'Suppose I do help you?' Dev's jaw jutted belligerently. 'What do I get out of it?'
'Besides a whole hide?' Kheda didn't have to pretend surprise. Cramp threatened in his thighs and he shifted a little. Needles of glass pricked his shins, a stickiness of blood warm on his skin.
'I thought you weren't a man's man.' Dev tested Kheda's weight with a suggestive twist of his own hips.
'You won't distract me with your nonsense.' Kheda pressed the knife harder into the leathery skin of Dev's throat.
'Don't you want revenge on the invaders?' Risala's taunt turned both men's heads. She shook her head at Dev. 'Don't you want to make that mage in the dragon-hide cloak pay for sending those tentacles to slap your sorry arse and try ripping you limb from limb?'
'Revenge isn't worth so much,' said Dev tightly. 'I'll want something I can trade for real value.'
'Pearls? Turtle shell?' Kheda shrugged. 'What's so funny about that?'
Dev licked at the corner of his mouth, the knife cut painfully pulled by his unexpected chuckle. 'Those wizards down south don't reckon much to pearls or turtle shell. They want gems, the bigger the better, talisman stones for preference.'
'That's what was in the coffer?' Risala asked.
'You're not the only one I've been keeping an eye on.' Dev slid a sly glance towards her.
'Why do they want talisman gemstones?' demanded Kheda.
'So many questions.' Still pinioned, Dev nevertheless tried to shrug. 'Every answer has its price, you must know that much, soothsayer.'
Kheda looked down at the wizard with undisguised contempt. 'If you're paid, well paid, with pearls and jewels as well as your worthless life, will you help us?'
'What does a penniless soothsayer with a slut of a poet in tow have to pay me with?' scorned Dev.
Tell him who you are and you give yourself over to his mercy. Is there any other way to win his assistance? Isn't this a wager that'll prove your cause, one way or the other?
Blood pulsing in his throat, Kheda kept his voice as calm as he could. 'I can reward you with more riches than you can imagine, fool of a barbarian. I am Daish Kheda, warlord of that domain.'
'And I'm the Emperor of Tormalin,' scoffed Dev breathlessly.
'You don't have some magic to know he's telling the truth?' Risala was genuinely surprised.
'You people do have some foolish notions about what magic can do.' Dev shook his head as far as he was able. 'Prove it.'
'Who else but a warlord would have the secret of disarming a wizard?' Kheda smiled with confident pride to mask his inner incredulity at what he was doing. 'Who else but the Daish warlord would risk himself in dealings with a mage in order to fight the magic that threatens his people? Why else would I hand you the valuable gift of knowledge of my true identity, if I wasn't trying to buy your cooperation.'
'Why does everyone else think the Daish warlord is dead?' retorted Dev, now trying in vain to find some purchase for his feet on the slippery deck.
Kheda pressed his weight down harder. 'Do you imagine I could have gone on such a quest with every eye on me, every tongue speculating as to what I might be planning?'
Dev's eyes narrowed. 'I don't imagine many other warlords would be too pleased to know what you're doing.'
'Then you can imagine what I'll be paying you, to keep your mouth shut about exactly how we drive these wizards out of the southern reaches,' countered Kheda coldly.
'Will you help us?' Risala demanded.
'I'll think about it.' Dev closed his eyes for a moment. 'If you haven't crushed the life out of me.'
'I'll let you free if you give your word not to fight again.' Kheda's own legs begged him to stand up.
'My word?' mocked Dev, his spirit returning. 'The word of a foul, deceitful, perverse wizard?'
'A wizard with no powers at present.' Kheda looked down at him, unblinking. 'A wizard I can hand over to any number of warlords who'll be only too happy to flay him alive.'
'You've already made a start on that, you bastard.' Dev's breath hissed between his teeth. 'I'll be no cursed use to you if I'm dead of blood poisoning.'
'Give me your word.' Kheda let his full weight press down again. 'If you keep it, that'll be worth some payment in its own right.'
'Show us we're wrong about wizards, we stupid Aldabreshi,' added Risala, her scepticism plain.
'I swear, by all that's holy—' Dev caught himself. 'By the fire that burns within my very bones, that I will help you fight the invaders and their wizards, just so long as you pay me all that you can. Betray me—' He paused and glared up at Kheda. 'And I will melt the flesh from your bones with sorcerous fire that will leave a stain on these islands for a full cycle of the heavens.'
Kheda got up, trying to disguise the shudder that racked him at those words. 'Good enough.' He paused, held Dev down with one knee and cut the key cord from around the bald man's waist. 'I'll hold these for the present, just to help keep you honest.'
Groaning, Dev rolled over. The back of his tunic was stained with blood and bright with broken glass. 'What have you done, drugged me? I don't feel doped but I can't feel the slightest touch of the elements.'
'That's my secret,' said Kheda shortly. He sat on the chest and grimaced as he picked glass out of his shin. 'Risala, can you get some wine to wash out everyone's wounds? And something to sweep up this glass?'
'Get the white brandy,' snapped Dev. 'In the basket with the blue withy rim.'
When Risala returned, stubby black bottle and a threadbare besom in her bloodied hands, Dev sat up and pulled off his tunic. 'See if you can clear up your new lover's mess.'
She didn't bother replying, simply handing the bottle to Kheda, before sitting to begin picking the fragments out of Dev's skin.
'Shit, that's sore!' Dev grabbed the brandy from Kheda and took a long drink.
Risala took the bottle from him and sluiced his wounds with the spirit.
'You're a lousy nurse, girlie,' Dev gasped.
'Find another,' she said unsympathetic, tearing a strip from his ruined tunic to wipe away the welling blood.
'I'll go ashore in the morning.' Kheda finished sweeping the broken glass into a pile and began gingerly tending his own wounds with a liquor-soaked scrap of cloth. 'Find the makings of a poultice for us all.'
'This is all the medicine I need.' Dev snatched back the bottle and glared at Kheda. 'Get lost and let me get some sleep.'
Kheda walked stiffly over to unlock the door to the hold. 'You sleep in here.' He went into the gloom to retrieve his soggy belongings.
'You can take your hammock,' Risala said sweetly.
'I'll thank you to remember I'm the owner of this ship, girlie.' Dev unhooked his hammock from the beams nevertheless, carrying the bundle of sailcloth and blankets through into the darkness. He slammed the door emphatically behind him. Kheda locked it.
'Keys, please.'
Kheda threw the bunch. Risala caught the cord and unlocked the big chest, pulling out hammocks and blankets.
Kheda reached up to hook one end of a canvas length to the beam. 'Do you think he can see in the dark?'
'Who cares?' Risala shrugged as she secured the other end. 'Do you think he can hear us?'
'Depends how much of that white liquor he's drunk.' Kheda helped her with the other hammock.
'When will he get his powers back?' asked Risala in a low voice as she shook out a blanket.
Kheda took it, pleasantly surprised to find it herb-scented and free from damp. 'I'm not entirely sure,' he said softly.
'What did you do?' Risala moved closer, voice dropping to a whisper.
'Shek Kul gave me a powder,' mouthed Kheda, unable to restrain a grin. 'He found the concoction in some ancient book of lore. I had no idea if it would work but I put it in his wine. A warlord's son is raised to be wary of poisons. That teaches you all the moves to spice someone else's drink.'