Defiant Peaks (The Hadrumal Crisis) (27 page)

Kheda answered her. ‘Debis Khusro born Debis Ikadi, Katel Khusro born Katel Strei, Patri Khusro born Patri Miris and Quilar Khusro born Quilar Vuld.’

Zurenne looked helplessly at Jilseth.

‘A warlord’s wives manage a domain’s trade between them,’ the magewoman explained. ‘They have considerable power and influence, all the more so when the warlord is a recluse like Khusro Rina. These particular women are very well connected with influential domains across the western reaches and down into the heart of the Archipelago, through their own previous marriages and through their sisters and daughters.’

‘Oh,’ Zurenne said faintly.

She had only ever thought that Aldabreshin wives were little more than slaves, albeit dressed in silks and jewels, lounging in barbarian luxury until their husbands demanded carnal use of their bodies.

Of course, she reminded herself, over this past couple of years, she had learned that a great many things which she had believed were as false as a peddler’s lead pennies.

‘What do they want with us?’ Ilysh was still astonished.

‘Halferan suffered most grievously of all Caladhrians from the corsair raids,’ Kheda continued. ‘If the Khusro wives can establish ties of friendship with you noble ladies, that will prove that you do not hold every Archipelagan responsible for the raiders’ crimes. Just as their friendship with you will demonstrate their own confidence that such ties to the mainland will not bring down undeserved wizardly wrath on their own domain.’

‘Do they know—?’ Zurenne looked uncertainly at Jilseth.

Did this Aldabreshin envoy know of Halferan’s involvement in the destruction of the corsairs’ isle?

‘Everyone in the Archipelago believes that the Archmage alone ordered the corsairs’ destruction,’ Jilseth said promptly, ‘in retaliation for their threats to attack the mainland with the mage-crafted artefacts which they had looted from the mainland. The use of such artefacts is, of course, anathema to the Aldabreshi.’

Kheda’s sardonic smile told Zurenne that he knew far more of the truth of the matter. ‘The Khusro wives know that Halferan has ties to wizardry. They wish to reaffirm the long-held belief among the Aldabreshi that having dealings with those who have dealings with wizards does not see magic’s contamination passing from hand to hand like some spotted fever. That principle has always underpinned our trade with the mainland. Without it?’ He shook his head. ‘There can be no renewal of trade with Relshaz.’

‘Is no one standing up for the wizards in Relshaz? The ones who have been attacked?’ Ilysh demanded, abruptly indignant.

Zurenne wondered why those wizards hadn’t defended themselves as ably as Jilseth had defended Halferan.

The magewoman sighed as she answered Ilysh. ‘The Archmage knows how easily retaliation or revenge will merely beget more violence. He has advised the mageborn to leave the city, for the time being.’

‘But you have come here with Madam Jilseth,’ Zurenne interrupted, looking at the man Kheda, ‘and you say that you’re Madam Velindre’s friend. Why have you involved yourself with wizardry when your people abominate it so? Why are you not deemed contaminated with magic and anathema yourself?’

Kheda leaned back in his chair, glancing at Jilseth. At her nod, he looked back at Zurenne.

‘I was born Daish Kheda in the southernmost reaches of the Archipelago. I was my father’s chosen heir and ruled as warlord with absolute power of life and death over all those born within my domain. Ultimate responsibility for their safety and well-being was my burden. A handful of years ago, my own islands and our neighbouring domains were attacked with wizardry—’ He held up a hand to silence Ilysh’s exclamation in unconsciously fatherly fashion.

‘Not magic from Hadrumal, nor by any mage from the mainland. There are lands half a season’s sailing beyond the western seas where the most savage wizardry lurks, born of dragons and those who worship them.

‘We could not withstand their attacks,’ he told Zurenne grimly. ‘Islands burned and innocents died, men, women and children, in their tens and hundreds. I sought out magic to defeat them. There are times when one can only fight fire with fire. That’s how I met Velindre. My exile from my home was the price which I must pay to secure my wives and children’s safety along with the lives and livelihoods of those whom I had been raised to rule and to serve. I am more than willing to make that trade.’

Zurenne saw the light of truth in his green eyes. She still suspected this was far from the whole truth.

‘I have seen more vile and destructive magic than you can ever imagine,’ Kheda assured her, grim faced. ‘Viciousness loosed on those who have done nothing to deserve such attack. Believe me, my lady, no matter how grievously your own lands and people may have suffered at the hands of that Mandarkin wizard, I have seen far worse.’

He leaned forward once again, looking across the table at Zurenne with frightening intensity.

‘I will do all that I can to restore peaceful relations between the mainland and the Archipelago, in order that Hadrumal has no reason to turn the wrath that destroyed the corsairs on any other warlord’s domain. More than that, I wish to keep Hadrumal in my debt, in case those savage mages who worship dragons beyond the western seas ever return. Then I will call on those wizards whom I trust to save my people, even if my fellow Aldabreshi would kill me for doing so.’

‘But what has this to do with Halferan?’ Zurenne persisted.

Jilseth hesitated before replying. ‘You know of the ensorcelled artefacts which the Mandarkin mage Anskal uncovered among the corsairs’ loot.’

‘Of course.’ Zurenne tried to shrug off the frightening memory of the repellent wizard’s appearance in the manor’s very hall, threatening her and Ilysh both if they didn’t hand over their bespelled pendants.

Kheda nodded grimly. ‘The Khusro wives are sorely distressed by the possibility that they may have such trinkets imbued with magic in their own strong rooms, unbeknownst to their lord. They seek to rid the Khusro domain of such perilous things as swiftly as they can, most especially under the current ominous stars. But they have no way of telling honest treasures from corrupt.’

Kusint broke his silence by the door with a muttered oath in the Forest tongue. Seeing Zurenne’s displeasure, he ducked his head in mute apology.

Zurenne narrowed her eyes at Jilseth. ‘What are you proposing?’

Now Hadrumal’s involvement made sense. The Archmage couldn’t possibly pass up an opportunity to get his hands on yet more of these magical treasures. Zurenne remembered what Corrain had told her of the assembled wizards’ avid interest in the Mandarkin’s discoveries, when he had been in Hadrumal watching the Archmage plan his attack on the corsairs.

‘Kheda has promised the Khusro wives that you are entirely trustworthy.’ Jilseth smiled confidingly. ‘Just as Velindre has promised Kheda that she has every confidence in your discretion.’

‘I’m honoured, I’m sure,’ Zurenne said with growing apprehension.

‘Kheda has assured the Khusro wives that you will deal honestly with them, if they bring their treasures here so that a mage such as myself can remove anything tainted by magic. No wizard can go to the Archipelago,’ Jilseth pointed out. ‘Magic and mageborn alike are forbidden there on pain of death.’

Besides, if this business is transacted here, Planir has every reason to believe that no one else will know of it, not mageborn or mainlander, Zurenne thought silently. This will be one more secret which I’m keeping to ensure that he keeps my beloved husband’s fatal folly hidden, as well as Corrain’s madness in bringing that Mandarkin mage to Halferan.

‘The Khusro wives would far rather deal with another woman who will neither seek to overrule them nor cheat them,’ Kheda added. ‘They know full well that the mainlanders have no true understanding of Aldabreshin custom and law. If this were any other domain, the warlord himself would doubtless deal with the mainland’s barons, man to man, in keeping with mainland practise.’ He shrugged. ‘But Khusro Rina is a recluse.’

Zurenne gave up trying to fathom the mysteries of Archipelagan thinking. Her attention had fastened on the most impossible aspect of Jilseth’s proposal.

‘The Khusro wives intend to bring their treasures here? They wish to come to Halferan?’

At her side, Ilysh gasped and over by the door, Kusint barely swallowed another Forest curse.

‘Coming here demonstrates their trust in you,’ Jilseth said quickly. ‘At the same time, their presence will safeguard such wealth being carried back and forth.’

‘They would be failing in their duty to Khusro domain to do otherwise,’ Kheda agreed.

‘So some great cavalcade of Archipelagan wagons and swordsmen would arrive at our gates?’

Zurenne didn’t want to imagine it. She could all too readily imagine Baron Karpis and his troopers and any number of other brigands waylaying such travellers on their journey across Caladhria. Not to mention panic-stricken yeomen and villagers attacking them with mattocks and scythes and any other tools they had to hand. After the travails of recent years, anyone with skin as brown as this man Kheda’s risked being cut down or strung up on sight.

‘When Halferan would be responsible for their safety and their strong boxes?’ She shook her head in absolute denial. ‘No. We will not countenance it.’

Jilseth and Kheda exchanged a long, calculating look.

Zurenne clenched her fists in her lap, hidden by the table top.

‘We realise that we are asking a great deal of you,’ Jilseth began carefully.

‘You know that the Archipelagans do not use gold and silver coin as you do?’ Kheda waited for Zurenne’s reluctant nod before he continued.

‘Instead we endeavour to trade something of equal value for goods or favours. The Khusro wives wish to offer you a service which they believe you will value sufficiently, to recompense you for this help which they seek.’

Once again, his intensity sent a shiver down Zurenne’s spine. ‘What could this offer possibly be?’

‘The corsairs enslaved many more of Halferan’s men than Captain Corrain and the boy Hosh.’ Kheda looked steadily at her. ‘The Khusro wives have been trading across the Archipelago to find them, or at least, to discover their fates. Help them rid their domain of these magically tainted treasures and they will restore those of your men who still live and offer what news they can find, to console the families of the ones who have died.’

‘Oh!’ Ilysh pressed shocked hands to her ashen cheeks.

Kusint was halfway across the room in three long strides.

Zurenne turned a searing look on Jilseth. Before she could utter the accusations boiling up in her throat, a devastating crash deafened them all.

Doratine stood in the antechamber doorway. A tray lay at her feet amid shining splinters of glass and the glazed shards of the manor’s finest plates. Hot water puddled on the floorboards and steam rose from the cook’s splashed apron, smudged with tisane herbs strewn far and wide. Pastries rich with precious honey and hoarded fruit were rolled across the floor.

If her ankles had been scalded, Doratine gave no sign of it. She was staring at Zurenne. ‘Oh, my lady,’ she gasped before looking down at the catastrophe around her feet. ‘Oh, Saedrin save us!’

Before Zurenne could say anything to stop her, before Kusint could retrace his steps, Doratine had fled.

Now Zurenne pressed her hands to her face, eyes tight closed as Neeny’s denying a nightmare. But here could be no denying what had just happened.

There could be no doubt that the cook had heard the Archipelagan’s offer. Now there could be no possibility of Zurenne denying these Khusro wives the help which they asked for, once Doratine’s news had spread around the manor, the village and the demesne beyond.

She opened her eyes and looked at Jilseth. She fought to look at the magewoman without trembling, stiff-backed as the chair she sat upon.

‘I will require Baron Halferan’s permission before I can agree to any such thing. I must speak to him, as you promised, through one of your fellow mages in Col.’

‘Of course,’ Jilseth assured her. ‘As soon as he has arrived in the city and made himself known to my colleague.’

Zurenne nodded. Truth be told, she quaked at the thought of telling Corrain what the Archipelagan had just asked of Halferan.

Another suspicion chilled her. Was this why Planir had insisted that Corrain and no other must accompany Hosh to Col? To get him away from Halferan before this Aldabreshin Kheda arrived to make this offer which gave her no choice at all? Was this more of Planir’s connivance?

She looked searchingly at Jilseth. When had a mage ever come to Halferan without some hidden purpose, serving the wizard isle’s interests first and foremost?

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