“I’m looking for Naldeth.” Allin’s voice was tight with concentration.

It was like flying over the camp on the back of some seabird. The spell carried us to the edge of the scrub that fringed the forests and we saw a rough-hewn stockade below.

“They’re not just stopping to take on water,” murmured Halice.

Ryshad glowered. “Who’s inside there?”

Splintered spikes and the heavy gate were no barrier to Allin’s magic. We surveyed the crushed captives within.

“That’s him.” I hadn’t seen Naldeth since the year before last but a gambler cultivates a memory for faces.

“Parrail.” Guinalle cupped her cheeks with her hands, eyes dark with distress.

“Allin, can you show us the anchorage again? Looking north.” The mage-girl nodded at Ryshad’s request and the shifting image made my stomach lurch.

“That’s their ship.” He nodded. “The Tang.”

We saw a second ship anchored in the sound. “They’re not stripping that one for timber,” I commented.

“They’re looting the cargo.” Halice pointed to laden longboats heading for shore.

“But Kellarin wants those things,” said Guinalle with anguish.

“And the pirates want the ship.” Halice pointed at a scarlet pennon snapping at the top of the mainmast.

“With all those wharf rats to crew it, they’re not worried about killing the original company.” Ryshad scowled as a longboat’s oar shoved a floating corpse aside.

Halice hissed as a sleek-hulled, single-decked pinnace appeared in the sound, followed by two substantial ocean ships built and rigged for speed. All three flew the scarlet flag with the black line of the snake device. “That’s a god-cursed fleet.”

“I’m sorry,” Allin gasped as the image abruptly blinked into nothingness.

“We’ve seen enough,” Ryshad assured her. “I’m getting D’Alsennin.”

As he turned on his heel, the rest of us stood in pensive silence.

Halice looked at Allin. “Could you bespeak Naldeth?”

“And let everyone know he’s a wizard?” I looked sceptically at her. There were some advantages to the more discreet workings of Artifice.

Halice grimaced. “Which could get him killed out of hand.”

“Can’t you lift him out of there?” I asked Allin. Shiv’s wizardry had once got me out of a prison cell.

“Not without a nexus,” the mage-girl said sadly. “Not so far away.”

“The Elietimm used Artifice to move people over great distances.” Halice looked at Guinalle. “Could you—”

“I cannot rely on the strength of the aether over such a distance, not over water.”

The two magic wielders looked at each other with mutual regret.

“We’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way then,” I said bracingly.

“Pirates?” Temar hurried in, open face betraying his shock.

“Holding Suthyfer, if we don’t do something to shake them loose.” Halice moved to pick up the map Ryshad had been studying.

“How soon can we set sail?” Temar planted his hands on the table.

Halice looked up. “You’re not thinking of going in alone?”

Temar jutted a single-minded jaw. “We’ve the Eryngo and the coast ships besides and men enough to fill them with blades.”

“Ploughmen and artisans.” Halice stuck her thumbs through her belt, clasping her buckle. “We need trained swords against pirates, my lad.”

“I led my cohort—”

Ryshad spoke over Temar’s hot indignation. “Granted the Eryngo’s bigger than the pirate ships we’ve seen so far but it’s also heavier, higher and slower. They’ll run rings round us if we’re not careful.”

“The coasters are more nimble.” But Temar was looking less sure of himself.

Ryshad gestured at the blank bowl. “No more than the Tang and they captured that.”

“We need a full corps of mercenaries,” stated Halice firmly.

“How long will that take to arrange?” Ryshad demanded. “Give that lot half a season to dig themselves in and we’ll never get them out. Speed’s as important as weight of response.”

“Can you whistle up ships loaded with fighting men?” demanded Halice.

“Yes,” replied Ryshad. “As soon as Allin has Casuel tell D’Olbriot the peril we’re facing.”

“Casuel can send letters to all the corps commanders who owe me favours,” countered Halice. “He can use the Imperial Despatch.”

“No.” Temar was almost as pale as Guinalle had been. “I won’t run to D’Olbriot like some child failing his lessons. Nor will I put Kellarin any deeper in anyone’s debt, not Tormalin princes or mercenaries, not unless my back’s to Saedrin’s threshold.”

Halice and Ryshad turned on him like twin halves of a double door.

“We call the miners down from Edisgesset.” Temar lifted his chin defiantly.

“Where do we find swords for them all?” Halice challenged.

I raised a reluctant hand. “If you bring all the miners down here, who guards the prisoners in the diggings?”

That silenced everyone.

“They have all given their parole. None is a threat.” Guinalle’s voice shook.

Ryshad, Halice and Temar studiously avoided each other’s eyes. I was glad they all realised this was no time to reopen that particular argument.

Allin had no such qualms. “They came here to kill everyone. They’re Ice Islanders!”

“They surrendered as soon as their leaders were killed,” Guinalle insisted.

Which was true and, Saedrin forgive me, had been cursed inconvenient. Seeing no prospect of ransoming them back to the Elietimm, Halice had been for killing them out of hand and Ryshad would have called that deserved execution under the fortunes of war but Temar had baulked at yet more bloodshed. So the silent, sullen captives had been sent upriver to dig for ore under the watchful gaze of miners used to a life of hard knocks. Accident and disease was culling them fairly effectively from what I heard, if not fast enough to suit Halice. Guinalle on the other hand protested such treatment every time she visited Edisgesset to torment herself over the sleeping figures still in the cavern. Temar did his best to ignore both issues by seldom going up river at all.

“D’Olbriot can send all the help you need,” Ryshad told Temar firmly. “Or if you’re worried about being obligated, call on Tadriol. He’s your overlord, you’re entitled to his aid.”

“Which makes his suzerainty plain in fact as well as in theory,” Temar retorted. “If Tormalin blood’s shed for Kellarin, half the Sieurs who wanted to throw us off here last year will insist Tadriol claim a share in our land and offer their own people to defend it for him.”

“We can call up a couple of mercenary corps as quick as any Imperial cohorts,” interjected Halice. “Once they’re paid off, that’s an end to it.”

“Paid off with what?” Temar threw up his hands with irritation. “If they don’t demand gold up front, it’ll still cost us land granted to men with no idea how to till it and less interest.”

“Why risk death or injury to anyone?” said Guinalle, agitated. “Artifice and elemental magic both can bring a ship safely over the ocean without having to stop at Suthyfer.”

“Don’t be so foolish.” Temar made no attempt to hide his scorn. “They’d have a stranglehold on our very lifeblood.”

“No one would risk the crossing with pirates camped on the route,” Halice said more courteously. “Even without any need to stop.”

“The threat would kill all our trade.” Ryshad looked at Temar. “And from that base, they’ll plunder the whole ocean coast. With the Inglis trade at their mercy, the Emperor will act with or without your agreement. If Tormalin cohorts set foot on Suthyfer, you want it on your terms, not Tadriol’s.”

“Which is why you want mercenaries.” Halice slapped a roll of parchment against one booted leg. “Pay them with the pirates’ loot.”

“No!” Guinalle objected. “We’d be no better than those thieves!”

I’d had enough of this. “What about Hadrumal? Numbers don’t count for so much with wizards chucking handfuls of fire or skewering people with lightning. Any size ship will sink if magic lets in the sea below its waterline.” I’d done my best to steer clear of magic for most of my life but since I’d found myself reluctantly involved in such matters, I’d come to appreciate its uses in the right place at the right time.