The sails billowed obediently and the Amigal slid out into a wider channel where a natural breeze pushed the ship through the water.
'Think you can handle the tiller, girl?' Dev challenged Risala.
'Of course.' She didn't rise to his bait.
'Make sure you keep a watch out while you're at that.' Dev gathered up his discarded clothes and disappeared into the stern cabin. He reappeared with the bowl he'd used for scrying now holding a tightly stoppered jar of liquid soap, a battered razor and a highly polished metal mirror.
Kheda looked up from sorting through the arrows. 'Do you have any glue?'
'Down in the main hold, third box back from the prow.' Dev dipped a little fresh water from the cask fixed by the mast and sat down. Rubbing soap into his stubble, where it lathered reluctantly, he fixed Kheda with one speculative brown eye. 'So what exactly will you be putting on those arrowheads to slow Dragonhide's pals down?'
'It's what I'll be showing to Redigal Coron and Ritsem Caid, to explain how I managed to defeat these wizards.' Kheda wound salvaged silk thread carefully round an arrow shaft. 'So no one comes hunting you, to contain the taint of magic by turning your freshly flayed skin inside out.'
Dev chuckled, unabashed, before taking his razor carefully to his cheek. 'That's all I need to know, is it?'
'For the present.' Kheda concentrated on smoothing a ragged quill.
'Where did you get the hateful stuff?' Dev asked idly, nose in the air as he scraped beneath his chin.
'In the north.' Kheda stood up and went to find the glue.
If I can put all our success down to the powder, and Shek Kul can vouch for that, if needs must, then that should answer the most immediate questions. We can turn any others aside as intruding on Daish secrets. I'll still have to find some purification and a powerful one at that, for Janne and Sirket's sake, never mind my own, but we can keep that between ourselves.
Kheda's spirits rose as he repaired the arrows and he found himself whistling under his breath. Clean-shaven and having decided to feed himself rather than tease Risala any further, Dev fetched a blanket from below and laid himself down on the deck. He was soon snoring softly. The sun climbed higher and higher in the sky.
They had travelled a good distance when Risala broke the silence hanging over the ship. 'I'm hungry. Can you take the tiller while I find us something to eat?'
'Of course.' Kheda took a moment to ease his cramped shoulders and then moved to the stern. Ignoring the sleeping wizard, Risala fetched smoked meat and sailer pottage from the stores below.
'Thanks.' Kheda ate rapidly and returned to his work. By the time the light was perceptibly yellowing, he had the bows and arrows ready for use. He looked at the weapons and pondered a new set of questions.
How best to load these arrowheads with Shek Kul's powder? I'll have to make a paste of some kind. It'll have to be made of something with no potency of its own, so the powder's still fully effective. I wonder just what's in that mix? If Sirket and I can tease it out, that will truly be a valuable secret for the Daish domain. How much should I keep back, to study and to show Caid and Coron, to still their curiosity? How much should I use on each arrow? It'll need to be enough to be effective but I don't want to be relying on one shot for each wizard. We need enough arrows tipped and ready for several attempts at each one. Hitting a bird on the wing's going to be easy compared to this, whatever Dev says. And I'd better keep back enough to deal with him, if he turns treacherous on us.
The thought of the struggle to come, lethal magic and howling invaders all around and him with no more than a bow in his hands, dried Kheda's mouth.
'Can I have a look at that map?' Risala was scanning a maze of islands, thick with knot trees, ahead.
Kheda joined Risala by the stern, both studying the crackling paper. 'We must be there.' He stabbed a finger down on an irregular lump of land.
'You'd better wake him.' Risala looked apprehensively ahead. 'We'll be coming up on the first of them soon.'
Kheda went to shake Dev's shoulder. The mage was awake in an instant. 'Are we there yet?'
'Soon.' Kheda looked uncertainly at the wizard. 'Do you want anything? Your white brandy, some chewing leaf?'
'What?' Dev squinted up at him. 'No, of course not. Liquor and magic's a dangerous combination, pal. I'd no more be drunk to work serious wizardry than you would be to read a beast's entrails.'
For some reason he didn't care to examine too closely, Kheda found that reassuring. He turned to Risala. 'How long till the headland?'
'Just coming up.' She deftly corrected their course.
Dev rubbed his hands together and blue light crackling between his fingers startled Kheda. The mage set both palms flat on the deck and azure tendrils crawled away to slip between the tightly fitted planks and disappear.
'What's that?' Kheda demanded.
'A little misdirection, to keep them looking the wrong way. Right, my girl.' Dev stood up and gestured to Risala. 'Hold a nice steady course parallel with the shore.'
'What should I do?' asked Kheda.
'Help with the sails if she needs you.' Dev rubbed his hands together and moved to the rail for a clear view of the bay coming into sight. 'Otherwise, stay out of my way.'
Kheda saw the depressingly familiar pattern of a ransacked village with a rough prison of crudely felled timbers, a deep ditch to foil assault from the sea and the dark lines of the invaders' log boats haphazard as a child's game of picksticks above the high-water mark. A few figures were visible, idling between the huts and the shore defences.
This is what I'm wagering my life against, in dealing with this wizard, to save my people from such vile destruction.
Determination driving out his apprehension, Kheda glanced at Dev. The wizard was peering intently at the village, hands cupped as though he cradled something unseen, lips barely moving in some silent litany. Kheda braced himself for some explosion of magic, fire or lightning or nameless horror even worse than the abominations the two duelling wizards had wrought on each other.
Nothing happened. Dev stayed rapt in concentration, eyes unblinking, his whole body leaning towards the shore. Kheda was wondering how long until he might ask the mage what was happening, or, more crucially, failing to happen, when movement ashore caught his attention. Savages came swarming out of the various huts and storehouses like ants from a nest stirred with a stick. Some took up a belligerent stance by the shore ditch, spears visible, bristling above their heads. Others ran for the log boats, a few launched before some authority summoned them back to the village.
You can't have been more than Efi's age, no, more like Mie's. Daish Reik caught you up under one arm, grabbing a couple of your brothers with the other hand. Everyone was out in the gardens, servants, slaves, mothers and children. One of the kitchen girls was hit on the head by a falling roof tile.
While the biggest cone mountains that regularly spewed fire were no closer than the Ulla domain, tremors still shook the Daish islands from time to time. Whenever people felt the ground shaking beneath their feet, they made for the open air. It was one of Kheda's earliest memories and the scene ashore was just as chaotic. Then the frantic activity stilled, everyone gathering around a central hut.
'What's going on?' Risala wondered, anxious. 'They can't see us, can they?'
'I don't think so.' Kheda kept his eyes fixed on the shore. 'I hope not,' he added with some alarm as the savages scattered, this time with purpose that became all too familiar. Some carried panels ripped from the houses to the boats, lashing them together with crude vine ropes. Others hauled sacks and bundles out to pile them on the shore. The rest began breaking down the crude stockade and driving their captives down to the water.