How many ships did you say you would need?"

The scarred n.o.bleman's face blazed with triumph, but he kept his voice casual.

"As I said, four, maybe five. Enough men and stores to start a viable colony."

Abeleyn's head snapped up. "A colony, sanctioned by the Hebriate crown, must needs have someone of sufficient rank to be its governor. Who do you have in mind, cousin?"

Murad coloured. "I thought. . .it had occurred to me that-"

Abeleyn grinned and raised a hand. "You are the King's cousin. That is rank enough." His grin faded swiftly. "I cannot, however, let you commandeer the ships of those who have been caught up in these heresy trials. Men would say that I was profiting from them, and some of the odium that the Prelate is unfortunately collecting for himself would be dumped at my door. A king must not be seen to benefit from the misfortune of his subjects."

Murad caught the slight emphasis and watched his monarch narrowly.

"However, what stores and cordage and spare yards and provisions and suchlike that are currently piling up in the warehouses might conceivably be moved elsewhere, for the sake of storage, you understand.

These things, Murad, would not be missed. Ships are a different thing. We Hebrionese have a sentimentalattachment to them. For their masters they are like wives. I know of your reputation in the wife-netting field, but if this is to be a crown-sponsored expedition it must start off on a wholesome note. Do you understand me?"

"Perfectly, Majesty."

"Excellent. No ships, then, will be confiscated, but I will give you a letter of Royal credit for the purpose of hiring out and outfitting two ships."

"Two ships! But Majesty-"

"Kings do not relish being interrupted, Murad. As I have said, two ships, both out of Abrusio, and they must be ships whose masters have lately lost a large number of crewmen to the Inceptines. You will represent to their masters that they will regain their full crews for the voyage, which, if they undertake it, will be considered a form of amnesty. If they choose not to avail themselves of the crown's generosity then you must make it clear that they are liable to be investigated for having so many heretics and foreigners in their complement in the first place."

Murad began to grin.

"The letters of credit, I take it, Majesty, will be redeemed on the safe return of the ships to Abrusio."

The King inclined his head. "Even so. I will also let you take a demi-tercio of marines from your own command and will confer on you the governorship-under certain conditions-of whatever colony you choose to set up in this Western Continent. But to set up a colony you will need colonists."

Here the King looked so pleased with himself that Murad became wary.

"I will find you colonists, never fear," the King continued. "I have a body of people in mind at this very moment. Is all this agreeable to you, cousin? Are you still willing to undertake the expedition?"

"I will, of course, be able to vet the potential colonists for myself."

"You will not," Abeleyn said sharply. And in a softer tone: "You will be far too busy to interview each and every pa.s.senger. My people will look after that end of things."

Murad nodded. His wings had been well and truly clipped. Instead of a small fleet sailing out under his command to set up an almost independent fiefdom, he would be transporting a horde of undesirables into the unknown in two-two-crowded vessels.

"I beseech you, majesty, let me have more ships. If the colony is to succeed-"

"We do not yet know for sure if there is land for the colony to be founded upon," the King said. "I will not hazard more than I have to on what is to all intents a doubtful scheme. It is only my affection for you and trust in your abilities, cousin, that prompts me to do anything."

Murad bowed. That, he told himself, and the fact that my idea can be worked into your own plans.

But he had to admire Abeleyn. Only five years on the throne, and the Hebrian monarch had already established himself as one of the most formidable of the western rulers.

I must work with what I am given, Murad thought, and be grateful for it.

Abeleyn poured out more wine for them both. It was losing its chill, even in the shade of the cypresses."Come, cousin, you must see that we all act under certain constraints, even those of us who are kings.

The world is a place of compromise. Unless, of course, you happen to be an Inceptine."

They laughed together, and clinked gla.s.ses. Murad could see a trio of Royal secretaries hovering in the trees, their arms full of papers, inkwells hanging from their b.u.t.tonholes. Abeleyn followed his gaze, and sighed.

"d.a.m.ned paperwork follows me everywhere. You know, Murad, I almost wish I were coming with you, leaving the cares of a kingdom behind. I remember my voyage on the Blithe Spirit when I was a prince, a snotty-nosed youngster full of himself. The first time I felt the blow of a rope's end I wanted the boatswain hung, drawn and quartered." He took a gulp of wine. "Those were the days, following the coast round to the easternmost of the Hebrionese, and then across the Fimbrian Gulf to Narbosk. There is something about the sea that is in our blood, we Hebrians. Maybe we do not have veritable salt.w.a.ter running in our veins like the Gabrionese, but the tilt of a deck under our feet is always in the manner of a homecoming."

He stared into his wine.

"I will see this land the greatest seapower on the earth ere I die, Murad-if I am spared, and if grasping clerics do not finish me before my time."

"Your reign will be a long and glorious one, Majesty. People will look back on it in later years and wonder what men were like who lived then, what giants they were."

The king looked up and laughed, seeming like a boy as he threw back his head. "I put on my breeches one leg at a time the same as everyone else, kinsman. No, it is the glow of history, the mist of the intervening years that confers glory on a man. It may be that I will be remembered solely because the Holy City fell in my reign, and my troops stayed home chasing witches instead of joining the defence of the west. Posterity is a fickle thing. Look at my father."

Murad said nothing. Bleyn II had been a tyrannical ruler and a fanatically pious man. It was rumoured that the current purge had been first suggested by him a dozen years before, but the old Mage Golophin had talked him out of it. Now the Inceptines were portraying him as the ideal of a saintly king, and his son was described in a hundred pulpits as a wild young man, good-hearted but wayward and totally lacking in respect for the representatives of the Blessed Saint on earth. Relations between crown and Church did not seem destined to improve.

And yet the navy and the army worshipped Abeleyn, and in the pikes of the soldiers and the culverins of the ships rested the power behind the throne. So the Inceptines trod warily, and hastened to bring their own swords, the Knights Militant, into the city.

"I have heard that none of the Aekir garrison escaped," Murad said sombrely, following his own train of thought. "Thirty-five thousand men."

"You heard wrong," the King told him. "Sibastion Lejer brought almost ten thousand men out of the city and is fighting a rearguard action on the Searil road."

Murad wanted to ask his king how he knew, how news travelled so swiftly over seven hundred leagues, but stopped himself. Golophin would have his ways and means. But if Golophin was avoiding Abeleyn . . .

"Duty calls," Abeleyn said. "I must meet another delegation from the guilds this afternoon. Thanks to you, Murad, I may have a crumb of comfort for the Thaumaturgists' Guild. Golophin may even begin talkingto me again. Just as well. There is the Conclave of Kings to prepare for in a month's time."

"Is it still going ahead?" Murad asked, surprised.

"Now more than ever. Lofantyr of Torunn will be shrieking for more troops, of course, and Skarpathin of Finnmark will be convinced that the next blow is to fall upon him. I foresee a trying time, especially as the Synod meets a short while before, so we will have their worthy resolutions to debate also. I tell you, Murad, you are lucky in only having to worry about a hazardous voyage into the unknown. The shoals between palaces are more difficult to navigate."

Murad rose, and bowed deeply. "With your permission I will leave you to your navigating, Majesty."

As he left the shade of the cypresses the punishing sunlight bore down on him, and he saw the cl.u.s.ter of secretaries gather round their monarch like flies feeding off a corpse. The image was an unlucky one, and Murad banished it from his mind. He would have his ships, and his men, and he would have his city in the west.

He had not told the King that there was a log accompanying the rutter which detailed that voyage to the west of a century ago, and he was glad that he had kept the knowledge to himself. If the King had read the tattered pages he would most likely have found nothing. Murad himself had had a hard time deciphering the scrawled writing and stained parchment of the doc.u.ment, and the entries were hard to find-but they were there.

They referred to the very first expedition to the west, three centuries before the master of the Faulcon had made his ill-fated voyage. It was a venture that had ended, as far as Murad could make out, in slaughter and madness.

But that had been a long time ago. Such things became garbled and fantastic with every pa.s.sing year.

There would be nothing in the west that Hebrian arquebuses and pikes could not face down.

Time enough to worry about such things when the fabled Western Continent was looming off his bow with its secrets, its dangers and its unknown riches. It would be too late then for anyone to turn back.

FIVE.

R ICHARD Hawkwood opened the ornate grille that enclosed the balcony and stood naked, sipping his wine. There was no breeze. It was unheard of for the Hebrian trade to fail so early in the year. He could look down the steep, teeming roofs to the harbour and see the Outer Roads crowded with caravels and carracks, galeots and luggers, all harbour-bound by lack of wind. The only seamen doing a good trade were the masters of oar-powered galleys and gallea.s.ses, the swift dispatch runners of the crown who would sometimes condescend to transport compact cargoes for a small fortune.

He could see the Grace in the inner yards, still being refitted. Seaworms had riddled her hull in the voyage to the Malacars and she was having her outer planking replaced. Somewhat further out was his other ship, a tall carrack named the Gabrian Osprey. She had crawled in two days ago, labouring under sweeps, and was now at anchor waiting for a free berth. Her crew were being kept under hatches until Hawkwood could devise some way of slipping them past the Inceptines. A longboat perhaps, at night.

Or he could hire a smack to stand off and let them swim out to it. No, that would never do.

He rubbed his forehead wearily. His torso shone with sweat and the stink of the pyres seemed to grease it like some foul second skin. He closed the grille as a woman's voice said: "Richard, are you coming back to bed?""A moment."

But she had risen, a sheet draped about her shoulders, and was padding over the cool marble floor toward him. Her arms encircled him from behind and he felt the heat of her through the crumpled linen.

"My poor captain who has so much to occupy his mind. Are you thinking of Julius?"

"No." Julius Albak's body had been retrieved and burnt by the Inceptines. There was no family to speak of, save the seagoing one that was Richard's crew. A dozen of them were in chains in the catacombs awaiting a hearing. No, Julius Albak had gone to the long rest at last. There was nothing more to be done about that.

The woman's hand drifted down to caress his manhood but he was unresponsive.

"I'm not in the mood, Jem."

"I noticed. Usually when you return from a voyage we never even make it as far as the bed."

"I have a lot on my mind. I'm sorry."

She left him and went back to the bed and the tall decanter that stood beside it. The room was quite cool, thick-walled, faced with marble and white-painted plaster. The ceiling rose up far beyond Hawkwood's head to be lost in a maze of arches and b.u.t.tresses of dark cedar. The enclosed balcony stretched along the whole of one wall, and the bed occupied another. There were elegant chairs, a dressing table, hangings heavy with gilt. Over all were thrown a pretty tumble of women's clothes and head-dresses. High in a corner a tiny monkey stared down from a golden cage with wide, unblinking eyes. Richard had brought it to her from far Calmar half a dozen years ago.

The sound of the city drifted in as a distant surf of noise. This far up the hill one was removed from the narrow filth of the streets, the shocking heat, the stinking open sewers, the noisy vitality of Abrusio. This was how the n.o.bility lived.

"Have you seen your wife yet?" Jemilla asked him tartly, and he winced.

"No. You know I haven't."

"You've been back three days, Richard. Shouldn't you pay her a visit, at least for form's sake?"

He turned to look at her. Whereas his body was burnt a deep brown by sun and wind and seaspray, hers was as white as alabaster, which made the heavy mane of dark hair all the more striking. Her eyes were as black and bright as pitch bubbles on a tropic-heated deck, wonderfully mobile brows arching over them like two black birds rising and falling in tune with her moods. She was a pa.s.sionate, almost a savage lover, and he often came away from her covered with scratches and bites. And yet he had seen her on her way to the palace in a barouche, hair coiled on her head, robes stiff with brocade, a linen ruff encircling her face making it seem that of a porcelain doll.

She had other lovers: n.o.ble, or humble like himself. He could not expect her to be faithful, she always protested, when he was away two-thirds of the year. But she was careful. A virtuous n.o.ble widow she appeared to be, and was believed to be by most people at court, but the servants knew differently, as did Hawkwood. He had procured a misbirth for her not two years ago-at her insistence. An oldwife in the lower city had done it in a cramped little back room. She would never tell him if the child had been his or not. Perhaps she did not know herself. He thought about it sometimes.

"My wife understands that I have many things to clear up when I finish a voyage," he said coldly.She laughed, water rippling in a silver ewer, and reached out a slender hand. "Oh, don't be so stiff and proper, Richard. Come here to me. You look like a mahogany statue."

He joined her on the bed.

"It is Julius and your crew, I know. I have tried, Richard. There is nothing anyone can do, perhaps not even Abeleyn himself. He is not happy about it either."

"He discusses policy with you, then, as you lie together."

She flushed. "I don't know what you mean."

"Only that you should be more careful, Jem. I've been back three days, but already I know who the King's new bedfellow is."

One eyebrow soared up her forehead disdainfully. "Rumour and truth have a large gap between them."

"The King does not like his lovers to bruit his affairs in public. He has made a policy of bachelorhood. If you are not careful you may wake up one morning aboard a Merduk slave transport."

"Do you presume to tell me how to regulate my affairs, Captain? I suppose your voyaging from one louse-ridden port to another makes you qualified to discuss the doings at court."

He turned away. She loved throwing his humble birth in his face. Perhaps it gave their lovemaking an added spice for her. And yet they were as close as lovers ever got. Sometimes they argued as though they were married.

He finished his wine and stood up. "I must go. You are right. I should visit Estrella."

"No!" She pulled him back down on the bed, eyes blazing. He had to smile. For all her bedhopping, she was still jealous if he went to someone else.

"Stay, Richard. We have things to talk about."

"Such as?"

"Well . . . news. Don't you wish to catch up on what has happened since you left?"

"I know what has been happening, and so does my crew."

"Oh, that silly edict. Everyone knows that the Prelate put Abeleyn up to it. The King is not the sort to think up a thing like that, though his father was. No, Abeleyn is more one of your sort. A soldier's man, the sailor's darling. He and the Prelate have had a contretemps, and all Abrusio is on the side of the King, except those whose wits are addled by religion, may G.o.d forgive me." She made the Sign of the Saint against her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s. For some reason Hawkwood found the gesture arousing.

"The Prelate is on his way to the Synod in Charibon, and do you know, the moment he was out of the city gates the burnings lessened? Two days ago they were consuming forty unfortunates every afternoon.

Today six were sent to the pyre. Abeleyn has his officers accompanying the Inceptines on their rounds and the lists go straight to him. Just as well. My maid was becoming hysterical. She's from Nalbeni."

Hawkwood stroked her smooth thigh. "I know."

"And Golophin. Some say he has organized a kind of underground escape route for the Dweomer-folk of the city. He's never at court any more. The King went in person to the old bird's tower to seek himout, but the door was barred! To the King! Abeleyn's father would have had the place razed to the ground, but not our young monarch. He's biding his time."

Hawkwood's fingers were caressing the curly hair at the crux of her legs, but she appeared not to notice.

"And the streets are a terror at night. There are shifters abroad, seeking revenge for the execution of their kinfolk. Only last night one of them slaughtered a dozen of the city patrol and then slipped away . . ." She moaned as Hawkwood's fingers worked on her.

"Murad has been stalking around the palace with a smug grin on his face. I don't like him . . . Oh, Richard!"

She lay back on the bed with her legs asprawl and began to touch herself where he had been touching her. Hawkwood watched her with the fascination of the mouse eyeing the cat.

"Is this not better than the rump of some cabin boy?" she asked.

Hawkwood became very still, and she smiled teasingly. "Oh come on, Richard. I know what pressures are on you seamen on a long voyage, with never a woman aboard to relieve your . . . stress. Everyone knows what you get up to. In the hold, perhaps, in a dark corner with the rats skipping round you? Does the boy squeal, Richard, as you take him? My fine Captain, were you even taken yourself by some hairy master's mate when you first began your voyaging?"

As she saw his face flood with anger she laughed her tinkling laugh and worked ever more busily on herself.

"Will you deny it to my face? Will you say it's not true? I can read it in your eyes, Richard. Is that why you have been unable to please me on this return? Are you pining after some smooth-chinned boy with lice in his hair?"