Juliet McKenna - Northern Storm

‘Then be certain that what you do for her is for her own good.’ Velindre’s sharp tone interrupted his thoughts. ‘I’ll return to Hadrumal soon enough but I shall want your safe conduct to travel in the Archipelago again.’

‘What?’ Kheda shook his head in instinctive denial. No.’

‘You owe me a considerable debt, Chazen Kheda.’ Velindre stood up, brushing sand from her white cotton trousers. ‘And Dev said you were an honest man, someone to be trusted. Being such a scoundrel himself, he should know. I choose not to be repaid in pearls or gems or anything else. I have that right, you must agree?’

‘Archipelagan customs are for Aldabreshi—’ Kheda began.

Velindre overrode him. ‘It’s been custom for years beyond count that anyone choosing to live in the Archipelago should be counted as Aldabreshin, whether they were born slave or free, islander or mainlander, man, woman or zamorin?

‘Everyone living in the Archipelago is bound to a domain,’ Kheda retorted. ‘You’re not.’

Nor was Dev.’ Velindre shrugged. ‘But doesn’t rendering some signal service to a domain entitle a traveller to ask for a right of residence?’

‘Dev was an object of suspicion to several warlords,’ Kheda shot back, choosing to ignore that question. ‘Ask Risala. Shek Kul, her lord that was—he told me to find Dev in the first place. If he’d had proof, Dev would have died the death of all who use magic in these islands long since.’

‘But he didn’t have proof,’ retorted Velindre. ‘If Dev can live in the Archipelago without being discovered, I’ll bet I can. Isn’t that how you test your fate in these waters, with such a wager?’

‘Only when something of the utmost value is at stake,’ countered Kheda swiftly.

‘I wouldn’t risk myself for anything less,’ Velindre assured him. ‘I will be searching for something of tremendous value, to mages and Archipelagans alike.’

‘We hold no values in common.’ Kheda shook his head vehemently.

‘I’m not talking philosophy or morality,’ said Velindre caustically. What about more practical values of safety and security?’

‘What do you mean?’ Kheda looked askance at her. ‘You recall I told you about the currents in the air, those in the highest heavens, that I can draw on for my magic?’ Velindre gestured up towards the sky. ‘I’ve been studying them since we came here and I’ve a few notions that might interest you. I don’t think these winds normally reach these latitudes. I think they blow over the open ocean for the most part. Something has driven the torrent of air north.’

‘Why should that interest me?’ snapped Kheda.

‘Because I believe that fire dragon rode those winds to come here,’ Velindre replied calmly. ‘And if one dragon can do that, so could another and another, who knows? Don’t you want some warning if that’s likely to happen?’ She waved her hand across the flat expanse of the shore. ‘Those savages who landed here to bring magic and slaughter, where do you suppose they came from?’

‘You’ve no more notion than I have,’ scoffed Kheda angrily.

Velindre agreed, but I think they were following that current of wind in the high heavens, either by reading the clouds or seeing the element alive within it. I think they knew that dragon would be coming here and they wanted to be ready, with whatever gems and food they could gather, before it came.’

She looked inland to the wind-tossed trees, thoughtful. ‘I don’t believe they came here to take your land. I think those mages were fighting among themselves to establish who was powerful enough to use that dragon’s aura. Perhaps only the strongest would be able to hold the beast off with his own magic. I don’t think they’ve any notion of creating a simulacrum of a dragon with elemental power. Why should they, if they have true dragons? If a wizard could win a dragon’s trust so that it wouldn’t simply kill him as some rival, its aura would give him elemental power beyond imagining to draw on.’

Kheda heard fear and desire in equal measure in her voice.

And you’re the only wizard who knows any of this, now Dev is dead. Shouldn’t I kill you here and now, to stop you carrying such dangerous knowledge away with you?

Velindre rounded on him. ‘So what will you do if some wild wizard comes here with a true dragon ready to do his will? What will you do if another untamed dragon rides that highest wind to land on your shores? Or perhaps I should say “when”.’

Once you start dealing with magic, you can never be free of it, can you?

Gooseflesh rose on Kheda’s arms. ‘What will you do for us?’ he demanded. ‘To help us in such circumstances? If I let you travel the Archipelago under Chazen protection?’

‘I’ll go back to Hadrumal first, to consult our libraries and those few mages I can think of who may be trusted with this theory and not seduced by its possibilities.’ Acerbic, Velindre ticked off her points on long, nail-bitten fingers. ‘Secondly, I’ll look for any other sources of dragon lore on the mainland. Then I’ll come back to the Archipelago and search Aldabreshin scholarship for any useful knowledge. That would be much easier with a Chazen dagger at my belt and some token of yours to back me.’

‘We know nothing of dragons,’ Kheda interrupted. ‘That’s why I had to turn to you barbarians!’ Velindre shook her head. ‘I don’t mean dragon lore. I’m thinking of mariners’ tales of galleys driven out into the ocean by some misfortune. I want to hear of any strange ships washed up in these southern waters or unknown birds blown ashore by some freak storm. AH those things would be taken for portents and recorded somewhere, wouldn’t they?’

‘What good would such lore do you?’ demanded Kheda.

Velindre’s face was hard and cold. ‘These dragons and these wild men, they must live somewhere. I’ll be looking for any clues as to where we might sail to find them. Don’t you want to know where such an enemy is to be found? Don’t you want to find out what manner of threat they pose to this domain and all the rest of the Archipelago? Don’t you want to have some chance of putting an end to their evil?’

‘You talk of evil, when you’re a mage.’ Kheda threw up his hands, to stop himself drawing a knife on the wizard woman. ‘Haven’t I done enough harm by bringing wizardry into these reaches? Why should I help you find out secrets you can use to your own twisted advantage?’

‘I’m not seeking advantage, magical or otherwise.’ Velindre shook her head slowly. ‘You say I’m ignorant of the Archipelago and Aldabreshin ways but believe me, Chazen Kheda, you’re just as ignorant of wizardry as it’s practised in the north. Which is hardly surprising, if Dev was your only guide,’ she allowed, looking down at the carved wooden casket on the sand between them.

She chose her words carefully. ‘Every mage of Hadrumal, from the Archmage down, would see these wild wizards as just as much of a threat as you do. We spend our lives stepping around fear and prejudice, careful not to reawaken resentments or old tales of magical abuse. Rumour of unbounded magic in the hands of southern savages would soon run rife through the ports of the mainland coast. We wizards might not be flayed alive but we could well find ourselves shunned or stoned or worse.’

‘I fail to see how that’s my concern,’ Kheda said resolutely.

‘You call us ignorant barbarians, in the north, and up to a point that’s true. We know very little of the Archipelago and the bathers you set against our ships have stopped us learning more. You have some responsibility for our ignorance,’ Velindre challenged him. ‘If rumour of wild magic in the south runs loose, I can see you paying a price for that obduracy. Do you suppose ignorant northerners are going to make any distinction between dark-skinned, dark-eyed Aldabreshi who have no magic and the dark-skinned, dark-eyed sorcerous invaders driving them north? Because you’ll have no choice but fleeing north if a wizard with a true dragon doing his will comes here. The Shockwaves will run the entire length of the Archipelago to wash Aldabreshin up on barbarian beaches.’