'I thought you said one of these savage mages was camped on this shore.' From his vantage point in the Amigal's prow, Kheda turned to look suspiciously at Dev.

'Last time I scryed.' Dev yanked on the tiller to turn the ship closer to the rocky shore. 'Somewhere hereabouts. There's a village he was taking for his own.' Above a wall of broken boulders, a stretch of grass dotted with palms separated white surf from the denser green of tangled brush rising up a steep slope.

'Then why risk sailing up in plain sight?' snapped Kheda. 'We should anchor and reconnoitre on foot.'

'Have you seen anyone to raise an alarm?' countered Dev. 'Any of those log boats? Not that they'll see us, not before we see them. I've woven an enchantment to be certain of that.'

'You take too much on yourself, wizard.' Kheda's skin crawled at the thought of unseen magic clouding the air all around him.

'Fretting about the taint on your future?' mocked Dev. 'I don't answer to you, not about magic. Does anyone answer to you, what with you being dead?' He smiled cheerfully.

'I can't see anyone ashore.' Just forward of the mast and knuckles white as she gripped the rail, Risala peered intently into the shadows beneath the trees.

'It's the same as everywhere else,' said Kheda bleakly. 'Everyone not captive has fled.'

Fled north to the Daish domain, and the longer they stay there, the less likely they are to ever return home. The Daish domain just cant support that many people. That many Chazen people will give Chazen Saril substantial backing if he does decide to try deposing Sirket.

Risala turned to address Dev. 'Where's this village?'

'You mean that one?' the wizard enquired sarcastically.

As the Amigal turned an abrupt corner in the shoreline, Kheda saw a narrow landing where the rocks gave way to a meagre length of coarse, many-hued sand. There was little left of the village that had flourished there. Some of the houses looked to have collapsed, all four walls falling outwards at once, palm thatch scattered in every direction. Others seemed to have been crushed inwards; walls toppling one on top of the other, roofs left intact and aslant on unsteady heaps of splintered wood. Sailer granaries, up on stilts, were piles of debris pierced by posts. The fowl houses mostly looked as if a giant foot had stamped on them and great gouges scarred the unkempt vegetable plots where weeds were revelling in the moist untended soil.

'Could it have been a whirlwind?' wondered Risala uncertainly. 'Or a water spout?'

Kheda shaded his eyes with a hand. The rain clouds were holding off for the moment and the sun sparkled bright on the sea. 'There's no damage to the tree line. A whirlwind would have cut a path inland or along the shore, not just demolished the houses.' He turned on Dev. 'Is this some wizard's work? Could they have seen us coming? Are you sure they can't spy on us, as you're spying on them?'

'The correct term is scrying,' said Dev coldly. 'I've seen no sign that they know how to work any magic of that kind. They don't even realise when I'm scrying on them, I'll bet my stones on it.'

'It's all our necks you're wagering.' Risala glanced over her shoulder.

'Where has this wizard gone, the one that did this?' Kheda persisted.

'I don't know.' Dev saw something he didn't like in Kheda's expression and his tone soured. 'I've been looking the length and breadth of these isles to find out what wizard is where. I haven't been watching each one to see how often he takes a squat or a piss. Trust me on this or the deal's off. I gave my oath I'd help you but I don't have to keep it, not if you're going to disbelieve me. Where shall I take you? The Daish dry-season residence? What about you, girlie? Ready to tell me who you're spying for yet?'

Trust. Ok, I trust your magic, most assuredly, after seeing you draw pictures out of nothing into a bowl of water, proving beyond doubt that a wizard's insidious spying can reach anywhere. It's trusting you at my back, believing you wont somehow betray me, that's what I'm finding the real test.

Risala spoke up before Kheda could decide on a response. 'Let's go ashore and see just what happened.'

Kheda stared into the thick brush beyond the village where undergrowth flourished anew in the rain. 'Do you suppose there'll be any Chazen islanders able to tell us what went on here?'

'I can't even see a house fowl come back looking for grain,' Risala said sadly.

Dev deftly steered the Amigal round so the stern drifted into the grudging beach. 'Get the skiff, girlie. You, make sure we're secure.' He looked at Kheda and nodded towards the twin-fluked anchors. 'I don't fancy swimming for the ship if she drifts. There's sharks in these waters.'

Kheda hefted the heavy weight of the bow anchor and glanced at Risala. 'Do you want to stay aboard, keep watch out to sea?'

'I want to see what's gone on ashore.' She shook her head stubbornly.

Kheda threw the anchor over the Amigal's prow and hauled on the rope until he was confident it was dug deep into the rocky sand of the sea bed. Risala fetched the skiff round from its tether at the Amigal's stern and smiled up at him as he dropped the second anchor. Kheda lowered himself lightly into the little vessel and took the oars. Dev joined them, gazing all the while at the beach. Reaching the shore in a few strokes of the oars, the three of them dragged the skiff up out of the reach of the sluggish waves.

'They were building defences,' Risala remarked. A ditch had been dug halfway across the grassy slope, though pointed stakes that had been stacked together were now scattered like straws in a wind.

'Much good it did this prentice sorcerer,' chuckled Dev with cruel amusement. 'I told you these people are more interested in fighting each other. I don't see them taking on any other domain at least until the end of the rains.'

'You said they were penning up prisoners like animals?' Kheda couldn't see anything like the stockades Dev and Risala had described.

'Looks like they were keeping them locked up in the huts.' Dev had already reached the splintered remains of what had been a substantial building.

Kheda joined him, kicking at a solid pole with floorboards still attached. 'Berale wood, seasoned, oiled against white ants, snapped like kindling.' The rough reddish inner grain of the splintered wood showed like a wound against the dark surface, polished with years of use.

'The sailer's long gone.' Risala looked worried. 'I don't know what the Chazen people will be eating come the dry season, even if we do drive these wizards out.' She kicked at the end of a fallen roof truss. A litter of damp thatch slid away unexpectedly.

Her yelp startled them both. Dev was instantly four steps back towards the shore as Kheda reached for Risala, other hand drawing the dagger he'd taken from Dev. 'What is it?'

Risala shook herself like a hound coming out of the rain. Setting her jaw, she pointed at two corpses twisted in an ugly embrace, the shifting palm fronds releasing a foetid stench of death. Insects scurried away from the intrusive daylight.

'They may yet tell us something.' Kheda sank down to a crouch and looked closely at the two dead.

'Necromancy?' queried Dev, moving closer for a better look.

'You're not working any spells over them.' Kheda spread a hand protectively over the bodies.

'I thought you meant you were going to work some rite, for speaking to the dead.' Dev folded his arms and looked at Kheda, bright-eyed. 'That's long been the rumour in the north, what with all your people's insistence on past being linked to present and future. No? That's a shame. That would have been worth something to me.'