'I think so.' Velindre shrugged. 'But I'll need something to hold some water.'

'I'll get it.' Risala looked warily up at the sky as she went out of the doorway. She didn't have to go far before she reached a knot of women clutching straw-coloured gourds veined with brown. As she held out her hands, the sweetness of her beseeching smile pierced Kheda.

When will you smile at me like that again? How could I

have been so blind to your distress at my rejection of both compasses and all omens?

The savage woman handed over her gourd, her scowl making it plain she begrudged it though she didn't dare refuse. Stony-faced once again, Risala brought it back to the mage woman.

Velindre took it with a sigh. 'Come on, Naldeth. How are we going to get past that black dragon without it noticing us? Unless you're going to change your mind and settle for a lifetime as the magical tyrant of this tribe.'

'I have no intention of staying here any longer than I have to.' Kheda managed a humourless smile. 'And as I see it, the only way we're going to get out of here is by cooperating and using all our skills. Let's get to it.'

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

'Are we any closer to getting out of here? Are we going to get back to theZaise today? At least we were spared any more attacks yesterday. What good did that do us? Howcan we work together if we're barely even talking to each other?

Lying on his back as the morning light filtered through the doorway, Kheda looked up at the uncommunicativeinterior of the roof of the dead wizard's hut and sighed. In unspoken agreement the previous evening, they had dismantled the bed spaces of the dead mage and his women, dividing the hides and heaps of grass into four piles. Kheda had set himself between the open doorway and the four central pillars where the others were sleeping' sheltered by panels of woven bark. Kheda had preferred to suffer the draughts, not wanting anything obstructing his view in case trouble came in the night. He rolled overas he heard footsteps outside the hut.

'It looks as if breakfast has arrived.' Risala sat upright as two small, naked children carefully set gourds down by the open doorway and took to their heels. It wasapparent from her voice that she had already been wide awake as well.

Kheda retrieved the gourds and found them full of fluffy white pulp speckled with dark-green fragments. He scooped up a cautious fingerful and held it on his tongue for amoment. It was surprisingly palatable, with an unexpected citrus flavour permeating the bland starchiness.

/ don't suppose they'd be trying to poison us, not with Naldeth having proved himself so valuable a wizard.

He chewed and swallowed and bit down on something hard. Abrupt bitterness flooded his mouth. Grimacing, he used a grimy fingernail to dig fibres out from between two back teeth. 'Spit out the green bits,' he advised as he brought the gourds back into the hut, setting one down by the two wizards and offering the other to Risala.

Velindre was already reaching for the gourd full of water she had obtained the day before, her eyes distant. She said something to Naldeth in the Aldabreshin tongue, too fast and colloquial for Kheda to catch. She still looked drawn but the bruises of weariness beneath her eyes were less pronounced than they had been.

'So what are we doing today?' Naldeth tugged crossly at straps and buckles as he settled his stump in the leather cup of his metal leg. He looked up at Kheda with his grotesquely bloodshot eyes. 'Arguing round in circles until the sun sets again?'

'Velindre, I want you to keep scrying for any force of wild men coming over the river,' Kheda said. 'The tree-dwellers' wizard must know you've killed the skull-faced mage between the two of you. I'm sure he'll attack.'

'The only question is when,' Risala agreed as she took a handful of the fluffy pulp. 'Judging by what we saw in Chazen.'

'But the dragons—' Velindre broke off and Kheda narrowed his eyes with growing suspicion.

What about the dragons? What aren 't you telling me?

'Velindre can do the scrying.' Naldeth struggled to rise. 'What can I do?'

Kheda offer him a hand. The wizard took it with a reluctant grimace and Kheda hauled him to his feet. 'Can you tell us where that black dragon might be?'

'Can you tell if it's hiding in the shadows anywhere

close to spy on us again?' Risala shivered at the thought as she took a mouthful.

'Attune your affinity to earth and fire and do your best to sense any disruption,' Velindre interjected firmly.

'Naturally.' Naldeth tugged his grubby tunic straight. 'But I don't imagine I'll catch it out a second time with a simple trick like summoning up molten rock beneath it.'

Kheda glanced towards the magewoman. 'I take it that black dragon must know it was you who roused that snowstorm?'

She nodded. 'With air antithetical to earth, I as good as slapped the beast in the face.'

'Making it all the more hostile, no doubt.' Risala finished eating, then looked at her sticky hands with some exasperation. She rose and went out of the doorway without a backward glance.

Kheda looked after her.

What can I do to restore your peace of mind, my beloved? Nothing until I've solved the problems laid before me. That's what I've always done, whatever signs I may have thought were guiding me.

Kheda looked down and found he had little appetite for the remaining starchy pulp in the gourd. He forced himself to keep eating and nodded to Naldeth and Velindre. 'We can't afford to go hungry.'

'We can't afford to be caught unawares either.' Velindre plucked up gobbets of food with one hand as she sat cross-legged with the fat-bellied water gourd held between her legs and passed her other palm over the wide neck. Emerald radiance danced within, not quite strong enough to escape. Frowning, Velindre peered into the gourd and faint green light played on her angular face.

Kheda realised a ragged circle of savages was watching them though the deceptive walls of the hut with mingled awe and apprehension. None was coming closer than a

spear length. 'Do you suppose they know what she's doing?'

'I've no idea.' Naldeth was eating with little enthusiasm while watching the wild men and women with a curiosity to equal their own. 'We know so little about their wizardry, or what the non-mageborn here make of it.'

'There doesn't seem to be anyone between here and the river,' Velindre said slowly.

'What about the far bank?' Kheda moved closer to peer over the magewoman's shoulder. He struggled to make sense of the miniature vista shining in the mossy shadows within the gourd. Bright patches of brown and yellow and green shifted and blurred. 'Try to find those caves we told you about.'

'We don't know who those people might owe allegiance to.' The cleft between Velindre's golden eyebrows deepened as she concentrated.

'If the river's some kind of boundary, presumably they owe fealty to the tree-dwellers' wizard,' ventured Kheda.

'Kheda.' Risala appeared in the doorway, hastily shaking drops of water from her hands. 'There's something going on.'

He followed her outside to see a handful of men hurriedly tearing open a gap in the thorn barricades on the far side of the enclosure.

Naldeth joined them. 'It's not the dragon.' He sounded sure of that.

'They're getting ready to fight something.' Velindre came to the doorway still holding the gourd.

The men of the village were hurrying to gather their spears and clubs from their rickety huts as a group of newcomers waved their hands in animated conversation with those who had opened the woven thorns. The newcomers' voices were increasingly raised, and edged with urgency.

Kheda looked back into the scrying spell. The river valley reflected in the oscillating mossy water was empty. The water flowed sluggishly between the rich brown of the mudflats and nothing was stirring on the grassy plains, bird or lizard.