Southern Fire

'Do you mean you'll scry to see them fight?' Kheda looked dubiously at the wizard.

'Oh, no, I need to be there,' Dev assured him cheerfully. 'You can't tell who's winning a cockfight if you're standing outside the pit.'

Risala had been delving cautiously in the wreckage of a hut. 'They left the turtle shell and the pearls again.' She stood up, brushing her hands against her ragged trousers.

'If they scorn such wealth in favour of jewels, they're bound to go north sooner or later.' Kheda looked grim. 'That's where the Archipelago's gems are to be found.'

Dev nodded to Risala. 'Gather that lot up and get it aboard.'

'What gives you the right to rob these people?' Kheda challenged him immediately.

'Who's left to rob?' protested Dev. 'Anyway, you said I'd be well paid. We can call this something on account.'

'You go looting on your own,' Kheda said coldly. 'Once you've worked your spying magic to be sure no one's sneaking up on us. We'll bury the dead before we leave here.' He turned his back on the wizard and Risala dutifully followed him back to the lifeless couple.

'At least they died in their rightful place.' She looked around helplessly. 'Is there anything to dig with?'

'Go and look.' Kheda knelt to score a line in the damp turf with the dagger he'd taken from Dev and kept for himself, even if it was an undistinguished Viselis blade. He began levering the grass up. 'Otherwise it'll have to be our hands.'

'No sign of anyone around here at all.' Dev waved cheerfully, throwing aside a scoop of sea water in a broken pot.

'Keep looking. We don't want to be taken unawares.' Kheda concentrated on peeling back the stubborn turf.

'I don't want to be caught any more than you do.' The wizard waved a negligent hand. 'Though anyone with a pennyweight of sense will be sleeping out the heat of the day under a tree.'

Risala returned with two hoes, one with a charred handle, the other broken but still serviceable. 'This is the best I can do.'

Kheda took the broken tool. 'Then let's do our best for these two.'

The heat of the day seared their bent backs as they dug. Dev plundered the wreckage of the savage mage's hut, fetching sacks from the Amigal, and loading them with turtle shell and pearls, whistling insouciantly.

Is it the magic staining your bones that makes you so obnoxious? Or did you come to hide in the Archipelago because you'd made enemies of all your fellow wizards?

'Hitting him probably isn't the wisest thing to do.' Risala nodded at Kheda's tight grip on his hoe with a rueful grin. 'Though it might be worth it, to stop him whistling.'

'He's doubtless just trying to provoke us. I have a daughter, Efi, with a similar talent.'

'What do you make of this riddle?' Risala paused, leaning on her hoe to wipe the sweat from her forehead. 'Why are these people here? What do they want? They're not looking to settle, not from what we've seen. They're not planting any crops, not even husbanding their supplies. They're taking slaves or prisoners at least but that's all wrong as well. I don't know how things happen in the southern reaches, but when Danak Sarb killed Danak Mir for the domain, Danak Mir's people were given over to the troops for whatever use they cared to make of them; they were sold for slaves, kept for concubines, just raped and discarded. I haven't seen any sign that these savages have laid so much as a finger on the Chazen women. What do they want? They're not even taking the pearls and turtle shell that bring this domain its wealth.'

'They want gemstones, we know that much.' Kheda shared her bemusement, jabbing his hoe into the earth in frustration. 'Why are those so valuable to them, to these wizards, that they'll risk deaths as foul as that?' He jerked his head back towards the dead and disjointed mage.

'I don't think it's about gems or land or women, willing or not,' said Dev unexpectedly, stopping to eavesdrop on their conversation. 'It's about whatever those wizards can give their followers. It must be something so tempting, so wonderful that they'll risk being ripped apart by someone else's wizardry, that these warriors will follow just for the chance of seeing their man win the prize.' The mage's eyes were dark and mysterious. 'I wonder what that prize might be.'

'What could be here that a wizard would want?' Risala protested. 'We don't have magic in the Archipelago.'

'You do at the moment and you want rid of it.' Dev went on his way, preoccupied by his speculations.

Kheda straightened up and considered the depth of the grave they had dug. 'This should do.'

Risala hurried to catch Dev as he came up from the shore. 'Give me one of those.' She took a cotton sack from his hands and ripped it along its seams, ignoring his protests. Returning, she handed Kheda a length of cloth, wrapping another tight around her mouth and nose. 'Let's get this done.'

The cloth muffled Kheda's sigh as he bent to take the old man's shoulders. Risala reached for his feet. The old man wasn't heavy. Beetles scattered as they lifted the corpse away, pale worms wriggling frantically over the damp, stained ground. There was no way to lower the body into the grave so they had to let it drop with a dull, unpleasant thud. The old woman was lighter still and landed with a muffled thump. The stench of disturbed death rose from the corpses and Kheda began hastily raking dirt into the hole while Risala scattered soil over the foulness where the bodies had lain.

'Do you suppose this will help their families, if they are still alive?' she wondered, words tight in her throat.

'It can't hurt.' Kheda looked across to the rising heart of the island. 'And their presence should do something to counter the past evil for anyone living here in the future.'

'What do we do about him?' Risala jerked her head towards the wrecked hut where the savage mage still lay.

Kheda scraped a last slew of soil across the grave and pulled the cotton rag from his face, using it to scrub away the sweat. 'We burn him. Fire purifies.'

Risala twisted the cloth between her soiled hands. 'Do you suppose we can ever be cleansed, after so much dealing with magic?'

Kheda heard a desolate note in her voice. 'I fully intend to free myself of all taint,' he said firmly. 'Just as soon as we see a way clear to freeing this domain of all these savage wizards. Let's make a start by burning this one and then we can see if Dev's any notion of making good his boasts about getting rid of the rest.'

'Thatch will get the fire started.' Risala caught up an armful of brittle fronds. 'We want hardwood after that, to burn hot.'

'The hotter the better,' agreed Kheda, pulling dry floorboards from the ruins of another building.

He was kneeling, trying to catch a spark in a tuft of fibres teased from the cotton rags, when Dev sauntered up.

'Why are we setting a smoke signal to draw every enemy eye?' wondered the wizard sarcastically.

Kheda didn't look up. 'You wanted to find out who killed him, didn't you?' The tow flared and Risala cupped her hands around the fledgling flame. Kheda fed it with torn pieces of palm frond.

'Find out, yes. Fight off his hordes, no.' The flame faltered and Dev laughed. 'I can do that for you.'

'No,' Kheda said curtly, carefully tending the smouldering tinder. 'We're trying to cleanse the magic here, not brand the very rocks with it.'

Dev snorted, annoyed. 'If you're not done when I'm ready to sail, you can paddle to the next island.'

Kheda didn't answer, though he kept a sideways eye on the Amigal as he and Risala built the fire ever higher over the dead mage.

'That should see him burned to ashes,' said Risala with satisfaction as she threw a final chunk of wood on the blaze.

Kheda nodded. His mouth was dry as dust.

The ashes will remain. We'll just have to hope for a good storm to wash the foulness away for the sea to dilute.