Hugh Cook - The wizards and the warriors

The air was hazy with dust thrown up by the diggings. The bastion nearby, rising high into the air, was topped by arrangements of windlasses and treadmills; teams of men were labouring in unison on this creaking apparatus to drag up block after block of stone.

Standing watching, Blackwood sneezed as dust got up his nose. He touched a finger to his teeth. Bit it.

– This is not a dream.

He scraped a battered boot over the stones of the road, heavily clagged with dirt from the diggings.

– You are here.

– And not elsewhere.

He felt an acute sense of being located in that particular spot at that particular moment. He felt as if he had awakened from a life of dreams, from an insect-habit life of doing things by rote.

– Is this magic?

Miphon and Hearst began to argue about whether they should enter the city or outflank it, and the spell, if it was a spell, was broken. Blackwood joined the argument; they decided to enter the city, not least because they wanted to find out what rumour of war had provoked this outbreak of fortification-building.

From Veda, the travellers had carried away some glowing fragments of the luminous white interior of the ruined city; they sold these scraps to a jeweller in the centre of Narba, getting a good price; later, no doubt, as trade brought more of the material along the Salt Road, the price would fall.

What they learnt in Narba was confused, ambiguous and ominous. There was trouble amongst the wizards of the castles guarding the flame trench Drangsturm. There had been fighting at the Castle of Ultimate Peace, at the eastern end of Drangsturm. A few wizards, all of the weakest of the eight orders, the order of Seth, had come north to Narba and had taken passage on ships going to the Cold West or the Ravlish Lands. Rumours said other wizards had taken passage on Malud ships sailing the Ocean of Cambria, dispersing to Asral, Ashmolea, the Ferego Islands, the Driftwood Archipelego and the Parengarenga Mass.

The wizards were served by the Landguard, just as the sages of Veda had been served by the Secular Arm. Some of the Landguard, disconcerted by the troubles, had deserted. Meeting some of these deserters, the travellers heard rumours of expeditions to the Dry Pit, of attempts to capture the Skull of the Deep South, of wizards building strongholds in the Ashun Mountains while others, helped by Southsearchers, set up places of refuge deep inside the lands controlled by the Swarms.

At this distance, the truth was impossible to determine.

'But we know this for certain,' said Hearst. 'Narba fears war between the orders of wizards. That's why the city's so busy with these extra fortifications.'

'Small help they'd be,' said Blackwood.

'A war between wizards might lead to other evils,' said Hearst. 'For instance, the Landguard troopers might run wild.'

The men of the Landguard were tough, resolute and dangerous, trained to hunt down and kill any creatures of the Swarms which got round the shoreside edges of Drangsturm or overflew the flame trench. If they went to war on their own account, they would be a serious menace to a place like Narba.

'We'll take your word for it,' said Blackwood. 'You're the warrior.'

'What we have to decide,' said Miphon, 'is what we do now. My duty lies south. The Confederation of Wizards has to be warned that Valarkin may be on the loose with a death-stone. However… friend Hearst, the south would hardly be healthy for a Rovac warrior at the best of times. Now…' iil see this thing through to the end,' said Hearst. 'A war between wizards could mean… perhaps the end of the world as we know it. I won't try to disown my part in history.'

If he no longer wished to be worshipped as a hero, he still wished to be significant; he was still of the opinion that quiet, sheltered lives were for woodlice, not for men.

'You know the risks,' said Miphon, knowing that, actually, if the wizards really did go to war, nowhere in Argan would be safe. 'And you, Blackwood?'

'Once I've bought a bow, a knife and a new pair of boots, I'll be ready to travel.'

'You don't have to come with us,' said Hearst. i have to go south to discover my destiny,' said Blackwood.

'Your destiny?'

'Yes,' said Blackwood. 'Why would all these things have happened to me if not for a purpose? Why did I survive when so many others died, if it were not that some destiny is intended for me?'

Hearst smiled, amused at this provincial certainty, which was not far removed from the belief traditional in Estar, namely that a peasant was destined to remain always a peasant.

'Chance attends even to falling dice,' said Hearst. 'Much more so to us.'

'That's as may be,' said Blackwood, choosing not to argue. 'But in any case, I've no idea what I'd do if I didn't continue this journey.'

'That's a poor excuse for getting yourself killed,' said Hearst.

'In your company, I doubt any of us will be losing our lives,' said Blackwood.

'I wish I shared your confidence,' said Hearst.

They stayed three days in Narba, spending most of the money they had made from the sale of bits of the substance of Veda – as well to spend the money now, since death might be waiting a short distance down the road – and then they set off south.

Here in the south, the weather was warm; even when winter came, the south would never see a frost. Nevertheless, there was no doubting that it was autumn.

Twenty leagues from the Castle of Controlling Power, the travellers came upon the skeleton of one of the Neversh. Hearst and Blackwood, who had never seen such a thing, examined it with fascination. From the twin feeding spikes to the tip of the whiplash tail, it was two hundred paces long.

'it's… it's a little larger than it looks on a chess board,' said Hearst.

'They grow bigger than this,' said Miphon.

Hearst chipped away at one of the feeding spikes with his sword. The delicate interior structure reminded him of honeycomb. i thought these spikes would be solid ivory,' said Hearst.

'That's what many people have thought,' said Miphon. if it was, it would hardly be left lying here. Besides, it'd be too heavy to fly. All the bones are light -but strong.'

The arch of the ribcage was huge, bulbous.

'There are sacs inside here,' said Miphon. 'Full of lighter gas. The Neversh find it easy to get off the ground, because of all the lighter gas inside them.'

'What's lighter gas?' said Hearst. it's a kind of air that floats within air," said Miphon. i don't understand.' if you have oil and water, the oil will float on the water. If you have lighter gas and air, the lighter gas will float on the air. Do you see now?'

'Maybe,' said Hearst.

He examined the thin vein-structure of the wings. 473 which remained even though the actual tissue of the wings was gone.

'It looks clumsy," said Hearst.

'You forget the tail,' said Miphon. 'That's very mobile. It's armed with poison. It can move fast as a bullock-whip. It's said the tail's sometimes fast enough to deflect a crossbow bolt.'

'What damage could a crossbow do anyway to a thing this size?' said Hearst.

'With a quarrel through the ribs, all the gas goes out from the inside,' said Miphon. 'Then the Neversh can't fly. It falls.'

'Why doesn't it fly higher? Out of range of crossbows?'

'The higher it goes, the more danger of meeting a high-flying wind that would blow it away,' said Miphon. 'Because they're so light, the Neversh have trouble controlling their own mass in flight. That's one reason why mountains are a good barrier against the Swarms. Most of the ones that live on the ground, like keflos, can't climb very well over rocks, and the Neversh get blown away by the updrafts you find in the mountains.'