CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kheda wheeled around in a slow, measured circle. He realised he was gripping his sword hilt so hard his knuckles ached and forced himself to slacken his fingers.

Losing my temper is not going to improve matters.

As his first furious impulse to berate Velindre subsided, he registered the sound of surf crashing on rocks and noticed the land falling precipitously away on their western side. The dusty rock beneath his feet was redder than the darker cliffs beyond the river mouth. 'We're still on the coast at least.'

'We passed by here earlier.' Naldeth's eyes were strangely vacant. 'Velindre, what went wrong with your spell?' He sounded simply curious rather than condemnatory.

'I drew the skeins of element around me easily enough,' she said thoughtfully, 'only the air twisted back out of my control and flung me away. Flung us all away to the south.' Her voice strengthened. 'I hadn't realised just how all-encompassing that blue dragon's influence would be. That's a useful lesson learned, if nothing else.'

Kheda bit back a sharp retort and scanned the unhelpful rocks for any familiar landmark. 'Are you saying the dragon wanted rid of us?'

'What about the black one?' Risala searched the sky. 'Is either of those dragons about to come sniffing after you?'

Naldeth stooped awkwardly to press a hand to the ground. 'I don't sense the earth dragon anywhere close.' He

stood up, brushing his hands together. 'Velindre, were you more susceptible to the dragon's influence because the air is your element, or was it the spell that was vulnerable in itself, as a working with elemental air?'

'You can discuss your theories later,' Kheda said sharply. 'Velindre, is the blue dragon anywhere near?'

'No. It's headed inland.' Velindre gazed into the sere interior of the island where the wind scoured dull green land riven with dry gullies and backed by the crumpled flanks of copper-coloured mountains.

'You're certain?' Kheda demanded.

'Oh yes,' Velindre assured him, with the sensuous shiver of a woman surprised by a lover's caress. 'I can feel it.'

Disquieted, Kheda pulled the little ivory star circle out of his pocket. 'I'd say we're quite some way south of that river.'

'How long a walk is it back to the Zaise?' Risala looked to the north.

Kheda scowled at Velindre. 'Will that wild mage wearing the skull have been caught up in whatever this dragon did? Will he know you're here?'

'The dragon's humiliated and spoiling for a fight.' Velindre spoke slowly, still distracted. 'It failed in its challenge to the black dragon so it's circling its territory, to make sure no other rival is tempted to think it is weakened.'

'How many dragons are there here?' Risala couldn't hide her alarm.

Velindre looked puzzled. 'I can't be sure.'

Kheda was most concerned with the immediate threat. ''Can you tell what this sky dragon is thinking?'

The magewoman struggled for the right words. 'I can feel the impulses driving it, through the resonance of the elements. It's a very odd sensation,' she added frankly.

'Why aren't they fighting each other?' Risala wanted

to know. 'That's what you said dragons do. That's how we saved Chazen, by setting two dragons on each other.'

'It was enough for that black dragon to display his superior magic' Naldeth plainly approved. 'He didn't have to risk bodily injury to prove himself stronger than the blue.'

'Like a matia?' Velindre was incredulous.

'A what?' Naldeth looked bemused.

'A small furry beast that hunts snakes,' Kheda explained. 'They never fight to wound each other, because a wounded matia will soon be dead and none of them want to risk that. The males chase each other up and down the biggest trees to prove who's the most agile.'

'And the most cunning,' continued Risala slowly. 'They aim to trap their rivals on some branch too high and exposed to offer escape. When the winner relents, the defeated one slinks off.'

'And sometimes the winner doesn't relent until an eagle has spotted the treed matia and plucked it off the branch to feed its chicks,' Kheda added.

'Which is considered a notable omen.' Risala looked at him, her expression bleak.

'But dragons aren't matia.' Velindre reached for her own flask and gulped down half her water. 'Let's not forget that.'

'True enough, but that black dragon was certainly out to defeat a rival.' Naldeth spoke with complete conviction.

'Will it see you two as a threat if we use magic to try to get back to the ZaiseV Kheda looked from Naldeth to Velindre. 'Will it find you out?'

'When the fire dragon came to Chazen, it hunted Dev like a hound on a ripe scent.' Risala plainly shared his concern. 'And it was looking to kill him, not just to prove it could work more impressive magic or chase him off.'

'Maybe fire dragons are different. Fire mages have a

reputation for volatility, even if Naldeth here proves the rule by exception. Maybe it just didn't like Dev. He could be pretty objectionable when he put his mind to it.' Velindre's smile was a wry blend of pain and affection. 'All I can tell you is that blue dragon isn't the least bit interested in pursuing me.'

'I don't suppose you look much of a threat when it can snatch a simple translocation spell away from you so easily,' Naldeth commented incautiously.

'My instincts didn't wholly fail me,' retorted Velindre waspishly. 'We didn't land out on those reefs, did we?' She flicked a hand towards the lethal seas foaming beyond the cliff edge.

'Are we going back to the ship?' Risala took a drink and screwed the cap back on her water flask. 'Or somewhere else?'

'Can you use your magic to get us back to Chazen?' Kheda shoved the star circle in his pocket. 'You two could stay to try to fathom the mysteries of these dragons and these wild mages and then come to warn us if there's any sign of them taking to the ocean again.'

And what preparations would we make? What lies would I have to tell my allies to persuade them I'd seen portents foretelling such an attack?

'Let's see what I can see.' Velindre sounded oddly tense as she poured a little water into her empty palm and summoned up a mossy glow within it.

Kheda moved to her side. All he could see was a tangled mass of unfamiliar forest. 'Where's Itrac?'

'Never mind Itrac, that's not even Chazen.' Velindre's brows knotted as she passed her other hand over the uncommunicative puddle of water. The dark-green glow brightened to emerald radiance, obliterating the useless image. The magelight grew brighter in the shadow of Velindre's hand and then dissolved into sickly jade threads

that wavered like weed in the water. Velindre cursed as the magical tension holding the water together snapped and the liquid dripped through her fingers to vanish into the thirsty ground.

Naldeth stared at the damp dust with disbelief. 'If she can't hold a scrying together, you don't want her risking your lives with a translocation.'

Kheda reluctantly set aside any thoughts of an immediate return to Chazen. 'What about just getting us back to the Zaise, so we don't have to skirt round that skull-faced mage or the tree dwellers and their dragon?'

'I was trying to scry out the Zaise that second time,' the magewoman said bitterly.

'What's happening?' Naldeth couldn't restrain his curiosity.

Kheda rounded on him before Velindre could answer. 'Can you try the necessary magics?'

'Me?' The young wizard stared at the warlord. 'My affinity's with fire and scrying's a water spell, so there's the antipathy—'

'Don't even try,' Velindre advised tartly. 'With the turmoil in the elements hereabouts, Hearth Master Kalion couldn't see further than those trees.'

'You don't know—' Naldeth began hotly.

'Then it seems we're walking back to the Zaise,'1 Risala interrupted with deliberate composure.