As Bannon stepped off the boat, he looked tough and determined, much different from the naive young man Nicci had rescued in a Tanimura alley long ago. His hazel eyes shone as he hurried down the dock and embraced Nathan. The wizard pounded him on the back. “Dear spirits, I never expected to see you again, my boy!”
Bannon stepped back, laughing. “Your wizard robes are gone! You look like an adventurer again.”
“I never stopped being an adventurer, and now this war will require all of my skills, both with magic and with my sword.” He embraced Bannon for a long moment, overjoyed. “You’re back with us. That’s the most important part for now! Dear spirits, it’s good to see you.”
Thorn and Lyesse used sharp elbows to clear a path through the townspeople crowded at the docks, wanting to see Lila. “We heard that a morazeth had been found floating in the sea,” said Thorn. “It is good to have you here, Lila. We need more worthy fighters.”
Lyesse said, “Thorn and I have been keeping score of our kills, but with the size of the army about to hit Renda Bay, you will quickly catch up with us.”
“I will make a good accounting of myself,” Lila said. Seagulls wheeled overhead, screaming like wounded victims on a battlefield.
“What army?” Bannon sounded more alarmed. “We came to warn you about the Norukai fleet. King Grieve will attack soon with hundreds of ships. He’ll devastate the coast. You need to prepare.”
Nathan recoiled. “A Norukai fleet is on its way? But the army of General Utros will be here in a day or two to ransack the town!”
Bannon paled. “The Norukai and Utros formed an alliance, but I thought the ancient army would take much longer to march across the land.”
Lila cautioned, “We don’t even know how much time has passed, boy. I have not been counting the days since Ildakar vanished.”
Thorn inspected the healing bruises on her morazeth sister’s face. “You are damaged. Have you two been sparring?”
“We damaged many Norukai as well,” Lila said.
The people of Renda Bay crowded around, and General Zimmer strode up, accompanied by Norcross and Trevor. “I want a full debriefing of what you know about the Norukai and their plans. I didn’t expect to fight on two fronts so soon.”
Thaddeus raised his hands. “We will share stories in my office in the town hall. We’ll make our plans there.”
Though Nathan could see how weary Bannon was, they couldn’t afford to grant him or Lila a well-earned rest. He stepped forward with a reassuring smile. “There is one thing I can do for you, though.” He touched the young man’s bruised face, his puffy lip. Bannon winced when Nathan released his healing gift to repair the damage to the sunburned and freckled face, and within moments he stood whole again.
When the wizard attempted to heal the similar bruises on Lila’s face, she shook her head. “The protective runes on my skin will block you. They guard me from magic, but they also thwart any efforts to use a healing spell.” She drew a breath. “I will endure. It is nothing.”
As they headed toward the town hall, the three morazeth walked together in perfect unison. Even after the healing spell, Bannon looked exhausted and battered, but now he had a spring in his step, glad to be back among friends.
In the town hall, Thaddeus dragged chairs around his sturdy wooden desk. Nathan shifted the ornate sword at his side and straightened his embroidered cape as he sat down. Zimmer did not sit, but paced near the wall.
Thaddeus ran a callused finger along the spines of ledgers on the shelves. “These books contain the names of people lost in Norukai raids over the past hundred years. We thought we had raised sufficient defenses, thanks to Captain Norcross. We believed we could drive the enemy away and keep Renda Bay strong, but all our efforts were in vain.”
Bannon and Lila took turns telling the story of their ordeals among the Norukai. Lila gave a crisp, bare-bones report, but the young man’s description of what had happened was agitated and emotional. “I wish we’d killed all of them! I wish I hadn’t been captured by King Grieve. Then all of this would have been different.”
“Nevertheless, we are back together,” Nathan said with a wan smile. “Dear spirits, I am glad to have good news for a change. We have lost so much.”
“And we’re about to lose more,” said Zimmer. “The army will be here within days.”
Norcross was flushed and restless. “All of the town’s defenses are in place, sir. The siege towers will guard the mouth of the harbor against the Norukai, and these people are determined to fight for their homes.” His eyes were large with disbelief. “But if King Grieve has a navy of more than a hundred serpent ships, we can’t possibly fight off that many. What are we going to do?”
Lady Olgya pointed out, “And General Utros will soon arrive with many thousands of soldiers. We’ll be caught between the two forces.”
Thaddeus swallowed hard and said in a small voice, “Renda Bay is doomed, isn’t it?”
General Zimmer said, “Under other circumstances, we might be in a position to stand against the Norukai with all our gifted fighters, the D’Haran soldiers, and the determined townspeople. The siege towers are strong, and the traps in the harbor could sink several attacking ships. The catapults will do a great deal of damage.” He sounded more grim. “But it will not be enough if we are pressed by two devastating enemies at the same time.”
“I’m far less concerned about the Norukai than I am about General Utros,” said Oron, sitting in his borrowed wooden chair as if it were a throne. “The Norukai are unruly brutes, but Utros is the greater danger to our civilization.”
“Both are threats,” Nathan said, “especially if they have the same goal. We don’t know when King Grieve’s fleet will set sail, but we know those thousands of enemy soldiers are marching down the river road. They will be here soon. How are we to stand against them all?”
“If we had enough blood,” Olgya said, “we could raise another shroud and seal Renda Bay off from the rest of the world.”
Bannon looked queasy, knowing exactly what Olgya was suggesting. Nathan said, “We can’t just hide like Ildakar. The rest of the world needs our help as well.”
“My people are armed and ready to fight,” said Thaddeus. “They’ve been trained ever since Captain Norcross and his soldiers were placed here. We aren’t helpless, but we need to have some hope.”
“And that is the catch,” Nathan said, and his voice cracked. “We no longer have Prelate Verna. We have been whittling away at General Utros’s forces, but not enough.” When he looked up at Zimmer, he realized how haggard the commander looked. “General, is there a chance we can protect Renda Bay when the army arrives? Any chance at all?”
Zimmer pondered for a long moment before answering. “I’ve tried to imagine any realistic scenario that might lead to victory. Even though we inflicted terrible losses at Cliffwall, and Prelate Verna created great devastation, we still had to fall back. Renda Bay is smaller and far more vulnerable, so I’m afraid the answer is no. We must be realistic for our own survival.” His expression sagged. “This town has to be evacuated. Everyone must pack up their belongings and leave.”
Thaddeus groaned. “But we’ve been through so much! We fought off attacks and rebuilt our homes again and again. Now, to just abandon it all…”
“You have never faced anything like General Utros,” Oron said.
“Alas, I have to agree,” Nathan said. “Many villagers have already disappeared into the foothills because they’ve come to the same conclusion. You know it yourself, Thaddeus.”
The town leader nodded somberly. “Hundreds of houses now stand empty after you brought your news. The people know what is coming.”
“We must get the rest of the population to safety,” said the sorceress Perri, “and we have to depart too. We can’t just wait here and be overwhelmed.”
Nathan stroked his chin. “We need to send word north as fast as we can and sound the alarm. The major cities have to be alerted. Nicci used th
e sliph to travel to Serrimundi and Tanimura, and I hope the Old World is already building up great defenses.” His lips quirked in a smile. “She can be very persuasive.”
“But that doesn’t help Renda Bay,” Thaddeus said.
Captain Norcross said, “We still have those three large sailing ships in the harbor and dozens of fishing boats. If we do abandon the town before Utros arrives, they could carry refugees to safety, save many lives.”
Thaddeus rested his elbows on his scarred wooden desktop. “How am I going to tell my people? Some of them will insist on staying.”
“Then they will die,” Lila said.
Zimmer continued pacing with his hands locked behind his back. “There is simply no alternative.”
Nathan remembered the gaunt and pale enemy soldiers that had attacked Cliffwall. “We have to do more than just empty Renda Bay. We cannot give aid and comfort to the enemy. They’ve been marching across the mountains and over the valleys, stripping the landscape clean in their wake, but they can’t possibly have enough supplies to sustain them. They are starving. We dare not leave a bushel of corn, a chicken, a dried apple, or a grain of rice. We must deny that army any resources, any shelter.” He stroked his long white hair and adjusted his cape. “You know what we have to do. We must destroy the town of Renda Bay—burn it down, leave nothing but scorched earth by the time General Utros arrives.”
CHAPTER 62
After she inspected the Tanimura garrison, Nicci and General Linden worked for days strengthening the city guard and pressing countless new recruits into service, many of them drawn from the refugees that had flooded the city after the Norukai attacks.
Hundreds of battered survivors came up the coast road from the south, people displaced from Effren and Larrikan Shores. Many were weak and saddened, seeking only stability in their lives. Others could not forget the blood and fire, the nightmare of the ruthless raiders, and they wanted to fight back. With nothing but threadbare clothes on their backs and the scabs of healing wounds, they desperately needed aid, but Serrimundi could absorb only so many refugees, since that city had itself suffered significant damage in Kor’s raid.
Up in Tanimura, Nicci listened to their stories, one after another. When she looked at the outraged survivors, she knew they could be forged into an army, which was exactly what the Old World needed. Calling upon her own determination, she rallied them in the Tanimura square. “Soon a full-fledged war will be upon us. Will you let the Norukai hunt you down and kill your families, or will you take up weapons and learn how to fight back?”
The resounding shouts nearly deafened her. She could see Linden’s surprise as he looked at the unexpected and earnest recruits for the army. Nicci gestured to the refugees. “The D’Haran garrison here will give you what you need, and I intend to set up training bases in Serrimundi as well, rally the blacksmiths and armorers in every city. We don’t have much time. Everyone needs to pull together. What happened in Effren must not happen again!”
* * *
She wanted to see the devastation for herself. With Linden’s permission, Nicci gathered fifty soldiers and a dozen angry refugees, then set off on a swift military ship, sailing south to Effren.
Two days later, reaching the black scar of the town, they anchored the swift ship offshore because all of the docks had been burned to the waterline. Nicci accompanied her group of soldiers and pale survivors, who clung to spiderweb-thin threads of hope that they might recover something from the ruins. Others simply wanted to bury their dead or at least lay markers for fallen friends and family members.
As Nicci walked through the ruins, her boots crunched on charred wood and the cracked bones of victims. Though the fires had burned out weeks before, the smell of soot and ash hung in the seaside air. Nicci imagined she could hear the lingering echoes of screams. The imprint of pain, violence, and suffering would remain here for years to come.
“Sweet Sea Mother,” muttered one of the guard recruits who had come from Serrimundi. “Those animals left nothing standing! Why would an army do this?” Soot smeared the side of his face where he had wiped away a tear. “If they meant to conquer Effren, why destroy it all? Why kill everyone? That is not how you win a war.”
“The Norukai come to pillage, not to rule,” she said. “You watched them attack Serrimundi Harbor. You know what they are.”
The recruit looked around the dead, silent ruins, appalled. “If we hadn’t stopped them, would they have done this to Serrimundi, too? To my city?”
“Without question. That is why we had to obliterate them. Captain Kor is dead, and not a single Norukai got away.” Warm pride filled her chest. “But Lars is still out there. We will have to crush them again, and again, until they learn their lesson.”
Nicci walked among the haunted forest of timbers, collapsed walls, charred rooftops of what had been a thriving town. She knew what Effren must have been like, a community of several thousand fishermen, boatbuilders, farmers, woodcutters, smiths, shopkeepers, traders. The town would have had taverns, inns, shops, stables, a marketplace. Now only ashes remained. The site was a dark stain, as if a bolt of lightning had erased the town from existence.
She and the soldiers walked slowly through the streets. Warm sun beat down through a hazy sky. The smoke was gone, but some of the recruits and refugees kept coughing, perhaps to hide their nausea and grief. She herself had helped defend the town of Renda Bay from another Norukai raid. In that instance, though, they had won.
Nicci remembered the Renda Bay cemetery, with many stone markers to indicate the dead who were buried there, as well as countless wooden posts bearing the names of those who had been taken by the Norukai. Nicci had learned to hate the scarred raiders then, and her opinion of them had not improved after she actually met Lars, Kor, and other Norukai traders who came to Ildakar to sell their pitiful slaves.
She entered the burned-out skeleton of what had been a tavern. One wall had collapsed, while two stone half walls remained intact. Nicci stepped gingerly through the rubble, absorbing the sense of the place and filling in details with her imagination. Blackened lumps had been tables and stools, a splintered counter. A sealed cask of ale had exploded when its contents boiled in the fire. Six skulls were readily visible, and she didn’t doubt they could find others if they sifted through the ashes.
“What are we going to do here, Sorceress?” asked the anxious recruit, who had followed her.
“I wanted to see with my own eyes.” She moved slowly, her black dress blending in with the burned ruins. Charcoal-encrusted beams had bent under the heat, looking like the bones of long-dead dragons. “And I wanted you all to remember that this is what the Norukai will do if we let them win.” She inhaled deeply, smelling the death and agony around her.
The recruit nodded. Now he had a smear of soot on his opposite cheek from a second tear.
“Do we rebuild?” a long-faced refugee asked. “Once we are strong again, should we try? Should we start now?” He turned around in the destroyed tavern, and it was obvious he remembered the place. “Will we have the heart to make Effren our home again?”
“Not until after the war,” Nicci said. “You would only be giving the Norukai something new to burn. For now, your best chance is to become fighters.” If Utros and his army were on the way, and if the ancient general had indeed joined forces with the Norukai, then the Old World would be awash in blood. And soon.
In burned-out homes they discovered several ghostlike squatters, villagers who had fled into the hills and now came back to the remains of their town, shocked and numb. Two battlefield surgeons tended to their injuries. Nicci hoped to toughen and recruit them for the new military force she was building.
She would have preferred that Richard lead the D’Haran army to fight at her side and crush both Utros and King Grieve. But Richard was counting on her, and Nicci would not let him down. He had sent her down to the Old World to pave the way for a new golden age of peace and prosperity, relying on Nicci to crush any upstart
dictator or ill-advised tyrant.
She had never dreamed of the threat she faced now, a gigantic army from centuries past, and a raiding fleet of countless attack ships.
How could Richard’s small bone box be everything she needed? With a soot-stained hand, she slipped the little cube out of her pocket and looked at the etched letters in the language of Creation, felt the tingle in her fingers. Richard was a master of constructed spells and this one was tighter, more intricate than any she had seen. Through her gift, she could sense its potential, but not how it worked or what its purpose was. Nicci feared that its use was beyond her abilities, but Richard believed in her, so how could she do any less?
Who else could she ask? None of the other gifted in Tanimura had her breadth of knowledge, except perhaps some of the Sisters of the Light who remained in the city. The Sisters had eagerly scrutinized the artifact when Nicci asked their opinion, but despite their strong desire to help, none of the Sisters had offered any insight.
So it would have to be her. Opening the delicate lid, she studied the shimmering white sphere, the pulsing nugget of a constructed spell. “I can handle this,” she said as an affirmation to herself. She would figure it out, when the proper time came.
Still, she had a hard time maintaining her confidence as she gazed across the wasteland that had been a thriving town.
Before the war was over, there would be many more devastated towns. The people were fighting for their lives, their homes, their families. This Norukai raid had killed hundreds, maybe thousands, but the Effren tragedy would be like a sharp stick poking a coiled rattlesnake. Nicci intended to inspire all the survivors to strike back with sharp fangs.
Effren, Serrimundi, Larrikan Shores, and all the coastal cities would recover and thrive again. Nicci just had to save the world first.
CHAPTER 63
With a sinking heart, Norcross followed his orders and worked to evacuate Renda Bay. The need to abandon the town had struck the people like a thunderclap, but their angry resolve to fight for their homes had crumbled in the face of reality. Even all of them together could never stand against nearly a hundred thousand armed warriors.
Heart of Black Ice Page 36
