She brushed snow from the warrior’s face, saw his expression wrenched with pain, his grayish skin smashed and leaking blood. He coughed. Verna knelt, helping to pull the body out of the snow as Renn and General Zimmer hurried closer. The ancient soldier’s eyes were glazed.
“Should we help him?” Peretta asked. “Your gift can heal him, Prelate.”
“He could tell us information,” Zimmer said.
Verna could sense the man’s terrible injuries, his smashed bones and crushed internal organs. The soldier groaned, and she was astonished he remained alive at all.
She looked at his square features, his eyes squeezed shut, the grimace on his face. She released enough energy to revive him. “He is … strange inside.” She shook her head slightly. “He does not have long.”
General Zimmer leaned close. “Who is your commander? What is your mission?”
The soldier coughed, and looked around, saw the prelate and the others bending over him, the unfamiliar uniforms of the D’Haran army.
“General Utros,” the soldier said. “We serve Utros, in the name of Emperor Kurgan. We will conquer all the lands of the Old World.”
Renn looked at the others nearby as his face went as pale as the dying soldier’s. His voice grew urgent. “You were at Ildakar. Your army was stone. I saw it myself! How did the spell fade? What happened? Why were you marching?”
“We awakened. Utros will bring down Ildakar and we will also overwhelm the rest of the world. It is … our mission.”
“Where is the rest of the army?” Renn demanded, sounding more distraught. “This is just a small fraction of the general’s forces at Ildakar.”
“We were marching…” The soldier stirred, but could not free himself from the snow packed around his lower body. “Other armies are marching, like this one. We will conquer whatever we find.” His stiff face twisted into a pain-racked smile. “But the bulk of our army is still at Ildakar, to bring down the city.”
Renn’s face reddened. “Ildakar will never fall!”
The soldier choked out a laugh, which made blood spill from the side of his mouth. Verna felt her ability to keep the man alive dwindling away into the chill of the snowfield, but an angry Renn gestured, releasing his own gift, and a crack pushed down on the warrior’s ribs and breastbone, snapping the fragile body. The soldier shuddered, then lay still.
Renn looked ill.
General Utros looked at Verna with a stormy expression. “As I thought, this was an invasion force, and if there are many more just like it marching across the Old World, we already have a war on our hands.”
Amber stared down at the dead soldier. “But why? We don’t even know them. Why do they want to conquer the world?”
Verna felt sorry for the innocent girl. After her centuries among the Sisters of the Light, the prelate was accustomed to misery. She had taught young wizards to control their gift, lessons that often required a great deal of pain and effort. She had seen incredible death and destruction when Emperor Jagang and his Imperial Order came through Tanimura. She had faced many terrible battles herself, including the heartbreaking fight that cost the life of her beloved Warren. Yes, she had seen death aplenty.
The fresh-faced young novice, though, was new to the violence the world could deliver. Her brother, Norcross, had seen bloodshed in the last war, but he was also very young. Verna knew, sadly, that violence and killing would age even an innocent young person far too soon.
Zimmer called his soldiers together, designating two of his best scouts. “I am dispatching you back to Cliffwall immediately. Tell them what we just learned and make sure they are prepared. Our soldiers are facing a much greater threat than we thought.”
“It is not just Cliffwall, but the whole Old World,” Verna said.
Renn’s face was florid. “But the biggest threat stands against Ildakar, and that makes our mission more important than ever.” He brushed snow from his soggy robes and glanced urgently over at Captain Trevor. “There’s nothing more to see here. We know what we did. Now, we should go back to our city as quickly as possible.”
Verna saw the strain on his face. “Renn is correct, General. Have your scouts find the best way out of these mountains and on our way to Ildakar. Once we join forces with Nicci and Nathan, that should give the ancient army something to worry about.”
CHAPTER 64
Out on the battlefield, the great gray dragon bowed, snared by the magic of Ava and Ruva, but he did not look defeated.
Utros felt more awe than fear. Brom’s enormous eyes flared, his wings arched upward in defiance. His growling exhale sent scorching wafts of brimstone and smoke toward the general, but Utros held the bond within him. He touched the burnished gold half mask to remind himself of the price he had already paid. “I need you to fight for me. My emperor commands it.”
The dragon’s voice was blunted by pain, but still exuded a clear threat. “You do not command me, human.”
Ava and Ruva interlocked their fingers and joined their magic. Brom curled his head back as agony exploded inside his skull. He let out another roar.
“I do command you,” Utros said calmly. “I need a weapon to defeat that city. Nothing is more powerful than a dragon.”
Brom lurched back on his haunches. “I do not care about your petty wars. I am the guardian of Kuloth Vale, and I must return to my sacred duty.” He flapped his wings, two huge strokes that lifted his reptilian body partly off the ground.
Utros called on the bond again. “No, you will destroy the city, defeat my enemies, and break this siege. I don’t care where you go after that, but first you must obey me. Grant me my victory.”
Brom loomed over the ancient general. “I am a scholar dragon. I know lore from thousands of years. I know the bones of my ancestors, and I guard their resting place. I am no one’s weapon.”
“You’re a dragon!” Utros said. “Fly to Ildakar, unleash your fire. Terrify the people, knock down the towers and walls. Do that, and then you can go free.”
Without waiting for the gray dragon to reply, the sorceresses worked their magic once more and hurled spears of pain into his chest.
Brom spewed fire into the sky. Snarling with frustration and anger, the dragon launched himself into the air and flew toward Ildakar.
* * *
With a deep groan, the colossal Ixax warriors began to move.
Watching them, Nathan felt a rush of fear and excitement. The iron armor screeched reluctantly as the Ixax lumbered forward, moving on their own for the first time in centuries. The turretlike giant waists turned with a creak. The Ixax swiveled their helmets, tilting down to look at Nathan. Though he was a great wizard, he felt insignificant when these warriors looked at him.
He remembered how the first one had pounded Andre into a smear of skin and crushed bone. If they became treacherous, these Ixax warriors could turn on him, rip down the gates of Ildakar, and wreak havoc throughout the city.
“Please…” Nathan whispered, not sure that they could hear him.
The Ixax straightened themselves to stare ahead at the countless thousands of enemy troops and the dragon that had just landed in the general’s camp. The titans plodded forward onto the battlefield.
“Back inside,” Nicci shouted to the people around him. “Close the gates!”
Leaving the large empty carts outside the wall, the duma members, gifted nobles, and workers retreated into the city, and the enormous gates swung closed. Nathan, Nicci, and Elsa hurried to get a view of what the warriors would do. They raced to the top of the wall, where they joined the sentry guards and countless spectators.
Nathan watched the Ixax stride toward the huge army. “This is why they were created.”
The Ixax warriors strode forward like battering rams on two legs. The ancient soldiers that filled the valley had focused on the arrival of the dragon, but now the front ranks turned to face the new threat as the Ixax warriors picked up speed.
The enemy soldiers formed a line, locking thei
r shields in a barricade against the oncoming juggernauts. The giant warriors towered over them, and each Ixax held a sword in one gauntleted hand, its blade as tall as a man. They waded among the enemy ranks like wolves in a chicken coop.
Utros’s soldiers were cleaved into pieces, dozens dying in a single stroke of an Ixax sword. Hundreds of the ancient soldiers converged around them, heedless of their own lives, rushing forward to thwart the giants. In response, the two colossal warriors slaughtered hundreds and moved deeper into the army camp.
From the high wall of Ildakar, the spectators cheered the unleashed Ixax. Nicci grabbed Nathan’s arm and pointed toward the sky. “Look, the dragon! It’s flying toward Ildakar!” Utros had apparently won his struggle to command the gray monster. She set her jaw. “I will go to the city’s high point, where I can fight the dragon if I have to.” She darted off without waiting for him to reply.
Nathan watched the titans release their fury. For countless centuries the Ixax had been unable to twitch, unable to react, and now all that pent-up anger was directed against a real enemy. The two giants swept their huge swords down lines of the half-stone warriors. They smashed with their massive gauntlets. Hundreds more enemies died, and the Ixax crashed deeper into the army, bashing heads, crushing dozens at a time.
Nathan had never felt sympathy for General Utros and his half-petrified army. He would have preferred that they saw reason and founded some new land of their own in the untamed vastness of the Old World, but now he knew they had to be defeated. Utros would never surrender. He had catapulted the mutilated bodies of fallen Ildakaran soldiers over the walls. His two sorceresses had attacked Nicci with her own hair and they had killed poor Lani.
This was a deadly game, and now the Ixax would knock all the game pieces off the board.
Their widening swath of destruction ripped through the enemy army. Thousands lay broken and dead as the titans crashed forward without slowing. Nathan felt great satisfaction at what he saw. The Ixax were as powerful as he’d hoped. And they were following their mission to protect the city. But they still had many thousands more to defeat, and Nathan feared that even those gigantic fighters didn’t stand a chance.
Meanwhile, the gray dragon flapped its enormous wings, flying fast toward Ildakar.
* * *
As the dragon soared away from Utros, First Commander Enoch galloped up on his warhorse, shouting, “Thousands down already, General! We have to fight those giants.”
Utros had seen the behemoths emerge from the gates of Ildakar, but forcing his will on Brom had demanded all his attention. At another time, he would have found the two huge warriors terrifying and impressive.
But he had a dragon.
The old veteran’s craggy face was drawn, his gestures frenetic when he heard no response. “We need to fight them, General! We need all the magic we can summon. Your sorceresses must blast them.”
Utros turned to Ava and Ruva, who looked diminished after their recent effort. “I require all their strength to maintain control on the dragon. We don’t dare let it turn on us, and they have expended so much magic already.”
“But look at those giant warriors, sir! We’ll lose much of our army.”
Utros watched the towering inhuman giants careering through the ranks of his soldiers. They seemed unstoppable. He regarded Enoch through his golden half mask. “Then turn all of our army against them, overwhelm them with sheer numbers. We have more thousands than they can imagine.”
With cold detachment, he admired the sheer power unleashed by the armored monstrosities. His own soldiers flew in all directions like scattered coins, and fell broken. Utros drew a deep breath, adjusted the horned helmet on his head. “Yes, that is what we must do. Gather our fighters. Those giants may seem invincible, but we have only two targets, two enemies, and countless ranks to throw against them.” He smiled with his hardened face. “I am confident we will be victorious.”
* * *
As the battle raged outside the walls, Nicci raced to the top of the plateau, where the ruling tower rose high and the broken pyramid marked the night when the old order of Ildakar had begun to fall.
Beyond the wall, the Ixax warriors continued to mow down countless enemy soldiers, but Nicci turned her attention on the dragon flying high above. She could see few details, except for how huge it was. With a beat of powerful wings, it swooped down, spewing an orange trail of flame in the air. The beast torched long patches of vineyards, ignited olive groves, burned the roofs of warehouses. In the city below, people rushed to find shelter wherever they could, but neither inner rooms nor root cellars would protect them from a barrage of dragon fire.
When Nicci reached the top of the plateau, she raised her hands to the sky and let out a resounding shout. “Dragon! Come face me.” Using her gift, she unleashed black and white lightning that skittered across the sky, demanding the creature’s attention.
She began to run up the steps of the broken pyramid, choosing that structure intentionally, since the stone blocks would not catch fire, and there were no other people or homes around. Nicci alone would face the beast.
The dragon circled toward her and bellowed from the sting of her lightning bolts. Seeing her scramble up the broken steps of the pyramid, it swooped closer.
The beast seemed familiar to her, and as it filled its chest to exhale deadly flames, Nicci called out its name: “Brom!”
The dragon faltered, flapping his enormous wings and circling again.
“Brom, guardian of Kuloth Vale. Why did you abandon the bones of dragons? You should be protecting them, not fighting us.”
The gray beast snorted, but seemed curious. Nicci remembered the ancient and decrepit dragon, his wings tattered, his ribs showing. Even in his aged, weak condition, Brom had fought to defend the graveyard of dragons. Nicci, Nathan, Bannon, and the girl Thistle had gone to Kuloth Vale because they needed a dragon’s rib bone to defeat Life’s Mistress. When they had battled the ancient gray dragon, Nicci’s magic had inadvertently rejuvenated him, giving strength and energy to the feeble creature.
Now Brom was enormous and frightful, a true monster. Backflapping his wings, he landed on the uneven rubble of the pyramid, where Nicci stood before him.
With her uneven blond hair still growing out, she didn’t know if Brom recognized her. Maybe the dragon considered all humans identical. She felt her gift boil within her, ready to be unleashed. She shouted bravely, “I fought you before when you were much weaker, Brom. I will fight you again, if you force me.”
The gray dragon poised on the broken pyramid, crackling with intelligence and energy. He sniffed, drawing in a loud hollow snort. Smoke curled around his scaled face. “You are the sorceress. I remember.”
“We met at Kuloth Vale,” Nicci said. “You granted us one rib bone for our needs, and my magic reignited the fires in your heart. I gave you strength and burned away some of your age.”
“Yes, you did. And I gave you the bone you needed. I no longer have any debt to you.”
“I am not calling in a debt,” Nicci said. “I am only appealing to your common sense. You are a wise dragon, an ancient scholar. Is a wise dragon drawn into a war that means nothing to him? Why do you fight for General Utros? Why would you care?”
“I do not care. And I do not care about you.”
“Then why do it?” she asked.
Brom snorted. “He has bound me with magic from a dragon-fire scar on his face. We are joined, and his sorceresses forced me to do his bidding. This once, and then he says I will be free of him.”
“How can anyone force such a powerful creature as yourself?” she asked. “I know where his scar came from. You are not the silver dragon who fought him a long time ago.”
“The connection is weak,” Brom agreed, “but I cannot break it. His sorceresses inflict pain. Utros told me I must destroy Ildakar and burn you all before I can return to guard my ancestors. That is all I care about.”
Nicci put her hands on her hips. “Then you w
ill force me to fight you, and you already know that I, too, can inflict pain.”
Brom opened and closed his immense jaws. “I do not want this fight.”
“I am the one who helped you in Kuloth Vale, gave you back your strength, while General Utros binds you, forces you, hurts you. He is your true enemy.”
Brom thrashed. “I must burn Ildakar, or I will never be free.”
Nicci extended her gift, felt the powerful presence of the gray dragon. With her own Han as well as the aura of magic that throbbed through the city of Ildakar—especially here, at the pyramid itself—she could see the faint gossamer thread that strung out from Brom. “His sorceresses bound you, but only with a weak chain. They used a piece of his dragon-burned flesh to call on any dragon. You just happened to be closest.”
Brom snorted fire, blasting at the air to release his fury. “I know! I am a wise dragon. Do not think you can fool me.”
“I’m not trying to fool you. I am stating the obvious, and my magic is greater than the magic those sorceresses wield. I killed a wizard once, and I have his power as well as my own.” She studied the tenuous line between Brom and Utros. Reaching out, she seized it, and used her gift to sever the link, just as she had cut the single key strand from her hair when Ava and Ruva attacked her.
When the invisible bond broke, Brom reeled. He flared the scaly plates at the back of his head, drew himself up tall, and spread his wings wide. Huge and terrifying, he loomed above the damaged pyramid.
“Choose whom you wish to fight,” Nicci said. “I set you free. You may go back to Kuloth Vale if you like.” She smiled. “But I have placed a new debt upon you. If you attack General Utros and his army, however, we will be even again.”
Brom thrashed his barb-tipped tail. “With pleasure.” He launched himself into the air again.
Siege of Stone Page 42
