'Can you raise a stronger dragon?' Kheda seized Velindre's shoulder and shook her violently. 'Something mighty enough to defeat that creature?'

'I don't know.' She wiped fresh tears from her eyes, still looking after the rapidly vanishing fire dragon.

'Perhaps.'

'How?' demanded Dev, scathing.

'From an ocean tempest,' she retorted.

'If we had one to hand,' mocked Dev. 'And if we didn't all drown while we were about it.'

'Dev.' Kheda snapped his fingers to get the bald mage's attention. 'What is this focusing of magic you're talking about? Has the beast made something that it relies on, something we can destroy?'

'You said killing the dragon would deprive this mage we believed had summoned it of his magic' Risala was following Kheda's reasoning intently. 'Can we deprive the dragon of its magic if we scatter its hoard of gems?'

'If that weakened it, could you summon a dragon that might truly kill it?' Kheda demanded of Velindre once more.

'If it was weakened and, more importantly, distracted,' she said slowly. 'If I had a truly enormous storm to draw on. But those don't appear to order, and like Dev said, by the time one came down on us, we'd be too busy trying to stay alive to be working magic'

'I can tell you when a tempest is coming.' Kheda brushed aside her objections. 'Would working your magic lessen such a storm's ferocity, if you were warned in good time?' 'Yes.' Growing interest rose above Velindre's wretchedness.

'You hope,' scoffed Dev.

Kheda silenced him with an upraised hand. 'You said you felt this focusing of elemental fire, Dev. Can you still feel it? Could you find where the beast has hoarded its gems?'

Dev stared at him, silent for a moment. 'Yes,' he said finally.

'Would scattering the hoard bring the dragon down on us, without us having to betray ourselves with your magic?' Kheda looked from the bald wizard to the magewoman and back again. 'You could use your magics together to attack it? If I could forecast a storm coming?'

'Possibly.' Some spark of his usual boldness lit Dev's red-rimmed eyes as he looked at Velindre.

'Focusing magic through a single gem, for a single, limited purpose, that's done seldom enough in Hadrumal. This creature's using a whole hoard to draw on the elemental fire all around, channelling power ceaselessly to itself.'

'There's no record of anyone from Trydek down having any notion of how to create such an all-pervasive spell,' Velindre said with wonder. 'Do you think any of the element masters would have any idea how it's doing it? Maybe Azazir-' She broke off with a shudder.

'Don't think you're leaving now to go and debate with your fellow mages,' interrupted Kheda harshly.

'I've had enough of taking your orders.' Dev's hand went to his dagger hilt. 'And I'm not playing your slave any more!'

'Oh, stop it,' snapped Velindre. 'What do you want to do, Dev? Paddle the whole length of the Archipelago without using a flicker of magic, just to return to Hadrumal and tell the Council you found a true dragon, that it is somehow focusing unimaginable power through a hoard of gems but you've no notion how? That you were too scared to try to find out?'

'You're calling me scared?' Dev drew his knife in one swift motion to threaten Velindre.

Taking him by surprise from his blind side, Risala knocked it out of his hand. 'Don't be a fool, Dev!''Enough,' shouted Kheda. 'Dev, that creature's too close. It's making you mad!'

The four of them staggered as the Reteul rocked violently.

'The first thing we need to do is get safely away from here.' Risala looked uneasily at the rocky walls enclosing them.

'Easier said than done without Velindre's magic,' sneered Dev.

'I don't claim to be any kind of sailor without it.' The female wizard looked grim-faced at Kheda. 'But I can pull on a rope if you show me the right one.'

'Risala, the two of you see to the sail,' Kheda ordered. 'Dev, get the stern oars out and let's move out into the channel. We'll take it as slowly as we can and you fend off while I steer.'

Still scowling blackly, Dev looked for a moment as if he was going to protest or refuse. Then he turned to free the long sweeps from their lashing below the rail.

Kheda moved to see what damage had been done to the rudder by the unyielding rocks.

Splintered edges but sound enough. Sufficient to get us out of here, at least. And then where to? Not back to any residence, that's for certain.

There's no going back for any of us till we've rid Chazen of this dragon or died in the attempt.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

Do you suppose it'll still be here when we get back?' Risala looked up from the anchor she was resolutely digging into the ground.

Satisfied that the rope he was tying around a sturdy knot tree was secure, Kheda shrugged. 'That depends on how much of the violence Velindre can draw out of this storm with her magic' The winds were whipping up spray from the sea to mingle with the rain dampening Kheda's sturdy brown tunic.

Is it an omen that the storm we need has arisen in a mere natter of days? Or just to be expected, given the season and the latitude?

'Did you hear that?' Dev was up on the Reteul's deck. The boat was bobbing madly in the narrow tree-choked inlet he had finally grudgingly accepted as an anchorage. He froze in the act of nailing a batten across the hatch to the hold.

'The dragon?' Kheda looked up at the cloud-covered sky, mouth half-open.

'What?' The bald wizard spared him a brief glance. 'No, Velle, I was talking to you. I'm relying on you to draw this storm's teeth. You keep it from wrecking my boat.'

The magewoman was standing a little distance away, face turned into the accelerating wind driving white-crested waves to crash all along the muddy shore. The larger billows were forcing their way up the inlet to wedge the Reteul still further into the clinging thicket of knot trees. 'I'll do my best,' she said absently.

'Do we have any more ropes?' Kheda surveyed the ungainly lattice tying the boat to the shore. He shook his head. 'This is madness, Dev. The boat's still right in the path of the fiercest storm of the season so far.'

Dev stood up on the deck. 'The shorter ropes will save it from being smashed against the shore by the first winds and when they snap, the longer ones will hold it as it rides the surging seas.'

'What if they don't?' Risala demanded. 'Where will the Reteul be when the storm passes?'

'What will it be?' Kheda muttered under his breath.

'Kindling?

Where will any of us be? Isn't this whole voyage madness? You've failed in your suborning of magic to defeat this dragon so far. All these wizards' theories have been proved wrong. Why are you trusting them now? Do you honestly believe they know what they're doing this time?

He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of one hand.

What else can I do? I will not return to face the people of Chazen with the news that there is no way to kill this dragon. If I do, we might as well all take to our boats and flee to cast ourselves on the dubious mercy of the neighbouring domains.

I cannot go back. We can only go forward. I can only follow this path.

'We need to get inland before the storm comes any closer,' he shouted above the rising skirl of the wind.

'Bring your swords, Dev. There may be hogs or water ox in the forest. They'll be even more inclined tofight than usual if they're fleeing the storm.' He looked at Risala. 'Keep your eyes open, and stay close to me.'

'Always.' She smiled faintly. 'At least the storm's blown away that foul humidity, and the sweat flies.'

Dev jumped ashore and grinned at Kheda as he handed over the warlord's twin scabbarded blades. 'If you manage to lose this boat for me, I'll take the price of a new one out of the dragon's hoard.'

'Those are Chazen gems,' Risala retorted.

'Stolen by wild men?' Dev queried, dark eyes wide in pretended surprise. 'Hoarded by a dragon? Surely Chazen has no use for jewels so tainted with ill luck and enchantment?'

'Enough.' Kheda thrust his swords securely through his doubled belt and pointed towards a narrow game trail. 'Get into the trees. Velindre!'

The blonde magewoman hurried across the shore as fat drops of rain thudded on the ground. 'The heart of the storm's nearly here.'

'I know,' said Kheda curtly.

'How?' Velindre slowed as the tangled knot trees blunted the knife edge of the wind. 'How did you know today, of all days, was going to bring such a tempest? The skies have been clear for the last few days, the seas calm.'

'As they so often are before a run of wild weather. How did I know it would come today?' Kheda checked to be sure Dev wasn't getting too far ahead before explaining. 'The pattern of the tide told me that this morning. As for knowing it's nearly here, well, just listen.'

They stood motionless as the knot trees rocked around them, muting the sound of the surf crashing against the shore. Contorted grey branches rasped across one another, the slap and rattle of their stubby fleshy leaves quite unlike the rushing turmoil of the ironwoods and tandra trees growing inland where the salt water never encroached, no matter how high the seas rose. Gouts of rain came and went, the abrupt showers mere playthings of the winds.

Velindre shook her head. 'What am I listening for?'

'What you're not hearing.' Kheda walked along the path, Risala at his heels. 'The loals weren't singing at dawn but the meari lizards have been fighting among themselves all morning.' He quickened his pace to catch up with Dev. 'Now they've gone quiet as well.

And no birds sing.'

'Every fisherman and islander knows how to read these signs,' Risala added. 'They'll all be ashore and sheltering in steep, deep valleys or hidden caves.'

'Let's hope that's fortuitous,' Kheda agreed. 'No one will see the dragon killed with magic, if we finally manage to slay this cursed beast.'

'Let's hope so,' murmured Risala. Do you mean you hope we slay the beast or that you hope we do it undiscovered in the act of suborning magic? Or both? It's much the same, isn't it?

With the tall trees all around, the path was sheltered from the worst of the rain now pouring down steadily, heavily. Kheda could smell the moisture running down the grooved trunks of the ironwoods, channelled along the kinked fronds of the tandra-tree leaves. For the moment, the rain was sinking into the damp leaf litter and the thirsty seeds. It wouldn't be long before the torrents falling from the sky would overwhelm the sodden earth and seek their own course across the cluttered forest floor. Then this hollowed path would become a stream, the bare earth underfoot slick and treacherous.

Kheda increased his pace.

Velindre was pressing close behind the two of them. 'All these signs and portents to do with the weather, are they all recorded?'

'Of course.' The wizard woman's ignorance astounded Kheda. 'How else can we reach for the future with one hand if we don't hold fast to the past with the other?'

'How far back do these records go?' The blonde woman in her creased zamorin clothes strode along with him. 'And these changes in the tides and the ways the birds and animals behave, they would be portents of what you call the earthly compass? It's just the heavenly compass that's stargazing?'

'Ignorant superstition, you mean?' Kheda stopped so suddenly that Risala bumped into him and Velindrehad to pull herself up short. 'Dev explained all your northern attitudes to our lore. Have you realised yet just why we hold your magic in such contempt? Did your reading on your voyage explain that?' His anger rose with a recklessness to equal the storm winds shaking the trees all around. 'You know nothing of the world that surrounds you and you care still less. How can you northerners hope to choose the best path for your future when you are so wilfully ignorant of the signs laid out all around you? You wizards are still worse, heedless of the violence your magic does to the natural order of things. You twist the very fabric of the seas and the skies and the land to suit your own whims, never mind that you are corrupting and destroying everything that the past has written into the present to guide you.'

'What are you arguing about now?' Dev had stopped where a scatter of boulders had rolled down from some hidden crag and held back the ironwoods and lilla trees to leave an irregular clearing.

'Nothing,' retorted Velindre, indignation darkening the tan on her cheekbones.

Risala looked past Kheda to the barbarian mage. 'How close are we to the dragon's lair?'

Dev jerked his head along the trail. 'Not far.'

'Good. We don't have time to waste.' Velindre squinted up at the sky where racing squalls of darker hue were banding the pewter grey that had hung over them since morning. 'Not if I'm to raise a cloud dragon from the height of this storm.'

She pushed past Kheda and strode along the path, her cotton-clad legs long and lithe. Dev hastened to stay ahead of her. Risala walked close to Kheda. He kept a wary eye on the forest all around. Lilla trees creaked ominously, torn leaves whipped away before they could fall to the ground. Whole sprays heavy enough to defy the winds came tumbling along the path to whip around their ankles before being snatched by a gust and tossed into the undergrowth. The wind chilled Kheda and the rain soaked them both to the skin, even in the shelter of the trees. The sky overhead rapidly darkened to the colour of twilight. Kheda kept one hand on a sword hilt, straining his ears to try to pick out any hint of a maddened animal above the sounds of the storm-tossed forest.

Are you reading the signs aright? The signs of the tempest, certainly. Those are unmistakable. What of the higher portents? What of the heavenly compass and the stars that have been hidden by cloud every night since that first failure to rid the domain of this beast? But the stars are still there, even if we cannot see them. The heavenly jewels continue their dance around the heavenly compass.

The Sea Serpent has just moved to the arc of marriage where the Diamond that is the warlord's talisman rides. I have no idea what to make of that. But the Pearl is directly across the compass, where the Sailfish swims in the arc of life. That should be a good omen, as the Sailfish rise to greet the moon and fishermen catch the weightiest females just as it wanes.

The Greater Moon is in the next reach of the sky, where we look for portents of wealth and material success, and there's the Hoe, promising rewards to those who strive for land and family. In the furthest reaches of the sky, the Sapphire rides there as well, unmoving for year after year. Does that promise daylight and clarity in such a conjunction? According to these wizards, the Sapphire is the gem of the cloud dragon. Could it be possible that the heavens are showing me that this abomination will lead us to success?

What of the Ruby, if that's the gem of this fire dragon, this true creature of wild elemental magic? That still rides in the arc of travel, hardly a surprise given that the creature had to come from somewhere. What has the Horned Fish to do with the beast? That's a strange creature, warm-blooded and suckling its young in the midst of the cold ocean. Does that show me the dragon has travelled out of its allotted place in its journey here? Hardly something I need telling. The ivory I found on my own journey, that I carved into a dragon's tail, that came from a horned fish. What does that mean?

He paused in his speculation to negotiate a fallen tree and kept a wary eye on a stand of towering ironwoods creaking and swaying wildly as they fought with the storm assailing them from all sides.

There must be something more to the Ruby since the Amethyst lies straight across the compass, where the Canthira Tree spreads its branches and where portents for those close as blood, be they friends or not, can be found. Amethyst for calm and new ideas, new beginnings, with the Canthira Tree that is the first to recover after fire has devastated a forest, whose seeds do not sprout unless they have been through fire. Is that hope for the future to set against this dragon's destruction?The Pearl and the Opal are the talisman gems against dragons. If the moons mark the dragon's head, what lies at its tail? For the Pearl, it's the Diamond, along with the Sea Serpent. Is that what I have become? A hidden darkness to bring peril and death?

Death itself lies opposite the Opal, in that reach of the sky where the Net embraces such omens, along with portents of inheritance. But there are no significant stars or jewels in that arc of the sky.

What will any of this mean if one of us has our brains dashed out by a falling branch? That will be a plain enough portent: one of utter disaster.

Kheda abandoned such fruitless speculation as the sound of falling water ahead echoed above the rising clamour of the storm. The two wizards stood where the path ended abruptly at the lip of a deeply carved gorge. The rocks were dark and mossy with the return of the rains and the vivid white foam of the cataract splashed noisily below. Spray drifted up to coat the thick ferns of the gorge's side in a fine mist.

'It's in one of those caves, isn't it?' Risala wiped rain from her eyes as she stared at a riven cliff face rising out of the tangle of forest on the far side.

Unbothered by her soaking clothes, Velindre studied the pewter-coloured rock pierced with an array of black caverns. 'This is a curious place for a fire dragon to choose to lair.'

'Want to lay a wager on which cave?' Dev suggested with a hint of malice glistening on his wet face. 'If you're feeling confident enough to encroach on my element.'

'The merest mageborn tied to water and overwhelmed by that waterfall would feel the fire being drawn to this place,'Velindre commented with interest, 'antipathy in their affinity notwithstanding.' She looked up at the wind-tossed trees craning over the edge of the gorge, the crease between her brows deepening as she considered this new puzzle.

'Is the dragon in the cave?' Risala asked apprehensively beside Kheda. The warlord put his hand on his sword hilt.

And just what use is a blade going to be?

'No, but it can get here in the blink of an eye if it wants to.' Dev grinned. 'And it'll want to, once I get my hands on its hoard. Grabbing any thing's stones gets its attention.' He laughed uproariously at his own joke.

Kheda took the opportunity to quench his thirst from a water skin he had slung over one shoulder and then offered it to Risala. 'You're feeling the dragon's magic, are you, Dev? Like you did before?'

'What?' The bald mage looked a little bemused. 'No, not as such, now that you mention it.'