'Just at the moment, I think we're better off trusting to our own common sense.' He tried not to sound too brusque. 'Let's see if anything edible's fallen foul of that snare yet.'
'Will you read any omen in it if it has?' Risala threw the challenge up at him.
'No, I won't,' he said shortly. 'I'd rather try to think through what Velindre's just said.'
'Isn't it folly to go looking for a fight?' Risala demanded. 'We're on our own here, Kheda. You've no warriors to call on, no triremes or archers.'
'It still may be that taking the initiative is our best chance of escaping from here. You said yourself that that wild mage they attacked last night will come looking for us.' Kheda sat down and put his arm around her stiff shoulders. 'I don't think Velindre would attempt to draw off this sky dragon unless she was convinced she could do it. Wizards do not like to fail. You know what Dev was like. He was always going to succeed or die in the attempt.' Kheda swallowed the recollection of that death once again.
'Until finally he did both.' Risala reluctantly laid her head against Kheda's shoulder. 'What do we do if Velindre kills herself?'
'Let's hope it doesn't come to that,' Kheda said grimly. 'If it does, we will still have Naldeth, I hope. And I think we can trust Velindre not to put Naldeth up against someone he couldn't equal. I think I understand a little of what she means about this wild magic being unsubtle—'
'It doesn't have to be subtle,' Risala pointed out acidly. 'A handful of fire exploding inside your head is just as effective as an assassin's knife. We saw that when these savages invaded Chazen.'
'And what do we say, if we can get home to Chazen?' Kheda hugged her tight. 'Do we warn the domains that there's an island out here in the western ocean that's full of wizards and dragons? Do we admit that we have no defence against them, unless we betray all we believe in
and make common cause with the barbarian mages of the north?' His voice was harsh with the unpalatable truths.
'I don't know.' Risala pulled away. 'I just want to see some sign, some hint, even, that we might actually survive all this. Whatever the dangers we faced before, at least I could believe that the omens had told us that was the best course of action. That we were risking ourselves for a future, for ourselves and for Chazen.'
Do you want me to lie to you? No, I won't do that, not even for you.
Kheda chose his words carefully. 'Having Velindre and Naldeth kill this skull-faced mage and drive off his dragon may yet serve the Archipelago's future, far more than they realise.'
'Why—' As Risala twisted, her face accusing, she froze, looking past Kheda's shoulder. 'What's that?'
He turned to see a shiver in the scant foliage that had nothing to do with the idle breezes. 'I think that's a sign that time for discussion is past.' He sprang to his feet, grabbed Risala's hand and ran for the cave mouth. Sling stones rattled against the rock face and he heard the thud of an optimistic spear landing somewhere behind them.
We won't outrun a lightning strike.
To his surprise, they made it back into the cave unscathed by crude missiles or deadly magic.
Risala slid down the steep slope, heedless of bruises to her rump. 'They're out there.'
'Coming for us?' Velindre stood up, running a hand through her short-cropped hair. 'Or waiting for us to come out?'
'They're just keeping watch for the moment.' Kheda pressed himself against the rocky mouth of the cave. A shadow not cast by the sun moved beneath a stand of twisted trees and resolved itself into a loincloth-clad spearman. 'They must have tracked us here.'
'Unless she betrayed us.' Risala scowled at the old woman, but her heart wasn't in the accusation.
The old woman looked at her and then at Kheda, her face crumpled with fear and confusion.
He shook his head. 'She doesn't even know what's going on.'
'I imagine they'll wait until their mage arrives.' Naldeth dragged his metal leg towards his stump. It rasped on the cave floor. 'Didn't you say only mages killed mages when they were fighting each other in Chazen?'
'I'd say we're committed, wouldn't you?' Velindre challenged Kheda with a glint in her eye. She turned to Naldeth. 'You keep tight hold on your fire until I've dealt with his dragon.'
'Then I suggest you make ready.' Seeing more movement among the trees, Kheda glanced briefly back into the cave.
The magewoman looked grimly composed, her eyes hard as onyx and her thin lips pressed tight together. Naldeth looked altogether less impressive, with fragments of leaf stuck to his chin and his nerveless fingers fumbling with the straps and buckles.
'Let me help.' Risala moved towards him.
'I can manage.' He warned her off sharply.
'Don't be a fool,' Velindre barked. 'We don't have time.'
Kheda turned back to keep watch on the lurking savages. The old woman startled him as she scrambled up the sloping entrance to peer around him, her claw-like hand grabbing his arm to steady herself. She hissed between her sparse teeth, shaking her head, and Kheda couldn't doubt the intelligence in her dark eyes.
How do I communicate with you? Is there anything useful you could tell us? I assume you don't want to die any more than the rest of us.
He drew his dagger and mimed a discreet thrust at the watchers now standing more boldly beneath the trees.
The old woman shook her head vehemently and, fastening her hand around his wrist, pushed the weapon back down. Kheda hastily resheathed it before she inadvertently stabbed him in the thigh. She tugged at his tunic, insistent on drawing him back into the cave.
Kheda shook his head with a forbidding frown, unpicking her fingers from his clothing before pointing first at his own eyes and then at the wild men now gathering in significant numbers in the dappled shade of the nut trees. The straight lines of their spears stood out clearly among the gnarled branches.
The old woman shook her head, exasperated. She edged her way down into the cavern and slapped a soaring painted falcon on the wall. Sweeping her arm around to encompass all the images, she jabbed one withered finger first at Naldeth and then at Velindre. Looking at Kheda, her face twisted with frustration that almost matched his own. She indicated the outside with a flick of her hand before drawing one hand across her wrinkled throat, eyes closing in a gesture that needed no translation.
'What do you think she means?' Risala asked helplessly. 'Other than they'll kill us as soon as we set foot outside.'
'They can try,' Velindre corrected her.
Kheda watched out of the corner of his eye as the old woman hurried deeper into the cave to point up at the dragon's head fashioned out of the rocky spur. She swept her arms around again to take in the whole cave and then pointed again at Naldeth and Velindre.
'This cave must be somehow sacrosanct to wizards.' Naldeth was balancing on his flesh-and-blood foot as he made final adjustments to the fit of his false leg. 'But I don't feel any undue elemental strength hereabouts.'
'I think she wants us to summon a dragon.' Velindre's smile was chilling. 'We can do that much for her.'
'It's coming.' The cave wall glowed briefly beneath Naldeth's fingertips as he braced himself with one hand while negotiating the uneven floor. 'The blue dragon.'
'I need to touch the breezes if I'm to raise a simulacrum to challenge it.' Velindre sounded almost eager as she stepped past Kheda into the daylight.
Kheda looked down towards the younger mage. 'What about the black dragon?'
'It's nowhere close.' He grinned up at Kheda, disquieting eagerness replacing his earlier reluctance. 'Give me a hand up, if you don't mind.'