The wizard doing the talking was a robust-looking woman in the clothes of a Caladhrian farmwife, with the slack belly and gappy teeth of someone who's done more than her fair share of child-bearing. For all that, her eyes were keen and her face commanding as she peered down at the tiny ice-clad landscape in front of her.
Planir was leaning over and frowning as he studied the crater of the fire-mountain.
'Usara, can you open up that channel for me?' Amber light crawled over the image and Usara nodded confidently.
I stood silently as the mages bent over the miniature world they had created and worked ruin for the Elietimm. The side of the mountain quivered under Planir's magelight and gradually began to slip aside in a series of jerks. The wizard called Kalion cleared his throat and cracked his knuckles to send brief flashes of red down into the opening. Brilliant white fire emerged, the boiling rock cooling to red as it trickled down the mountainside. Sparse vegetation flared to ashes as the fire crept towards an unknowing hamlet.
'Usara, can you thin this out a bit?' Kalion murmured. Sweat beaded his forehead as he concentrated and he wiped it absently away on a rich velvet gown that would have looked more at home on a Lescari money-lender.
'Not so fast,' the woman commanded. She was doing something to a wall of ice further round the mountain where Planir was opening another channel in the rock. I watched as an orange glow surged under the ice and shuddered at the thought of so much water let loose to wash away the meagre settlements of the hapless peasants. I hoped some of their carefully hoarded stores would survive; the Elietimm were facing a bleak and hungry season.
I jumped when the door behind me opened. The man called Casuel looked in hesitantly, evidently relieved when he saw me.
'It's Livak, isn't it?' he enquired in low tones.
'Who wants to know?' I asked cautiously, not keen to answer a summons from Darni, for example.
'I need to hear about your experiences. Come with me, please. I want to prepare a report for the Council, to save time.' He shot an anxious glance at the wizards huddled over their enchantments but they were oblivious to our presence by now.
I drew a reluctant breath; I wasn't about to start taking orders from another wizard, let alone a cloak-carrier like this one. On the other hand, I didn't have the energy for a row.
'Can't it wait? It's not as if I'm going anywhere!'
He pursed a mean mouth in my direction; I stared back at him, expressionless.
'I suppose so,' he said finally with ill grace. 'I'll see you after I've spoken with Shivvalan.'
'Casuel!' The fat wizard called Kalion looked up. 'Send Allin in here, will you? I'd like her to see how this is done.'
Casuel sketched a bow. 'Of course, Hearth-Master.' He offered me a thin hand and I shook it briefly. 'I'll see you later.'
'Not if I see you first, you charmless lout,' I said silently to myself, pushing past him.
I followed my nose and my instincts to the galley; I soon found a quiet corner on deck to eat the bread and meat I'd scrounged from the agreeable ship's cook.
'I was starting to wonder what they'd done with you.' Ryshad appeared round a barrel and sat down next to me. I passed him a hunk of bread.
'I met Planir but he was rather busy. They're trying to sink those islands, from what I could see.'
Ryshad nodded as he chewed hungrily. He passed me a lidded pewter flagon of ale and I drank deeply before remembering I don't really like beer.
'It looks like everyone's got things to do except for us, then?'
'Oh, I think we've done enough for a while, don't you?'
I managed a half-smile to answer Ryshad's rather strained grin.
'Did anyone say where we're going?'
'This ship's headed for Hadrumal but I reckon they'll have to make landfall somewhere before that, Tormalin probably. They can put me off there,' he said firmly.
'You're going home?' I was oddly reluctant to face the prospect of losing Ryshad. 'I thought we would all be kept in Hadrumal till they'd wrung every last detail out of us.'
'That could take half a season. No, I don't take orders from wizards, even Archmages. My first duty's to make my report to Messire D'Olbriot; his scribes can take a copy for Planir.' Ryshad grimaced and reclaimed the ale. 'After that, I must go and tell Ait's family how he died.'
We sat in silence for some moments.
'How about you?' Ryshad asked after a while. 'I'd like to show you Zyoutessela and I'm sure Messire D'Olbriot will want to reward you.'
'For what?' I looked at him curiously and he pointed to my hands.
'These are his rings, the ones with the flame-tree on the crest.' He took my hand and rolled the gold bands gently round my fingers. 'These are worth a prince's hire.'
I laughed as I slipped the rings free and handed them over. 'Who'd have thought it? I don't know, Rysh, I've a life to get back to as well, you know. Halice will be thinking I've dropped off the end of the world, and we were supposed to meet some other friends at Col. The best place for me to head for would be Relshaz. Perhaps the wizards could take me to the Spice Coast, I could go up the Pepper Road.' I yawned, despite the stimulating chill of the wind. 'I certainly don't want to go to Hadrumal, I'm not spending the winter with wizards and scholars turning my mind inside out. They can pay me the money they owe me and I reckon I'll be adding a percentage for undue risk but, beyond that, there's nothing for me there.'
We sat in silence again for a little while.
'I have to say I don't like leaving a job half done, though,' I admitted. 'This isn't over, is it?'
'No, I don't suppose it is, but my mother always used to say the only thing in life with no loose ends is a new tapestry.' Ryshad sighed. 'I know what you mean, I feel the same, but I've other loyalties to meet.'
I reached out and held on to Rysh's hand; we sat there, wondering what to do for the best. A long, low rumble drifted over the ocean towards us and we looked at each other, eyes wide and questioning.
'Shiv!' I waved a hand as he went past, attention elsewhere.
'I didn't expect to see you on your feet!' Ryshad offered him the ale with a broad grin of relief.
Shiv joined us in our sheltered nook and rubbed at his thickly bandaged arm.
'One of those scholars has been looking into the healing magic they use in Solura. It seems that's aetheric as well. Whatever, it's put me back together so I'm not arguing.'
I studied his face; his colour was better but he still looked drawn and strained and Ryshad wasn't much prettier. I wondered what I'd find next time I chanced on a mirror.
'We were just wondering what to do next. Any ideas?'
Shiv shook his head wearily. 'I'm needed back in Hadrumal. Piecing together the whole story of our little adventure is going to take a lot of work. The Council will have a lot to discuss and then they'll have to decide what action to take. Some will think we should deal with this all ourselves, another faction will argue for alliance with Tormalin, and there'll be every shade of opinion in between. Some will favour blowing the Elietimm islands out of the ocean, others will want to wait and see and hope they'll just go away. Planir will have his work cut out getting a decision this side of Spring Equinox.'
He heaved a great sigh. 'Still, that's his problem. I just want to go home to Pered and lock the door till the turn of the year.'
That was a more cheerful prospect. 'Will we be home for Solstice? I've lost count of the days.'
Shiv smiled. 'Yes — what shall we do to celebrate? How about a trip to one of the gaming-houses in Relshaz?'
I was about to laugh but the wizard called Casuel popped up through a hatch, looking all ways like a startled rabbit.
'Shivvalan, there you are! Quickly, we need your help.'
Several other wizards appeared and we rose to our feet. I watched, open-mouthed, as a massive wave came sweeping across the ocean at us. Enchantment wove a shining emerald curtain around the ship; we rode the huge swell like a floating seabird and my heart stopped trying to hammer its way through my ribs. The wizards all watched for a moment then returned to whatever they had been doing, their matter-of-fact attitudes taking my breath away.