'Indeed.' Kheda took a moment to gather his thoughts.

This is no time for a quarrel. We can argue when we 're back on the ship— where I'll tell Velindre she's to sail us at least as far east as she needs to be sure of sending me and Risala back home with her magic. We 're not staying here if these mages can't keep us safe with their wizardry.

The others stood looking expectantly at him.

'We need shade and cover from unfriendly eyes.' Kheda pointed to the sparse greenery a little way inland.

'We're far too exposed on this cliff. But we had better stay alert for any sign of those murderous birds or worse.'

'You and I can do that.' Risala shot a stern glance at the wizards. 'You two keep watch for any dragon or wild mage.'

'I don't know how much daylight we have left.' Kheda started walking, the sun still uncomfortably hot on his back. 'I'm not sure we'll get back to the Zaise before dark.'

Risala followed close by his shoulder, her hacking blade held ready. The wizards followed a few paces back, Velindre curbing her long stride to match Naldeth's irregular gait.

At least this ground is hard enough for him to walk fairly easily.

Once they had crossed the open expanse of hard-packed ruddy soil, the dusty green proved not to be trees after all but a bizarre blend of thistly bushes and plants that thrust long fingers as thick as a man's arm into the air. They had no branches or side shoots; they were just stems densely covered with spine-tipped leaves that looked more like the scales of some lizard than the skin of any plant.

'There's cover, if not a lot of shade,' Kheda said bracingly to Risala.

She looked behind her to be sure the two wizards weren't lagging. 'We can hope no one's fool enough to come in among all these thorns just wearing a few scraps of hide.'

It was relatively easy to pick a path between the upthrust spikes and the desiccated thistle plants. The only obstacles were intermittent sprawls of pale yellowy-green plants with thick, succulent leaves studded with curling black thorns.

Kheda kept an eye on the broken line of the cliff edge away to his off hand. The sun sank steadily in the sky, and by the time the western sea took on the golden glow

that promised sunset, they had reached a stretch of this strange spiny forest where brilliant scarlet blossoms dotted the scaly green stems. Tiny grey birds fluttered around the flowers, together with the largest butterflies Kheda had ever seen, yellow as sulphur.

'What was that?' Naldeth halted and whirled around, searching the lattice of green pillars casting long shadows across the dry ground. 'I heard footsteps,' he said with complete conviction.

Kheda strained his ears. In the distance he could hear the sea's ceaseless murmuring. Close at hand, at first the silence seemed utterly complete, as the onset of dusk vanquished the day's breezes. Gradually, he picked out the chirruping of some insect and the idle trills of the tiny grey birds flitting overhead from lofty bloom to lofty bloom, burying their long beaks in the flowers. Red scissor-tailed finches snapped incautious flies out of the air.

'Perhaps it was some animal,' he said at length.

'Hunting us?' Risala was still keeping a keen eye to the fore.

'Perhaps,' Kheda acknowledged readily, 'but we're hardly as defenceless as those savages.' He nodded to Naldeth. 'Draw your blade and keep watch behind us. But don't go rushing into the attack, and don't use magic unless something's about to bite your head off.'

'Or someone else's.' Naldeth unsheathed his hacking blade and gripped it resolutely.

Velindre looked up at the vivid evening sky. 'The dragon's still a good way away.'

'Both of them?' Risala's vigilance ahead wavered for a moment.

'I'd feel the black dragon coming anywhere close,' Naldeth reassured her. 'Fire and earth are sympathetic elements and given that creature's power—'

'We can discuss all this when we're safely back at the Zaise? Kheda narrowed his eyes as he thought he saw some movement among the motionless forest of upthrust stems.

Was that some brush stirred by a breeze or some animal or just my eyes deceiving me?

He swapped his own hacking blade to his off hand and drew his sword. 'We move as quietly as we can. Sound will carry further than we can see once it gets dark.' He picked up the pace, Risala at his side.

'How are we going to cross that river in the dark?' she asked in a low tone.

'Without using magic?' He glanced at her and shrugged. 'I don't know. I don't even know if we'll get that far. It might be better to find some shelter on this side and cross at first light.'

'That skull-faced mage lives on this side of the river,' she reminded him.

He grimaced. 'And the black dragon lives on the far side, between us and the Zaise?

'I take it we're not stopping for food?' Velindre was rummaging in the leather sack she was carrying. She handed Kheda a scrap of salted duck meat wrapped in stale sailer bread.

He chewed it, finding his mouth too dry for comfort. 'We'll certainly have to look for water before long.'

'Will you look for omens at first light?' Risala asked with unexpected insistence. 'Please—'

'Kheda,' Naldeth warned from the rear, 'there's definitely something following us.'

'Quiet.' Velindre hushed him. 'Listen.'

A night breeze was rolling down from the hills inland. Faint yet unmistakable, Kheda heard heart-rending sobbing. 'Where is that coming from?' he breathed.

Velindre raised a hand, magelight no brighter than starshine flickering between her outspread fingers. 'Over

there.' She pointed inland, not far off the line Kheda was estimating would take them back to the river.

'Do we head back towards the coast?' Risala looked towards the cliffs that were now a black rampart across the golden horizon.

A.s Kheda pondered their options, a scream tore through the silence, raw with anguish. Gooseflesh prickled down the back of the warlord's neck. 'Wait here while I scout ahead,' he ordered.

'With something creeping along behind us?' Naldeth shook his head. 'Not when you're the one with the sword and the skills to use it.'

The scream came again. Louder sobbing followed, ripe with panic.

'You might need more than a sword to deal with whatever or whoever's inflicting those agonies.' As Velindre ilosed her hand on her magic, a pale glow within her lingers showed she had not wholly quenched it.

Risala looked at Kheda, her eyes dark as the fading light muted everything to colourless shades of grey. 'I don't think we should split up.'

'Then stay close and stay quiet.' He began picking a eareful path in the direction of the screaming.

Better to know what the danger might be and avoid it than leave such uncertainty at our backs.

He halted when he reached an unexpectedly wide sandy track. There was no doubting that this path had been trodden by countless men over many years. Kheda crouched low in the meagre shadow of a cluster of spiky plants and Risala and the two wizards followed suit. Beyond the open swathe of ground that had been cleared of even the smallest thistly plant, a crude barrier had been woven from thorny stems pulled down and lashed together with cords of twisted grass. The yellow-green fleshy plants grew thickly inside the fence.

Another shriek ripped the silence apart. A hubbub of pleading sounded shockingly close before it was cut short by a commanding shout.

No animal is inflicting these agonies, then, or at least, not a four-legged one. Isn 't that all we need to know?

Kheda glanced at Velindre. 'Is that sky dragon anywhere close?'

She shook her head, mute.

Naldeth was peering back into the gloom behind them. 'Whatever's following us has no magic, I'm sure of that much.'

'We know what brutalities these savages are capable of.' Kheda looked at Risala. 'We don't need to see it again and we might still get to the river before we lose all the light if we keep moving.'