Cloak of the Two Winds (10 page)

Lonn was familiar with Tathian charts of the South Polar Sea. It took him only a glance to find the curved peninsula of Fleevan and the hooked cape at the end where Fleevanport was marked.

"We are sailing this way," Troneck's gloved finger traced a northward course to the left of Fleevan. "Your islands," he said to Lonn, "are off the chart. They'd be down past this corner. I put our position roughly here, but perhaps you can correct me. Shortly before dawn we sighted some rocks, four rolling mounds in a line, and some smaller ones."

"The sea lion mating rocks," Eben said.

"That would put us closer to here," Lonn shifted Troneck's finger a bit to the north and east, closer to Fleevanport.

"So," the captain said. "We are sailing this way. Lady, as you can see this Fleevan is the last inhabited land we'll come near for hundreds of leagues. I think we have no choice but to make for it."

"Impossible," Amlina said. "The Cloak's distance from us may be increasing by the hour. We must follow without delay."

"But we are running out of provisions, and there won't be another chance to restock. Besides, we are on soft water now. Sooner or later the freezewind will blow. We could become icebound, far from any help."

"If the Icemaker blows we will sail up onto the ice," Amlina replied. "If not, we will work ourselves free and go on."

Troneck was plainly distressed. "No civilized ships will be sailing in this season, but there may be pirates in these waters."

"We have these Iruks to protect us against pirates. That is one reason I've taken them on board."

"But the pirates we meet might be Iruks. Will these five choose to help us against their own people?"

"I've already told you, these Iruks can be trusted to keep their pledge."

"Well, if you say so," the captain grumbled. "One thing is certain: they are five more mouths to feed. You still haven't said what we're to do about provisions."

"What of this small island here," Amlina pointed to the map, "that the Tathian script names Windbock? It can't be many leagues distant, and it lies almost directly on our course."

"Windbock is desert," Troneck answered mournfully. "There are no supplies to be had there."

"You are mistaken, captain," Eben said. "There are provisions available on Windbock: edible berries and lichens, flizzards and shellfish. And there are springs of fresh water a short distance inland. We sometimes stop there in Third Winter, when we hunt that part of the sea."

"Can we gather enough to sustain our company for a lengthy voyage?" Amlina asked.

"With a little work," Lonn said.

"Good." Amlina turned to Troneck. "You will make for Windbock, captain, and lay in for provisioning. I will enter deep meditation this evening. By the time we're ready to depart from Windbock, I will inform you of our destination."

"I hope we make it as far as Windbock," Troneck muttered, rolling up the chart, "and don't get icebound or speared by brigands on the way."

"Do not go expecting disaster," Amlina answered, as though quoting a maxim.

She bid the captain and the Iruks good day and retired below.

Unable to beg a second breakfast from the ship's cook, the Iruks returned to their compartment in the stern. They fired up the oil stove, took off their harnesses and boots, and spread out their capes close to the fire. Karrol regretted aloud the loss of her cape in the sea.

"We may have a chance to get you a fur cape," Draven remarked. "If the volrooms come out on Windbock."

Eben had a more troubling thought. "The captain is right about one thing: we may run into pirates between here and the island. And our neighbors could be among them."

"I know," Lonn said. "Let's hope the yulugg have led the fleet far enough east that we miss them."

Draven yawned. "As the witch told the captain, let's not go expecting disaster."

After devouring their noontime rations of tea and biscuits, the Iruks had nothing to occupy themselves until supper. Karrol found a cloth and began oiling the harnesses and iron weapons that had been drenched in the salt water. Draven and Brinda lay down to nap, though they'd had ample sleep from yesterday afternoon through the morning.

Too restless to sleep, Lonn and Eben wandered up on deck. They leaned out over the bowsprit for a time, discussing the klarn's prospects and eyeing the horizon for sails. Eventually they walked back to the quarterdeck, to hold conversation with Kizier.

The bostull, in his distinctive ornate pail, had been set down with the other windbringers and had attuned his mind once more with theirs. Bostulls were a gregarious species among themselves, though the content of their social interaction was generally outside of human ken. The only apparent sign of their sociability was that windbringers, when gathered in groups of two or more, often hummed together. For this reason, the Tathians called any assemblage of bostulls a chorus.

Having nodded to Troneck who stood by the tiller, Lonn and Eben sat down before the windbringers. They bid them good afternoon, and greeted Azzible and Kizier in particular.

Bostulls had human names for human convenience, to distinguish one from another. If the plant-creatures had individual names in their own language, they never mentioned them to humans. Thus Azzible had retained his typical Tathian name, though it might just as easily have been changed to something else. For two days Azzible had been part of this chorus and was already absorbed into its inner harmony. He returned the Iruks' greeting and replied to their questions about his well-being without particular interest. Typically for a bostull, he felt no special emotion or nostalgia about his time with the klarn.

That was what made Kizier so unusual, his human-like personality and keen interest in human affairs.

"Kizier," Eben said. "We've been talking things over and would like to ask you some questions. We're already a great distance behind our dojuk and heading for lands of which we know little, except that they are far-flung and crowded. What chance does Amlina really have of finding the Cloak and Glyssa?"

"Truly, it is impossible to predict," the bostull said. "Mainly it depends on how well Amlina can sense the emanations of the Cloak. It is a thing of great power, and will be hard to hide in the Deepmind. But the one who has it has already shown a high mastery of the shaping arts. Still, Amlina possessed the Cloak, however briefly, and knows the psychic feel of its emanations."

"How briefly did she possess it?" Lonn asked.

"For less than one of Grizna's cycles. She took it from the Bone Tower of the Archimage of the East, and was sailing with it back to Larthang when you Iruks intercepted our ship."

"So it is as we guessed," Lonn said. "Amlina herself stole the Cloak and feared pursuit by its true owner. That is why this coaster was sailing in First Winter and without escort."

"You surmise well," Kizier said. "Your one error lies in assuming the Archimage to be the Cloak's true owner. In fact, that witch stole it herself, some eighty years ago. Amlina was returning the Cloak to its rightful owners, the witches of Larthang."

"We've heard this Archimage mentioned again and again," Eben said. "Always with a shifting of eyes and a tremble of the voice. But my impression is that you and Amlina don't think the Archimage is the one who has the Cloak now."

"You are correct again. The mind I sensed moving in your lodge house was unfamiliar to me, and it seemed a masculine mind. Besides, we don't believe the Archimage would cast such designs over a distance. Once she located the Cloak, she would likely come in person, to take it back and to revenge herself on whoever had it. For the first ten days of our voyage, Amlina wove designs to hide us and the Cloak from the seeking mind of the Archimage. Only then did she give in to exhaustion and enter deep trance to restore herself. It was in that state you found her when you took the Cloak. So far, Amlina's designs have held, and the Archimage has not found us—or, if she has, she has left us alone for the time being, to search for the Cloak instead. But sooner or later she will seek out Amlina, for she would never allow one who had stolen from her to go unpunished."

"Tell us more about her;" Lonn prompted. "Since we are Amlina's allies now, we should know about her enemies."

"Indeed you should," the windbringer said. "Well then, the history is that Beryl—for that is the Archimage's name—was at one time a witch of Larthang, of great accomplishment and renown. She advanced to the highest circle in the House of the Deepmind and was made the Keeper of the Cloak of the Two Winds. She would likely have one day become Archimage of the West, but her desires led her in another direction. As she grew older, she became obsessed with herself and could not bear the thought of aging and dying. She took up the studies of blood magic and necromancy, seeking to preserve the youth of her body and become immortal. But these arts are forbidden in Larthang, and when Beryl's peers learned of her unlawful studies, they threatened to break her mind unless she ceased. Instead, Beryl fled from Minhang, the Imperial City, taking the Cloak of the Two Winds with her. She journeyed across the seas and islands until she reached the continent of Nyssan, where necromancy and ancient rites of human sacrifice are still practiced. She came to Tallyba, called the Terrible, mightiest city of Far-Nyssan.

"With her knowledge of the Larthangan arts and the Cloak of the Two Winds in her possession, Beryl soon gained power and rank among the magician priests of Tallyba. She became High Priestess of the Temple of the Sun, which in the practices of Far-Nyssan means she is regarded as the incarnation of the Sun Deity. The victims sacrificed on the altars of that temple are in fact sacrificed to Beryl, their life-force flowing into her body and replenishing its vitality. So her thirst for immortality finds impermanent but effective satisfaction. In time, Beryl destroyed her rival priests one by one and demolished their temples, until she ruled Tallyba absolutely. Then she proclaimed herself Archimage of the East, the first to hold that title since the centuries of the Second Empire, when Larthang last reigned over the Three Nations. In the years since, Beryl has used the Cloak of the Two Winds to subjugate the cities and towns of southern Nyssan, laying waste to field and wood with the freezewind until the people submitted. Thus she is assured a constant stream of young captives for the altars of her temple."

"You speak of this witch with great passion," Eben observed. "More than I've ever heard in a windbringer's voice."

"Yes, with good reason," Kizier murmured. "I was not always a windbringer, you see. The Archimage of the East made me what I am."

Astonished, the two Iruks listened while Kizier related his own tale—how he had been human once, a wandering scholar born on the Tathian island of Glistre. In his 38th year, he had gone to Tallyba and become a resident of the Archimage's court.

"That was years ago," he said, "when Beryl's tyranny was not yet so monstrous and absolute. The city was still open to trade then, and not, as today, shunned by all free vessels, save those unlucky ones like this Larthangan that are blown there by ill weather."

Lonn glanced at Troneck here, and saw the evil memory reflected on the captain's stern face.

Kizier was still speaking, telling how his wealth of knowledge and tales had made him a favorite of Beryl's. Despite the wickedness and dark magics of Tallyba, Kizier had not feared for his own safety, since the position of wandering scholar, like that of bard, was considered a privileged and protected one by human custom.

"But Beryl finally proved herself beyond all human custom," Kizier continued bitterly. "When the day came that I wanted to leave she forbade me, and when I tried to escape she laid this ensorcellment on me, that I should be transformed into a windbringer, so I could continue to serve her with my knowledge and amuse her with my anecdotes, but would have no hope of ever escaping. I was a prisoner for twenty-six years in Beryl's palace, until Amlina, in making her own escape, managed to steal me away."

"Where does Amlina fit in all this?" Eben asked. "She is a Larthangan. How did she come to Beryl's city?"

"I believe I should let Amlina tell you that herself," the bostull said. "She can give you a better account than I."

Lonn and Eben exchanged frowning glances, wondering what the bostull meant to conceal.

"Then answer us this," Lonn said. "This question weighs on our hearts: Whoever has taken the Cloak, whoever is using Glyssa to bring it to them, what are they likely to do with her once they have it?"

"Again, it is impossible to predict," Kizier replied. "Perhaps she will be killed. But it is also possible she will be kept with her will enslaved, her life-force gradually changing its pattern, until she is no longer the woman you knew but a reflection of the deepshaper's will, a
thrall
as such mindless ones are called."

"You're saying there's no hope of getting her back?" Lonn's voice rose in anguish.

"There
is
still hope," Kizier answered softly. "The change, as I said, is gradual. Glyssa is tough-minded, and it would take a long time to destroy her will completely. If you find her in time you should be able to call her back to herself, with Amlina's help. I regret I cannot give you a more optimistic picture, but you must keep hoping. You must think and believe you will save Glyssa. All else being equal, the Deepmind tends to bring us what we expect."