CHAPTER 70
When his ships came upon the floating carcass of the serpent god, King Grieve stared down into the water, sickened and enraged. This fresh agony felt as strong as the pain he had experienced upon seeing his beloved Chalk murdered.
From the prow of his flagship, Grieve had watched the ugly kraken-hunter vessel with its gray sails and metal-plated hull, and he would never forget that ship. He had seen the sorceress strike down their serpent god. He would hunt it to the end of the world, if necessary.
But he could not simply sail past the body of their fallen serpent god. “Drop anchor! All ships. We halt here.”
Drums pounded, and shouted orders ricocheted across the water. The Norukai ships sailed close enough together that the staccato commands passed from ship to ship. With oars extended, Grieve’s ship maneuvered close to the drifting dead monster, where they dropped anchor stones and tied up the sails to keep the vessels in position.
Grieve had sacrificed to the serpent god many times. Now, he squeezed his massive hands against the rail until the wood creaked with the strain. The spikes in his shoulders protruded. He opened his jaws wide and roared with all the air in his lungs, all the power in his voice, a loud inhuman cry, much like the sound made by the serpent god.
The rest of the Norukai did the same, and the din was like a thunderclap that went on and on as one crew after another took up the howl. Grieve wanted blood, needed blood. He would find the sorceress and tear out her throat with his own teeth. First, though, he and his raiders would repay the serpent god for the grace and strength it had given them.
The monster’s body floated motionless just off the bow. Grieve looked down at its magnificent head, the frilled fin, the triangular jaw that was now a burned horror from wizard’s fire. One milky eye stared upward, half closed.
“The serpent god is dead,” moaned one of the raiders beside Grieve.
The king bashed him on the side of the head, and the man reeled away, clutching the blood that streamed down his face. Grieve snarled, “The serpent god is always here. The serpent god is us.”
He drew the long gutting knife from its sheath, swung himself overboard, and dropped down into the water. He plunged into the waves near the dead sea serpent.
As the raiders peered down from above with dismay and curiosity, the king swam to the scaled form and wrapped his muscular arm around it, holding on like a lover’s embrace. The pale underbelly turned upward as the body drifted on the sloshing waves.
Grieve hauled himself along its length, using the scales and fins for handholds. In all of history, no one else had been so close, so intimate with the serpent god except for the blessed victims whose flesh it incorporated. But he was Grieve, King Grieve of the Norukai! He was part of the serpent god, just as the serpent god was part of all of them.
He pressed down on the scales, then rested his scarred cheek against the wet form. He closed his eyes and tried to draw the power into himself, absorbing what he could from the magnificent creature. “I am the serpent god. We all are the serpent god,” he whispered to the dead form.
The countless serpent ships had fallen eerily silent as the raiders watched him.
Grieve plunged his long knife into the belly of the sea serpent. Aboard the ships, the Norukai gasped and groaned, but he glared up at them. “This is what we must do!” He sawed farther, cutting a long incision. Entrails spilled out in wet ropes that drifted in the water. With so much blood, he knew that sharks would come soon to feed, but Grieve and the Norukai would take what they required first.
He kept cutting until he found the first of the reptilian hearts. It was large, round, and purplish red. He hacked a chunk of the tough heart meat, which he stuffed into his mouth. He opened his scarred jaws wide to take in as much as he could. Chewing, he tasted the tar of burned blood. The flavor was exquisite, but the power was even more remarkable.
He knew that Chalk was a part of the serpent god, too. The serpent god had fed on the shaman, and now that strength was flowing into the Norukai king.
“I am the heart of the serpent god,” he yelled. “All my people must join me.” He cut off another piece of the meat and raised it out of the water. “All Norukai must be the heart of the serpent god.”
Three raiders leaped overboard without further encouragement. Once they understood what Grieve meant, others also jumped into the water and swam to the serpent god. With their own knives, they sliced the belly down its length to find the other hearts.
Atta was the first. The hefty woman swam up to Grieve and hacked off a piece of the heart for herself. After she chewed and swallowed, she turned her blood-smeared face to him and offered him another piece, which he accepted.
More Norukai swarmed around the floating body, butchering the creature. They removed the multiple hearts, some of which were charred and blackened, others still fresh and filled with blood. Every morsel contained the essence of the great deity. When the hearts were consumed, the raiders stripped the meat from the serpent’s bones. This was a feast unlike any they had ever experienced. The Norukai had pillaged towns, stolen their food, raped their women, but nothing could compare to this thrill.
The water became a froth of red. The circling sharks were wary, unwilling to approach the fierce Norukai.
As the feast continued, Grieve’s shock was replaced with an intense confidence. The great serpent god might have been slain, but it was not a cause for sadness. This was a transformation, and he felt it swell within him. Around him, hundreds of raiders stripped the carcass and squabbled over the last morsels. Every Norukai wanted to partake, though he knew that was not possible with the tens of thousands of bloodthirsty warriors aboard their fleet.
“You have eaten the heart of the serpent god,” Atta said as she floated next to him, caressing the scar on his cheek with one bloody finger. “You are King Grieve. You are all of us.”
“Yes, I am all of the Norukai. I have fed on the heart of our god, and now I myself am its living manifestation.”
He and Atta swam back to their ship as the Norukai continued to work on the carcass like seagulls tearing apart a bloated whale. When he climbed aboard his ship again, he caressed the carved figurehead. He raised his fists into the air and shouted, “I am the serpent god now. We are the serpent god, and we will strike and kill.”
He inhaled until his lungs were so full he felt his chest would burst, and then he exhaled a gigantic roar that rippled across the masts. All the Norukai resounded with their response.
One serpent god might be dead, Grieve knew, but now there were many more serpent gods—elsewhere in the sea, and also in human form—and they were far more deadly.
Yes, the world would grieve.
CHAPTER 71
Driven by the enhanced wind, the Chaser practically flew across the waves toward Serrimundi. The krakener pulled far ahead of the Norukai fleet, and the crew made makeshift repairs from the sea serpent attack along the way.
They could not reach Serrimundi fast enough to please Nicci. After seeing the number of serpent ships, she was convinced that even Serrimundi’s new defenses could not withstand such an attack. The much larger city of Tanimura might stand a chance, with its full navy and strengthened army, but not Serrimundi. Effren and Larrikan Shores had already been wiped out by a much smaller Norukai raiding fleet.
Serrimundi was more than ten times larger than Renda Bay, however, and such a city simply could not be evacuated in only a few days. It seemed an impossible situation.
She stood at the bow of the Chaser with Nathan, Bannon, and Lila, discussing options. Even with their speed and significant head start, Nicci doubted they would have enough time to make the necessary preparations—whatever those might be. Together, they tried to develop a plan that would give Serrimundi the best chance of survival.
Just before the Chaser approached the line of reefs beyond the harbor mouth, they encountered one of the patrol boats. As they raced past, Nicci cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “L
ight your signal rafts. The Norukai are on their way!”
The patrol boat’s crew dropped the floating platform overboard and lit the pile of green kindling to raise a column of smoke that could be seen for many miles. Other widely separated scout boats spotted the signal and replied in kind, lighting their own rafts to pass the message along and notify everyone in the city. The lookout on top of the Sea Mother bluff hammered on her gong to sound the alarm.
Serrimundi was on full alert by the time the Chaser sailed past the Mist Maiden and four other armored cargo ships that defended the mouth of the harbor, just beyond the towering stone carving. When the krakener pulled up to one of the repaired piers, Harborlord Otto, Lady Olgya, Captains Ganley and Straker, and other city representatives hurried to meet them.
“The Norukai are maybe two days behind us,” Bannon blurted out. “We have to get the whole city on high alert.”
Otto nodded soberly. “We are as ready as can be. Everyone is armed and trained, the ships are reinforced with metal plates. We knew this might happen.”
“You have made an admirable effort here, but alas we are convinced it will not be enough to save Serrimundi,” Nathan said.
Captain Ganley looked indignant. “Don’t underestimate us. Our people know this is their only chance to save their homes. They will not give up without a fight.”
“It will be a battle such as the Norukai have never seen.” The harborlord crossed his arms over his chest.
“But you will still lose. Even if you inflict numerous casualties on the raiders, they will still burn your city to the ground,” Nicci said. “Tanimura’s defenses are ten times stronger. They have built up a whole fleet of warships ready to defend the sea, and their standing army includes a garrison from D’Hara, thousands from the city guard, and countless refugee recruits. Oron, Perri, and the other gifted are already there with General Zimmer. Our best chance is to lure the Norukai fleet directly to Tanimura, where they will be wiped out.”
“But what about Serrimundi?” Otto asked, his voice cracking. “What are we to do?”
“You may not need to fight at all,” Nathan said, touching a finger to his chin. “We have an idea to protect your city. Lady Olgya’s actions gave us the idea, in fact.”
The gifted woman from Ildakar was surprised. Her hair hung loose now, rather than in the familiar braids, with a ragged hunk where an enemy soldier had cut one off. “I inspired you? I am intrigued.”
Otto looked from Nathan to Nicci. “I like the sound of that, but I don’t understand what you mean.”
Leaving the krakener, Nicci walked down the dock, all business. She regarded the rolling hills, the sections of the city that spread inland from the neat, protected bowl of the harbor. Her memory and her imagination had not failed her. “Yes, it is possible.”
Otto and the others followed her as she walked the length of the pier, anxious to hear what she would suggest. In front of the first line of warehouses Nicci turned and looked back at the harbor, the headlands, and the opening to the sea. “The Norukai islands are far to the south, and this is new territory for them. Before Captain Kor’s raid, Serrimundi had never before been attacked, so the Norukai know very little about your distant city. None of Kor’s raiders escaped alive, so no one was able to bring a report to King Grieve. He isn’t aware of the exact location of Serrimundi.”
Nathan brushed the front of his new vest and adjusted his embroidered cape, as if he were about to step onto a stage. “If fate treats us favorably, we may be able to distract the Norukai and trick them into sailing right past Serrimundi.”
“We want to hide your city,” Lila said, with as much inflection as if she were merely remarking on the weather.
Ganley gasped. “Hide Serrimundi? Where would you put it?”
Nicci lifted her chin. “If we time it right, the Norukai might not see the harbor at all. Because we killed their serpent god, King Grieve is pursuing the Chaser. He wants his vengeance on us. If we can provoke them, taunt them, and make them keep chasing us, we might get the entire fleet to sail past Serrimundi … if they don’t see the harbor in the night.”
“How could they not see an entire city?” Otto removed his wide-brimmed hat and wiped perspiration from his brow. “I still don’t understand this.”
But Olgya began to smile. Nicci looked to Captains Ganley and Straker, both of whom stood ready to follow her instructions. “If other armored ships join us as we race away, King Grieve will keep following us.”
“He wants to kill me, too,” Bannon said. “And Lila. We just have to keep the Norukai too preoccupied to look for Serrimundi. That’s why we can’t let them see the city.”
“We must camouflage it,” Lila said, as if impatient for the discussion to come to the point.
Amid the surprised gasps, Nathan held up a finger. “A sufficiently gifted person such as yourself, my dear”—he turned toward Olgya—“could summon a thick mist to blanket the mouth of the harbor, just as you hid our ships from the Norukai after Renda Bay, and outside the Cliffwall canyon before that. If the raiders don’t know to look for Serrimundi, then the diversion should be straightforward enough. Before that, we need to stall and harass the raider fleet, make sure they arrive at night and sail past this part of the coast.…”
Nicci turned to Otto. “Harborlord, you’ll need to darken the city tomorrow and each night until the Norukai pass. No one can light fires or lanterns after sunset. Serrimundi must be pitch black when the serpent ships come after us.”
“But my city wants to fight too!” Otto said. “Are you suggesting that we hide here in the fog and let Tanimura handle the war for us?” The lines in his face deepened. “Sorceress, you gave a grand speech that all the cities of the Old World must pull together against our overwhelming enemy. Serrimundi can’t just sit by and let Tanimura face it themselves! We are not cowards.”
“I’m not suggesting that you do nothing.” Nicci’s lips took on a hard smile.
Bannon rested a hand on the ornate pommel of his new sword, and his grin was enthusiastic. “After the Norukai chase after us in the dark, the rest of Serrimundi’s warships can follow all the way to Tanimura. When the battle begins there, you can strike them from behind.”
Lila added with a grim smile, “If you stay far enough back, King Grieve will never expect you.”
“A large curtain of mist…” Olgya twisted her long hair in her fingers. “While you lead them away like a fox on a hunt, I can create a thick fog bank to hide Serrimundi.” She looked out to the towering figure of the Sea Mother on the bluff. “And that is just to start.…”
* * *
The following day, knowing the Norukai fleet was fast approaching, the kraken hunter sailed away from Serrimundi followed by four armored cargo ships. Serrimundi scout boats ranged farther south, prepared to light their signal rafts as soon as they spotted King Grieve and his raiders.
Left behind, Olgya watched them go, vowing to do her part to save the city.
Harborlord Otto had dispatched runners throughout the city, issuing a complete ban on fires, lanterns, not even a candle behind a shutter for the coming night. When darkness fell, Serrimundi had to be invisible, swallowed up in darkness and fog. Olgya had practiced her spell to call up the mists in the sea.
Near sunset, the lookout on the bluff spotted a curl of signal smoke to the south, which meant the raiders would be here within hours. Ready to intercept, the Chaser and the four sailing ships angled swiftly toward the smoke to provoke the oncoming Norukai fleet. They would taunt the serpent ships and bolt away, sailing north, leading them toward Tanimura for the final battle.
More than an hour later, near full darkness, the provocateurs sailed back past the harbor, pushed by magically enhanced winds. As deepening night blanketed the harbor and city with gloom, Olgya got to work before the Norukai could heave into view in hot pursuit. Waiting beneath the Sea Mother carving at the headlands, she used her gift to touch countless droplets of water, raising a mist from the calm waves
beyond the mouth of the harbor. At first it was like faint steam rising from a pot of water about to boil, then it thickened into lacy wisps of fog that coalesced with other strands into a low-lying blanket.
The mist rolled up and into the harbor, blanketing the hills, flowing along the coast, and extending out to sea. Even as the darkness thickened, no lights twinkled from any homes in the crowded city. Olgya thought of families huddled together in the dark, comforting one another. The night had an unnatural hush.
Back at Ildakar, she had watched her glorious city vanish behind the shroud of eternity; now she had to make another city disappear, but in a different way. Olgya thickened the mist around the mouth of the harbor so the Norukai would see nothing but a blurred coastline, if they could make out anything in the darkness. As the last gloom faded into deep night, she spotted the blue sails of more than a hundred serpent ships racing after the Chaser and the four armored cargo ships. The enemy fleet was dizzying in its size, but Olgya had seen it before, at Renda Bay. She now saw the sense in Nicci’s plan; no matter how hard the people might fight back, these ships would have destroyed all of Serrimundi’s defenses, filled the harbor, and burned the city to the ground.
Even if the trick worked, however, Olgya intended to make her mark here.
As the thick fog spread and settled, Olgya took a dinghy and rowed out of the mouth of the harbor. The currents were erratic, but she used her gift to steady the boat as she made her way out to the long line of dangerous reefs beyond the harbor.
Rowing hard, she picked her way along the foamy line until she chose a place to lay down another deadly trap. She created a small shimmering ball of light, flickering cold flames that were tightly layered like the petals in a rosebud. She laid the glowing kernel among the reef rocks, ducking from the spray hitting the rocks. Her little spark glimmered there, immune to the water that tried to douse it. This wasn’t normal fire, but would become a beacon bright enough that she hoped it would lure some of the oncoming Norukai ships right to the Keeper.
Heart of Black Ice Page 42
