Kheda sneaked a discreet look at the young wizard's stump. The convulsions that had racked Naldeth during the mountains' eruptions had left his metal leg a misshapen ruin. As the mage had lain unconscious, Kheda had forced himself to see what had happened to his bleeding thigh. Relieved to find metal and flesh separate once more, he had forced the contrivance off the blistered stump and thrown it into a corner. Naldeth hadn't spoken of it since recovering his senses. Nor had he allowed Kheda to re-dress his broken scars.
At least there's no sign of suppuration, and if the flesh was rotting, we 'd all smell it in here.
Then he realised that the young mage's hands were
clasping his remaining knee. He had discarded all the splints and bandages Kheda had used to painstakingly reconstruct his broken bones.
'Naldeth, your hands,' the warlord said, astounded.
The young mage looked down and flexed his fingers, wincing. The torn flesh was still thickly scabbed and odd lumps bulged beneath the skin. 'I thought I had better make use of that black dragon's bone magic,' he said, swallowing hard. 'If my hands don't mend sufficiently to be useful, I really will be a cripple for the rest of my life.'
So such knowledge has its uses, however vile the uses that cloaked wizard might have put it to.
'Indeed.' Kheda kept his voice neutral.
'What have you seen?' Risala peered into the ensorcelled bowl.
'Rather more pertinent is what we haven't seen,' Velindre said slowly. 'We've seen no wild wizards working any magic to help the people or to help themselves. Some villages have gathered up their dead, but there's no sign that any dragon has been tempted to dine.'
'Neither of us have had any sense of a dragon within miles of here.' Naldeth gazed inland as if he could see through the splintered planks. 'And there's a warlord's ransom in rubies studding the deck. That would surely have drawn any beast attuned to fire.'
'I think we did it.' Velindre broke into a coughing fit that left her wheezing painfully.
The confusion plaguing Kheda resolved itself into one simple question. 'What exactly did you do?'
'We poisoned the well.' Velindre's smile was as cheerful as a death's-head rictus. 'That's another respected tactic in Aldabreshin warfare, according to what I heard as I sailed the Archipelago, one of the best ways to end a fight quickly.'
'We realised we couldn't beat the dragons.' Naldeth
shuddered. 'We must have been mad to think we ever stood a chance. We couldn't match them without destroying ourselves.'
'They were drawing on the elemental confluences that underpin this place.' Velindre gazed around as if she too could see through the broken hull of the Zaise. 'Or used to underpin it, I should say.'
'But what did you do?' Risala asked again.
'There was a degree of instability already inherent in the elements,' Naldeth said briskly. 'Water was seeping into the fissures in the sea bed, reaching all the way to the point where the fire came up out of the earth into the mountains. The pressures would have built up to an eruption long since if the dragons and the wild mages hadn't been drawing the elemental potential away with their wizardry, crude as it was. We simply accelerated events.'
Kheda wasn't wholly sure what the wizard was talking about but he knew self-justification when he heard it.
'Perhaps,' Velindre said dryly. 'The crucial thing was that we could use that ruby to work nexus magic. Between us we could draw all four elements together. Only there was no point in trying to use that quintessence against the dragons.'
'So we turned it against the instabilities in the elemental confluences and tipped the whole balance.' Naldeth rubbed a hand over his unkempt beard. 'I have to say, I wasn't expecting quite such dramatic results,' he added, contrite.
As Risala tucked herself under his arm, Kheda groped for understanding. 'How did this poison the elements?'
'They're all running into each other at the moment.' As Velindre looked up, the emerald light in the water dulled. 'Like dyestuffs bleeding into each other in cheap cloth. Any dragon with any sense will have gone in search
of a purer, stronger elemental focus. All this confusion will repel them.'
'None of these wild wizards will have a chance of working their magic' Satisfaction warred with apprehension in Naldeth's words. 'It's proved nigh on impossible for us these past few days and we're used to working complex wizardry. These wild mages only know how to draw on a single element and their spells are little more than pure instinct.'
'I think we've both learned that all the strictures and warnings about working nexus magic are more than valid, certainly without a full quartet of mages.' Velindre looked down at the silver bowl, frowned, and the radiance rallied.
'I thought I had burned out my own affinity,' Naldeth said, voice hollow.
Velindre shivered with sympathy. 'This was ten times worse than that potion you fed me and Dev, Kheda.' She closed her eyes, bloodless lips pressed tight together.
'But as you can see, it was just a matter of time.' Naldeth rubbed at the crease between his brows with the ball of his thumb 'We still have our affinities.'
'What do you think you can do?' Kheda asked carefully. 'Without exhausting yourselves. You mustn't risk overtaxing yourselves.'
'Dev told us how dangerous that could be,' Risala agreed anxiously.
'Don't you want to know if we can get us all home?' Naldeth's smile was unnerving in the eerie light.
'That's not my only concern,' Kheda said frankly, 'but yes, since you mention it.'
'Haven't we done all we came here to do,' Risala demanded, 'and more?'
'Rather more than we intended,' commented Velindre sardonically. 'I don't know if I can work a translocation
over such a distance,' she went on, abruptly serious. 'Not until I have some better understanding of the elemental changes we've wrought around here.'
'We can give you all the time you need. The Zaise isn't going anywhere and we've seen no sign of savages making their way in this direction.' Kheda returned Risala's supportive hug that inevitably found some of his bruised ribs. 'I'd be grateful, though, when you think you're strong enough, if you could try to see what's happening in Chazen.'
If I'm stuck here, at least show me that no disasters have struck there because I abandoned my responsibilities to Itrac and my new children.
'I can try now.' Velindre looked into her glowing bowl, the tip of her tongue toying with a split in her chapped lower lip. 'If you'll let me raid your physic chest.'
'Of course.' Kheda crawled over the unkempt layer of quilts and blankets to retrieve the ebony coffer.
Naldeth shifted so that Risala could sit beside him. Kheda carefully negotiated the yielding surface to sit opposite the two mages. Velindre set the silver bowl carefully down between the four of them.
Kheda opened the physic chest. 'What do you want?'
'Whatever it is that you've been using to ease my chest pains.' Velindre held out her hand.
Kheda gave her the crystal vial of pungent silver-leaf oil.
Velindre managed a thin smile. 'It's close enough to the aids we offer inadequate apprentices, and this is no time for me to be too proud to accept a little assistance.'
She let a few drops fall onto the water and the emerald radiance glowed through the slowly dissipating circles. As the oil spread into a fine film, the green light dimmed and a new brightness grew in the depths of the water.
Kheda saw the garden in the centre of Itrac's pavilion.
The logen vine was in full bloom and silken basket flowers clustered thick. The white-sand paths were neatly raked and in the central bower, Itrac and the baby girls were taking their ease on a green carpet patterned with fire-creeper and striol flowers. Chazen's lady wore a simple tunic and trousers of white silk, her bare feet kicking idly as she lay on her front, propped up on her elbows. The baby girls were lying on their backs on either side of their mother, each little face flushed with laughter. Itrac was using the end of her long plait to tickle first Olkai and then Sekni. The babies kicked lustily, trying to grab the teasing thing.