Kheda's spirits rose as he repaired the arrows and he found himself whistling under his breath. Clean-shaven and having decided to feed himself rather than tease Risala any further, Dev fetched a blanket from below and laid himself down on the deck. He was soon snoring softly. The sun climbed higher and higher in the sky.

They had travelled a good distance when Risala broke the silence hanging over the ship. 'I'm hungry. Can you take the tiller while I find us something to eat?'

'Of course.' Kheda took a moment to ease his cramped shoulders and then moved to the stern. Ignoring the sleeping wizard, Risala fetched smoked meat and sailer pottage from the stores below.

'Thanks.' Kheda ate rapidly and returned to his work. By the time the light was perceptibly yellowing, he had the bows and arrows ready for use. He looked at the weapons and pondered a new set of questions.

How best to load these arrowheads with Shek Kul's powder? I'll have to make a paste of some kind. It'll have to be made of something with no potency of its own, so the powder's still fully effective. I wonder just what's in that mix? If Sirket and I can tease it out, that will truly be a valuable secret for the Daish domain. How much should I keep back, to study and to show Caid and Coron, to still their curiosity? How much should I use on each arrow? It'll need to be enough to be effective but I don't want to be relying on one shot for each wizard. We need enough arrows tipped and ready for several attempts at each one. Hitting a bird on the wing's going to be easy compared to this, whatever Dev says. And I'd better keep back enough to deal with him, if he turns treacherous on us.

The thought of the struggle to come, lethal magic and howling invaders all around and him with no more than a bow in his hands, dried Kheda's mouth.

'Can I have a look at that map?' Risala was scanning a maze of islands, thick with knot trees, ahead.

Kheda joined Risala by the stern, both studying the crackling paper. 'We must be there.' He stabbed a finger down on an irregular lump of land.

'You'd better wake him.' Risala looked apprehensively ahead. 'We'll be coming up on the first of them soon.'

Kheda went to shake Dev's shoulder. The mage was awake in an instant. 'Are we there yet?'

'Soon.' Kheda looked uncertainly at the wizard. 'Do you want anything? Your white brandy, some chewing leaf?'

'What?' Dev squinted up at him. 'No, of course not. Liquor and magic's a dangerous combination, pal. I'd no more be drunk to work serious wizardry than you would be to read a beast's entrails.'

For some reason he didn't care to examine too closely, Kheda found that reassuring. He turned to Risala. 'How long till the headland?'

'Just coming up.' She deftly corrected their course.

Dev rubbed his hands together and blue light crackling between his fingers startled Kheda. The mage set both palms flat on the deck and azure tendrils crawled away to slip between the tightly fitted planks and disappear.

'What's that?' Kheda demanded.

'A little misdirection, to keep them looking the wrong way. Right, my girl.' Dev stood up and gestured to Risala. 'Hold a nice steady course parallel with the shore.'

'What should I do?' asked Kheda.

'Help with the sails if she needs you.' Dev rubbed his hands together and moved to the rail for a clear view of the bay coming into sight. 'Otherwise, stay out of my way.'

Kheda saw the depressingly familiar pattern of a ransacked village with a rough prison of crudely felled timbers, a deep ditch to foil assault from the sea and the dark lines of the invaders' log boats haphazard as a child's game of picksticks above the high-water mark. A few figures were visible, idling between the huts and the shore defences.

This is what I'm wagering my life against, in dealing with this wizard, to save my people from such vile destruction.

Determination driving out his apprehension, Kheda glanced at Dev. The wizard was peering intently at the village, hands cupped as though he cradled something unseen, lips barely moving in some silent litany. Kheda braced himself for some explosion of magic, fire or lightning or nameless horror even worse than the abominations the two duelling wizards had wrought on each other.

Nothing happened. Dev stayed rapt in concentration, eyes unblinking, his whole body leaning towards the shore. Kheda was wondering how long until he might ask the mage what was happening, or, more crucially, failing to happen, when movement ashore caught his attention. Savages came swarming out of the various huts and storehouses like ants from a nest stirred with a stick. Some took up a belligerent stance by the shore ditch, spears visible, bristling above their heads. Others ran for the log boats, a few launched before some authority summoned them back to the village.

You can't have been more than Efi's age, no, more like Mie's. Daish Reik caught you up under one arm, grabbing a couple of your brothers with the other hand. Everyone was out in the gardens, servants, slaves, mothers and children. One of the kitchen girls was hit on the head by a falling roof tile.

While the biggest cone mountains that regularly spewed fire were no closer than the Ulla domain, tremors still shook the Daish islands from time to time. Whenever people felt the ground shaking beneath their feet, they made for the open air. It was one of Kheda's earliest memories and the scene ashore was just as chaotic. Then the frantic activity stilled, everyone gathering around a central hut.

'What's going on?' Risala wondered, anxious. 'They can't see us, can they?'

'I don't think so.' Kheda kept his eyes fixed on the shore. 'I hope not,' he added with some alarm as the savages scattered, this time with purpose that became all too familiar. Some carried panels ripped from the houses to the boats, lashing them together with crude vine ropes. Others hauled sacks and bundles out to pile them on the shore. The rest began breaking down the crude stockade and driving their captives down to the water.

'They can barely walk.' Kheda winced as the grievously mistreated Chazen islanders stumbled and crawled across the sands, their captors forcing them on with blows and kicks.

Dev let out an explosive breath and cackled with delight. 'That's got them on the move!'

'What has?' asked Kheda, exasperated.

Dev ignored him. 'Risala, hang on to that tiller. We need to get on our way before any of that lot get close.' The sails swelled with unnatural wind as he spoke and the Amigal dipped and shivered.

'What did you do?' Kheda persisted.

'Later.' Dev held out an insistent hand. 'The map.'

Kheda handed it over, doing his best to contain his frustration.

Dev studied it for a moment before flicking at a carefully inked cross with a newly pared fingernail. 'That one.' Giving the paper back to Kheda, he sat and turned his back on them both as he lay and rolled himself in his blanket, pulling a fold over his head.

Risala looked at Kheda, uncomprehending. 'Is that it?'

'So it would seem, until we. reach this encampment.' Kheda showed her the map. 'Which won't be long. They have all moved close together, Dev was right.'

'The wind's in our favour and it's building.' Risala looked up at skies now dappled with thickening cloud.

Kheda grimaced. 'There'll be rain tonight. Let's hope we can get all this done before it arrives.'

'I think it'll be over one way or the other,' Risala said grimly. 'All those log boats and rafts are following us.' Turning her back on them, she gripped the tiller tight, as if her urgency would somehow force the Amigal on.

'I'll get those arrows tipped.' Kheda lifted the hatch to the cabin below. 'We'll want something to hand, if any savage mage catches us while Dev's still snoring.'