“Get your stroke even!” shouted the banner sergeant furiously. “Where’s that wizard?”

“Here!” Allin scrambled through the boat, hands on all sides urging her forward, to the prow.

“Back to the Dulse!” Halice bellowed. The longboats surged forward as Allin’s magic outlined their path through the rocks and shoals.

Halice looked back, eyes narrowed, but all she could see was confusion around the pirate settlement, fresh wood thrown to rouse slumbering fires, sporadic cries of anger and rebuke ringing out across the waters of the strait. Beyond, she could just make out the crashing of bushes being hacked down.

“Did he get them away?” Vaspret was using a bundle of soiled linen to wipe blood and hair matted with greyish smears from his sword blade.

“I don’t hear anyone cheering.” Halice slid her own unsullied weapon back into its sheath. “I’d say so.”

“When did you last get that dirty?” grinned Minare.

“That’s what you scum are paid for,” Halice retorted with pretended outrage. “I earn my gold with my brains.”

“Your beauty wouldn’t earn you a lead Lescari Mark,” agreed Minare. “So, is it a price per head or one fee for the lot?” He gestured at the prisoners huddled in the bottom of the boat.

“Did we get them all?” asked Halice.

Minare shrugged. “All but a handful. A couple were too far gone to bother with and a few just lost their heads and ran away from everyone, friend or foe.”

“Any idea about hurts or losses?” With the elation of the escapade fading, Halice’s immediate concern was now her troop.

“Reddig was gutted. Other than that, it’s just the usual scars and breaks.” Minare threw the stained rag over the side where it floated for a moment, white on the blackness of the water. “Reddig was a good man even if he was only a weaver. D’Alsennin better pay us full blood price for him.”

“Halice!” Rosarn stood in the prow as the archer’s boat drew alongside. “Get young Allin to spread her spell around so we can see it. We’ve not got Larissa.”

“What?” Minare looked up from picking gore out of the binding of his sword hilt. “She was supposed to stay with you.”

“Where in curses is she?” cried Halice.

“She went ashore with Darni.” Rosarn spread her hands. “What was I supposed to do? Try to stop her and get fried for my trouble?”

“D’Alsennin’s going to be none too pleased about that.” Halice heaved a sigh. “Usara neither.”

“When was the last time any assault went precisely to plan?” Minare was unconcerned. “We just have to make it work for us.”

“True enough, as long as Darni got his men and that fool girl of a wizard clear away into the woods.” Halice caught sight of Allin’s beseeching, horrified face at the other end of the longboat. She ignored it as she applied herself to the question. As long as she had the answers before Temar, she could keep the upper hand, always an advantage for a mercenary.

Kehannasekke, Islands of the Elietimm,

10th of For-Summer

I hope Olret’s holding his own,” Ryshad muttered.

“He’s certainly giving Ilkehan something to worry about, by the looks of it,” I commented.

We lay side by side, peering through the grass topping the dune closest to the sprawling village below Ilkehan’s stronghold. The keep itself stood aloof on a rise in the ground, highest point for some distance in any direction, every approach cleared of cover for an advancing army. That didn’t matter, I told myself firmly; we weren’t an army.

“As long as those are reinforcements because it’s going badly for Ilkehan, not additional troops to help him carry his victory on into Rettasekke.” Ryshad kept his spyglass steady.

A metal-barred, solid wooden double gate was opening and a column of black-liveried men marched out with the mindless discipline that Ilkehan terrified into his people. All were armed to the teeth and beyond. The pervasive lack of wood and metals in these islands wasn’t inconveniencing Ilkehan to any noticeable degree. “How many’s that gone today?”

“Close on a cohort.” Ryshad’s satisfaction reassured me. “All the fewer for us to trip over.”

I dug myself lower into the sand. The coolness below the top layer was welcome after a long hot day crouched beneath the merciless sun now finally sinking to the horizon. “Still, at least we weren’t hiking through the desolate heart of the interminable island any more, walking from first light and all through the uncanny dusk, slipping past isolated settlements dotted among the barren hills, taking infuriating detours to avoid the desperate-looking bands that gave the lie to Ilkehan’s boast that his lands gave no exiles a refuge. I licked dry lips and wished for some water but we’d emptied our bottles a while back. ”How much longer do we wait?”

“We’ll let that lot get clear first, shall we?” Ryshad’s eyes shone dark in his blue-tinted face, bristles adding their own shadow to the overall Eldritch effect.

The column marched down to the harbour, cowed villagers ducking their heads before those most thickly studded with signs of rank. I wondered idly what earned these bullies their studs. One for each killing? One for every innocent tortured? “Can you see any gorgets?”

Ryshad brought his spyglass to bear. “One at the front, silver. Another at the back, silver.”

“Two less enchanters to worry about.” That was something at least.

“As long as Ilkehan doesn’t decide to lead his men into battle for a change.” Ryshad watched through the spyglass as the column waited for boats to ferry them out to larger ships anchored in the deep water of the inlet that bit into the coast just here. “I wouldn’t fancy trying get to him through that lot. How many adepts you think he had to start with? How long does it take to train them?”

“He can’t have had that many, surely?” I was looking for reassurance. “And it’s not the number that counts, it’s their strength with Artifice.”

“We haven’t seen any golden gorgets.” Ryshad took the glass from his eye to smile encouragement at me. “Guinalle seemed to think he’d sent his best to Suthyfer.”

“Let’s hope she’s right.” I stifled a groan of frustration. “I wish we could just get on with it.”

“You sound like ’Gren.” Ryshad returned to looking through his spyglass. “Why don’t you go and keep watch with Shiv?”

“You’re trying to get rid of me,” I accused.

“That’s right.” A fond smile took the edge off his words but he didn’t take his eye off the distant keep. “You’re distracting me. Go and talk to Shiv.”

I scurried backwards down the dune. We’d found this hollow with considerable relief after a tense night of sneaking along this shoreline but I’d be very glad to leave it just as soon as Ryshad and Sorgrad decided we’d learned all we could by watching and agreed it was time to act. All this waiting just gave me time to consider all the things that could go wrong with this plan and wound ’Gren up to an ever more dangerous pitch of frustration.

I crept carefully up the banked sand to where Shiv lay, chin on hands, eyes alert.

Inland, the shifting dunes yielded to more solid land where dark green spiny bushes dotted with yellow flowers clumped together. Dry and gritty with windblown sand, the land rose and fell in shallow swells, mimicking the ocean. A few spotted brown birds foraged for whatever might come wriggling up now that evening was drawing near.

“Any sign of them?” I whispered.

“No.” Shiv was as relaxed as if he lay by his own fireside.

“We’d have heard something, if they’d been taken.” I was starting to tire of hearing my own doubts.

“Screaming, at very least.” A smile quirked at the corner of Shiv’s mouth. ’Gren’s spoiling for a fight.”

“The trick is making sure he takes on the one you want.” I frowned. “Is that them?”

Shiv raised himself on his elbows. “I think so.” Tense, we watched the brothers dart between the spiny green bushes. It was a long run to our hidden hollow from the rise they’d just scrambled over.