The wind was a distant moan, the ochre dust of the calm slowly settling around them. Heboric, still gifted with an awareness that dispensed with the need for sight, sat down on a weathered boulder. A faint frown wrinkled his broad forehead, and his tattoos were dull beneath a veil of dust.
Kulp strode to Felisin, the bowl in one hand. 'It's a healing salve,' he affirmed. 'And potent indeed.'
'Why didn't the wind tear your skin, Mage? You've not got Heboric's protection-'
'I don't know, lass. I had my warren open — perhaps that was enough.'
'Why didn't you extend its influence over me?'
He glanced away. 'I thought I had,' he muttered.
The salve was cool and seemed to absorb the pain. Beneath its colourless patina, she saw her skin grow anew. Kulp applied it where she could not reach, and half a bowl later, the last flare of agony was healed. Suddenly exhausted, Felisin sat down on the sand.
A broken-stemmed glass of wine appeared before her face. Nawahl smiled down on her. 'This shall restore you, gentle lass. A pliant current will take the mind past suffering, into life's most peaceful stream. Here, drink, my dear. I care for your well-being most deeply.'
She accepted the glass. 'Why?' she demanded. 'Why do you care most deeply?'
'A man of my wealth can offer you much, child. All that you grant of your free will is my reward. And know, I am most gentle.'
She downed a mouthful of the tart, cool wine. 'Are you now?'
His nod was solemn, his eyes glittering between the folds of dimpled flesh. 'This I promise.'
'I sense wisdom in you, my dear,' Nawahl said, 'so I shall not press. Let you, rather, yourself ascend to the proper course.'
Bedrolls had been laid out. One of the undead servants had fanned to life a camp stove, the remnants of one sleeve catching light and smouldering in the process, a detail none commented on.
Darkness swiftly closed in around them. Nawahl commanded the lighting of lanterns and their positioning on poles situated in a circle around the camp. One of the corpses stood beside Felisin and refilled her glass after every mouthful. The creature's flesh looked gnawed. Gaping bloodless wounds lined his pallid arms. All his teeth had fallen out.
Felisin glanced up at him, willing herself against recoiling. 'And how did you die?' she asked sardonically.
'Terribly.'
'But how?'
'I am forbidden to say more. I died terribly, a death to match one of Hood's own nightmares. It was long, yet swift, an eternity that passed in an instant. I was surprised, yet knowing. Small pain, yet great pain, the flood of darkness, yet blinding-'
'All right. I see your master's point.'
'So you shall.'
'Go easy on that, lass,' Kulp said from near the camp stove. 'Best have your wits about you.'
'Why? It's not availed me yet, has it?' In defiance, she drained the glass and held it up to be refilled. Her head was swimming, her limbs seeming to float. The servant splashed wine over her hand.
Nawahl had returned to his wide, padded chair, watching the three of them with a contented smile on his lips. 'Mortal company, such a difference!' he wheezed. 'I am so much delighted, I need only bask in the mundane. Tell me, where do you seek to go? Whatever launched you on such a perilous journey? The rebellion? Is it truly as bloody as I have heard rumoured? Such injustice is ever repaid in full, alas. This lesson is lost, I am afraid.'
'We're going nowhere,' Felisin said.
'Might I convince you to revise your chosen destination, then?'
'And you offer protection?' she asked. 'How reliable? What happens if we run into bandits, or worse?'
'No harm shall come to you, my dear. A man who deals in sorcery has many resorts in defence of selves. Not once in all my travels have I been beset by nefarious fools. Accosted on occasion, yes, but all have turned away when I gifted them wisdom. My dear, you are positively breathtaking — your smooth, sun-honeyed skin is a balm to my eyes.'
'What would your wife say?' Felisin murmured.
'Alas, I am a widower. My dearest passed through the Hooded One's Gates almost a year ago to this day. Hers was a full, happy life, I am pleased to say — and that gives me great comfort. Ah, would that her spirit could arise and set you at ease with reassurances, my dear.'
Tapu skewers sizzled on the camp stove.
'Mage,' Nawahl said, 'you have opened your warren. Tell me, what do you see? Have I given you cause for mistrust?'
'No, merchant,' Kulp said. 'And I see nothing untoward — yet the spells surrounding us are High castings … I am impressed.'
'Only the best in protection of oneself, of course.'
The ground trembled suddenly and something huge pushed a brown-furred shoulder into the sphere opposite Felisin. The beast's shoulder was almost three arm-lengths high. After a moment the creature growled and withdrew.
