Billerand sucked a moment on his gurgling pipe.

"What are these questions in aid of, wizard? You wouldn't be a spy of the Inceptines yourself, would you?"

"Far from it." Bardolin's face changed, going as white as marble, but his eyes flashed. "A friend of mine they burned today, sailor, a boy who was like a son to me. They have wrecked my home and the researches of thirty years. I am about to be exiled because of them. I have no love for the Ravens."

Billerand nodded. "I believe you. And I'll tell you that our crews are from every kingdom and sultanate in Normannia. We've men from Nalbeni and Ridawan, Kashdan and Ibnir. Men of Gabrion who sailed under Richard's father; Northmen from far Hardalen, and even one from the jungles of Punt, though he don't speak much on account of the Merduks cutting out his tongue. We have tribesmen from the Cimbrics captured by the Torunnans and sold as slaves. They were oarsmen in a Maca.s.sian galley which we took last year. Richard is their headman now. They have blue faces, with the tattooing.

"Myself, I'm from Narbosk, the Fimbrian electorate that broke off from the empire and went its own way back in my great-grandfather's time. I've served my stint in the Fimbrian tercios, but it's a boring life fighting the same battles on the Gaderian river every year. I tired of it, and took to the sea. Which army did you serve with?"

"The Hebrian. I was a sword-and-buckler man, and later an arquebusier. We fought the Fimbrians at Himerio, and they trounced us up and down. They pulled out of Imerdon, though, and thus it now belongs to the Hebrian crown."

"Ah, the Fimbrians," Billerand said, his eyes shining. Abruptly he reached under the table and produced a wide-bottomed bottle of dark gla.s.s. "Have a taste of Nabuksina with me, in memory of battling Fimbrians," he said, his smile baring teeth as square and yellow as those of a horse.

They shared the fiery Fimbrian root spirit, slugging in turn from the bottle. The imp watched, grinning from ear to long, pointed ear, the tobacco a bulge in one cheek. Griella stirred restlessly. She was bored with this talk of battles and armies. When Bardolin noticed he wiped his mouth on his sleeve, as he had not done in years, and held up a hand when the bottle was proffered to him again.

"Some other time, perhaps, my friend. I have other questions for you."

"Question away," Billerand said expansively, curling one end of his luxurious moustache on a finger.

"Why are the soldiers taking ship with us? Is that usual?"

Billerand belched. "If a king's warrant is involved, why then yes.""How many are coming?"

"We've been told to provision for fifty-a demi-tercio."

"That's a lot of fighting men for two vessels such as these."

"Indeed. Perhaps they're to keep the Dweomer-folk from magicking us when we've put to sea. We've to provide berths for half a dozen nags, too, both mares and stallions, so the n.o.bles don't wear out their boots when we make landfall."

"And you're sure you don't know where that landfall will be?"

"Upon mine honour as a soldier, no. Richard is keeping that nugget to himself. He does that sometimes if we're putting to sea in search of a prize, so that word will not get out over the harbour. Sailors can be like a bunch of gossiping old women when they choose, and they dearly love a prize."

"This ship is a privateer also, then?"

"It is anything it has to be to make a little money; but we don't like that too widely known in Hebrion.

Our good captain has contacts with the sea-rovers, the corsairs of Rovenan, or Maca.s.sar as they call it now. Our culverins and falconets are not for decoration alone."

"I'm sure," Bardolin said, standing up. "Can you tell me when you expect to sail?"

Billerand shook his head mournfully. The drink was beginning to trickle into place behind his eyes, making them as gla.s.sy as wet marbles. "We weigh anchor some time in the next fortnight, that's all I know. I doubt if even Richard himself knows the exact date yet. A lot depends on these n.o.bles."

"Then we'll see you again, Billerand. Let us hope the voyage will be a prosperous one."

Billerand winked one eye slowly, showing them his square-toothed grin again.

B ACK out on the dock Bardolin strolled along lost in thought, the imp fast asleep in his bosom. Griella had to jog beside him to keep up.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Well what?"

"What have you learned?"

"You were there-you heard what was said."

"But you've guessed something. You're not telling me everything."

Bardolin stopped and gazed down at her. Her lower lip was caught up between her teeth. She looked absurdly fetching, and incredibly young.

"It is the presence of so many soldiers, and the n.o.bles who command them. And the horses."

"What about them?"

"We cannot be sailing to any port in any of the civilized kingdoms or princ.i.p.alities; their authorities would not readily permit so many foreign soldiery to put ash.o.r.e. And the horses. Billerand said they were mares and stallions. Warhorses are geldings. Those horses are for breeding. And did you see the sheep beingtaken on board? I'll wager they are for the same purpose."

"What does it all mean?"

"That we are going somewhere where there are no sheep and no horses; where there is no recognized authority. We truly are sailing into the unknown."

"But where?" Griella insisted, growing petulant.

Bardolin stared out across the maze of docks and ships and labouring men, out to where the flawless sky came down and merged with the brim of the horizon.

"West, we were told; maybe the Brenn Isles. But I reckon our worthy first mate was not telling us everything he knows. I think our course is set beyond them. I believe we are to sail further than any ship ever has before."

"And what are we supposed to find?" Griella asked him irritably.

Bardolin smiled and put an arm about her slim shoulders.

"Who knows? A new beginning, perhaps."

TEN.

O UTSIDE, the tramp of cadenced feet and the bark of orders were filling up the afternoon. Little zephyrs of dust swirled in the doorway to curl up on the floor. A lizard clung motionless to the whitewashed wall.

Lord Murad of Galiapeno sipped wine, his eyes running down the muster lists. Unlike many n.o.bles of the old breed, he could read and write perfectly and did not consider it beneath him. The older generation had cooks to feed them, grooms to care for their horses and scribes to read or write their books and letters. Murad, like King Abeleyn, had never thought that a prudent state of affairs. He liked to decipher evidence with his own wits without having to rely on a commoner. And there were some things which he liked to reserve for his eyes alone.

Fifty-two men, including two sergeants and two ensigns. They were the best in the Abrusio garrison, and Murad had commanded the bulk of them himself for more than two years. No cavalry, alas. The only horses they were taking were breeding stock. There were arquebuses for every man, though not all of them were yet trained in their use; and Hawkwood's crews-they were familiar with firearms. Many of them were no better than pirates.

Murad dipped his quill in the inkwell and did some calculations. Then he leaned back, gnawing the end of the goose-feather with his teeth. Two hundred and sixty-two souls all told, in two ships. Of that total perhaps a hundred and twenty were able to bear arms, plus an unknown quant.i.ty of these G.o.d-cursed sorcerers. They might well be more useful than field guns if their powers were as great as rumour made them, but it was best not to expect too much. They would know nothing of discipline, and would have to be herded like the cattle they were.

His eye fell on another list, and he examined it carefully. Of the pa.s.sengers on the ships, some sixty were women. That was good. His men would need recreation, to say nothing of himself. He would look them over ere they sailed and pick out a couple of the comeliest for his servants.

Murad put down his pen and stretched, the new leather of his doublet creaking. There was a shadow inthe doorway, backlit by the glaring sunlight.

"Come."

Ensign Valdan di Souza entered, ducking his head a little. He snapped to attention before his superior officer, his armour clinking. He seemed half broiled, his face a mask of dust save where the sweat had cut long runnels down it. There was sweat dripping off his nose also, Murad noted with distaste. The man smelled like a Calmaric bathing room.

"Well, Valdan?"

"My men have drawn all weapons and equipment, sir, and I have quartered them apart from the others as you ordered. Sergeant Mensurado is inspecting them now, prior to your own inspection."

"Good." Mensurado was the best sergeant in the city, a filthy beast of a man and an inveterate wh.o.r.emonger, but a born soldier.

"Sit down, Valdan. Loosen your harness for the sake of the Saint. Have some wine."

Valdan sat gratefully and plucked at his armour straps. He was a big, lanky youth with straw-yellow hair, unusual in Hebrion. His father was a prosperous merchant who had paid for his son to be adopted by one of the lesser n.o.ble houses, the Souzas. That was the way n.o.ble blood was watered down these days. n.o.bles without money sold their names to commoners with it. A century previously it would have been much different, but times were changing.

Still, di Souza was a good officer and the men liked him-perhaps, Murad thought wryly, because he was on their level. He was one of the two junior officers who would be accompanying him on the voyage. The other was Ensign Hernan Sequero, a member of the n.o.blest family in the kingdom save for the Royal line of the Hibrusios. He might even be a closer relation to the King than Murad himself. But however blue his blood, he was late.

Sequero eventually arrived as Ensign di Souza was gulping down his second gla.s.s of the chilled wine.

Murad looked him up and down coolly as he stood at attention. He smelled of Perigrainian perfume. His forehead shone with the heat, yet he somehow contrived to appear completely at ease despite his heavy half-armour.

"Sit." Sequero did so, flashing a glance of contempt at the gasping di Souza.

"The horses, Hernan. Have you seen to them?" Murad drawled.

"Yes, sir. They are to be loaded on to the ships the day before we sail. Two stallions and six mares."

"That's two more than this fellow Hawkwood bargained for, but no doubt he will find room for them somewhere. We need the wider range of brood mares for a healthy line."

"Indeed, sir," Sequero said. Horsebreeding was a pa.s.sion of his. He had selected the stock himself from his father's studs.

"What about their feed?"

"Being loaded tomorrow: hay and best barley grain. I hope, sir, that there will be good pasture at our landfall. The horses will need fresh gra.s.s to get back into condition."

"There will be," Murad said confidently, although he did not know for sure himself.There was a silence. They could hear cicadas singing in the trees that bordered the parched parade ground. Here, on the eastern side of Abrusio hill, the landward breeze was blocked and the country was as dry as a desert. Still, it was moving into autumn and rain could not be far away.

Where will autumn find us? Murad thought momentarily. Somewhere on the face of an unexplored ocean, or maybe a league below it.

He stood up and began pacing back and forth in the small room. It was stone-floored and thick-walled to keep out the worst of the heat. There was a bunk in one corner, a tall wall cupboard and a table covered in papers with his rapier lying across it. The two ensigns sat uncomfortably by the small desk.

The window had been shuttered, and the place was dim save where the afternoon light flooded in through the open door. Murad's quarters were monk-like in their austerity, but he made up for it when he had time to spend in the city. His conquests were almost as legendary as the duels they engendered.

"You know, gentlemen," he said, continuing to pace, "that we are to undertake a voyage in a few days'

time. That we are taking the best of the garrison and enough stock to breed us a new line of warhorses.

Thus far, that is all you have known."

The two ensigns leaned forward in their chairs. Murad's black eyes swept over them both balefully.

"What I am about to tell you will not leave this room, not until the day and very hour we sail. You will not repeat it to the sergeants, to the men, to your sweethearts or your families. Is that understood?"

The two younger men nodded readily.

"Very good. The fact is, gentlemen, that we are taking ship with a Gabrian sea captain and a crew of black-faced easterners, so I want you to watch the men once we are aboard. Any fighting when we are at sea will not be tolerated. No man of any piety likes having veritable Sea-Merduks as travelling companions, but we make do the best we can with what G.o.d sees fit to give us. On that note, you had best be aware that we are not the only pa.s.sengers on these ships. Some one hundred and forty other folk will be sailing with us, as . . . colonists. These people are, to put it bluntly, sorcerers who are fleeing the purges in Abrusio. Our king has seen fit to allow them to take ship for a place of sanctuary, and they will be the citizens of the state we intend to found in the west."

Hernan Sequero's face had darkened at the mention of sorcerers, but now it took on a narrow-eyed intensity at Murad's last word.

"West, sir? Where in the west?"

"On the as yet undiscovered Western Continent, Hernan."

"Is there such a place?" di Souza asked, shocked out of his respectful silence.

"Yes, Valdan, there is. I have proof of it, and I am to be the viceroy of a new Hebrian province we will establish there."

Murad could see that his officers' minds were working furiously, and he had to smile. They were the only other Hebrians of any rank who would be on the voyage; they were busy calculating what that meant in terms of personal position and prestige.

"As viceroy," Sequero said at last. "You are not expected to command troops, but to be the administrative head of the province. Is that not true, sir?"

Trust Sequero to work it out first."Yes, Hernan."

"Then someone will have to be appointed overall commander of the military part of the expedition once it reaches this Western Continent."

"Eventually, yes."

Di Souza and Sequero were looking at one another sidelong and Murad had to make an effort not to laugh. He had planned it well. Now they would be striving like t.i.tans to gain his favour in the hopes of promotion. And there would be no conspiring behind his back, either. They would trust each other too little for that.

"But that is in the future," he said smoothly. "For the moment, I want you both to begin drawing up guard rosters and training routines with the a.s.sistance of your sergeants. I want the men well drilled while we are at sea, and they must be proficient with arquebuses by the time we make landfall. That includes the officers."

He saw Sequero wrinkle up his nose at the thought. n.o.bles disliked firearms, considering them the weapons of commoners. Swords and lances were the only arms a man of any quality should have to know how to use. Murad had had to overcome that prejudice himself. Di Souza, who was closer to his troops, already knew how to use an arquebus and how to read and write, whereas Sequero, though quicker witted, was of the old school. He was illiterate and fought with sword alone. It would be interesting to see how they both developed in the voyage west. Murad was pleased with his choice of subordinates. They complemented each other.

"Sir," Sequero asked, "do you expect any kind of resistance in the west? Is the continent inhabited?"

"I am not entirely sure," Murad said. "But it is always best to be prepared. I am positive, though, that we will meet nothing which can overcome a demi-tercio of Hebrian soldiers."

"These sorcerers we are sailing with," di Souza said. "Are they convicts being deported, sir, or are they pa.s.sengers embarking of their own free will? The Prelate of Abrusio-"

"Let me worry about the Prelate of Abrusio," Murad snapped. "It is true that we could choose better stuff to form the seed of a new province, but I do as the King wills. And besides, their abilities could prove useful."

"I take it, then, that we will not be embarking a priest, sir?" Sequero asked.

Murad glared blackly at him. Sequero sometimes liked to walk a narrower line than most.

"Probably not, Hernan."