“After you.”
“Shit.”
Allan couldn’t have summarized the situation any better.
Behind the cover of the ridge they’d used the night before, he, Bryce, Hernande, and Glenn gazed down on the massive army of the Gorrani. They had completely surrounded the Needle—Cutter had taken scouts out to verify this overnight—although there were spots where they weren’t as concentrated, mostly away from the three gates. Their chanting rose up from the flat below in waves, had been escalating since dawn had touched the east with a soft but striking orange. The rhythmic beats of the drums awoke something feral in Allan’s gut, punctuated by the echo off the walls. From this distance, in the sunlight, he could see figures walking the escarpment, even a few on the rooftops of the temple and buildings within, but they were mere spots of color and movement, nothing more. He couldn’t pick out faces; he could barely pick out individuals.
“Can the mentors get us in, Hernande?”
“We can break the walls, but I’m not certain how long it will take. Using the knots as we have in the Hollow isn’t a precise science. It may take minutes. Or hours. It depends on the walls, what was used to construct them, how thick they are.”
“But you can get us in.”
“Yes.”
Their safety from Aurek and his men depended on them delivering on their deal, even if Allan had no expectation that Aurek would follow through on his own end of the bargain. “So it’s a matter of getting our mages to the walls and protecting them long enough to create a breach.”
“I thought that’s what Aurek’s men were for.”
Allan had thought to use the ley as a shield, as the Wielders had done in the Hollow, but Bryce’s suggestion had merit. “It is now.”
“Once we get inside the walls, what happens next?”
“We find Kara and the others, grab them, and get out.”
“Easy. Where in hells are we going to look for them?”
Hernande shrugged. “The node. Kara will be close to the node, unless they’re keeping her away from it purposefully.”
“We’ll start there. Work our way outward from there if necessary.”
“It’s unlikely Adder, Tim, or Aaron will be with the Wielders. If they’re even still alive.”
“But Kara or one of the others may know where they are. It’s the best we can do.”
As Allan finished, the ground shook, the tremor shuddering up from his knees into his chest. Everyone stilled, waiting to see if the quake would intensify, but it subsided.
No one said anything.
A patter of displaced rock came from behind them. Glenn looked back. “Aurek and Devin.”
Allan crawled back to meet them, keeping himself below the edge of the ridge. No one on the flat below knew they were here; no use announcing their presence too early.
“What’s the plan?” Aurek asked without preamble.
“The Gorrani have the Needle surrounded, but their force is weakest on the parts of the walls farthest from the gates. We’ll wait for an opportunity when their force thins out after they’ve attacked and then hit the wall.”
“How do we get past the wall?”
“Our mages will take care of it.”
Aurek and Devin traded a look. “Are you certain they can get us in?”
“Yes. But they’ll need time. Your men—and ours—will have to hold off the Gorrani while they work.”
Devin looked doubtful. “The Gorrani are fierce. I’ve been to their lands in the south, seen them fight. They will not be easy to hold off.”
Aurek was gazing toward the Needle, even though all but the black spire was hidden behind the ridge. “If they get us inside, it will be worth it.”
Allan didn’t understand Aurek’s hatred of the Wielders, but it surpassed a simple desire for justice after the Shattering. It went deeper, was more personal.
Before he could ask what drove him, though, the drumbeat from the Gorrani altered, speeding up, the chanting following along, catching up, rising to a higher pitch, echoing from the walls and bouncing back toward the ridge. Allan turned and scrambled up the low slope, heard Aurek and Devin on his heels. He threw himself flat to the ground and scanned the distance—
And the drums and chanting halted, sharply, as if cut off with a blade.
Everyone held their breath, the air still.
Then, with a roar that reverberated through the earth, the Gorrani charged the walls, defying the sudden flights of arrows that shot from the battlements, a slew of men among them carrying ladders. They converged on all sides at the same time, the tread of their feet thundering up and overwhelming their battle cry. Ladders began to rise, bases planted into the earth, men with ropes sprinting out ahead, lifting them up and over. Before they’d even struck the wall, Gorrani were scrambling up their lengths. From this distance, everything happened with excruciating slowness, all sounds subsumed by the general roar.
Beside him, Bryce licked his lips and said again, “Shit.”
Marcus and Lecrucius were in the outer stone garden of the node when the Gorrani chant escalated and broke off. Both of them halted, looking upward as they strained to hear what might come next.
The roar was deafening. Marcus winced, even though he knew it had been muted by the buildings and the distance between the node and the walls. The earth trembled, only this time it wasn’t from a quake.
It was from the tread of five thousand Gorrani warriors.
“They’re attacking the walls.”
Lecrucius turned without a word and strode into the Needle ahead of him.
As soon as Marcus stepped through the doors, both of his arms were seized. He cried out in surprise, struggled briefly, but enforcers had hold of him, not White Cloaks.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I think it’s time for a new Son to rise. A new dawn, so to speak.” Lecrucius nodded to the guards. “Bring him. Place him with the rest.”
“The rest?” Lecrucius didn’t answer. He’d already turned and entered the stairwell leading down to the pit. Marcus struggled a moment more, until one of the guards twisted his arm, pain shooting up into his shoulder. He staggered forward, the guard only releasing the hold slightly when they hit the stairs.
The pit was active, ley spurting up in jets from the well below. White Cloaks ringed it on all sides, over two dozen of them. “Iscivius, is everything ready?”
“The Nexus has been aligned as you requested, Prime Lecrucius. And those you singled out have been secured.”
Marcus’ gaze shot toward a small group herded by a dozen enforcers against the pit’s wall, near where the crack ran up from the ledge to the stairwell to the ley-veined obsidian ceiling. He picked out Kara instantly, along with Dylan and Carter, the younger Wielder from the Hollow sulking with arms crossed. Two others—Hartman and Jenner—were with them; not a surprise, since they were strong supporters of Marcus himself. But the sixth shocked Marcus to the bone: Okata.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, Lecrucius breaking away, heading toward Iscivius, the enforcers dragging Marcus toward the other group. They thrust him behind the enforcers already on guard, nearly slamming him into the wall. He steadied himself, nodded to the others, but kept his eyes locked on Okata.
“I thought you were one of Lecrucius’ followers.”
“He does not trust me because I am Gorrani.”
“What’s going on? We were in the middle of preparing for the attack on the Gorrani when suddenly the enforcers showed up and dragged Jenner, Okata, Carter, and I out of the group and stuck us with them.” Hartman motioned to where Kara was partially supporting Dylan. “Iscivius said they didn’t want us interfering.”
Marcus leveled a glare at Lecrucius. “It seems our sole Prime has decided to take my place as the new Son, without Father’s knowledge
.” Hartman gaped in astonishment, proving that Lecrucius had been right to single him out. Jenner pressed his lips together, although he didn’t appear shocked.
“He could have trusted me.”
Everyone ignored Carter.
“What about us?” Kara asked. “Why did he bring us down here?”
“He knows you won’t help him against the Gorrani. He wouldn’t trust you even if you agreed. But it would have been safer to leave you and Dylan both in your rooms.”
Okata stilled. “Unless he intends to resolve all of his problems with some kind of accident.”
Marcus recalled what had happened to Sanderson. He could see the same realization in Kara’s eyes. “We can’t let that happen.”
“I can monitor them while they work—”
“You can’t. Lecrucius will sense you. He’s a Prime. He’ll think you’re attempting to interfere.” Okata drew in a breath, his knotted Gorrani beard jutting up. “I’ll watch for us. He may sense me on the ley, but as long as I remain far enough back he won’t say anything.”
“What about the rest of us? We just wait?”
The stone beneath their feet shivered.
Okata, eyes closed, had already sunk into the ley. “They’re pulling in ley from the other cities. They’ve changed the configuration of the Nexus.”
“How? What’s the new alignment?”
“I can’t tell, not without snagging Lecrucius’ attention. But it’s drawing the ley here.”
Another rumble shook the chamber, and all of them turned to the pit as ley streamed upward, reaching for the ceiling. It rose in controlled spurts, unlike what had happened when Sanderson had been killed, but Marcus watched it with growing trepidation.
Kara sidled closer to him. “He’s strengthening it using the Nexus, preparing to use it.”
“The Gorrani have attacked the walls.”
“So you still want to annihilate them with the ley?”
“We have no choice! We can’t hold them off forever. They have to be stopped.”
“You’ll kill thousands!”
He was saved from answering by a jolt, the earth heaving. Some of the White Cloaks at the pit cried out, two of them falling to the stone floor near Lecrucius. “Hold on to the ley! Contain it until we hear the signal from Commander Ty! Iscivius, keep the crystals in alignment or we’re all dead.”
The quake continued, dust sifting down onto them from the cracked wall overhead.
“Their hold on the ley wavered during the initial jolt.”
Kara snatched Marcus’ arm at Okata’s report, her fingers digging in as the rumble of the quake intensified. “He’s drawing too much ley from the outer nodes. The system is trying to compensate, but it’s already unstable. We have to stop him.”
“You just want to stop him from using the ley on the Gorrani!”
“This isn’t about the Gorrani! This is about the ley, about the nodes and the system. If he draws too much of the ley here, it will destabilize whatever fragile framework the ley has left!”
The chamber shuddered around them, more than just dust falling down from above now. Marcus knew she was right. He wanted to believe in Father and his vision, in Dierdre and the Kormanley, but using the ley against the Gorrani in such a way—
It was wrong.
He dropped his head in defeat, then raised it again with new purpose, catching Hartman’s gaze, then Jenner’s. “She’s right. We have to stop him, before he brings the entire ley network crashing down around us.”
But before anyone could do anything, the bellow of a massive horn cut through the low growl of the quake and Okata said grimly, “We’re too late.”
On the ridge overlooking the Needle, Allan hauled on the reins of the horse as the ground shuddered beneath them. The animal tossed its head, its eyes white in fear as it tried to dance away from him, but he held it in check.
“Keep him calm, Allan!” Glenn and the rest of the group from the Hollow were arrayed protectively around the wagon, Hernande on the seat beside Allan, Cory, Jason, and Jerrain huddled in the back with Artras, Mareane, and Jude. Mareane and Jude were clutching each other as the wagon bed juddered, the rest gripping handholds on the sides. The supplies had been removed. Outside the circle of Hollowers, Aurek’s men were standing with swords readied, everyone watching Bryce and Aurek at the front, both keeping an eye on the battle at the Needle’s walls.
“What does he think I’m trying to do?”
Hernande, hands white-knuckled on the boards before them, didn’t answer. Allan had originally planned on simply charging the walls once an opening appeared, but Artras had pointed out that neither she, nor Jerrain nor Hernande, would be able to keep up with the rest of the men in an all-out run. So they’d hastily flung the supplies from the wagon and brought it about. They’d move slower—would probably crack a wheel before they reached the walls—but it was the only feasible option.
They hadn’t counted on the quake.
“It’s not quieting,” Hernande said.
“No. It’s growing stronger.”
And then Aurek raised his hand and shouted something Allan couldn’t hear over the steady growl of the earth. It didn’t matter. The shout from the raiders and their sudden surge forward told him everything he needed to know. With a snap of the reins and a “Heeyaw!” that he doubted the horse heard, he let the animal loose.
They leaped forward, the wagon clattering over the rough ground. Allan flew upward, his ass landing with a bone-jarring thud, and then he was hanging onto the bench with one hand, reins fisted in the other. Someone cried out from the wagon bed behind him, but he didn’t dare look.
Ahead, the men who’d been in front of the wagon glanced over their shoulders, then cut away to either side to let them through. Allan yanked on the reins to slow the horse down, but it was no use. They were pulling out ahead of those on foot, only Aurek and the few men on horseback keeping ahead of them. The ragged battle cry from the raiders had died out as they ran for the nearest wall. Allan could see where Aurek was aiming, a section where the Gorrani had split to either side as the attack on the gate to one side intensified. To the other side, the southern warriors had managed to gain a slight foothold on the top of the walls with the ladders. A section of the wall was now clear.
“There! Are we close enough yet?”
“No!”
Allan wasn’t surprised. The ridge they’d hidden behind to prepare was at least a mile distant. They hadn’t even covered a quarter of that yet.
The wagon jumped—Allan couldn’t tell if it was the quake or they’d hit a bump—but it landed hard, his teeth clacking together, nipping the side of his tongue. He tasted blood, swirled it around his mouth and spat to one side, while ahead the Gorrani had finally taken notice of them. A group of at least a hundred broke off from the back of those holding the ladders to the right, forming a line to meet them. They were close enough now to hear the battle even over the wagon, to make out individual faces. Their line was skewed, and Allan realized the Gorrani hadn’t figured out they didn’t intend to attack their flank.
He glanced back to see where the rest of their men were. Too far behind. The wagon and Aurek’s horses would reach the Gorrani before anyone caught up to them.
He spun back around and hauled at the reins of their horse, no longer trying to slow him, simply trying to make him turn. A horn sounded from the walls far to the left, near the main gates. He bellowed “Aurek!” as loud as he could, saw the lord twitch, but he didn’t slow. Allan heaved on the reins again and the horse began to angle left and slow. “Aurek!”
Someone’s hand slapped onto the wagon bench beside him and he twisted, startled. Artras clung to the wooden headboard between the bed and the bench. “Stay back from the walls! Something’s happening with the ley!”
Allan snapped around, the wagon now slowed enough he could stand.
“Aurek! Fall back!”
The Baron twisted in the saddle, his expression dark with fury, but he pulled up short when he saw the wagon off course. Devin and the others with him all halted in confusion, horses milling about. Beyond them, the Gorrani looked bewildered.
And then white ley billowed up from the ground all around the walls like flames, starting at the base and rising higher and higher as it spread outward. As it grew in intensity, screams erupted from within and Allan flinched in horror. Aurek’s horse reared up in terror, even though the flames were still distant, the Baron’s face reflecting his own fear as he fought to keep his seat. The Gorrani who’d turned to face them glanced back over their shoulders, arms raised as if to shield themselves, and then they broke and ran. Those on the ladders to the right were smothered by the flames within a breath. Those on the ground below turned to flee, but only those farthest from the walls escaped the surging flames as they ran. Half of the men with Aurek kicked their mounts into motion, heading away from the walls, back toward Allan’s wagon. A moment later, Aurek and the rest did the same.
Within the space of five heartbeats, the walls of the Needle in both directions were completely hidden by the eerily silent flames.
The sounds of battle almost completely died out.
The wagon drew to a halt, and Allan collapsed back onto the bench, his body numb as he stared at the sheets of ley. Even though they’d stopped, the wagon still shook from the quake. Those in the bed clambered forward to see.
“Gods,” Artras muttered at his side.
Aurek reached them, cantering his horse in a sharp turn as Devin ordered the others who’d ridden beyond them back with harsh words and curses. The first of those on foot who’d been left behind formed up around the wagon, heaving and gasping.
“What is it?” Aurek asked.
“What do you think? It’s a wall of ley.”
“The damned White Cloaks.”
The Gorrani beneath the wall who’d escaped the fire were no longer interested in their little group of three hundred men and a wagon. Those that were left were regrouping, well back from the still-burning white fire, maybe three or four hundred in all on this side of the Needle.
Threading the Needle Page 48
