'We'll need to move quickly if they come this way,' Kheda said urgently to Dev.
'They won't follow us through a wall of fire.' Dev was offhand. 'I can keep one between us and them until we can get back to the boat. This is just the usual bluster. I've seen plenty of it, though I've no idea what they get so heated about.'
To Kheda's relief, the activity on the beach subsided, most of the savages returning to their indolence, only a few remaining to continue the posturing. 'Your magic can't tell you what they're saying?'
I've spent my life being warned of all the evil magic can do. Now I find myself with this wizard as my most unwelcome ally, all he tells me is everything he cannot do.
'Not my spells.' Dev was unbothered. 'Sometimes they give up after tossing a few insults around, the wild men that is. Other times they come to blows, until one or other wizard calls his dogs to heel. We're not going to learn much from that.' His gaze fixed on the sparkling edge of the strait below and a malicious grin slowly curved his thin lips. 'I think I'll stoke the fire a little.'
The water glittered in the sunlight and slowly, imperceptibly, began to shimmer with an uncanny green light owing nothing to the sun above. Lapping on the sand, falling back and lapping again, the sea began to reach higher, every ripple advancing further up the shore towards them. The green glowed brighter, colouring the foam cresting the little waves. The water began to surge forward around the invaders' log boats. The emerald radiance darkened around them, gouts of spray scattered on the breeze as the boats began rolling, floating free in the magic's embrace.
The desultory shouts of derision on this near side of the water turned to yells of anger as the wild men saw what was happening. Some of the savages waded thigh deep into the water, grabbing at the boats. A crash reverberated around the trees and startled crookbeaks fled shrieking as the door to the big hut flung back. An invader whose whole body was patterned with yellow handprints strode out into the sunshine. He flung one hand out in front of him and the green light in the water retreated into the depths. The painted wizard stood on the sand and looked across the water to the sailer granary where the runner had taken his news. Amber light glowed and the ground began shifting beneath the posts holding it up. The timbers twisted and cracked as their foundations vanished.
A handful of savages emerged in a hurry, the first one stumbling as the sandy ground flowed away beneath his feet. Behind him, a man crowned with a fresh green wreath of leaves swept his hands around in a quelling gesture. The ground stilled and his laughter rang out over the increasing abuse the two bands of warriors were throwing across the water.
One wild man raced forward, brandishing a spear. Skidding to a halt on the water's edge, he sent it soaring across the water, straight at the wizard with the wreath of leaves.
'There's always someone too stupid to see sunset,' sighed Dev with scant sympathy.
The spear exploded into a shower of splinters and two blasts of magic, one from the wreath wearer and one from the painted mage, knocked the hapless savage off his feet. Wrapped in coils of green and golden light, the man screamed once before he collapsed in a heap.
'See, only wizards kill wizards,' Dev explained conversationally.
Risala sank down to kneel close to Kheda. He laid his hand over hers as grassy light crawled all over the split tree trunks making up the prison enclosures. 'Dev? What are you doing?' He winced at the feebleness of the despairing shrieks from the unseen captives.
'Not a thing, not any more.' Dev's face was rapt with fascination. 'Shut up and let me see what they're about. Wizards only kill wizards but they can do a lot to discourage the spear-carriers. '
The vines tying the stockade together were glowing green and writhing as they uncoiled themselves from the wood. Wild warriors shouted with alarm as the tendrils curled speedily across the sand, catching at feet and ankles, tying up anyone they caught. Any man trying to free himself found his hands ensnared as well. Several fell heavily to the ground and one yelled with rising terror as a questing tendril looped around his neck.
The yellow-painted wizard made a sweeping gesture and the vines crackled into brittle fragments laced with crimson light. As his men tore the dry remnants away, their leader lifted his hand in a slow arc and the water in the strait quivered. A swollen wave ran up the beach on the far side of the strait, water bulging with amber radiance. The ripple left the water and continued up through the sand, the ground rising and falling like a shaken cloth. Most of the invaders were knocked clean off their feet. Even the men clustered around the wreath wearer staggered.
He alone stood upright, unaffected, and his retaliation was immediate. A storm of green light flashed around the village below them. Cries of pain outstripped the shouts of anger and men hugged themselves in agony, thrusting hands beneath their armpits. Some fell to the floor, clutching at their feet, others clapped hands to their faces.
'I don't suppose you people know what frost nip is.' Dev sounded more amused than concerned. 'This is getting nasty'
The yellow-painted wizard spared no attention for his suffering followers. He swept both hands towards the far side of the strait and this time the ground turned to liquid mud beneath the wreath wearer's forces. Wild men sank up to their knees, the mud spreading in all directions as they tried to climb out. The painted wizard clapped his I hands together with a golden flash that rivalled the sunlight and they found themselves struggling in solid earth once again.
'Predictable.' Dev was unmoved. 'Though effective. They're well and truly stuck,' he chuckled.
'What now?' The screams from the despairing prisoners tore at Kheda's nerves and Risala's hand tightened around his.
He might have said more but a brilliant green light swirled above the strait, aquamarine deepening to a dark ominous jade. The storm of magelight rushed ashore, a dense cloud obscuring everything, sounds of suffering sunk beneath its roaring. As suddenly as it had come, it was gone, leaving the beach strewn with men clutching gashes to their arms and legs or holding hands to bruised and bloodied heads. The sand was littered with pale, glittering shards and the breeze momentarily carried a chill breath brought down from the highest mountain's night.
'If you fancy a wager,' Dev remarked, 'my money goes on the lad with the leafy wreath. An ice storm like that is no easy trick in this heat—'
'Look, they're getting free of the ground.' Risala was watching the far side of the strait where the wreath wearer's men were freeing themselves, hard dry ground breaking up beneath the determined assault of clubs and spears.
The yellow-painted mage strode to the water's edge, still ignoring his wretched followers' sufferings. He flung out a hand directly towards the wreath wearer, who screamed and clutched at one leg, the lower bone snapping audibly, splintered ends ripping through his skin to bloody his frantic hands. The yellow-painted mage's men raised a ferocious cheer, drowning out the opposing force's insults. Risala quailed beside Kheda, pulling her hand free to muffle her ears. Kheda put an arm around her shoulders and held her close, but found himself unable to look away as, fallen to his knees, the wreath wearer punched at the painted mage, as if he could strike him where he stood.
The yellow-painted mage staggered backwards. Wounds appeared on his arms and legs, lengthening, his limbs swelling, skin splitting like overripe fruit to reveal a mossy light within soon lost beneath gouts of blood and corruption. Kheda coughed at the foul stench of gangrene floating up as the savage wizard fell to the sand, twisting and gasping in agony.