Juliet McKenna - Northern Storm

‘The mother was a healthy beast which indicates that the omens overall are to be read in a positive light and everything that I saw in the mirror of its liver was a favourable indicator for the success of our pearl harvest. The spawn did its best to bite me. It failed and, more significantly, it died at the hands of your warlord, which suggests that Chazen interests will be safe for some while, wouldn’t you say? Dev, we’ll take that with us.’ He nodded at the infant shark. ‘Borha, have the jaw cut out of the adult’s head and share out the teeth among the divers for talismans. Take the carcass well out to sea before you dump it, where the currents will take it away from the reefs. We don’t want its kin coming to see where it got to.’ The burly diver was the first to raise a cheer. Loud approbation spread among the islanders, even those faces that had been uneasy before soon clearing. Kheda waited, smiling, as he dried his arms on a white cotton cloth offered by yet another maiden, this one all coquettish smiles that faded a little as he waved her away. At the first hint of an ebb in the surge of fervour, he turned to walk unhurriedly back up the slope towards the pavilion and the crowd drifted apart.

Dev walked at his shoulder, studying the infant shark as he carried it skewered on a spear he had pulled from the larger fish. ‘So all the omens are good.’ His face was studiedly neutral. ‘Does that mean we can get back to hunting down those invaders? There’s no telling what might have happened out to the west while we’ve been trailing around the rest of the domain,’ he concluded with ill-concealed frustration. ‘For the pearl harvest, the portents are certainly most favourable. As for that shark spawn, I’m not sure what such a thing might mean,’ Kheda admitted in a low voice as they returned to the shade of the pavilion and its illusion of privacy.

‘Does it really matter?’ Dev was unexpectedly curious.

‘It almost got its teeth into me,’ Kheda said soberly. ‘That has to mean it’s a personal portent. I’ll have to consult Chazen Saril’s library when we rejoin Itrac at the residence. I’m really not clear on the lore of sharks.’

And I had better be before I have to counter whatever verdict any other soothsayer sets running around as rumour, out of honest belief or treacherous intent.

He tossed Dev the cloth he’d been wiping his arms with. ‘Wrap it in that. I don’t want to be mobbed by gulls all the way back.’

‘What now?’ Dev took the cloth and swaddled the infant shark securely.

‘Favourable portents are all well and good but once word sprearls, that’ll encourage any hovering sea hawks to prey on such a plentiful pearl harvest.’ Kheda shaded his eyes with a hand as he stared out to the strait where the Yellow Serpent waited; light skiffs were busy ferrying food and water to the rowers. ‘There are still too many opportunists sneaking about Chazen waters for my peace of mind. Itrac won’t do much trade for sailer grain or horsehair or anything else if some enterprising pirate plunders the galleys she sends to collect the pearl chests.’

‘Which would be an unfortunate omen,’ Dev commented sarcastically.

‘Quite,’ said Kheda shortly. ‘So when you’ve dropped a pearl or two into every hand that’s done us a service here, we need to get back to the Yellow Serpent and tell Hesi to set a course to check up on that motley flotilla of boats we left to guard the seaways. Share out the rest of that box between Hesi and the trireme’s shipmaster.’

‘Which means yet more delay before we sail back to the western isles,’ muttered Dev with stifled anger. ‘We will still be back at the residence for the night of the new year.’ Kheda looked at the barbarian, his green eyes cold as jade. ‘Though if I deem it necessary after that, we’ll repeat this entire voyage around the domain, just to be sure all is well.’

‘Why?’ demanded Dev. ‘When I can tell you precisely where every boat might be—every islander if you give me time—be they friendly or unfriendly, without you having to move a muscle.’

‘And how do we explain how we came by such knowledge? What will you do when we’re discovered?’ Kheda looked at him with ill-concealed anger. You using magic and me condoning it? You think I’d escape having my throat cut so that my blood might dilute the stain of wizardry in yours, as it soaks into the ground while you’re skinned alive and your hide turned inside out to expiate your every touch on Aldabreshin soil?’ His voice thickened. Do you think Itrac would lift a finger to save either of us? Do you think she could? These people of Chazen don’t just detest wizardry like the other domains of the Archipelago, for all its foul assault on the natural order of things. They truly fear and loathe it after all the misery and death those invaders and their brutal enchanters brought with them. The day your secret is out is the day you die.’

‘Fools, the lot of them.’ Dev gritted his teeth. When it was my magic saved them from those savage mages. Just so long as we head west as soon as we can after you’ve played your new-year games.’ The barbarian wizard bent to retrieve Kheda’s helmet. As Kheda reached out to take it, Dev’s fingers closed over the warlord’s, pressing them painfully against the hard metal and unyielding facets of the diamonds on the brow band.

‘You promised me I’d be there to see the last nests of those savages rooted out. I killed their wizards for you but the survivors may be hoarding something that could give me a hint of how they worked their magic. You really don’t want to break your word to me, Kheda. You shouldn’t need any portents to warn you just what a bad idea that would be.’

Just where have our supposed guardians of these seaways got to?’ Kheda scowled past the upswept stern posts of the Mist Dove as the trireme pulled away from yet another landing empty of Chazen ships. ‘At least no one’s offered tales of trouble washing up on their beaches.’ Dev waved as the trireme eased along the shore watched by a party of huntsmen clutching the heavy square-ended blades they used for hacking paths through the dense forest.

‘And at least they look ready to drive it off, if trouble turns up.’ Kheda raised a hand to acknowledge two fishermen pausing to raise their long spears in salute on their hunt for the ugly bristle-mouthed fish that lurked among the roots of the coppery reed beds.

‘There should be more boats on the waters, shouldn’t there?’ Dev queried idly. ‘Trade’s in the Aldabreshin blood around here as much as in the central domains.’

Where you hid so effectively under the mask of a thoroughly amoral merchant for so many years.

‘Village spokesmen should be keeping in touch with one another, at the very least.’ Kheda’s irritation was unabated. ‘I want to know where Nyral is.’

The trireme continued to pick a cautious path between low, muddy islets, slowing almost to walking pace to navigate the turbid channel between the encroaching groves of knot trees. The breezes off the open seas were baffled by the smothering vegetation and the sun beat down ever hotter from above. The still air smelled more of silt than of salt and the raucous cries of crookbeaks crashed through the taller lilla trees set back from the shore.

Kheda wiped sweat from his face and accepted a cup of water from Dev. ‘Shaiam? Any suggestions where we might look for Nyral next?’

A tall, wiry man with plaited black hair and beard climbed up the ladderlike stair from the rowing deck. Nothing we haven’t already thought of, my lord.’ The trireme’s shipmaster clutched a battered and salt-stained black book in a hand almost the same hue as the leather cover. His naturally dark complexion had been deepened by years in the strong southern sun, striking against the vivid red of the long sleeveless mantle he wore over his bare chest. His russet trousers were cut short just below the knee, revealing sturdy calves and long splayed toes that gripped the smooth wood of the deck ‘So we’re still heading for Kalan?’ Alert in his seat just in front of the shipmaster’s lofty chair, the helmsman Yere gripped the twin stern oars that governed the mighty trireme’s movements. He spared a glance for the book open on his knees, bound in unfaded indigo leather.