The Waterless Sea

K
ATE
C
ONSTABLE
was born in Victoria but spent much of her childhood in Papua New Guinea, without television but within reach of a library. She studied Arts/Law at Melbourne University before working part-time for a record company. The Chanters of Tremaris series has been published in the USA, Japan, Denmark and Slovenia. Kate now lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two daughters.

The Chanters of Tremaris
BOOK 1
The Singer of All Songs
BOOK 2
The Waterless Sea
BOOK 3
The Tenth Power

Praise for the Chanters of Tremaris series
‘I have just finished reading the first two books in the Chanters of Tremaris series. I think they are superb! They are most definitely my favourite books and I have already read them twice.'

M
ADELEINE,
A
USTRALIA

‘I love the Tremaris series. I can hardly put the books down. I am looking forward to finishing the series so in a couple of months I can read them again.'

M
ELISSA,
USA

Praise for
The Singer of All Songs
‘A terrific book, beautifully written, with wonderfully rich imagery and fascinating magic. I' m very much looking forward to Kate Constable's next book.'

G
ARTH
N
IX

KATE

CONSTABLE

First published in 2003
This edition published in 2005

Copyright © Text, Kate Constable 2003
Copyright © Illustrations, Beth Norling 2003

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
The Australian Copyright Act 1968
(the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander St
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218
Email: [email protected]
Web:
www.allenandunwin.com

National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

Constable, Kate, 1966– .
The waterless sea.

New [cover] ed.
For children.
ISBN 1 74114 533 3.

1. Quests (Expeditions) – Juvenile fiction. I. Title.

(Series: Constable, Kate, Chanters of Tremaris; bk 2).

A823.4

Cover and text design by Sandra Nobes
Cover images: Desert (ArtWolfe)/Getty Images; Sandcastle (Peter Gridley)/Getty Images
Set in 12 pt Centaur by Tou-Can Design
Printed in Australia by McPherson's Printing Group

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

for Hilary

Contents

The Serpent-headed Ship

Darrow 1

The Deadly Sands

Darrow 2

The Palace of Cobwebs

Darrow 3

The Captive Children

Darrow 4

The Madness of the Sands

The Black Palace

The Ruby Ring

From the River, the Sea

one
The Serpent-headed Ship

D
AWN HAD NOT
yet broken over the Straits of Firthana. The sky was a pearly grey, and the three moons gleamed faint and silvery above the western horizon. The sea lapped on all sides, and the fading moonlight picked out tiny silver flecks at the peak of every wave. The boat
Fledgewing
rocked on the water; the dark bulk of the island of Istia lolled beside it, silent as a sleeping cat.

Already it seemed to Calwyn that they' d been waiting half the night. Her fingers twitched, for the hundredth time, toward the thick dark plait that hung over her shoulder. She forced herself not to fidget. Though it was the beginning of summer, there was a chill over the sea that wouldn' t disappear until the sun had risen. The air was so crisp, it seemed it might shatter. Calwyn shivered, and drew her cloak around her shoulders.

The wheel creaked behind her as Tonno and Mica brought up the nets, heavy and slithering with fish.

‘No point sitting about, wasting time, when we can set the nets,' Tonno had said in his practical way. ‘Dawn' s the best time for silver-finned jacks.' If their adventure this morning came to nothing, they would at least have a hold filled with fish to take home to Ravamey.

‘Steady, steady,' growled Tonno. ‘Don' t spill em all over the side, lass.'

Mica snorted, and tossed her wild mop of tawny hair as she hauled at the nets. The two of them worked skilfully together; the burly fisherman and the young windworker, both born to the sea and at home on the water.

Not like Trout, Calwyn thought with a smile. The boy sat hunched uncomfortably in the bow, squinting out across the water, though it was still too dark to see much. And besides, he' d taken off the lenses he wore on his nose, and was polishing them on the tail of his grubby shirt. Without the lenses, Trout could barely see an arm' s-length in front of him. Calwyn started as Halasaa' s warm hand fell on her shoulder, and his voice sounded in her mind.
Not long now.

Calwyn nodded to the east, where a line of light glowed at the horizon. ‘The sun is rising,' she said in a low voice. ‘We should lower the dinghies.' Halasaa smiled, and she could see the gleam of his teeth in his dark face.
The ship is coming.

Calwyn raised her head, all her senses alert. Yes, she could feel it now, the mixed flicker of lives, jumbled up together, like a buzzing murmur of indistinguishable voices. The ship was still some distance off, but it drew nearer at every moment. She stood up.

‘ Tonno!' she called softly. ‘It' s time.'

Heben knew that he was dreaming. He curled himself deeper into sleep, to make the dream last.

He was at home, on the lands of the Cledsec, in the north of Merithuros. The glorious curve of the sands swept out before him, sculpted by the wind, the same wind that whipped across his face as he spurred the
hegesu
into a gallop. The twins whooped with glee, crouched on their own beast: Gada in front, with Shada clinging on behind, her eyes shining.

They were racing to the top of the dune. Heben heard the soft
splat, splat
as the
hegesu
' s feet thudded into the sand, and the huffing protest of its breath as he urged it on, and he felt the matted woolly coat under his hands.

At the crest of the dune, Heben saw the whole of his father' s lands spread out below: the swell of bronze and golden sands, and the silver flashes of the water pools. Far off, a low cluster of tents and flags marked his family' s homestead, where they lived in the old way, under canvas. Flocks of
hegesi
, brown and milky dots, shifted slowly across the sands, and above it all spread the taut canopy of the silken blue sky.

The twins were just behind him. Gada stumbled up the dune, dragging the reluctant
hegesu
on its tether, and Shada ran up to tease him – ‘Out of the way, you stinking desert dog!'

A sharp kick in the ribs woke Heben. He cried out and tried to roll over, hunched against the pain. Except that he couldn' t roll over. He was roped to the prisoners on each side, and none of them could move. His neighbour, a heavy Gellanese whose red face dripped sweat, eyed Heben with displeasure.

‘Keep still, can' t you,' he growled between clenched teeth. ‘You' ll have us all thrown overboard!'

Heben blinked, and struggled to sit up.

‘I beg your pardon,' he said, from force of habit, but good manners were equally unwelcome. The Gellanese curled his lip contemptuously and turned his head away. Heben tried not to grimace at the stench of his companion. After five days without washing, he probably didn' t smell very sweet himself.

The pirate' s ship was a long galley, with a snake' s head for a prow, like all Gellanese vessels. But the pirates, rather than feed the hundred slaves they' d need to haul at the oars, preferred to move under sail, and the benches below the deck were packed with treasure and prisoners, not slaves. About a dozen captives were tied with Heben up on deck, roped at the ankles and wrists, and crammed into a space barely large enough to hold four men.

It was five days since the ship on which Heben had been a passenger was captured and sunk, and he had almost given up wondering what would happen to him. At first he' d thought he might be held hostage for a ransom from his rich father, the head of the Clan. The pirates weren' t to know that his father had disowned him, and forbidden him ever to return to the lands of the Cledsec. But the pirates had shown no interest in his parentage. Nor did they ever ask why a wealthy young Merithuran lordling might have gone to sea, when it was well known that highly born Merithurans loathed everything to do with the ocean, and never went near it except from dire necessity.