“Why. . northward, as you said,” Ethis spoke, choosing words as a warrior might choose his weapons in battle. “The Sondau have these corsairs that are legendary in the open sea. You might prevail upon them to take us farther on-perhaps across the Bay of Thetis into Nordesia or even. .”
“No,” Drakis said flatly.
“They might take us along the coast to the west, or we could travel by land to Point Kontantine but we would still need the corsair ships to. .”
“No, Ethis,” Drakis repeated more firmly. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“But. . your destiny. .”
“My destiny? You’ve been repeating that lie so long that you’ve started believing it yourself.” Drakis shook his head. “It’s not me! Even if it were me, I wouldn’t want it! It was all just a story the dwarf told, Ethis, so that gullible folks along the way would feed us and give us a bed! It got us here and that’s enough. . I’m not going anywhere!”
“So that’s it, then,” Ethis spat, his blank expression vanishing for the first time that Drakis had ever known him into what passed for a scowl. “You just give up, tell the rest of the world to jump into the Chaos while you play in the sand?”
“Yes!” Drakis shot back. “It’s my life. . for the first time it is mine. . not yours. . not the dwarf fool’s. . certainly not the Empire’s. . and I’m not giving it up to anyone else, either!”
Ethis shook his head. “You selfish, blind, narrow-minded idiot! It’s gone way beyond time for you to hide! You think the Iblisi will just give up. . that they’ll wake up one day and say, ‘This is too hard, let’s just let this one go?’ They never give up, Drakis, and they never, ever forget. They will hunt you down and murder you, you and anyone who has been with you. The very first they’ll take will be those closest to you. The safest thing you can do is get off this continent-across the sea-somewhere they can’t reach.”
“Oh, please,” Drakis sneered. “You’re scaring the women.”
Ethis growled under his breath in frustration. “You have no idea who these Iblisi are. . or who I am for that matter!”
“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea about you,” Drakis snarled. “I’ve seen what you’re capable of. . just how honest you can be!”
“I’m trying to help you, human!”
Drakis looked behind the chimerian. There came a rising tide of shouts from the village. Suddenly one appeared, then three, and then entire families were running frantically about. Soon a number of them ran toward the various ships beached along the crescent of sandy shore that marked the edge of the harbor.
Drakis eyed the chimerian. “What did you do, Ethis?”
Belag and the Lyric appeared behind the dwarf, all of them running directly toward Drakis and Mala.
“Well,” Mala sighed to herself. “It looks like everyone found us.”
Urulani came with them but ran past Drakis without as much as a nod, shouting toward the beached ship beyond. “Kanshu! Get up!”
A head poked up over the gunwales, staring blearily back.
“Raise me a crew of twenty!” she shouted, plunging into the water without slowing, then pulling herself up a rope that Kanshu hastily tossed over the side. “We’ve got to get the ship provisioned and ready for sail at once. And I want warriors and sea-crafters only-and pray we don’t need them!”
“Aye, Captain,” Kanshu replied at once, himself jumping over the side and pushing shoreward through the shallows. “How long a voyage, Captain?”
“I don’t know. . bring as much as is at hand,” Urulani shouted as she at once set about readying the ship. “I’ve told the Elders to abandon the village. We’ll hold the beach until everyone is safely away on the other ships.”