Kheda tried to hold on to that frail reassurance as the crimson glow strengthened.

The deck lurched suddenly and he staggered sideways. Risala's lantern went swinging to throw crazy shadows in all directions. Water slapped against the rocks in the cave and Kheda realised he could hear the sound of surf breaking against the rocks outside for the first time.

Naldeth knelt upright and grinned, quite his old self. 'That's Velindre's spell over the sea broken. Give me a hand up.'

Kheda helped the mage to his feet. 'Can you get us out of here?'

'Not as smoothly as she would have done,' Naldeth said wryly, 'but this ship is solidly built.'

'What do we do with that?' Risala looked mistrustfully at the ruby egg, though the scarlet glow within it had faded to little more than a pinprick of light.

'Put it in the stern cabin.' Naldeth headed for the stair to the steering oars platform with a new spring in his step. 'That'll be close enough for me to use it for elemental focus.'

Kheda bent to take a handful of the sacking that the ruby egg was nested in.

Risala stooped on the other side to do the same. 'It would be easier to toss it in the water if it draws a dragon to us if it's on deck,' she muttered.

'I don't know if that would save us,' Kheda replied as they dragged the uncanny egg through the doorway into the stern cabin and wedged it as best they could between bundles of bedding.

'What do we do now?' Risala asked in the shadows. 'Are we staying to see how far and how fast the bloodshed we've started today spreads through these wretched people? We can't just blame Naldeth now. There's blood on all our hands.'

'I know,' Kheda acknowledged frankly, 'but at least

fewer died than might have. We can thank their magic for that. As for what happens next—' He shook his head. 'First, we had better find out what's distressing Velindre. Then we can make plans—' He held Risala tight as the Zaise lurched. The ship's wooden sides scraped along the rocky ledge as Naldeth's magic forced the vessel out of the narrow anchorage.

'Plans to go home?' Risala looked up at him, her face tense.

He looked down at her. 'How can we leave these people now we've started this? If they go into battle without a wizard, if there's a wizard or a dragon set against them, they'll just be slaughtered.'

'How can you be any kind of warlord here when you can barely make yourself understood and you don't understand a word of their language?' she protested. 'What about Chazen?'

'What's best for Chazen, as far as I can see at the moment, is having turmoil spread in this land to keep men and dragons alike occupied here.' He gazed at her helplessly. 'I wish we hadn't got ourselves into this, but we did and I can't see a way out of it, not yet.'

Risala pulled herself free of his embrace, her expression lost in the gloom. 'Naldeth will need our help rigging the sails.'

Back out on deck, eerie magelight glowed purple around the masts and side rails as Naldeth's wizardry dragged the Zaise towards the cave entrance. As the daylight strengthened, the colours of the ship emerged from shades of black and grey. The magelight lightened to lavender and then to a clear blue as the ship slid out onto the open ocean. Surf seethed around the hull as Naldeth wove skeins of wizardry around stern and prow to force the vessel around. Seabirds wheeled overhead, their shrill cries rising above the sound of the waves.

Risala heaved a sigh and looked at her soiled garments. 'At least we can celebrate our victory with some clean clothes.'

Kheda couldn't recall ever hearing anyone sound less joyful. He followed her into the stern cabin and pulled up the trap door once again as she delved into a bundle of creased cotton. 'I'll tend to that burn of Naldeth's.'

After the awkwardness of fetching up the dead dragon's egg, carrying his physic chest up the ladder was comparatively simple. As he climbed back up, the coffer under one arm, he averted his eyes from the ruby. He could not ignore it, though. Scarlet brilliance was seeping through the lattice of cracks on its surface to throw a web of mage-light around the wooden walls. Risala followed him back out on deck, her arms full of clothes, kicking the stern cabin door shut to slam behind her.

Up on the stern platform, Naldeth was smiling broadly, eyes distant as he wove blue magic with an amethyst hint around the Zaise. The ship cut a straight path through the submissive seas, scorning the waves that would have pushed her towards the merciless rocks.

'You don't need the sails?' Kheda knelt to set his physic chest down and snapped open the latches.

'Not now.' Naldeth chuckled, his weariness seemingly quite forgotten.

'That egg was the death of Dev.' Kheda searched for the particular pot of leatherspear salve that he wanted.

'I know,' the mage acknowledged, somewhat sobered, 'but you don't know how good I feel now, Kheda. It's not just being able to focus my fire affinity through the gemstone. Velindre was right - I've been using more magic in these past few days than I've done all year. The more I exercise my affinity, the stronger my magic becomes.' He smiled wryly. 'Now I understand just why our esteemed Archmage spends so much of his time

finding unimpeachable reasons for all wizards, himself included, to use the bare minimum of magic required.'

'Power is always a temptation, whatever its nature, as I believe you've reminded me before.' Kheda stood up with a scrap of cotton and a stoppered vial of feathereye tincture. 'Let me see your hand.'

Naldeth flinched as the warlord cleansed the burn. 'I had my hands read by a soothsayer when I was sailing the Archipelago with Velindre.' He looked down at the shiny red score obliterating the creases of his palm.

'Did he foresee any of this?' Risala wondered, looking up from the deck, a clean tunic in one hand.

Naldeth shrugged. 'He did say my life would be taking an unexpected course.'

'Show me a seer that doesn't.' Kheda restoppered the vial of astringent lotion. 'All they have is vagueness to swap for their meat and drink on the trading beaches.'

'How can you say that?' Risala was more puzzled than angry. 'How can you say the beliefs of generations and countless domains mean nothing, just because you have lost your faith in them? Don't you think we might not have got so mired in this mess if you had been reading the right omens?'

'I did meet one soothsayer who had some very interesting predictions.' Naldeth was ready to explain.

Kheda found himself disinclined to listen. 'This is hardly the time or the place to debate such things.' He dressed Naldeth's burn with the leatherspear salve and a light bandage of fine gauze.

'No—' Then Naldeth stammered and blushed, retreating back to the tiller.

Kheda realised Risala was stripping naked down on the deck. She slung a bucket into the sea and washed herself briskly. He slid down the ladder-like stair and returned his physic chest to the stern cabin. Wordlessly, Risala

offered him the bucket and he washed in turn, gasping at the bracing chill of the water on his warm body. Still not speaking, she tossed him clean clothes, redolent of different herbs used to ward staleness from stored cottons in some other reach of the Archipelago.

It would be so easy to tell Naldeth simply to turn this ship's prow to the south, to round that cape and sail away east, leaving this strange and dangerous land. Velindre could find us with her magic, couldn't she? But when we return to the Archipelago, will I arrive to find I've lost Risala?

Kheda fetched scouring paste, rag and oil and cleaned his sword and his dagger, polishing them till they shone. Risala brought dried meat and fruit from some store, taking a share to Naldeth, still without a word. They ate, all remaining silent, watching the broken cliffs subside and the broad mouth of the river open up before them. The Zaise bucked as Naldeth's magic drove the ship through the turbulent water where the river's muddy flow forced itself out into the surging sea. The wide mudflats stretched away on either side.