'How will we know when to do this?' Janne sounded suddenly weary. 'You've no messenger birds. Even if you did, they take time to spread their word.'
'There will be a sign.' Kheda did his best to ignore the qualms knotting his belly.
You claim the purity of your intent shields you from the taint of magic. Will that clarity of purpose enable you to see the future past the perversion you are planning?
He took a dogged breath. 'You must tell Sirket this came to you, in your dreams here. There will be a red moon, or moons, I'm not entirely sure when. That's long been a sign of war. Sirket must tell the others to keep watch as well. As soon as they see it, everyone must sail south, to fight to the death.'
'You're certain this sign will be there?' Janne narrowed her eyes at him, mistrustful.
'I am,' said Kheda doggedly.
Because it will be no true sign, but one you'll be fabricating with Dev's collaboration. Will you ever admit such shame to anyone, that you suborned magic to raise a false omen? Will there be enough pearls in the next harvest to keep Dev's mouth shut or will he be leeching on your fear of exposure for the rest of your life?
Silence hung still within the circle of the wall but for a faint susurration from the tower above their heads.
'What then?' Janne was plainly suspicious. 'What happens after these battles, assuming you all live through it and no magic burns you to ashes where you stand, from north or south?'
'You and I will meet here,' Kheda said slowly. 'At the next full of the Greater Moon.'
'It'll all be over by then?' There was a desperate note of hope in Janne's question.
'One way or the other,' Kheda replied grimly. 'Then I'll take the omens and we'll consider how best to manage my return from the dead.'
He smiled at Janne but she did not smile back. 'Let's hope the omens are favourable.' She stirred a few of the feathers littering the ground with one gold-ringed, sandalled foot. 'If that's all we have to discuss, I had better look for guidance in whatever dreams might come to me here. Rekha and I have been visiting all the towers of the domain.'
'So no one would remark on your visit here.' Kheda nodded his understanding.
I hope these dreams bring reassurance that these are all steps on the right path, however distasteful.
'Among other reasons.' Janne's eyes were shadowed. 'Until I got that message, it was always possible you were truly dead. Even then, I could only hope it was from you.'
'It's nearly over, I promise you.' Kheda stepped forward to put his arms around her but Janne broke free of his embrace.
'You had better leave. I should be alone to dream true.'
'Until our next meeting, then.' Kheda bent to kiss Janne briefly on her lips. 'I'll be counting the days.'
'As will I.' Her wistful smile tore at Kheda's heart yet, perversely, encouraged him.
Stars above, she's plenty of reasons to be angry with you but she misses you all the same.
Kheda gave Janne one last smile and left. Careful to keep the tower between himself and any watchful eyes from Janne's galley, he headed for the line of dunes running down the spine of the island. Ducking to keep his head below the crests tufted with coarse new grasses, he followed the path he and Risala had scouted through the hollows and gullies. The beach on the sheltered side of the islet was thick with discarded oyster shells, crunching underfoot. Kheda hurried towards the ranks of vats made from discarded hulks of fishing boats. 'Risala?'
She appeared in the middle of the weathered, battered hulls drawn up well beyond the reach of the highest seas, tied to stakes hammered deep in the sand. 'Well?'
Kheda skirted the boats to reach the gap they had forced open to hide the skiff, sail stretched over the lowered mast and laced to the sides to give them some shelter. As he joined Risala the faint reek of rotting shellfish rose all around him, summoned by the previous night's rains that had left the skiff ankle deep in rainwater.
Catching his grimace, Risala grinned. 'This place must stink to high heaven during the pearl harvest.'
'It does, believe me,' Kheda assured her. He looked at the vats waiting to be filled with the divers' haul from the sea bed, the precious pearls retrieved once the flesh had rotted away. 'I hope Dev's got his plan worked out by the time we get back. It's not that long till the harvest should start and we'll need its bounty more than ever, if we're to repay Ritsem and Redigal for their help.'
Risala returned to tending her brightly coloured scroll, carefully unrolled on the sand and weighted with oyster shells against the inquisitive wind. 'What did Janne say?'
'She's confident that the Chazen people are keen to go home as soon as they can,' Kheda said with relief. 'There doesn't seem to be anything to these rumours of Chazen Saril having designs on our domain. Redigal and Ritsem will fight with us too, as long as they're not facing magic. So let's be on our way.' Kheda began unlacing the sail and folding it as Risala had shown him.
Risala carefully rolled up her scroll, blowing stray grains of sand from the delicate reed paper. 'Are you all right?'
'Seeing Janne made me realise how much I miss my family,' Kheda said shortly. 'The sooner we get back to Dev, the sooner we can have this all done and over with. Then we can all go home.'
'It's low tide.' Risala nodded towards the sea as she capped the leather-bound scroll case. 'We'll have to carry the boat over the reefs.'
'Come on then.' Kheda reached for the rope at the skiff's prow and looped it around his wrists, laying the rope across his shoulder.
With him dragging and Risala pushing from the stern, the skiff slid reluctantly over the furrowed sand. The sea was lapping lazily around the reefs, bright beneath the water but dull and dry where the tide had left them abandoned to sun and wind.
'We'll have to wade out a bit.' Kheda rolled his head from side to side to ease his shoulders. 'We'll just ground the boat if we get in here.'
'Fair enough.' Risala leant on the stern to catch her breath.
Striding into the shimmering water, Kheda shivered at the touch of the rain-cooled sea on his sun-warmed legs. The skiff was easier to pull with some water beneath its hull. Kheda looked down warily to the white sand beneath his feet, mindful of the hazards Daish Reik had warned him about.
Watch where you're stepping. An urchins spines festering in your feet can poison your blood for a slow death. The quickest way to die is frothing at the mouth because you've trodden on a sand lurker. Their venom fells in moments. It paralyses. Men have drowned in water no deeper than mid shin. Still, they're the lucky ones. That's a quick and painless death compared to the one sea snake poison brings you.'
End up dead through some stupid accident after all you've put everyone through and Janne will kill you, the mood she's in.
That amusement was short-lived. Kheda picked his way carefully between the rocks with their weeds and skein creatures. Kicking up sand as he waded, now waist deep, he saw small shapes dart away through the suddenly clouded water. Tension prickled between his shoulders as he found himself anticipating stabbing pain with every step. Splashes of salt water stung his dry and chapped lips and in all the scrapes and scratches he had collected.