'You can thank Dev for that tip.' Velindre's grin was ghastly.

Kheda tried to see if she'd suffered any injury beyond scrapes and bruises. 'What happened to you?'

'The dragon.' She tried to sit more upright, clinging to Risala. 'It won.'

'It's coming back?' Dread gripping his gut, Kheda scanned the skies for the bright-blue beast.

'Not his dragon.' Velindre reached for the water flask with trembling hands and took another sip. She peered past Naldeth towards the blackened corpse of the skull wearer, still smouldering and staining the clear air with vile-smelling greasy smoke.

'I don't understand.' Naldeth was confused.

'Neither do I,' Velindre admitted sardonically, 'but the simulacrum defeated the true dragon.'

'Your false dragon defeated the fire dragon that was laying waste to Chazen.' Kheda looked at her uncertainly. 'Then it began dying as the magic unravelled. You said that's what would happen. You weren't affected like this when we slew it.'

When I was leading the men of Chazen to slaughter a dragon that was nothing more than a lie that would have dissolved into mist within a few days regardless. So they could reassure themselves as to their bravery. So their trust in the Tightness of my rule might be made absolute by such a powerful omen.

Velindre drew a deep breath and pressed her palms to her face for a long moment. 'The simulacrum defeated the sky dragon,' she said finally. 'Then it ripped it open and ate its sapphire heart. You recall why a wizard-summoned dragon is condemned to die before it's barely tasted life?' She looked from Kheda to Naldeth.

'Because there's a void at its centre,' Kheda said slowly.

'A true dragon's heart is elemental gemstone.' Naldeth nodded. 'Which is why they seek out jewels to form into their eggs.'

'The dragon I made won't die now.' Defiant delight kindled in Velindre's hazel eyes. 'It will live out its days like any other of its kind.'

'Here?' Risala demanded, looking upwards. 'Will it be looking to you to feed it with prisoners and slaves?'

Velindre shook her head cautiously. 'Not as far as I can tell. It's tasted the winds coming up from the southern ocean and flown to find their source.' She blinked away joyful tears. 'It had no expectation—'

Kheda gasped, startled, as wiry fingers clutched at his elbow. As he turned, his hand already on his sword hilt,

he realised it was the old woman. She was looking past the remains of the dead wizard towards the belt of twisted nut trees. She pointed urgently and Kheda saw shapes moving in the shadows once again.

'Only wizards kill wizards,' he said grimly, 'but I'll wager the rest of them will do their best to kill us, if they can catch us.' He stooped, lifting one of Velindre's slack arms up over his shoulder. 'Can you walk?'

The old woman clucked, shaking her head and smiling broadly. Turning to Naldeth, she bowed low. Straightening up, she pointed to the lurking figures and bowed once again, withered arm held out straight. As if this were some signal, a few bold savages moved out from beneath the nut trees into the open. They flung themselves prostrate on the ground, hands outstretched in supplication.

Understanding dawning, Kheda saw that none of the wild men now carried weapons. 'When we saw their wizards killing each other in Chazen, a defeated mage's warriors — and his prisoners and his loot - they were all claimed by the victor. They're surrendering.'

'To Naldeth,' Risala agreed, relief warring with apprehension in her voice.

'To me?' The young wizard's words cracked on his astonishment. 'I thought we wanted to do away with magical tyranny.' He looked to Velindre for her agreement.

'I don't think it's going to be that simple.' She glanced up at Kheda as he helped her to her feet. 'As I believe our warlord was about to point out earlier.'

'What do we do now?' Kheda scowled at the old woman, who was tugging at his arm again.

She glared back at him, unrepentant. She pointed first to Naldeth and then to the waiting wild men before looking expectantly at Kheda.

'Can you walk?' Kheda looked closely at Velindre. 'Can you do any magic?'

'I can probably walk.' But as the magewoman tried to step away from his supporting arm her knees buckled and she would have fallen if Risala hadn't caught her. 'But no, I don't think I can work any wizardry just at present.' She heaved a shuddering sigh.

'Naldeth?' Kheda turned to the younger mage and saw an unhealthy pallor beneath his ruddy tan.

'I just need to catch my breath,' he said unconvincingly.

'How far away are we from the Zaise?' Kheda looked around to get his bearings.

'It's that way.' Risala pointed unerringly to the dark canopies of taller trees away to the west. 'That's the line of the dry stream where those tree dwellers live. We need to bear to the south, down to the grasslands, so we can cut across the mouth of their valley.'

'Where their mage and his dragon can't have missed either of these duels and we've no magic of our own to call on if they come looking to see what's happened.' Kheda took stock of the two mages; Velindre was still almost faint with exhaustion, Naldeth visibly weighed down with fatigue. 'I don't think we can risk making for the ship, not just yet. They'll never manage that climb up to the cliff top.'

'We certainly won't slip past that dry valley unnoticed, not with all these savages following us.' Risala surveyed the wild men still lying prone beneath the nut trees. A few were lifting cautious heads to see what was happening by the cave. 'So what are we going to do?'

'That skull-faced mage must have had some kind of lair.' Kheda looked for the feather-crowned women and frowned when he realised they were nowhere to be seen. 'Which presumably now belongs to you, Naldeth. That would be some sanctuary, just till you two recover your strength. Once we've had some food and some time for reflection, we can consider how best to get back to the Zaise?

'What about the wild men?' Risala looked warily at the prostrate savages. 'Will they let us go?'

'I can't see them stopping us.' Kheda sighed reluctantly. 'And in the meantime, they'll be bodies to stand between us and anyone else's spears until we're rested.'

'Kheda—' Naldeth roused himself to protest incoherently.

'Do you have some better idea?' the warlord challenged. 'And what would you wager on your chances of persuading these people to let the four of us go off alone into hostile territory? Do you feel fit enough to take on that mage in the beaded cloak and his black dragon besides?'

'No.' Velindre was adamant.

'We may end up doing that anyway if we don't move soon.' Risala indicated the closest wild men, who were now getting to their feet.

Then everyone froze as a faint tremor ran through the earth underneath them and a low sound on the very edge of hearing seemed to surround them.

'What was that?' Kheda looked at Naldeth.

'I don't know.' The young mage moved to Velindre's other side, draping her arm around his neck. 'But let's get out of here.'

Unnerved by the earth tremor and the strange noise, the wild men who had been following the skull-faced mage hurried forward to throng around the four of them. With their stained loincloths and mud-matted hair, they smelled sour with fear and filth.

Naldeth backed away, trying to avoid the worst of the odour. 'How do we tell them what we want to do?'

'Just head for the river,' Kheda suggested, but the crowd was pressing around them so thickly that they had no hope of forcing a way through.

The old woman appeared at Kheda's side and seized his elbow yet again, shoving him forward. She said something

and the wild men instantly sank to their knees and prostrated themselves once more, chests to die ground, their hands outstretched towards Naldeth.