Does anyone really want to raise his sword against me and find no one follows his lead? ‘So you simply didn’t know these vermin were here?’ Kheda shook his head.
No, my lord,’ said Nyral with belated regret.
‘Yet you were close enough to hear our horns and come to see what was amiss?’ Kheda wondered, apparently puzzled.
‘A stroke of fortune, my lord.’ The boldness in Nyral’s voice ebbed away. ‘We came as fast as we could, to lend our strength to yours.’
The Thorn Circle’s rowing master and helmsman were looking past Kheda to the belligerent half-circle of the Mist Dove’s swordsmen with growing apprehension.
‘I’m glad of it.’ Kheda nodded. ‘And since you admit your dereliction, I am inclined to be merciful. You will merely be flogged and chained to an oar in the lowest bank of the Mist Dove until Shipmaster Shaiam is inclined to release you.’
Nyral’s face turned ugly and he took a pace forward before abruptly freezing.
Kheda took a step forward to match the shipmaster’s, gripping the man’s forearm so he couldn’t go for his knife and leaning close. ‘Do you want me to ask those new slaves if anyone recognises you and your ship? If they’ve paid for your blindness with loot or their women’s favours? I’ll get whatever answer I want and you can settle your account with your head. No one will lift a finger to save you.’ As he spoke, Kheda felt an unnatural tension in Nyral, the muscles cording his arm shuddering as if the man strained against invisible bonds. He looked the shipmaster in the eye and saw panic there instead of rebellion. Nyral’s jaw worked beneath his beard, the man struggling to speak even as his own mouth refused to obey him.
Dev, you disobedient, bloody-minded, lizard-eating barbarian.
As quick as that thought came to him, Kheda drew his own dagger and sunk it to the hilt into Nyral’s unprotected midriff. Pulling the mariner towards him, he drove the blade deeper and twisted it up behind the man’s ribs. Dev already had a drawn sword at the throat of the Thorn Circle’s helmsman and Shaiam had his own dagger levelled at the fast trireme’s rowing master. As Kheda stepped back, heartsick and withdrawing his dagger with remarkably little blood, Nyral collapsed dead to the damp ground. The other two men from the Thorn Circle dropped to their knees, arms outstretched, hands nowhere near their belt weapons.
‘You two can pay his penalty, for standing with him,’ snarled Shaiam. The Mist Dove’s swordsmen seized them, four or five to each unresisting man, and dragged them away. Bring me a lash!’ Shaiam bellowed as he stalked after them.
Everyone else retreated to leave Kheda and Dev isolated on the water’s edge.
‘I thought flogging was the sailmaster’s job, what with all that hauling on ropes to build the shoulders,’ Dev commented lightly. ‘Though I suppose Shaiam’s got the muscles to make a decent enough job of it.’
‘Why did you do that?’ Kheda glared at the wizard with discreet fury. ‘How could I let Nyral let live after you had wrapped him in the toils of some cursed enchantment?’
‘What was I supposed to do? Let that bastard cut your throat for you while the rest of us stood there with our hands down our trousers?’ Dev was unmoved. ‘Maybe you could have taken him in a fight. I’m no augur but I could see that turning into a battle that would leave this bead knee-deep in blood if the Thorn Circle’s men decided to make a fight of it. As long as I’m playing your body slave it’s my duty to keep you alive, and you know I’m no swordsman.’ Dev looked down at NyraPs lifeless body and poked it with one foot. ‘Anyway, what have you lost besides one half-competent and likely corrupt shipmaster? All these men have just seen you act with the resolution of an awesome warlord. That’s no bad trade for one life.’ The wizard turned from the corpse at his feet to speak softly into Kheda’s ear. ‘Besides, what are you going to do about it?’
‘I do not wish to rule these people through fear,’ said Kheda through gritted teeth.
‘And you can be as generous and kindly as you like when your rule is truly secure,’ Dev retorted. ‘In the meantime, settle for knowing that everyone hereabouts is cowed by your ruthlessness. Now we can sail back to the residence without worrying what’s going on behind our backs. After you’ve done whatever you people do to celebrate your new year, we can sail west.’
‘We’ll certainly sail west as soon as possible,’ Kheda assured him grimly. ‘I’ve decided I want every last mud-painted, feather-wearing savage dead. If you can learn anything that serves your purpose while we do it, that’s your affair.’
‘You’re finally talking about a proper campaign to hunt them out?’ Dev was openly surprised. No more of this slowly drawing a noose around them to see if thirst and heat can do the job for you?’
‘I can’t afford to keep those triremes in the west if we need our trade routes hereabouts guarded. We plainly can’t trust Nyral and his like and word of the pearl harvest will soon spread, especially if Daish galleys are finally risking these waters again. Come to that, I want to show Daish all the triremes we can muster until I know how the wind blows in that quarter.’
Kheda looked at the wizard, unsmiling. ‘So yes, it’s time to put an end to those last skulking invaders, even I if it does cost us Chazen blood. I’ll find another body slave from somewhere and you can go looking for whatever it is you think you’ll find among them. That should settle all accounts between us. As soon as they are all dead, you can sail north and lose yourself wherever you see fit. Then I can concentrate on looking to this domain’s future without the dubious benefit of your particular services.’
Chapter Three
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the notion of a warlord’s residence without walls. It was strange enough visiting this place when it was Chazen Sari’s. Now that it’s mine, this openness feels more wrong than ever.
‘Well done, Shaiam, we’re here in good time to celebrate the new-year stars.’ Kheda made sure warm approval rang through his words as he called out to the shipmaster. ‘You’ve all earned a consideration when the pearl harvest is gathered in.’
That declaration garnered Kheda loud cheers from rowers bone weary from nine days’ hard labour. He was more concerned with searching the seas ahead for any sign of visiting ships.
What interest does Daish have in the Chazen pearl harvest? What prompted a trading flotilla to sail south when no other domain feels inclined to risk these waters just yet? How long have they been here and what have they done? Who is leading their delegation?
The sun was low in the west and Kheda shaded his eyes with one hand to try to see what vessels might be at anchor within the lagoon surrounding the chain of islets long favoured by Chazen’s warlords as their dry-season home. The ships remained stubbornly anonymous, mere black silhouettes against the vivid orange of the evening sky.
The Mist Dove slowed. Shaiam showed no sign of having heard Kheda’s words of praise, intent as he was on negotiating the maze of reefs that served as the first line of defence for the residence. Yere gripped his steering oars, sitting with back straight and alert for any word from the shipmaster or any signal from the lookouts perched on the projecting bow timbers. Kheda moved to look down over the trireme’s side, Reddish coral crags appeared impossibly close as the galley’s hull slid through the crystal-clear water.; Brilliant fish darted in and out of the crevices with a twitch of their tails. Jaunty painted fools with wide white masks stayed close to the deceptive tentacles of sea flowers vivid as living ruby or golden quartz. Steel and sapphire shoals of blade fish cut circles around the duller humpbacked drift fish idling along. Down in the deeps, cobalt sea stars and giant green-lipped clams sat placidly in patches of rippled whiteness among mossy green fernlike fronds.
Dev came to stand beside Kheda. ‘What by all that’s holy is he doing?’ the barbarian demanded, gazing down incredulously at a figure beneath the water.