The Archon was dying. In his palace, beside the Square of the People and in the shadow of the great mainmast and sails that towered over Quentaris, the old man lay breathing his last.

The room was silent, save for the deep, sighing, gasping breaths of the man who had spent so much of his life serving Quentaris. His nephew Florian Eftangeny sat by his side, his plump face devoid of emotion. It wasn’t Florian’s way to show anything as weak as sadness. In fact, the only emotions he’d ever been known to show were anger, envy, bitterness, arrogance and occasionally fear. None of the good emotions, like love, or empathy, or gentleness.

‘You may touch him, my lord,’ the court physician said in a whisper.

Florian grunted. ‘Why would I want to do that?’

‘He’s in pain, my lord. He might like you to hold his hand.’

Florian turned his head slightly. ‘In pain, you say?’

‘Yes, my lord.’

‘Then ease it!’ Spittle flew as Florian shouted at the physician. ‘In the name of all that’s magical, man, give him something to relieve him of it!’

The physician swallowed hard, gave a quick nod, and scurried out of the room.

‘Melpeth,’ Florian snapped, pressing his fingertips to his temples.

The servant lad came over, bowing his head low. ‘Yes, my lord?’

‘Melpeth, I’m still waiting for the magicians.’

‘Yes, my lord,’ Melpeth murmured, quickly backing away with his head still bowed. Then he too turned and scuttled out.

‘Idiots,’ Florian said. ‘I’m surrounded by idiots.’

‘Why do you even want the magicians here?’ asked a voice from the shadows that gathered amongst the wall hangings on the far side of the room. ‘What do you think Stelka and her brood of gibberers are going to do for him now?’

‘They need to see this, Janus,’ Florian replied, flapping his hand towards the tiny, shrunken man in the bed. ‘They need to see that it’s gone too far now, even for them. They need to know that there’s nothing that even they can do. That…’

‘That it’s your turn?’ Janus stepped forward into the light, eyes still hidden by the dark triangular shadows of his brow. ‘Florian, I’m only saying this because I’m your friend. I wouldn’t say this to just anyone.’

Florian looked up. ‘What’s that? What do you need to say to me?’

Janus walked across the cold marble floor on silent feet, stopped in front of Florian, and dropped to one knee. ‘My lord,’ he said. ‘It is your time.’

Florian’s eyes darted towards the Archon’s face. ‘Janus! He’s not even dead yet!’

‘Florian. You know that there is the power that is assumed, and the power that is taken, and they’re not equal. They never have been, never will be.’

‘Of course I know this – we studied the same texts,’ Florian snapped.

‘If your uncle dies now – if he simply stops breathing – you will assume great power. You’ll be the leader of Quentaris…’

‘I get the feeling that you haven’t quite finished that sentence,’ Florian said.

‘Indeed. But if you take that power, your grip will be that much the stronger. The prophecies are very clear, my friend. If he dies, you simply oversee. But if you act now, you rule!’

‘I rule.’ Florian bit his lip in thought as he glanced toward the door. ‘So it must be now?’

‘It must.’

‘Very well,’ Florian said at last. ‘Watch the door.’

‘You’ve made the right choice,’ Janus said, standing and going to the door. ‘All right, I’m standing guard.’

Florian stood, and reaching behind the Archon’s head, he tugged at one of the thick pillows. He gripped it with both hands. ‘Are you sure?’

‘The prophecies,’ Janus said.

‘Yes, the prophecies.’ He looked down at the face of his uncle. The old man’s eyelids flickered open, and as their eyes suddenly met, the Archon’s gaze widened, ever so slightly.

‘Do it now, Florian, before the doctor comes back,’ Janus prompted, his voice a hiss. ‘There’s no time to waste!’

‘I know.’ As Florian tightened his grip on the pillow, he saw the slightest shake of the Archon’s head. Perhaps he even heard a tiny whisper escape the old man’s thin, pale lips – a whisper that sounded like, ‘Don’t do this.’

‘I must,’ said Florian. ‘I’m sorry, Uncle, but it has to be this way.’

Meanwhile, unseen in the darkest corner of the room, hidden by a tall-backed chair, a young boy watched with wide, terrified, disbelieving eyes. What he saw reached deep inside him, to the part of his mind that formed words – a part that was only now learning to speak freely again – and strangled it like a thickleberry vine entangling an ancient ruin.

Tab Vidler sighed and dumped one last shovelful of dung into the bucket. It was like deja vu. Here she was, a one-time Dung Brigader, who had become an apprentice magician, who was now back to shoveling animal waste into buckets. It didn’t seem fair, even though working as a farmhand at the Nor’city Farm was a little less demeaning than traipsing around the streets picking up warm piles of animal droppings.

‘When you’re done there, you can get started on the stables,’ called Bendo Lizac as he crossed courtyard for the kitchen. ‘The donkeys need more straw.’

‘Yes sir,’ Tab answered wearily. Then, as if for old times’ sake, she closed her eyes and went probing with her mind for one of the donkeys. Something went chink in her head, and she was suddenly looking down at the floor of one of the stalls. A long, furry grey muzzle stretched before her field of vision.

›››Forgive me

She directed the donkey to turn its head, and saw that there was ample straw in the corner of the stall. And in the next, and the next.

›››Thank you, my friend

‘Why are you still standing there?’ Bendo asked as he crossed back over the courtyard, biting the end off a boiled egg. ‘I told you to give the donkeys more straw.’

‘They’ve got plenty,’ she replied.

Bendo paused, turned and walked towards her, slowly, menacingly. He stopped when their chests were almost touching, and glared down his nose at her. A couple of flecks of egg were stuck to his bottom lip. ‘Listen, you, I don’t pay you to talk back – I pay you to do as I say!’ he snarled.

‘Yes, sir, I’ll do it straight away,’ Tab murmured. ‘Sorry.’

‘Better.’ Bendo turned and stomped away, and Tab sighed again.

‘You don’t pay me to talk back? No – you don’t pay me at all,’ she muttered.

‘I heard that.’

‘Sorry.’

Tab picked up the dung bucket and carried it over to the large pile in the corner of the yard. When its contents had been deposited, she headed into the stables. Even if she didn’t top up the straw, she had to be seen to be doing as she was told.

The last few months had been… well, interesting. Since the Archon had died, so much had changed, and not just for Tab. Quentaris was hardly the same place any more. It was still floating in the sky, drifting almost aimlessly over forests, oceans, deserts, mountains. From time to time and without warning a vortex would appear, and the city would turn and sail straight for it, its vast sails cracking and flapping far above the rooftops. The swirling, black funnel of darkness would loom larger, and with barely enough time to get the animals inside to safety or to take the laundry in from the line, the shuddering and rumbling would begin. And a short time later, the landscape would have changed to different forests, oceans, deserts, mountains. Then the repairs around the city would begin again.

There had been a time when she was part of all of that, back before it became quite so random. As an apprentice magician, she had been close to the Navigators’ Guild. She’d even come to count Chief Navigator Stelka as a friend, and had often been at the gatherings when the next vortex had been sought, found and entered. But since the Archon had died and his nephew Florian had taken over, there seemed little rhyme nor reason to the vortexes they passed through, and the worlds into which they led.