Sensing my distress, Gamelan stroked his beard, looking wise. 'Give me the shell, Captain,' he said.
I handed it to him and the men stood in respectful silence as the old wizard turned it this way and that. He gave it back to me.
'Put it to your ear, Captain Antero,' he said, 'and
listen.''
I covered my puzzlement, and - wishing all the while I had a beard to stroke so I could at least look as if I knew what I was doing -
I
put the shell to my ear. I only heard the familiar sea noises we all hear
from the first time we try this trick as children.
'I didn't know fish talked,' I heard Pillow Nose's skinny friend say in some awe.
I wanted very badly to reply: Neither did I, brother, Neither did I. Then I remembered one of Gamelan's first lessons on spell-casting.
'I can't teach you all the spells in so short a time,' he'd said. 'The best ones fill many volumes on many shelves. Instead, I'll tell you what the young wizards - the followers of the late Janos Greycloak - advise. They claim that the words used to form a spell are not important. That they only serve to focus your energies. And I must admit there is truth to what they say. At my great age, I couldn't swear that the words I say are memorized spells, or created by me on the spot. They just come to me when I need them.'
'That's no help to the likes of me,' I replied. 'Words are your profession, wizard. Not mine.'
'If you listen closely, Rali,' he said, 'the words you require will come.'
'Listen?' I asked. 'Listen to whom?' 'To yourself, my friend. To yourself.'
So I held the shell to my ear, and listened. At first there were only the sea noises, and the slow hammer of my heart. Then a chill fingered my spine as I heard a voice. It came from within. Words rose like hot ash and I opened my lips and let them spew out:
Sand and spume,
Rock and Sea flower;
I bear my shield
As I bear my home:
In the tidal bower
Wh
ere the sun last touches.
I raised my head to see the sun's position. I pointed. 'There,' I said. 'Just beyond those rocks, you'll find a small beach, and just off it, the place where our briny cousins make their homes.'
There was no doubt in the men's minds as they cheered, grabbed the water casks and trooped off in the direction I pointed. Gamelan and I followed. Sure enough, there was a beach and tidal pool with
hundreds of shellfish. I bade the men to call the others, and soon the beach was crowded with hungry men and women, scooping, scraping and netting until the whole shore was covered with food.
Someone started a big driftwood fire and heaped it with seaweed. Clams and mussels and conches and even a few score crabs were tossed onto the weed and the delicious steaming smell made our cares seem small.
Gamelan tapped his way to me. I thought he was going to congratulate me on my spell-casting. Instead he tugged at my sleeve and said: 'Tonight, Rali. You must speak to them tonight. There may not be a better time.'
And so that night I gave my maiden performance as an Evocator.
I ordered the crew and my Guardswomen to gather at the place where I'd found the conch shell. The site was Gamelan's idea, saying the atmosphere of steaming pools and bubbling geyser would help make the audience vulnerable.
It was a sullen group that gathered before me. The high spirits I'd invoked with my conjuring had been short-lived. The food I'd found had only been enough for that one meal - the tide pools had been scraped clean. There would be nothing to carry away from the island except the foul-tasting water. Cholla Yi had been opposed to the ceremony, saying there was
little
to cheer about and it would only make his crew angry. But Gamelan quelled him by asking, quite sternly, was he refusing to honour the gods?
I stood on a large boulder next to the geyser so all could see. Gamelan was at my side to coax me and whisper directions if I should need them. I quickly cast the spell he'd taught that magnified my voice, then I began. I opened with a short, and highly dramatic account of our adventures thus far, stressing our accomplishments. I spoke of our defeat of Lycanth, and our holy mission to hunt down the escaped Archon. I praised them for the heroism they'd shown in the sea battle, which had ended in the defeat of our dark enemy. Finally, I talked of the great gift the gods had bestowed upon us by allowing us to escape the terrible upheaval of the sea. Some of the men grew angry, shouting that it was no blessing, but bad luck. Ill luck, they said, that was my fault for bringing the curse of the Archon upon them.
'How dare you offend the gods so?' I thundered. My voice echoed and resounded against the rocks, startling even me. 'You are alive, aren't you? Is not that fact alone gift enough? And as for lost, why that
is a temporary condition. We have all been given the chance of a lifetime by the great god of seekers everywhere - Te-Date! Do you dare question our mighty Lord?'
Fear of blasphemy silenced them. I went on: 'No one in all our history has sailed these seas,' I said. 'For countless generations our people have wondered what mysteries and riches awaited in the vast regions beyond the western edges of our world. You all know my brother, Amalric Antero, along with the mighty and wise Janos Greycloak, unravelled the secrets of the east by finding the legendary Far Kingdoms. Many adventurers have wept since that time, crying there was nothing new to be discovered. Well, here is your chance, oh, my brothers and my sisters. Here is the opportunity of a hundred lifetimes. What we learn here shall be carried back to our hearths and homes. Our names will be written on the Stones of Greatness for all to see and marvel over in the eons to come. And others will weep, my friends. Weep in helpless jealousy that they were not here to share our great adventure!'
I saw smiles and heard cheery mutterings for the first time in many a mournful day. And now that I'd hooked them, as Gamelan said, it was time to gaff them into the creel.
Calling on Te-Date and Maranonia, I commenced the show the wizard and I had planned. I threw a small pouch on the ground, causing a loud explosion to erupt. My audience gasped in wonder as colourful smoke swirled. I tossed small mirrors into the smoke and they burst upward, shattering into more pieces than there were stars in the night sky. Another explosion, and they shattered again, then rained
gently
down, glittering with colour, then melting into small droplets as they touched any surface, creating the most wonderful perfume. Then I performed the ribbon trick, and this time there was no fumbling or twine-making. Ribbons red and green and gold shot out from my fingers, wove themselves into filmy veils that caught the wind and swirled all around us like magical kites.
Gamelan and I had decided the next trick would be an even greater blast than the first, causing an enormous pillar of red smoke to rise up. Then I would call upon the gods to bless us in our adventures, and to stay by our sides until they came to a happy and fruitful end. I took out the pouch of ingredients I'd mixed at the wizard's direction. It was fatter so as to make a larger display. But as I was about to hurl it down, something stopped me. I felt a ghost-like hand on my arm nudging me
to turn. When I saw the bubbling geyser a voice whispered in my ear, directing me. I threw the pouch into the steaming pool.
Instead of an explosion, a horn larger and louder than any mortal has ever seen trumpeted. The geyser shot up twice a tall woman's height and whirled like a desert dervish. It was a cacophony of vivid colours. Other music joined the trumpet, drums and strings and pipes all blended into a wondrous sound. The pools surrounding the geyser burst up like their mother, whirling about in wild dance to the tune of the ghosdy players.
As quickly as they'd erupted, they fell and became calm pools of blue. I looked and saw the geyser had taken on a similar hue, except it reflected our forms as well as any palace mirror. The music stopped. Not even a hiss from the geyser marred the perfect silence.
A voice welled up in me. And this, I swear on my mother's ghost, was a voice that was not directed by me, or any wizardry tricks. I listened, as if I were another as the words boomed from my lips. 'Oh, great Te-Date. Protector of the wanderer. Lord of horizons yet breached, all mysteries yet revealed. Grant us this boon. Whither do we sail, oh Lord? In which direction is our destiny, our weird?'
The whirling geyser took solid form, and a vision appeared on its mirrored surface. It was our fleet sailing across smooth seas. At its lead was my ship, the flag of Maranonia fluttering in the breeze. And we were sailing west, chasing the setting sun.
The vision vanished and the geyser collapsed into a hissing pool.
I turned back to my audience, overflowing with joy. I spoke again, except this time the words were my own.
'There is our answer, my friends. Te-Date has pointed the way home. We sail west! And praise be Te-Date, we will be lost no more!'
Cheering erupted. The rocky glen echoed with their cries. Some laughed and pounded the backs of their fellows. Others were so overcome they wept.
But as for me a great weariness shook my knees. I collapsed on the rock and all was blackness.
When I awoke, I was aboard the ship and we were at full sail, skimming across the seas under a brisk wind. I was in Gamelan's small cabin, and when I opened my eyes he was dusting my brow with a cloth dipped in a sweet-smelling healing powder.
He smiled when he sensed my eyes fluttering open. 'Ah, you are with us again, my friend,' he said. 'How do you feel?'
I started to rise, but my limbs were so weak I gave it up. 'I feel like I just lost three falls out of three,' I said. 'But that's to be expected, I suppose. Being new to the conjuring arts, and all. A few more hours' rest will put me right.'
'I should hope so,' the wizard chortled. 'You've already slept for nearly a week.'
Stunned, I groaned up to a sitting position. 'A week? How could you let me stay here so long? By Te-Date, there's things to do. Plans to be laid. Training to—'
Gamelan's continuing laughter made me cut short my babbling. 'They just don't make Evocators like they used to,' he said. 'Why, in my youth we acolytes were expected to preside over a Blessing before breakfast, and heal half a hundred before the bell rang us to tenth-hour abasements.'
'Stuff a batskin muff in it, wizard,' I growled.
Gamelan turned serious. 'I must admit you frightened me with your extemporaneous bit of future-casting. Calling on oracles can be quite dangerous, especially for an ignorant beginner.'
I shrugged. 'It worked, didn't it? The gods were kind enough to point our way home. We sail west, to find Orissa.'
Gamelan shook his head. 'Not necessarily,' he said.
'Listen here,' I said, a little hot. 'The vision clearly showed us sailing west.'
'Obviously, I couldn't see the vision you conjured up,' Gamelan answered. 'But although I'm blind, my hearing is quite sound, thank you very much. And I clearly
heard
you ask in which direction our
destinies
lay. You said nothing at all about finding Orissa. In fact, I know of no spell that would accomplish such a thing. If there were, I would have had you conjuring up a map or two long ago.'
In a weaker voice I asked: 'Then west is not the way home?'
'Who can say?' Gamelan answered. 'Perhaps our fates and our wishes coincide. Perhaps by sailing west - which we know, broadly speaking, is the opposite direction from Orissa - we'll meet someone who knows the way. Or, perhaps we'll encounter some swift current, or passage, that will carry us home.'
'Then I accomplished nothing,' I said, feeling a total dolt and failure.
'Oh, but that is certainly not so,' Gamelan protested. 'The others made the same mistake you did. Or, at least believed your interpretation of the vision. Everyone is convinced you showed them the way. No sooner had I ordered you carried back to my cabin, than your legates gathered with Cholla Yi and his officers and it was decided to strike west at once.'
Hastily, I rose up from the bunk. They'd stripped me when they'd put me to bed and I was wearing nothing but a frown. 'Where are my clothes?' I demanded. 'I must stop the fleet at once! We could very well be going the wrong way!'
Gamelan grabbed my arm and pulled me back. 'Don't be foolish,' he hissed. 'You have succeeded more than we could have ever dreamed. The fleet is overflowing with confidence, a commodity in short supply these last days. You've put steel in their spines, Rali, and hope in their hearts.'
'But, it's a lie!' I protested.
'Only you and I know that,' the wizard said. 'And perhaps it isn't a lie after all. Only the gods know the course we're set on. It may end happily. One thing I know for certain, if you tell them the truth they'll hate you for it. Things will be even worse than before. And if that should happen, there's no chance at all that we'll ever find our way home again.'
I sank back on the bunk, pulling a blanket about me, for I suddenly felt very cold. 'What should I do?' I moaned.
'Do nothing,' Gamelan said. 'Just keep a smile on your lips and if asked, lie again. And keep on lying. If fortune blesses us, the lie may yet meet the truth.'