She paused, reflecting on the enormous explosion they'd all witnessed from the distant shores of the Great Sea. She shuddered. 'Nothing could have survived such a calamity,' she said.
To her surprise Palimak said, 'I'm not so sure of that. My father did.' He paused, thinking. Then, 'I told you what happened in Charize's chamber. How, when all seemed lost, what I thought was my father's ghost engaged those monsters. But it wasn't a ghost, was it? Because we later found my father alive in Asper's tomb.'
'Yes, yes, but we were talking about the horse,' the caravan master said, displaying rare impatience.
Palimak sighed. 'The whole incident all seems like a terrible nightmare now. So I can't say for certain.
But it seemed to me that during the battle I heard Khysmet. You all know that trumpeting sound he made whenever there was a fight?'
Leiria and Coralean nodded. They remembered it very well. Especially Leiria. She couldn't count the number of times she'd followed that wild cry into always-victorious battle.
'Well, that's what I heard,' Palimak said. 'Or maybe it's what I wanted to hear. I can't say.'
'Are you telling us there's more to this mystery?' the caravan master asked. 'Poor Coralean's brain, agile as it is, has not been able to unravel the knot of Safar's sudden resurrection, much less these other things you suggest.'
'If you did hear Khysmet,' Leiria said, 'where is he now? Where did he go?'
Palimak groaned in frustration. 'I don't know,' he said harshly. 'But every day that goes by, I wonder if I didn't make a big mistake by not searching Hanadu for him, instead of leaving so quickly.'
Always a woman of action, Leiria said, 'Let's return to Hanadu and see. It's stupid sitting around here wondering about something we can't prove unless we go there in person. And if we do find Khysmet, maybe Safar will recover.'
Angry shouts echoed from the market place. Coralean peered out and saw the Elder, Masura, haranguing the villagers. His words weren't distinct, but they were obviously causing a heated debate.
People were jabbing fingers at one another, defending whatever stand they had taken.
He turned back, face dark with displeasure. 'Coralean is not the sort of man who usually advises delay,'
he said. 'Direct action has always been his motto, as you both well know.'
He jabbed a thumb at the window. 'However, it's Coralean's considered opinion that this would not be a good time to undertake another expedition to Hanadu. There's too much discontent in our ranks. King Rhodes is no fool and would be certain to sniff out our weakness. Then we'd have another war on our hands.'
He grimaced. 'With so much disunity, Coralean fears that the outcome of such a war might not achieve the same happy result as before.'
'I'm not sure we have anything to lose,' Leiria said. 'It's my guess that his spies have already informed his hairy majesty that we're at each other's throats.'
'Possibly so,' Coralean replied. 'But to hear a thing from a spy is not the same as knowing it in your heart. Spies are notorious tellers of falsehoods. They lie for gold. Or they lie to please their master, telling him what they think he wants to hear.
'Sometimes spies do both. Fattening their purses and getting in their master's good graces at the same time. King Rhodes knows this, so he'll wait until he has absolute proof before he moves against us. And it is Coralean's view that it would be foolish for us to provide him with the proof he seeks. Let him labor for it. And if the gods are kind to us, our problems will resolved by then.'
Palimak sighed. He felt like a child. Confronted by forces he didn't understand and certainly wanted no part of.
'If only my father would get well,' he said. 'He'd stop this squabbling. He'd know what to do!'
Coralean studied him. Then, 'Although Safar has returned to us, it's still up to you, my young friend,' he said. 'You must act. We can't wait for your father's recovery. It saddens Coralean deeply to say this, but there's a chance Safar might never recover.'
'But he has to!' Palimak moaned. 'I can't force people against their wills any longer. I never liked doing it. And I don't want to start again.'
Leiria fixed Palimak with a hard look. She said, 'This is a rotten time, Palimak Timura, to develop a conscience.'
'Our beautiful captain has hit the target in its tender center,' Coralean said. 'The troubles we are having now with the Council are nothing compared to the evils we will face very soon.'
Palimak raised a questioning eyebrow. 'What could be worse than this?'
'As you know, I've just returned from negotiations with our hired fleet,' Coralean said.
'They want more money?' Palimak asked. 'That's easy enough. We've plenty of gold and jewels in the treasury.'
The caravan master snorted like a bull. 'Of course they want more money,' he said. 'Mercenaries always want more money. It's in their greedy natures to wring the sponge dry, then press it again in case there's a speck of moisture left. But our new worries aren't on account of money. Coralean has had the distasteful task of dealing with such men many times during his long, illustrious career. Sea pirates, land pirates, they're all the same.
'I reasoned with them. Thumped the heads of a few captains. Slipped their lieutenants a little gold to foster insurrection. And eventually arrived at terms favorable to us.'
Leiria eyed him. 'So what's the problem?'
'Waterspouts,' Coralean said.
Palimak and Leiria gaped at him. What in the blazes?
Coralean nodded. 'Yes, indeed, my friends. Waterspouts,' he continued. ''The biggest damned waterspouts in all creation,a€™ is how one captain put it. One of them appeared right off the coast of Hanadu. According to the captain, who swears he hadn't had a drink in a week-a lie, of course, but no matter-this particular waterspout was over a mile wide. And powerful! Strong enough to pull the biggest ship under. At least, that's what the captain said.'
Coralean plucked a leather-covered flask from his belt and drank deeply of the wine it contained. He handed it to Palimak, who shook his head. Then to Leiria, who nodded absently and drank as deeply as the caravan master.
'I questioned a sampling of common seamen from the other ships,' Coralean said, 'and they confirmed the tale. As a point of fact, the spout forced the fleet to put out to sea for more than a week.'
Coralean sighed. 'Thank the gods Rhodes didn't know that, because there was a time when the blockade we have established along his coast did not exist.'
'But now the fleet's back, right?' Palimak said. 'So there's nothing to worry about.'
'Oh, you couldn't be farther off the mark, young Timura,' Coralean said. 'The fleet's back. The blockade once more intact. But I fear-and more importantly those pirates fear-that new manifestations will occur.
Sailors are the most superstitious of men, as you well know.
'But it seems they have reason for their nervousness. For similar waterspouts have been reported in the seas between Syrapis and Esmir. There's news that a dozen fishing boats disappeared just off Caspan.
Sucked down by a waterspout, I'm told.'
'But why should we worry?' Leiria wanted to know. 'Waterspouts can't get us on land. And if the sea off Syrapis breaks out in them like plague rash, it doesn't matter if all the ships light out for deep water.
We might not be able to land at Hanadu, but neither can Rhodes send a raiding party to our shores. Who needs ships, if Nature Herself forms a blockade?'
But Palimak immediately understood what Coralean was getting at. Ghostly fingers chilled his spine.
'It's not King Rhodes he's worried about, Aunt Leiria,' he said, his voice trembling. 'Or, really even the waterspouts.' Then, to Coralean. 'Isn't that right?'
Again, the caravan master sighed heavily. 'Indeed it is, son of my dearest friend,' he said. 'Safar predicted the end of the world long ago. He said the gods were asleep and no longer concerned themselves with human, or demon, affairs. I didn't believe him, at first.
'But look what has happened to Esmir! Despite his valiant efforts to destroy the machine at Caluz-plugging the magical breach between Hadin and Esmir-the poison has continued to spread. The seafarers tell me much of Esmir is now uninhabitable. That people are fleeing to the coast in tremendous numbers.'
He pressed his hands against his temples, as if in pain. 'It is my fear,' he said, 'that this poison will soon spread to Syrapis. And then what will we do? The waterspouts are quite possibly the first sign of such an
