The shirtless men sprinted after her to the Mist Maiden, running up the gangplank. Captain Ganley bellowed to the crew members who had stayed with him to defend the ship. His well-practiced sailors moved the webs of lines, stretching the sails, and Nicci used her gift to nudge the sailing ship into motion. Other vessels nearby were also setting their sails. The crews armed themselves with boat hooks and staves.
Harborlord Otto ran to the Mist Maiden’s bow and shouted to the other ships. “We have to drive off the invaders or they will burn Serrimundi. Fight for our city, fight for our families!”
Captain Ganley said, “Many of those ships don’t even hail from Serrimundi, Otto.”
“Then they will fight for their own lives,” Nicci said. “That should be enough reason for anybody.”
She pushed with the wind, assisting the sails, and the Mist Maiden pulled away from the docks, accompanied by three nearby ships. At the edge of the harbor, near the stone figure of the Sea Mother, the krakener had dwindled to a mere curl of smoke, its blackened hulk submerged.
The attacking Norukai rowed swiftly, and the first serpent ship careened into the outlying piers. Raiders swarmed off the decks, and the townspeople rushed to defend the city, but Nicci couldn’t help them, not yet. Right now, she guided the naval attack against the other serpent ships.
“I will try to destroy five of them,” she said to Captain Ganley and Harborlord Otto. “For a start.”
“What are we supposed to do? How do we help?” demanded one of the wishpearl divers. “We didn’t come aboard just to watch.” His companions grumbled as well.
Instead of answering, Nicci turned to Ganley. “I need glass bottles with stoppers, one for each of these men. They will be carrying deadly weapons.”
Frowning, the captain turned to Otto. “What does she—?”
“Do as the sorceress asks. She warned us we might be attacked, and I refused to listen. I will heed whatever she has to say now.”
That was enough for Captain Ganley. He barked orders, and soon his first mate returned with four brown glass bottles from the galley. He uncorked the stoppers and poured the contents over the side, then handed the empty bottles to Nicci. She smelled the pungent tang of spiced liquids, pepper oils, and vanilla tinctures. “These will do.”
Ganley stood on the foredeck and shouted orders as the Mist Maiden moved forward, driven by Nicci’s magic. The serpent ships closed the distance, propelled by pounding drums and lines of razor-edged oars.
Nicci reaffirmed in her own mind how she would destroy five of them. She turned to the surly wishpearl divers. “You have strong lungs. Can you truly hold your breath for a long time?”
“That’s why we bear these marks!” The men indicated the tattoos on their chests.
“Then I need you to swim—deep,” she said.
Carefully, using great dexterity with the gift, Nicci conjured a small ball of wizard’s fire no larger than a grape and dropped it into the first brown glass bottle, suspending it with another spell to keep the destructive force bottled and ready. She pushed the cork into place, and the brown glass container blazed like a lantern. “This is what you need.” She handed it to the first diver, and created another ball of wizard’s fire to put into the second bottle, and then made two more, so that all four wishpearl divers had one.
“The raiders are closing in!” Ganley yelled.
With booming drums, the serpent ships approached the Mist Maiden. The crew cried out in defiance, building their anger in a desperate attempt to overcome their fear.
Otto turned to Nicci. “We are ready to fight, Sorceress. I hope your plan works.”
“Fight them and kill them,” Nicci said. “That is the plan.”
The Norukai aboard the approaching ships rallied an even louder cheer. With their mouths slashed and cheeks tattooed like serpents, the raiders looked like an inhuman army, but Nicci wasn’t so easily terrified.
“Overboard, now!” she told the wishpearl divers, after explaining what they needed to do. “You can win half the battle for us, if you succeed.”
Clutching their blazing glass bottles, the divers agreed upon their targets and plunged overboard, swimming deep.
Nicci looked over the rail and saw the bright lights submerging like glowing night wisps, which then began to move toward the serpent ships.
At the rim of the harbor, Nicci watched two more serpent ships crash among the docked vessels that had not yet managed to set sail. The Norukai threw torches to light the ships and piers on fire, and the blaze would surely spread to the warehouses. Serrimundi could become an inferno.
But before Nicci could fight that battle, she had to destroy these other attacking ships.
The crew of the Mist Maiden waved staves, swords, boat hooks, harpoons. Nicci targeted the carved serpent at the prow of the foremost ship and released a blast of wizard’s fire. The searing flames turned the serpent figurehead to ash.
The Norukai roared their outrage, and Nicci used wind to deflect the oncoming lead ship, shoving it aside so that instead of ramming them, it barely grazed the Mist Maiden. Even so, the ships were close enough that the Norukai men and women leaped across the gap, swinging axes, spears, and swords in mad bloodlust.
Nicci recognized their leader in his sharkskin vest and the implanted fang that protruded from his bald scalp. It was Captain Kor, one of the traders who had come to Ildakar to sell slaves. As his crew swarmed aboard the Mist Maiden, Kor sprang onto the deck. His hard boots landed with a thud. Screaming loudly, more raiders came across, ready to slaughter Captain Ganley’s crew.
The Mist Maiden’s sailors rushed to meet the enemy. Nicci strode forward, her ragged blond hair drifting in the wind, her black dress rippling as she built up her magic. She faced the Norukai captain, ready for blood.
CHAPTER 79
Along with the clash of blades, the thudding of hooves, and the shouts of pain and fury, the Ildakaran strike team fought their way deeper into General Utros’s camp. Nathan hurled more wizard’s fire ahead of them, clearing the way so he and Elsa could keep moving toward their destination. The blazing ball engulfed fifty enemies, but within seconds more ancient soldiers filled the gap, closing in.
“We will not make it much farther,” Nathan said, breathing hard as he and Elsa rode deeper into the camp. “This may be the best we can do. Is it good enough?” Somewhere, she needed to draw her large anchor rune in order for the transference magic to work.
As a half-petrified soldier ran toward the sorceress, Nathan swept out with a rumble of air, throwing the man aside. Under his breath, he said, “I really should have had Nicci show me how to stop a human heart. I never wanted that type of power because it seemed unfair against an enemy.” His long white hair hung in sweaty clumps, dusty and spattered with blood from the warriors he had already killed. “I forgot that in war, everything is fair.”
After Elsa pulled her horse to a halt in a clear area with churned-up mud, she slid out of the saddle. “This place will have to do. I had hoped to set the anchor deeper into the camp so the circle would engulf more of the army.” Her voice was ragged, filled with heartache.
Many of their guardians had already fallen in their push to get this far, but the two morazeth and Rendell were still with them, along with about a dozen others. They didn’t look as if they expected to survive.
“I hope this is worth the price. Oh, Nathan, I hope it’s worth it.” Elsa held her red paint and moved about frenetically, spilling bright lines, creating an intricate design across the cleared space. Her frightened horse galloped off, but she didn’t seem to care.
The morazeth, Thorn and Lyesse, battled furiously to give Elsa room to work, as did many surviving Ildakaran fighters. The toughened silk robes offered some protection against the wild enemy blows. Together, the defenders kept fighting, keeping Nathan and Elsa safe. She just needed time to finish.
As the older sorceress continued drawing her powerful rune on the ground, Nathan sent out a furious shock wave th
at spread in concentric circles, knocking the enemy soldiers back and keeping them away from Elsa. She moved with swift steps along the perimeter, drawing her lines, while the remaining Ildakarans used all their energy to keep the attackers away.
Nathan dismounted to protect Elsa, and within moments he had lost his horse as well. Elsa was gambling everything on this attempt, and Nathan could tell that her thoughts had narrowed down to the singular pinpoint of her task. He had to give her the chance.
But their success depended on the other five teams as well. Without the boundary runes in place, the transference magic would fail. Nathan looked up with a thrill of excitement to see a bright fireball shoot straight into the sky from the farthest of the two southern teams. “Another one, Elsa! Four of them finished!”
His distraction lasted only a moment before a burly warrior riding a half-stone horse thundered toward him, charging into the circle where Elsa was marking her rune. Nathan pulled up a wall of dirt like a rope from beneath the ground. The dirt slammed into the horse and sent the beast sprawling. The warrior tumbled out of the saddle, and Nathan leaped upon him with his ornate sword. He plunged the blade down, breaking through the soldier’s hard skin into his chest. He turned with the sword in one hand and wizard’s fire in the other. He threw another flaming ball to knock back twenty more enemy soldiers, but he felt his gift waning. He didn’t have much strength left.
He watched the signal flame flicker out in the sky. Against all odds, four of the boundary runes were drawn and preserved. He turned to scan the burned hills. “Still one more.”
He saw flurries of the ancient soldiers closing in where the last group needed to mark their design. Gray clouds and then lashing snow and ice came down in a pillar, harsh weather blasting the enemies away. The gifted leader of the last strike force was using magic to complete his task, while the other four successful groups were now fighting to survive as they retreated to safety.
Elsa worked, breathing hard and sweating as she finished her large design. On foot, the two morazeth battled like wild animals, and Rendell fought clumsily but vehemently with his iron-tipped club.
Elsa had a fierceness Nathan had never seen before. As more enemy soldiers broke through and tried to attack, closing in around them, Nathan remained close to her, fighting to keep her safe, and he saw that she was crying as she drew her lines.
When she activated the transference rune and drew all the heat from the Killraven River and the sandstone bluffs, the effect would kill countless enemy soldiers. Nathan tried to reassure her. “They are enemies, and sometimes enemies deserve to die.”
“But not friends,” she said. “Not dear friends.”
Nathan didn’t know what she meant. When several more soldiers charged forward, spears extended, he unleashed another hammer of air. A spear point caught in his enhanced silk covering, but couldn’t pierce the fabric. Nathan struck hard with his sword.
A hundred yards away, he saw General Utros himself wearing a mask of beaten gold across half his face and thick leather armor that bore the flame symbol of Iron Fang. His two painted sorceresses stalked along with him, pushing forward to face Nathan and Elsa.
“Dear spirits, I don’t know how long we can last against two sorceresses and all these soldiers. Please hurry, Elsa!”
Then he saw a flaming arrow climb into the air from where the fifth strike force had been marking their rune. The bright light soared high, then arced down, sputtering out and leaving a trail of smoke. It wasn’t magical fire, but he knew what it meant. “The last signal! The final boundary rune is done, but they did not use a fireball.” He knew that no gifted person would simply send an arrow. “That means…”
Elsa squared her shoulders. “That means whoever made the boundary rune is now dead, but the pattern is finished.” She braced herself. “We are ready. I have just one more connecting line here.” She held up her sack of red paint. “And then I can activate the transference. It will be glorious, Nathan. I hope it saves Ildakar.” Her tears flowed more freely now. “I am so glad to have known you. You are such a dear, dear friend.”
His heart felt a chill. “What do you mean? Prepare your rune, so we can escape and celebrate together.”
“This is the anchor rune, the center of the spell,” she said. “It needs to be activated here. It will draw the transference magic from the five boundary runes, pull it all together, and connect the lines. Anything enclosed will be in the target zone.” She drew a deep breath. “And I have to be at the center.”
Nathan recoiled. “No, I won’t let you. Come!” He extended his hand to grab her, but Elsa surprised him. She called up a surge of air. He hadn’t even known she could be so strong in that type of magic. Billowing waves of wind yanked him off his feet, bore him up into the sky like a piece of chaff. The two morazeth, Rendell, and all the rest of the escort fighters flew up with him.
“Stop!” Nathan cried. “Come with me.”
He flailed, putting up a shield to block her magic, but Elsa flung him on a rushing river of air with the speed of a quarrel shot out of a crossbow. He lurched out, tried to find something to hold on to, but he was a projectile, catapulted over the enemy soldiers, along with the rest of his party.
All by herself in the large cleared circle where she had drawn her rune, Elsa squeezed the last droplets of red that connected the remaining line in her pattern. Hundreds of ancient soldiers pushed closer, now that the defenders were gone. They would engulf Elsa, who looked so small and all alone.
She completed her spell-form and triggered the transference magic.
The heat arrived all at once, and the plain blazed with the heat of the sun.
* * *
Spouts of water gushed through drainage holes in the bluff, streaming down upon the Norukai on the ramps and ladders. Bannon had run out of barrels and crates to throw, but other volunteer fighters continued pelting the invaders with rocks, bricks, large pieces of pottery.
The snarling Norukai tried to dodge the barrage. Many died, falling down the cliff into the masses of raiders, but their numbers seemed inexhaustible. Bannon felt a familiar fire burning through his veins. Unable to control his rage, he leaned out of the overhang, waving Sturdy as he shouted, “We will cut you to pieces.”
Lila gave a confident nod. “When they come, you and I will keep score. I might soon consider you an equal, instead of an apprentice.” Even with her terrifying smile, he found her beautiful and alluring. “If you do well enough, boy, I might reward you again.”
He let out a brief laugh. “I thought you said I was rewarding you.”
“Do they have to be separate things?”
From the top of the cliff above, gifted nobles hurled conventional fire, rolling flames that struck the misty rocks. Some burned the hideous raiders, but the Norukai kept climbing even when their skin was smoking.
Though caught up in the battle, Bannon saw the giant painted rune on the cliffside begin to glow, throbbing and pulsing. The scarred raiders cried out, startled. The Ildakaran defenders halted their barrage and retreated into the tunnels, suddenly fearful.
“It’s the transference magic!” Bannon said.
Lila swept an arm across his chest and knocked him back into the shelter of the overhang. The giant rune brightened, and Bannon felt the breath rush out of his lungs. The drizzle in the air turned into tiny frozen diamonds, like grains of sand. With a sound like a thousand bones breaking at once, the sheets of water on the cliff froze into a glass of ice. The flow thundering out of the sluices solidified as all the heat was sucked out of the cliff stone.
With a shattering roar, the Killraven River itself froze solid, heaving up in sudden slabs. Like deadly cold fists, the river ice crushed the Norukai ships, splintering the hulls as if they were no more than toys.
With angry curses, the raiders began to fall, slipping from where their handholds had turned to ice. Some Norukai warriors had frozen solid, covered by sheets of ice, but others broke away from the cliff and toppled to splatter o
n the rock-hard river. The platforms and ladders shattered in seconds.
Astonished, the Ildakaran defenders poked their heads out from their tunnels and cheered. Bannon’s breath steamed out of his mouth and nose, and he laughed in triumph, turning with delight toward Lila.
But even the sudden storm of cold did not deter the Norukai raiders for more than a few moments. Many had tumbled from the bluff and lay dead or broken on the river ice, but some still clung to the frozen cliffs, used their daggers to chip away at the ice, and began to haul themselves up again.
There were fifty serpent ships, and countless more Norukai, who hadn’t even begun to fight.
Bannon leaned over to look down the glazed wall. Long icicles hung like fangs, but the hideous raiders showed no fear. By the hundreds, they swarmed up, and Bannon prepared to fight for his life.
CHAPTER 80
Two more reckless Norukai ships plowed into Serrimundi Harbor. The raiders tossed torches onto the wooden docks and into the rigging of commercial ships tied up to the piers. The burly attackers abandoned their oars, leaped onto shore, and ran forward, striking down terrified dockworkers who tried to defend their city.
The Norukai men and women were unstoppable, letting out wordless screams to terrify their victims. They lunged forward, hacking with axes, twirling and smashing with heavy battle hammers, thrusting with bone-tipped spears. They raced along dock boards slippery with blood, leaving mangled bodies strewn about.
The dockside fires began to spread into the warehouses and marketplaces. Families evacuated, taking small boats up the canals or running into the hills. Serrimundi had been sure of its peace and prosperity for far too long.
Slowly, though, the frightened people began to turn like a wave that breaks on the shore. After sending their families off to hide, brave citizens returned to the harborside, carrying household weapons. Some old veterans managed to find armored chest plates, heirloom swords, shields that had been used for decoration, and dented helmets from near-forgotten conflicts in the past.
Siege of Stone Page 50
