The gifts were given and received, the guests were seated, drinks were served. Saker sweated as the meeting progressed. It was hot out there on the deck, but he thought it was more the tension that caused his discomfort.

The hairs on his neck were prickling, and he knew why: Tuan Sri Imbakin fact all of the visitorshad ignored Ardhi. No, more than that. They looked straight through him, as if they couldn't see him. It's as if he doesn't exist.

The woman in the group could not tear her gaze away from Sorrel and Piper, who were standing in the shade of the mast, and that also made his skin prickle. He hoped it was merely the interest of one woman for another, or just fascination with a pink and white baby, but something about her blazing intensity made him doubt that.

Hatred? Shock? Fear? He couldn't be sure. She was dressed in a wrapped sarong, and a top that left her shoulders and arms bare, except for a necklace of gold studded with shells. Her hair was grey and elaborately bound and decorated with gold pins at her nape.

Although she wore a kris, Saker didn't imagine it was anything but ceremonial, as she was elderly and had only climbed the pilot's steps with aid. Barefoot. None of them wore shoes.

Remember, Saker, he told himself. That doesn't mean they are poor or stupid. Ardhi was sent by his family to study at the Javenka Library.

Juster was listening more than he spoke. Every now and then he glanced at Saker with a slight twitch of his eyebrow, and Saker would translate. Mostly, though, Juster knew what was being said, and it wasn't particularly friendly.

"The last time a ship like yours came, our Raja was slaughtered," had been Imbak's first words after the initial greetings.

"We are from a different land to that previous vessel. Our land is called Ardrone," Juster replied, giving a previously rehearsed reply. "That last ship, and the men who were left behind, were from Lowmeer. We are not Lowmians, just as you are not from Serinaga or the Spicerie."

"Why do you come here?"

"To return the four plumes of the regalia of Raja Wiramulia to his son, Raja Suryamuda."

There was an audible intake of breath from the three advisers, but not a muscle moved in Imbak's expression as he replied, "There is one on board this vessel who must perform that task in person." He did not, however, look at Ardhi.

"It will be done."

"Any other reason to visit Chenderawasi?" Imbak's tone was not encouraging. In fact, he had not smiled once.

"We are in need of fresh food and water. For which we can pay. With gold or coin or goods, as you prefer."

"Water is free. Foodyou can negotiate with our merchants in the town. That is not my concern. My concern is that you leave and not return."

"That is our intention. However, it is my understanding that the Lowmians do intend to return, and soon. They left their factors here, to buy and store your nutmeg."

"Alas, they died. Fever took them. They were sickly men."

Juster, startled, looked at Saker.

Saker's stomach lurched. "You heard it right. He said they died of fever. I think he's lying."

"However," Imbak continued unperturbed in Pashali, "we have the nutmeg and mace they wanted to buy. Perhaps you would be interested in the purchase? We were going to sell the crop in Kotabanta as usual."

"Would you be interested in bartering for a cargo of baked building bricks?" Juster asked.

"Bricks? I do not understand this word."

Ardhi translated, but Imbak remained impassive as if Ardhi had not spoken.

Saker's fingers curled.

Juster repeated the Chenderawasi term. Imbak turned to his advisers and there was a whispered conversation in their own tongue. While they spoke, Juster gave one of the sailors an order to bring up a couple of the bricks from the ship's ballast. Saker knew he'd been intending to sell them in Karradar once he had his own plunder to use as ballast, but it mattered little where he divested the ship of a valuable commodity, as long as there was equivalent weight to replace it. If the nutmeg didn't weigh enough, they could always make up the difference with water.

The bricks were brought, the four Chenderawasi examined them and declared themselves well satisfied with the quality. There was a short discussion on the quantity, and once Juster assured them that the plumes would indeed be returned, a preliminary bargain was struck, with the understanding that details would be confirmed by traders in the town.

"After that," Imbak said, "your ship will leave and never return."

Juster bowed his assent.

Tuan Sri Imbak rose to leave and the others followed suit.

The woman took the opportunity to approach Sorrel. She did not smile or greet her, but laid her hand on Piper's head. Piper broke into a happy smile and reached for the woman's necklace of shells. The woman caught her hand and then stepped back in shock still holding the child's fingers. She spoke then, but the words were too rapid and passionatemore hissed than spokenfor Saker to understand. The lady withdrew her hand as if she'd been bitten and walked away to join the others as they left the ship.

Juster stood ramrod straight at the bulwarks, watching the prau and their chanting canoe escort vanish into the gathering dark of twilight.

"What did she say?" Sorrell asked Saker. "The expressiondid you see the way she looked at Piper?"

"I didn't understand her either," he replied as the sailors began to dismantle the shade and put the chairs away. "But she was shocked." He shrugged, trying to sound unconcerned. "Perhaps because she'd never seen a child with blue eyes before?"

Juster turned to them then. "I want to see you, Ardhi, and you, Saker, in my cabin. Now."

"I'm coming too," Sorrel said. "No one is leaving me out of this." She handed Piper over to Surgeon Barklee, and followed them without waiting for Juster's assent.

"Don't try arguing with her," Saker advised. "You'll rarely win."

"You could say that I am fed up with other people deciding my fate," she said. There was no smile to take the sting out of the words.

Once in his cabin, Juster turned on Ardhi, louring over the lascar like a thundercloud. "You have not been telling us the whole truth. I felt as though I had a hand tied behind my back out there."

Ardhi shrugged. "We from different sides of world. We can't trust each other, cap'n. You think I tell whole truth, then you're a fool. And I don't think you're a fool."

"Who are you exactly, and why did those people not even look at you? You said that Imbak fellow was your cousin!"

"He is. And I know the woman since I been born. My grandmother's closest friend." He sighed. "In Ardrone, Lord Juster rich nobleman, and Ardhi of Chenderawasi common tar, swabbie, lascar. Here, Lord Juster is maybe enemy of my land. Here, I grandson of nobleman. My kin, they think Ardhi is traitor, worthy of traitor's punishment, traitor's death. But still grandson of the lordDatuwho rules part of Pulauan Chenderawasi. My loyalty to my Datu, then my Raja. Not to you. Not to Saker. To none of you. My..." He hunted for the right word. "My duty is to Chenderawasi. To these islands, to my Raja. To my people."

Va-damn, Saker thought. That's the longest speech I've ever heard him make.

Juster's narrowed eyes fixed Ardhi with an unwavering stare. "What happened to the Lowmian factors who were left here?"

"I cannot know answer to that! They were alive when I left Chenderawasi. They were building nutmeg godowns. Spice Dragon left before anyone in Bandar Ruanakula knew about death of the Raja. I left later, ten days after Raja Wiramulia killed. Factors still alive. That is all I can tell you."

"All right, I understand that," Juster said. "You can't know what happened. What do you think probably happened? Did they die of fever? Or were they murdered?"

Ardhi raised his chin belligerently. "You tell me. If prau filled with Chenderawasi traders sailed into Throssel, killed King Edwayn for his regalia, then sailed away leaving people behind to trade, what you think would happen to them?"

There was a long silence.

"Why," Juster asked finally, "did Captain Lustgrader sail away? He should have known what would happen to the factors once the Chenderawasi discovered the Raja had been murdered by men from Spice Dragon."

"He had no idea Raja Wiramulia was killeduntil I arrive in Serinaga. I told him. Even then, he not want to believe his men kill anyone. They denied it. They were Lowmians; I just a lascar. Who you think Lustgrader believe?"

Sorrel broke the silence that followed. "I don't care who you are, any of you. I want to know what that woman said about Piper. I want to know why the Chenderawasi sakti brought Saker and me here. And I want to know now. I want to know if Piper is in danger."

Everyone looked at her. Then Juster started to laugh. "Aren't we a fine passel of turnip-head sailors! Mistress Sorrel has put us all in our place. That's the real question, isn't it? Why are we here? Was it your sakti manipulating us, Ardhi?"

He sighed. "YouSorrel, Sakeryou not told me all truth about Piper, so don't be angry I keep secrets. The woman, Sri Sariah, she has healing sakti. Like healer's witchery. That sakti told her something evil is in Piper. She told you to go home where you belong and take that evil thing with you."

Sorrel, stricken, stared at him and began to shake.

Ardhi continued, relentless. "I believe in truth of Sri Sariah's sakti. If she saw something in Piper, then it is there." He reached out and touched her hand with the tips of his fingers, adding with sudden tenderness, "Courage, Sorrel. Perhaps that is why the sakti brought you here."

36.

The Song of the Chenderawasi

Saker knocked at the cabin door.

For a while he wondered if Sorrel was going to answer, but then he heard her muffled, "Come in."

When he stepped inside, she was sitting on the edge of the bunk with Piper asleep beside her. She looked up as he entered.

"I will claw and tear anyone to death with my bare hands before I'd let them take her," she said. "They'll have to eat my heart out first."

He closed the door behind him. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? About what? Is that all you can say? You're sorry?"

For a moment he thought she was going to launch herself at him in attack. He held up his hands, palms outwards.

Her breast was heaving; her breath came in gasps. It was hot in there, too hot. He stepped across to the window and opened it. The sounds of a tropical night drifted in: unfamiliar songs and unidentifiable chatteringyips and wails, clicks and trills. Insects, goatsuckers, toads, animals? He had no idea.

"I failed to protect one child," she said. "I will not fail this one."

He sat next to her on the bed. "Sorrel, please don't think me uncaring. Never that. I don't give a damn if she's my child, or Fox's or Vilmar's. To me, she's a daughter, and I love her. I won't let them kill her. I'd die first, too." He mustered up a faint smile. "But we don't know what the sakti wants. It may be to help her. I'd really rather all three of us came through this still alive, all right?"

"It might not be true. Maybe the woman was wrong..." With a suddenness that caught him unawares, she buried her face in his chest. "Piper is the devil-kin!" she cried, her words both muffled and agonised.

"Ardhi says we must take her to the Raja tomorrow. We will go with him when he takes the plumes back."

"Saker, what if-?"

"No," he said flatly. "I won't let it happen, and neither will Ardhi. Three of us, togetherwe won't give up."

She looked up at him. "I could walk away if that would save her. But I will never allow her to be slaughtered likelike an injured animal."

"Look, I talked to Ardhi, and this is the way he interprets what happened to us back in Lowmeer. The dagger and Piper first came together on the docks in Ustgrind. Up until then, the sakti was only influencing my life, because it wanted me to help Ardhi to locate and steal back the plumes. Then, once Piper came in contact with Ardhi, the dagger recognised that there was something wrong with her, and that's when the sakti started to react to interfere in your life. Not to kill her, or you, but to bring her here."

"How could you know what it wants to do? Have you told Ardhi about her being a twin and-"

"I've not said anything. But both Ardhi and Juster heard the rumours about devil-kin and twins. Juster is no fool. He guessed Piper was Mathilda's child. I think we have to tell Ardhi the truth. But let's deal with that later. Right now we have to think about tomorrow. Ardhi believes the new Raja, Raja Suryamuda, is too young to help. However he possesses sakti, by virtue of his regalia. I don't really understand what that means, but Ardhi says the decision about whether and how to help Piper would be made by Raja Wiramulia's widow. She is the sole regent for Raja Suryamuda, and I suppose that means she has access to his sakti."

"He's just a child?"

"Well, he's certainly young. Ardhi's not giving me the details, but their sakti is gifted more directly than our witchery. Something to do with being of royal blood. Those gold flecks in the kris blade were from the regalia, the handle is carved from Raja Wiramulia's bone and the metal contains the last Raja's blood as well."

"Ugh." She stood and began to pace the cabin. "This is all so... strange. Why would Piper matter to the dagger, or to anyone here?" Her pacing slowed. "If she's the devil-kin, then Prince-regal Karel is not. If he'd been the devil-kin, it might have mattered to the Va-forsaken Hemisphere, because he'll be a monarch who commands a fleet." She looked down at Piper, her expression softening. "But a girl with no apparent legitimacy, no known parents, no statusshe's a powerless nobody! Why would anyone as far away as this care if she was a devil-kin?"

"Not entirely powerless." He bit his lip, remembering bodies flung on to a death cart. "She might wreak havoc on the people around her when she's older; she might kill people through the Horned Death."

"But why would any sakti from Chenderawasi care about that?"

"I haven't the faintest notion."

"You don't think these people can, I don't know, see the future or something?"

"Ardhi's never hinted at anything like that. He says that if Sri Sariah is right, and there is something wrong with Piper, then her best chance is that the sakti can do something about it. He says it might be her only chance. I think we have to trust him. So tomorrow morning we go to meet the Raja."

"And he lives in Banda Ruanakula?"

"Apparently not. Nor, by the way, does Ardhi's family who come from another town in the south. The Raja moves from place to place at different times of the year. At the moment he will be up in the mountains above Banda Ruanakula. We have to walk there. Ardhi suggests that we leave at dawn. Just you, me and Ardhi. He's been quite clear to me that he won't take anyone else."

"I suppose that's to be expected. After all, look what happened to their last Raja. There's a road?"

"Just a walking track. There's not even a city up there, or so I understand. Just the Raja, his family, his attendants and his warriors."

She looked mystified. "Some sort of stronghold... like a castle? Accessible only by walking? Pickles 'n' hay, Saker. This is becoming odder and odder."

"Remember that old saying: 'Yours is not the only way to cook a stew. It may not even be the best way'? We are in a different world here, and its ways are not ours. Ardhi said tomorrow we will see things we must never tell to others. He also said at the end of the day we can give wings to our thoughts, or they can stay tethered, so to wither and die."

She rolled her eyes. "I hate riddles!"

He laughed, but it had a hollow sound. "I don't think he meant it to be a riddle. More of a warning."

"And if you don't come back?" Juster asked. "How long do I wait?"

Saker, who had been watching Ardhi and other sailors readying the pinnace for launching, grimaced. "Ultimately, that has to be your decision."

"I don't relish being caught in a lagoon when the Lowmians arrive. Are you sure they were only going to send one ship here, while the others sail to the Spicerie?"