Ohio, Hearst and Miphon sat on the banks of the Hollern River while Blackwood talked with half a dozen Melski on a solitary raft.
Since reaching Estar, they had already met with a leper, a bedraggled deserter, and a one-legged man on crutches who had refused to give an account of himself. It seemed that Estar lay desolate, its people dead or dispersed.
Already they knew that there was no hope of Blackwood finding Mystrel in Lorford – the ruins were abandoned – and little chance of them encountering anyone elsewhere who might know if she had survived. If the Melski could not say where she might be, then Blackwood had no hope of finding her.
The talk went this way and that for a long time. Eventually, Blackwood, looking heavy-hearted, rejoined the others. Miphon and Ohio were asleep in the weak spring sunlight.
'What do they say?' said Hearst.
Ohio and Miphon woke easily, without surprise. Only those who live safe within four walls can indulge in the deep unresponsive sleep which mimics opium stupor; those who follow the trails of the wild learn to be responsive even when dreaming, making the transition of wakeful alertness instantly, without so much as a yawn or a murmur.
'They say all through last summer none could venture within leagues of Castle Vaunting, for there was madness there.'
'And now?'
'They cannot say. No Melski will chance going 352 further downriver than this. They have lost too many people to the madness.'
T always understood,' said Miphon, 'that the madness only affected humans.'
'Then you, perhaps, will have to broaden your notions of humanity,' said Blackwood.
'Have there been any convoys on the Salt Road?' said Hearst.
'The Melski have seen none, which means certainly none have travelled down the Hollern River.' 'What else did they say?' said Hearst. 'Nothing.'
'You were talking a long time to say very little,' said Hearst.
'They are a formal people,' said Blackwood. 'Besides, I had some… some history to narrate to them.'
'Was that wise?' said Hearst.
'They had a right to know.'
'Yes, but was it wise to tell them?'
'There is a wisdom which concerns survival of the self,' said Blackwood. 'And there is a greater wisdom which is concerned with survival of things greater than the self.'
Hearst and Ohio exchanged glances. Hearst shrugged; Ohio grimaced.
'Come on then,' said Hearst. 'Let's be moving. There's not much daylight left.'
Walking through riverside forest, Blackwood remembered coming this way on other days in other years. Overhead the sky was blue:
Sky, blue sky, the colour of my lover's eyes; Leaf, young leaf, her hands no softer.
He remembered leading wizards and Rovac warriors 353 through the forest to where Heenmor had worked his magic. At the time, thinking these affairs had nothing to do with him, he had agreed to do the job simply to secure his release from Prince Comedo's dungeons.
But now, he, too, was committed to this quest. Blackwood remembered the butchery on the Fleuve River: Elkor Alish had done that. Now Alish was loose in the world with the death-stone. He must not be allowed to use it!
Many battlefields commanded by a hero's sword had seen carnage the stars might weep at, but the death-stone was a weapon more terrible than any forged from steel because it killed everything. After such violence, only silence and desolation remained: no voice of bird, no blade of grass, no spinneret spider to span space with instinctive architecture, no earth-sure badger, no mesh-wing honey bee.
It could not be allowed.
Blackwood, cursed with double knowledge, with an acute empathy for both the hunter and the prey, suffered more than any of the others at the thought of what the death-stone could do.
Five leagues from Castle Vaunting, they stopped for the night. Miphon, taking off his red charm, found no mad-jewel overpowered his mind. That confirmed what they already knew: Alish had used the death-stone, destroying the mad-jewel. Hearst sent Ohio off on a twilight scouting mission, to make sure there were no lepers, deserters or other riff-raff within threatening distance of their camp site.
With Ohio gone, the others gathered firewood and built a rough lean-to shelter for the night. Ohio returned by starshine; he had a prisoner with him, a young and frightened man who sat silent and sullen when Ohio turned him loose.
'Don't make any sudden movements,' said Ohio, 'or you'll excite friend Blackwood here. I've lost his leash, so I'll have the devil of a job restraining him if he tries to eat you.'
The young man cringed.
'What's your name, boy?' said Hearst, with raw-nerve violence in his voice. Ohio chuckled.
'Peace, friend Hearst. We've no need to beat him to his bones for information. I've seen his friends – five hunters, camped downstream just a little. This rabbit here was strutting round the countryside with a slingshot. His rope-soled shoes and the splicing on the belt holding up his pantaloons betray him as a sailor-boy, probably a cabin boy.'
'I'm no cabin boy,' said the young man, suddenly recovering his voice and his nerve. Mine is an Orfus blade. I'm a blooded blade of the free marauders.'
'Really,' said Ohio. T wonder if his captain knows his cabin boy thinks himself a full-fledged reaver.'
'My captain's Abousir Belench,' said their captive. 'He's captain three-five prime under our sealord Menator.'
'Menator?' said Ohio. 'I've heard of a famous pimp by that name, and a famous thief – but never a sealord.'
'You'll know him well enough when he has the skin flayed off your backs. We've five ships anchored at Lorford to do Menator's work. He's the sword from the north, you know. You must have heard of him.'
'Is he a bald man with a broken nose and a blue rose tattooed on his left cheek?' said Ohio.
'Yes,' said their captive. 'You know him, then?'
'He's my brother,' said Ohio.
'Sure,' said the young man, 'and the skua gull shits gold and silver. Tell me another one.'
'Believe what you like,' said Ohio. T don't care. So this Menator rules the Orfus pirates now, does he?'
'Yes,' said the young man, now getting positively stroppy. 'He's lord of the Greater Teeth. He'll have you torn to bits. Nobody can stand against him. He's made us conquerors. This winter we took Stokos. Next, Runcorn: then there'll be no power in all of Argan strong enough to hold us.'
'Bold words, my sprig,' said Ohio.
'True words,' said the young man. 'You made a mistake taking me prisoner.'
'You gave me no chance to hide,' said Ohio. 'If I hadn't taken you prisoner, your fellows might be hunting me by now.'
'They'll hunt you anyway, come the morning. They'll know I'm missing.'
Hearst got to his feet.
'Blackwood. Ohio. Miphon. And you, boy – on your feet. Gather wood. Lay fires, each fire twenty paces apart. I want each of us to lay ten fires.'
Blackwood began to protest: 'But that's ridiculous, we should -'
'No, Blackwood,' said Ohio sharply, 'We're not going to let you eat the boy. Not unless he tries to run away.'
Ohio saw Hearst's plan – and so, as they set to work, did Blackwood. After a lot of labour, the fires were laid. They lit them. Then, with burning brands, they set fire to half a dozen trees as well. From a distance, there would be so much light in the forest that one would have to guess that an army was camping there.
Morning dawned grey and cold, with a light rain falling; the sunlight of the day before was just a memory. They broke camp and moved cautiously west, until they could see Lorford in the distance. There were no ships there. The pirates had left.
'They've gone!' said their captive.
'What did you expect?' said Hearst. 'Did you think they'd worry about you when they had the safety of five ships to think about?'
'You see?' said Ohio. 'A cabin boy isn't that important.'
'I'm not a cabin boy!'
'Maybe not,' said Ohio, 'But in any case it doesn't matter. Blackwood, I've changed my mind. We'll let you eat him after all.'
At that, their captive bolted and ran. Ohio laughed to see him sprinting away; the last they saw, he was jogging along beside the river in the direction of the sea.
'That wasn't very kind,' said Blackwood quietly.
'Kind!' roared Ohio. 'Other pirates would have raped him then cut him up for fish bait.'
Blackwood – briefly – contemplated the idea of delivering an extended lecture on ethics, then – wisely -abandoned the notion.
When they reached the first stonemade ground, Hearst started to count out paces. He wanted to know how much ground the death-stone commanded; that knowledge might one day mean the difference between life and death.
They climbed Melross Hill and crossed the drawbridge: wooden beams, iron nails and steel chains now rendered in stone. Inside the castle, the wealth of gold, weapons, tapestries and precious stones had been similarly affected; they found the mad-jewel itself, a useless chunk of rock lying near a stonemade skeleton.
There was no sign of Elkor Alish.
'Perhaps he slipped when he tried to climb the castle walls,' said Miphon. 'Perhaps he fell.'
T doubt it,' said Hearst.
They spent two days searching the castle for a sign, a clue or a message – finding nothing. Ohio was awed by the size of this wizard fortress; Argan had always been the place for wizards, and there were no such castles in the Ravlish Lands. But Miphon told him that Castle Vaunting was nothing compared to the Castle of Controlling Power by the flame trench Drangsturm, on the border between the Far South and the Deep South -to which they must now make their way, to alert the Confederation of Wizards to the disasters which had befallen them.