Troy Denning
The Veiled Dragon

One

Ruha released the taffrail and clambered down the listing deck, half sliding over the wet planks to where

Far across the surging dunes of moonlit sea, the dark wyrm wheeled and, with a deftness surer than any desert falcon, struck again at the dis- tant and battered caravel. The serpent caught the topyard in its ebony claws and snapped the thick timbers like twigs; the topsail tore free and away it flew, a gift to the wailing salt winds. From the caravel's distant decks rose a flurry of tiny splinters, arrows and spears hurled by men who looked like insects beneath the belly of the monster. The black shafts struck its thick scales and bounced away without causing harm. The beast swooped low over the stern, spun upon its leathery wing, and returned at once to the vessel. Its talons tore into the wooden hull as the claws of a lion tear into the flanks of a camel.

A great dune of wind-driven sea rose up before Ruha robbing her eyes of the faraway caravel and the night- black dragon. She locked her arms around the starboard taffrail of her own vessel, a forty-foot cog hired out of

Lormyr, and watched the black waters gather like a mountain beside the ship. The dune crashed down, and the froth roared over the wales and swirled about her waist, sweeping her feet from beneath her hips. Ruha hugged the rail as though it were a husband. The torrent raged on, and each second seemed a minute. The angry sea dragged at her long aba like a ravisher determined to disrobe her, and churning tears of foam beat at her face, soaking her veil and her shawl with cold briny water. Her arms trembled with the strain of holding fast.

At last, the cog heeled to the wind and rose on the heaving sea. The fierce waters rolled across the deck and poured overboard, carrying with them all the torrent's rage, and Ruha's smooth-soled sandals found purchase on the wet planks. She stood and looked toward the dis- tant caravel and saw neither dragon nor ship, only the splintered tip of a mainmast swaying above the crest of a faraway dune of water.

Captain Fowler stood at the rear of the ship. He was as much ore as human, with a jutting brow, swinish snout, and tough, grayish-green skin, and he seemed a strange sort of commander to the eyes of a Bedine witch not long absent from Anauroch's burning sands. He hugged the tiller with one burly arm, and his gray eyes never strayed from the ship's single bulging sail.

Ruha grabbed the binnacle, the wooden compass stand before the tiller, and asked, "Captain Fowler, why do you sail in the wrong direction?" She pointed over the star- board side. "Do you not see the dragon? Over there!"

"Lady Witch, I know the beast's bearings well enough."

Though his voice was deep and gravelly, the captain spoke with a deliberate composure that belied his feral aspect. "But even I cannot sail Storm Sprite full into the wind. We must beat our way."

Ruha had learned a little of the strange speech used by the men who lived upon the water, enough to know

Fowler meant they had to follow a zigzag course to their goal, and she did not need the captain to explain why.

Even a woman who had not set eyes on a ship until three days ago could see that the Storm Sprite could not sail directly against the wind. But she could also see that

Captain Fowler placed a high value on his vessel, and he was certainly shrewd enough to make a great show of rushing to the caravel's aid while sailing at angles shal- low enough to ensure he arrived after the battle was done.

Ruha glanced over the starboard side and saw the car- avel topping the moonlit crest of a rolling sea dune. High upon its poop deck sat the dragon, swatting at the far- away vessel's indiscernible crew as a man slaps at sting- ing flies.

"Captain Fowler, we have no time for this sailing of a snake's path! By the time we reach the ship, we shall find nothing but dead men."

"What would you have me do, Witch?" Fowler demanded. "I cannot change the way the wind blows!"

"And if you could turn the wind, would you have it blow straight at the caravel?"

The captain scowled, suspicious. "Aye, but first I would call Umberlee up from the great depths and have her chain her pet."

"That I cannot do. I know nothing of this Umberlee."

Ruha released the binnacle and cupped her hands together. She blew upon her fingers and spoke the mysti- cal incantation of a wind enchantment. Her breath shim- mered with a pale sapphire glow, then it swirled in her palms, emitting a low, keening howl such as starving jackals make at night. From Captain Fowler's throat arose a gasp of surprise, and his gaze swung from his ship's flaxen sail to the whistling breeze she held in her grasp.

"Lady Witch, what have you there?"

"It is the wind, Captain Fowler." Twinkling blue streamers spilled from Ruha's hands and spun across the gloomy deck, each adding its own piercing note to the wailing of the gale. "I am determined to reach that ship before the dragon sinks it."

"That I can see, but it is no simple thing to bring a ship like Storm Sprite around. It takes time."

"The dragon will give you no time!"

Ruha raised her hands toward the distant caravel, which now lay hidden behind another black and looming water dune.

"Hold your magic, Lady Witch!" commanded the cap- tain. "You may have hired this ship, but I am the-"

The dune broke over the starboard side, and a torrent of white foam came boiling down the deck. Ruha flung her spell at the distant caravel and saw a dazzling stream of blue-sparkling wind shoot from the side of her own vessel. She threw her arms around the binnacle, and the dark waters were upon her. The raging currents swept her feet from beneath her. Had her elbows not been tightly wrapped around the slippery wood, surely she would have tumbled overboard and drowned in the angry black sea. Instead, she locked her fingers into the cloth of her aba and held fast, and when the torrent had receded, she pulled herself to her feet.

A few yards off the starboard side hung Ruha's spell, a glittering wedge of blue air that constantly whirled back on itself, yet steadily drove forth into the fierce night wind. As this wedge moved forward, its fan-shaped tail broadened and stretched back toward the Storm Sprite, until it engulfed the whole of the small cog. A fog of cold indigo vapor spread over the decks, causing the crew to give many shouts of alarm and promise offerings of trea- sure to Umberlee, and eddies of sapphire wind sprang to life atop the taffrail. Azure drafts raced along the wales and undulated through the ratlines, and pale glowing breezes twined their way up the mast to spread along the yardarms.

Then a magnificent flapping arose in the sail. The night wind spilled from its belly, pouring a cascade of swirling turquoise zephyrs down upon the crew, and the small cog slowed. The sailors wailed in fear, tossing many rings and earrings overboard to win the favor of their avaricious sea goddess.

"You wretched witch!" Fowler held the tiller at the length of his arm, and his gray eyes were staring in horror at the pale breeze spiraling along the lacquered sur- face. If it troubled the captain to have the scintillating currents swirling over his green skin also, he showed no sign of it. "What have you done to my ship?"

"I have done nothing to harm her." Beyond the star- board taffrail, Ruha's wind spell had stretched to twice the Storm Sprite's length. The glowing breezes had lost much of their sparkle and swirl, and they were beginning to look like a flight of spears aimed straight across the churning sea. "Perhaps you should change course, Cap- tain Fowler. The wind is about to shift."

Fowler glanced at the shining wind spell, then looked at the great water dune gathering off his ship's starboard side. "I hope you haven't capsized us!"

Ruha met his glower evenly. "And I hope you are done with your stalling, Captain Fowler."

Fowler's face darkened to stormy purple. He looked forward, and his voice boomed over the main deck like a thunderclap. "Ready about!"

Terrified though the Storm Sprite's crew might have been, the command sent every man lurching through the froth to form lines at the braces. So marvelous was their skill and balance that not one sailor lost his footing, though the raging sea would have hurled Ruha over- board in an instant. By the time the last man had taken his place, the final glimmers of blue light were fading from the rigging. The wind bent to the witch's magic and swirled around to blow against the gale. The sail filled from the opposite side, and the Storm Sprite heeled far- ther into the dune and began to climb its face. The tor- rents of water pouring over her decks grew even greater.

"Loose the braces!" Fowler bellowed.

The crew freed the heavy lines that controlled the angle of the yardarms, leaving the sail to swing free and flap in the wind. The ship righted itself and slowed as it had earlier, but the starboard wales finally rose out of the water, and the sea drained off the decks. The captain gave no further commands and did not take his eyes from the dune's moonlit crest. Ruha saw his lips moving in silence, and she wondered whether he was cursing her magic or offering some bribe to the faithless Queen of the

Sea. The Storm Sprite drifted to a full stop, then heeled away from the heaving sea. It slipped sideways down the face of the great water dune, and Ruha thought they would capsize.

"Haul the braces!" Fowler commanded.

The crew hauled on the thick lines that trailed down from the yardarms, bringing the sail around to catch the wind. The flaxen sheet ceased its flapping, then bulged outward and snapped taut. The sailors grunted, strain- ing to hold the braces steady, and several were pulled off their feet and left to dangle above the deck. The ship rolled back toward the dune, and the dark waters boiled over the decks, flinging strings of men about like beads on a thread. Somehow the crew held the yardarms in position, and the Storm Sprite lurched forward again.

The taffrail rose above the crest of the dune. In the moonlight, Ruha glimpsed the distant caravel, the dragon still standing on the poop deck. The beast had ripped the mizzemnast from its step and was using it like a spear to jab at its foes, almost too tiny to see, upon the main deck. The witch thought it strange that the wyrm fought with a makeshift weapon instead of spraying its enemies with fire or acid, but perhaps the creature feared sinking the vessel and losing its treasure.

The Storm Sprite's bow cleared the top of the dune, and Captain Fowler shoved the tiller to one side. The ship's bow swung neatly over the crest, and the sail sput- tered as it lost the wind.

"Fill the sail!"

The command had barely escaped Fowler's lips before the yardarms swung around. Once more, the sail caught the wind. The Storm Sprite lunged forward and slipped down the back of the dune so swiftly that it reached the bottom trough before the captain could give his next com- mand. The prow slammed into the next rolling dune, and the ship groaned as though her spine would break. A wall of water roared over the forecastle and rolled down the decks to splash against the somercastle, then the bow pitched up and the flood drained overboard, carrying with it two screaming men.

Ruha cried out in alarm. Captain Fowler let out a long breath and fondly patted the Storm Sprite's tiller.

"That's a fine girl." The half-ore made no remark upon the loss of his crewmen, but looked forward and, in a calm voice, ordered, "Fasten the braces."

The crew tugged at the brace lines until the last flutter disappeared from the sail and, with the Storm Sprite rushing madly up the face of the heaving water dune, secured the lines to the belaying pins. The little cog crested the top and raced down the other side, then sped, pitching and crashing, toward the distant caravel. The sailors busied themselves with clearing away the great tangle of lines scattered over the decks, coiling the loose ends and hanging them in their proper places, and paid no heed to the misfortune of their two lost fellows.

"Captain Fowler, what of your lost men? Is there noth- ing you can do for them?"

The half-ore shrugged and did not look at Ruha. "Even if we could find them, I would not turn back." His voice was sharp with restrained anger. "They're the price

Umberlee demanded for letting us come about, and she'd look harshly upon me^f I tried to bring them back."

Ruha felt a terrible emptiness in her stomach, feeling her spell had brought the Storm Sprite around too sud- denly and caused their loss. "Then I am sorry for their deaths."

"For their deaths?" Fowler snapped. "And what of

Storm Sprite? She could have lost the rudder or snapped a yardarm!"

"You care more for boards and cloth than for men's lives?"

The captain's jutting brow rose, and his flat nose twitched uncomfortably. He squared his shoulders and looked forward and did not speak. The crew had finished the tidying of the lines and now stood in the center of the ship, clinging to whatever they could find to keep from being swept away by the cataracts that boiled down the decks each time the bow crashed into another water dune.

When Fowler finally spoke, his gravelly voice was again deliberate and composed. "I doubt the world's going to miss those two. They were cutpurses and mur- derers both, and if Umberlee doesn't take them for her own, I pity the shore they wash up on." The captain peered at Ruha from the corner of his narrow eye, then added, "But I warn you, Storm Sprite is mine. Hiring her does not give you leave to disregard my commands. While a ship is at sea, the captain is lord and master, and those who cross him are filthy mutineers. I could sail into Pros with your rotten carcass hanging from my yardarms, and your friends would not question your punishment."

Ruha had reason to be glad she still hid her face behind the modest veil other people, for it would do much to conceal her shock. The Harpers had paid a steep price for her passage, which, having observed the effect of gold on people in the Heartlands, she had expected to make her master of the ship. She considered challenging

Fowler's claim, but saw by his composure and firm man- ner that he was speaking the truth. Not for the first time, the witch cursed her ignorance of the strange customs in this part of the world and wondered if she would ever learn them all.

The Storm Sprite crested another dune, and Ruha saw they had closed half the distance to the ravaging dragon.

The dark wyrm stood upon the caravel's main deck, fac- ing sternward and digging through the somercastle like a pangolin after termites. The wings upon its back were flapping fiercely, knocking aside the cloud of arrows and spears assailing it from behind. The vessel itself had begun to list, but the bow continued to slice neatly through the heaving sea, giving Ruha hope that the ship would survive until they arrived to help. Yet Captain

Fowler had not ordered his men to take up arms. Even with a magic wind driving his vessel to the rescue, the half-ore still did not mean to give battle.

The Storm Sprite pitched downward, and Ruha lost sight of the battle. "Captain Fowler, I did not mean to challenge your authority," she said. "I was told that you are a Harper friend and, despite your mixed blood, a man of honor. I can see now that my informant was mistaken."

The half-ore's face grew tight. "I have as much honor as any human captain!" he snapped. "And would I have

Storm Silverhand's name upon my ship if I were not a friend of the Harpers?"

Ruha shrugged. "I know only what my eyes show me-and I can see that you have not called your men to arms.

You have no intention of aiding that ship."

"You'd do well to worry less about my intentions and think of your assignment. The Harpers are not given to hiring private ships unless the matter is urgent. Do you think Lady Silverhand would want you to risk your mis- sion over a fight that's none of your concern?"

"Storm Silverhand is not here."

The witch's reply was evasive because she did not know the answer to Captain Fowler's question. Storm Silverhand had told her only that she was to sail to the port village of Pros, where an important Harper named Vaerana Hawklyn would be waiting to take her to the city ofElversult. Presumably, Vaerana would explain Ruha's assignment, but even that was not certain.

Ruha looked toward the distant caravel. "I do know one thing: neither Storm Silverhand, nor any other

Harper, would turn a blind eye on so many people in such terrible danger. If you are truly her friend, you know this as well."

The sea was piled high before the Storm Sprite, block- ing all sight of the caravel and its attacker, but Captain

Fowler's gray eyes looked toward the unseen battle and lingered there many moments.

"It will go better for us, and them, if we arrive after the battle," he said. "If that dragon sends the Storm Sprite to lie in Umberlee's cold palace, we'll be of no use to the sur- vivors-or to those waiting in Pros."

Ruha laid a reassuring hand on the half-ore's hairy arm. "Captain Fowler, you may tell your men to arm themselves. I will not let the dragon sink your ship."

"Lady Witch, sea battles are wild things." The cap- tain's tone was overly patient, as though he were speak- ing to a little girl instead of a desert-hardened witch.

"Even with your magic, you might find you can't keep such a promise."

"Captain Fowler, I have fought more battles than you know. It is true that I have not won them all, but never have I abandoned someone else out of fear for myself."

These last words Ruha spoke with particular venom, for she was offended by Fowler's condescension. "But if you truly value your ship above other men's lives, the Harpers will guarantee my promise. If the dragon sinks the Storm

Sprite, we will buy you another."

Fowler's face hardened. "And why are you so keen to fight the drake, Witch? Do you think to redeem yourself for the Voonlar debacle?"

Ruha felt her cheeks redden, and her anger evaporated like water spilled upon the desert floor. "At least I know why you lack faith in me."

The Voonlar debacle had been Ruha's first assignment.

Storm Silverhand had sent her to work in a Voonlar tav- ern, where she was to serve as a secret intermediary and messenger. On her first day, a slave smuggler had crossed her palm with a silver coin. Ruha, failing to understand the significance of the gesture, had accepted the offering with thanks, then balked at delivering the expected ser- vices. Feeling slighted, the furious slaver had refused to accept the coin's return and drawn his dagger. He would certainly have killed the witch if one of his own men, a Harper spy, had not leapt to her defense. As it was, she and the spy had been forced to fight their way to safety, leaving the smuggler free to sell a hundred men, women, and children into bondage.

"I am sorry for the misery I caused the slaves of Voon- lar. Not a night passes when my nightmares do not ring with their cries." Ruha raised her chin and locked gazes with the half-ore. "But I assure you, my shame is as noth- ing compared to the disgrace of a coward who turns from those he can save."

The half-ore's arm slipped free of the tiller, his lips curling back to show sharp tusks and yellow fangs, and he stepped toward Ruha. The witch did not back away, nor did she avoid his eyes, and when there came on the wind a distant roar and the splintering of ship timbers,

Fowler was the first to glance away.

"Do not fear the dragon," Ruha urged. "My under- standing of magic far exceeds my knowledge of Heart- land customs."

Fowler shook his head as though trying to rid himself of some evil thought, and when he spoke, his voice was as low and guttural as a growl.

"As you wish, then!" He thrust his leathery palm under

Ruha's face. "But give me your pin. I wager this battle will go harder than you think, and if Umberlee takes offense at your gall, I'll want proof of your pledge."

Ruha started to object, then thought better and turned away. She reached inside her aba and removed the

Harper's pin hidden over her heart. It was a small silver brooch fashioned in the shape of a crescent moon, sur- rounded by four twinkling stars with a harp in the cen- ter. The pin had once belonged to Lander ofArchenbridge, a valiant scout who had died helping the Bedine tribes resist an army of rapacious Zhentarim invaders.

The witch handed the brooch to Fowler. "Guard it well. This pin was once worn by my beloved, and I cherish it more than life itself."

"That makes the risk the same for both of us." Fowler pinned the brooch inside his tunic, then hooked his arm around the tiller and turned his attention to the main deck. "Man the harpoons! Break out the axes and spears!

Ready yourselves for the attack!"

Every man upon the decks turned an astonished eye toward their captain, and the crew grumbled its displea- sure in one voice. A greasy-haired youth in a thin cotton tunic and gray, brine-stiffened trousers rushed up the stairs, stopping at the edge of the half deck.

"Cap'n, sure ye canno' mean to strike that dark thing first?"

"I can and do!" Fowler pulled a key from a chain around his neck and passed it to the man. "Now, you alley-spawned son of a tavern hag, open the weapon lock- ers before the witch calls the squids to drag us all down to Umberlee!"

The youth's eyes darted toward Ruha. Though the witch did not know who the squids were or how to sum- mon them, she took some lint from her pocket and tossed it to the wind, making many strange gestures and recit- ing her lineage in the lyrical tongue of the Bedine. The sailor leapt off the stairs and ducked into the somer- castle. Two of his fellows followed him inside, while sev- eral others struggled forward to the forecastle, fighting their way through the churning froth that boiled over the bow twice every minute.

The magic wind continued to drive the little cog onward. At intervals, Captain Fowler adjusted the tiller or ordered the crew to tighten a line, and each time they crested a dune, Ruha marvelled at how the distance between the Storm Sprite and her goal had closed. The sailors who had gone into the somercastle returned with boarding axes and spears for their companions, and those who had struggled forward to the forecastle also reap- peared, laden with thick-braided skeins and barbed har- poons twice a man's height. They tied lines about their waists and clambered onto the foredeck, where they pulled the oilskins off three ballistae and, fighting against raging waters and the ship's mad pitching, set to work stringing the heavy weapons. By the time they finished, the caravel lay a hundred yards ahead, lumbering forward at a shallow angle that would present her star- board side to the Storm Sprite.

The battered caravel stretched to five times the length of the little cog. Her hull, looming dark and sheer in the night, rose from the sea like a cliff. The wales were crowned by a crest of white railing, broken in many places and draped with shredded rigging. Her foremast, all that remained of three, could have scraped a cloud, and carried more cloth than three of the Storm Sprite's sails.

Having torn the somercastle completely off the car- avel, the dragon now crouched on the stern of the ship.

All that could be seen of the dark beast were fluttering black wings as large as sails, an immense ebony flank, and its serpentine tail sweeping back and forth across the main deck to keep at bay the warriors behind it.

The wyrm raised a black claw above the starboard wale and flung overboard a handful of refuse. Among the debris were a pilot's table and three screaming women.

The witch gasped and would have asked if all sea dragons were so large, except that she feared the question would alarm Captain Fowler. Instead, she watched as the Storm

Sprite and the caravel continued to crash toward each other. Already, the two ships were so close that even when the sea heaved up between them, Ruha did not lose sight of the wyrm's black wings.

At last, Captain Fowler said, "If that wyrm's not the largest ever to fly the Dragonmere, I'm the Prince of

Elves." The Storm Sprite's bow crashed into the trough between two great sea dunes, and the water poured over the forecastle and came frothing down the main deck. "I

hope your magic arrows are powerful ones. A dragon like that could make short work of us."

Ruha thought it wiser not to mention that, unlike most sorcerers Fowler had seen, she could not create magic arrows. Heartland wizards used expensive and exotic ingredients to cast their spells, but desert witches seldom had access to such components. Instead, they fashioned

their enchantments from the elements that ruled their lives: wind, sun, sand and stone, and, most preciously, water. Ruha was particularly adept at sand and sun magic; unfortunately, water was her weakness.

The witch rummaged through her aba until she found a small piece of obsidian. "My spell will cut through the wyrm as a scimitar cuts through a camel thief." She dis- played the black sliver. "But your men must also be ready, for the first blow does not always kill."

Fowler glowered at the dark shard suspiciously. "On my command, Witch." He flashed a menacing scowl that left no doubt about the consequences of disobeying. "Not a second before."

Ruha inclined her head. "Of course, Captain."

The Storm Sprite pitched upward. The boiling waters crashed against the somercastle and poured over the wales, and the little cog rose on the water dune. Thirty yards off the bow loomed a great wall of dark planks, the hull of the mighty caravel. The witch raised an inquiring eyebrow, but Fowler shook his head.

"Harpoons, let go atop!"

They crested the dune. Ruha cried out in shock, for the caravel lay only twenty yards ahead, with the dragon's mountainous figure still hunched over the stem. A dozen astonished sailors stood at the great ship's wales, staring down at the Storm Sprite.

From the bow of the little cog sounded a trio of sonorous throbs. Three barbed harpoons arced away from the Storm Sprite's ballistae, a long braided rope trailing from each. The first shaft sailed high over the wales of the devastated caravel and passed through one of the wyrm's flapping wings. The other two harpoons dropped lower, piercing the mighty serpent's black scales and sinking to their butts. The dragon gave a furious roar. Its sinuous neck undulated in rage, and clouds of roiling black fog shot from the caravel's portholes.

The Storm Sprite started down the rolling dune, and the dragon disappeared behind the caravel's looming hull. Ruha thought surely they would smash into the great ship.

Captain Fowler pushed the tiller to port. The Storm

Sprite swung around, though not quickly enough to pre- vent her bowsprit from splintering on the other vessel.

The little cog completed her turn, then a tremendous boom filled the air when she slammed hulls with the great caravel. The impact hurled Ruha to the deck, and she felt the sliver of obsidian shoot from between her fin- gers. A terrible rasping arose between the ships as they rubbed hulls, and the witch knew it would not be long before they were past each other.

A powerful hand closed around Ruha's wrist, and she felt herself being dragged toward the tiller. "This is no time to lie about!"

"No, wait!"

Ruha's protest went unheeded, for already Captain

Fowler had pulled her to his side and set her on her feet.

Her eyes darted toward the deck. The planks were wet and as dark as the night and, even if the obsidian had not washed overboard already, she would never have found it in time to attack the dragon.

"Ready, Witch!" Fowler ordered. "It's almost time."

Ruha looked forward, raising her eyes toward the wyrm. She found her view blocked by the huge flaxen square of the Storm Sprite's half-filled sail. Beneath the sheet's fluttering edge, she could see harpoon lines play- ing out, and also the cog's bow slipping past the caravel's massive rudder. The witch thrust her hand into her aba and found several small pebbles.

Fowler hauled on the tiller, bringing his ship smartly around the stern of the caravel. The flaxen sail filled with wind and, like a proud stallion spurred to the gal- lop, the Storm Sprite leapt forward. The harpoon lines snapped taut, and a tremendous shudder ran through the cog.

Fowler flashed his tusks. "Now, Lady Witch! Slice that terror out of the sky!"

Ruha pulled the pebbles from her pocket and pivoted around to keep her gaze fixed on the looming caravel.

Over the stern came a great mass of writhing darkness, the wyrm being dragged along by the sturdy harpoon lines. The dragon beat the air with its wings, struggling in vain to right itself and wheel on Its attacker. Its wings were tattered and strewn with holes, while its dark scales looked strangely tarnished and dull. Even the ser- pent's tail ended in a long section of gray, weathered bone, as though it were suffering from some wasting dis- ease or festering wound.

Bracing herself against the binnacle, Ruha rolled her pebbles between her palms and called upon her stone magic. The rocks began to buzz and shake, vibrating so violently that it hurt her bones to hold them. She tossed the stones up before her face, and there they hung, sput- tering and whirling around each other like angry wasps.

Recovering from its initial shock, the dragon ceased its flailing and stopped trying to wheel on its attacker. It beat its wings more slowly and contented itself with stay- ing aloft.

"I said now, Witch!"

Fowler's eyes were locked on the dragon, and Ruha knew what concerned him. Smaller wyrms than this could spew fire and acid twice the length of the Storm

Sprite's harpoon lines, and the witch had no illusions about what would happen if such a spray caught the little cog. The serpent's neck began to curl toward the Storm Sprite.

"Wait no longer!" Fowler pleaded.

At last, a faint sapphire gleam appeared inside the pebbles. Ruha blew upon the swirling stones, at the same time breathing the incantation of a wind spell. They sizzled away, screeching like banshees and trailing a rib- bon of blue braided light. The dragon had almost brought its head around when the pebbles tore through its wing and blasted its flank, spraying shards of shattered scales in every direction. The wyrm stiffened and dropped toward the water, but when its belly touched the heaving sea dunes, it roared and once again lifted itself into the air.

Fowler's face paled from green to yellow. "I was a fool to listen to you, Witch! To think a woman who'd take a slaver's coin could know dragons-"

"Captain Fowler, wait." Ruha wrapped an arm around the binnacle, then pointed at the wyrm. "The spell has only begun its work."

The half-ore narrowed his eyes and turned back to the dragon, still being dragged along by the harpoon lines.

The wyrm had curled into the shape of a horseshoe, with both its head and tail pointing away from the Storm

Sprite. Its wings were fluttering so slowly and sporadi- cally they could barely keep it aloft, while its serpentine body shuddered with erratic convulsions.

"My pebbles have not stopped moving," Ruha explained. "They are flying about within the wyrm, tear- ing it apart from the inside."

"A quick kill would've been better," Fowler grunted.

The captain kept his gaze fixed on the dragon, as though he would not be satisfied until the thing dropped into the sea and sank out of sight. Behind the serpent, the battered caravel was lumbering away, rolling wildly from side-to-side as her crew struggled to bring her under control. Atop the stern, Ruha saw twenty men standing amidst the wreckage, some holding lanterns while the rest waved amulets and talismans at the Storm Sprite.

"That seems a strange custom. Captain Fowler." Ruha pointed at the men on the caravel's stern. "What does it mean?"

Fowler shrugged, barely glancing at the display. "Who can tell? She's a foreign ship. They're probably telling us to mind our own business."

A tarnished scale fluttered off the dragon's back, fol- lowed by the spiraling blue streak of a pebble. Ruha watched closely for more such flashes, as they indicated the tiny rocks had demolished the internal organs and were beginning to find their way out of the body. A sec- ond stone shot from the wyrm, then a third and a fourth, and still the serpent trembled and convulsed but some- how kept from falling into the sea.

Ruha scowled. Most victims were dead by the time four stones left their bodies.

Captain Fowler must have seen her brow furrow. "How long's it going to take that wyrm to die?"

"It is a big dragon. Captain."

Another pebble escaped the serpent's body and sph- raled away into the heavens, and Fowler cast an impa- tient glance toward the departing caravel.

"I'd like to catch her if we can," he said. "A prize like that… If her captain's a good man, he'll reward us well."

"Captain Fowler, what is this obsession of yours?"

Ruha demanded. "Do you expect treasure for-"

Ruha's question was interrupted when the dragon finally went limp and plummeted into the water, raising such a splash that buckets of dark sea rained down upon the Storm Sprite. The harpoon lines throbbed sharply, and the cog nosed into the water and heeled toward the wyrm. Fowler shoved the tiller to port, bringing his ship around so sharply she seemed to pivot on her bow.

"Loose the braces!" he boomed. He turned to Ruha and, more quietly, asked, "If you'd be kind enough to call off your wind. Lady Witch."

Ruha uttered a single syllable, and the magic breeze died away. The crew loosed the brace lines, leaving the yardarms to swing free, and the sail snapped and popped as it flapped loose in the wind. The drag of the wyrm's enormous body quickly brought the Storm Sprite to a halt. She swung around and began to roll wildly in the churning sea, still pitching toward the bow and listing toward the wyrm.

All at once, the crew broke into a tremendous cheer, many of them calling Umberlee's favor upon the witch's head. A great swell of pride filled Ruha's breast, and for

the first time since the debacle in Voonlar, she felt wor- thy to wear the pin of a Harper.

A loud, sonorous gurgle sounded just off the starboard side. Ruha looked over to see the dragon's corpse sliding beneath the churning black waters. The Storm Sprite gave a long groan and listed even farther to starboard, the harpoon lines swinging toward her hull. Several of the crew lost their footing and would have fallen overboard had it not been for the quick hands of their comrades.

Ruha looked to Captain Fowler. "Why is the wyrm sinking? Shouldn't it float?"

"Aye, it should." A larcenous gleam filled the half-ore's eyes, and he glanced toward the bobbing lanterns atop the stern of the departing caravel. "Unless its belly is filled with foreign gold!"

The Storm Sprite continued to heel, and Ruha shook her head emphatically. "No, Captain Fowler! Cut it free, or you'll sink us!"

"Cut it free?" the half-ore scoffed. "My crew would mutiny!"

"They would prefer losing the treasure to dying, I am sure."

"Don't be," Fowler said. "It takes a lot of gold to sink a dragon. And there's the bounty to think of, too. Cormyr pays a thousand gold for each wyrm head brought to port, and every man gets his share."

"All the gold in the Heartlands will not buy their lives back."

"Aye, but men sell themselves for less every day."

Fowler lifted his chin toward the crew. "If you think they'll forgo their chance to live like kings, you know less about men than you do about the Heartlands."

Ruha studied the men. As Fowler had claimed, their expressions were more greedy than fearful, and despite the Storm Sprite's increasing list, not a single sailor was moving to cut the wyrm free. The cog continued to tip far- ther, until at last the harpoon lines ran vertically from the wales into the water. The heaving sea dunes crashed

over the bow with thunderous force, and the decks sloped so steeply that it was impossible to stand without holding a halyard or shroud. Still, the crew made no move to free the ship.

"What's all this standing about?" Fowler yelled.

"Secure the lines to the anchor windlass and prepare to haul!"

An excited murmur filled the air as the crew leapt to the task with surprising agility, dangling monkeylike from lines and belaying pins. The sea continued to batter the Storm Sprite, spraying white foam over the decks and threatening to capsize her all too often, but it took only a few moments for the men to wrap the lines around the windlass and start winching. Their efficiency did little to soothe Ruha's nerves. In the desert only fools tempted fate, especially for a prize as petty as gold.

"What of your reward, Captain Fowler?" The witch glanced toward the departing caravel. The lanterns atop its stern were still visible whenever the great ship crested a dune, but the gray outlines of the vessel itself were rapidly fading into the night. "I thought you wanted to catch the caravel?"

Fowler did not even look over his shoulder. "Not if the dragon pilfered all its gold."

Several wails of surprise sounded from the windlass;

then the Storm Sprite righted herself so suddenly that half a dozen men fell flat on the deck.

"What happened?" Fowler boomed. "Why are those lines slack?"

"It-it just happened," came the reply. "The harpoons must have pulled free!"

A chorus of disappointed groans rumbled through the crew, but Fowler's gray eyes shined with alarm. "All of them at once? Never."

The sailors looked at each other with baffled expres- sions, as though they expected one of their number to confess to some mistake that explained the mystery. A

babble sounded ahead of the Storm Sprite and to both

sides of her bow. The little cog fell abruptly silent, and every head aboard swiveled toward the noises.

Ruha slipped a hand into her aba. "Perhaps the men should retrieve their weapons, Captain-"

A curtain of black wings rose from the sea ahead, eclipsing the moon's reflection on the water and casting a shroud of murky darkness over the ship. The crew gasped in alarm and retreated toward the somercastle, giving no apparent thought to the spears and axes that lay stowed around the deck.

"What's the matter?" Fowler demanded. As he spoke, a pair of ebony talons shot from the water on both sides of the bow. There was no hide over the gnarled fingers, and even the wrists exhibited bare patches of gray, weathered bone. The claws dug into the wales, and the little cog's bow dipped into the sea. The half-ore released the tiller and stepped forward. "Cowards! Stand and fight!"

For the first time since Ruha had boarded, the cap- tain's words seemed to have no effect on his crew. The bravest of them watched over their shoulders as they opened a hatch or door, but most simply screamed in ter- ror and hurled themselves through the nearest opening.

Their panic surprised the witch, for until now they had exhibited the unwavering discipline of men who knew their lives depended upon working together. She pulled a small crystal of quartz from her pocket, at the same time catching Fowler's arm with her free hand.

"Your men are braver than this," she said. "It is only the dragon's magic frightening them."

"Only?" the half-ore scoffed. "It will be enough to sink us!"

Ruha pointed her crystal over the ship's bow. "I am not frightened."

The dragon's head rose into view and, despite her claim, the witch was so shocked she could not keep the syllables other incantation from fleeing her mind. She found herself staring not into the slit pupils of a wyrm's diabolic eyes, but into the vastly more sinister void of two

black, empty sockets. Though a thin layer of shriveled black scales still clung to the beast's brow and cheeks, its snout was a fleshless blade of cracked bone and cav- ernous nostrils. Even the creature's curved horns, once as sturdy and long as horse lances, were mere splintered stumps of their ancient magnificence.

"Umberlee have mercy!" Fowler ripped a golden ring from his ear and hurled it overboard, a piece of bloody lobe still dangling from the clasp. "Save us!"

The dragon's empty-eyed gaze followed the arc of the glimmering earring as it plunged into the sea, then snapped back to Fowler.

"If you wish mercy, do not throw your gold to Umber- lee." The dragon spoke in a voice as raspy as it was loud, and the mere sound of it made Ruha's legs shake so that she could hardly keep her feet. "Give it to me, and per- haps your death shall be quick!"

When Fowler made no move to produce more gold, the dragon opened its jaws, revealing a hundred broken fangs and a scabrous white tongue, and the Storm

Sprite^s sail billowed toward its mouth. A loud rasp rustled down the length of the ship, and Ruha realized the serpent was gorging itself with air. She squeezed the quartz crystal between her thumb and forefinger, at the same time summoning her spell back to mind.

The rasping ceased, and wisps of dark fog rose from the dragon's nostrils. Ruha called out the words of a wind spell. The quartz crystal evaporated in a searing flash, and a bolt of white lightning leapt from her hand. It struck the wyrm's head with a thunderous bang, hurling desiccated scales and shards of gray bone high into the air. The creature's neck snapped back, and from its shat- tered maw shot a plume of boiling, turbid vapor.

The dragon roared in pain, shaking the Storm Sprite from stem to stem, and the sea sputtered with the sound of its torn flesh dropping into the water, but the beast did not slip beneath the surging dunes. Instead, it dug its ebony talons deep into the ship's wales, then laid its neck

over the bow to display the smoking, mangled crater that had once been its face.

"Who would do this to me?" the dragon rumbled. "Cast yourself to Umberlee, or you shall wish you had."

Captain Fowler glanced back at Ruha. His lips were as white as the moon. "Well, Harper, c-can you k-keep your promise?"

Ruha thrust her shaking hands into her aba and, fear- ing her efforts would come to naught, fumbled through her pockets. Live wyrms could be killed, but what could she-or anyone-do against this dead beast?

The turbid vapor that had spilled from the dragon's maw earlier began to settle over the front part of the ship. As soon as the dark fog touched the rigging, lines started to snap and fall, hissing and smoking as though they were on fire. The sail broke free of the yardarms and fluttered to the deck, as sheer and full of holes as old lace. The mast, and then all the wood from midships for- ward, began to sizzle and fume.

Fowler sank to his knees. "Wretched witch! What have you done to my ship?"

The dragon turned its shattered face toward the cap- tain. "Did she give the order to interfere with me? Or was it you, thinking of Cormyr's filthy bounty?"

With that, the wyrm withdrew its head and slipped beneath the sea's dark surface. Ruha stepped to the taffrail and saw the shadow of one huge wing gliding through the water toward her.

"Captain, did I not promise that the Harpers would buy you another ship?" She stepped toward the half-ore.

"How can they do that if we perish with this one?"

Fowler looked at Ruha with disbelieving eyes. "You think we've a choice in the matter? If you could destroy the dragon, you'd have done it by now."

The yardarms broke free and crashed down upon the deck. The thick planks gave way as though they had been rotting for a hundred years, and the spars struck several barrels stowed below decks. One of the casks split in two,

spilling a viscous liquid that filled the air with a bitter, caustic stench. The babble of swirling water sounded behind the Storm Sprite.

Without glancing back, Ruha pointed into the hold

"What is in those casks?"

The half-ore looked puzzled, as though he found it a strange time for Ruha to question the cargo. "Lamp oil

We've got to have ballast, and it might as well pay-"

A sharp crack sounded from the rear of the deck. Ruha glimpsed the tiller disappearing through its housing, then three black talons rose into sight and hooked them- selves over the taffrail. The witch grabbed Fowler's arm and jerked him off the poop deck, pushing him toward a boarding axe down on the main deck.

"I cannot save your ship, Captain, but I can save us.

Go and smash those oil casks."

The half-ore jumped down and retrieved the weapon, then leapt into the hold. Ruha ducked down beside the somercastle and emptied her pockets of all the brimstoni powder she possessed, piling it upon the deck before her

A sharp crack sounded from the stern of the ship, thei the Storm Sprite pitched to her rear. The witch shape‹ the heap of yellow powder into the figure of a tiny bird and uttered a wind spell.

The brimstone vanished in a brief flash of yellow, and in its place appeared the diaphanous form of a yellow canary. Ruha pointed toward the ship's hold, where Cap- tain Fowler was busy smashing oil casks, and made a quick sweeping motion. The little bird flitted off to circle the area she had indicated.

A tremendous crackling sounded from the poop deck, and Ruha peered over the edge to see the dragon's claws ripping into the stern of the ship. She withdrew another quartz crystal from her aba, then jumped onto the ladder and pointed it at the creature's pulverized face, yelling a series of nonsensical syllables that she hoped the beast would mistake for those she had used to cast her first lightning bolt.

The dragon's head swiveled toward Ruha. She felt oil- laden air swirling past her head and heard the unmis- takable rasp of the creature filling its chest. The beast sucked the diaphanous yellow bird she had created ear- lier into its throat. The witch dropped behind the somer- castle, squeezing the quartz crystal and uttering the incantation of a fire spell.

A fiery spark shot from the tip of the crystal, igniting the stream of air being sucked into the dragon's throat.

Ruha threw herself through the somercastle door. She felt a jolting crash; then there was a searing fulguration, the smell of wood ash, and finally the cool bite of saltwater.

Two

Once the numb ringing inside

Ruha's skull abated and it occurred to her that she was still alive, her first thought was not that she would choke on the saltwater she had swallowed, nor that the weight of her sodden aba would drag her beneath the dark waters, nor even that she might bleed to death from her many lacerations. When the witch opened her eyes and saw the sea heaving all around her, her first thought was that she would never be found.

The dunes loomed as high as mountains, with rolling, moonlit faces that blocked Ruha's sight in every direc- tion, making her feel immeasurably alone and insignifi- cant in the stormy vastness of the Dragonmere. They were maddeningly inconstant, now lifting her toward the stars, now dropping her into the abyssal gloom, now car- rying her along on steep, tumbling slopes of water. The witch knew she could not let the sea have its way with her. She had to free herself of its capricious grasp or die, but her chest was pumping water from her lungs in rack- ing coughs, and she could barely keep her head above the surface, much less hold herself steady on the crest of a surging dune long enough to… do what, Ruha did not know.

In all likelihood, she was not the only one to survive the disintegration of the Storm Sprite, but there had

been no time to put the little shore boat into the water.

The others would be in the same predicament as Ruha, and no doubt anxious to blame her for their troubles.

The caravel crew would have every reason to treat the witch more kindly-providing they came back. Certainly, they had witnessed the explosion that destroyed the dragon, but would they realize what had happened to the Storm Sprite? Was their captain an honest man who would turn back to help those who had helped him?

Ruha could only allow herself to believe that the answer to both questions was yes; to assume anything else was to lose hope, and to lose hope in Umberlee's domain was to die.

Still, the caravel would not arrive soon. It would take time for the great vessel to come around, then she would have to beat her way against the wind-using only one of the three masts she had once carried, and probably rely- ing upon a tiller half splintered by the dragon attack. By the time she arrived, the Storm Sprite's wreckage would be strewn across a square mile of heaving sea, and Ruha knew better than to think any lookout would spy her dark head bobbing amongst all the oil casks, splintered timbers, and shreds of dragon floating upon the surging waters.

A large, curved timber appeared atop a nearby dune, its end briefly jutting over the crest like a great scimitar.

Ruha fixed her eye on the beam. As it glided down the watery slope, she started to swim, reaching forward and kicking her legs in the fashion Storm Silverhand had taught her. The witch's shawl and veil had vanished, but her aba remained securely wrapped about her shoulders, and she had to struggle against both its clumsy cut and sodden weight to make headway. Nevertheless, she did not even consider slipping out of the garment. Its pockets were loaded with exotic dirts and rocks useful for her stone magic. More importantly, all of her spells were sewn into the interior lining. In the desert, paper and ink were precious commodities, but there was always plenty

of thread to spare for embroidery.

By the time Ruha reached the timber, she could do no more than throw her arms over the top and hang there gasping. Though she had not realized it until the exercise had warmed her body, the water was deceptively cool.

Her joints began to stiffen, and she recalled Fowler's sto- ries of pulling his sailors aboard, blue and dead after only minutes in the water. But that had been in northern seas, and the Dragonmere was in the south. The temper- ature here could not be so dangerous-or so the witch hoped.

Ruha fought back her growing panic, reminding her- self that the sea was not so different from the desert: it was vast and empty and lonely, with most of the life lying hidden beneath the surface. True, the dunes moved faster and they were made of water, but not water that one could drink. That was as precious here as it was in the sandy wastes. And there was one other similarity, one the witch did not want to consider: the sea, like

Anauroch, was hospitable to those who knew its ways-and merciless to those who did not.

Ruha contemplated her growing chill and decided it probably would not kill her. She was not shivering, she still felt her toes and fingers, and her teeth were not chattering. All in all, the witch had spent more frigid nights in the desert, and she suspected that the cool water was keeping her from bleeding to death. There were dozens of cuts on her body, some both long and deep, but all stinging bitterly from the salt. The witch could feel her blood swirling about her, warm and viscous against her skin, but she could not tell how much she had lost. Had she been on dry land, she would have examined her cuts and bandaged them all, starting with the worst one first. But in the dark, heaving sea, she had to content herself with running her fingers over each wound in turn, feeling for a heavy flow that suggested a severed vein or artery.

Ruha found no rushing streams or pulsing tides, but

she could count her inspection only a partial success. The swirling saltwater made it difficult to distinguish an ooz- ing flow from a gushing one. In the end, she decided the mere fact that she did not feel light-headed was proof enough that she was not bleeding to death. And she thought of at least one good thing about being adrift: in the desert, some hungry jackal or lion would smell her blood and come running, but such a thing could not hap- pen at sea. No creature she knew could follow a scent through water.

Having convinced herself she would not be dead by the time the caravel returned, Ruha turned her thoughts to making certain she would be found. Her own people, the

Bedine, used large, curled horns called amarats for such purposes. The witch did not have an amarat, since only the men were allowed to use them, but she did have wind magic.

Ruha drew a deep breath. Then, speaking from her belly, she uttered a wind spell. Within her chest, she felt a tremendous sensation of expansion, as though her torso were growing as large and round as an oil cask. She tipped her chin back and cupped a hand around her mouth.

"I am here!" The voice that came from her lips sounded like that of a giant, deep and resonant. It was so loud that it made the water reverberate like a drum. "Come and help me!"

Ruha pulled her hand away from her mouth and silently counted to a hundred, then repeated the mes- sage. As before, her voice was that of a giant. The witch counted again, then fell into a regular pattern of silence and calling. She was always careful to keep constant both the strength of her voice and the duration between her cries, hoping that would help the caravel captain deter- mine whether he was moving closer to her, or farther away.

Ten calls later, Ruha's cries became thunderous croaks, for her throat had begun to ache from the sheer power of

her booming voice. Nevertheless, she continued to shout, determined not to vary her routine until her windpipes burst-though she was starting to fear the cold would kill her first. Goose bumps were rising all over her body, and she felt a cold numbness creeping into the marrow of her bones. To make matters worse, the flotsam from the

Storm Sprite was drifting apart faster than she had expected. She could see nothing close by except a handful of splintered deck planks, an oil cask riding low in the water, and several slabs of rotten dragon flesh.

As Ruha watched, one of the scaly chunks vanished beneath the sea. The slab did not slip gently under the surface, as though the meat had become too waterlogged to float. It plunged downward with a sharp swish, leav- ing nothing on the surface except a small circle of swirling water.

Ruha was not entirely puzzled. She had seen fish take insects swimming on the surface of oasis ponds, but the slab of dragon meat had been as large as her head. The witch could not even imagine the fish big enough to swal- low such a morsel. She thought other bloody legs dan- gling in the water and wished for a larger piece of timber-one onto which she could crawl entirely. Ruha pulled herjambiya from its sheath and prayed it would not slip from her grasp. The long, curved dagger was not particularly valuable, but it had once belonged to a man to whom she had been married for two days. He had died fighting a band of brutal invaders, and thejambiya was all she had to remember him by.

The time to call came again. "Please hurry! Something is under the water!"

Ruha forced herself not to think about her dangling legs and tried to study the sea around her, watching to see if the dragon meat continued to disappear. The task was an impossible one, for no sooner would she glimpse a slab than a dune would heave up in front of her. When the water subsided, the scaly chunk was as likely as not to be gone. The witch never glimpsed any telltale circles to indicate the morsel had been taken by a fish, but she knew better than to assume she would in such dark, rough water.

Ruha felt herself rise on a dune, then something bumped into her knee and rubbed past her thigh. Her scream filled the sky with a cry that boomed like thun- der. She thrust herjambiya into the water and sliced into a sinuous body, her knuckles brushing along a gritty hide. A huge tail fin slapped her arm, and the creature flitted away.

The witch let out a breath she had not realized she was holding. It had only been a fish-one as large as a man, but a fish nonetheless-and apparently it intended her no harm.

A distant voice came to her on the wind. "Keep yelling,

Witch! Do you think I can see you in this murk?"

Ruha glanced toward the voice and saw the blocky sil- houette of a small, makeshift raft cresting the next dune.

On top of it kneeled two figures, both digging into the water with short sections of deck planking. One of the men appeared rather lanky and gaunt, but the other was stocky and stout, with the jutting brow and swinish snout of a half-ore.

Ruha slipped from the crest of her dune and lost sight other rescuers. "I am here, Captain Fowler! One dune ahead!"

"What was… booming about?" Now that the sea had risen between Ruha and Fowler, the wind rendered his voice almost inaudible. "Are… hurt?"

"I am well. Something bumped my leg, but it was only a fish."

Fowler's voice remained silent for a brief moment, then suddenly rose above all the other sounds: "… yourself!

That fish could be a…"

Ruha scowled and tried to pull herself farther onto the beam, but it only twisted and dumped her back into the sea. She tried again, kicking her feet to help lift her weight out of the water. Something slammed into the

thick part of her leg. Her arms slipped free of the wet wood, and she felt herself spin and glide away from the timber. She heard a peal of thunder and realized it was her own wail of agony, magnified a thousand times by the magic of her wind spell. A keen, crushing ache erupted in her thigh and raced through the rest of her body, and finally she noticed the teeth. They were clamped around the thick part of her leg, driven deep into her flesh.

Ruha thrust her free hand into the water and caught hold of a gritty dorsal fin. The fish began to work its jaw back and forth, scraping the points of its serrated teeth across her thigh bone. She pulled herself toward its tail and plunged herjambiya into its flank, then dragged the curved blade back toward herself. A torrerrtTofcool, greasy blood gushed from the wound, covering her hand.

The fish dove, dragging Ruha into the black stillness beneath the sea. She could not see its lashing body, but it seemed to be the same creature that had bumped her earlier, about six feet long, with a slender, lashing body and a plethora of long, pointed fins. She twisted herjam- biya in the wound and pushed it toward the creature's underside, praying she would find something that re- sembled a throat.

The blade struck bone, and the jaws other attacker closed more tightly, threatening to crush her thigh. The fish whipped its head from side-to-side. Ruha's flesh tore, and her lungs burned with the need for fresh air. She thrust Yierjambiya into the side of the beast's head and slashed through something soft. She felt a rush of frothy water, but the creature seemed to feel no pain. It whipped its body around and went deeper, jerking her after it. A

sharp crack reverberated up her spine, followed by a bru- tal, stabbing pang that seemed to spring from her bone marrow itself. The witch opened her mouth-she could not stop herself-and screamed.

A deafening roar throbbed through the water, striking

Ruha's eardrums with such force that it seemed her entire skull had shattered. Without realizing she had

raised them, the witch found her hands clamped over her pulsing ears, the hilt other dead husband's jambiya pressed against her temple. The sound had a much greater effect on the fish. The creature's body went slack, its jaws opened, and it began to squirm about drunkenly, nearly tangling itself in her aba before it scraped its gritty tail across her cheek and vanished into the black waters.

Ruha had a fierce urge to cough and realized that her body had been trying to fill its air-starved lungs with sea- water. She clamped her jaws shut and kicked toward the surface-then nearly forgot herself and screamed again when a sharp jolt of pain shot through her thigh bone.

Continuing to kick with her good leg, the witch lowered a hand and found a mangled circle of flesh just below her left hip. The water felt alarmingly warm, and she could feel a steady current of blood flowing from the wound.

When Ruha's head finally broke the surface, her ears were still ringing from her underwater scream. She could not hear the wind wailing, but she did feel its cool touch upon her skin and immediately started to gasp and cough, causing such a roar with her booming voice that she felt it in her feet. Already, she was growing dizzy from blood loss, and she feared she would die before her coughing spasm ended.

Ruha slipped her jambiya into its sheath and set about unbuckling her belt. As simple as the task was, she could hardly accomplish it. With only one leg able to move and both hands required to undo the clasp, she could barely tread water. Her sodden aba kept dragging her beneath the surface, and she feared that if she allowed herself to sink too far, she would not have the strength to swim back to the surface.

From behind Ruha came the muffled, distant-sounding murmur of a man's voice. She spun herself around and, less than twenty yards away, saw a ragged section of hull planks lashed to three, low-floating oil casks. Atop the makeshift raft stood Captain Fowler and the other man,

both shouting at the witch and waving her toward the raft.

"I am unable to swim!" Ruha's voice roared like a falling wall inside her own head, and both Fowler and his crewman cringed at its volume. "A fish attacked me. My leg is-"

Ruha's explanation ended in a strangled cry of alarm as a huge, gritty snout bumped into her back. The witch took three deep breaths while the body of the great fish brushed along her flank, its dorsal fin harrowing the water like a ship's prow. At last, the creature passed, drawing a sharp hiss when its massive tail slapped the witch's mangled leg.

Ruha stopped fussing with her belt and filled her lungs, at the same time glancing in Captain Fowler's direction. The half-ore's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, and he was frantically tying a rope around the waist of his trembling companion.

A mountainous dune rose beside Ruha, and she saw the dark line of a dorsal fin emerging from its face. She closed her eyes and buried her head in the water, at the same time voicing the mightiest, deepest bellow her aching throat could manage. Again, the water throbbed, hammering her eardrums with a terrible, pulsing ache.

Before the witch could pull her head from the water, the enormous fish hit her-but she did not feel its long teeth tearing through her torso. Instead, the beast's nose slipped beneath her hips, and she slid along its spine until the creature started to roll toward her. With one hand, the witch caught its dorsal fin and pushed away, narrowly escaping being forced beneath the surface. The monster floated belly up for a moment, then slowly writhed down into the sea.

The snout of a smaller fish nosed Ruha's shoulder;

then she felt the rough skin of yet another creature rasp- ing across her foot. "There are more?" she shrieked. "By

Afar, I hate this sea!"

Over the roaring of the dunes came the alarmed mur-

mur of Captain Fowler's voice, so muted by the ringing in

Ruha's ears that she could not understand what he was saying. She looked up and saw him only ten yards away, pointing in the direction in which the monstrous fish had vanished a moment earlier. Beside him stood the sailor with the rope tied around his waist, staring into the dark waters and stubbornly shaking his head.

The witch filled her lungs with air and spun around to see a huge black fin slicing toward her, albeit on a some- what crooked course. She pushed her head beneath the water and, summoning her voice from deep down in her bowels, bellowed. Again, the sea pulsed with her fear and anger, and again the great fish rolled on its back.

Ruha turned toward her rescuers and saw six more of the beasts floating with their bellies toward the sky. They all had wedge-shaped snouts and small, pitiless black eyes and shovel-shaped mouths. She began to pull herself through the surging waters. Her head was spinning from the loss of blood, and she did not know how she would find the strength to reach the raft before the monsters recovered and swarmed her again.

The witch had taken no more than three strokes before

Captain Fowler grabbed the reluctant sailor by his collar and belt, and pitched him into the sea. The man splashed down two yards away. Ruha expected the fellow to turn away and swim for the raft, but instead he cast an angry glance in her direction and thrust out his hand. She stretched forward and caught his wrist, digging her fin- gernails deep into the flesh of his forearm. The sailor scowled, but rolled onto his back and started to kick his legs. Captain Fowler hauled on the rope, pulling them back toward the raft.

Ruha looked over her shoulder and saw the stunned fish already beginning to twitch and squirm. She wrapped her hand into the short length of rope holding up the sailor's dingy trousers.

"Cover your ears!" The man cringed at the sound of

Ruha's booming voice. "And keep kicking!"

After the sailor put his hands to his ears, the witch pushed her face beneath the surface and let out another bellow. The concussion once more stunned the small fish into inaction, but the monster was too far away. Its fins continued to flutter, and its immense body slowly rolled in the water.

Ruha felt Fowler's thick hand in her hair. He twisted his fingers into her unbound tresses and lifted her out of the water. It was a painful way to be hauled from the sea, but the witch did not complain. She grabbed a lashing and scrambled completely aboard, hissing in pain as she dragged her savaged leg across the wet planks. She rolled onto her back and saw the sailor clutching the edge of the raft, struggling in vain to pull himself aboard.

Behind him, the huge fish had righted itself and was already swinging its snout toward the raft.

"By the burning face ofAt'ar!" Ruha snarled, swearing her oath in the name of the fiery Bedine sun goddess. She thrust her hand into her aba and rummaged through its blood-soaked pockets. "That monster has troubled me enough!"

The sailor looked back toward the great fish. The crea- ture was half-submerged, snaking a slow, crooked path toward the raft. Captain Fowler reached past Ruha to grab the man's shoulder, but the fellow shook his head and swam away. At first, the witch did not understand what he was doing; after his initial reluctance to help her, he hardly seemed the type to draw a sea-monster away from his companions. Then, when the beast did not change course, she noticed the slippery red ribbon she had left on the raft planks. Perhaps lions and jackals could not follow blood trails through water, but they did not breathe the stuff.

Fish did.

Ruha withdrew two small packets from her pocket, one filled with sand, the other with lime. She poured the con- tents of both packages into her palm and spit on them.

As the witch mixed them together, Captain Fowler took a

boarding axe from his belt and stepped forward to meet the advancing fish. She grabbed the half-ore's leg and pulled him roughly back.

"This fish belongs to me. Captain." Though Ruha was trying to speak quietly, Fowler flinched and instinctively retreated from her thunderous voice. She drew him to her side. "Help me stand."

The captain glanced at the approaching monster, which had now submerged almost completely. Only the tip of its dorsal fin still showed, slicing across the face of a heaving dune. Fowler slipped a hand under Ruha's arm and pulled her up.

The dorsal fin was only five yards away when the ris- ing dune swallowed it. With Fowler's help, Ruha retreated to the back of the raft. A dull buzz started to drone in her ears, and swirls of dark fog swam along the edges of her vision. The witch had lost too much blood to be standing. Her knees buckled, and, had it not been for the captain's support, she would have fallen.

As Ruha struggled to call her spell to mind, a huge gray snout burst from the water and crashed down on the corner of the raft. A pair of tiny, wide-set eyes flared briefly; then the monster squirmed forward. The raft listed toward the trough of the dune, and the witch feared they would flip over. Her vision narrowed to a black tunnel. She reached out and slapped the fish on the nose, smearing the sand mixture over its rough hide.

The fish twisted sideways, temporarily preventing the raft from tipping farther, and opened its mouth. The beast's teeth were as large and ugly as spearheads, and

Ruha knew they would tear her into bite-size pieces with a single snap. She uttered the incantation of a stone spell, at the same time hurling herself backward into

Fowler's arms. They fell onto the deck together, leaving their attacker's great jaws to clap shut on empty air.

A pearly sheen swept over the head of the great fish and down its huge body. The creature squirmed farther onto the raft, forcing Ruha and Fowler to the very edge of

the vessel's high side. It slapped the water with its tail, driving itself forward, and the magical luster of the witch's spell suddenly drained from its gritty skin. The beast grew as drab and gray as ash, and the duller it became, the slower it moved. By the time its jaws were within striking range, the monster's entire body had grown as drab and motionless as a mudstone sculpture.

Captain Fowler stretched a tentative leg toward the gaping jaws and, when his foot did not get bitten off, pushed the monstrous head off the raft. The fish slipped from sight and vanished beneath the dark water as swiftly as a stone. The witch slumped onto the deck and began fumbling at her buckle, praying she could stay conscious long enough to tie her belt around her bleeding leg.

Ruha had barely unlocked the clasp before her head thudded onto the planks and her vision went entirely black. She felt Fowler's stout fingers tugging at the belt, then the tinny sound of a man's fading voice: "Hey! These sharks…"

Sometime later, the witch awoke to a throbbing leg and the sound of arguing voices.

"… witch for?" whined the sailor. "She's the reason we're here, I say!"

"I don't give a squid's lips what you say, Arvold! I order a man to swim, I'll not have to throw him!"

Ruha tried to open her eyes, found the effort too tiring, and settled for reaching down to feel her savaged leg. Her thigh was girded by a crude tourniquet, and her aba was torn clear to the hip-that would cost her the use of a few sand spells, depending upon how easy she found it to reconstruct the torn symbols. Her flesh was not yet numb and still warm to the touch, so the witch guessed she had been unconscious no more than two or three minutes.

"There'd have been no need to throw me, if it were worth going in," growled Arvold. "But there was no call to swim for the witch. We should've let the sharks take her."

"That's for the captain to say, not you!" Captain

Fowler's declaration was followed by the creak of a weapon's blade being torn from a plank. "I've no use for cowards, sailmender!"

"Captain Fowler, you have little room to be calling other men cowards." The spell ofloudness had lapsed when Ruha fell unconscious, so her voice sounded as weak and frail as that of any woman who had nearly bled to death. "I fail to see how a man who hurls another into danger is any braver than his victim."

The witch forced her eyes open and raised her head.

Her two companions sat on the front of the raft, each fac- ing the other from his own corner. Captain Fowler, who was holding a boarding axe in his fist, brought the weapon down and buried its head in the edge of a plank.

"It's a good thing you were the one in the water, not me." Fowler glared at his sailmender. "Do you think

Arvold would've pulled us back? He'd have left us to the sharks and thanked Umberlee for the chum."

Ruha let her head fall back to the deck, then rolled it to one side so she could study Arvold's face. The sail- mender had a sharp-featured face with a hawkish nose and dark, glistening eyes, and in his expression there was no denial of anything Fowler claimed. Still, whether he had done it willingly or not, Arvold had saved the witch at the peril of his own life, and she was not so far gone from Anauroch that she had forgotten what such an act meant to a Bedine.

"Perhaps what Captain Fowler claims is true, Arvold."

Ruha said. "But even so, you saved my life at the risk of your own. Until I have done the same, I am yours to com- mand."

Captain Fowler winced at the statement. Arvold's lips curled into a lecherous grin, and he ran his dark gaze up the witch's exposed leg, over her bare hip, and up to her dark, ripe lips.

Ruha's cheeks burned with embarrassment, for she was unaccustomed to having men ogle her naked face.

Save for her short tenure as a spy in Voonlar, she had

ignored the Heartland women's custom of baring their visages in public, preferring to keep her own face con- cealed beneath a heavy scarf. All that she usually showed were her brown eyes, her aquiline nose, and, when her veil slipped low, the tribal hash marks tattooed on her cheeks.

"Well now!" Arvold continued to leer. "That changes things."

Ruha turned away, raising a hand to cover her face. "I

did not mean I would…" The words caught in her dry throat. "My words did not imply what you think. In

Anauroch, they are a pledge of allegiance and debt."

"We're not in the desert, witch!" Arvold snarled. "We're in the middle of the bloody Dragonmere-and I say you owe me something for that, too!"

The raft bounced gently as Arvold crawled across the deck. Ruha let her hand drop to her jambiya, both angered by the fool's lechery and frightened she would have to slay him to save her honor. He could not believe she had meant to offer herself as a woman-or could he?

She raised herself on an elbow and looked toward the sailmender. He stopped just beyond her reach, his gaze fixed on the curved dagger at her belt.

As Arvold contemplated his next move, a dark fog began to gather at the edges of Ruha's vision. The sharp angles of the sailmender's face seemed to soften before her, and his rough complexion grew smooth and yellow- ish. His hawkish nose shrank to a more graceful size and curved upward at the end. Folds of skin appeared at the corner of his eyes, giving them a narrow, slanted appear- ance, and his hair turned black and silky.

Ruha's hand loosened around her dagger, but she did not gasp, or even worry that she was falling into uncon- sciousness again. She had been suffering visions since before she could walk, so she recognized the change in

Arvold's face for what it was: a mirage from the future.

Sometime soon, she would meet a man with the face that had appeared over the sailmender's. She could not say

what would happen then, but she doubted it would be anything good. It was never anything good.

Ruha's first mirage had been of thousands of butter- flies. Later that year, her tribe had been forced to camp at an oasis infested with moths, and soon every piece of cloth in the khowwan was full of holes. Later, the face of a handsome stranger had appeared over that of her hus- band, Ajaman. Ajaman had died that night; the hand- some stranger had arrived soon after to help Ruha's people fight the ones who had murdered her husband.

She had eventually taken the stranger, the Harper named Lander, as a lover-only to see him felled by the same enemy that had slain Ajaman.

Noticing Ruha's distraction, Arvold slid forward, still wearing the face of a slant-eyed stranger. When he stretched a hand toward her dagger, his fingers suddenly changed into sharp talons. The flesh of his arm turned black and scaly, and the pupils of his eyes narrowed into vertical slits with irises as black as obsidian. A crest of jet-colored fins sprouted along his back, and the long, lashing tail of a dragon appeared at the base of his spine.

Ruha tried to pull her jambiya, but the sailmender's claw lashed out quick as a serpent and caught her wrist.

She cried out and slammed her forehead into the strange face. Arvold raised his free hand to slap her, and it, too, was a black claw.

Captain Fowler appeared behind his sailmender and caught the man's scaly arm. Arvold's dragon tail disap- peared instantly, as did his scales, his talons, and his crest of dark fins. His pupils grew round, the yellowish tint vanished from his skin, his nose grew hawkish again, and Fowler continued to hold his wrist.

"Arvold, you know what the witch meant to say. Do you really want to hold her to the letter of what she said, knowing what she's liable to do if you anger her?"

The sailmender continued to stare at Ruha's bare face, his leer more angry than lustful. Though she felt bashful and naked without her veil, the witch forced herself to

return his gaze with an icy glare.

At last, Arvold released the witch's arm. "Ah, Umber- lee take you!" He pushed himself to his corner of the raft.

"If that's how you repay your debts, I'll have nothing to do with you."

Ruha let her head fall back onto the deck, weakened by both her vision and the trouble with Arvold.

Captain Fowler's swinish face appeared over her.

"Sorry I didn't move faster, Witch," he whispered. "But after you nearly called me a coward, I-"

Ruha raised a hand. "Do not apologize, Captain. You warned me before not to question your judgment-and I

should have been able to handle Arvold without your help."

Fowler nodded. "Aye, any Harper should've, but you hesitated-and why you let him grab your dagger arm,

I'll never know."

"I have lost a lot of blood," Ruha said.

The witch balked at telling Fowler about the mirage, for she had long ago learned that few people understood her visions. Her own tribe had banished her from their camps, believing her wicked magic caused the calamities she foresaw. Even in the Heartlands, she had twice been stoned for warning people of disasters about to befall them, and once she had been accosted for not foreseeing a catastrophe that befell the flirtatious young daughter of the mayor ofTeshwave.

The witch rolled her head away from Fowler. "Perhaps

I was just too weak."

The captain checked the tourniquet on her leg, then laid his leathery palm on her forehead. "You're losing no more blood, but you do feel cold as a barnacle." He grabbed her chin and pulled it around so he could look her in the eye. "You wouldn't be thinking of dying on me, would you Witch?"

Ruha tried to chuckle and failed. "Not without your permission, Captain."

Fowler glared at her from the corner of one eye. "Aye,

that's good." He grabbed the collar of his tunic and turned it inside out, displaying the Harper's pin Ruha had given to him. "I've every intention of collecting on your promise-and don't think you can squirm out of it, like you did with Arvold."

Ruha managed a weak smile. "Get me to Pros, and you shall have your ship."

"That I shall, Witch-and it'll be easier than you think." The captain grinned broadly, then stood and turned toward the front of the raft. "Arvold, man your paddle!"

Three

The caravel's bowsprit shot over the dune crest, less the twenty yards from the raft. Beneath the giant spar, illu- minated by the pearlescent sphere of a silver glass lantern, hung the mag- nificent sculpture of a square-snouted dragon. With its delicately curled horns, ball-shaped eyes, and lustrous green scales, the beast looked nothing like the wyrm that had destroyed the Storm Sprite. The figurehead's glower- ing face appeared more reproachful than vicious, and there was nothing in its expression to suggest bloodlust or insatiable greed. Still, the thing was clearly a dragon, and that was enough to give Ruha pause.

The caravel's great prow burst through the back side of the dune, hurling curtains of spray high into the air.

Ruha pointed at the figurehead.

"Do you see that, Captain Fowler? Is that not a dragon's head?"

The witch sat near the back corner of the raft, her mangled thigh extended before her. During the twenty minutes it had taken Fowler and Arvold to paddle into the caravel's path, everything below the tourniquet had grown numb and cool to the touch, and now the leg was beginning to turn blue, as she could tell whenever the moon's silver light flashed across her bare flesh.

When Captain Fowler did not comment on the figure-

head, Ruha asked, "Why does the caravel carry such a thing on its bow? Could that be the reason the dragon

attacked it?"

Fowler set aside the plank he had been using as a paddle. "I think not, Witch. Half the prows on the Drag- onmere bear figureheads of such fiends, to scare off mon- sters of the deep."

Ruha studied the figurehead more carefully, then shook her head. "That carving does not look frightening

to me."

The captain had no time to answer, for the bow of the great caravel was already slipping past. Along the wales stood a dozen dark figures, all shining storm lanterns over the rail. Both Fowler and Arvold jumped to their feet and waved their arms in excitement. From the shad- ows behind the lantern bearers emerged a figure holding a large bow nocked with a white, round-nosed arrow.

The man loosed his bowstring. The white shaft sailed over the raft, trailing a thick dark cord. Fowler let the line fall upon the planks, then grabbed it and pulled the arrow aboard. He snapped the shank at its base, then he and Arvold started to thread the rope through the raft lashings. As they worked, the caravel continued to lum- ber past, taking up the rescue line's slack at an alarming pace. The lantern bearers walked toward the great ship's stern, trying to keep their lights focused upon the raft.

The heaving sea made their task an impossible one, forc- ing Ruha's companions to labor in an irritating kaleido- scope of flashing beams. By the time the pair finished, the rescue line was stretching taut and the lantern bear- ers were standing atop what remained of their ship's bat- tered poop deck.

"Hold fast!"

Resuming his place at the front corner, Arvold fell to the deck and grabbed the edges of the planks. Fowler dropped beside Ruha, flinging one arm over her shoul- ders and pinning her to the wet planks. The witch had barely twined her fingers into the lashings before the

rescue line snapped tight and jerked the raft so violently it left the water.

The flimsy vessel splashed into the water an instant later. From that moment on, it seemed to Ruha that they spent as much time traveling beneath the surface as they did above it. Every time they came to another sea dune, the rescue line would drag them through its steep face, burying the raft under a foamy torrent that threatened to sweep the witch and her companions into the Dragon- mere. A moment later, they would emerge on the other side and drop into the trough, then slam into the face of the next dune and disappear beneath the raging sea.

Between dousings, Ruha gasped, "Surely, there is a-"

She grunted as they slammed into a trough. "-a better way to bring us aboard!"

The caravel pulled them through another sea dune.

When they came out the other side, Fowler asked, "Can you fly, Witch?"

"That is bird magic," Ruha answered. "If I could fly, why would… ugh!… why would I have hired you to sail me across the Dragonmere?"

After they plunged through another dune. Fowler said,

"Then this is the only way. In a Sea this rough, a big ship like that can't be stopping to take aboard passengers!"

They slammed into another trough; then the ride smoothed out as they entered the caravel's wake. The ship's crew hauled the raft up to the stern corner and lowered a rope. Fowler tied Ruha in first, and the line tightened around her chest. She rose alongside the rud- der more than fifteen feet before she reached the somer- castle and began to scrape along its back wall. The witch bit her lip to keep from crying out. Though her mangled leg was too numb to feel anything, she had many other cuts and bruises that protested the rough treatment.

After a painful ascent of another ten feet, several pairs of hands caught her beneath the arms and pulled her into the ruins of a luxurious officer's cabin. The walls, or rather what remained of them, were draped with silken

tapestries depicting fanciful scenes of domestic bliss, and the floor was covered by wool carpet as plush and finely loomed as those woven by Ruha's own people.

A pair of rescuers leaned over the witch, and she gasped. Both men had smooth, yellow-tinted features, with small noses and narrow, slanted eyes. Neither face matched the one she had seen in her vision, but they obviously belonged to the same race as the man in the

mirage.

The elder of the pair, a distinguished-looking man with graying hair and a yellow patch over one eye, spoke to the other in a Kiting language of short syllables and fluc- tuating pitches. Both men were slight of build and no taller than Ruha herself, and they wore high-necked tunics with long sleeves and hems that swept the floor.

When the first man finished speaking, the second bowed to him, then bowed to Ruha. "Please to allow me to present Mandarin Hsieh Han Liu, Imperial Minister of Spices to Emperor Kao Tsao Shou Tang, Jade-"

The one-eyed man hissed at the speaker, who contin- ued his introduction with barely a pause, "Jade Monarch of Shou Lung and of all Civilized Lands."

The one-eyed man bowed to Ruha, who sat upright and dipped her chin in return. Across the cabin, several more small, yellow-skinned men were hauling up the other end of the rescue line, which they had tossed down to the raft once she was aboard. Anxious to avoid being dragged overboard if their hands slipped, the witch began to untie herself.

"I am called Ruha." She spoke directly to the one-eyed man, who could hardly have corrected his translator without himself understanding Common. "I thank you for saving my life, Minister Hsieh."

"Many thanks to you, also. You save Emperor's ship, and lives of many humble servants." Hsieh bowed again, letting pass his facade of not speaking Common. He motioned to a corner behind Ruha, and an old man with a knobby, shaven head stepped out of the shadows.

"Please to allow physician to see leg."

"Physician?"

"The mandarin's healer," explained Hsieh's assistant.

When the witch nodded, the physician kneeled at her side and set a box of carved ivory upon the floor. He pulled her tattered aba away to inspect the savaged leg

The constant deluge of sea water had kept the wound surprisingly clean, so Ruha saw that the fish had cut a circular laceration into the side other thigh. The bite was nearly a foot in diameter, and in one place so deep she saw a white sliver of bone.

Captain Fowler clambered into the cabin and steppfc ~

brusquely to Ruha's side, mercifully drawing her atten tion away from her leg. "How you faring? Will you live until I get my cog?"

Frowning at the half-ore's swinish face, Hsieh stepped back and called something sharp through the cabin's shattered doorway.

Ruha cocked an eyebrow at Fowler. "Surely, you do not intend to be rude, Captain." She gestured to the man- darin. "Allow me to present you to Minister Hsieh Han

Liu, Imperial Minister of Spices to the Emperor Kao Tsao

Shou Tang-"

"Jade Dragon of Shou Lung and all civilized lands-I

know." Despite the undue emphasis he had placed on the word civilized, Fowler bowed deeply to the mandarin.

"I've run cargo for the Ginger Palace a time or two-though I've never had the pleasure of boarding one of your junks before."

Hsieh relaxed and once again called down the corridor, then returned the half-ore's bow-though not so deeply, and without taking his gaze from Fowler's eyes.

"Captain Fowler? Then you give order to attack dragon?"

"Aye." Fowler nodded. "But it was the Lady Witch's idea, and her magic that destroyed it."

Both the mandarin and his assistant regarded Ruha with renewed respect, and the physician began to probe her wounds more gently. Hsieh bowed to Ruha again.

"Forgive my discourtesy, but you do not call yourself

Lady Ruha. Do you require anything?"

Ruha scowled, puzzled by Hsieh's reaction. She was accustomed to strange reactions when people discov- ered she was a witch, but that did not seem to be what troubled the mandarin.

"Please, Minister Hsieh, I am not…"

Fowler's head twisted ever so slightly from side to side.

Since the captain had at least some acquaintance with the Shou, Ruha decided to follow his lead. "Please, I am not accustomed to showing my face. I need a shawl and

veil."

Hsieh glanced at his translator, who said something

into his ear. The mandarin scowled, and they had a short exchange, then the assistant bowed and scurried out of

the cabin.

"Yu Po goes to fetch finest scarves from our cargo."

As Hsieh spoke, the physician pulled a pair of silver tongs from his box. The old man opened the instrument slightly and slipped the jaws into the deepest part of

Ruha's wound, where she had glimpsed her white bone.

"Say if this hurt. Lady Ruha."

The physician closed the tongs, then worked them back and forth. Ruha heard a faint crunching sound. She felt a gentle vibration deep in her hip, but her leg had gone so numb below the tourniquet that she barely noticed the metal rubbing her mangled flesh. The old man gave his instrument a final twist and withdrew a huge triangle of serrated tooth.

"When the fish attacked, I… I heard something crack," Ruha gasped. "I thought the thing had broken my

leg."

"Leg fine. Bone strong."

The physician returned his tongs to the ivory box and withdrew a handful of yellow powder, which he carefully sprinkled into the bite. Once the entire gash was filled with the dust, he half-whistled a series of strange, high- pitched syllables. The powder vanished with a flash of

golden light; then a ring of brownish smoke drifted from the wound and filled the little cabin with the smell of brine and burnt flesh. The old man inspected the results, then took a hooked needle and a length of black thread from his box. When he began to sew, Ruha felt nothing more than an occasional tug.

The Shou crewmen soon pulled the raft's last survivor,

Arvold, into the cabin. Hsieh regarded the bedraggled sailmender with an enigmatic gaze, scrutinizing the shabby tunic and the length of rope that held up his trousers. He glanced at Captain Fowler, whose dress was only marginally better, then looked back to Ruha for an introduction.

"The sailmender," Ruha explained.

"Put him where you can watch him," warned Fowler.

"He's a hopeless thief, but he's good with a needle. I'd hate for you to lop off one of his hands."

Hsieh raised his brow at the frank appraisal, then spoke to two of his men, who promptly escorted the sail- mender out of the cabin.

"They put him with others," explained the mandarin.

"Others?" Ruha could not keep the hope out other voice. She considered the sinking of the Storm Sprite her doing, and it would ease her conscience to hear the crew had survived. "How many did you save?"

Hsieh's lip curled disdainfully, whether at the witch's concern or the memory of the human dregs his crew had dragged from the sea, Ruha did not know.

"We save ten men," the mandarin reported. "But ton- rongs do not treat them well."

"Tonrongs?" Ruha asked.

"Sharks," Fowler explained. "The lions of the sea, 'cept they eat anything, and they're always hungry."

Hsieh nodded. "Yes. Tonrongs take limbs from four of your men, and they soon die."

Ruha felt a guilty emptiness in her stomach. Unless they found more survivors, three-quarters of the Storm

Sprite's crew would perish. She let a weary groan slip

from her lips, which caused the physician to jerk his

bloody finger out other wound.

"So sorry. Lady! Did not mean to cause pain."

Fowler regarded Ruha with renewed concern, then

turned to the physician. "She going to die before we reach

port?"

The physician's shaved scalp turned an angry orange.

"Not die at all! I treat Emperor once!" He tried to slip a finger under Ruha's tourniquet and barely succeeded, then nodded his head approvingly. "Not even lose leg-

maybe."

Ruha mewled, then clamped her jaw shut to keep from showing any more fear. Despite her efforts, her lips began to tremble and beads of cold sweat rolled down her

brow.

Hsieh spoke harshly to the old man, who paled and stooped even closer to his work.

"I tell physician if you lose leg, he lose leg. But if he fail anyway, I give you leg's weight in gold." The generous offer drew an astonished gasp from Fowler, but the man- darin was not finished. "Also, Emperor's treasury pays for loss of ship, and more, when we reach Ilipur."

Deciding it would be wiser to let Hsieh draw his own conclusions about who owned the Storm Sprite, Ruha said, "My business is in Pros, Minister Hsieh. I under- stand it is on the way. Perhaps you would put us ashore there?"

A look of chagrin flashed across the mandarin's face.

"All our gold vanish with dragon. Nothing left on Ginger

Lady but spice and ylang blossom."

"Nevertheless, I prefer-"

"Lady Witch, Ilipur's but a short distance up the shore." Fowler narrowed his eyes, trying to fill his glower with subtle menace. "It'll take only a few days extra."

Ruha returned Fowler's glare with a disdainful glance.

"And what of the people I am to meet in Pros? How long will they wait?" She looked back to Hsieh. "Put us ashore in Pros, and I will ask only one reward of you."

Hsieh glanced at her sodden aba, no doubt reevaluat- ing his first impression of her wealth. Only a woman of great resources would decline the reward he had promised.

The mandarin inclined his head. "If it is in my power, I

give you whatever you ask."

"Please tell me about the dragon. Why did it attack your ship?"

"That's our reward?" Fowler bellowed.

Hsieh's glance darted from Fowler to his crewmen.

Two men quickly flanked the captain, their heads rising barely as high as the half-ore's brawny shoulders.

"Aboard Ginger Lady, even captain respect Lady."

Hsieh warned.

Fowler's eyes flashed at the admonishment, but he stood very still and made no further protests.

Hsieh turned back to Ruha, arching his fine eyebrows.

"I do not understand question. Dragon attacks ship to steal gold. That is reason dragon does anything."

Ruha shook her head. "That wyrm was not an ordinary one, nor does the Ginger Lady seem an ordinary ship

The creature attacked you for another reason, and the reward I ask is that you tell me why."

A nervous croak slipped from Fowler's lips. Before the sound could become a word, the guards seized his hands and folded his wrists inward against their joints. The half-ore hissed in pain and looked away from the witch.

The mandarin pretended not to notice the captain's slip, but his face lost all expression and became as unreadable as a stone. "I do not understand, Lady Ruha.

Why do you believe we know dragon?"

The image of a yellow face changing into a black dragon flashed through Ruha's mind, but she did not even consider telling Hsieh about the mirage. Judging by

Fowler's reactions so far, the Shou were a dangerous people, and she had no idea how they might react to her visions.

Ruha paused to pick her words, then said, "Does the

Ginger Lady not carry a dragon's figurehead on her prow? And was my captain mistaken when he called your emperor the Jade Dragon instead of the Jade Monarch?"

Fowler closed his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.

The mandarin showed no sign of anger-or any other emotion. "Lady Ruha, greatest dragons are not evil. I do not know why evil dragon attacks Ginger Lady, except to take gold. I go to Elversult on unfortunate business that has nothing to do with dragon. I never see that dragon before."

"This unfortunate business you speak of, could it involve the dragon?" Ruha asked.

The narrowing of Hsieh's eyes was barely perceptible, but it was enough to alarm Fowler.

"Lady Ruha, the Shou are an honorable bunch."

Though the captain struggled to keep his tone deferen- tial, Ruha could hear both anger and fear lurking just beneath the surface. "If the mandarin's business has something to do with the dragon, he'd say so. It's-uh-bad manners to hint he's holding back."

Hsieh nodded. "Am so sorry. Lady Ruha, but you make poor bargain to trade your due for what little I know of dragon. Perhaps I find some other way to reward your noble service." The mandarin spoke to his men, then went to the cabin's shattered doorway and bowed to

Ruha. "Until then, I am most happy to leave you in Pros."

Four

'tThe sky above the Ginger Palace

't-^ was lucid and azure, as it could be nowhere but the arid plain south of the city ofElversult. Anticipating a pleasant morning of solitude in the confines of his private park. Prince

Tang crossed the humped back of Five

Color Bridge, strode down the opal- paved Path of Delight, and stopped beneath the irides- cent curve of the Arch ofMany-Hued Scales.

From the sleeve pocket of his maitung-the long silken tunic favored by Shou noblemen-the prince withdrew a large golden key. It was shaped like a chameleon's head, with broad shoulder flanges and a sinuous blade resem- bling a long, flickering tongue. He rapped the top three times against the entryway's red-lacquered gates, then inserted the blade into a brass keyway, turned the latch, and pushed the heavy portals aside.

Prince Tang did not find his pets arrayed before the gate, as they customarily were. Instead, the rocky plaza was strangely barren, save for a half dozen buzzing, blue- black mounds scattered along one edge. Beyond the dron- ing fly clusters, twenty quartzite boulders imported from

Calimshan had been torn from their footings and strewn over the carefully shaped dunes of the park's desert quar- ter. In the forest region, circles of bark had been scratched around the trunks of the most exotic trees, and in the

iungle zone, the meticulously strung jasmine vines lay sliced and twined about the base of the bamboo stalks.

The swamp area was covered with tangled mats of pink and blue and yellow, decorative grasses torn from the bottom and left to drift on the murky waters, while the lotus blossoms and lily pads had been thrown onto the muddy bank to wither and die.

Tang could see only one of his pets, an elusive, jet- black river monitor. The great lizard had dragged itself from the swamp and stretched its fifteen-foot length over a stone bench, leaving its webbed feet, thick tail, and slender head to dangle over the sides. The beast's neck was twisted toward the gate, as though it had been awaiting the prince's arrival when the last gleam of hope seeped from its dull eyes.

Tang stared at the lifeless monitor for several bewil- dered moments, then finally realized that some con- temptible barbarian had violated the sanctity of his garden. He retreated through the Arch ofMany-Hued

Scales, screaming as though he had been stabbed.

At the first shriek, a company of ten sentries appeared on the Path of Delight, emerging from camouflaged posts behind the walkway's white-blossomed hedges. In the blink of an eye, Tang was encircled by a bristling wall of scale-armored men equipped with long, curve-bladed hal- berds. They neither touched their master nor inquired as to the reason for his scream, but simply stood ready to obey his orders and defend his life.

Prince Tang entered his garden again, his protective shell of soldiers compressing around him as he passed through the arch. He stopped inside the gateway, remain- ing silent while his guards examined the scene. He did not speak until their tortoise-shell helmets had stopped pivoting on their shoulders and the last gasp had fallen

silent.

"How does this happen?" demanded the prince. "Is it not your duty to protect Garden of Flickering Tongues?"

The company officer, a young moon-faced noble named

Yuan Ti, dropped to his knees and touched his forehead to the stones at Tang's feet. "Mighty Prince, your guards fail you." Since his voice was directed at the ground

Yuan sounded as though he were mumbling. "We see no one enter garden."

The prince snorted at the explanation. "How could it be otherwise? If you see intruder, he would be dead would he not?" Only Tang himself used the garden; not even his wife, Princess Wei Dao, was allowed inside.

Though Yuan could not see the gesture with his head pressed to the ground, the prince waved his hand at the destruction. "But does no one hear falling of stones, or scratching of trees, or ripping of vines?"

Yuan kept his brow pressed to the ground. "Great

Majesty, your unworthy guards hear nothing, smell noth- ing, feel nothing. Please to punish."

Tang ignored the request. "Go search garden."

The prince could not imagine how his guards had missed the sound of the park being destroyed, but he knew the young noble would never lie to him. No Shou officer would commit such a treason, and not only because he feared for his family's heads. The offense would dishonor his ancestors, causing them to lose their places in the Celestial Bureaucracy-an offense said ancestors would surely repay with all manner of curses and incurable plagues.

While the guards searched the park, Tang retreated through the gate and waited outside, praying to the spir- its of his ancestors to guide his sentries to the vandal who had destroyed his park. Although the imperial weapon- masters had taught him to wield a sword as well as any man, it did not even occur to him to stay in the garden and exact vengeance himself. From his earliest childhood, the prince had been taught to retreat from danger and call his guards to take care of the problem. It was a lesson he had not ignored once in thirty years of life.

At length, the sentries returned with unbloodied weapons and bowed to Tang. "Garden of Flickering

Tongues is safe for Mighty Prince."

"You do not find vandal?"

Yuan shook his head. "Only lizards, and only lizard

tracks."

Tang considered this, puzzled not by who had ravaged his garden or why-he knew the answers to both ques- tions-but by how the intruder had infiltrated the heart of his palace, vandalized the park, and escaped with his life. Truly, such a feat was as worthy of admiration as it was of indignation.

When he could not think of how the culprit had escaped. Tang sighed wearily. "How unfortunate you did not capture the intruder. He has given me much work to do." The prince always tended his garden himself, calling for aid only when he needed help to move something heavy. "Return to your posts and punish each other, ten lashes each."

The faces of the sentries fell. Given the magnitude of their failure, such a light punishment was humiliating.

Its temperance implied that Tang believed them inca- pable of doing better-which happened to be the case, though the prince did not fault the guards for their inad- equacy. Even the most devoted sentries could not capture intruders they could not see or hear, or find trespassers who left no tracks. Such tasks required a wu-jen. Unfor- tunately, the Minister of Magic was currently at odds with Tang's own sponsor, Mandarin Hsieh Han Liu, the

Imperial Minister of Spices. Consequently, the Emperor's wu-jens were considered too valuable to waste on an inconsequential embassy like the Ginger Palace. Such political frustrations were a daily part of the prince's life, and one of the many reasons he preferred the company of lizards to that of men.

Tang waited until the last guard had stepped aside, then took his key from the red-lacquered gates and stepped through the Arch ofMany-Hued Scales. When he turned to close the gates, he glimpsed his guards glumly marching toward the Five Color Bridge and decided it

would not do to have them brooding over their failure.

They were an elite company, and an elite company with- out honor was nothing.

"One thing more, my soldiers," he called. "You must double lashes for any man who fails to draw blood with each whip stroke."

The guards bowed in acknowledgment, and Yuan could barely keep from smiling. "Yes, Mighty Prince."

Tang closed the gate and put the key in his sleeve pocket, leaving the lock unlatched in case the mysterious vandal returned. He fetched a small shovel, a linen sack, and a copper bucket from a tool shanty near the jungle quarter, then took a deep breath and went to the first mound of flies. As he slid the shovel beneath the droning heap, the insects rose into the air, revealing a pile of ran- cid lizard viscera. Fighting his gorge back, he scooped up the entrails and placed them in the sack, then filled his bucket from the swamp and washed the stones.

The work was humiliating for a prince, of course, but

Tang preferred doing it himself to having the serenity of his garden disturbed by servants. He cleaned up the other mounds of viscera, then placed the bulging sack by the gate. The entrails had obviously come from the belly of his dead monitor, for none of the other lizards were large enough to hold so many intestines. What the prince did not understand was how the intruder had known it- was his favorite pet, a rare beast captured in the distant land of Chult. Only his personal staff knew how dearly he had paid for the creature, and they would no sooner betray him than his guards would.

Tang returned his tools to the shanty, then went over to the dead monitor. He waved aside a cloud of flies and grabbed the beast by its rear legs.

The beast jerked its feet from the prince's grasp.

Tang cried out and stepped away, his gaze dropping to the black stains that covered the bench and the stones beneath it. The stuff looked like dried blood, and the ran- cid, coppery smell certainly suggested appearances were

correct. He did not see how the monitor could have lost so much blood and lived. The great lizard raised its head, fixing a dull-eyed gaze on the prince's face.

"Guards!" Tang stumbled backward toward the gate.

"Yuan! Come quickly!"

The monitor glanced at the gate, and Tang heard the sharp double click of the heavy lock-bolt sliding into its catch. He fished the key from his sleeve pocket and con- tinued to retreat, fighting down his growing panic and trying to decide whether he dared turn his back to make a dash for the gate.

Tang, you cannot flee me.

Tang heard the voice not with his ears, but inside his mind. It was raspy and rumbling, and even if it had come from the monitor's mouth, it would have been much too resonant for a lacertilian throat.

That much, you should remember.

"Cy-Cypress?"

The monitor nodded, and Tang's feet suddenly felt as heavy as boulders. At first, the prince thought the lizard had cast a spell on him, but he quickly realized that was impossible. The beast had uttered no mystic syllables, nor made any arcane gestures with its claws. Instead,

Cypress was using what the Shou called the Invisible

Art, an ancient discipline whose practitioners employed nothing but the power of their own minds to perform supernatural acts. Tang had heard that his unwelcome guest was a master of the venerable art, but until now, he had been lucky enough to avoid a demonstration.

Tang's guards arrived at the park entrance and began to hammer on the gates, but they could not break through with anything short of a battering ram. Both portals were reinforced with heavy bands of steel, while the lock itself was the sturdiest Shou smiths could make. The sentries could not even scale the wall, as it was capped with a double crest of barbed spikes.

Cypress slunk off the bench, allowing Tang to glimpse a deep, white-fleshed gash that ran the entire length of

the monitor's belly. The beast trundled across the plaza on four stubby legs, then stopped next to the prince's knee and rolled its lifeless gaze over his maitung.

Given that we have not seen you in so long, I find this altogether pretentious,

The lizard's tongue darted out to snap at Tang's maitung, which was tailored with overlapping brown patches resembling the spade-shaped scales of an armored skink.

How long has it been since you attended Lair?

"You know I resign."

Cypress slipped behind his captive and lashed out with the monitor's huge tail, catching Tang behind the knees and hurling him face first to the plaza. The prince's nose and mouth erupted in stinging pain, and he felt the unac- customed sensation of warm blood spilling from his nos- trils. He tried to rise and found himself pinned to the ground, his entire body now as heavy as only his feet had been a moment earlier. He screamed, more in rage than anguish, and wished that he had a sword in his hand-and the strength to raise it.

The hammering at the gates ceased, then a sharp boom reverberated across the plaza as several armored bodies slammed into the portals. The thick planks creaked, but the lock did not give way. Cypress circled around in front of the prince, barely glancing toward the gates.

have told you, no one resigns from the Cult of the

Dragon!

The monitor took Tang's hand in its mouth. The prince cringed, fearing he would soon have a bloody stump at the end of his wrist, but the powerful jaws did not close.

Instead, the beast's agile tongue rolled over Tang's fin- gers, removing his golden rings. After doing the same with the other hand, the dead lizard dropped to its belly and stared the prince in the eye.

/ thank you for the offering. Now, where is my ylang oil?

"Where is Lady Feng?" Tang groaned. "You have oil

when I have mother."

A red ember sparked deep within the lizard's eye, then the beast dragged one huge claw across the prince's face.

"You dare scratch me?" Tang squawked, astonished that even a spiteful creature like Cypress would mark a person of Imperial Shou blood. He spat on the beast's snout, then added, "For that, you die thousand deaths!"

The monitor's gaping jaws opened as though to chomp

Tang's head off; then the beast tipped its head sideways and did not bite. I think I shall!

A deep, rumbling laugh-more like a cough-rolled up from someplace deep in the monitor's hollow stomach, and Cypress laid one of the lizard's heavy claws on the prince's shoulder.

I shall die a thousand deaths-a thousand deaths at

least!

Cypress removed the foot from Tang's shoulder and backed away, still chuckling. The prince found that his body no longer seemed quite so heavy. He gathered him- self up and stood, one hand pinching his bloody nose.

Another boom echoed across the plaza. The monitor's head turned so that it could watch the arch with one drab eye and Tang with the other.

Lady Feng informs me that only you know how to press the ylang blossoms, so I will spare your life-but I am los- ing patience. If I do not have the oil by tomorrow, I shall start returning your mother in parts.

"What you ask is impossible! Pressing blossoms take

one week-"

Don't lie to me! I know how long you need to prepare the oil! The monitor whirled away and started across the

plaza. Tomorrow.

A double click sounded beneath the Arch of Many-

Hued Scales. The gates burst open, and Yuan led the guards into the garden. Several of the men were only half dressed and bleeding from their whip cuts. Their eyes went first to the prince's bloody face, then to the

lumbering monitor. To a man, they lowered their hal- berds and charged.

"No! Stand-"

Tang's command came too late. Cypress ran the moni- tor's dark gaze from one end of the company to the other.

As the black eyes fell on each sentry, the man wailed and slapped his palms to his ears, letting his weapon fly from his hands. In a breath's span, all ten guards lay writhing on the ground, screaming madly and bleeding from their ears. The lizard sauntered calmly into the squad's midst, paused to suck the silver honor ring off each man's thumb, and walked out the gate. By the time Cypress had lumbered down the Path of Delight onto the Five

Color Bridge, the last sentry had curled into a tight ball and lay staring at the ground in front of him through gray, sunken eyeballs.

Tang sank to his knees and looked numbly around his garden, absentmindedly counting all the boulders and trees he would have to replace. At least now he knew how the vandal had penetrated the heart of his palace; with- out a wu-jen, even the most elaborate traps and precau- tions were doomed to fail against a master of the Invisible

Art.

From beneath the Arch of Many-Hued Scales came a soft-voiced cough. Tang turned and saw the lithe form of his diminutive wife, Wei Dao, standing in the gateway.

She had apparently come from her gymnasium, for her brow was wet with sweat, and she wore a black samfu, a long-sleeved uniform in which she always dressed to practice empty-hand defense. Today, her attire also included a red throat scarf. Despite her ruffled hair and flushed complexion, the princess looked as striking as ever, with generous painted lips, high cheeks, and a watchful, sloe-eyed gaze.

Wei Dao bowed. "Mighty Prince, please forgive intru- sion, but I hear terrible commotion."

Her eyes darted from her husband's blood-smeared face to the fallen guards, but she made no comment on

their condition and did not move to help them. As Tang's wife, such things were as far beneath her dignity as that of the prince himself; at their first convenience, one of them would inform the commander of the guard that some of his men were in need of attention.

"I see Chult lizard crossing Five Color Bridge," said

Wei Dao. "It looks in no condition to walk."

Tang rose and crossed the plaza to his wife. "We have unwelcome visitor." He left the garden and pulled the red-lacquered gates shut behind him. "We need wu-jen."

Wei Dao considered this a moment, then asked, "To stop dragon?" Then, as though there could be some ques- tion of which dragon she meant, she added, "To stop

Cypress?"

Tang nodded. "I do not understand why, but he comes himself." Cypress seldom ventured from the gluttonous comfort of his lair and would normally have sent his high priestess, Indrith Shalla, to deliver the threat. "And he leaves in body of monitor. Why does dragon want carcass

of giant lizard?"

Wei Dao's eyes flashed. "What do we care?" She took the scarf from around her neck, revealing the fading rem- nants of an ugly skin rash, and dabbed at Tang's blood- smeared face. "Give him ylang oil before he kill Lady

Feng."

Tang winced at his wife's ministrations. "He does not

kill Lady Feng. She is safe."

Wei Dao began to scrub the claw marks on her hus- band's cheeks-harder than necessary, it seemed to him.

"If dragon kills mother, you lose all honor before Emperor.

We never return to Tai Tung. We spend rest of our lives

exiled from court."

Tang could think of worse fates, but he did not dare say so in the presence of his ambitious wife. "Lady Feng is safe." He pulled Wei Dao's hands away from his sting- ing face. "I know."

The princess scowled and tried another tack. "Still bet- ter to give Cypress what he wants. If Lady Feng is not

here when Minister Hsieh arrives, there be many ques- tions. How do you explain that Cult of Dragon steals

Third Virtuous Concubine?"

Tang pulled away from his wife and pushed his key into the gate lock. "I cannot give Cypress what he wants."

Wei Dao's perfect mouth twisted into a doubtful frown.

"What do you mean? I see hundreds of ylang blossoms in spicehouse."

"All picked in evening." Tang turned the key and heard the double click of the bolt shooting into the catch. When the commander of the guard came to fetch his men, he would have to be entrusted with the key. There was noth- ing else to be done; certainly, the garden could not be left unlocked. The prince faced his wife, then said, "Ylang blossoms picked in evening are not potent."

"Not potent?"

Tang shrugged. "They are good for balms and teas, but potion made from those blossoms does not last. Only flowers picked in morning have strength to make perma nent love potion."

Wei Dao narrowed her sloe-eyed gaze. "Why do w have only weak blossoms?"

"Because strong blossoms do not keep long. Even i journey from Shou Lung is short, they spoil before we sel them all."

Wei Dao shook her head in open disbelief. "No. You d not want venerable mother to return! You like life of bar barian!"

Unaccustomed to being addressed in such tones, ever by his own wife, the prince raised his hand-then founi

Wei Dao's wrist pressed against his own, blocking hi strike.

They glared into each other's eyes for a moment, thei

Tang asked, "What if I press oil and spell fails? Wha does Cypress do to Lady Feng then?"

Wei Dao looked away and did not answer.

"Then we do this my way," Tang said. "We wait to;

Hsieh's ship-then I press oil."

Wei Dao's face paled. "You mean…?"

"Yes." Tang nodded. "Blossoms come on Ginger Lady."

The princess's eyes grew as round as saucers. "And you do not tell Cypress?"

Tang scowled at her naivete. "Secret of oil is to press morning-picked blossoms. If we tell Cypress, do you think he returns Lady Feng to us?"

Wei Dao lowered her gaze in a practiced show of defer- ence. "My husband, your wisdom outshines the sun." She even managed a blush. "Please to excuse. I go do penance

for my doubts."

Tang smiled benevolently, then dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "Do not be hard on yourself."

"Oh, but I must." Wei Dao bowed very low, then turned to scurry down the Path of Delight.

Five

The harbor at Pros seemed equal parts quicksand and mudflat, with just enough water to float the flat- bottomed scow carrying the Storm

Sprite's survivors toward shore. Ruha sat beside Captain Fowler in the front of the boat-it seemed ludicrous to call the square end a bow-scanning the shanty town ahead. Most of the buildings were gray, ramshackle affairs in desperate need of a lime wash. The huts closest to the water hovered above the beach on flimsy stilts that looked ready to pitch their loads into the mud at the slightest push. A half-dozen rickety docks jutted far out into the bay. Two of the piers were empty;

the rest bustled with fishermen unloading their take.

As the scow approached shore, Ruha noticed that most of the catch had the same high dorsal fins and wedge- shaped heads as the vicious fish that had swarmed her.

The witch could not even guess how many sharks lay piled upon the piers, but there were close to two-dozen boats unloading the sharp-toothed monsters.

Ruha looked over her shoulder to the scow pilot, a sour-faced man with leathery skin and unkempt gray hair. "That seems like a great number of sharks. Do the people of Pros eat nothing else?"

"They're not for us," the pilot replied. "The Cult of the

Dragon buys all we can take-and it pays mighty well,

I'll add."

Fowler scowled at this. "What for? Shark's hardly a

good-eating fish."

The pilot shrugged. "No one knows, and no one's asked. Since the Cult came to town, we've learned to keep our noses out of their business. You'd be wise to do

the same."

The pilot barked a command to his rowers, and the

vessel angled toward one of the empty piers. A small gang of shoremen emerged from the shanties and wan- dered down the dock, preparing to unload a cargo the

boat did not carry.

Fowler gnashed his tusks, then stood to inspect the small crowd more carefully. "I don't see Vaerana Hawk- lyn." He glared down at Ruha's face, veiled behind a beautiful silk scarf given to her by Minister Hsieh, and fingered the Harper's pin fastened inside his robe. "If she's not here, how doyou plan to pay me?"

"Vaerana will meet us." The statement was more one of hope than conviction; it had taken the disabled caravel five days to sail the short distance from the battle site to

Pros, putting Ruha ashore four days late. "And even if she does not, I have been given a local name."

"Jonas Tempaltar? No cooper I know has the gold to buy a cog." Fowler cast a longing glance toward the Gin- ger Lady, which still lay anchored in the bay, awaiting a small load of supplies needed to complete her most press- ing repairs. "It's not too late to go to Ilipur."

"Captain, if you wish to return to the Ginger Lady alone, perhaps Minister Hsieh will give you the reward."

"Not bloody likely." During the voyage to Pros, it had grown apparent that while Hsieh felt indebted to Ruha, he considered Captain Fowler little better than an ani- mal, hardly worthy of notice, and certainly not deserving of reward. "I'll see my gold from the cooper first."

The scow scraped over a mud bar, then slowed as it approached the pier. As the stubby vessel drifted along- side the dock, the pilot commanded his crew to raise oars.

The rowers stowed their equipment and threw mooring ropes to the shoremen, who quickly pulled the boat to the dock and tied it to the piles.

A pair of large warriors in steel breastplates stepped forward to peer into the empty hold. Both men wore black caps embroidered with the hastily sewn emblem of a dragon's head.

"No cargo, William?"

The pilot motioned at Ruha and her fellow survivors.

"Only these castaways." He glanced at the emblem on the warriors' black caps, then added, "A dragon sank their ship."

"That so?" The speaker sneered and glanced at his companion. "That's too bad for them, ain't it, Godfrey?"

Godfrey nodded. "Terrible, Henry-but they've still got to pay the harbor tax." He raised a finger and pointed it at each of the survivors. "Let's see, I count eleven people.

That'll be eleven silver."

"Eleven silver!" Ruha protested. "That's-"

"That's a sight too much," Fowler interrupted. He shot

Ruha a warning scowl, then motioned at two one-legged sailors who had so far outlived their amputations. "We lost most of our silver when my ship sank. Besides, you can see some of us aren't whole. We shouldn't have to pay full for them."

Godfrey eyed the pair's bloody stumps, then laughed heartily. "Very well, half-fee for the half-men. Ten silver."

Fowler glanced at the long swords hanging from the men's belts, then spread his hands. "We cannot pay your price."

It was a lie, for Ruha still had twenty silver coins that had been inside her aba when the Storm Sprite sank, but she did not contradict the captain.

Fowler reached inside his own tunic and withdrew two coins. "How about two silver?"

"For two silver, we will not let you spit on the dock."

This time, it was Henry who spoke.

Fowler shrugged in resignation, then turned away

from the two warriors. "Pros used to be an honest place. I

don't know what happened."

Godfrey peered over the half-ore's shoulder, then motioned to Ruha's jambiya. "Let me see that knife. Per- haps we can let you ashore in exchange for that and the two silver."

"No." Ruha motioned to the coins in Fowler's hands.

"Take those coins or nothing. I will not let you have my jambiya"

Godfrey's eyes hardened, then he and Henry drew their swords. The pilot and his two rowers leapt out of the scow, and the gang of shoremen backed down the pier. Fowler picked up an oar, as did Arvold and two more healthy crewmen. The eyes of the two armored warriors widened at the unanticipated opposition. They glanced around the quay at the smirking faces of the shoremen and the scow crew, then gathered their nerve and stepped to within a pace of the scow.

Godfrey stretched his hand toward Ruha. "The dag- ger-and the silver."

Fowler looked to Ruha. Tour call. Lady Witch."

"Witch?" The color drained from the faces of both war- riors, and Henry whispered, "Maybe we oughta call for some help."

Ruha blew a breath into her hands and began the incantation of a wind spell that would silence the men's voices-then abruptly stopped as the clamor of galloping hooves reverberated down the pier. All eyes turned shore- ward to see three riders charging down the quay, two holding cocked crossbows in their hands, the third lead- ing a string of empty mounts.

The trio was coming so fast the scow crew and shore- men had to leap off the quay to avoid being ridden down.

Ruha saw that the first rider was a sturdy, florid-faced woman with a flyaway mane of honey-blonde hair. Like her two companions, she wore an indistinct cloak over a coat of chain mail and carried a large mace in a sling on her saddle. The second rider was a grim-jawed man with

a drooping black mustache and stony black eyes, while the third was a rotund cleric with the heavy silver chain of a holy symbol showing above his collar. They reined up just short of Godfrey and Henry, and the two with cross- bows aimed their weapons at the two ruffians.

Both warriors lowered swords, and Godfrey hissed,

"Vaerana Hawklyn!"

"You know me?" Vaerana asked. "Too bad for you."

She shot the man in throat. Her companion did like- wise to Henry, drawing a chorus of angry cries from the other quays. Vaerana nonchalantly glanced toward the shouting, then dismounted and stomped to the edge of the pier.

"Sorry we weren't waiting when you docked, Tusks!" she said, grabbing Fowler's hand and pulling him onto the pier. "We were expecting the Storm Sprite!"

"We had some dragon trouble." Fowler glanced at the other quays, where dozens of shouting, black-capped war- riors were rushing toward shore, intent on avenging their comrades' deaths. "Have you lost your mind, Lady Con- stable?"

Vaerana waved off the captain's concern. "Don't worry about the Black Caps. They've got a few surprises wait- ing for them." The Lady Constable turned to Ruha. "You must be the witch Storm sent me."

"Ruha of the Mtair Dhafir at your service, Lady Con- stable." Ruha glanced at the two corpses lying on the pier. "Their crime was not so terrible. Was it truly neces- sary to kill them?"

Vaerana's eyes flashed with irritation. "Only if I don't want Cult assassins waiting behind every hill on the way home," she growled. "Now, if you're through interrogating me, can we get the hell out of here?"

"Yes, of course."

Feeling sheepish for questioning Vaerana's actions,

Ruha stepped over to the side of the scow. Although

Hsieh's physician had done a remarkable job of healing her wound-her thigh was now swollen to only half-

again its normal size-the witch could not help limping as she moved.

"What happened?" Vaerana was looking not at Ruha, but at Fowler.

"Sharks." The half-ore waved a hand at his two amputees. "Them, too."

Vaerana looked the men over, then turned to her rotund horse-handler. "This is going to be more difficult than we thought, Tombor."

"We have a little time." Tombor was staring toward the shore, where the Black Caps were already ducking for cover as a hail of crossbow bolts rained down on them from the windows of several huts. "Let's just hope that once we're mounted, we can charge out of town as easily as we sneaked in."

"Maybe we should leave the one-legs here," Fowler sug- gested, helping Ruha out of the scow. "They aren't much good to me, and the ride's liable to kill them anyway."

Vaerana shook her head. "Can't do it, Tusks. The

Cult's worse than ever; a ride on a galloping horse will seem like fun compared to what the Black Caps would do to them." She turned to the grim-jawed rider who had killed Henry. "Pierstar, you and Tombor see to the crew.

I'll take care of Tusks and the witch."

Pierstar jumped into the scow to help the amputees, while Tombor directed the rest of the crew to come around to the left side of the horses-he had to say 'port'

before they understood what he wanted. Vaerana led

Ruha and the captain to the first pair of spare mounts.

The Lady Constable held out the reins of the first horse. "You can ride, can't you. Witch?"

"Yes, I think so."

Ruha's reply was unduly modest, for she had grown up riding camels. Compared to those cantankerous brutes, even the most spirited stallion was child's play. She took the reins, gathered up her aba, and slipped her foot into the stirrup. Her only awkward moment came when she had to swing her injured leg over the saddle and did not

quite succeed. A fiery ache shot through her entire body.

In the tongue of her father, she cursed all fish and wished them a frigid death in seas as cold as ice.

Once Vaerana saw that Ruha could handle her own mount, she passed the reins of the second to Fowler.

"How about you, Captain? Can you ride?"

"If I can handle a ship's helm, I can steer a dumb ani- mal."

The captain picked Godfrey's sword up off the pier, then clumsily thrust his large foot into a stirrup and hoisted himself into the saddle. By the time Fowler's sailors were ready to ride, the Black Caps on shore had broken through the hail of crossbow bolts. They were advancing through the streets toward the end of the quay, where dozens of armored horsemen, all dressed in a similar manner to Vaerana and her companions, were beginning to assemble.

"I thought the Cult controlled Pros!" Fowler com- mented. "How'd you get so many of Elversult's Maces into town?"

"The shark bounty; the fishing captains are desperate for crews," Vaerana explained. "We snuck in a few at a time, pretending we wanted work."

Vaerana stood in her stirrups and twisted around to look at the quay behind her, where Fowler's crew sat two to a horse. The amputees were seated before the two strongest men and tied into their saddles with leather straps. They looked rather frightened and weak, but they had heard what would befall them in the Cult's hands and made no protest.

"Listen up, sailors!" Vaerana said. "Your horses know more about this than you do, so don't start thinking you're smarter than they are. If you get in trouble, just drop the reins and hold on to your saddles."

Arvold immediately released his reins. Though Tombor had already positioned himself at the back of the group,

Ruha moved her own horse out of line and deftly backed him to the rear of the line. If the sailmender had trouble,

she did not want to miss the chance to repay the debt she owed him.

Once the witch had changed positions, Vaerana pulled her mace and set the spurs to her mount. Pierstar's horse reared, then bolted after the Lady Constable, and in the next instant the entire line was thundering down the dock.

When Vaerana neared the shore, she gave a loud whoop. The entire company of horsemen began to move, some blocking the alleys and others spurring their mounts straight down the village's largest lane.

Ruha's mount left the quay. She saw several enemy arrows streak through the air ahead of her; then she passed across the waterfront and followed the rest of the column into a warren of narrow streets. As the company passed, the warriors blocking the side streets fell in at the rear of the charge, and the witch soon found herself caught in the midst of a herd of snorting, pounding horseflesh.

The company galloped inland past a dozen ramshackle inns, then came to an intersection and turned westward.

One of Fowler's men panicked and jerked his mount's reins, demolishing a shanty when the startled horse lost its footing and crashed through the hut's weather-beaten walls. Ruha saw one ofVaerana's Maces guiding his own mount into the debris to help the tumbling sailor, then she was around the corner and thundering down the muddy lane. A hundred yards ahead, the road passed through the gateway of a timber stockade, then curved around a grassy hill and disappeared from sight. A pair of Black Caps were trying to push the rough-hewn gates closed, but a flurry of crossbow bolts suddenly sprang from the front of the column to cut them down.

That was when a shower of flaming hail filled the air, followed by a flurry of arrows that caught the company in a deadly cross fire from both sides of the lane. Several men cried out, nearly falling from their saddles as fiery pellets pierced their legs and shoulders and even their

chain-mailed torsos. Panicked, ringing whinnies echoed off the weatherworn huts as tufts of black fletching sud- denly sprouted in the flanks and withers of galloping horses, and one of the beasts fell.

The rider went rolling head over heels down the street, coming to a rest before an alley too narrow to be called a lane. It was simply a space between two shanties. From this crevice shot a glimmering net of golden light, which quickly settled over the stunned horseman before he could recover his wits and rise.

Ruha yanked on her reins, nearly knocking Tombor from his horse as she crossed in front him. She guided her mount toward the lane, kicking its belly to urge it onward. The beast realized instantly what she wanted.

The witch barely had time to raise herself in her stirrups before it leapt over the fallen warrior and entered the cranny, its flanks brushing the wood on both sides of the lane.

As Ruha expected, she found herself barreling down upon an astonished wizard who, lacking the time to cast a spell, turned to hurl himself to the ground. The witch spurred her mount forward. The horse caught the sor- cerer square in the back with both front hooves, snapping the man's spine with a sickening crack.

"I love horses!" Ruha cried, reining the beast to a stop.

"You are so much more cooperative than camels!"

The witch looked over her shoulder to see Vaerana's grim-jawed comrade, Pierstar, staring down the alley as the fallen wizard's net dissolved around him. The witch backed her mount down the lane toward the dazed war- rior.

"Stand up, Pierstar!" she ordered.

The astonished warrior tossed off the remnants of the net and lurched to his feet, stuttering his astonished thanks. Ruha emerged from the alley to find a crescent of horsemen arrayed around her, firing their crossbows into the huts from which the shower of Black Cap arrows had erupted.

"That was a damned thoughtless thing to do!" snarled

Vaerana Hawklyn, pulling Pierstar onto her own horse.

"We go to all this trouble to fetch you, and what do you do? Put yourself at risk!"

With that, Vaerana jerked her horse toward the gate.

Pierstar glanced over his shoulders and shrugged in apology. Ruha was so astonished that she could only stare after the Lady Constable.

"Go on, Witch." Tombor pointed his mace through the gateway. "And don't mind Vaerana's sharp tongue. She's just worried about Yanseldara."

"Who?"

"You'll find out soon enough." The cleric spurred his horse after Vaerana, waving at the witch to follow. "She's the reason you're here."

Ruha urged her horse after Tombor. A steady clatter of crossbows sounded behind her as, one after the other, the warriors fired their weapons, then turned to follow the rest of the company through the gate.

The terrain outside Pros was surprisingly clear. Other than a few weed-choked farm plots lying close to the vil- lage stockade, the vista was one of grassy, rolling knolls, with a vast sapphire sky hanging so low it seemed they would ride into it. The muddy road snaked its way up a broad, dry valley, meandering back and forth around the base of the dome-shaped hills, gradually growing drier and dustier as it climbed away from the Dragonmere.

At last, the road curled around a knoll and angled up the headwall of a small dale. As the company approached the slope, the largest part of the column peeled off and circled the hill, leaving the wounded and those riding double, save the Lady Constable and Pierstar, to con- tinue up the main route.

Ruha caught up to Captain Fowler, and together they followed Vaerana to the back side of the knoll, where the warriors were dismounting and reloading their cross- bows. They dismounted and passed their reins to Tombor, who had been assigned to stay with the horse holders

and ready his healing spells. Vaerana cast a wary glance in Ruha's direction, but turned without comment and started up the slope. Fowler offered a helping hand to the witch, and they began to climb.

During the ascent, they had to pause several times to rest the witch's throbbing leg, giving them ample oppor- tunity to study the road to Elversult. After cresting the dale's headwall, it struck out as straight as an arrow across a broad expanse of flat, featureless tableland.

Already, the wounded riders and the sailors were a hun- dred yards across the plain, but the distance before them seemed immeasurable, and the witch could see that there were no knolls or ravines where the company of riders could hide while it regrouped and tended to its wounded.

By the time Ruha and Fowler reached the summit, the

Maces had already fallen to their bellies and crawled to positions overlooking the road below. Some of the men had wrapped small strips of oil-soaked cloth around the heads of their crossbow bolts and were preparing small piles of tinder to ignite with flint and steel. The witch made note of where the nearest fire would be, then she and Fowler crawled to the crest of the hill and laid down on either side of Vaerana.

"If we are setting an ambush, I have fire magic that will prove useful."

"I'd like to keep you secret, at least as much as pos- sible." As Vaerana spoke, she kept her hazel eyes fixed on the road. "Don't use your magic unless you're certain of getting them all."

"I cannot be certain. It depends how many they send."

"It'll be a bunch," Fowler said. "That arrow squall at the gate was no accident. They were waiting for us."

The suggestion drew an angry scowl from Vaerana.

She remained silent a long time, then reluctantly nod- ded. "I guess we weren't as sneaky as I thought. The Cult was watching us."

"How'd they know you were there?" Fowler asked.

Vaerana shrugged. "Pros is a small town, and we hadn't planned to be there four days. The Cult probably grew suspicious when they heard the innkeepers gossip- ing about all the strangers lolling about in their rooms."

"You are certain they do not have a spy among your men?" Ruha asked.

Vaerana frowned as though insulted. "Not among this bunch. Pierstar picked every man himself." She glanced down the long line of warriors as though confirming to herself that she was right. "Besides, I'm the only one who knew you were coming. A spy couldn't have told them anything except that I was in town."

"When Pierstar fell, their wizard tried to capture him."

Ruha observed. "Perhaps they were curious about what you wanted in their village."

"Not that curious," Vaerana retorted. "They've had a thousand gold coins on my head for two years. Their assassins wouldn't pass up that price out of curiosity."

"Speaking of prices," Fowler said, "a thousand gold ought to cover what you owe me when we get to Elver- suit."

"Owe you?" Vaerana narrowed her eyes and glared at the half-ore as though she were considering running a dagger up his belly. "Why do you think I owe you a thou- sand gold?"

"Because of my promise," Ruha explained. "I said the

Harpers would buy him a new cog."

Vaerana's eyes bulged. "You what?" she gasped.

"Why?"

"So he would attack the dragon," Ruha explained. "It was tearing another ship apart, and it was the only way to persuade him to risk the Storm Sprite."

The Lady Constable's mouth gaped open. "You can't…

you don't have the…" She let the sentence trail off, then shook her head and cocked her brow. "Did Storm say you could do that kind of thing?"

"No," Ruha admitted.

"But it was a Harper's promise." Fowler turned out the

collar of his tunic, displaying the pin Ruha had given him. "And I've got proof."

Vaerana stared at the silver harp and moon, shaking her head in disbelief. "You gave him your pin?"

"The ship was a very big one," Ruha said. "If I had let the dragon sink it, hundreds of lives would have been lost."

"If Captain Fowler was reluctant to attack the dragon, didn't you think it might be too much for the Storm

Sprite to handle?"

Ruha shook her head. "Of course not-not with my magic."

A purple cloud settled over Vaerana's face. "Witch, I

don't know where we're going to get the money to pay for a new cog-but I can tell you this much: it won't come from Elversult's treasury! Yanseldara would never stand for that, not for Storm Silverhand herself!"

Ruha turned to Fowler with a guilty knot in her stom- ach. "I am so terribly sorry. Captain. They told me that the Harpers always stand behind the word of-"

"What are you apologizing for?" Fowler interrupted.

"Didn't you hear her? Vaerana said we."

Ruha lifted her brow. "She did, did she not?" The witch looked back to Vaerana. "And I was beginning to think you did not like me."

"I don't, but you are a Harper-at least until Storm

Silverhand gets the bill for Fowler's new cog."

With that, Vaerana fell silent and looked back toward

Pros, searching for the first sign of pursuit. The Black

Caps were slow in coming, which Ruha took to be an omen both good and bad. On one hand, it suggested that the Maces' escape had taken the Cult by surprise, which would make it more difficult for them to pursue. At the same time, however, the delay also meant they were tak- ing the time to organize themselves and gather a large force.

After a few minutes. Fowler grew impatient and started to rise. "What are we waiting for? Those Black

Caps had their fill of fighting in Pros. They're not com- ing."

Vaerana grabbed the half-ore's furry arm. "Don't be in such a hurry, Tusks. It's a long ride to Elversult."

"Then the sooner we get going, the sooner I get my

gold."

"It's not that easy." Vaerana pulled Fowler back to the ground. "If we don't discourage our pursuers now, they won't hesitate to attack us on the open road. I'm afraid the Cult of the Dragon has grown bold since Yanseldara's catalepsy."

"Catalepsy?" Fowler echoed. "Something's wrong with the Ruling Lady?"

The Lady Constable's mouth tightened, and she looked away. "Someone poisoned her. Yanseldara's fallen into some sort of trance, and we haven't been able to call her back. That's why I sent for the witch."

"But I am not a healer!" Ruha objected. "I know little of poisons and antidotes."

Vaerana glowered at her disdainfully. "I know what a witch is."

The Lady Constable did not have time to say more, for the valley below began to resound with pounding hooves.

She turned and nodded to the Maces who had wrapped oil-soaked cloths around the heads of their crossbow bolts. The warriors began to strike their flints, and within seconds several of them had ignited small piles of tinder. Faint wisps of white fume began to rise from the tiny fires, but Ruha did not think the smoke would be visible from the road, especially to someone on the back of a galloping horse.

The first riders appeared at the base of the hill, mounted on skinny horses with frothing mouths and lathered coats. The men were whipping their haggard beasts mercilessly, demanding speed that the neglected creatures could not possibly provide.

Vaerana raised her hand, holding her warriors at bay while the column of Black Caps wound its way around

the base of the knoll. The men with the oil darts touched the heads to the small fires they had kindled, and long ribbons of black fume began to rise into the air. Several

Cult warriors looked toward the summit of hill.

"Now!" Vaerana yelled.

As one, the entire company of Maces rose and aimed their crossbows at the road below. A staccato chorus cracked over the valley, and the first third of the Cult col- umn hit the ground screaming. Blossoms of flickering orange flame sprang to life on the opposite hill.

"Reload!"

Vaerana's warriors touched the heads of their empty crossbows to the ground, then stuck their boots into the toe stirrups and began grunting and cursing as they pulled the stiff bowstrings back to the lock plates. On the road below, the anguished wails and cries for help went unanswered as the uninjured Cult warriors galloped for- ward, trampling their wounded fellows in a desperate effort to round the corner before the Maces loosed another volley. The fires on the opposite hill began to spread, creating an impenetrable wall of flame and filling the valley with a choking pall of smoke.

Vaerana waited until the leading riders had cleared the tangle of wounded, then called, "Squad the First!"

Half the Maces loosed their bolts, again aiming at the front of the Cult column. More men screamed and fell, lengthening the obstacle course for those behind and adding to the confusion. While the first squad reloaded, the rest of the Elversult warriors turned their aim far- ther back, where the enemy horsemen continued to round the corner.

Vaerana waited until the first group of men had reloaded, then called, "Squad the Second!"

The second half of the company fired, downing a dozen horses and men. More riders galloped around the bend, either leaping their fallen comrades or stumbling over them, and a few alert Cult members turned their terri- fied horses up the hill.

Vaerana waited until the assault had almost reached the top, allowing the second squad time to reload, then called, "All fire!"

The Cult horsemen rode into a wall of black shafts that unhorsed all but three of them. The survivors brought their mounts up short, took one look at the gang of war- riors reaching for their maces, then spun their mounts around and charged down the slope.

That was all it took to break the enemy's morale.

When the rest of the Cult riders rounded the corner and heard their wailing comrades, then saw three of their fel- lows coming down the hill at a breakneck gallop, they quickly concluded that the situation was hopeless. The entire column turned back, beating their horses as sav- agely as when they rode into battle.

"That'll keep 'em off our backs." Vaerana turned away from the bloody scene below and pointed at five men.

"You men hang back and keep a sharp eye. I doubt the

Black Caps will find their courage again, but let me know if they do. The rest of you, to your horses. We've a long ride before we're safe again."

Fowler started to take Ruha's arm to help her down the hill, but Vaerana moved between them and took his place.

"You go on ahead, Tusks," Vaerana said, slipping

Ruha's arm over her shoulders. "I'll help the witch."

Fowler raised his heavy brow, then shrugged and began to pick his way down the hill. The Lady Constable let him get a little way ahead, then started to help Ruha down the slope.

"Now, about this absurd promise you made-"

"Which promise?" Ruha interrupted. "The one wherein

I swore to combat villainy and wickedness, or the one wherein I swore to help those in fear for their lives?"

Vaerana stopped walking and narrowed her eyes.

"Don't you quote watchwords to me! I've heard about you, and I won't stand for such trouble-not in Elversult, and not when so much depends on you!"

Ruha lowered her gaze. "Forgive me." Had everyone in the Heartlands heard of the Voonlar debacle? "I did not mean to anger you, but what would you have done? The dragon was tearing the ship apart, and Captain Fowler would not go to her aid. Hundreds of people would have drowned."

Vaerana started down the hill again. "A tough choice,

I'll grant you. But defending others doesn't mean throw- ing your own life away, not when people are counting on you someplace else."

"I would not have attacked if I thought the wyrm was going to kill me," Ruha remarked. "Nor would I have asked Captain Fowler to risk his ship if I thought the creature would sink it."

Vaerana shook her head in incredulity. "Well, what'd you expect? Did you think you'd kill it?"

"Of course."

Vaerana stumbled and nearly sent them both tum- bling.

Ruha hissed as she caught her weight on her injured leg, then explained, "I have killed three other dragons, in the desert. And I would have killed this one, had it not already been dead."

"Dead?"

"It was like a ghoul." As they continued their descent,

Ruha explained how Captain Fowler's crew had har- pooned the beast, and how it come back to attack after her spell had destroyed its internal organs. "Then it sprayed a black cloud over the bow, and the entire front half of the ship dissolved."

Vaerana's shoulders suddenly grew tense beneath

Ruha's arm, and her florid complexion turned as pale as ivory. "You'd better describe this dragon to me, Witch."

"As you command. First of all, it was huge, perhaps as large as the Storm Sprite herself. It was very black, with dull and withered scales and many fleshless places on its-"

"Cypress!" Vaerana hissed.

"Cypress?"

"He came up from the Wetwoods to attack the cara- vans around Elversult," the Lady Constable explained.

"But that was three years ago, and Yanseldara said she

killed him."

"If this is the same dragon, perhaps she did," Ruha said. "He looked very dead when he attacked us."

This did not seem to calm Vaerana at all. "Then

Cypress is the Cult of the Dragon's idol! No wonder they're being so bold!" She swept Ruha up and started down the hill at a trot. "We've got to hurry!"

The witch wrapped her fingers into Vaerana's cloak, terrified the Lady Constable would trip and fall on top of her. "Wait! I do not understand!"

"The Cult of the Dragon worships dead dragons," Vaer- ana continued to run. "The reverence keeps the spirits from being drawn into the netherworld, and the dragons just keep growing."

"Please put me down!" Ruha urged. "There is no rea- son to worry. I have destroyed Cypress."

Vaerana began to slow, but did not return the witch's feet to the ground. "You what?"

"I blasted him apart," Ruha confirmed. "With lamp oil and magic. From the inside. The detonation ripped him

apart."

Vaerana's face remained blank and uncomprehending.

"You destroyed him?" she gasped. "You're sure?"

"The explosion annihilated his body, along with the stern of Captain Fowler's ship," Ruha confirmed. "I saw the sharks eating pieces of his body. The same thing would have happened to us if Minister Hsieh had not come back."

Vaerana's jaw fell. "Minister who?"

"Hsieh," Ruha said. "It was his ship we saved. He is a

Shou mandarin-"

"I know who he is!" Vaerana finally stopped and returned Ruha to the ground. They were near the bottom of the hill, less than twenty paces from the horses, but

the Lady Constable did not resume walking. "I don't know whether to kiss you or gut you!"

"I would prefer you do neither," Ruha replied. "Instead, please explain why you are so upset."

"I think Hsieh is our enemy":

"Of course. The Shou are very fond of dragons."

Vaerana shook her head. "I'm not talking about their emperor-that's something else altogether." The Lady

Constable lowered her voice. "My sages think someone's trying to steal Yanseldara's spirit."

"Ah." Ruha was beginning to understand why Vaerana thought a witch might help her friend. "Why do they think that?"

"Someone has stolen a staff her father gave her-"

"It is very dear to her?" Ruha was no master of spirit magic, but she had learned something of the subject from

Qoha'dar, an old witch with whom she had been exiled as a child. "Perhaps the staff is even her most treasured possession?"

Vaerana nodded, and lowered her voice even further.

"And by all accounts, Prince Tang's mother is a master of the art."

"But why are the Shou doing this terrible thing?" Ruha asked. "What do they want with Yanseldara's spirit?"

Vaerana bit her lip, then looked away. "It's my doing.

They trade in poisons and fixings for dark magic. I've threatened to chase them out of Elversult if they don't stop. I guess stealing Yanseldara's spirit is their way of calling my bluff."

With that, Vaerana snaked an arm around Ruha and started toward the horses, half-dragging the witch along.

"If we don't want this turning into another of your de- bacles, we'll need to ride like the wind!"

The reference to Voonlar stung like a slap, but that was not the reason Ruha pulled free of Vaerana and stopped. The witch had only a passing familiarity with spirit magic; it would not be enough to save Yanseldara.

Vaerana did not seem to realize that her companion

had stopped until she reached the horses and took her reins from Tombor. "Well?"

"I cannot save Yanseldara." The words came so diffi- cultly that Ruha could barely utter them. "You must send

for someone else."

Vaerana's face darkened. "Out of the question! I'd do this myself if I could, but the Shou know me." She grabbed the reins of Ruha's mount; then led it, along with her own horse, toward the witch. "As pitiful an excuse for a Harper as you are, you're the only one who can save Yanseldara-which means you're all that stands between Elversult and the tyranny of the Cult of the

Dragon."

Vaerana thrust a set of reins into the witch's hands.

"But, Lady Constable-"

"Don't 'but' me, Witch!" Vaerana roared. "You're sup- posed to be a Harper, and a Harper goes where she's called. Besides, all you've got to do is sneak into the Gin- ger Palace and find Yanseldara's staff. Even you can

handle that!"

"You do not want me to lift the curse?"

Vaerana rolled her eyes. "Why would I think you can do what Thunderhand Frostbryn could not? All I need is someone the Shou don't know-but you almost botched that up, didn't you? Now, I'll have to do some fast riding if we don't want that mandarin recognizing you."

The Lady Constable thrust her foot into a stirrup, then turned toward the rest of the riders. "Tombor!"

Tombor, who could hardly have missed the last part of

Vaerana's outburst, led his own horse forward. "Yes,

m'lady?"

Vaerana flipped her hand in Ruha's direction. "Take the witch back to Elversult. After you tend to the seri- ously wounded, I don't imagine you'll have any healing magic left, but do what you can for her leg. Then see that she's given an introduction to the Ginger Palace, like we

planned."

Tombor's twinkle-eyed gaze darted to Ruha, then back

to Vaerana. "And what will you and the rest of the Maces be doing, Lady Constable?"

"Inspecting a caravan," Vaerana replied. "A Shou cara- van."

Six

The journey to Elversult took the rest of the day and most of the next, so that they reached the outskirts of town in late afternoon. Suggesting it might be wise not to be seen together in the city, Tombor pointed out a wooded hill where Ruha and Fowler could wait while he saw to the wounded. Grateful for any chance to rest their sore rumps, the pair climbed out of their saddles and led their horses into the copse.

The captain fetched some water from a nearby stream so the witch could tend her shark bite; then they settled in to wait, too weary to talk or do anything but listen to the distant creak of passing wagons.

Twilight came, and worried that Tombor would not be able to find them in the dusky wood, Ruha asked the cap- tain to collect some sticks while she gathered some dry moss off the forest floor. She was about to strike the fire when the portly cleric emerged from the shadows, appearing so suddenly and silently that he startled

Fowler and made him drop an armload of branches he had collected.

"For a big man, you move mighty quiet." Fowler eyed a small wooden coffer that Tombor was carrying in both hands. "Especially considering that your arms are full."

A sour smile flashed across the cleric's lips and dis- appeared instantly, then he chuckled merrily. "Sorry;

sometimes I can't resist. It's a gift of the gods."

"Which one?" Ruha asked. "Most priests invoke their gods often, but I have yet to hear you utter the name of yours."

Tombor set the coffer on the ground at her feet. "My god is not so vain as the others, but his healing magic is as strong as that of most-as you'll soon see." He removed a small bundle of cloth from his pocket, then turned to

Fowler and motioned at the dry moss Ruha had gath- ered. "Would you be good enough to start a small fire?"

Ruha passed her tinderbox to the captain, then watched as Tombor unwrapped his bundle. Inside was a dark, sour-smelling balm that seemed to undulate like water. The cleric dipped his fingers into the salve, and the witch pulled her aba up to display her wound. After the long ride from Pros, it had started to open again. The edges were red and inflamed, while a steady flow of clear liquid oozed from the laceration itself.

Tombor rubbed his salve over the injury, and Ruha's leg seemed to disappear beneath a rippling shadow. The ointment felt as light as air; there was no greasy feeling or any burning sensation, only a slight, soothing coolness upon her skin, similar to what it felt like to step out of the hot sun into the shade of a large tree.

Once Tombor had smeared the balm over the entire wound, he tossed aside what remained. "It's my best salve, but I have to mix each batch fresh. It doesn't keep more than an hour." Tombor placed the coffer he had brought next to Fowler's fire, then said, "We'll let the balm do its work while I explain what I brought."

He opened the lid, revealing what looked to be several hundred pieces of gold stamped with the proud raven of the Kingdom of Sembia. Ruha had lived in the Heart- lands long enough to know that the coins were accepted as currency throughout the region, for Sembite mer- chants controlled much of the area's trade.

"And the Lady Constable said she couldn't buy me a new cog!" Fowler snorted.

"She couldn't-at least not with this gold." Tombor reached deep into the chest and removed a coin, then used his knife to scratch it and reveal the dull gray sheen of lead. "The coins on top are real. The rest are fakes

Vaerana took from a local thief. Don't try to buy anything with them, but they should serve to convince the Shou you're a legitimate spice buyer."

"That's to be the witch's disguise?" Fowler asked.

"It's the only way we can get her into the Ginger

Palace." He turned back to Ruha. "Tomorrow morning, you'll meet a local merchant we've hired to present you to the Shou. He's a useful tool, but an unreliable one, so don't tell him anything about your mission."

"Our mission," Fowler said. "I'm going with her."

Ruha lifted her brow. "Thank you, Captain, but-"

Fowler raised his hands to silence her. "You don't have any choice. Witch. I'm not letting you out of my sight until I get my new cog. Besides, if you don't have a body- guard, the Shou are liable to think you aren't very impor- tant."

Ruha looked to Tombor, who nodded. "It's a good idea."

He reached into his pocket to remove a gold coin. It was as large as Ruha's palm, and embossed with the image of a camel and several strange letters. "Make certain that

Princess Wei Dao sees this. She has a love of coins from far lands, and this one comes all the way from Cal- imshan."

"May I offer it to her as a gift?" Ruha asked, reaching for the gold piece. "Perhaps I can make a friend-"

Tombor shook his head, pulling the coin out of her reach. "It's better to let her find it on her own." He tossed the coin into the coffer. "Just make certain she sees it, and she'll think there are more treasures like it deeper in the chest. Her imagination will do more to win you a night in the Ginger Palace than any gift."

"And once we're inside, what then?" asked Fowler.

"You'll only have a day or so to find Yanseldara's staff and get out," Tombor answered. "Vaerana will do her best

to stall Hsieh's caravan, but she won't be able to hold it up long without starting a war."

"What does the staff look like?" Ruha asked. "And do you have any suggestions as to where I might find it?"

"The staff isn't much to look at-it's a plain rod of oak-but there's a huge topaz on top. None of us has any idea where you should look. The Shou are a secretive people, especially about their homes. All I can tell you is that Tang's mother, Lady Feng, is reportedly a master of spirit magic."

Tombor glanced down at Ruha's leg, where the dark balm had stopped rippling and now looked like nothing more than a strange shadow with no source.

"The salve's done its work," the cleric said. "Turn your leg toward the firelight."

Ruha did as instructed. When the flickering yellow light fell on her thigh, the balm rose off her leg like dark steam. The shark bite had closed completely, leaving only a thin curved line and slight red sheen to mark where the wound had been.

"That is a most marvelous balm." Ruha looked from her wound to Tombor's heavy, jowled face. "You must tell me which god to thank!"

Pretending not to hear Ruha's request, the cleric closed the coffer lid and stood. "With that chest among your things, you'll need a safe place to spend the night.

I'd recommend the Axe and Hammer. Anyone in the city will tell you how to get there."

"What about our guide?" Fowler asked.

"He'll meet you on the way," Tombor replied. "Just start down Snake Road."

"How will we recognize him?" Ruha asked.

"Don't worry about that; he'll find you." Tombor stepped away from the fire, slipping into the dusky shad- ows as quietly as he had appeared. "Abazm always knows who's on the road to the Ginger Palace."

Save for an impression of impregnable reclusion, the

Ginger Palace had little in common with those hulking stacks of stone Heartland lords called home. Instead of the squalid green waters of a moat, the Shou citadel was surrounded by the soldierly ranks of a ginkgo forest, and sat not upon some windswept crag, but upon a square mound of pounded earth. The walls of its outer curtain were plastered smooth and painted white as alabaster, and they were capped along the entire length by a peaked roof of scarlet tiles. At every corner stood a tower with five stacked balconies, each one covered by a scar- let-tiled roof with upswept eaves. Inside the fortress, sev- eral buildings rose high enough above the outer curtain to display the same roof styling, lending an aura of har- mony and supreme order to the entire edifice.

"I still don't like this," hissed Fowler. He was walking beside Ruha as they followed their guide, Abazm, down a white-bricked avenue toward the palace gates. The cap- tain was dressed in a brown aba the witch had made for him the night before, and in his arms he bore the small wooden coffer Tombor had loaned them. "No one's going to believe we're spice buyers-not in these outfits!"

"If you do not like my plan, Captain, you may with- draw," Ruha whispered. She stopped and held out her hands. "There is still time."

Fowler clutched the box more tightly to his chest. "And let you out of my sight? When I've a new cog, and not a minute before."

Abazm, a greasy-haired dwarf dressed in a striped burnoose, whirled about in midstride.

"What is all this whispering, Master and Mistress?" He was surprisingly thin compared to most dwarves, with bushy eyebrows as black as kohl, a hawkish nose, and the stubble of a dark, coarse beard. "It is most unbecom- ing. The Shou will think you do not trust me."

"We don't," growled Fowler. "Keep walking."

Abazm glanced toward the palace and remained where he was. "If the Shou believe you have no trust for me,

they will have no trust for you."

The dwarf's gaze dropped to the coffer in Fowler's hands, lingering there just long enough to send a shiver down Ruha's spine. After joining them on the road, he had insisted on seeing their funds before he risked his own reputation by introducing them to the Shou, Though

Ruha had been careful not to let him reach into the chest,

Abazm had raised an eyebrow when he saw the Sembite coins. He had offered to check them for purity, remarking that a well-placed friend had told him a local thief was counterfeiting Sembite coins. The witch had curtly ordered Fowler to shut the chest, pretending to be suspi- cious of both the guide's story and his motives.

"It is not necessary that the Shou trust us," Ruha said.

"It is only necessary that they like the color of our gold."

"Of course, I cannot judge that without a closer inspec- tion." The dwarfs eyes flicked to the coffer and remained there, as though he expected Ruha to open the chest again.

"They'll like it well enough." Fowler bared his tusks at the little merchant. "Now walk."

Abazm sighed heavily, then continued down the white- paved avenue. Fowler let the dwarf get a little way ahead, then turned to Ruha.

"I don't like that little fellow, any more than I like this plan of yours," the captain commented. "I'm sure Vaerana wanted us to say we're from Sembia, like most spice mer- chants. We'd draw less notice than claiming we come from Anauroch."

"I do not care what Vaerana wanted." Ruha stepped to the captain's side and kept pace with him. "I am not from

Sembia. How can I pretend to be from someplace I have visited only twice?"

"I've been there plenty of times."

"But you are not the spy," Ruha whispered. "And I have learned better than to pretend I am someone I am not.

That is what caused the trouble at Voonlar. If I claim I

am from Anauroch, there is no need to explain my igno-

rance of Heartlands customs."

"And what about me?" Fowler grumbled. "I know less about deserts than you do about ships. At least you've sunk a ship."

Ruha reached over and straightened the checkered kef- fiyeh covering Fowler's head and neck. "Just look strong and mean. That's all that is expected ofBedine men."

They reached the end of the avenue, where their guide stood waiting. Abazm clambered up a broad set of marble stairs to a tile-roofed portico of simple post and beam construction. The lintel had a pair of elaborate, long- tailed peacocks engraved along its length, while the beam ends resting atop it had been fashioned into styl- ized dragon heads. On the far side of the porch hung a pair of glossy, red-lacquered gates decorated with the yel- low figures of rearing basilisk lizards. Next to each gate stood a Shou sentry armored in a conical brass helmet and a red silk hauberk imprinted with the tessellated pattern of its plate scale lining. Each guard held a long, curve-bladed polearm, the butt resting on the floor between his feet and the shaft rising vertically in front of him. Both men kept their slanted eyes fixed straight ahead, as though they did not even see the three strangers approaching.

Abazm strode straight between the two men and tugged on an ornate yellow pull cord. A muffled gong reverberated through the gates, then a small viewing portal swung open above the dwarf's head. A scowling

Shou official peered down his long nose at the merchant.

"We do not expect you, Abazm."

Abazm clasped his hands and bowed so low that, had he worn a proper dwarven beard, it would have scraped the floor. "I have brought merchants from the distant sands of Anauroch, Honored One." Without standing, he waved a hand at the coffer Fowler held. "They wish to have commerce with the Ginger Palace."

The Honored One's gaze flicked over the coffer, then back to Abazm. The dwarf stepped closer to the viewing

portal, drawing a silver coin from his sleeve and deftly displaying it between his cupped hands, where the two sentries could not see it.

"I ask Prince if he wishes to see you."

A sharp clunk reverberated through the gates, then one gate swung open. Abazm -led the way inside, slipping his coin to the Honored One so smoothly that Ruha did not see it change hands. Inside, a path of white marble led across a huge, yellow-bricked courtyard to a double- tiered mansion. The building was of the same post and beam construction as the portico, save that the spaces between the posts were filled with white-plastered walls, silvery windows of rare and expensive glass, or red- lacquered doors decorated with yellow basilisk emblems.

The pillars and lintels were carved with a great variety of stylized creatures: birds with tails of flame, tiger-faced jackals, furry imps with long curling tails, and a hundred more. The building's two roofs, as the witch had seen from outside, were covered with scarlet tiles and swept up at the eaves. Every detail was arranged in perfect symmetry and balance, carefully contrived to impart upon the onlooker a complete sense of serenity and con- sonance, as though to imply that the master of the palace could control even the wildest whim of nature.

Ruha started to follow the Honored One across the courtyard, but suddenly found her path blocked by six guards who had apparently stepped out of nowhere. They were armed and armored as those outside, save that their emotionless gazes were locked on the witch's face.

Abazm took Ruha's sleeve and gently pulled her back.

"Please, Mistress, we have not been invited into the palace."

He pulled the witch toward a pillared gallery that ran along the inner perimeter of the curtain wall, where a long line of stone benches had been provided for the com- fort of those waiting to visit palace residents. Ruha counted more than thirty merchants gathered on the seats. Many wore the billowing tunics and outlandish

hats of Sembite merchants, but there were also dwarves in striped burnooses, elves outfitted in their customary leather and green, even a pair ofbare-chested ores dressed in silken knickers and garish stockings. No mat- ter what their costume, they were all holding a coffer similar to the one in Fowler's hands.

Ruha's heart fell. Abazm had gotten them inside the

Ginger Palace as promised, but it was going to be a long time before she could begin her search.

A few of the merchants called greetings to the dwarf.

Abazm returned each salutation with artificial warmth and politely introduced his companions as Ruha and

Fowal'sid of the Mtair Dhafir. Without exception, the dwarf went on to explain that his clients were incense traders from Anauroch, and then suggested a meeting in his shop-no doubt with an eye toward earning a com- mission if anything came of the arrangement. With each introduction, the witch silently cursed Abazm's efficacy, but she forced herself to offer salutations and respond enthusiastically to her guide's efforts. Before she finally reached a vacant bench at the end of the line, Ruha had made three appointments for two days hence-by which time she hoped to have returned the stolen staff to

Yanseldara and be well on her way back to Storm Silver- hand's farm in Shadowdale.

Fowler remained strangely silent the whole time, pre- ferring to stand behind Ruha with his gaze fixed firmly on the ground. As the witch took her seat, he leaned close to her ear.

"I told you this plan was a foolish one. I've carried cargo for half a dozen of these fellows."

Ruha looked back down the line and saw that several merchants were, indeed, staring in their direction. "Then sit down and do not look so suspicious. I am sure you are not the only half-ore they have ever seen. With luck, they will find it difficult to toll you from the others."

Fowler scowled as though insulted, but sat down with the coffer in his lap and pulled his keffiyeh down his

brow. Ruha settled in beside him, and Abazm clambered onto the bench next to her.

"Not to worry," the dwarf whispered. "I am a favorite of the Princess Wei Dao. She will see that we do not wait more than three or four hours."

"Four hours?" Ruha gasped. That was half the day, and from what Tombor had said, Vaerana would be able to delay Hsieh's arrival little more than a day. "Is there no faster way?"

Abazm's bushy eyebrows came together in an exagger- ated expression of hurt. "That is fast." He gestured to the long line of merchants. "Of late, Prince Tang has been slow about his business. Some of these men have been waiting three days already!"

Ruha glanced at Fowler and caught him sneering as though he were going to speak. "Say nothing, Fowal'sid.

At least we are inside."

"Of course we are. Is that not what I promised?"

Abazm cocked an eyebrow and gazed thoughtfully at

Ruha. "But if that is all you wished, there was no need to hire me-as I am sure your friends told you."

"They said you could arrange a quick audience."

Ruha looked toward the rear of the courtyard, deciding to use the time to familiarize herself with the palace's layout. She could see only the front part of the com- pound. The back half was sealed off by a pair of winglike ramparts that spread outward from the midpoint of the mansion, where it changed to a two story structure, to meet the walls of the outer curtain. Above these parti- tions showed the tiled roofs of two huge, single storey buildings located near the back of the compound.

In the front courtyard, where Ruha and the other mer- chants sat waiting, a narrow, L-shaped building stood in the southeastern corner of the enclosure. The witch con- cluded that this was the sentry barracks, for a steady flow of guards passed through the doors in both direc- tions. A similar building sat in the opposite corner of the courtyard. Save for the two guards posted outside its

doors, this structure seemed deserted.

The witch had barely finished her study before the

Honored One emerged from the mansion at the head of a small procession of guards. He led the troop across the courtyard toward Ruha and her companions, drawing an astonished murmur from the pillared gallery. Abazm frowned in puzzlement, but pushed himself off the bench and turned to his clients.

"It is better than I hoped," he declared. "We will not be required to wait at all."

Fowler looked far from relieved at this news. "Why all those guards?"

Abazm shook his head, bewildered. "Because of you two, perhaps. The Shou are not fond of half-men, and they are bound to be suspicious of women who cover their faces."

The procession stopped before them; then the Honored

One bowed to Abazm. "Princess Wei Dao asks you into audience hall."

The dwarf cast a smug look over his shoulder and returned the bow, as did the witch and the captain. The

Honored One turned toward the mansion, and the guards closed around Ruha's small company without showing a flicker of suspicion or anxiety. The witch found it strange that, if the Shou were suspicious other and Fowler, they did not bother to take herjambiya or the captain's sword.

The Honored One led the procession up a marble stair- case and through an open doorway at the far end of the mansion. They passed through a high-ceilinged anteroom so quickly that Ruha barely noticed the stylized frescoes, then entered a long, spacious room hung with silk tapes- tries and floored with the mosaic of a beautiful, flame- tailed crane.

In a teak throne at the far end of the room sat a strik- ing Shou woman in a tight, ankle-length dress embroi- dered with a golden dragon almost as sinuous as she.

Arrayed around her were a dozen women and half as many men, all watching in expectant silence as Abazm

boldly led his clients forward. As the trio drew nearer,

Ruha saw that the princess was a woman who believed even more firmly than the Bedine in the power of cosmet- ics. Her painted lips were as glossy and red as the palace's lacquered gates, her eyelids were sapphire blue, and, save for the rouge highlights beneath her round cheekbones, her face was powdered as white as alabaster.

Only a yellow scarf carefully tied around her throat seemed at all out of place, bunched up as it was around the dress's high collar.

The Honored One stopped before the throne and bowed, then flourished his hand at Abazm. "The dwarf

Abazm, Princess."

Abazm stopped before Wei Dao's throne and kneeled on the floor, then leaned forward and pressed his fore- head to the wood. Ruha cast a questioning glance at

Fowler, who scowled at the dwarf's gesture and merely bowed. She did likewise, hoping they were not inadver- tently insulting their hostess.

If they were, it was impossible to tell. The princess glared at the back ofAbazm's skull as though she wanted to stare a hole through it. The Honored One slipped away from the dwarf, and no one took any notice whatsoever of

Ruha or Fowler.

At last, Abazm could no longer stand the silence. The dwarf cautiously allowed his gaze to creep across the floor to the princess's feet. "Princess Wei Dao, you honor me with your radiance."

"Abazm, how surprising that you return so soon to

Ginger Palace." The princess fingered the scarf at her neck. "And how fortunate."

Abazm raised himself so that he was merely kneeling before Wei Dao. "I am your servant, and the servant of the Ginger Palace as well." He twisted around to gesture at his clients, and Ruha glimpsed a bewildered gleam in the dwarf's eyes. "I have brought traders from a distant land-"

"No! No more foreign powders!" Wei Dao ripped the

scarf from her throat, exposing an ugly swath of partially healed skin eruptions. "See effects of your pearl dust?"

Abazm gasped at the sight of the princess's ravaged complexion. Incoherent, half-voiced explanations regard- ing Lheshaylian sorcerers began to pour from his mouth, and he looked to the Honored One for help. The Shou fixed his gaze on Princess Wei Dao and pretended not to

notice.

"You say, skin shine like moon!" Wei Dao waved a hand toward the sky, gesturing so angrily that the effort car- ried her to her feet. "Skin shine like harvest moon, craters and all!"

Abazm leapt up, but before he could turn to run, two guards caught him by the arms. They lifted the dwarf into the air and held him before the princess, his feet dangling six inches above the floor.

"I b-b-beg your forgiveness!" the dwarf cried. "I did not know this would happen! I made my own wife try the powder before I sold it to you!"

"You give me same powder as dwarf woman?" Wei Dao snarled.

"Only to see if it was safe, Princess!"

The princess's eyes narrowed. "Liar-it is not safe!"

She tied her scarf around her throat and nodded to the guards. "Take deceitful dwarf to tanning vats."

Ruha cringed at the punishment. It was unlikely that the tubs would be deep enough to drown Abazm but, unless the Shou tanned leather differently than the

Bedine, the vats would be filled with harsh fluids and the foulest offal gathered from the pens of dogs and swine.

The witch knew better than to think she could intercede on the dwarf's behalf, but she would not leave him behind after she recovered Yanseldara's staff.

As the guards carried him out the door, Abazm jerked one arm free and swung around to face the throne. He glanced briefly at the witch and Fowler, then yelled,

"Wait! Spare me. Princess, and I will tell you something you should know!"

Ruha's stomach grew as heavy as lead. Fowler gnashed his tusks; then the Honored One's panicked voice echoed across the chamber. "Take him away!"

The guard recaptured Abazm's arm and turned to obey.

"Wait." The princess leaned forward in her throne, peering past Ruha and Fowler to the dwarf. "Say what I

should know, Abazm. Then I decide whether to spare you."

The Honored One stepped forward, positioning himself squarely in front of Wei Dao. "Frightened dwarf say a- anything, Princess. We cannot b-believe him."

There was a catch in the Shou's voice-and Ruha thought she knew why. "But you can believe us." The witch bowed to the princess, tugging on Fowler's sleeve so he would do the same. "We have no reason to lie."

Wei Dao studied the witch and her companion, then asked, "You know what insidious dwarf says?"

Ruha turned to face Abazm, trying to decide whether it would be wiser to expose the chamberlain's corruption herself, or to restrain herself and hope the treacherous dwarf realized that his best interests now lay in working with her.

"Do you know what dwarf says?" the princess demanded.

Ruha fixed her gaze on Abazm and let her hand drift toward herjambiya. Without turning around, she said, "I

think I do, yes."

Abazm swallowed hard, then looked away from Ruha.

"Most Merciful Princess," the dwarf began. He glanced at the witch's hand, then continued, "Most Compassionate

Lady, I beg leave to report that it is necessary to pay your trusted chamberlain in order to secure appointments within the Ginger Palace."

Ruha sighed behind her veil. She turned to face the princess, fully expecting to be called upon to confirm

Abazm's story.

The chamberlain was already kneeling before Wei

Dao's throne, his brow pressed to the floor and his arms stretched out before him. "Compassionate Princess, I beg mercy for my family."

Wei Dao raised her thinly plucked eyebrows. "Then you acknowledge this crime, Chuang?"

"I do. My pockets hang heavy with silver." Chuang's muffled voice was barely audible. "It is way of this land, and I am weak. At first, I am surprised and grateful when visitors pay me silver. But soon it is expected, and I

do not open gates until-"

"Enough. You do not lie to me, and I grant mercy to your family." Wei Dao stared at the prone chamberlain until his body began to tremble and great, racking sobs reverberated across the floor. "But you dishonor your ancestors before Mandarins of Heaven, and it is beyond me to ask that they make you welcome."

"Yes, Princess. I know."

Wei Dao looked up, then turned to a squat, flat- cheeked man with an unwavering scowl and granite eyes.

"Please, General Fui."

Before Ruha realized quite what was happening, the general had drawn a heavy, square-tipped sword from one of the guard's scabbards and stepped to Chuang's side. There was a sharp, wet thunk, and the witch saw just how swiftly and surely death would come if the Shou found her out.

The general cleaned the blade on the headless cham- berlain's silken robe, then returned the weapon to its owner and stepped back to his place. His face remained as impassive as ever.

Wei Dao studied the chamberlain's disembodied head for a moment, then seemed to remember herself and looked toward the chamber entrance.

"Perfidious dwarf is permitted to leave."

The guards set Abazm down. As soon as the mer- chant's feet touched the floor, he spun on his heel and bowed very low.

"Your wisdom is more boundless than the sky,

Princess!" As he spoke, he was backing out the door.

"Only Eldath herself is more merciful and forgiving!"

Wei Dao accepted the tribute with a faintly amused smirk. "You always welcome at Ginger Palace, Abazm.

Please to call when berry lip paint is ready."

Once the dwarf was gone, Wei Dao rose and, stepping around the pool of blood at the base other throne, led her entire entourage across the floor to Ruha and Fowler. She circled them slowly, running her gaze over their robes and studying the witch's veil especially closely, then stopped in front of them.

Ruha was astounded that Wei Dao's guards would allow their mistress to approach so closely to two armed strangers, a fact that suggested they believed the princess to be perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

"Abazm says you come to do business with Ginger

Palace?"

"Aye, with Prince Tang," Fowler confirmed.

Wei Dao's eyes hardened. "Prince Tang is no longer receiving today. Perhaps you come back tomorrow."

"We're wanting a large cargo, and we're ready to pay now."

"Tomorrow."

The princess stepped away without turning her back on her visitors and paid no attention to the coffer in

Fowler's hands, even when he shook it to clank the heavy load of coins inside.

Ruha laid a restraining hand on the captain's arm.

"That is enough, Fowal'sid."

The half-ore scowled, but held the coffer steady, and

Wei Dao stopped short of turning to leave.

"We have come to sell as well as buy, Princess," Ruha said. "And you will be more interested in our wares than your husband."

Out of the corner other eye, Ruha caught Fowler frowning at her unexpected improvisation. She ignored him and lowered a hand to the pocket other aba, asking,

"If I may, Princess?"

Wei Dao nodded, but Fowler, who had seen her draw spell components from those same pockets, cleared his throat.

"Maybe now's not the time-"

Ruha whirled sharply on the burly half-ore. "Did I not tell you to be silent, Fowal'sid?"

Fowler's leathery lip trembled with the impulse to curl into a snarl, but the half-ore forced himself to lower his gaze and nod respectfully. "You did, Lady."

When the witch looked back to their hostess, she noticed a glimmer of respect in Wei Dao's otherwise inex- pressive face. Deciding that she had read the princess's character correctly, Ruha reached into a pocket and with- drew two milky tears of hardened tree resin.

"Have you heard of frankincense or myrrh?"

Wei Dao examined the droplets closely. "Are they gems?"

"In a manner of speaking, for they are more valuable than gold. If you can have someone fetch a brazier and afill it with coals, I will show you."

| "Magic is forbidden in my presence."

| "This is not magic." Ruha found it interesting that the jshou considered sorcery a greater threat to the safety of

Etheir nobility than they did blades. "The drops will pro- duce a pleasant smoke, nothing more."

Wei Dao nodded to two men, who promptly left through a door in the rear of the chamber. Fowler continued to stare at the white tears so tensely that Ruha feared he would alarm Wei Dao. The witch stepped closer to her hostess, until their shoulders were almost touching.

"While we await the brazier, I will tell you more about these wondrous tears." Ruha raised her hand, displaying the milky drops before Wei Dao's eyes. "They are resins, scraped from beneath the bark of certain trees that grow only on the eastern side of the highest mountains in

Anauroch."

"The great desert?" Wei Dao asked.

"Yes. There, we use frankincense and myrrh to scent

the air around stagnant oases. The tears can also be pressed to create perfumes, or mixed with almond oil to create restorative tonics and soothing lotions, or stirred into elixirs to ease the pains of childbirth." Ruha paused to see if this elicited any interest from the princess.

When it did not, she continued, "They are also good for soothing stinging eyes, earaches-even as a remedy to the bites of certain venomous insects, and as an antidote to some kinds of poison."

Again, Ruha watched closely to see if the last item of her description drew any special notice from the princess.

But if Wei Dao had any interest in poisons, it remained concealed with the rest of her thoughts.

"Is there anything frankincense and myrrh cannot do?" Wei Dao's voice was somewhat incredulous.

"Perhaps there are other uses, but I have described all

I can demonstrate."

The two men returned with a small brazier already filled with hot coals. Ruha crushed one of the tears between her palms, then sprinkled the crumbs onto the embers. An aromatic smoke rose from the pan, filling the entire chamber with such a sweet, fresh smell that the

Shou finally allowed their stoic masks to slip. They began to smile openly and crowd closer to the source, taking such deep breaths that some of them actually snorted.

Even the stem-faced guards could not keep their nostrils from flaring.

Wei Dao studied her entourage's reaction in bemused meditation. "This is not magic?"

"I am no spellcaster," Ruha lied. She pressed the other tear into the princess's hand and motioned toward the brazier. "It will smell just as sweet if you sprinkle the crumbs. Tomorrow, I will demonstrate its use in the mak- ing of perfumes and poultices."

Wei Dao did not step toward the brazier. "Not neces- sary. We buy all you have."

"What about the price?" Fowler gasped. "Aren't you even going to ask?"

Wei Dao glanced at the brazier, where her entourage stood sniffing the sweet-smelling smoke. "You already tell me it is more valuable than gold. I believe you."

Fowler shook his head in amazement, then looked back to Ruha. "Well, Lady Ruha, how much do we have?"

It took Ruha a moment to realize what he was asking, for she had not expected her plan to succeed quite so well. "I'm afraid we have very little at the moment." The witch had only three more tears in her pocket. "You see, our ship was sunk by a dragon-"

"By dragon?"

Wei Dao's exclamation caught Ruha as much by sur- prise as had the offer to buy all her frankincense. "It was a very large dragon," the witch explained, keeping a watchful eye on the princess's expression. "A black one.

^ Do you know it?"

|, Wei Dao's face became as unreadable as ever. "I do not

|know this dragon. But it is difficult for Shou to hear of

|dragons doing evil things."

| "Yes, I have heard your emperor is a green dragon."

| "Jade." Wei Dao bowed, suggesting that the audience

| was at an end. "Please return to Ginger Palace with more

I frankincense and myrrh."

| Ruha did not return the bow. "You may be certain we

(will-but first, we are interested in purchasing some

S wares to take with us." The witch fingered the silk veil that Hsieh had given to her. "As you can see, the love of

Shou silk reaches even into the depths ofAnauroch."

"Of course. You discuss with Prince Tang." Wei Dao bowed again. "Come back tomorrow, and new chamber- lain sees you are among first to see my husband."

"I am sorry, but that is not possible." Ruha had to fight to keep the panic out of her voice. "We must leave for

Ilipur tomorrow to buy a new ship."

"Then come very early in morning. Chamberlain give you first appointment." Wei Dao turned to leave, this time without bowing.

Ruha threw open the coffer in Fowler's hands. "Before

you go, Princess, Abazm said you would want to see the color of our gold."

Wei Dao spun around, affronted. "Show me money?

What for?"

Fowler tipped the box so she could look inside, and the princess's expression changed instantly-first to one of puzzlement, then interest.

"Yes, of course. Abazm always tells us we must inspect coins." She glided over to the box and started to reach inside, then remembered herself and asked, "May I

touch?"

Ruha nodded, and Wei Dao picked up several gold pieces and raised them to her face. When Ruha saw the coin from Calimshan slide down the long sleeve of the princess's dress, she thought it best not to say anything.

"You stay tonight in Ginger Palace," Wei Dao said, as though she had thought of the idea herself. "We see

Prince Tang soon after breakfast."

Seven

Ruha raised her veil, blew into the tree-shaped keyhole, and whispered the incantation to her wind spell. A

short blast of air whistled softly through the slot, raising a gentle clat- ter as it rattled the lock. The sound was not loud, but the witch cringed.

After a long night of skulking through the Ginger Palace, she had worked her way deep into the labyrinthine corridors of the residential section, and the guards here were thick as ants in their hill.

The bolt slid back with a muffled clack. Ruha stood, then looked back down the long hall. Already, two sen- tries were stalking toward her, their bare feet sliding across the silk runner in utter silence. It was their incredible stealth that made the witch's search so nerve- wracking. She never knew when she would meet one coming around a corner, or suddenly feel someone gliding past her as she kneeled before a keyhole.

Ruha pressed herself into a corner beside the door, moving very slowly and deliberately. Although she had rendered herself invisible with a sun spell, the mirage was not perfect. Any quick motion would cause a shim- mering blur that might alert the guards to her presence.

The men stopped before the door, gesturing at the knob and whispering to each other in the lilting language of the Shou. After arguing a few moments, they tried the

latch. When the door swung open, they gasped and backed away, both reaching for their square-tipped swords. One of them spoke, and the other scurried down the hall.

The remaining guard peered into the room, calling gently, as though saying someone's name. No one answered. He reluctantly entered the chamber, still speaking softly. Though she was puzzled by the man's alarm, Ruha followed him through the door and instantly realized she had found the personal quarters of Lady

Feng.

Opposite the door was a glass window, through which spilled the pale dawn light illuminating an anteroom similar to those Ruha had found in the private apart- ments of both the prince and princess. Like many cham- bers in the Ginger Palace, this one was furnished with nothing more than a single low table and a few straw mats. The walls were covered not by the resplendent frescoes of birds and reptiles that decorated the other royal apartments, but by subtly hued paintings of sym- bolic portent: a snake coiled into an ascending spiral, a feeble old man sailing backward across a rainbow, a spi- der that had spun its web in the mouth of a singing woman, and many more images that would have put the witch into a contemplative mood, had she not been so jit- tery from hours of skulking about the Ginger Palace.

The guard crossed the chamber and nervously called through the doorway into the next room. When no one answered, he reluctantly inched forward. Ruha went to the window and, while she waited for the sentry to com- plete his search, looked out upon the rear part of the palace complex. She could not see much, for a large, high- walled enclosure sat in the middle of the grounds, block- ing her view of everything beyond save the tiled roofs of the two huge buildings the witch had noticed yesterday.

Ruha could not decide what the enclosure was. Its walls were capped by a double row of barbed spikes, as though it were some sort of prison, but the gates hung

open beneath a strange, scaly archway that vaguely resembled a dragon's tail. A short, opal-paved path con- nected the peculiar courtyard to the mansion, crossing an arcing, multicolored bridge and snaking through a thicket of well-tended shrubbery. The witch noticed sev- eral sentries kneeling among the bushes, not hiding so much as trying to avoid obtrusiveness.

Ruha was dismayed to note that the sun had already risen high enough to kindle an iridescent glimmer in the pearly surfaces of both the walkway and the enclosure's scaly arch. There was not much time to find Yanseldara's staff. Soon, the breakfast servants would arrive at the guest house in the front courtyard. Fowler could probably keep them at bay, but he would be hard-pressed to explain the witch's absence when someone called to escort them to Prince Tang's audience hall.

Ruha cast an impatient look toward the room the guard had gone to inspect. She was tempted to start her own search before he left the apartment, but that would be very dangerous. As quietly as Shou sentries moved, he might slip into the chamber while she wasn't looking and see her move something. Besides, if anyone in the other rooms was a light sleeper, it would be better to let the sentry disturb them.

A short time later, the guard finally returned, mutter- ing to himself and glancing askance at the mystical sym- bols on the walls. Ruha had heard no conversations or startled cries to suggest he had awakened anyone, so she did not understand his anxiety. When she had inadver- tently drawn the guards' attention before, they had seemed much more confident of themselves. In one case, they had remained quite composed while they explained to a startled bureaucrat why they had awakened him.

Another time, they had efficiently searched an entire apartment without disturbing the sleeping residents.

Ruha waited until the fellow left the room, then went to the door and used the same spell she had used to unlock the latch to lock it again. A muffled cry of surprise

sounded from the hall. The guard tried the door, again speaking softly. The witch turned away and crept silently into the next room, not caring that she had alarmed him further. When the other sentry returned, he would no doubt bring a superior, who would probably insist on searching the apartment again. If the witch was still here, the sound of the lock turning would alert her to their arrival.

The next room appeared to be Lady Feng's dressing closet. In one corner stood a wooden screen decorated with the painting of a naked king and queen lying together upon a bed of purple night. In the corner oppo- site the screen were two dressing bureaus, each with a costly silver mirror hanging behind it. One wall of the room was lined by several wardrobes decorated with paintings of astrological constellations.

Though Ruha considered the room an unlikely place to hide Yanseldara's staff, she paused long enough to peer behind the screen-nothing there-and open each of the wardrobes. Inside were dozens of silk gowns in many dif- ferent styles, all dyed black as kohl and brocaded with the same endless pattern of open and closed eyes. The witch ran her hands over the floor and explored the cor- ners behind the clothes. When she found nothing but sashes and slippers, she closed the wardrobes and crept into the next chamber.

Against the far wall sat the most elaborate piece of fur- niture in Lady Feng's apartment, a large canopied bed surrounded by a folding partition. Each panel was deco- rated with the fearsome aspects of leering, grotesque monsters, such as sometimes invaded a sleeper's dreams.

In their claws, the fiends carried strange, exotic weapons like those stored in the secret armory that Ruha had dis- covered beneath the palace. There was a horned goat- man brandishing a two-bladed sword, a bat-winged tiger carrying a spear with barbed points at both ends, a red- eyed centaur whirling a three-chained flail, and a wide assortment of other hideous creatures to protect Lady

Feng's spirit while she slept.

They were not needed now. No clothes lay folded on the dressing couch beside the bed, and four of the parti- tion panels hung open, revealing a black silken quilt embroidered with the same green dragon that hung beneath the prow of Hsieh's ship. The blanket lay neatly spread over the mattress and pillows, lacking even the slightest rumple to suggest anyone had slept beneath it the night before.

Ruha's stomach sank. She had assumed all along that she would find Yanseldara's staff somewhere near Lady

Feng, but it had never occurred to her that Lady Feng would not be at home.

The absence certainly explained the guards' reaction to the rattling lock, but not much else. Perhaps Lady

Feng had spent the night in a lover's chamber, or com- muning with the spirits in some occult place Ruha had not yet discovered. There could be any number of expla- nations, most of which meant the staff would not be found here. Nevertheless, the witch decided to continue her search. Even if she failed to recover Yanseldara's staff-she could hear Vaerana maligning her already-at least there was a chance she would find something to lead her to Lady Feng.

Ruha crawled onto the mattress and ran her hands over the black quilt, then felt under the pillows. When she found nothing, she crawled off and straightened the quilt, then looked under the bed and stood on the dress- ing couch to peer above the canopy. She went to the cor- ner and inspected a low writing desk. On the surface sat a bottle of ink, a small calligraphy brush, and several blank leaves of rice paper. A well-worn text in ancient

Dwarven sat on one corner; the witch knew just enough of the arcane language to recognize the words "alchemy" and "first materials."

Though she could not see how it might be connected to

Yanseldara's staff, the witch picked up the dwarven text.

Aside from what she had already examined, there was

little else in the room. She turned to leave, and that was when she heard the scratching.

It was as gentle as the whisper of her feet across the floor, but it was steady, and there was something more: a weak, plaintive whimpering. Ruha returned the dwarven text to its place, then kneeled in the corner of the room.

The scratching and the squealing grew more discernible, and she caught a faint whiff of a gamy and slightly rank odor. An animal.

Ruha ran her fingers up the corner and felt the seam of a door. She pulled the writing desk away from the cor- ner, and a small click sounded inside the wall. The scratching and squealing stopped, but the gamy odor grew stronger. Resisting the urge to pull laerjambiya-if she attacked anything, the sun spell would fail and ren- der her instantly visible-the witch laid her palms on a fresco of what looked like a slumbering mountain and pushed.

A hidden panel swung open, revealing the interior of a cluttered chamber. A small, white-furred face peered around the edge of the door. At first, Ruha thought the thing was a monkey, until she saw that its black-tipped muzzle was long and foxlike. Then she noted the black mask around its eyes and thought it looked like a rac- coon, save that its head was as small and narrow as that of a weasel.

The creature, whatever it was, regarded the empty doorway for an instant, and then its nose twitched and its ears pricked forward. It raised its dark eyes, which remained as expressionless as they were large, toward

Ruha's face and chittered despondently. For a moment, the witch thought the little animal could not see her and was disappointed at finding no one in the door. Then it slipped forward, revealing an emaciated body and a white-ringed tail, and gently pawed at her with two tiny black hands.

Hoping the creature was not trying to defend its terri- tory, Ruha stepped past it into the secret chamber.

Beneath a brass chandelier in the center of the room stood a worktable, the surface barely visible beneath a jumble of braziers, balances, cauldrons, and other alchem- ical instruments. Three of the laboratory walls were com- pletely concealed behind rows of tall wooden cabinets, some so full of books and flasks they could not close. The fourth wall had two glass windows, beneath which were a red silk cushion, a box of fetid-smelling sand, and two sil- ver bowls licked so clean they gleamed like mirrors.

I When Ruha paused at the worktable to examine Lady

| Feng's apparatus, Chalk Ears, as she was beginning to

| think of the black-masked creature, leapt onto the only clear corner. It fixed its expressionless eyes on her face, watching her so intently she raised a hand to make cer- tain she had not suddenly become visible. When the witch could not see her own flesh, she regarded Chalk

Ears with a wary eye, then reached toward a flask of what looked like powdered blood.

A surprisingly sinister growl rolled from the creature's small throat. The hair rose along its spine and it lifted itself on its haunches, baring a mouthful of needlelike fangs. Ruha retracted her arm, and the little beast set- tled back onto its corner. The witch clasped her hands behind her back, then slowly walked around the table, studying the rest of the apparatus. Other than a fine coating of dust, she saw nothing to tell her what had become of Lady Feng. Chalk Ears watched her intently, but made no further objections as long as she did not attempt to touch anything.

Ruha went to the first cabinet. Chalk Ears jumped off the table and took a post at her heels. Keeping a careful eye on her little escort, she pulled the door open. As before, the creature watched her carefully, and any doubts about its ability to see her vanished from the witch's mind. Whatever it was, the animal clearly had some defenses against magic, and that could only mean

Chalk Ears was Lady Feng's familiar, linked to her by a special bond of magic and love.

Ruha had never had a familiar, since the spell that summoned them had more to do with the spirit than the elements. But she had heard other witches describe the strength of the union. Sometimes, the two were so closely bound that, over relatively short distances, they could see through each other's eyes and hear through each other's ears.

Ruha kneeled in front of the familiar. "Lady Feng?" she whispered, looking into the creature's big eyes. "Are you there?"

Chalk Ears blinked, but the tiny beast made no move to suggest that it understood.

"Why have you left your familiar alone, Lady Feng? It is starving. Shall I feed it for you and give it water?"

Again, Chalk Ears did nothing. The witch breathed a sigh of relief, confident there would have been some response if Lady Feng were listening. Even if the starv- ing creature's mistress was as cruel as Afar the Merci- less, she would share its pain and be anxious to have it cared for. In fact, it seemed unthinkable that Lady Feng would allow the little beast to fall into such a wretched state unless she had been forced to depart under the direst circumstances.

A muffled crash rumbled through Lady Feng's apart- ment, and guards began to call from the anteroom. Ruha stepped into the bedchamber and pulled the writing desk back into its comer, then slipped into the laboratory and closed the secret door. She pressed her ear to the panel and heard several men rush into the room, still calling out as though they expected Lady Feng to return at any moment. Wei Dao arrived and began issuing commands.

The witch listened for several moments more. When she heard no one dragging the desk from its place, she decided they did not know about the secret room and qui- etly resumed her search.

With Chalk Ears watching intently, Ruha carefully opened each cabinet and looked over the contents. To a nomad's eye at least, they contained an overabundance of

magical supplies: scrolls and tomes in many different languages, a glut of ingredients for every spell imagin- able and some that were not, arcane instruments so obscure the witch could not guess their purpose. Still, she found no sign ofYanseldara's staff, nor any clue of Lady

Feng's whereabouts, nor any hint as to why the Shou sor- ceress had abandoned her familiar.

Finally, Ruha came to a locked cabinet, and Chalk

Ears' long tail began to flick madly. The little beast rose on its haunches and sniffed at the doors, dripping a long stream of drool from its muzzle. The witch examined the latch and discovered that she could pop it easily enough, but Wei Dao and the guards were still shuffling about in

Lady Feng's bedchamber. Fearful of making any sharp noises that might draw their attention to the secret room, Ruha decided to move to the last cabinet.

A long, deep growl rumbled from the familiar's throat.

The fur rose along its spine, and it slunk toward Ruha with bared fangs. The witch pulled herjambiya and brandished it menacingly in front of Chalk Ears' face.

The creature's tail rose straight into the air. It slowly backed away, then took refuge beneath another cabinet and began to whine.

Cursing the black-masked beast for a scoundrel and a blackmailer, Ruha returned to the locked cabinet and slipped her dagger blade into the door seam. Chalk Ears stopped crying and slunk from its hiding place, being careful to remain well out of reach. The witch worked her jambiya down to the latch, then twisted the blade against the jamb.

The door popped open with a loud bang and a puff of yellow smoke. Ruha cried out in shock and found herself sitting halfway across the room, hurled there more by her own surprise than the force of the blast. A scolding harangue erupted from inside the cabinet, and the image of a tall, willowy woman appeared in the air before the doors. She looked almost ancient, with coarse gray hair pulled into a tight bun and a deeply wrinkled

face. Something seemed wrong with her eyes; one of them was almost closed, while the other bulged from its socket as though it might fall out. The woman wagged her finger at the floor and continued her diatribe, send- ing Chalk Ears yelping and skittering across the floor to take refuge behind Ruha. The illusion looked so real the stunned witch did not fully grasp that the trap had not been intended to frighten her until Lady Feng's familiar peered out from behind her and voiced a pitiful plea for food.

The voices of several astonished Shou guards cried out from the other side of the wall, at once puzzled and frightened. Wei Dao called something out, sounding more shocked and bewildered than the soldiers.

The illusion-no doubt an image of Lady Feng her- self-continued to harangue the floor. Ruha gathered herself up, forcing herself to remain calm and consider her options. Hiding was out of the question, for the Shou would certainly investigate until they discovered the cause of all the strange noises. That left only escape, and, as far as the witch could see, there was only one possible route.

Finally, the illusion faded. Chalk Ears cautiously slunk toward the doors Ruha had pried open, where two large ceramic urns contained supplies of food and water that, apparently, the familiar had been unable to reach for several days. The guards, and then Wei Dao herself, called out. When they received no answer, the princess spoke again, this time in a more commanding tone.

Ruha went to the glass windows and looked out. She was on the second story of the palace, no more than thirty feet off the ground. The sentries lurking in the shrubbery around the opal path were all looking away from the mansion, toward the strange enclosure. When they heard the glass break, they would certainly turn toward the sound, so the witch would have to take care not to reveal herself by moving too fast.

Wei Dao spoke again, this time in Common. "I know it

is you, Witch! Come out now, or you go to Chamber of

One Thousand Painful Deaths!"

Ruha had seen the room to which the princess referred.

It was a dank, fetid place in the deepest of the palace's sub-basements, filled with all manor of chains, hooks, and grim instruments of agony.

Chalk Ears leapt up and grabbed the rim of a ceramic um. The whole thing toppled out of the cabinet and shat- tered, spilling a pool of stale water over the floor. Wei

Dao hissed a command, and sword pommels began to hammer at the wall.

Summoning a wind spell to mind, Ruha grabbed the brazier off the worktable and hurled it through a window.

She followed it an instant later, uttering the syllables of her incantation as she fell. A terrific gust of wind tore across the courtyard and rose up beneath her, catching her body in an airy bed as soft as a cloud. The witch som- ersaulted once to bring her feet beneath her, then settled to the ground as though stepping off a stairway.

The sentries in the shrubbery began to yell at each other in Shou. Several rose from their posts and started to run toward the mansion, drawing an angry shout from a young, moon-faced officer. The guards stopped where they were, but continued to stare toward the mansion, squinting and furrowing their brows as they tried to find the strange blur that had just come crashing out the win- dow.

Ruha's stomach had tied itself into knots. The coward in her wanted to flee as quickly as possible, but that would be exactly what her hunters expected. Certainly, a messenger was already rushing to the barracks to call out the guard. Besides, the witch had not yet found

Yanseldara's staff, and if the sentries would not leave their posts to investigate a breaking window, whatever they were protecting had to be important. Ruha turned toward the enclosure and, ever so slowly, began to creep down the opal path.

Over the garden wall came the tintinnabulation of breaking glass. Prince Tang rose and scowled toward the palace, but the crest of the rampart rose just high enough to block the second-story windows-he himself had made certain of that-and he could not see what had hap- pened. No matter. Windowpanes cost as much as dia- monds, but this morning he was working on the problem of the ants, and he had only a short time to solve it before his officious wife fetched him to meet with some new merchant.

Tang glanced at the gate, hanging slightly ajar, and wondered if he dared close it. He had repaired only a quarter of the damage to his garden, and every day he failed to restore the delicate balance meant more dead lizards. Still, he could not hazard shutting himself off from his guards. Minister Hsieh was well overdue, which meant the fresh ylang blossoms had not yet been pressed, which meant Cypress was likely to appear at any moment, spitting acid and demanding his oil.

It puzzled Tang that the dragon had not come already

It had been seven days since the last visit, far longei than Cypress had granted him to provide the oil, and still there had been no demands or threats. The prince was not anxious for the call, of course, but he was pre- pared. His guards-half new, half veterans of the dragon's first appearance-had been eating lasal leaves, a mind-numbing herb that defended against the effects of the Invisible Art. Unfortunately, it also caused tremors and disorientation, and as often as not left long- term users little better than zombies.

Trying to force all thoughts of Cypress from his mind,

Tang kneeled in the sand, turning back to the problem of the ants. On a slab of stone before him, four Thornback lizards were basking in the morning sun, warming their cold blood in preparation for the day's activities. They should have been plump and round of body, with blotchy,

tan-colored hides indistinguishable from the sand of the desert quarter. Instead, they were no fatter than snakes and as white as alabaster, almost translucent at the tips of their stumpy tails. After Cypress's attack, all of the ants upon which the lizards preyed had mysteriously vanished from the garden, perhaps destroyed or driven away by the Invisible Art.

The prince opened one of the many small lacquered boxes he had brought into the park. A pair of red ants that had survived their capture tried to escape. He killed the fugitives and returned them to the container with their ten dead fellows, then sprinkled all twelve bodies onto the stone. The tongue of a single Thornback lashed out and caught one insect in midair, but it showed no interest in the others. The remaining lizards paid the offering no attention at all.

Tang sighed and reached for the fifteenth box. After several failed attempts to feed the lizards common house- hold ants, he had ordered his servants to capture twelve of every kind of ant that lived within a mile of the Ginger

Palace. He had not realized there were so many varieties, or that even Thornbacks could be so particular about the ones they ate.

Tang opened the box and found several large carpenter ants trying to chew their way to freedom. Deciding it would be necessary to punish his servants for their care- lessness, he smashed the survivors and dumped the whole box onto the stone. These plumper insects seemed to interest the lizards more than the previous offerings, as they each snapped up one or two before they stopped eating.

The prince threw the lacquered box down in the sand.

"You are foolish old men! Food need not taste good to save life!"

As one, the Thornbacks lifted their bodies off the rock.

They puffed out their throats and bobbed their heads up and down in the universal challenge of lacertilians. At first. Tang thought his exhortation had angered them,

but then he realized they were looking past him toward the Arch of Many-Hued Scales.

The gates were closed and barred.

Ruha breathed a sigh of relief, then braced her hands against the timber crosspiece and tried to stop trem- bling. The trip down the path of opals had been as nerve-wracking as it had been long. When Wei Dao appeared in the mansion's broken window, the moon- faced officer had sent half his men down the path to see what was wrong. The witch had barely managed to creep off the trail before the sentries rushed past, and despite her caution, one of the men's eyes had briefly drifted in her direction.

After receiving instructions from the princess, the detail had spread out in all directions to begin searching for her. In the meantime, the young officer had as- sembled the rest of his men at the rainbow-colored bridge, and Ruha had been forced to creep past them less than a hand's breadth behind their backs. By the time she had passed beneath the enclosure's scaly gate, the first guards from the barracks were arriving to join the search for her. Though they had not seemed to realize she was invisible, the witch felt certain that Wei Dao would surmise as much as soon as she emerged from the man- sion to direct the search.

From behind Ruha came the metallic swish of a sword leaving its scabbard. She turned to see that the foolish

Shou who was trying to feed dead ants to spiny sand iguanas had risen. The witch could not help gasping, and not because she feared the square-tipped sword he now held in his hands.

It was the man from her vision on the raft. He had the same upturned nose, smooth complexion, and silky black hair, but it was his eyes that convinced her. They were deep and dark, at once confident and self-absorbed. His

jaw was set but not tense, and the stance he had adopted suggested that he was no stranger to holding a sword.

Ruha realized at once that her first evaluation, made from a hasty glance at the fellow's back, had been mis- taken; this was no simple gardener.

The man studied the gates for a moment, then glanced at his lizards and opened his mouth to call his guards.

"Please, there is no need to call for help." Ruha spoke softly and started across the courtyard, moving quickly enough so that he would see her as a shimmering column of air. "I mean you no harm."

An expression of relief crossed the Shou's face. He started to lower his sword, then glanced at the barred gate and raised it again.

"Do not think of crying out," Ruha warned. She had reached the edge of the courtyard, where the stones gave way to sand. "I have no wish to harm you. Perhaps I can even be of service, if you wish to know why the spiny iguanas will not eat your ants."

"Come no closer." The Shou pointed his sword more or less in Ruha's direction, holding it with both hands so there would be no question of disarming him with a quick strike. "Deliver your message and go."

Ruha stopped at the base of a miniature sand dune.

"What of the iguanas?"

"I take care ofThornbacks myself." The man's eyes turned cold and angry, as though he blamed his unseen visitor for the condition of his lizards. "Your message?"

"Why do you think I have come to deliver a message?"

The Shou's jaw dropped, and the anger in his eyes changed to puzzlement. "Perhaps you show yourself, wu- jen." The man took the precaution of retreating a step, then lowered his sword. "And I do not call guards."

Ruha hesitated to do as he asked. Having seen him in a mirage from the future, she was determined not to leave the park without learning more about him, but her curiosity did not translate into trust. Once she showed herself, she would be at the mercy of his sword-a

weapon that, from all appearances, he was quite capable of handling.

As if sensing her thoughts, the Shou retrieved a scab- bard from the ground and sheathed his weapon. "Show yourself, wu-jen, or I draw sword and call guards."

"As you wish."

Ruha raised her hand as though to strike, and her spell evaporated in a curtain of shimmering air. The

Shou's gaze ran up her the entire length of the witch's aba, over her orange silk veil, then lingered on her dark eyes. Slowly, his expression changed from wary to pleased to covetous, leaving Ruha uncertain as to whether she was meeting an unexpected friend or an incorrigible lecher.

"Who-who are you?" The Shou paused a moment, then continued to gaze into her eyes as he asked the sec- ond part of his question, "And who sends you to spy on

Ginger Palace-Vaerana Hawklyn?"

Though Ruha was startled by the man's deduction, she tried not to let it show. She walked toward the Thorn- backs' basking stone, being careful to hold her hands in plain sight. Then, recalling how he had originally mis- taken her for a messenger and remembering how his face had changed to that of a dragon in her vision, she decided to answer his question with a deduction of her own.

"I was not sent by Cypress, if that is what you fear."

The Shou allowed a gracious smile to cross his lips, then prudently stepped away from the basking stone.

"We play at same game." The Thornbacks followed his lead, clambering over the side to bury themselves beneath the sand. "But who is Cypress?"

Ruha locked gazes with the Shou. "He is the dragon, of course-the one I saw you with."

"You are… mistaken." The Shou looked away, and, for the first time, seemed in danger of losing his composure.

"What you claim is impossible."

Ruha glanced at the throng of dead ants lying upon the basking stone, then shook her head. "You have

watched, but you have not considered."

She grabbed several lacquered boxes and leaned over the basking stone, then began emptying the contents onto the sand. A cascade of ants of all sizes and three dif- ferent colors-red, black, and brown-poured onto the sand. Close to a dozen of the insects bounced up on their six legs and began to scurry away. The lizards came instantly alive, scrambling from their hiding places to devour the fugitives in a flurry of whipping heads and darting tongues.

"Ants must be alive!" the Shou gasped, looking back to

Ruha. "But why?"

"You have never lived in the desert, or you would know. Small creatures like lizards often pass their entire lives without seeing water," Ruha explained. "They must take their fluids from their prey-but only from living prey. Dead bodies dry out swiftly in hot temperatures, and water is too precious to waste digesting parched car- casses."

The Shou watched his lizards catch the last of the moving ants, then he opened another box and dumped the contents onto the sand. Again, the lizards gobbled up the live insects and left the dead ones undisturbed.

Across the little courtyard came the clatter of someone trying to open the barred gates. When the portals did not swing apart, Wei Dao's muted voice rolled over the wall, speaking excitedly in Shou.

Ruha's hand dropped toward herjambiya, but the

Shou raised his hand to reassure her.

"Yes, the wu-jen is here with me." He spoke in Com- mon, so Ruha could understand him. "Not to worry. I am safe."

There was a confused murmur outside the gates, then all fell silent beneath the Arch ofMany-Hued Scales. The

Shou, whom the witch now felt certain to be Prince Tang, turned back to Ruha.

"They do not disturb us. Please to accept my gratitude for saving of Thornbacks." Though the prince's tone was

warm, he did not meet Ruha's eyes as he spoke. "But I do not understand how feeding habits of lizards concern this dragon Cypress."

"Is it not true that Lady Feng's kidnappers need her alive, just as the Thornbacks need the ants alive?" asked

Ruha, implying that she knew for a fact what she was only guessing at. "What will they do once she has fin ished enslaving Yanseldara's spirit for them?"

Tang looked up, his eyes both betraying his astonish- ment and veiling something more. "You are accomplished wu-jen." The prince spread his palms and smiled warmly.

"Household of Ginger Palace has need for someone like you."

Ruha scowled, taken aback by the directness of the prince's approach. "We both know I am here on behalf of someone else."

Tang shook his head emphatically. "Oh, no! I do not speak of hiring. I mean to make you Virtuous Concu- bine."

"Concubine!" Ruha cried, both stunned and affronted by the offer.

Tang stumbled an uncertain step backward. A con- cerned murmur began to build outside the gate; then the prince squared his shoulders and stepped back to the basking stone.

"You do not understand, wu-jen." Now he was speaking between clenched teeth. "Virtuous Concubine is honored position in house of Shou prince. Lady Feng is Third Vir- tuous Concubine, and you become Worthy Daughter to

Third Virtuous Concubine to Emperor of Shou Lung. It is position more worthy than queen of any realm in Heart- lands!"

Ruha began to feel a little embarrassed by her out- burst, though she still found it strange that any man would propose such a thing without first making inquiries about her family. "Prince Tang, what you offer is clear enough. Still, I must decline."

Tang looked as though she had punched him in the

stomach. "You-you refuse me? A prince of Shou Lung?"

A muted thump reverberated across the courtyard;

then the top rungs of a ladder appeared above the gates.

Ruha was not overly concerned. Tang had tacitly admit- ted that his mother had been kidnapped by the Cult of the Dragon, and in her mind at least, that made them allies, not enemies.

"I am sorry, Prince," Ruha said. "I cannot become your concubine. My other obligations would interfere."

Tang considered Ruha as though he did not under- stand the language she was speaking. The covetous expression she had glimpsed earlier once again filled his eyes, this time stronger than ever.

"I give you your weight in gold each year," Tang promised. "And I build you private palace!"

Behind Ruha, a familiar voice made a harsh demand in Shou. The witch looked across the courtyard and was astonished to see Wei Dao herself clambering through the narrow space between the gate tops and the archway.

The princess was dressed in a simple black tunic and trousers uniform, with a row of slender daggers hanging from a black sash tied around her waist.

"Ginger Palace needs good wu-jen." Though Tang spoke in Common, his comment was directed toward his

wife.

"But not Ruha," Wei Dao countered, also speaking in

Common. She lowered her toes onto the crossbar, then nimbly jumped to the ground. "She sneaks into Lady

Feng's private chambers-and breaks window when she tries to escape."

Ruha turned her back on Wei Dao and faced Tang.

"Prince, it is not necessary that I become your concubine to serve the Ginger Palace."

The witch heard Wei Dao's light footsteps coming across the courtyard and realized the princess had not bothered to unbar the gate for the guards. Happy to see that her hosts did not consider her a threat to their safety, she continued to face Tang.

"Prince Tang, we all wish to see your mother delivered from the hands of her captors. Does that not make us friends?"

"No!" Tang snapped, with surprising vigor in his voice.

His eyes briefly flickered past Ruha's shoulder and returned. "I serve the Emperor of Shou Lung, and you serve… a lesser master."

"But we all oppose the Cult of the Dragon." Though she was aware that Wei Dao had stopped a short distance behind her, Ruha kept her attention fixed on Prince

Tang, determined to win his friendship without becoming a Virtuous Concubine. "In the desert, we have a saying:

the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Tang's eyes flashed in anger; then he slipped around the basking stone so swiftly that Ruha barely had time to turn around before he was standing between her and the gates. The witch found herself looking over his shoulder at Wei Dao, who was standing ten paces away with one of her slender daggers cocked to throw.

"I say no," Tang said, speaking to his wife. "Put wasp knife away."

Wei Dao did not lower the weapon. "Foolish Husband, you turn back on spy! Why do you place yourself in dan- ger? What is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with.you?" Tang countered. "Do you defy command of Imperial Shou Prince?"

Wei Dao's eyes flared in surprise and hurt. She looked past Tang's shoulder and shot Ruha a look as deadly as her wasp knife, then reluctantly lowered both her weapon and her gaze.

"I do not mean to disobey Exalted Prince." The Princess bowed deeply to her husband. "I think only of your safety"

Ruha felt herself take a deep breath; then she slipped from behind Prince Tang and executed a bow of her own, to Wei Dao. "You have nothing to fear from me. Radiant

Princess. I come as a friend to Lady Feng and the Ginger

Palace, nothing more."

Wei Dao's lips curled into a sneer. "Yes, spy always comes as friend. But do not think me stupid, Witch. You care nothing for our troubles, and I watch to make cer- tain you do not harm Beloved Husband."

Recognizing that it was impossible to make peace with

Wei Dao, Ruha turned to the prince. "I thank you for sparing my life, Wise Prince. I assure you, I will repay the favor with friendship."

"It is not friendship I desire," Tang replied. Deftly, he reached down and pulled Ruha's jambiya from its scab- bard, moving so swiftly and smoothly that she did not realize what he was doing until he held the weapon in his hand. "In Ginger Palace, you serve me, or you serve no

one."

Eight

^Gagged with her own silken veil k^ and forced to kneel upon the brick

^ ^ floor with her wrists bound behind her back to her ankles, Ruha glared at her captors. Tang and Wei Dao stood at the far end of a long lime-washed vault, mincing blossoms and filling the air with a tangy perfume as sweet as cassia. Though clean and tidy enough, the chamber was crammed with all manner of vats, ovens, and other spice-refining apparatus.

Tang and Wei Dao set their knives aside, then gath- ered up the minced blossoms and carried them to a large screw press in the corner. As soon as their backs were turned, the witch fixed her gaze upon a flickering oil lamp near the door and slipped her gag as the Harpers had taught her, by retracting her lower jaw until she could use her tongue to push it over her lip onto her chin. Beneath her breath, she uttered the incantation of a simple sun spell.

The flame coiled around itself, then leapt off the wick and pirouetted to the floor. Ruha tried to point toward a huge ceramic cask sitting in the corner but, with her hands tied behind her back, she failed miserably. The fire danced across the bricks toward a gleaming copper vat, which caught its light and sent a reddish glint skipping across the ceiling.

Wei Dao's head cocked slightly.

Ruha bent her finger sharply, directing the flicker toward a black iron caldron. She barely managed to guide the flame behind the pot's sheltering bulk before

Wei Dao turned to scan the ceiling. The witch tongued her gag back into place and waited until her captor's scrutiny fell on her, then glowered at the princess with a frown that she hoped would look as helpless as it did

hateful.

Wei Dao smirked at the witch, then allowed her gaze to roam across the room until it came to the unlit lamp. If she noticed the faint wisps of smoke still rising from the nameless wick, she paid them no attention. The concern vanished from her face, and she turned back to Prince

Tang.

"Thisss… dangerous, my husssband." Wei Dao spoke in Shou, unaware that a wind spell was carrying her voice to Ruha in the Bedine language. Unfortunately, the magic did not work well in the still air of the vault; the words were so breathy and soft that the witch sometimes missed them. "We ssshould… her and be done with it!"

"She ssserve us better alive." Tang turned the press screw, then glanced at Ruha and allowed his gaze to linger on her naked face for an indecent time, at least by

Bedine standards. "We have need o/'wu-jen."

"… much trussst in love potion!" Wei Dao pointed a dagger-sharp fingernail at her husband. "Witch use love magic on you, wise husssband."

Prince Tang shrugged. "It doesss not matter, as long as she love me more. We need wu-jen, and Ruha is wu-jen."

Wei Dao's face grew crimson and stormy. The princess was no fool and believed Tang no more than Ruha did;

the prince needed the witch's magic, but he coveted her womanhood.

"How witch love you more?" Wei Dao demanded. "You sssayyiang… not potent."

"Potent enough for now. When fresssh blossoms arrive, I

make better potion."

Ruha pointed her finger toward the wall behind her.

The wayward flame danced from its hiding place and began to skip across the floor.

"You are bad ssson! You risssk mother for-for-" Wei

Dao's sentence sputtered to a halt, and she flung her arm in Ruha's direction. "You risssk mother's life for barbar- ian concubine!"

There was that word again, concubine. Ruha ground her teeth into her gag, biting down until her jaws ached.

She did not leave the golden sands ofAnauroch to become a prince's bauble; if the Shou thought differently, she would show them barbarian.

"Not for concubine, for wu-jen." Tang's head started to turn in Ruha's direction, and she barely managed to guide her dancing flame beneath a brazier before his lecherous gaze fell on her face again. "And risk is mossst sssmall."

Wei Dao shook her head violently. "Already… over the wall!"

Whatever the princess said to the prince, it drew his attention away from Ruha. The witch gestured with her finger, and the lamp flame darted from its hiding place.

"What you think he tell… Hawklyn?" Wei Dao demanded. "What you think witch say ifssshe essscape, too?"

Ruha forgot about her dancing flame. Fowler had escaped! She doubted the half-ore could report anything useful to Vaerana, but at least the witch would not have to add his death to her already overburdened conscience.

She circled her finger, guiding the lamp flame, which had curled toward her captors, back toward her.

Prince Tang scowled at his wife. "Why do you not tell me sssooner?"

"You at work in lizard park, leaving me to chase ssspies!" Wei Dao countered. "Perhapsss wise prince ssshould…"

Whatever the princess said, it angered her husband greatly. Tang raised his fist; then, when Wei Dao did not

flinch, he turned away and swept a shelf clean of several porcelain jars. They shattered on the floor, releasing a cloud of fine, multihued powders. The prince let his chin drop and stared into the billowing dusts, his eyes focused someplace far beneath the bricks.

The lamp flame reached Ruha's side. She beckoned it around behind her, scorching her insteps as she guided it between her sandaled feet. Soon, the witch felt a tongue of fire licking at her fingers; then she caught a whiff of burning hemp. She began to move the flame back and forth, never allowing it to rest beneath her bindings for more than a second at a time. The syrupy perfume of minced ylang blossoms still hung in the air, but not so heavily that she dared let the acrid fumes of a rope fire spread through the chamber.

When Prince Tang finally raised his head, he had regained the characteristic composure of the Shou. "What can half-man tell Vaerana Hawklyn?"

Wei Dao lowered her eyes. "J(isss impossible to sssay.

Guards do not sssee him leave Cinnamon House during night, but neither do they sssee witch go-and we find her in apartment of Lady Feng."

"Then we assume most wretched prossspect." The prince took a copper beaker from a shelf and held it beneath the drainage spout of the oil press, then opened the valve. The sound of trickling fluid echoed through the vault, and the tangy smell of the ylang blossoms grew overwhelming in its cloying sweetness. "Perhapsss half- man report mother's abduction, but that isss crime of

Cypress, not Ginger Palace."

"Vaerana Hawklyn… woman," Wei Dao observed.

"She know we do anything to ransssom mother!"

"But she doesss not realize we must." Tang did not look up as he spoke. "It is no sssecret that Lady Feng hasss won favor ofYen-Wang-Yeh. Ssso, when Vaerana Hawk- lyn hear of worthy mother's abduction, what doesss she think?"

Wei Dao furrowed her carefully plucked eyebrows.

"That Cypress needsss Venerable Scholar of Eighteen

Hells to sssteal spirit ofYanseldara, ofcourssse."

Ruha nearly howled as the lamp flame scorched her knuckles, for she had been listening so intently to her captors' conversation that she had neglected the tiny fire.

Having deduced already that Lady Feng had been abducted for the purpose of stealing Yanseldara's spirit, the witch found it less surprising that the Shou would cooperate with the kidnappers than that they seemed to think Cypress remained in good health. She moved the lamp flame a safe distance behind her and resumed eavesdropping.

"… more." Prince Tang closed the drain valve and car- ried his copper beaker to a marble-topped table. "Vaer- ana Hawklyn hasss no reason to think Cypress requires more from usss to complete ssspell."

A sly smile crept across Wei Dao's painted lips. "Ssso she is looking wrong way at aussspicious time. Perhaps it is good… essscaped, wise husband." The princess cast a spiteful glare in Ruha's direction. "Now only witch threaten sssafe return of worthy mother."

"That sssoon change." Tang removed the stopper from a small earthenware flask and poured the contents into his copper beaker, then pricked his finger with a needle.

He dribbled several drops of blood into the mixture.

"When ssshe drinks thisss, her only wish isss to obey me."

Feeling herself flush with outrage at the prince's plan,

Ruha took several deep breaths. Her best chance to leam more about the theft of Yanseldara's spirit lay in exploit- ing Tang's base cravings, and the witch knew such a plan would fail if anger showed in her face. She tried to calm herself by thinking of the Alam'ra Wall, a beautiful oasis where the sweet waters poured from a cliff of white stone. At the same time, she beckoned the lamp flame closer and resumed the burning of her ropes. One way or another, she would need her hands free. Whether she succeeded in manipulating the prince or not, she had no intention of allowing him to pour his potion down her

throat. Besides, Ruha knew better than to think the princess would stand idly by while she tried to win

Tang's confidence. The witch had seen the antagonism between her father's wives often enough to know that

Wei Dao was jealous of her position and would do what- ever was necessary to keep her husband from taking a consort.

Prince Tang stirred his concoction with a long glass rod, then poured it into a pewter chalice. He motioned to

Wei Dao and started toward Ruha.

"Do not frighten wu-jen," he said. "For bessst effect, she mussst drink potion of her own accord."

The witch tested her bonds, found they still held, and lowered the knot into the lamp flame. Even she could not smell the hemp being scorched, so thickly did the cloying reek of ylang oil hang in the chamber. She continued to strain at the rope until her captors were almost upon her.

Then, fearing they would notice a wisp of smoke or a flickering reflection behind her, she beckoned the fire into her hands and smothered it between her palms.

Tang and Wei Dao arrived with the love potion. The prince kneeled on the floor before Ruha and pulled her gag over her chin. His wife stood behind him, with one hand close to the wasp knives hanging from her black waist sash.

"If you still have no wish to become my concubine, drink this," Tang said in Common. He held his chalice to

Ruha's mouth. "It makes you forget what you see in Gin- ger Palace, so we can release you without fear."

Gently working her wrists back and forth against her seared bindings, Ruha stared down her nose at the oily pink concoction. It looked about as appetizing as camel's blood, and its syrupy sweetness was twice as nauseating.

The witch could hardly bear to sniff the stuff, much less drink it.

"I have no wish to forget what I have seen in the Gin- ger Palace."

"Then you do not leave."

"Be that as it may, I still will not become your concu- bine." Ruha raised her chin. "Such a thing would not be fitting. I am a sheikh's daughter."

Tang's eyes shined with a hopeful gleam and, merci- fully, he lowered the chalice. "What do you mean?"

"In Anauroch, a man may take as many wives as his camels can feed." A muffled grinding sounded between

Wei Dao's clenched teeth, but Ruha ignored the noise and looked deeply into Tang's eyes. "I suppose a Shou prince can feed as many wives as he wishes."

"Her insolence is beyond forbearance!" Wei Dao pulled a knife from her sash. "I slay this savage!"

With a movement so swift that Ruha saw only a blur,

Tang's hand lashed out and caught his wife's wrist. In

Shou, he said, "It isss for me to decide what is inssso- lence."

"You cannot take barbarian for wife." Wei Dao protested. "Emperor never invite usss to return."

The prince shrugged, then pushed Wei Dao's hand toward her sash. "We need wu-jen if we are ever to be sssafe from Cypress." He turned back to Ruha. "Please to pardon princess. She is only wife for many years and can- not help being spoiled."

Ruha continued to work at her bonds and graced the princess with a benevolent smile. "After she grows accus- tomed to the new arrangement, I am certain we will become great friends."

Wei Dao's only response was to thrust her dagger into its sheath, but Tang accepted Ruha's reply with an equally gracious nod. "Of course that is possible, but what of obligations you speak of earlier? If they interfere with being concubine, how do they not interfere with becoming wife?"

"If you are willing to marry me, then you must also be willing to make one accommodation," Ruha replied.

"I tell you thisss no good!" Wei Dao scoffed. "If you value mother's life and honor of Ginger Palace, you let me kill her now."

Ruha cast an impatient glance at Wei Dao. "I suspect our discussion would proceed more smoothly if we were alone. Prince Tang." She felt something slip in the knot behind her, but her hands did not come free. "Perhaps you could ask the princess to excuse us?"

"Do not be fool. Witch cassst spell on you."

Prince Tang looked at his wife out of the corner of his eye. "It is better to have princess here-as long as she behaves courteously. Otherwise, perhaps I do as you sug- gest, wu-jen." He returned his gaze to Ruha. "Now, tell me of this accommodation you desire."

"I have every desire to see Lady Feng released, but not at Yanseldara's expense," Ruha replied. "If you will stand with Vaerana Hawklyn against the Cult of the Dragon, becoming your wife would not interfere with my obliga- tions."

"What do I tell you, wise husband? Witch never be good wife." Then, in Shou, the princess added, "Ssshe baits you like witless bear."

Tang scowled, but again raised the silver chalice to

Ruha's lips. "Perhaps you should drink, wu-jen. What you ask is impossible."

Ruha gagged and pulled away from the potion's mawk- ish smell. "Why? If it is Cypress you fear, there is no need. He is dead. I destroyed him myself."

Wei Dao snorted, and the prince raised his brow-but he did not lower the goblet. "Perhaps you do destroy

Cypress, but if you think that means there is no reason to fear him, you know nothing."

"Then tell me." At last, the rope came apart. Ruha sti- fled a gasp of surprise and barely kept her wrists from drifting apart to betray her escape. "If I understand, maybe I can help."

"You are not that powerful, Witch," said Wei Dao.

Tang was not so quick to denounce Ruha's abilities. He regarded the witch thoughtfully, then said, "You cannot help, but perhaps you think differently about defying the

Cult of the Dragon."

"I could." The thought was not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

The prince glanced down at his pink concoction. "But if you still do not change mind, you drink potion?"

"So I will forget what you tell me?" Ruha asked, pre- tending she did not know the potion's true purpose. Her ankles were still bound together, and she needed more time to break the scorched rope. "Are you trying to keep the cult's secrets?"

From the way Wei Dao's eyes flashed and Tang's com- plexion darkened, the witch knew she had hit on a sub- ject worth probing.

"Why should you protect the cult?" Even as Ruha asked the question, the answer came to her. "Are you in it?"

Again, Wei Dao pulled a dagger, but Tang shook his head to stop her from attacking. He looked away from

Ruha and fixed his gaze on the chamber door, his expres- sion equal parts shame and relief.

"I join when we come here." The prince's voice was hardly a whisper. "In Shou Lung, dragons are magnani- mous and most honorable. How do I know they are differ- ent in Elversult?"

"Then what happened?" Ruha found herself feeling almost sorry for the hapless prince. "Did you try to quit?"

Tang slowly brought his gaze back to Ruha. "If I

answer, you must drink potion."

Ruha nearly choked on her anger, but she forced her- self to give him a beguiling smile. "Of course, assuming you do not convince me to stay."

"That is most wonderful possibility." The prince looked away, and again his voice grew low and ashamed.

"Cypress does not allow me to leave cult. He says even prince cannot break promise to dragon. He sinks all my ships until I promise to smuggle poisons for his murder- ers and spell ingredients for his wu-jens. The trade is most lucrative, but I cannot sleep."

Ruha cringed to think of what would trouble Tang's

conscience. "But why would he attack one of your ships now? You are still doing as he demands?"

Tang's head spun back to Ruha. "He attacks one of my ships?"

"Yes, the Ginger Lady."

The prince's face paled to the color of ivory, but it was

Wei Dao who demanded, "How do you know this?"

"Because that is when I destroyed him." Ruha's fingers finally managed to undo the rope around her ankles, but the witch made no move to escape. "He did not sink the ship-it did not appear that he was trying-but if you are still smuggling poisons for the cult, I do not under- stand why he attacked it at all."

The prince turned to his wife. "He wissshes to kill

Hsieh.t"

The princess promptly shook her head. "Cypress grows impatient. It isss only warning."

"What good is warning we do not hear about?" Tang countered. "He fearsss Hsieh comes to ssstop smuggling."

"How can Cypress know esssteemed mandarin is on

Ginger Lady? Even we do not know until lassst week."

Tang considered Wei Dao's point for a moment; then the color came back to his face. He returned his attention to Ruha.

"I tell you about Cult of the Dragon." He lifted the chalice to her mouth. "Now you drink."

Ruha turned away from the awful smell. "You have not told me why you still fear the cult, when you know I have already destroyed Cypress."

"Perhaps I do not believe you have." Tang swung the cup around to her lips. "Drink."

This time, Ruha did not turn away. It seemed reason- able for Tang to assume she might lie about destroying

Cypress, but she still had not discovered what the cult needed to complete the theft of Yanseldara's spirit. She held her breath and, very briefly, touched her lips to the cup rim-then pulled away and looked into the prince's eyes.

"Before drinking, I must be certain there is no hope of resolving our differences. Allow me one more question."

Tang groaned and lowered the awful-smelling potion

"Ask."

"What more-"

Ruha's question was interrupted by the muffled bark- ing of a Shou voice outside the vault; then the steel door swung open. Into the chamber swept four men wearing long, yellow hauberks of silk-jacketed scale armor.

Emblazoned on each of their chests was a scarlet wyvern, the personal crest of the Mandarin Hsieh Han Liu.

Upon seeing the crest, both Tang and Wei Dao gasped.

The prince barely managed to stand by the time the minister's assistant, the obsequious Yu Po, strode into the room. He stopped just inside the door and, still flanked by Hsieh's guards, regarded Ruha's captors with a disdainful sneer.

Yu Po tipped his body forward in a discourteously shal- low bow. "/ am Yu Po, Consssummate Scribe to Esssteemed

Mandarin Hsieh Han Liu."

The intrusion shocked Ruha as much as it did Tang and Wei Dao. The refinery vault was hidden in a secret basement beneath the palace's great spicehouse. Even had she anticipated Hsieh's arrival so early in the day, she would no more have expected Yu Po to search out and intrude upon the prince and princess here than in their private apartments.

"Welcome to Ginger Palace," said Tang, still holding the ylang potion. Both he and his wife returned the scribe's bow with surprising deference. "We expect Minister

Hsieh's arrival for many daysss now."

"We encounter many delay sss," Yu Po returned coldly.

"Pleassse excuse us," said Wei Dao. "We join esteemed

Mandarin in Hall of Amity, but firssst we must dispose of intruding thief."

Wei Dao waved a hand in Ruha's direction and drew an angry glare from Prince Tang, who would no doubt now find it most awkward to present the witch to anyone

in Hsieh's party as either wife or concubine. Not knowing what else to do, Ruha remained on her knees and pre- tended she was still bound. If escape had looked barely feasible before, when she had to contend only with the lightning fast reflexes of Tang and Wei Dao, it now seemed impossible.

Yu Po studied Ruha for a few moments; then, in Com- mon, he said, "It is difficult to say what Lady Ruha is, but it seems most unlikely she is thief."

"You know her?" Wei Dao gasped.

In the same instant, Prince Tang whirled on Ruha.

"Lady Ruha?" he demanded, looking hurt. "You do not tell me you are lady! Is it custom where you come from to be one man's concubine and become another's wife?"

Yu Po arched his thin eyebrows. "First she is thief, then she is wife?" He chuckled, then said, "So sorry, but wedding must wait." The adjutant motioned a pair of guards toward Ruha.

Both Tang and Wei Dao paled and quickly stepped in front of the witch. "She is guest of Ginger Palace," Tang declared. "You may not take her without my permission."

Yu Po's eyes grew as black as obsidian. "Then you come outside and explain this to Minister Hsieh," the adjutant growled. "After treatment Esteemed Mandarin receives from barbarians, he is most happy to hear that you defy him, I am sure."

Tang glanced at his wife, then asked, "What barbar- ians?"

Yu Po's face darkened. "Vaerana Hawklyn and her company of knaves!" He was sounding more angry all the time. "First they dare to surround Emperor's caravan and search wagons for what they call 'contraband'-

Esteemed Mandarin is most interested to learn why Min- istry of Spices does not know of trade in oleander leaves and puffer fish venom-and now they insult Emperor by holding Minister Hsieh hostage!"

"Hostage?" Tang gasped.

Yu Po nodded. "As we approach Ginger Palace, Lady

Ruha's half-man rushes down road and claims to Vaerana

Hawklyn that you abduct his mistress. Minister Hsieh promises her release, but savage woman refuses his gra- cious offer and declares she does not release Emperor's caravan until witch is free."

Ruha cursed Vaerana for a meddling interloper. The

Lady Constable had just destroyed any hope that remained of discovering what the cult needed to complete the theft ofYanseldara's spirit.

Yu Po glanced at Ruha's kneeling form, then leveled a stern gaze at Tang. "Do you still wish to keep 'guest'

locked inside Ginger Palace?"

"No." The prince kneeled before Ruha and held the sil- ver chalice to her lips. "She is free to leave as soon as she drinks potion."

Ruha grimaced at the reek of the syrupy elixir. She took her hands from behind her back and roughly pushed the cup away, then rose to her feet. "I have no wish to drink that rancid stuff."

The jaws of both Tang and Wei Dao fell when they saw the seared bonds hanging from her ankles and wrists.

The prince managed to recover his wits quickly enough to grab her arm and thrust the potion toward her face.

"You break promise!"

"I said I would drink a potion of forgetfulness," Ruha snapped. "That is a love potion, and I assure you that without fresh ylang blossoms, it could not possibly be strong enough."

With that, the witch brushed past her astonished cap- tors. She snatched herjambiya off a table, then stepped into the protection of Yu Po and his guards. "Will you please take me out of here?"

The adjutant waved her through the door. They climbed a set of stone stairs and exited the spicehouse via a secret door. With two guards leading the way and two following behind, the young Shou escorted Ruha past the enclosure where Tang kept his pet lizards, through a wicket door in the bulwark that separated the rear

grounds from those in front, and straight toward the main gates. As they walked, Yu Po said nothing and stared straight ahead, pretending not to see the many puzzled residents of the Ginger Palace who had gathered

to watch them leave.

By the time they passed through the gateway, Ruha had untied her veil and fastened it back into place over her face. She found Vaerana and Fowler, now dressed in his customary trousers and tunic, waiting for her on the portico. The Lady Constable glowered at Ruha, then took her by the arm and hustled her down the stairs toward the white-bricked avenue, where a long line of driverless wagons stood drawn up alongside the ginkgo forest. Min- ister Hsieh and the caravan drivers were huddled together on the opposite side of the road, surrounded by a

circle of mounted Maces.

As soon as their feet touched the white bricks, Vaerana released Ruha and glared down at Yu Po-she was a full head taller than most of the Shou. "Wait here. I'll send

Minister Hsieh along when I'm sure the witch is

unharmed."

"That is not our agreement."

"All right-I'll let the mandarin go when I'm good and ready," Vaerana growled. "If you don't like that, go back and fetch your little prince. I'll trade Hsieh for him any- time."

Yu Po's nostrils flared ever so slightly, but he bowed and did his best to conceal his outrage.

The Lady Constable led the way a short distance down the white-bricked avenue, and then, a dozen paces before they reached Tombor and the horses, suddenly stopped.

She grabbed Ruha's arm and, unable to control her anger another moment, dragged the witch off the road. With

Fowler following close behind, the two women slipped between two driverless wagons and walked twenty paces into the forest, where the fan-leafed ginkgo trees were so thick that it would be impossible for anyone on the road-Shou or otherwise-to see or hear what passed

between them.

"This is worse than Voonlar!" Vaerana hissed. "Couldn't you spend even one night without getting caught? I

almost didn't make it back in time to save you."

"I did not need to be saved!" Arguing with the Lady

Constable would do little to improve her standing with the Harpers, but she was as angry as Vaerana-and with better reason. "Yu Po could not have arrived at a worse time."

"I suppose Prince Tang was going to hand the staff over?" Vaerana tugged derisively at the heavy cloth of

Ruha's aba. "And what's this? Is this what you think a

Sembite spice trader looks like?"

"I know less about Sembite spice traders than you do about good manners," Ruha shot back. "It was better to pose as someone I could impersonate."

Vaerana narrowed her eyes and moved forward until she was standing chin-to-chin with the witch. "We found out in Voonlar what happens when you think. You should've done what I said."

Fowler slipped an arm between Vaerana and Ruha. "If she'd done what you wanted, we'd still be sitting in the courtyard with that back-stabbing dwarf Tombor claimed was a guide." The captain pushed the women apart, then interposed himself between them. "It was only the Lady

Witch's disguise and her quick thinking that got us invited to stay the night at all."

Vaerana's eyes widened at the rebuke. Her cheeks turned crimson and she dropped her eyes in embarrass- ment. "I shouldn't be sharpening my blade on you, Witch.

Whatever happened, your life was the one at risk." She backed away and said, "Why don't you tell us what hap- pened?"

Ruha glanced at Fowler. "I do not know how much the captain could tell you-"

"Not much," Fowler interjected. "I waited all night for you to come back and started to worry when you didn't return before dawn. Then the Shou went crazy, running

all over swinging their boarding pikes around like they were trying to cut up the air, and I knew they had to be looking for you. I cut a hole through the roof of the guest house, then climbed over the wall and ran for the trees.

Sorry I didn't stay, but I wasn't going to be much help."

"You made the right choice," Ruha replied. "And mat- ters did not go so badly."

Vaerana's eyes lit up. "Then you know where the staff

is?"

Ruha shook her head. "I am sorry. But I do know it is

not inside the Ginger Palace."

A dark curtain descended over Vaerana's face. "Not inside? But it's Shou magic stealing Yanseldara's spirit-

my sages are sure of it!"

"Yes, and Prince Tang's mother is casting the spell, as you suspected," Ruha said. "But Lady Feng has been

abducted."

"Someone stole her?" Fowler's tone was incredulous.

"From the Ginger Palace?"

Ruha nodded, then described all that she had discov- ered, from Lady Feng's starving familiar to Prince Tang's unwitting enrollment in the Cult of the Dragon.

Vaerana listened rather impatiently until the witch finished, then regarded her with a thoughtful expression.

"It looks like I owe you an apology-if you're sure of this."

"Of everything I have described, yes," Ruha replied.

"But I do not understand why the cult is going to all this trouble to steal Yanseldara's spirit. Wouldn't it have been simpler for them just to kill her?"

Vaerana made a half-nod. "Sure, but then they wouldn't rule Elversult. If they control Yanseldara, they

control the city."

Though not entirely satisfied with Vaerana's explana- tion, Ruha lacked a better one and saw no use in jeopar- dizing their developing truce by contradicting the Lady

Constable.

"Assuming you are correct, the cult may be further

from its goal than we think," Ruha said. 'To complete the

theft ofYanseldara's spirit, the Cult of the Dragon needs something more from Prince Tang."

"What?" Vaerana demanded, once again sounding impatient and pushy. "If we deny them, can we stop

Yanseldara from getting any sicker?"

"I could not learn the answer to either of your ques- tions." Ruha looked away from Vaerana's disappointed face, restraining the urge to add that the Lady Con- stable's'rescue' had ruined her chances of discovering more. "The cult could need anything: an instrument from

Lady Feng's apartment, ingredients from the palace's warehouse, perhaps something from Yanseldara's home."

"No, nothing from Moonstorm House," Vaerana objected. "They wouldn't have one chance in ten thou- sand of getting anything from there."

"How do you suppose they got her staff?" asked Fowler.

Vaerana shot the half-ore a murderous glare, then turned back to Ruha without answering his question.

"Your mission wasn't a total loss, Witch," she said, trying to be magnanimous and failing miserably. "At least you gave me some idea of what I'll need to ask."

"Ask?" Fowler grunted. "If you're thinking what I'm thinking you are, I want my gold now."

Vaerana frowned at the half-ore. "I can't pay out of

Elversult's treasury. You'll get your gold after we take the palace."

"You intend to storm the Ginger Palace?" Ruha gasped.

"Can you think of a better way to get my hands on

Tang?"

Ruha shook her head. "No, but I doubt interrogating him will do you any good. The prince is too afraid of

Cypress. He refuses to believe I destroyed the dragon."

"Well, you did," Vaerana growled. "Hsieh will tell him that!"

"Somehow, I do not think it will matter." Ruha thought for a moment, trying to recall Tang's exact words when she told him she had destroyed the dragon. "He said 'Per- haps you do destroy Cypress, but if you think that means

there is no reason to fear him, you know nothing.' I

thought he was referring to the Cult of the Dragon, but

now that I reconsider…"

"Something strange is happening," Vaerana agreed.

"I've heard reports that the cult's paying good gold to fishermen for tiny pieces of that dragon you killed."

"That'll hardly drain their treasure boxes," Fowler observed. "The sharks got most of the carcass."

Vaerana nodded. "For nearly a tenday now, the cult's been shipping wagon-loads of shark out of Pros, but none of it ever shows up in Elversult."

"Where could it be going?" Ruha asked.

Vaerana shrugged. "With all that's going on, I didn't think it was worth the trouble of tracking down. Maybe I

was wrong."

"That'd be a good idea," Fowler said. "Cypress might not be as gone as we thought."

Tombor the Jolly came stomping through the trees.

"Vaerana, the Shou want their mandarin. Archers are beginning to gather along the walls."

"Let them!" Vaerana turned to go back to the road.

"We're going to have a battle soon enough."

Ruha grabbed the Lady Constable by the arm. "But the Shou do not have Yanseldara's staffi"

"They're still my best hope of stopping the cult-or

Cypress-and saving Yanseldara."

"I may know of a better way," Ruha said, thinking of

Lady Feng's abandoned familiar. "Give me another day, and I will find Tang's mother-and Yanseldara's staff."

Vaerana shook her head. "I don't know if Yanseldara has another day-and even if she does, Elversult may not. The Cult of the Dragon is growing more powerful by

the hour."

"How long'll it take you to storm the palace?" Fowler asked. "And even if it's less than a day, can you be sure

Tang will tell you what you want to know-or that it'll do you much good?"

{Vaerana looked to Tombor. "What do you think?"

The cleric's gaze darted from Fowler to Ruha to Vaerana.

Finally, he smiled and shrugged amiably. "It's all the same to me. I just need to know what you're doing."

Vaerana bit her lip, then finally said, "Tell Hsieh that he's free to go." After Tombor left, the Lady Constable gently took Ruha's arm and, in a tone that was almost pleading, said, "Witch, you can't foul this up."

"I shall not." Ruha glanced toward the road to make certain that she was still shielded from the view of any

Shou, then whispered the incantation of the same sun spell she had used to vanish the day before. A shimmer- ing wave of heat rolled down her body, leaving both her clothes and her flesh as transparent as air. "Just give me until tomorrow at dawn."

With that, the invisible witch returned to the road, where Tombor was just giving the order to release Hsieh and the caravan drivers. She went to the nearest wagon and raised the edge of its tarp just far enough to slip inside, and nearly gagged on the cloying odor that rose from the cargo box: fresh ylang blossoms.

Nine

The servants had brought a small, triangular table of polished mahogany into the Hall of Amity and placed three teak thrones around it. Prince Tang and his wife sat close together on one side, staring at their reflections in the burnished surface, and Minister Hsieh sat alone at the opposite point. The shape of the table represented the trio's nominal equality as members of the Imperial Household of Shou Lung, the seating arrangement reflected their actual status in the Emperor's eyes, and the absence of any guards except the minister's was a concession to his office: only the Emperor himself could bring personal guards into the presence of

a mandarin.

"Why does table have only three sides?" Hsieh demanded. "Where is Lady Feng?"

The knot in Tang's stomach tightened even further, but he forced himself to slacken his face muscles and meet the mandarin's eyes. "Lady Feng is not here."

The mandarin accepted the prince's nonanswer with stern inexpressiveness. "Is most worthy concubine avail- able? I travel many thousands ofli to speak to her."

The prince hazarded a glance at his wife, whose face remained as unreadable as the mandarin's. They had not expected this. Though Hsieh and Lady Feng were cousins, they disliked each other vehemently and had taken pains

to avoid each other for years. It was even whispered that, after some incident involving Lady Feng*s familiar, it had been the mandarin who had arranged the exile of the

Third Virtuous Concubine.

At last, Wei Dao asked, "You have nothing to say to Honored Husband?"

Hsieh regarded the prince and princess in thoughtful silence, until a smirk of amusement flickered briefly across his lips. "No, to surprise of everyone in Hall of

Supreme Harmony, profits of Ginger Palace are most sat- isfying. Even Emperor notice."

Tang's stomach started to writhe and chum. The good news would only make it more difficult to admit that he had allowed someone to kidnap the Third Virtuous Con- cubine.

"Do not look so troubled, Prince. We will talk after I

see Lady Feng." Hsieh's uncovered eye narrowed in mild rebuke. "I am most anxious to hear why Ministry of

Spices does not know about Ginger Palace's poison trade."

Tang rose and accepted the mandarin's admonishment with a polite bow. "I am most anxious to make report on anything you wish." He fixed his eyes on the silver- trimmed hem of the mandarin's maitung, then took a deep breath and forced himself to speak again. "But first,

I must relate regrettable truth about Lady Feng."

Even a seasoned bureaucrat like Minister Hsieh could not prevent the blood from draining from his face, thereby betraying his shock. "Something has happened?"

Wei Dao was on her feet and speaking before Tang could continue. "When Prince Tang says Lady Feng is not here, he means not in Ginger Palace."

Hsieh's jaw fell, and when his brow furrowed this time, the rebuke was not a gentle one. "Then where is Third

Virtuous Concubine?"

Again, Wei Dao answered for her husband. "She tends to sick friend in Elversult."

The mandarin scowled and, apparently resigning him-

self to having all his questions answered by the princess, turned directly to Wei Dao.

"It is most indecorous to have Emperor's consort wan- dering about outside her palace, especially in land of bar- barians." Though his face showed no sign of emotion, there was a dubious edge in his voice. "Why not bring sick friend to Ginger Palace?"

"Friend is too sick to move."

Hsieh's eyes narrowed; then he whirled back to Prince

Tang. "Who is this friend?"

"Very important-"

Hsieh raised his hand to silence the princess. "I ask

honorable husband."

Tang glanced at his wife, who wisely made no attempt to communicate what she had intended to say. Though the mandarin's gaze was riveted on the prince, his adju- tant was watching Wei Dao from the comers of his eyes.

Tang could not bring himself to answer. He was too blinded by fear to see the escape toward which Wei Dao had been driving. Lying to a mandarin was both a crime as terrible as treason and an indelible stain on the honor of his ancestors, yet now that his wife had shown him the way, he wanted nothing more than to avoid admitting his

ignoble failure.

"Who is Lady Feng'8 friend?" Hsieh demanded.

Tang realized that his wife could have intended to give only one answer. "Lady Feng visits Moonstorm House in

Elversult." The prince felt as though he would retch; his stomach was turning somersaults and his jaws were aching. "Queen of city is very ill, and her priests ask for help of Third Virtuous Concubine."

Hsieh's face did not soften. "Then why does constable woman harass Shou caravan? Making hostage of

Emperor's servant is poor way to show appreciation."

As badly as he wanted to, the prince did not look toward Wei Dao. Certainly, she had already thought of an answer to this simple question, but the mere hint of coaching from her would be enough to condemn both

Tang and his wife to slow and dishonorable deaths.

"Barbarians have strange customs." Tang knew that his response was a feeble one, but he needed time to think of something better. "Vaerana Hawklyn does not trust after- world magic and accuses us of causing her queen's illness."

"Have we?"

Tang tried to swallow and found that he could not.

"Why do you think that, Minister?"

The minister splayed his fingers, then began to tick off the names of poisonous plants that had been hidden in the Ginger Lady's cargo. "Oleander… lantana… castor bean… pink pea… Shou berry." He reached his little finger and stopped. "Need I go on?"

Prince Tang shook his head. "We only sell poisons, not use them. Yanseldara's condition is not our fault."

Hsieh lowered his hand. "You know I do not care if it is, as long as your reason is good. But if you are lying-"

"Never!" Both Tang and his wife spoke at once.

Hsieh raised a cautionary finger and continued, "If you lie to protect Lady Feng, I have no mercy."

Tang's head began to spin. "To protect Lady Feng?" he asked, truly confused. "How does lying-"

"We do not lie." Wei Dao stepped around the table to her husband's side. "We send a company of guards to inform Lady Feng of your arrival. Perhaps you wish to send Yu Po along?"

Hsieh considered the offer, then shook his head. "That is not necessary. If there is anything I should know, it is certain to come to light."

The mandarin rose and honored them with a shallow bow, then led Yu Po and his guards from the room. As soon as their steps faded from the corridor outside, Tang sent the servants away.

"Why do you lie to mandarin?" he demanded, turning to his wife. "You dishonor ancestors and condemn us to

Chamber of Agonizing Death!"

"Only if Minister Hsieh discovers abduction of ven- erable mother."

"How can he fail?" Tang's legs were trembling. It made him feel ashamed and weak. "Any servant tells esteemed mandarin everything he wants to know."

"True, but Minister Hsieh is sure to ask wrong ques- tions," Wei Dao replied calmly. "He thinks venerable mother has lover, and any servant he asks certainly tells

him that is nonsense."

The princess's reassurance did little to bolster Tang's courage. "But how do guards bring Lady Feng home from

Moonstorm House? Cypress has mother, not Vaerana

Hawklyn!"

"Yes, but now we have fresh ylang blossoms." Wei Dao grabbed her husband by the wrist and started toward the back of the palace. "Now come. We have no more time for your cowardice-or your foolishness."