embrace.
The Mujar opened his eyes and smiled, then a flash of Shissar engulfed them and Kieran held a sleek, finned blue-grey creature. With a powerful lash of its flukes, the dolphin slipped from his grasp and powered away into the sea, vanishing beneath the waves. Talsy stared after him in confusion, while Kieran waded back to shore.
She followed him, grumbling, 'He's never done that before.'
Kieran glanced at her. 'He needs to be free for a while.'
Talsy paused in the shallows to gaze out to sea. The dolphin leapt from the waves, summersaulted and crashed back into the water with a mighty splash. She smiled and plodded up the beach after Kieran, glanced around for the ship and groaned when she found it. The Black Riders had reduced it to firewood. Even the original burnt hull and copper-bound keel were smashed. The mast lay snapped in two amid tangled rigging and torn sails.
Talsy sank down in the soft sand as a wave of despair washed over her. 'What are we going to do now?'
Kieran kicked the broken wood. 'Build another.'
'How? There aren't any people to help with the work. The three of us can't build a ship. Even if there are other survivors, we don't have the time.'
'The Mujar can do it alone.'
'He can't command wood like he can ice or stone, he told us.'
The warrior picked up a twisted piece of copper. 'Then let him build it out of ice or stone.'
'Ice perhaps, but a stone ship would never float.'
'It would if the hull was thin enough.'
She frowned, pondering this idea. 'But stone would be too brittle. It would crack.'
'If he can command the stone to form a ship, he can stop it from cracking.'
Talsy stared out to sea, where Chanter frolicked in the waves. Why had he not thought of this before? Then again, Mujar were not inclined towards things mechanical or constructing Truemen objects. She remembered how even erecting a simple tent had baffled him. Chanter was a creature of the wild world, with no need to create devices of Truemen design. Only when burdened with helpless Truemen was he forced to turn his hand to building. Perhaps this was the reason Truemen compared Mujar to animals, for they had no use for the trappings of so-called civilisation.
The dolphin powered to shore and beached in the breakers. The faint mist of Shissar engulfed him as he transformed, and he stood up in man-shape once more and walked up the beach towards them. By the time he reached Talsy, he was dry. His hair glittered and his skin glowed with health. The Mujar flopped down in the sand beside her, shooting her a smile before turning to gaze at the dejected warrior who stood amid the wreckage of the ship. Chanter brushed hair from his face and studied the debris with a slight frown.
'What do we do now?' Talsy asked, curious to compare his ideas with Kieran’s.
The Mujar pursed his lips. 'I could build a ship of ice, and lay the wood on it to keep the cold from you.'
'What if there are more survivors?' Kieran asked.
'Then I'll make a ship big enough for all of us.'
Kieran approached and knelt before the Mujar, and his wariness struck Talsy afresh. 'What about a ship of stone. Could you build it?'
Chanter smiled. 'Certainly, but would it float?'
Kieran explained his theory, and the Mujar studied the drawings the warrior sketched in the sand. When he finished, Chanter nodded.
'I can build it, but first we must find out how many of the chosen survived.'
Kieran rose, a hand on his sword hilt. 'I'll start looking.'
As he turned away, Chanter also stood. 'Kieran.' The warrior swung back, and the Mujar bowed his head. 'Gratitude.'
Kieran made a vague gesture, clearly uncertain of what to do. Chanter smiled and raised a hand in the palm up Mujar sign that betokened surrender, or friendship in this case, Talsy guessed. Certainly it was a gesture that meant no harm.
'Wish.'
The warrior frowned, glancing at Talsy, then at the Mujar. 'You healed me when I had no Wish. You don't owe me now.'
Chanter shook his head. 'Wish.'
Kieran pondered for a moment. 'I have some questions.'
'Ask. Three only.'
Kieran gestured to Talsy. 'Why is she Mujar marked?'
'She is the First Chosen, worthy of the mark.'
Kieran’s expression was unreadable, his dark eyes intent under lowered brows. 'Why must we go west?'
'For the gathering.'
'What's the gathering?'
'All the chosen and free Mujar must come together at a place appointed by the gods for the final confrontation.'
'What confrontation? With whom?'
Chanter shook his head. 'You have asked three questions.'
'I suppose I'll find out,' Kieran muttered. 'If I live to see it.'
He marched off, and, as soon as he was out of earshot, Talsy turned to Chanter, but he wagged a finger at her when she opened her mouth.
'Don't you start.'
'You said you'd answer me!' She scrambled to her feet and trotted after him when he headed down the beach in the opposite direction to Kieran.
'I said you could ask, not that I'd answer,' he called over his shoulder, sprinting away.
Talsy made a futile attempt to catch him, but was soon left panting far behind. As she stopped, Chanter sprang into the air and turned into gull that sailed high on the breeze. She watched him, thwarted yet uplifted by his freedom.
After regaining her breath, she slogged through the soft sand in search of survivors, staying close to the camp while Chanter and Kieran searched further afield. When the three returned to the ship's wreckage, they had found twenty-two chosen. Most were youngsters who had run fast and hidden in small places, but a few adults had survived, amongst them Sheera, to Talsy's delight. The old woman had crawled into a hole in the rocks by the camp and gone unnoticed.
As they sat around a fire and ate a meaty stew Sheera had prepared from her scattered supplies, Chanter considered the chosen.
'So, twenty-two it is. Pitiful few, but better than none.'
'There may be more wandering around in the wilderness,' Talsy pointed out.
'No, the Hashon Jahar will leave no one alive, including these if we don't flee now. The only reason these few remain is because the Riders were not so thorough in their search. They know that many more Hashon Jahar will pass this way, and they will kill any they find. Tomorrow I'll make the stone ship. We have no time for anything else. The chosen must gather provisions for the journey.'
Talsy nodded, saddened by the thought of those who would be left behind to die.
In the morning, Chanter helped to bury the dead by opening a great pit in the ground and closing it over the bodies. There was no time to mourn them, and, while the people picked through the debris for useful items like pots and pans, blankets, clothes and utensils, Chanter went back to the beach with Talsy and Kieran. He pondered, then turned to Kieran.
'Draw the ship again.'
Kieran obliged, and the Mujar watched as he drew it from every angle. Chanter thought for a moment longer, then walked down to the shoreline. Placing his palms on the wet sand, he invoked Dolana. The freezing solidity lasted longer than usual, then the Mujar straightened, his hands outstretched as if holding invisible ropes. His stance was relaxed, but a deep frown furrowed his brow. A low grinding started deep within the earth, sent vibrations under their feet and rippled the calm sea beyond the breakers.
The sand bulged as the soil had done before, swelling into a pregnant hummock that broke open and birthed
