The room was dazzling. Her friends were beyond words. They only embraced her, repeated her name, bathed her in tears of relief. Pazel was kneeling and kissing her hands again and again. She tried to hold him still but it was impossible; he was overcome.
Even Ramachni was shivering with emotion. ‘You have aged me today, Thasha Isiq,’ he said. ‘By the time I guessed the nature of the curse, it was too late for any treatment I could devise. I nearly put you in the healing sleep, which slows poisons to a crawl. But by then you were too weak.’
‘How long has it been?’ she said. ‘I mean, how long since I drank the wine?’
‘Perhaps ten minutes, dear one,’ said Hercol. ‘Why do you ask?’
Thasha closed her eyes, furious with herself. ‘I lost a chance to use the Nilstone, that’s why. I could have done something. Changed the winds, maybe even parted the Red Storm. There are just a few swallows left. I can’t be wasting them.’
‘Wasting?’ said Neeps. ‘Thasha, that mouthful brought you back from the dead.’
Thasha looked at him.
‘I was. . told things.’
‘Told?’ said Marila. ‘By whom?’
‘Give her a little time,’ said Ramachni.
‘And some food, if there is any. I’m famished. Oh Pazel,
He was devouring her hands with kisses. She raised his chin, and understood: he’d been hiding his face, afraid he’d break down once again. Thasha kissed him squarely on the lips.
‘Out, everyone, and let me dress. You too, Pazel, go on.’
They obeyed her, limp with exhaustion. But as Hercol made to leave Thasha touched his hand. The warrior turned and looked her in the eye.
‘Stay a moment,’ she said. ‘I have something for you.’
30
Thasha’s brush with death had several immediate consequences. One was an end, for the moment at least, to any sign of division between Neeps and Marila. Pazel could not tell if they were truly reconciled, if the shock of nearly losing Thasha had made Neeps wake up to the danger of losing Marila as well; or if they were both simply making an effort to believe that his heart was not torn. Perhaps Neeps did not know himself. For now Pazel was simply glad to see him trying.
Thasha had also managed to devastate Hercol. This second encounter with Diadrelu had come only through Thasha’s lips (in two senses), and yet it proved harder to surmount. In the wilderness he had faced new tasks and dangers by the hour. On the
In a broader sense, of course, Thasha’s news had brought hope to them all. They had more than a vast island to aim for, now: they had a landing place, or at least a sign pointing the way.
Neda confirmed at once that the Arrowhead was real. ‘
‘Die how? Is there a great shaft, an abyss, like Thasha’s talking about?’ Neda shrugged. ‘After the Shaggat’s rise we were forbidden to speak of the place. Cayer Vispek was bending the rules even to speak about the Arrowhead. He said there was a legend that the great rock would fall when the Unseen takes its gaze from Alifros, and leaves us alone in the night.’
Pazel asked if she knew where along that massive shoreline they should seek the Arrowhead. Neda shook her head, then laughed. ‘Ask the Shaggat,’ she said, ‘if you can get the marines to stand aside.’
Ott and Haddismal had kept the Shaggat locked in the manger, hidden away from everyone but a few hand- picked Turachs. ‘I could, maybe,’ said Pazel. ‘Haddismal’s not spiteful like Ott; he just likes to win. And he might want to question the man himself. He doesn’t speak a word of Mzithrini.’
‘The Shaggat doesn’t speak a word of sane,’ said Neda. ‘He’s the devil.’
‘Maybe he’s calmed down,’ said Pazel. ‘And you’re a beautiful woman. He might drop his guard.’
She looked at him blankly. Then she turned and showed him her tattooed neck. ‘See the hawk? That’s a
The ship ran west, and the Red Storm weakened further. Captain Fiffengurt kept double lookouts aloft, and ordered redundant inspections of every element of their fighting arsenal. Still the grey-green seas lay empty.
‘Rose built the fire-control teams into a force like you’ve never seen, after the Behemoth launched those blazing monstrosities at us,’ he told Pazel, shortly after Thasha’s ordeal, ‘but I hope we never put ’em to the test. Wood and tar still burn, and flaxen sails as well.’
As for the wine of Agaroth, Thasha’s friends urged her desperately to take Dri’s advice and pour it out, swallowing only the dregs. ‘In two days you’ll collapse again,’ said Pazel. ‘You can’t put yourself through that.’
‘Or you,’ said Thasha, ‘and I won’t. I’ll take another sip in plenty of time.’
‘And delay the poison by two more days? What’s the point? What if we drop the bottle and it shatters?’
‘Guess I’ll lick the deck, won’t I?’
No one could change her mind: they would still be prisoners in Stath Balfyr, she observed, if she had never dared to drink. But that night the choices before her loomed stark and grim, and in the morning she took Ramachni aside.
‘You said you thought of putting me to sleep. To slow the poison.’
‘I did.’
‘Could you still do it? Could I sleep until we need the power of the Stone again. For days, or weeks?’
Ramachni seemed disinclined to answer, but Thasha would not be put off. At last he turned his black eyes on her fully. ‘It can be done,’ he said, ‘but you will get no closer to freeing Erithusme in your sleep.’
‘Why not? I found other answers in my sleep. Felthrup learned
‘Felthrup is a dreaming prodigy. And you found your answers on the shores of death, not natural sleep. But we are confusing the matter, Thasha. I want that poison out of you.’
His concern touched her, and then gave her a fright.
Still, she did not dispose of the wine. The hours ticked by, and her debates with her friends became arguments. They begged and cajoled, and even tried to shame her. At one point Neeps and Pazel marched her into her old cabin, demanded the silver key, and opened the safe where the Nilstone lay.
‘Erithusme had this idea that we could never succeed without her magic,’ said Pazel. ‘You’re beginning to sound just like her. Use the mucking Stone, then. Pour off the wine, drink the dregs and use it one last time. Maybe you really
Thasha held the bottle in the crook of her arm. ‘I’ll drink before the night is out.’
