Schneider hadn't even realized he'd passed out. It sort just of happened from one moment to the next, while he was sharing the fruits of the delightful white flower with captain Amir. The opium itself had not been the culprit. The opium he could deal with. It was the wine that got him, or more accurately what had been in the wine.
He came out of it slowly, aware of lying on an uncomfortable and uneven surface, of rocking a good deal more than he was used to even on ship board. And of the annoying, rapid patter of foreign speech floating above his head. The gibberish was interspersed with the distant, raucous cries of seagulls. Even half immersed in sleep, he was annoyed at the discomfort and the intrusive noise. He was vaguely aware of the dissipating lethargy of drugs in his blood. A fair amount of drugs, judging by the sluggishness of his mind. Probably enough to keep another man down for many more hours. Schneider had a particular resistance to the effects of narcotics.
He opened his eyes a little and found his head on the level of a good many feet and legs. The sides of a small boat rose up shallowly. A very small ship's dinghy filled with sailors that were not paying any attention to him, who should have been unconscious on the floor of the boat.
Land. They were rowing to land. Oh, what a very crafty captain Amir was, knowing that his advantage would soon be gone and working to take Schneider's away before he realized the shore was close by. One had to almost admire the man. Of course, his ship was still going to meet the bottom of the ocean.
With a quiet tendril of power, Schneider cleared away the last vestiges of the drug clouding his system. He contemplated blasting the bottom out of this little boat and sending it and its passengers into the next realm, then it occurred to him that Amir still might hold some advantage. If he had taken Kall-Su, who was quite susceptible to the effects of drugs, somewhere out of Schneider's reach, it would make all their lives more complicated. He really didn't feel like hunting him down in a foreign port.
But, for once on this miserable voyage, luck smiled on him. When he carefully shifted his head and looked down the bottom of the boat, he found both Kall and the mysteriously warded box that captain Amir was so protective of. How lovely. And at the far end of the boat, sitting at the prow, was Amir himself. The captain was staring fixedly forward at a shore that Schneider could not from his vantage see.
Time to remedy that. He drew in a breath and with it an influx of steady, undiluted power. How wonderful to have the earth close below him again. To not feel isolated by fathomless depths of water between him and solid ground. Even in this rocking dinghy he did not feel the unsteadiness he had the last time he'd been awake and aware. A cat like grin of satisfaction crossed his lips even as he spoke a word of power and sat up, gesturing with a languid finger at the prow of the boat. Amir barely had time to glance around in surprise before a bolt of pure energy took him full in the chest, arcing him up and twenty feet over the prow into the water. Sailors shrilled in shock, cringing away from him, lifting oars threateningly against him. He swung an arm around and the lot of them were swept like weightless mannequins from the boat. He leaned forward, hooking one arm around Kall-Su's waist and drawing him up, and grabbing the warded chest with the other. Then he was in the air and a spike of lightening based magic bolted down to scuttle the launch.
He started to summon another, figuring Amir's ship was close by, then stopped in mid-air, staring at the sea of masts bobbing in what appeared to be a major harbor. The water was startlingly blue, the shoreline colored in shades of beige and brown, interspersed with green here and there. A city sprawled along the curving shoreline. An odd, blocky city of sandstone and thatch. Small boats and rafts plied the waters between the larger ships, and brown, turbaned heads turned in shock at the explosion that had delivered the mortal wound to the ship's launch.
This was not a small harbor, or a familiar shoreline. Any one of these ships could have been the one he'd come in on. And though he was of a mood to wreck a little havoc, going about blasting ships out of the water might not be in his best interests if there were more brother's of the sea around, and or foreign wizards of indefinable power lurking in the depths of the strange city. With Kall-Su plainly of no help and himself uncertain of his situation, he decided to avoid the attention a tantrum would drawn.
With a curse, he gained a little height and headed towards the city. He felt the traces of Amir's ocean based magic gathering and figured the captain had survived the energy attack and was summoning a little retaliation of his own. Let him. The sea was beyond Schneider now and of no concern. He was over dry land and sprawling city. Block upon block of squat, flat-roofed dwellings separated by narrow, shaded streets and crawling with an abundance of people. None of them noticed him. None of the turbaned or cloaked heads looked up towards the blazing sun.
There was a point where the buildings began to look dilapidated and unused. Ancient almost, with the bare bones and jagged walls caused not only by time but by violence. A city of the old world perhaps, that had served as the roots of a new one.
He headed there, looking for seclusion. He found it in the second floor of a abandoned dwelling. The ceiling was half gone and one wall crumbling inwards. Stone littered the floor. There were not even the scrapes of furniture left. If the great destruction had not destroyed the trappings of domesticity, then human scavengers had. After Ansasla, nothing had gone to waste. He dropped the chest absently on the stone floor, and laid Kall down with a little more care in a bare spot under a still intact section of roof. He did a quick assessment of the younger sorcerer's condition and figured it was half drugs and half the lingering traces of sea sickness that had him in its grip. He could come out of it on his own, given a little time. And Schneider was not ready to hear complaints about how miserably they'd lost track of the girl. Nor was he willing to argue about setting out to search frantically for her. At the moment he was a little more interested in discovering something of this strange land. One had to know the terrain to take full advantage of it. He was not quite certain how long they had been at sea. He'd not been at his best during a good part of the voyage, and who knew how long he'd been out after Amir had pulled his little trick. Many days, he thought from the emptiness of his stomach. With the sea cooperating eagerly with the dusky skinned captain, they probably had made extraordinary time. Time enough to sail out of the eastern seas and into more arid climates.
He took more thorough stock of himself, now that he had the leisure to do so. Found distaste in the clothing he'd been wearing for much too long and gathered the outrageously wasteful amount of power it took to cast a detailed Sartor spell. He felt much better in fine new clothing. Silk and light leather and silver tracing. It was too hot for anything bulky. Armor would have been dreadfully uncomfortable. He didn't need it for anything but show anyway.
He went downstairs the old fashioned way, testing the sturdiness of the stone steps. The wooden door to the second level was half off its hinges. He put a warding spell upon it and pulled it haphazardly shut behind him. Even the rats wouldn't pass his invisible barrier. Satisfied that Kall was safe from casual discovery, Schneider strolled down the pitted, unkempt street. It was several city blocks before he saw the first traces of habitation and then it was the drudges of humanity. The poor and maimed, the homeless and the criminal element. They lurked in the shadows of gutted buildings, staring out with hungry, desperate eyes at the oddity that walked through their midst. They made no move towards him, even to beg, even the most desperate of them sensing that a predator walked among them.
He heard the whispers behind his back though. Incomprehensible words. It grew more frustrating as he moved into the new city, where many many more people walked. Where conversations took place at quicksilver speed around him. Where merchants hawked their goods and shoppers haggled for the best deals. None of it made any sense. Everyone here was dark skinned, most of the men sported thick beards. The women -- well, it was hard to tell what the women looked like. Most of them were veiled and heavily robed, only the obvious prostitutes went bare faced, and those were olive skinned and black eyed, with dark lustrous hair. People gestured at him, staring with frank curiosity. He stood out among them like a shining, pale beacon. He was used to attention, but he was not comfortable being stared at like a curiosity. Someone reached out and touched his hair and that was it. He whipped around with a hiss and the gangly youth who'd dared to lay a finger on him cringed back, jabbering something unintelligible.
"Back off." He snarled, even though the youth was already backpedaling. Schneider drew his brows and glowered at the street in general. "I dislike this place already." He announced to no one in particular. "Its hot and dusty and they hide their women."
"Not to hide them would be the height of bad taste." A heavily accented voice, but one that he could understand came from a vendor beside him. A short, grossly overweight little man sweated under a brightly patterned tent. A table of fine fabrics was displayed before him.
"You speak a decent language?"
"Ah, I speak a number of heathen tongues, my friend. I used to deal in slaves from other shores. More trouble than they were worth, I'm afraid."
Schneider leaned forward. "What city is this?"
"New Abadan." The merchant said. "The pearl of the gulf."
"Which Gulf?"
"Why the Persian, my friend."
Schneider drew in a frustrated breath. It was as bad as he'd expected. Worse. It was absolutely going to take forever to get home. Yoko was going to kill him.
"This is just charming. Absolutely wonderful. "
"Did you just arrive in port?" The merchant inquired.
"Yes!" Schneider hissed.
"Ah, everyone is coming in now, what with the storm season coming up. They'll be no ocean crossings till next year."
"No crossings? Predictable."
A pair of rotund, veiled women stopped a few feet away and openly stared, pointing and whispering none too quietly together. Schneider glared at them. He was going to start getting nasty in short order.
"Your hair." The merchant said helpfully. "They've never seen the like. We see fair haired foreigners occasionally, but not like you. It is ---" The merchant struggled for words.
"Jamad ja'da." Schneider grumbled sullenly, recalling what Amir had called him.
"Why yes." The fat merchant beamed at him. "Just that. Very apt, my friend. But perhaps if you wish to avoid so many staring eyes, you might purchase a turban and robes to cover it. I've many fine silks to protect one with such fair skin as you from the harsh sun. Cloth fit for a sultan."
For the first time in eons, Kall-Su opened his eyes and didn't immediately feel the urge to purge the contents of his stomach. Not that he had anything on his stomach. He couldn't recall last eating and only vaguely held the recollection of Schneider forcing some sort of brothy tea on him days -- weeks? -- ago.
He lifted a hand and rubbed at accumulated grit in his eyes, then rolled his head to stare at the bright patch of daylight coming in through the half fallen wall of whatever place he was in. It was a very stable place. No rolling or rocking whatsoever, to which he was eternally grateful. There was nothing but rubble on the floor and a small wooden chest not far from him. The chest threw off an aura of distaste that made him want to kick it away. It took his befuddled mind a few moments to recognize the fact that it was warded. A few moments more to block out the revulsion and ignore the thing.
With a grunt, he pushed himself up, and sat with his back against the wall while his head stopped spinning. He felt a little fuzzy. Drunk almost. Drunk or drugged. He was familiar enough with the touch of drugs to guess the latter. This was not a magic blocking narcotic though, and although his healing abilities were not what they used to be, he still managed to sweep the traces of the stuff out of his system.
He felt better after that. Good enough to climb to his feet and move over to the shattered wall. He found himself on the brink of a sprawling city of sand colored buildings that seemed to spread forever before the glittering line of ocean could be seen. It was painfully bright, and abysmally hot. Hot and dry.
He stared at the vista spread before him and slowly blinked in confusion. He could not imagine why he had woken here. Where here was. Where Schneider was -- or Lily -- or home. He thought home was very far away. The feeling of being stranded out of his depths was strong enough to make his heart hammer in his chest. Or maybe that was the last of the sea sickness.
He put a hand to the jagged stone of the wall, a last little bit of dizziness making his head swim. The heat of the day made the air shimmer like a thing alive over the city. The heat was making him feel trapped and claustrophobic. He loosened his collar, ran fingers through lank, salt crusted hair and shuddered at the feel. He was filthy and he probably stank, though one could hardly tell if it were him or the ruins he found himself in. A simple cleansing spell would work wonders. He hadn't tried one since -- he'd been crippled. He hadn't really needed to and there were so many other spells that he felt more inclined to spend his time and energy remastering. Surprisingly little resistance. He felt a dozen pounds lighter without the grime. His head felt clearer.
There was a door hanging half off its hinges. He put a hand towards it and jerked his fingers back suddenly as the thorns of a nasty little ward pricked him. He hissed through his teeth and shook his hand as little pin pricks of imagined discomfort raced through it. It was a strong ward, but not a difficult one. He was especially good at untangling wards and magic bindings and cryptic puzzles. He dissolved it in seconds, and pushed the door open. It lead down to narrow, half crumbling stone steps. Dusty and disused, and home to various crawling creatures. Kall wrinkled his nose in distaste, having an aversion to such disorder, and picked his way down the stairs. At the bottom was another door and another ward. If someone wanted to keep him in they would be sorely disappointed. If it were to keep others out -- well, what was the need anymore? He felt rather lightheaded with the sudden bout of health after so long without it.
He dissolved the ward, and pulled the door open, only to have it snatched out of his hand and himself facing a tall, turbaned, robed figure. Kall took a step back, giving himself enough room to cast a spell, gathering tendrils of power to himself even before he'd decided what spell to throw.
"Chill, Kall. It's me."
He stared, and Schneider brushed the patterned silk flaps protruding from his turban back from his face, a smug smile gracing his lips. The headpiece hid most of his mane of silvery hair, save for the few tendrils that escaped over his brow and along his cheek. He wore a very fine, embroidered tunic under the overrobes, and loose silken pants over soft boots. He looked like some exotic prince. "I look good, don't I?"
Kall continued to stare, flabbergasted. Finally he managed to gasp. "Where the hell are we?"
"New Abadan. Look, I brought you some native clothes."
"New what? What happened? How long have we been here. Do we know where the ship that took Lily is?"
"I knew you were going to be like this when you woke up." Schneider brushed past him, thrusting an armful of silk at him in the process. Kall took it without protest, staring at Schneider's back as he climbed up the stairs.
He had no choice but to follow him upstairs. Schneider went to the crumbled wall and looked out over the city.
"DS ----" Kall hated the whine he heard in his tone, but he was beginning to feel rather desperate and Schneider was behaving in his usual, careless manner.
"Amir brought us to this port. He had some notion of selling us -- can you believe he thought he was going to sell me as a slave? We've been here less than a day. I don't know how long we were at sea and I have no idea where your little bard is."
"This captain -- this Amir -- would he know?"
Schneider shrugged. "Maybe. Probably. If we meet again, I'll ask him before I kill him."
"We've got to find him and ask. I've got to find her."
"Listen Kall," Schneider turned to fix him with his narrow gaze. "She's either dead or alive. If she's dead, its too late. If she's alive, the worst that could be done to her probably already has been. We're talking weeks here, maybe more. So getting hysterical about it now is a little pointless. It's not like she hasn't had to service strange men before. She was a slave aft ---"
Schneider didn't get to finish the thought. Kall saw a vague wash of red across his vision and lunged forward, smashing his fist into Schneider's mouth. The silken robes fluttered to the ground in the process, forgotten. Schneider stumbled back into the wall, and almost over the edge, holding up an arm to ward off a second blow. Stone and mortar crumbled.
"Shut up. Goddamned you, don't you dare say that about her."
Kall couldn't think. Fear for Lily, weeks of sickness and frustration, the feeling of helplessness made a muddle of his mind. Schneider's words, though possible true, pushed him over the edge. He couldn't even focus enough to use magic.
Schneider didn't use any in retaliation. Just blocked the second blow with his forearm and caught hold of Kall's sleeve to keep himself from falling backwards, then used his hold to jerk Kall off balance enough to ram a shoulder into his chest, then a fist into his stomach. Kall took him down with him when he staggered, but Schneider had the advantage of weight over him and a clear head and after a bit of wrestling about on the rubble strewn floor, he managed to get enough leverage to pin the younger sorcerer under him.
Kall got a slap across the cheek then, and another that made his head spin and made him taste blood.
"That's the second fucking time you've attacked me over this and I'm getting damned tired of it. Do it again and I stop being nice."
"Get off me." Kall struggled to buck Schneider off. Schneider pressed his weight down, grinding Kall's back into rubble, compacting the bones of his wrists with strength that might or might not have been magic born. Blood ran down Schneider's chin, forming a bright red droplet at the tip.
"Say you're sorry."
Kall turned his head away at that request. Schneider leaned down and hair and turban flaps brushed Kall's cheek.
"Say it, you little shit."
"Don't speak of her like that."
"Is anything I said an untruth? Is it?"
The drop of blood fell, hitting Kall's cheek. He shut his eyes to hide the welling wetness. "You're such a bastard." He whispered. No one could hurt him as thoroughly as Schneider. No one could reduce him to feeling like a belligerent child.
"Yes, I am." Schneider agreed. "Answer the question."
"No. Nothing you said is untrue." Dully said. It seemed enough to satisfy Schneider's sense of justice or dominance or whatever emotions motivated him at times like this. He released Kall's wrists and sat back, staring down at him.
"We will find her. I didn't come all this way just to waste the trip. But freaking about it, isn't going to help. You know, you're usually the one with the clear head. You really need to get your wits together."
Kall shifted his head to stare up at Schneider, saying nothing. There was nothing he could think to say that would not come out sullen or combative. Schneider reached out a thumb and attempted to wipe the blood off Kall-Su's cheek. All he ended up doing was smearing it. He shook his head, flummoxed by a drop of blood, then swung his leg from over Kall and got up, wiping his hands on the folds of his overrobe.
"Just don't hit me anymore. I get crazy when people hit me." He muttered, striding to the crumbled wall then back again, almost nervously.
Kall sat up, wiping absently at the smeared blood, and more furtively at the wetness at the corners of his eyes. "What do we do now, then?" he asked softly. He didn't know this place. He didn't know how to begin to find Lily.
"I don't know. It doesn't help that I can understand a word these people say."
"Oh." Kall dragged a piece of the silk Schneider had given him over his knee, rubbing the softness between his fingers. "I was researching a language absorption spell a few years ago -- I never had the chance to try it out."
Schneider turned to stare at him, one dark brow arched. "Language absorption?"
"I don't know how quick it is, but it supposed to allow foreign tongues to gradually seep into the caster's consciousness as they are overheard, until all the words and phrases are eventually understood."
"It sounds like something you'd find in one of your dusty books, But it might be useful. What's the spell?"
"Its been a while -- let me think about it."
"Well, don't think too long. I don't want to hang around here forever."