“Yet they will still break through,” Verna interjected. “No matter how brave and desperate our defense is, if we don’t hold that canyon opening, then all is lost. If this archive falls into enemy hands, then all is lost!” Her voice rose as her anger intensified. “General Utros could use that dangerous information to crush the Old World.” She placed a hand on Nathan’s sleeve as if to draw strength. “The Sisters of the Light revere knowledge, and this is a hard conclusion for me, but I believe it’s the only one.” She stared around the room, her gaze finally resting on Gloria and Franklin. “If that army breaks through, we have to destroy Cliffwall.”
Franklin gasped. “But we haven’t completed our work!”
Gloria cried, “Still so many volumes to memorize.”
“Utros will ransack it. He will find the same deadly spells we are searching for, and he’ll use that magic to destroy the world.”
Nathan could feel the heart beating louder in his chest, and he grimaced as a twinge of dark pain shot through him again. “I remember when Richard brought down the Palace of the Prophets. Such a landmark, so much information in those vaults.” He bit his lower lip. “But the world has survived fine without that knowledge. While I appreciate General Zimmer’s confidence and bravado, Verna pointed out to me that misplaced optimism is only a fool’s weapon.”
“But think of all the sacrifices that went into creating Cliffwall!” Gloria groaned.
Peretta spoke up. “Cliffwall’s magic belongs to humanity, to someone who knows how to use it.”
“For good, not evil,” Nathan said. “We have to face facts. This archive remained safe behind its camouflage shroud for three thousand years, and no one used any of the magic for good or ill. Our civilization bumbled along nevertheless. The world went on.” He tapped his fingernails on the wooden table surface. “Very shortly after the archive was opened again, though, Roland the Lifedrinker abused a spell and made himself into an insatiable monster, as did Victoria after him. Better that the magic had never been discovered at all. We would have been safer.”
Gloria looked away, embarrassed at the mention of her mentor. The other memmers also muttered.
Verna picked up the discussion in a hard voice. “And then there was the student Elbert, who melted the prophecy archive by unleashing the Weeping Stone spell, which he couldn’t control. And those were merely accidents! Think how much worse it will be if Utros intentionally uses that lore to destroy anyone who opposes him.”
Zimmer was impatient. “We should still try to defend the canyon. My men are ready. We can make plans, set traps, kill countless numbers of the enemy. We will never have a better opportunity.” He swallowed. “But if we fail, if General Utros overruns the canyon, can we find a way to destroy the archive? Only then, not before?”
Olgya said, “How will we do that? Burn all the books? Seal the tunnels? How could we do it fast enough if the enemy army has already broken through?”
Verna had a distant look on her face, and Nathan frowned at her. “What are you thinking, my dear?”
“The Weeping Stone spell. Maybe we just need to use it on a larger scale.”
CHAPTER 44
After leaving the damaged sliph temple, Nicci made her way to Serrimundi Harbor, where the aftermath of the Norukai raid was still apparent. At the mouth of the sheltered harbor, a high rock outcropping protected the entrance with a huge carving of the Sea Mother. Sunken ships with splintered masts rose from the water like grasping hands. Several docks were shattered, pilings uprooted and collapsed.
The harbor was an obstacle course of scuttled cargo vessels, fishing boats, and destroyed serpent ships that had held murderous Norukai. Fishermen, foreign sailors, Serrimundi seamen, and dockworkers all labored together to help the city recover.
Out in the water, some ships had burned to the waterline, and others listed to one side, taking on water. Like flesh beetles stripping the meat off a corpse and leaving only bones, harbor workers crawled over a sunken ship that blocked the main docks. They used saws, pry bars, and mallets to dismantle the wreck, stripping it down to its ribs and keel.
“Tie this rope around the lowest rib under the waterline,” shouted a bare-chested man with a deeply tanned bald pate and a voluminous black beard. He stood at the end of the dock and threw a coil of rope into the water. “We’ll rig a winch on the shore to drag that damned serpent ship out of the main channel.”
In the water, four muscular young men took the rope and swam toward a half-sunken serpent ship just beyond the pier. Nicci recognized the swimmers as arrogant wishpearl divers, surprised to see them pitching in. The divers swam out to the wreck and plunged deep, pulling the rope along with them.
Men rowing small dinghies towed floating debris to a stony beach at the far end of the harbor, where more people pulled wreckage out of the water. They stacked salvageable planks and logs above the tide line and burned other debris in a large garbage fire.
Despite Serrimundi’s ambitious recovery, Nicci was sure the Norukai would strike here again. She had originally come to warn them about General Utros’s army, but instead she had faced the bloodthirsty raiders. Before she’d killed Captain Kor, he had boasted that the Norukai were also attacking Ildakar.
Yes, Nicci had plenty of enemies to fight.
She came upon a merchant dressed in unseasonably warm clothes, a dark woolen jacket and a vest buttoned across his ample belly. He worked alone in front of an open warehouse near a stack of scorched wooden crates. With a pry bar he cracked open the lids to inspect the contents.
Nicci stopped in front of him. “Tell me where to find Harborlord Otto.”
The merchant sweated profusely in his stifling clothes. “I’m ruined. I’ve lost half of my goods.”
“At least you didn’t lose your life.”
He blew air through his lips, grudgingly accepting her statement. “The harborlord is tallying the damaged ships.” He gestured toward one of the main docks. “Look for him aboard the Mist Maiden.”
Nicci knew the ship. That was where she had fought the Norukai and killed Kor. As she walked off, the merchant pulled green and blue silks out of a crate, frowning at the blood that had soaked into the contents. “Ruined, just ruined.”
It didn’t take her long to find the three-masted cargo ship. Crews continued to scrub the bloodstains from the deck of the Mist Maiden. One man hung on a high yardarm like a spider restringing the rigging.
She called out as she approached. “Harborlord!”
Sailors came to the rail to stare down at her. Some cheered. “It’s Nicci. We’re safe again!”
“You’re not safe until you learn how to fight for yourselves,” she replied. Without being invited, she walked up the gangplank to the deck where Harborlord Otto sat on a barrel next to the Mist Maiden’s Captain Ganley, who was betrothed to Otto’s daughter.
The harborlord looked at Nicci from beneath a floppy hat. His caramel-colored eyes were heavy with the sight of too much death and blood. “Nicci! I thought you went back to Ildakar.”
“I tried to. How long have I been gone?”
Otto scratched his beard, considering. “The Norukai attacked ten days ago.” He let out a long sigh. “Without you, my sweet Shira and her children would have been killed. I would have been killed. But you made us stand strong. Serrimundi will never forget that.”
Captain Ganley stepped toward her with a relieved grin as if he meant to hug her, but he hesitated when he saw the razor edge of her demeanor. “There is so much wreckage, it’ll take a year before the city is back to what it was.”
“If the Norukai don’t attack again,” Nicci said, and both men turned pale. “And there is also the army of General Utros to contend with. This is no time to be complacent.”
“Will it really be that bad?” Otto asked. “Serrimundi has prospered for centuries. We kept our independence even under the Imperial Order.”
“This is different,” Nicci said. “Utros is intent on conquering the Old World, and the
Norukai are wild animals. They want to raid and pillage, not engage in peaceful trade.”
At the harbor mouth, a lookout on the high promontory of rock banged on a brass gong, and a signal fire took hold, sending pale smoke curling into the air. Otto shaded his eyes. “There’s a ship coming in.”
Tension thickened like a thunderstorm in the air. People gathered along the docks, looking to the mouth of the harbor and the giant Sea Mother, afraid it might be more Norukai serpent ships.
Ganley swallowed hard. “We are not ready to fight again so soon.”
When the lookout banged twice more on the gong, Otto visibly relaxed. Nicci waited for a report. “What does it mean?”
“We know it’s not a warship,” Otto said. “That wasn’t a call to arms.”
A low vessel with patched gray sails slipped past the giant cliff carving. The hull was dark and dirty, but it seemed to be a swift ship, judging from how easily it sailed into the harbor.
“A kraken hunter,” Ganley said with distaste.
“Not just any krakener,” Otto said. “That is the Chaser, my brother Jared’s ship.”
As the dingy ship nimbly dodged the sunken wrecks and protruding masts in the harbor, Nicci admired the captain’s skill. Captain Jared seemed to know every sail, every rigging rope, and every vagary of the winds and currents. He steered and dodged with little room to spare. People crowded the Chaser’s deck, hundreds of bedraggled men and women, even children, packed together. Loaded with so many passengers, the krakener rode precariously low in the water, but the captain deftly guided the vessel to the nearest open slip. At the bow stood a man with dark hair, a gap between his front teeth, and eyes and nose similar to Otto’s.
Nicci followed the harborlord to where the Chaser was tying up. Three narrow planks were thrown down from the krakener to the dock, and the refugees began to disembark, jostling one another in their eagerness to get back on dry land. A crying girl clutched her mother’s hand, and the mother’s head had angry red scabs from severe wounds. The people flowed off the Chaser and milled around the pier, disoriented and lost. Some dropped to their knees, praising the Sea Mother. Many had bloodstained bandages, splints, slings, or obvious bruises.
Nicci and Otto moved among the jabbering refugees, asking questions. The bedraggled people looked shocked and lost. “The Norukai destroyed Effren,” said one man with a prominent black eye. “Our city is burned to the ground. Hundreds taken captive, our women raped.”
An old woman beside him groaned. “Ten serpent ships came at night, led by a man named Lars.”
“The Norukai never attacked Effren before. They don’t come this far north,” the man said. “Some of us hid in our root cellars. Others ran into the hills. Those who stayed to fight—” He swallowed hard and couldn’t find the words.
The old woman finished for him. “Those who fought back were all slain.”
Nicci felt a flash of anger. “I killed Captain Kor, but I remember Lars too. They came to Ildakar with a load of slaves.”
The refugees seemed in a hurry, though they had no place to go. Nicci and the harborlord wove their way through the milling crowd to reach the krakener. Nicci caught a foul whiff as soon as she approached. The Chaser’s hull and deck were impregnated with oil and long-hardened slime. She remembered kraken hunters from her time in Tanimura with the Sisters, where the ships would come in with loads of smelly kraken meat, oil, and leather.
After all the refugees had disembarked, Captain Jared hopped down from the raised bow and came toward them. “Brother, it looks like Serrimundi has had some excitement since I’ve been away.”
“The Norukai attacked,” Otto said. “We defeated them, but not without suffering great damage.”
“You are better off than Effren, I guarantee you that,” Jared said, and his expression darkened. “The Norukai left nothing but wreckage and bodies. When the Chaser arrived, I loaded as many survivors as I could and brought them here to sanctuary in Serrimundi, though some of them stayed behind to pick through the rubble.”
Otto looked at all the people streaming aimlessly down the docks with no place to go. “These refugees can earn their food and keep by helping us rebuild, but with the harbor damaged and the traders skittish, we won’t have many supplies coming in to feed the extra mouths.”
“Nevertheless, you will make do,” Nicci said, allowing no argument. “Those people are all potential fighters who could fend off another Norukai attack or stand against the army of General Utros. You need them.”
Jared flashed her a bright smile, revealing the gap in his front teeth. “And who is this?” Even after the harshness he’d experienced and all the miserable refugees that had crowded aboard his ship, the captain seemed to have inordinate good cheer.
“I am the one who warned Serrimundi to build up their defenses, although a little too late.” She kept her voice neutral, taking no satisfaction in being proved right. She was curious to hear accurate and recent information. “If Captain Lars attacked Effren, that means more than one Norukai raiding party is attacking the coast. More ships may well strike Serrimundi and other cities.”
Jared gave a grim nod. “The Effren survivors say there’s been no word from Larrikan Shores for several days, and that’s farther south. I expect we’ll find that city in ruins as well.”
Nicci already knew that General Utros’s great army was on the move, and now the Norukai threat had grown more severe. She turned to the harborlord. “I need to go north to Tanimura and the D’Haran garrison there. The Old World must unite against this common threat.” When Otto looked at her blankly, not reacting as quickly as she wished, she snapped, “I need a fast horse so I can ride up the coastal road to Tanimura. I want to depart within the hour.”
Jared scoffed. “Why would you want to ride a smelly horse? You’ll be saddle sore and covered with dust before you get there many days from now.” He gestured toward the gray, patched sails of the Chaser and spoke with a heartfelt pride as if he were praising a beautiful woman. “My Chaser is ten times faster than a horse, if we have fair winds.”
Nicci realized that sailing was indeed a faster option. “With my gift, I can guarantee fair winds.”
Jared laughed. “A sorceress aboard my ship. It’ll be a refreshing change.”
“There’s very little refreshing about a krakener,” Otto said with a grimace. “But that is your best choice, Nicci, if you can stand the smell.”
She thought of all the miserable experiences she had endured in her life. “I can stand a bad smell.”
CHAPTER 45
Out on the open sea, the Norukai grew restless, boisterous. They pounded on their shields and stomped on the deck, as if their raid on Ildakar had somehow been a victory instead of a defeat. As the sun set, they began chanting, “Serpent god! Serpent god needs blood.”
Chalk waved his hands in the air. “Serpent god will save us, but serpent god is hungry.” He ran to cling to King Grieve. “Serpent god needs blood, my king, my Grieve.”
The king frowned down at him. “You’re sure the serpent god will save us? You’ve seen it in a vision?”
“Serpent god will save some of us.” Chalk cackled. “But I won’t tell which ones! A secret.”
King Grieve scanned the huddling slaves chained to the deck, and his eyes lit on the weakest, most exhausted captive. “Take that one. We’ll whet the serpent god’s appetite.”
The slave wailed and struggled while the others crouched against the sideboards, as if they could become invisible. Bannon pulled on his chain, straining to break free, though he had no idea how he could help the poor man. Lila glared daggers at the king, straining against her bonds until her wrists bled.
For good measure, Grieve cuffed Bannon on the side of the head, then ignored him. The scrawny, doomed slave struggled, but to no avail. He was shirtless, and his sunburned back was blistered and peeling. Ages ago, it seemed, the man had been a minor noble from Ildakar.
The raiders went to the side of the ship and
hammered on the wood with their spear shafts, their war mallets, and the hilts of their swords in a resounding call to some monster beneath the surface.
“Serpent god is deep,” Chalk cried. “But serpent god is hungry! Serpent god will save us.” He suddenly whimpered and cringed. “But not all of us.”
The Norukai performed no ceremony. Grieve simply dragged the captive to the rail and leaned him out over the water. With a vicious slash, he drew his dagger across the man’s throat, cutting deep. The victim’s blood fountained out, and Grieve dangled him by the waist of his pants over the waves so the blood ran down the hull and into the sea.
The Norukai kept pounding on the deck in anticipation, while the captives groaned in terror.
“Serpent god is deep,” Chalk said, “but he will eat.”
When the blood had drained, Grieve heaved the body overboard into the waves. The dead man drifted behind the three ships and slowly sank, but no serpent god appeared, even though they waited in tense silence for many minutes. The Norukai grumbled with disappointment.
Bannon felt sick anger for the loss of one of his comrades, and Lila seethed in silence as she watched the sacrifice. Surreptitiously, she kept working, twisting, scraping her hands against the ropes, but even if she freed her wrists, the chain still anchored her to the deck.
* * *
The serpent ships sailed on during the night while the Norukai navigated by the stars. Bannon lay bound under the dim lantern light, unable to sleep. Lila lay like a coiled spring ready to be released, and her mere presence offered him some comfort. The dark sails were invisible against the night sky except for where they blocked out the stars. He listened to the stirring waves that caressed the hull.
Chalk curled up on the deck and slept, then woke up and scuttled to a new resting place, where he slept again. He seemed nervous.
Bannon knew that even if he and Lila managed to break free, they had nowhere to go. They were in the middle of the ocean and would never survive long enough to reach land. He lay on deck grinding his teeth. Lila was so silent he couldn’t tell whether she was asleep or awake. His pulse ticked off the seconds of his captivity, appreciating every moment he remained alive. Once the serpent ships reached the Norukai islands, though, the situation would be even worse.
Heart of Black Ice Page 26