Tears of pure terror streamed down Risala's face, her hands trembling so much she couldn't have hit any target even if her numbed fingers had managed to loose her arrow.
The whole fight down on the stream bed had broken into confusion. The village spearmen were fleeing, scrambling
over the fallen trees or cowering, hands covering their ears, clubs and spears abandoned. The archers had thrown away their bows. The tree dwellers were faring no better. Several of the wild men had collapsed, vomiting. Others were curled like animals on the ground, hiding their heads in their arms, knees drawn up, heedless of any enemy. The pulsing noise went on, unrelenting.
'Naldeth—' Kheda choked on bile flooding his mouth as the tormenting sound rose to a new pitch. He threw away his makeshift bow and wrapped his arms around Risala, as if his own body might protect her from whatever catastrophic magic was about to engulf them.
The noise stopped. In the silence, the giant tree behind the wild wizard finally collapsed. It fell toward the stream, swift and true. The upper stretch of its trunk struck the wild wizard unerringly on the top of his head and the branches threw a swishing pall over his bloody remains.
Naldeth said something heartfelt and incomprehensible in his native Tormalin and threw away his dagger. He wrung his hands, wincing.
Kheda saw the deep scar burned into the young wizard's flesh. 'What did you do?'
'I tricked him.' His clothes rank with sweat and his bloodshot gaze ghastly, Naldeth nevertheless grinned like a boy caught in mischief. 'These wizards draw all the elemental power that they can find into themselves and then just throw it out in whatever way seems best. So I drew as much earth magic as I could reach into that dagger. There's no subtlety to their battles, so all he could imagine me doing was somehow turning that weapon and the power within it back against him. So he put all his efforts into trying to steal back the magic'
Kheda glanced at the dagger and saw that the steel of the blade was blackened and distorted while the sandy soil
around it had fused into a dirty-brown glass lump. 'So he didn't notice a tree about to fall on his head.'
'Unfortunately for him.' Naldeth sniffed with a disdain reminiscent of Velindre.
'You managed another victory without a slaughter of innocent women and children.' Risala was still standing within the circle of Kheda's arms.
'That's something, isn't it?' Naldeth smiled crookedly.
'Let's hope Velindre's managed to keep the cave dwellers alive.' Kheda looked around to see how their allies were faring. Most were scrambling to their feet, ashen beneath their coating of dirt and grease, grabbing spears more to lean on them for support than with any intent of fighting. Across the valley, the tree-dwellers' women and children were climbing slowly down from their platforms and shelters, wailing and throwing themselves to the ground in abject surrender.
Risala looked up and down the dry stream bed now so drastically reshaped by flood and magic. 'Where was his dragon when he needed it?'
'I don't know.' Naldeth shivered involuntarily. 'I couldn't have pulled off that trick if it had been anywhere close.'
'Would you know if it was attacking Velindre?' Kheda looked at the forest back beyond the crest of the valley's eastern edge.
'Oh yes,' Naldeth assured him.
'Has it truly just given up and gone away?' Disbelieving, Risala was still looking around.
'There must be other places on this island with easier pickings.' All the same, Kheda wasn't convinced.
'Perhaps.' From his tone, neither was Naldeth. 'But dragons aren't known for backing away from a fight.'
'So if it returns to finish this fight, you and Velindre will need that ruby egg.' Kheda looked out across the valley beyond the tree-dwellers' settlement.
'Then let's make for the Zaise.' Risala pulled free of his embrace.
'How do we do that without taking this army with us?' Naldeth wondered.
'Let's just go.' Kheda searched for the scarred spearman among the village warriors and beckoned him forward. The warrior stepped up readily, dirty face alert. He clutched Kheda's hacking blade, the broad steel clotted with blood. Kheda encompassed the whole force with a sweeping gesture and then cut down with one hand to divide them. He found the stooped hunter in one half and pointed over to the abject tree dwellers. Holding the man's gaze, he pointed to the bloody hacking blade and shook his head slowly, his expression forbidding. The stooped hunter nodded slowly, some unidentifiable emotion clouding his brown eyes. Hoping he had made himself clear, Kheda turned his attention to the scarred spearman standing with the remaining warriors and made as if to push them all away, back towards the caves and Velindre. The scarred spearman nodded readily and called out to other hunters. The wild men began moving away, purposefully, some with a definite spring in their step.
'I think they appreciate a victory where they're not leaving half their friends dead behind them,' Risala observed.
Kheda looked at Naldeth. 'Are you fit to fight any more today, if we do run into that dragon?'
'If it's that or be blasted into dust.' The young mage rubbed at his beard, bruises of tiredness under his discoloured eyes looking as if the bloodstains were spreading. 'But I'd rather not, if we can possibly avoid it. And the sooner we recover that ruby the better.'
'Come on, then.' Kheda turned to tackle the treacherous slope down to the stream bed.
Naldeth let slip an incomprehensible Tormalin oath.
Turning, Kheda expected to see the young mage struggling with his false leg on the broken ground. Instead he saw a fiery ring of elemental magic shimmering on Naldeth's steel thigh.
A bespeaking.Kheda recalled Dev's name for the spell.
'What's happened?' Vehndre's voice echoed through the magic of fire and steel, harsh and tinny.
'We've killed their wizard and sent the tree dwellers running in all directions.' Naldeth sounded more resigned than proud. 'We're on our way to recover the Zaise?
'Some of our spearmen are taking charge of the tree dwellers but the rest should be making their way back to you.' Kheda wasn't sure if the magewoman could hear him.
'Get back here with the ship as fast as you can.'
Even allowing for the distortion of the spell, Kheda could hear strain in Vehndre's clipped words. 'Has something happened?'
Naldeth peered into the scarlet circle, frowning with growing concern. 'What's the matter?'
'Just get back here. We need the Zaise —' This time there was no mistaking the catch of a sob in Vehndre's voice.
'Is it the dragon?' Naldeth clenched impotent fists.
'No.' Velindre rallied. 'There's no dragon or any wild mage here and I can hold off anything short of that till you get back.' A treacherous quaver shook her voice and the spell blinked into nothingness.
'Give me an arrow, a feather, something to burn.' Naldeth held out a hand to Kheda 'I'll bespeak her and—'
'There's something wrong.' Risala looked uncertainly at Kheda.
'Yes.' He waved away Naldeth's hand. 'But whatever it is, it's not so wrong that Velindre couldn't use her magic
to speak to us, and she didn't ask us to come straight back to her.' Kheda began walking cautiously down the slope. 'And she's right. We need the Zaise. We can probably get back to her as quickly with the ship as we could by walking.'
'Naldeth,' Risala said abruptly, 'what gemstone would an earth dragon seek above all others for its egg?'
'Amber,' the wizard replied readily. 'Not rubies.'
'I think we'd know if the black dragon had found the Zaise.' Kheda drew his sword as they advanced across the mud. The stooped hunter and his contingent of spearmen were just reaching the tree-dwellers' settlement. A few looked curiously at the mage and the two Aldabreshi but none made any move to follow them.