have,’ scoffed Kheda angrily.
Velindre agreed, but I think they were following that current of wind in the high heavens, either by reading the clouds or seeing the element alive within it. I think they knew that dragon would be coming here and they wanted to be ready, with whatever gems and food they could gather, before it came.’
She looked inland to the wind-tossed trees, thoughtful. ‘I don’t believe they came here to take your land. I think those mages were fighting among themselves to establish who was powerful enough to use that dragon’s aura. Perhaps only the strongest would be able to hold the beast off with his own magic. I don’t think they’ve any notion of creating a simulacrum of a dragon with elemental power. Why should they, if they have true dragons? If a wizard could win a dragon’s trust so that it wouldn’t simply kill him as some rival, its aura would give him elemental power beyond imagining to draw on.’
Kheda heard fear and desire in equal measure in her voice.
And you’re the only wizard who knows any of this, now Dev is dead. Shouldn’t I kill you here and now, to stop you carrying such dangerous knowledge away with you?
Velindre rounded on him. ‘So what will you do if some wild wizard comes here with a true dragon ready to do his will? What will you do if another untamed dragon rides that highest wind to land on your shores? Or perhaps I should say “when”.’
Once you start dealing with magic, you can never be free of it, can you?
Gooseflesh rose on Kheda’s arms. ‘What will you do for us?’ he demanded. ‘To help us in such circumstances? If I let you travel the Archipelago under Chazen protection?’
‘I’ll go back to Hadrumal first, to consult our libraries and those few mages I can think of who may be trusted with this theory and not seduced by its possibilities.’ Acerbic, Velindre ticked off her points on long, nail-bitten fingers. ‘Secondly, I’ll look for any other sources of dragon lore on the mainland. Then I’ll come back to the Archipelago and search Aldabreshin scholarship for any useful knowledge. That would be much easier with a Chazen dagger at my belt and some token of yours to back me.’
‘We know nothing of dragons,’ Kheda interrupted. ‘That’s why I had to turn to you barbarians!’ Velindre shook her head. ‘I don’t mean dragon lore. I’m thinking of mariners’ tales of galleys driven out into the ocean by some misfortune. I want to hear of any strange ships washed up in these southern waters or unknown birds blown ashore by some freak storm. AH those things would be taken for portents and recorded somewhere, wouldn’t they?’
‘What good would such lore do you?’ demanded Kheda.
Velindre’s face was hard and cold. ‘These dragons and these wild men, they must live somewhere. I’ll be looking for any clues as to where we might sail to find them. Don’t you want to know where such an enemy is to be found? Don’t you want to find out what manner of threat they pose to this domain and all the rest of the Archipelago? Don’t you want to have some chance of putting an end to their evil?’
‘You talk of evil, when you’re a mage.’ Kheda threw up his hands, to stop himself drawing a knife on the wizard woman. ‘Haven’t I done enough harm by bringing wizardry into these reaches? Why should I help you find out secrets you can use to your own twisted advantage?’
‘I’m not seeking advantage, magical or otherwise.’ Velindre shook her head slowly. ‘You say I’m ignorant of the Archipelago and Aldabreshin ways but believe me, Chazen Kheda, you’re just as ignorant of wizardry as it’s practised in the north. Which is hardly surprising, if Dev was your only guide,’ she allowed, looking down at the carved wooden casket on the sand between them.
She chose her words carefully. ‘Every mage of Hadrumal, from the Archmage down, would see these wild wizards as just as much of a threat as you do. We spend our lives stepping around fear and prejudice, careful not to reawaken resentments or old tales of magical abuse. Rumour of unbounded magic in the hands of southern savages would soon run rife through the ports of the mainland coast. We wizards might not be flayed alive but we could well find ourselves shunned or stoned or worse.’
‘I fail to see how that’s my concern,’ Kheda said resolutely.
‘You call us ignorant barbarians, in the north, and up to a point that’s true. We know very little of the Archipelago and the bathers you set against our ships have stopped us learning more. You have some responsibility for our ignorance,’ Velindre challenged him. ‘If rumour of wild magic in the south runs loose, I can see you paying a price for that obduracy. Do you suppose ignorant northerners are going to make any distinction between dark-skinned, dark-eyed Aldabreshi who have no magic and the dark-skinned, dark-eyed sorcerous invaders driving them north? Because you’ll have no choice but fleeing north if a wizard with a true dragon doing his will comes here. The Shockwaves will run the entire length of the Archipelago to wash Aldabreshin up on barbarian beaches.’
‘You’re just trying to frighten me.’ Kheda shook his head to deny her words.
‘Is it working?’ Velindre shot back. He looked at her. The soft rush of surf and the scent of the midar flowers drifted through the tense silence between them.
‘You’re painting as black a picture as you can imagine,’ Kheda said at last. ‘I think the chances of such calamity are small. But I wouldn’t wager against some new danger coming out of the southern ocean.’
‘Then let me help you make ready for it,’ Velindre pleaded. ‘Yes, I have my own reasons for wanting to fathom this mystery and I don’t expect you to understand them. Does that matter when we both have much to gain as well as much to lose?’
‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend?’ Kheda quoted the old precept with a wry twist to his mouth. ‘In a pinch, perhaps, but such friends often prove faithless.’
‘What other choices do you have here?’ Velindre was unmoved. ‘Aren’t I the lesser of two evils?’
‘That’s what I thought about Dev,’ Kheda pointed out. ‘Our alliance may have benefited me but it hardly did him much good, did it?’
‘Aren’t we all responsible for the choices that lead us to our individual fates?’ Velindre countered. ‘You’ll be safe enough among the travelling scholars if you answer every question with another one.’ Kheda sighed and rubbed a hand over his beard, careful of the grazes on his face. ‘I’ll give you a token of safe conduct, so you can say you’re travelling in the islands under Chazen protection. Though I warn you, there’ll be plenty of domains where that’ll be of little worth. In return, I expect you to bring me any clue you discover as to where these savages live. You said something about using the clouds to trace this current of air that the dragons rode. I want to know if there’s any way I can read it in the skies myself, to know when we are in danger and when we are not.’
‘Fair enough.’ Velindre nodded.
Kheda forestalled her next words with a curt hand. ‘If you’re discovered to be a wizard, I shall not lift a hand to save you. I cannot imperil Chazen like that. I will forswear myself and give my oath you stole my token as well as deceiving me as to your sex and your unnatural powers.’
Velindre pursed her thin lips for a moment then nodded. ‘I can live with that.’
‘You wouldn’t say that if you were truly Aldabreshin,’ Kheda said swiftly, ‘lest there was an omen in such words.’
‘Should I hope so, or hope not?’ Velindre wondered dryly.
‘Go back to the residence.’ Kheda dismissed her with a curt jerk of his head. ‘We’ll sort out the details later.
Velindre studied him for a moment, then bent to pick up the box containing the casket with Dev’s ashes. ‘Till later.’