- Chapter 10 -

Previously...

The staff of The Serpent's Crown frowned when Raven first mentioned the name "Tysandiel", making the dancer wonder whether she had misheard what Drasheel had said, or that there might be another "Serpent's Crown" on Sailspinners' Row. No - it said "north end of Sailspinners' Row", didn't it?, she told herself as she slipped her fingers into the top of her right boot, and got out Drasheel's note. This has to be the place...

Raven was about to step outside to check the sign hanging above the tavern door when a gentle hand came to rest on her shoulder. "Only my family - and my nephew - call me by my given name", said a soft, welcoming voice. "You, young lady, are neither..."

Raven turned, and her eyes met those of a tall, thin woman with light brown hair and the distinctive almond-shaped eyes and pointed ears of the Shaelin race. The woman's eyes were a vibrant green, like the leaves of a tree at the height of summer, made all the more vivid by the warming light of the sun.

"...not that I'll hold that against you", the Shaelin woman continued, smiling. "Drasheel said you were coming, Raven. He did not make it clear why, however."

"He told me you might be able to help me", the dancer replied. "I'm going to Jaglundar's Rock..."

"Don't", said Tysandiel firmly. "Death's dearest child dwells there."

"I must, for the sake of a friend", Raven insisted.

Tysandiel exhaled a single sighing breath. "Then maybe there is hope for you", she said. "Come - I have a room round the back, where people come to ask me to unravel the future's tangled web. Perhaps enough of the tangles will come undone for Fate to shine through, and brighten your path."

Tysandiel's room was small, and little in the way of furniture, apart from rugs hanging on the walls, cushions all over the floor, and a solitary small, low circular table. Raven and the Shaelin woman sat on either side of this, and once Tysandiel was comfortable, she instructed the dancer on what to do.

"Take off your glove, and place your hand against mine", said the former adventuress, raising her hand and extending it across the table towards Raven, the palm facing the dancer. "No matter what you feel thereafter, do not resist - do not even think. Image yourself floating in still water, with just a cloudless sky above you. Let yourself drift away..."

Raven did just that, and she was glad for it. Envisioning herself in just such a position, suspended in the water with only the sky to gaze into, brought such calm and peace to her spirit that her fears and worries left her for a while. She never even felt the presence of the Shaelin seer inside her mind...

...until the woman abruptly withdrew, pulling back her hand and breaking the link. "I can see nothing", she said once Raven had fully emerged from the trance. "I have never known the like. It was like standing in the middle of the thickest forest I could imagine, hoping to see one leaf on a tree at its farthest edge. The strands of past and future have been woven so very tightly around you, Raven - Fate's illumination cannot reach you, where you are now. Any destiny that awaits you will have to be of your own making."

"Then you cannot help me?", queried Raven, disappointed - and not a little concerned.

"I can foretell nothing, but that does not mean that I cannot help", said Tysandiel. "It is perhaps...inappropriate to do so, but there is something I can give you..."

The Shaelin woman reached under a cushion, behind where she sat, and took out a small wooden box, its edges and corners reinforced with polished metal. There seemed to be no lid, no lock, no obvious way to open it, but in Tysandiel's hand, the box opened of its own accord.

"I once wore this ring, when I travelled throughout The Realm in search of riches, glory and stories to tell my children", she said, passing the box to Raven. "It possesses the ability to render its wearer almost impervious to detection. It does not confer invisibility, nor will it cause an enemy to simply ignore you if you walk past their nose - you must still tread carefully wherever you chose to walk. As with all magical devices, it is best used when necessary, rather than wholly relied upon."

The ring was fashioned in the likeness of a tiny, coiled silver snake, its body wrapping round and around the wearer's finger. Beads of amber, almost too small to see, were embedded in its eye-sockets, and the light from the lantern that hung over the table brought flecks of fire to the little jewels.

"Is the design significant?", asked Raven. "Is there a reason why it was made in the shape of a snake?"

"Something to do with Lord Serpentine, perhaps", Tysandiel replied, her answer no more than an uninformed guess. "It is very old, that I know - it may even date back to before The Ancient Rage, and may come from a civilisation devoted to the Creator-Lord which no longer exists. One thing alone is certain - it saved my life many times."

"Your life, maybe - but not your arm?", asked Raven. She had noticed that the Shaelin woman only used her left arm, her right remaining under the folds of the hip-length cloak she wore over her simple grey-blue gown, and the dancer had had her suspicions from the moment they met.

"You noticed", replied Tysandiel, smiling wryly. "I don't blame the ring for that. I blame myself, and my own carelessness. I underestimated my enemy, and it not only cost me an arm, it cost me a life I loved more dearly than just about anything...the life of adventure and wonder."

"It is one who relishes just such a life that I wish to save", Raven told her, placing the ring on her finger, then pulling her long white glove back on over it.

"Then I shall pray to all the great powers, and invoke their secret names, in the hope that you will succeed", responded the Shaelin woman, bowing as Raven got up to leave.

"I'd pray, too", added Raven, "but the only memories I have are of my life here, and I wouldn't know who to call upon."

Tysandiel saw Raven to the door, but the dancer paused just as she was about to go back into the tavern's tap-room. "You were quite adamant that I shouldn't go to Jaglundar's Rock", the black-haired dancer recalled. "Do you perhaps know something about the place? Do you know what lives there?"

"They say that those who seek adventure are the bravest of the brave, but even we shuddered to think of Jaglundar's Rock", Tysandiel admitted. "I...I have my suspicions, but even with two arms, I would not go there to confirm them."

The former adventuress had one more thing to offer her visitor. "I warned you never to underestimate an adversary, Raven", Tysandiel said as the dancer stepped out into the street to rejoin Sshraada in their carriage, "but that is only half of it. Never underestimate an enemy...and never overestimate your own abilities. You possess power, that I felt when we touched, but power in itself may not be enough. Don't trust your life to something you're yet to properly master - that way lies ruin."

"Rarely is such wisdom spoken", observed Sshraada as Raven got into the carriage. "Heed it well."

"That I will", said Raven, folding her hands in her lap. "That I will..."

The cool silver coiled around the middle finger of her right hand was all the reminder Raven needed.

The artificial suns of Freeport ran through their cycles, racing each other across the sky, but only once in the day were they ever on equal terms, standing together directly overhead. By that time, the Succubus was well on its way towards being ready to set sail, and before long, all it needed was for its passengers to arrive.

Ashyra was not at her best, but she was not about to miss wishing her best friend a safe and swift journey. The Shaelin girl's eyes were a little dull, her hair was not as well groomed as usual, and she yawned a lot, but she had had a fairly good sleep, and only had a sight headache as a reminder of her too-close encounter with intoxicating liquor.

The Shaelin dancer sat on one of the old mooring posts, long disused since the introduction of magnetic mooring devices, watching the sailors at work. It was something she had not done since hearing that her brother and his ship were lost, and veterans of the Star-Seas would sometimes come over to welcome her back, and pay their belated respects.

Ashyra had never thought she could do this again, but here, and for the first time in years, she felt at peace with herself. At the heart of her sadness had been the knowledge that, at the start of that fateful voyage, she had not been there to say goodbye - brother and sister had bid each other farewell so many times, it had no longer seemed necessary.

She had regretted that mistake ever since. The previous night, she had had a brother, but when she woke up the next morning, he was already on his way...and he was already lost to her. It was almost as though he was just a dream, she had thought once, but then I woke up - alone.

Things were different now and, strangely enough, it was all because of a dream. Ashyra had had nightmares in the past, often finding herself running to the docks to say goodbye to her brother before he left, only to always find herself back home, no matter which turning she took, no matter how rigidly she stuck to the route she had taken hundreds of times before in the real world, but she had experienced something else the previous night, whilst sleeping off her over-indulgence...

She was there at the harbour as Almin's ship got ready to depart. He looked down onto the quayside at her, and smiled. "Goodbye - and take care, big brother", she called out, smiling back.

"Goodbye, Lilsis", he replied, calling her by the pet-name he often used. "Let go of the sadness, when I'm away - or there won't be any space left in your heart for me..."

Ashyra cried when she woke up, but that did not hold her back when she set off for the harbour. She felt free now, and life, she told herself time and again, was meant for living...

The focus of her attention was, of course, Marishanna's ship, the Succubus. It was a ship of Dyal origin - something of a rarity - distinguished from the rest by its single, circular web-like power-sail. It also sported more than the usual compliment of deck- and railing-mounted lightning-guns - four, instead of two, with the fitting of the extra weapons being completed just as Ashyra arrived to wait for Raven.

Now there's a ship expecting trouble, she thought. I just hope four guns're enough.

Marishanna herself was different, too. Ashyra sensed the change when the small woman returned from some business or other - there was a distinct aura of magic coming from her, beyond that which the Shaelin girl had felt from the adventuress's little sword the night before. She's packing more magic, Ashyra thought, smiling playfully when the warrior-woman noticed her. "Been shopping?", the dancer asked. "You should have told me - I know the best places to go in town."

"Thank you for the offer, but I had but one place to visit", answered Marishanna, placing her hand near to her heart, where something caused a small bulge in the front of her tight leather body-suit. "A visit that was a great success - I hope."

Ashyra was intrigued, but something told her it was better not to pry. She knew to trust Raven's feelings, and her friend clearly felt that something was not quite right about Marishanna. That's good enough for me, the Shaelin girl thought, but Marishanna does give a great massage...

Things began to pick up pace around the Succubus once Marishanna was back onboard, and by mid-afternoon the ship was ready. Raven, with Sshraada in tow, arrived shortly thereafter, and Raven was quite surprised to see her friend there, and in such good spirits.

"You don't have to be here", she told Ashyra. "I wouldn't want you to be upset..."

"I'm fine", said Ashyra. "I've learned my lesson. Never again will I let someone I care about leave on a ship without letting me say goodbye first."

Raven joined her friend on the mooring post, and they shared a bundle of fried fish-strips and a flat circular loaf of unleavened bread. "Go before the suns set", advised Ashyra as they shared out the last of the slightly sweetened bread. "Evil things often see better in the dark..."

"But space is always dark, isn't it?", replied Raven. "What would be the point?"

"The point is that I told you to do it", the Shaelin girl responded firmly. "Trust me, like I trust you."

Raven said nothing, nodding instead. She had no idea that Ashyra had just passed on a warning she had received on a number of occasions from Almin, whenever she considered going anywhere at night on her own.

"We're going now", Raven informed Sshraada. "Tell Marishanna that I apologise for disrupting her schedule, but I have it on good authority that it would be in our best interests to depart before dark."

"Look after yourself", the black-haired dancer told Ashyra, hugging the girl.

"You, too", the Shaelin replied. "Come back in one piece...but most of all, come back."

"Anyone who tries to stop me will regret their folly", assured Raven, her eyes briefly changing from their usual blue-on-white to the red-on-amber they assumed when she made use of those of her powers that were more potent than simple empathy.

Raven, her hair and cloak stirring on a fresh breeze from beyond the edge of Freeport Rock, followed the snake-woman aboard, and after only a brief and civil discussion, the order was given to prepare the sails to receive power. Ashyra shivered when she heard the order being delivered, even though she had heard it many times, for this time her sadness was setting sail as well, hopefully never to return...

The Succubus started to pull away from the quay, metal cables ending in disk-shaped magnetic grapples retracting into the flush hull housings, and Ashyra was just about lost in the majesty of the scene when something dark flashed across her field of view, rudely interrupting her day-dream. It was a man, dressed in dark leathers, a long hooded cloak streaming out behind him where it was not pinned down by the huge sword strapped across his back, running towards the departing vessel...

Ashyra dropped from her perch and tried to run after him. If he was going to do what she thought he was going to do, there was a very good chance he would not survive. It was madness to try and jump aboard a ship leaving port, for once the vessel had separated itself from the atmospheric envelope surrounding Freeport Rock, the man would find himself jumping into open space, where the currents would quickly sweep him away.

The man's legs were too long, and his lead too great. The girl staggered to a stop as he jumped, soared through the air, cloak flapping like the wings of some dark ominous bird of legend, and caught hold of a free-swinging loading cable, which would have been stowed away had the ship left at its original, later departure time. Sailors on deck hurried to pull the man onto the ship just as the vessel broke away from Freeport's embrace, and only just succeeded.

I know him, thought Ashyra as the stranger turned to look back at her. He was here when Strides-Tall left. Was he waiting here, all this time? He did say something about it being "too late" - did he really know what was going to happen...?

"And will his being there stop it happening again?", she wondered out loud as the Succubus, sails filled with the power of the cosmic currents, vanished amongst the stars.

Her crew were amazed by the stranger's dramatic arrival, but Marishanna saw in him only one thing - an intruder in her territory.

"Explain yourself, before my all-too-finite patience is exhausted", she snarled, Silver Death in hand, as she approached stalking forward like a cat.

"I am not important", panted the warrior, a tall, thin individual with straw-yellow hair and tawny skin. "What is important is that I know what it is that you are about to face - and if you are not prepared, you will die...if you are lucky."

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