Nathan whispered close to Elsa’s face. “I trust your abilities implicitly.”
The largest concentration of fighters had gathered here at the main gates to accompany Nathan and Elsa on their charge to the heart of the camp to lay down the central rune, but five other teams, led by Oron, Olgya, Justin, Perri, and Leo, had been dispatched to secondary gates up and down the wall. They would all rush out at the same time, each with a very specific destination and assignment.
Olgya had presented each of them with a new cloak made of the impenetrable armor silk to serve as both protection and camouflage. The worms in her warehouse had spun themselves into exhaustion, but they had produced countless bolts of the special cloth. All of the escort fighters were likewise protected.
Nathan and Elsa wrapped their silk cloaks around themselves, sashed tightly at their waists. Nathan had his ornate sword at his side, with his black pants and traveling boots. He felt like an adventurer and a wizard, as well as Elsa’s protector.
The ranks of the city guard, infuriated by the brutal execution of High Captain Stuart, had supplied many of the volunteers for the escorts. “For Stuart!” the guards called, raising their swords.
Each of the teams also had two morazeth warriors. The women had sworn their lives to protect the gifted team leaders while they marked the spell-forms.
“We have to be fast,” Nathan called out. “Our purpose is not to engage the enemy and fight. Each team must get to its position and lay down the boundary runes.” He smiled. “Then Elsa will do the rest.”
The older sorceress sat silent and preoccupied on her chestnut gelding, which she had agreed to ride because they required speed. Nathan sat astride a sturdy gray horse close to her. The escort fighters gathered around their respective teams at the different gates, hard-bitten arena veterans as well as uniformed city guard. Not long ago, these groups had been bitter enemies. Now they would all go out to fight together.
“So much has changed,” Nathan muttered to Elsa. “Amazing how facing a common enemy can form fast friendships.”
She looked over at him, her face filled with emotion. Tears sparkled in her eyes. “Thank you for being my friend, Nathan. I am glad you came to Ildakar, and I am glad I got to know you. You’re the first man since Derek who has truly warmed my heart.”
“I hope I continue to do so, my dear. But now it is time. We should be off!”
Elsa nodded, biting her lower lip.
Nathan saw the freed slave Rendell among the fighters, a man who had served Mirrormask and then become the first member of the lower classes to have a seat on the duma. Rendell raised an iron club in salute to Nathan. “I am fighting as well, Wizard. I may not have magic, but I have a sword arm and my anger is as great as anyone else’s.”
“We will celebrate together afterward,” Nathan said.
They had decided not to blow defiant war horns, but would simply ride out unexpectedly into the morning rain under the gray skies. Even a few minutes of surprise might make a great difference.
The main gates began to open, and the tense guardian soldiers pressed closer around Nathan and Elsa. They all held their swords ready to charge.
Elsa carried a large bladder of bright red paint, identical to the pigment used to mark the giant rune on the cliff wall. When it came time, she would snip the corner and draw a spattering line across the ground to outline her anchor rune. Oron, Olgya, and the other three gifted nobles had similar sacks of paint to draw boundary runes in the proper places. After they all sent up a signal to indicate they had completed their work, Elsa would connect the boundary runes with the anchor rune, and transfer all the heat stored in the cliffs and the river right into the midst of the ancient army.
Nathan gave Elsa a confident smile as gates opened up and down the main wall of Ildakar. “We are off, my dear! Let us go see what victory feels like.”
He kicked his gray horse, which galloped ahead with Elsa racing beside him. The rest of the escort fighters charged, ready to battle to the death for this desperate plan. Nathan was already calling lightning with one hand, while summoning wizard’s fire in the other. He planned to make quite an impact.
“For Ildakar!” he cried. The words echoed from countless other throats.
CHAPTER 76
All the flatboat pilots, fishermen, and river traders had been warned away from Ildakar as soon as the giant transference rune was painted on the bluffside. When Elsa activated the towering spell-form, the backlash would be dangerous for anyone in the vicinity.
Lila stood with Bannon at the edge of one of the tunnel openings, peering down the network of ramps, stairs, and cargo platforms to the river below. Considering the huge painted design, the morazeth frowned. “I should not have allowed you to hang from a rope while you painted. It was a risk, and I promised to keep you safe.”
“There are different ways of fighting the enemy.” Bannon gestured with pride at the prominent design, which stood out bright and red on the cliffs. “And I needed to help.”
She scoffed. “You could have fallen.”
“I’m not clumsy.” He was exasperated with her attitude. “Neither of us needs protection here. The battle is on the opposite side of the city, and I am worried about the strike teams, and Nathan. By now they should be ready to ride out to place the boundary runes on the battlefield, and that is far more dangerous than anything I’ve done here.” He looked behind him into the tunnels and the city beyond. “Nathan tricked me. I wish he had let me go along with him.”
“Your wizard friend wanted to protect you, and he gave me instructions to do the same. I intend to obey them,” Lila said. “My morazeth sisters are out there with the teams. Therefore, the mission will succeed.”
Bannon touched Sturdy, which he kept comfortably at his side. “What if they fail because one more fighter would have saved a wizard or a sorceress at a critical time? What if Nathan needs me?”
“I don’t dispute your concerns,” Lila finally said, sounding wistful. “I would have liked to go along as well.”
Doing a final check, four painters on separate scaffoldings touched up sections of the design that had washed thin in the rain overnight. “Hurry!” Bannon called to them. “The attack will launch any minute now. When Elsa triggers her transference magic, you don’t want to be out here.”
The cocky young painters swung on the ropes, with no fear of heights. They completed their work, called to one another, then lowered themselves to the wooden platforms. After securing their half-empty buckets of paint, they ducked into the entry tunnels. Rainwater trickled out of small drain outlets from gutters in the streets, streaming down the cliff to the river.
Bannon felt a strange premonition when he saw the water running out of the drain holes. It looked as if Ildakar were weeping rivulets of water, like tears pouring through the painted spell-form and down the cliff.
He thought of the enormous statue of the Sea Mother that towered over Serrimundi Harbor and remembered that he’d felt a similar strange dread when the Wavewalker sailed past. Bannon wondered if that had been an early warning about the selka attack that had destroyed the ship not long afterward. Nathan and Nicci had told him time and again that prophecy was gone, that Lord Rahl had changed the underpinnings of magic. The young man didn’t think he possessed some previously undiscovered gift that let him glimpse the future. He decided the shiver must have been caused by the damp chill in the air.
Lila stood practically naked with only the thin leather wrap around her waist and chest, sandals laced all the way up her calves. Moisture glistened on her skin, highlighting the rune markings. “Aren’t you cold?” he asked.
“No. Never.”
From the tunnel overhang, Bannon and Lila watched the fog lifting off the river as the day brightened. He heard the whisper of the sluggish current, the stir of turgid swamps; then in the distance he heard an eerie, muffled thumping, like a steady heartbeat.
Alert, Lila leaned out over the edge. “Those are drums. Many drums.” The
sun broke through, warming the air, dissipating the mists as the approaching drums grew louder. “Something is coming.”
Straining to see through the thinning fog, Bannon felt an ominous change in the air. Unconsciously, he moved closer to Lila.
Together, they watched in horror as a shape appeared on the wide river below, dark sails, a frightening sea serpent head carved at the prow. The ship glided forward as the drums continued their steady threatening beat, oars raised and lowered, pushing the vessel against the current.
Bannon remembered the Norukai slave traders who had come to Ildakar to sell their cargo of walking meat, and he felt angry.
Behind the lead ship came another, then another—dozens of vessels, with even more trailing off in the remaining fog. Ice spiked through his veins as he realized this was no small merchant expedition. “Sweet Sea Mother, those aren’t Norukai traders. This is an invasion!”
Bannon’s hatred for the Norukai remained unbounded. He had slain many in a blood rage at Renda Bay, and he had loathed them when they came to trade in Ildakar. When he’d foolishly challenged three Norukai near the yaxen pens, he was battered and thrown into the training pits.
The drums pounded louder, and the serpent ships drifted close to the docks at the base of the cliff. Bannon could hear the shouts of challenge from hundreds, thousands, of Norukai as they closed in on the city.
He grabbed Lila’s arm. “We have to raise the alarm, jettison the docks below, and guard these tunnels. Ildakar is under attack!”
* * *
After Elsa and the five other strike teams rode out on their mission into the huge army camp, Damon and Quentin remained in the ruling tower. The two wizards made plans, afraid they might have to launch their final solution after all. They had to be ready. Although Nicci had traveled through the sliph to spread her dire warning across the Old World, Damon knew she would never bring reinforcements here. Ildakar had to save itself.
After discussing with Sovrena Thora the possibility of restoring the shroud, the two wizards had proceeded to lay the groundwork without consulting the rest of the duma. As a shaper, Damon had worked with metals, fusing and forming a new crucible, mirrors, and guidance channels exactly like the ones used on the stair-stepped pyramid. While the other wizards of Ildakar were preoccupied with their own desperate plans, he and Quentin were pragmatic about what would truly save Ildakar. They knew their scheme would work, even if everything else failed. Elsa’s dramatic plan with transference magic would cause tremendous harm, if it succeeded, but the risk was high. And even if it worked, the destruction might not be sufficient. Again.
He and Quentin were realists.
Suddenly, Bannon burst into the ruling tower, flushed and breathless. “It’s the Norukai! Dozens of serpent ships, thousands of warriors. We have to mount a defense on the cliff.”
Lila ran beside him. “The boy is correct. The Norukai are not here to trade. They’ve come to conquer. We are under attack.”
Turning pale, Damon looked at his companion. Both wizards knew that this was why they had remained behind, while Elsa and the others rode out to place the boundary runes.
Quentin pressed a hand to his chest as if in a sudden bout of indigestion. “I always found the Norukai disgusting.”
“You should never have traded with them in the first place,” Bannon growled. “They are monsters, and they mean to kill us all. Their warriors will storm us from the river. We’ve got to stop them. We need you and your wizard’s fire. We need to activate the traps that were built into the cliffs—and we need them now.” As thoughts circled and tangled in Damon’s mind, Bannon snapped at his hesitation, “Sweet Sea Mother, can’t you hear me? There are thousands of them! They will attack the city.”
“Sound the alarms,” Quentin ordered.
Damon wiped perspiration from his brow. “Call the city. We need every remaining fighter to drive back the Norukai.”
But he had another thought. Was this not proof that they needed to raise the shroud and isolate the city? It was the only way to be certain. When the alarm bells rang through the streets, he thought they sounded like the call to the old bloodworkings at the pyramid.
Lila took Bannon’s arm, and they sprinted back to the bluff so they could fight. Remaining behind, Damon looked at Quentin and saw the same realization in his friend’s wide brown eyes. “Even if Elsa’s plan works, General Utros will retaliate. He will stop at nothing to break down our walls.” He shook his head. “And now the Norukai are swarming to our cliffs. If they get inside, the city will fall—unless we do what we must. You know we have no choice, Quentin.”
His companion nodded. “We will send out the call and summon the volunteers to the arena, and the city guard can round up as many more as we need. Gifted blood is strongest, so if they can find a few useless nobles, that would be even better. This is no time for delicacy. We have to start immediately. Shedding so much blood might take more time than we have left.”
CHAPTER 77
Prelate Verna and her companions stared in disbelief at the vast army encamped in front of Ildakar. Renn groaned, “A handful of us can’t do anything against that.” He hid behind a tree and seemed to be holding himself back. “I looked out upon that stone army for so many centuries, but I never expected them to be a threat again.”
“Our avalanche took care of thousands of them,” Zimmer said. “But from what I see down there, I doubt General Utros would even notice the loss of that expeditionary force.”
Scanning the ancient army, the burn scars on the hills, the damage done to the plain, Verna tried to imagine what had happened here. “The city fought hard against them, that’s for certain. And it looks like they have had some success.”
Captain Trevor looked pale and distraught. “We need to get inside Ildakar and find out what’s happened.”
General Zimmer heaved a great breath. “I know you want to make your way back to the city, but unless you can find a way for us to fly, wizard, we will not get through that army. Is your gift that strong?”
Renn scratched the beard stubble on his cheeks. “No.”
The gray drizzle and the clouds overhead muted the details, though the sun struggled to come out. As they watched, Verna saw the distant gates of Ildakar open, and six separate groups of fighters, like individual strike forces, rode outward in a brash and foolish sortie. “Look, they’re launching an attack.”
“Such small strike forces! Are those all the defenses Ildakar has left?” Renn said in disbelief. “They will be like tiny darts against a bull yaxen.”
They all watched the small parties race recklessly away from the walls. The six parties galloped in separate directions, heading toward different points. Reacting to this unexpected and unimpressive incursion, the large ancient army began to stir. At the lead of each Ildakaran strike force rode a gifted fighter who called up roaring winds and flashes of lightning, using magic to sweep aside the defensive lines. The six parties rode at full speed, intent on some clear goal.
“That cannot be a full-scale attack,” Zimmer said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Most of the groups are skirting the edge of the big camp, riding the perimeter. Are they trying to get away? It makes no sense.”
“Yes, it does,” Verna said, pointing. “Each of those groups has a specific target. They know where they’re going.”
The six teams galloped at breakneck speed, flailing with swords and magic, clearing away the half-petrified soldiers who closed in to stop them. Verna could tell they were avoiding direct engagement for the sake of speed. Two of the groups rode to the boundary hills along the southern edge of the valley, and two other teams went north, riding along the edge of the blackened grass.
Another strike force circled around and cut through the sparsest part of the camp toward the far end of the valley, where Verna and the others lay hidden. The gifted leader of that group formed a wedge of air, like a plow through the defending soldiers.
The last of the six teams headed straight into the
heart of Utros’s army, cutting their way into the thick of the soldiers.
Fierce lightning lanced out from all the groups, striking clustered enemy soldiers, blasting divots in the ground. Verna struggled to understand what they hoped to accomplish.
Oliver and Peretta stood together, staring, and Novice Amber said, “Can’t we do something to help? They don’t even know we’re here.”
Oliver gave a determined nod. “When we called down the avalanche, we all worked together, and look what we achieved.” He looked behind him at the gifted scholars in their party, along with the D’Haran soldiers, the handful of guards from Ildakar, and Verna’s Sisters of the Light. “We can do something. We know some spells.”
“But we don’t know what their plan is,” Sister Rhoda pointed out, “or how we can assist them.”
“We know that we should help Ildakar, no matter what,” Peretta said. “We know what side to choose.”
Renn’s voice cracked with dismay. “That’s Ildakar. If we can take action, then we must.”
The strike forces galloping along the northern and southern hills were heading swiftly to some predetermined position. One group on each side of the valley stopped halfway along the boundary hills. The defenders formed a circle around a gifted leader in the center, who began some sort of activity. Other strike forces continued riding even faster along the hills, farther from Ildakar.
The strike force closest to Verna and her hidden companions faced fierce opposition, though. The enemy ranks closed up as they charged forward, blocking the team and curtailing their progress, though they all kept fighting.
Siege of Stone Page 48