Aramaya - Jane Routley The Dion Chronicles

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feeling relief from the strain, but I held the protection over the hole in its side.

      The ship moved forward evenly with the waves and wind for a few minutes. Then it came to another shuddering halt. Sand this time. I gave a push of power and the ship and I, battered and knocked about by the power of the thundering waves, dragged ourself slowly up onto the sandy beach until at last the surf was no more then breakers lapping round our bows.

      At last I relaxed and let myself slide out of the ship. I found myself lying face down on the sand before it, my stomach feeling as if it had been scraped raw. I rolled over and rubbed it briefly deafened by the water in my ears. Behind me the Eagle was a dark bulk leaning heavily to one side.

      Bang! A blast of magic burst against the side of the ship. I felt a sudden horrible frisson of necromancy and struggled to my feet as fast as I could, bringing magical defenses to mind. My eyes were dazzled by fire and flares of white light. Magelight! Sweet Tansa! People were everywhere, shouting and fighting. Two men rushed at me. The leading one held a sword ready to strike.

      "No!" I shouted. I threw out a heavy blow of magic at them which sent several people hurtling through the air in a blast of sand and power. There was a screech and a crackle of light as my power hit other power. Strong other power. One of the hurtling figures stopped in mid-air, turned itself upright and dropped softly to its knees on the sand. As he hit the ground his defenses were already up. I could feel them. Power like a great rock. Oh God I thought. Another mage, a strong one. Using his own magic, not necromancy. I was tired. Could I hold out against him long enough?

      Kitten was at my side and Simonetti too with a drawn sword. Sailors with drawn cutlasses were everywhere and more of them were clambering down ropes from the ship. Beyond the light and the huge fire burning nearby, people were fighting, but no one was attacking us. It amazed me.

      The mage had gone, but I could sense him out there in the darkness. He was calling to others. He was knocking someone over. He was fending off a blow. I felt the strength of the power he was using to let himself see in the dark and was glad that, for the moment at least, it was not turned against me. As we huddled in a silent group, ready to fight, blasts of magic illuminated struggling bodies. There were other mages out there not as so strong as the first but many of them. Most of them were not using necromancy, but we couldn't be sure that meant they were benign.

      "What's happened?" I said.

      "Wreckers," said Kitten "It was a false signal. They lured us onto that reef so we might be wrecked and our cargo taken."

      And at least one of them had been using necromancy, although I could feel no sign of it now. At that moment there was a final blast of power and then a momentary silence.

      Suddenly white mage light flared over the beach. A group of five, no, six mages stood in formation. They wore long black robes. They stood simply, hands at their sides. Bodies were sprawled all around them and a couple of bound figures knelt before them. I could feel the presence of other mages beyond the circle of light and even see a dark robbed figure in the shadows tying something round the wrists of a prone body. The strong mage, however, had to be the tall dark-skinned man standing in the centre of the formation. He was the one making the mage light. Almost as if acknowledging my recognition, he bowed his head politely in my direction and spoke in passable Istaki, the dialect of the city we had sailed from on the Peninsula.

      "Ladies and Gentlemen. I welcome you to Aramaya and apologize for your noisy reception and the unfortunate damage to your ship. We have now subdued the wreckers and may proceed upon a more civilized level. I am Prince Nikoli Terzu of the 3rd regiment of the Imperial Demon Hunters. At your service."

      Chapter 2

      I woke up. It was dark. I was lying on the ground wrapped in a blanket near a big fire. The air smelt of sea salt and in the sky above me ragged dark clouds blew across a full moon. It took a moment or two for me to work out where I was.

      The beach. The mages.

      The moment I had introduced myself as Dion Holyhands, they had known who I was. They never for a moment questioned that I was telling the truth. But then Prince Terzu had had a taste of my power when I had flung him and one of the wreckers back across the beach.

      "The Demonslayer of Gallia," the Prince had said bowing comprehensively. "This is an immense honor." Though his words were overly fulsome, he seemed quite serious.

      There had been a kind of fluttering among his companions that had made me look at them more closely and I saw then that they were not mages or at least not grown-up mages, but all young men in their teens.

      I smiled as I lay there by the fire now, thinking of them and the enthusiastic way they had gathered around me, wanting to shake my hand and ask me about Ruinac and the demons I had fought. Fine young lads despite the occasional spotty face and sweaty hand. Apart from the servants who awaited the party on the cliff top and welcomed we mariners with blankets and warm drinks, the only other member of the Prince's party over twenty was his nephew Count Alexi Ivanka.

      It seemed we had suddenly become part of a school excursion. Every summer Prince Terzu retired from the capital Akieva to his estates on this coast and it was his habit to invite young mages from his and allied families to come and train with him. Looking for necromancy in the Bowl of Seeing was an obvious part of that training. It was while doing this that they spotted our ship out at sea.

      "Your progress over the Ocean held us enthralled all afternoon," said Prince Terzu in his cool languid way. "When we saw how close you were coming we set out immediately to greet you. With most felicitous results I am glad to say, since it gave us the opportunity to be of service to you."

      I suspected there was more to his story than that, but I did not press him. I doubted their discovery of the wreckers was just good fortune. And his original intentions towards me could well have been less hospitable. A powerful mage heading for your coast line at great speed is not always a blessing. A conscientious public official like a Demon Hunter might well find it necessary to investigate and even stop such a journey.

      As I lay there drowsily in the firelight, I could hear considerable movement away to my left.

      "What's going on?" I mumbled at Kitten, who was crouching nearby staring into the fire.

      "Oh Hello. Welcome back to the land of the living."

      I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Although my magic had not been exhausted, the struggle with the sea had left me physically tired and I had fallen into a deep sleep the moment I had laid down by the fire.

      "What time is it?"

      "It's after midnight, but dawn is still some way off. You can lie there for a bit longer. The Prince has sent for carts to take us to his estate, but they haven't arrived yet"

      "So what's all the noise?"

      "The mages are getting ready to go off and find this necromancer."

      I was suddenly wide awake.

      "Necromancer? They didn't say anything about a necromancer."

      "Apparently the wreckers are the henchmen of a necromancer who lives further up the coast. It was he who gave them the necromantic power they were using. Now that they've arrested the wreckers, the mages are worried that their master will be warned and escape before reinforcements can come. Count Alexi and Prince Nikoli have been arguing about it for some time, but it seems they have now decided to go."

      "Go! Take on a necromancer with just a pack of boys! What does the Prince say?"

      "Seems to me he is very reluctant to go, but would you let a necromancer slip through your fingers?"

      Necromancers were rogue mages who used the pain and death of other beings to cement their pacts with demons and thus fuel their spells. The most powerful fodder for such magic was, of course, the life-force of humans. It was a cruel violent magic and naturally most ordinary mages were dedicated to wiping it out. But to take on a necromancer with inexperienced boys... That was terribly dangerous!

      "Kitten, do you think the Prince would be offended if I

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