'Now you tell me. Tsen looked around for any sort of weapon but there was only sand and the sea of dunes. Sivan picked himself up.

'What do you know that makes them want you so badly, TVarr?

Despite being lost in the desert, despite his fallen eyrie and the fleet of Vespinese ships that had taken it from him, despite Kalaiya left behind or perhaps because of all those things Baros Tsen TVarr laughed. 'I know a great many things. I have made it my business to see that while Lord Shonda aimed his lightning at me, I had lightning enough to aim back. You dont imagine Im going to tell you, do you?

'Didnt see this though, eh? The young man laughed.

'Why are we here, out in the middle of the desert? Where are you taking me?

'Somewhere safe and out of the way. Sivan set off again. At least sliding down the lee side of the dune was easier than climbing. How long since hed gone walking in the dunes? Hed done it as a boy and a couple of times in his younger years with Vey Rin rich young men riding their sleds, dressed up in their gla.s.s-and-gold armour, scouting for the slavers that struck out into the desert now and then from Cashax. Older now, wiser and knowing a little more of the world and its consequences, he found himself ashamed of almost everything hed done during those years in Cashax, but most of all of the time hed scouted for the slavers. Hed been so painfully ignorant.

He slid down the sand, almost falling. He caught himself. Sivan was already ahead again, starting up the next slope.

'Is there an end to this? Tsen called after him. 'Or are we just walking for the sake of it?

'I told you, you could stay with the sled. Sivan didnt look back.

'If you came all this way out of the goodness of your heart to save me from the wicked Lord Shonda, why didnt you come a little sooner with news of his plans so I was ready to meet him? And why did you tie me up? To be blunt with you, I do not feel particularly rescued, Sivan. Inside he winced. Sometimes he couldnt help himself; he just had to push a bit harder than he ought. He reached the bottom of the dune. Sivan, already halfway up the next, looked back at last.

'Youre free to go, TVarr. Youre not my prisoner. He kept on walking.

It had never occurred to Tsen, even when it was happening right under his nose, what the slavers in Cashax were really doing, how they ripped tribes apart, families. One thing to treat the barbarians of the other realms so although the older he got, the more he questioned even that but the desert men were black-skinned Taiytakei like him. Oh, the slavers dressed it up well, made sure their rich-boy scouts were kept safe and away from the nastier parts of their business, but what shamed him most was that hed never stopped to think. It wasnt so much what hed done, more that hed joined in so blindly and never once thought to open his eyes.

Halfway up the next dune, he paused to catch his breath. He was sweating like a pig and Sivan was at the top. At least the shifter was waiting for him this time.

Hed gone dune climbing once, with Vey Rin, back long before anyone had imagined that Veys brother Shonda would somehow rise to be sea lord of the most powerful city in the world. Vey Rin was back in Vespinarr now, mind broken by the dragon hed been stupid enough to provoke with his jade raven. He owed his life to the rider-slave. Maybe Shonda did too and so maybe Shonda would spare her for that, but Tsen doubted it. Most likely hed never even know. Vey Rin was certainly in no state to tell him.

Dunes. One step up, slide most of a step back again, and theyd been bigger dunes than these. He remembered how theyd joke, the two of them, about how many steps they really took to climb. Theyd taken their sleds out into the deep desert scouting for signs of the black ooze lakes that rose from the sand now and then and drew the desert men. Theyd gone a long way and hadnt found any and had turned back when Vey Rin spotted one of those dunes that really was as tall as a hundred men and challenged him to climb it. Tsen had given up halfway, laughing, sliding all the way to the bottom and flying to the top on his sled, but Vey Rin had kept on, walking all the way. Something had changed between them after that, as though Vey Rin was always a little disappointed in him.

He reached the top.

'You should have come to me openly, he said to Sivan. 'You pretended to be the woman I love. You tricked me and I dont believe a word you say.

Sivans smile was broad and mischievous and with a touch of malevolence. 'Would you have come if Id simply asked? He laughed. 'As it happened, I did rescue you, TVarr, and I really dont mean you any harm.

'But you were coming for me either way.

Sivan pointed down the lee of the dune to a pillar of white stone, round and about as tall and as wide as a man. There was a hole in the ground beside it. Tsen found the whole thing so odd that he forgot for a moment how exhausted and thirsty he was. A pillar and a pit in the middle of the shifting dunes? How did the hole not get filled up and the pillar not vanish under the sand? Sivan was already walking, and as Tsen hurried to catch him up, he saw that the hole was more of a shaft, the pillar in the centre of it and that a set of steps spiralled down. Closer still and he saw that the steps were made of the sand itself. Clearly his tutor in Cashax hadnt been so marvellous after all, since he had no idea what this place was or how it worked or how Sivan had found it.

'Kalaiya, he called. 'I want Kalaiya. Thats all.

Sivan started down the steps. When Tsen reached them, he hesitated, but then again he couldnt think of anything else to do but follow. The sun was hot, the stairs were shady, he needed water, and all that waited for him in the dunes was death. He ran his hand over the pillar as he tested the first step. The stairs looked the same as the dunes but if he closed his eyes and listened to his feet then they were as solid as iron. The white stone of the pillar was hard, flawless and perfect-polished smooth like the white stone of the eyrie and of the G.o.dspike. It had two symbols carved into it but he had no idea what they meant. It disappeared into the shaft and the steps spiralled around it, and as the sunlight fell away, he saw that the pillar itself glowed with a soft yellow light, guiding his way.

Like the white stone of the eyrie tunnels. So they were the same. He tried not to think about that. Hardly useful just now.

'Did you hear me? he shouted. 'I want my Kalaiya.

No answer. Sometimes he wished hed never heard of dragons. Had never left Xican. Had never risen to be crazy QuaiShus tvarr. Sometimes.

The steps went sixteen full circles down and then stopped. A pa.s.sageway apparently of sand led him to another tunnel, this one much longer and larger and made of the white stone again, almost perfectly round but flattened at the bottom, like the spiralling pa.s.sageways of the eyrie except wider and arrow-straight. The walls glowed with their own soft light, dim as a moonless night lit by stars, and the tunnel ran each way as far as he could see. Across the way and recessed, two bronze doors stood partly open. They were as tall as three men, and carved into each were the likenesses of two serpents twined one around the other. Sivan was waiting for him again. As Tsen stared, Sivan put his hand to Tsens chest and shook his head. 'Whats in there isnt for you, TVarr. Wait here.

'Kalaiya, shifter. If you want something of me, shes my price.

'Yes. Now wait while I bring food and water.

'Is this your hideaway, Sivan? He felt close to the end of his rope, as though nothing much mattered any more and he might as well be as rude as he liked.

Sivan laughed. 'No! Then he shrugged. 'You can go in if you really want to, but I sincerely dont recommend it. In part because youd very likely go mad and at the very least greatly wish that you hadnt, but mostly because if you as much as touch these doors then the snakes carved into them will come alive and rip you to pieces. Sivan c.o.c.ked his head. 'Reasonable enough?

Tsen laughed. 'Im no child. He looked at the doors and regarded them nervously. The snakes did seem very lifelike.

'No? Sivan laughed back in his face. 'Have you ever been here, TVarr? Have you seen a place like it? Have you? Do you have any idea who made it?

'Actually I do. My eyrie. Perhaps you were too busy pretending to be Kalaiya to notice? It was made by the same sorcerers. The old half-G.o.ds.

Sivan paused, and for a moment Tsen thought he might even change his mind. But no. 'Stay here, TVarr. Whats beyond is not for you. Believe what you like, but youre no use to me mad. He slipped between the doors and left Tsen to stare up and down the tunnel. The world wasnt big any more and it wasnt supposed to have many surprises left for a man like him, not for a tvarr to a sea lord, the highest a tvarr could rise. It was his purpose in life to know where everything could be found, procured and bought, how to ship it, pay for it and use it.

No surprises? Well apart from the G.o.dspike and your eyrie and the storm-dark and the Elemental Men . . .

But thats just stuff I dont understand. Like everything Chay-Liang does. Not the same.

. . . and dragons and alchemists and shifter skin and jade ravens and everything that ever comes out of Qeled . . .

Fine. He didnt have much of an answer to that.

He looked up and down the tunnel with a sense of awe and wonder that he found he rather liked. Dragons were different. Dragons were simply terrifying, but this . . . How many people knew this tunnel existed? And who had built it? When? How? Where did it go? And then he found himself with the same uncomfortable sense of intrusion that had settled over him when hed first walked through his eyrie, pacing out its empty pa.s.sageways, imagining its builders and agape at the mystery of its purpose and design. Hed made the eyrie his and the unease had quietly gone. Hed dressed it as the fancy took him and put in his bath, and no matter that no one understood what it was or how it worked or anything much about it, it had become merely a flying piece of rock that made a good place to keep QuaiShus dragons, and that was all he thought of it.

The dragon was different. The dragon had brought something else. Awe, yes, but not much wonder. Fear mostly. Dread.

Sivan came back carrying two sacks, one in each hand. Behind him the doors ground shut, apparently a decision made entirely on their own. Tsen took a sharp step away. 'Who else is here?

'No one. The shifter followed Tsens eyes. 'Not the work of any enchanter, TVarr. There were no such things when this was made. No such things as Elemental Men and certainly no navigators for there was no storm-dark to cross in those days. It was made by the servants of the sun and the moon and the earth and the stars. He laughed as Tsen shuddered. 'Yes, Baros Tsen TVarr, the old G.o.ds of whom we must not speak do you think an Elemental Man will hear us down here? He rapped the stone with his knuckles. 'They cant pa.s.s through this. Did you know that? Theres no one here to murder us for remembering, for speaking the old G.o.ds names and offering them sacrifice. If thats what you want then go ahead. I hear there are plenty of men and women on the surface who have their secret shrines and none more so than in Vespinarr. Go on, TVarr read from the Rava itself if you wish. He laughed again at the look of horror on Tsens face. 'I have no use for those G.o.ds and their disciples either but Ill not pretend they never happened. They broke the world and now your Elemental Men keep watch to see that none of us ever grow such a power again, but no one cares about the relics they left behind. He chuckled. 'Except, it seems, for dragons.

Tsen glared at him. 'What do you know? Who are you?

Sivan pushed past him, back into the tunnel made of sand, talking over his shoulder as he climbed the steps back to the surface. 'Follow the old ways and youll reach . . . places youd rather not visit. The Queverra, if youre lucky. The other way will take you to ruined Uban. Its not far. No one has much use for a few tumbled-down old temples, but if you were to shift the sand you might find much more than that. He turned and tossed one of the bags to Tsen. 'If we live long enough, you might think on that. In the meantime heres some water. Earn your keep.

'My keep?

'I rescued you from the Vespinese, didnt I? I think some grat.i.tude is in order.

'I didnt ask to be . . . Tsens voice trailed away. Sivan was mocking him. They walked back across the dunes in silence. It was hard work but he barely noticed. By the time he reached the sled, most of his thoughts were with Kalaiya and what the Vespinese would do to her when they found he was gone. That was far more terrible.

32.

The Lair of Samim It took three days to reach the end of the desert. Days of skimming the sand on the back of the sled. Sivan stopped every few hours to drink and eat and rest, and each time he did, Tsen looked at the water and at the rings on his fingers and wondered what to do. One ring slipped off, one dip of a finger in a full cup, that was all it would take, but no one except Bronzehand had answered him for months and Bronzehand was in a ship far away, and anyway Sivan claimed to work for him so he was hardly going to offer any help. More likely hed simply smile that bland smile of his and mouth something like, Hows the rescue going?

Rescue my a.r.s.e!

Each time they stopped Sivan took a gold-tinted gla.s.s globe the size of a mans fist off the back of the sled and threw it away into the sand, took another globe out of his bag and put it in place of the old. After hed done that for the second time, Tsen understood. That was how the sled worked. That was how it got its energy.

'Most of them need to be taken to a black obelisk, Sivan said when he caught Tsens eye. He looked at the golden globe and tossed it idly from one hand to the other and back again. 'Youre a tvarr. How much do these cost? When Tsen shrugged, he laughed. 'But youre a tvarr! You know the price of everything.

'Not of something Ive never seen.

'The enchanters of Vespinarr make these. No one else. They take a great deal of effort and they certainly cost far more than this sled. And here I am, throwing them away.

'Im flattered to be considered so valuable.

They flew more at night than in the day. Sometimes Sivan found them shelter, sometimes he draped a sheet of dark cloth over the sled and the two of them rested in the tiny patch of shade under neath. Tsen dozed and thought about running away but Sivan never seemed to grow tired and there was simply nowhere to go.

'Arent they looking for me? Tsen asked after three days. 'If Shonda wants me dead so badly, why doesnt he send his men to look for me?

'I doubt it. Sivan chuckled. 'The Empty Sands are vast. He had enough trouble finding your eyrie. Besides . . .

'Besides what?

Sivan pursed his lips. 'I gave him good reason not to come after us. Dont you remember? I left a body for him to find. He thinks youre dead.

Oh. Yes. That. The dying sword-slave whose face hed seen change into his own. He kept blanking that as though it hadnt really happened. Because it couldnt have.

He watched the pa.s.sage of the sun each day for want of anything else to do and thought theyd flown almost straight south from the G.o.dspike, but on the third morning he saw he was wrong and theyd veered a good way west. The air was still as dry as dust but ahead he saw the glitter of water sparkle here and there in the far distance, while the land become as flat as paper.

'You know where we are? asked Sivan when they stopped again.

Tsen stared ahead. 'That is the Lair of Samim.

'The desert men call it the Poison Sea. They say that every venom in every creature in every world was made there. They say the Samim dwells within. Do you know what that is, TVarr?

A wry smile twisted Tsens lips. 'A legend. A giant scorpion a hundred feet long with a hundred legs, with seven poisonous tails and three pairs of claws each of which can cut a horse in two. In a ring around its mouth parts grow seventeen venomous snakes so deadly that neither Zaklat the Death Bat nor the Red Banatch could face it. Fortunately for them and for the rest of us, the Samim never leaves its lair, content to give birth to the endless snakes and scorpions of the world. Just as well. He snorted. 'Stories, Sivan.

'It wasnt always so, but either way it wont trouble us much on a sled.

Tsen couldnt help but laugh. 'Sled or no sled, a sight like that I think would trouble me very much. He looked at Sivan hard. 'Ive heard other stories too, ones that have weighed on my mind of late. Stories of the Konsidar and what lies beneath.

'Oh yes? Sivans voice stayed light and careless. He grinned. 'Go on then. I like stories.

Tsen, who considered that if he had a talent for anything at all then it was for spotting such things, thought he saw a flash of tension behind Sivans grin. Yes. I thought so. 'You really are one. One of the Righteous Ones who dwell beneath the Konsidar?

Sivan shrugged. 'I did tell you so. He was still trying to look unconcerned, but another twitch gave him away. And here, tongue, is where you might wish to tread with some care.

'Then your skin is priceless. He watched Sivan hard, whose smile had fallen off his face like the moon crashing out of the sky. He looked ready to kill someone but Tsens tongue had the better of him now. 'Youre taking quite a risk coming to the surface. And youre not working for Bronzehand at all.

Sivan didnt speak. They looked at each other until finally Tsen had to turn away. Whats the matter, fat old TVarr? You were ready to die only a few days ago. Although it was more a case of being resigned to the inevitable than actually being keen on the idea. Are you mad, then? And yes, he realised, he was. He seemed to have somehow found some hope. Probably a profound mistake but there it was, and when he looked at it, it didnt seem to want to go away.

'Would you skin someone, TVarr? Sivans expression was strange. Dark and full of glowering clouds. Tsen thought of the alchemist on the eyrie skinning the hatchling hed poisoned to make dragon-scale armour for his rider. Skinning the a.s.sa.s.sin whod tried to kill him to preserve the marks on the mans back so he might one day understand them.

'A man? Tsen shrugged. 'Id like to think not but I suppose it might depend on what hed done. If someone harmed my Kalaiya? Yes, I suppose I might skin them for that. Did you harm her?

Sivan stayed silent for a while as though weighing Tsens reply. He pursed his lips. 'No, he said, and finished his breakfast and climbed back onto the sled. 'Coming, TVarr? Or would you rather stay here and ponder your stories?

The Samim itself may have been a story, but the saltmarsh flats where the Yalun Zarang and the Jokun came out of the mountains and hit the desert before they reached the sea were real enough. Men died here more often than in the Empty Sands. They died because they saw the water and drank it, not realising that away from the main flow of the rivers it was poisonous. There were shifting thick yellow crusts over stagnant pools of fetid water that would crack and split and swallow a man, and yes, there were creatures that lived in this swamp, some of them big and most of them poisonous. By midday they had reached the edges of it and Sivan drifted the sled slowly through its channels, taking his time as if looking for something. They changed course several times until Tsen saw the first of the two great rivers ahead, the Jokun. There were boats on the river. People. Which made Tsen have all those thoughts of help and rescue and escape again that hed had back in the desert, only now they didnt seem so futile.

'Are you going to take this rope off me? he asked. He didnt get an answer but Sivan didnt move so he supposed that was a no.

The sled drifted on, apparently aimless until the saltmarsh gave way to a small grove of summer moon trees. They had bands around their trunks, little gashes in the bark and strapped-on pots to collect the resin that oozed from the wounds. The smell in the air was unmistakable Xizic. Sivan stopped the sled in the middle of the grove and stepped off. He made a slight gesture and clucked his tongue a few times. The rope around Tsen wriggled and shifted and looped around his legs until Tsen was trussed like a fly in a spiders larder. He couldnt even wriggle enough to pull the rings from his fingers. Sivan walked off among the trees; ten minutes later he was back with three scruffy Taiytakei who stank of cheap Xizic. He clucked at the rope again. It unwound itself and snaked across the ground to coil around the shifters waist. Sivan tossed Tsen a Xizic tear. 'Have some.

Tsen caught it, looked, sniffed it and tossed it back. 'I never had much taste for it. Hanjaadi Xizic. Cheap nasty stuff.

'Suit yourself. The shifter patted the rope around his waist in case Tsen was thinking he might try running off. The idea struck Tsen as vaguely absurd maybe slightly less absurd than when theyd been in the middle of the desert with no one around for a hundred miles, but still pretty ridiculous. I mean, look at me! 'You know these trees grow everywhere, as long as its hot? Sivan asked. 'Sometimes they seem to grow straight out of solid rock. The really hardy ones have a bulbous swelling of the trunk at the base to keep them from being torn away by the wind. The tears they shed are supposed to be the best. They have a more fragrant aroma. I suppose, being a lofty tvarr, you prefer those. He chuckled. 'Xizic was traded across TakeiTarr since before the Splintering. You can see sacks of Xizic in the murals on the walls of the temple of Mokesh. They mention Xizic in the rituals of the Rava. He laughed as Tsen winced. 'Still no Elemental Men watching over us out here, TVarr, and if there were, I think perhaps speaking the name of an old forbidden book is the least of my worries.

'You speak as if youve read it.

'Maybe you should read it. Youd learn a thing or two about your dragons. Sivan scratched his neck, swatting at a fly. There were a lot flies in the Lair of Samim, bloodsucking things that carried all manner of disease. 'In the Dominion of the sun king, followers of the old G.o.ds use Xizic from these very trees. They mix it with other oils in all their rituals. The desert men use it in medicines. They say its good for digestion and healthy skin, for the joints, healing wounds and purifying the atmosphere from undesirable spirits. Almost everything. If you throw some on the fire then the perfume repels mosquitoes. He laughed, swatting at his neck again. 'Youll smell it a lot here in the swamp. A miracle tree.

They reached the edge of the grove where the mud gave way to a shallow lagoon. A small flat-bottomed boat was moored by a frayed rope to a dead tree stump. The three Taiytakei stepped in while Sivan waited for Tsen. 'In the spring, when the floods come, the Lair of Samim is cleansed. Then the floods go, and the lakes and the lagoons are cut off from the river again. You know theres nowhere to run, dont you?

Tsen didnt bother to answer. He stepped into the boat and sat down. 'Youre going to leave that sled in the middle of those trees, just like that? I know how much those cost. A great deal more than a Jokun Xizic boat and crew.

'Theyll be back for it. Sivan threw a tattered poncho at Tsen. 'Put this on.

It made him look like one of them, a Samim Xizic man. He wondered, as he sat in silence watching them punt across the water, why they were leaving the sled and thought perhaps he understood: Sivan didnt want to be seen. He didnt want any word or whisper of something unusual creeping up and down the river to Vespinarr or Hanjaadi. There were enough people out here in this wilderness that a sled would catch the eye. It might be remembered. Xizic men, though? Still, the thought gave him hope. Despite what hed said, Sivan was afraid there would be people looking for him after all.

Only so they can hang you, Tsen reminded himself.

On the far side of the lagoon a narrow channel a foot deep ran off into the swamp. A half-mile later it reached the expanse of the Jokun, bright clear water at last. Even the air smelled better: fresh and without the swamp stink of rot crawling into his nose with every breath. A riverboat with a little mast and two more Taiytakei sat tethered to a thick post sticking up from the water. When Tsen clambered aboard, the other men set about pulling the punt on deck. Tsen sat himself on a basket full of Xizic tears. He watched the sailors raise a sail and lower a pair of oars and caught the eye of the nearest as he pa.s.sed, c.o.c.ked his head at Sivan and whispered loudly, 'I dont suppose hes told you who I am or how many people are looking for me or whats going to happen to you if they find out you had a part in this? Hmm? He clucked and shook his head. 'No, I dont suppose he has. Whatever hes paying you, I will pay you ten times as much for you to throw him in the river right here and now and take me to Hanjaadi. You have but to name your price. They werent turning the boat, he saw, so they werent heading for the Bawar Bridge and the sea; they were taking him upstream. And where does following the Jokun upstream take us?

Vespinarr.

The sailor turned away. He muttered something to the others and none of them would even look at him after that. They didnt speak to him, not once, all the way through the Lair of Samim and up towards the Jokun cataracts.

Sivan came and sat beside him a little later, once they were under way. 'In your place I might have done the same. But they wont help you.

'I cant tell if its me they hate or you they fear, Tsen said.

'Try to remember: I did rescue you.

'I dont feel very rescued. Tsen shrugged. 'Im not sure, but it might have been the rope that did that.

Sivan offered him another piece of Xizic, clear and pale and clearly not from the marshes. This time Tsen took it. 'They dont hate you, Sivan said, and Tsen wondered how much he should read into that. 'They dont have the first idea who you are.