‘Well, if you check the charts, you’ll—’ He glanced at the boy, searching the shadows of his coat. ‘Where are the charts I gave you?’
‘Likely down in the hold below. I memorised them last night.’
‘You memorised sixty sea charts in the span of a few hours.’
‘Wizard.’ The boy tapped his temple. ‘If I can figure out how to turn a man into a puddle of liquid entrails, I can assuredly memorise a few crude drawings of an ocean.’ He smirked again. ‘Though I did enjoy the pictures of compasses and sea monsters on the charts. Your handiwork, Captain?’
‘Sebast’s.’ Argaol sighed. ‘Look, the Lord Emissary insists on you having the charts and I’m not one to deny him. I’ve been all over the sea and—’
‘You have,’ Dreadaeleon interrupted, ‘and that’s why you’re overseeing thirty-odd unwashed, hairy men in various states of greasiness and undress and I’m about to—’
‘Get your head eaten by a demon,’ Argaol finished.
Dreadaeleon’s grin vanished. ‘Quite.’
‘At any rate, Teji is the only island that possesses a desirable combination of attributes,’ Argaol continued. ‘In addition to being relatively close to Ktamgi and friendly to merchants, it’s also as close as one can possibly get to the more northern islands before entering Akaneed territory.’ He grimaced. ‘I’ll not send even you into those waters during breeding season.’
Lenk almost hesitated to ask; no creature that he knew of was ever particularly desirable company during any kind of breeding season. Kataria, however, asked for him.
‘What . . . is an Akaneed?’
‘Well, it’s like a giant, angry—’ He paused, smacking his lips. ‘You know, I shouldn’t even encourage you. If you stick to the plan and head for Ktamgi, then Teji, you won’t even encounter one, so there’s no sense in telling you what one looks like.’ He coughed, lowering his voice. ‘Not like you could do much against one, anyway.’
‘What?’
‘Nothing,’ he replied. ‘Any questions?’
‘What did you just say a moment ago?’
‘Any other questions?’
‘It occurs to me, Captain,’ Dreadaeleon mused, ‘that there are a dozen or so Reaching Isles, most of them likely possessing these white sands you speak of. If we get lost, how are we to know we’ve arrived on the right one?’
‘Decent point.’ Argaol cast a sideways glance at Kataria. ‘Ktamgi is the furthest Reach, so you’ll be looking for sands that are just a shade less white than her.’ He cleared his throat before she could respond. ‘Anything else?’
‘There yet remains,’ a voice spoke, slow and methodical, ‘one point of business.’
All other sounds were penitent before the voice of Miron Evenhands: gulls going silent, men pausing to swiftly look up before bowing their heads, and the great waves dying to a quiet, respectful murmur as the priest emerged from the companionway.
The wind, however, did not abate. As he strode towards the companions, his sleeves and cowl billowed behind him, white wings, stark and pure against the dawning gloom. His eyes glimmered like fading stars, his smile as easy and familiar as the sun.
It struck Lenk as only a brief, fleeting moth of a thought, but the Lord Emissary looked as though he hadn’t even been present for the carnage the previous day.
‘I would hope you aren’t planning to send my humble agents out before I can offer the proper benedictions, Captain,’ Miron said, reaching them. He appeared to be even taller today, threatening to challenge Gariath’s own impressive height.
‘I’m not one for lying to priests, Lord Emissary,’ Argaol replied, ‘so I’ll not tell you I was hoping to be rid of them as soon as possible, no.’
Miron ignored that, instead surveying the assembled with his unflinching gaze.
‘I hope the significance of this excursion has been impressed upon you all,’ he spoke softly, ‘not merely for the consequences that are to come from the Abysmyth’s holding of the tome, but also for those brave souls who have assembled here to pursue the beast.
‘Whether they worship Talanas,’ he glanced to Asper, ‘Silf,’ to Denaos, ‘the flow of magic itself,’ to Dreadaeleon, ‘Gods I’ve no wish to disrespect by uttering their names improperly,’ to Kataria, ‘forces beyond our own comprehension, ’ to a smugly smiling Gariath, ‘or . . .’
He hesitated, blinking for the first time at Lenk. The young man blinked back, coughing.
‘Khetashe,’ he said. ‘The Wanderer.’
‘Oh.’ Miron bit his lower lip. ‘Really?’ He waved a hand, dismissing further conversation. ‘Regardless, a most momentous journey is about to be undertaken. For never before have so many gathered under a common cause since the House was first founded. And I hope—’
The Lord Emissary’s voice died for Lenk, fading into such pious rhetoric as could only be spoken by someone not about to be off to be killed. He was jerked aside by a dark hand, pulled away from the circle towards the railing and turned to face Argaol, the captain’s face grim.
‘Listen,’ he muttered, ‘you know I’m no blasphemer.’
‘Uh . . . yeah?’
‘As well you know I’m none too fond of you.’
‘Oh . . . yes.’
‘But I’d be no man of Zamanthras if I sent you off without encouraging you to a wiser course of action.’ He pointed down to the bobbing companion craft below. ‘I’m going to have the boys plant the sea charts in your cargo. There are a few islands safer than Ktamgi that you can land on out there.’
‘But Ktamgi is where—’
‘Don’t think I’m an idiot, boy, I know damn well what lies on Ktamgi.’ He sighed, resting a hand on the young man’s shoulder. ‘That’s entirely my point. There’s nothing to say you can’t just find a decent place to squat and wait out the six days before heading for Teji. Avoid the demon entirely, forget the tome and preserve your life.’
‘That’s a bit sentimental for a man who’s wished me dead before.’ Lenk quirked a brow.
‘And if you manage to die of your own idiocy, the world won’t miss one or six adventurers,’ Argaol replied. ‘But . . .’ He paused, clenching his teeth. ‘I didn’t sleep last night. I kept seeing Mossud in my mind, over and over, I kept seeing what became of him.’ His eyes were red-rimmed, heavy. ‘I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, much less one who has, I’ll admit, helped me in the past. We might have been sunk if not for you and your boys yesterday.’
Lenk was at odds with himself; his first instinct was to shove the captain’s hand away, to launch some smarmy retort and walk away strengthened by the power of the last word. His second instinct was to nod, thank the captain for his advice and discreetly pursue that course of action later.
He settled for the third and least satisfying instinct.
‘I don’t have a lot of options here, Captain,’ he said softly, so as not to be heard by his companions nearby. ‘I don’t have any shipping business, any farm, any shop or anything even resembling a decent life to go to if I don’t get paid from this.’
‘No amount of gold can be worth dying like Mossud did.’
‘It’s not the gold,’ Lenk spoke with a swiftness that surprised himself, ‘not just the gold, anyway. It’s also . . . the demon. I have . . . I have to go and find it. I have to kill it.’
‘You’re skirting dangerous thoughts there, boy.’ The captain grimaced. ‘You can just tell me without soiling yourself that you’re going to chase after this demon for the fun of it?’
Lenk opened his mouth to reply, but nothing even remotely less insane came to mind. Instead, he sighed, rolled his shoulders and offered a half-smile to the captain. Argaol, in response, stared for a brief, horrified moment.
‘I’ll only say it once more because I suspect you’ll change your mind when the truth of your situation sinks in, boy,’ he hissed. ‘When you see white, you turn the other way . . . quickly.’
Not sparing another moment for a conversation that was clearly already quite deranged, Argaol spun on his heel and stalked off towards his sailors.
‘What was that about?’
The young man did not start at the voice; he had felt her eyes on him since Argaol had dragged him off.
‘Well-wishing,’ he replied without turning.
‘Don’t insult me any further,’ Kataria growled.
‘You’re right, I’m sorry.’ Lenk sighed, his head drooping. ‘Argaol just had a few last words to spare me.’ He glanced up; Kataria was already at his side, staring out at the horizon. He followed her gaze. ‘Can you really see Ktamgi?’
‘Slightly.’ Her pupils dilated swiftly, encompassing her eyes for a moment as she sought out the island. ‘It’s distant, though. It’ll take a few days to get there in this wind.’
‘We’ve got our own wind.’
‘Mm.’
They stood for a moment. Lenk couldn’t help but notice as the breeze kicked up, sending the shict’s feathers playing about her face, caressing her skin with the locks of gold that whipped in the breeze. He clenched his teeth, making the same expression he did when he had once pulled an arrow out of his thigh.
‘Kat, let me—’