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With a pale, thin hand, Mirrormask picked up a shard of broken mirror and pressed it into Nicci’s palm. “Be ready.” He closed her fingers around the sharp edges—not enough to cut, but enough for her to feel the razor edge. “Reflect on this.”
He backed away with a swirl of his shadowy gray robes. His followers darted into the darkness, and Mirrormask disappeared, leaving Nicci holding the mirror fragment. She kept it, glad that she had come out here late at night. Now she felt more hopeful about the future of Ildakar than she had in many days.
Nicci knew she had found allies.
CHAPTER 31
The sleeping city remained silent as she made her way back to the upper levels of the plateau. Ahead, not far from the grand villa, Nicci could see the imposing pyramid illuminated with magical torches. At the apex, the silvery apparatus captured the diamond scatter of stars that shone through a thin veil of high clouds.
Returning to the villa, Nicci slipped through the archways and into the halls, creeping along. Statues stood in the halls, bizarre sculptures that she was convinced must be petrified victims of a wizard’s wrath. After the beseiging army was turned to stone, the people of Ildakar would have rejoiced, knowing they were free, yet over the years, the power that saved them had turned into oppression. When she came upon the statue of the angry old woman, Nicci remembered how helpless she had felt when the Adjudicator trapped her in stone, forcing her to relive the moment of her greatest guilt. Nicci had been unable to fight that spell—and she was certain Sovrena Thora or any of the duma members would be far greater foes.
She would have to find a different way to fight them. Perhaps Mirrormask and his uprising might provide an alternative.
When she passed Nathan Rahl’s quarters, she saw a glow. The wizard was awake even in the hours before dawn. She hesitated, considering whether or not to disturb him. Through the gift, he could have sensed her there, but having lost his magic, Nathan was effectively blind.
When she knocked, he sounded startled. “I’m resting. I’m not interested.”
“It’s Nicci,” she said.
She heard a surprised sound, and he swung the door back. “Sorceress! I thought you were one of those high nobles, demanding that I join them in their wild pleasure parties.”
Nicci raised her eyebrows. “And have they bothered you this evening?”
He turned away, stroking his smooth chin between thumb and forefinger. “Not exactly, but I was gathering my courage, just in case I needed to turn them down. I do have principles.”
Nicci slipped into his chamber, where he had spread out papers on the small writing desk. Glowing lanterns shed warm yellow light over the documents. “I’m writing in the life book, recording the things we’ve seen and learned,” he explained. “Someday we’ll take this volume back to D’Hara so we can impress Richard with our adventures.” He sank into the chair by the writing desk and gestured for her to sit, and Nicci chose the comfortable corner of his bed, brushing down the fabric of her black dress.
Nathan closed the leather-bound book the witch woman had given him. “I have no regrets at being an ambassador, and I have seen much more of the world than I expected to.” His thin lips quirked in a smile. “During all those centuries in the Palace of the Prophets, I dreamed of having adventures, and I longed to explore lands unknown. I concocted stories and wrote them down. Even now it surprises me how popular some of my tales became, like The Adventures of Bonnie Day. But now that I’ve actually become an adventurer myself, there’s a part of me—a small part, but it grows larger every day—that would simply like to go back home.”
“An adventurer makes his own home.” Nicci brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. “But I’m not on an adventure. I am on a mission for Lord Rahl. He wanted me to make sure that others follow the principles he gave us, that people can aspire to their own dreams and abide by their responsibilities.”
She lowered her voice, although she knew full well that Nathan was aware of the fact. “I love Richard. I have always loved him, in one way or another. More important, I gave him my vow. I must fight to help people, to teach them freedom. We must bring down tyrants wherever we find them. Including here.”
“I could not agree more, dear sorceress,” Nathan said. “And if I weren’t so helpless, you and I would be leading a charge to take down the ruling council and free the people of Ildakar.”
“We may still do that,” Nicci said. “We must find a way to overthrow this city’s leadership.”
Nathan pressed his fist against his breastbone and pushed hard, as if to squeeze out power. “If only Andre would make me whole again.” He shook his head and glanced down at the life book.
Nicci saw that he had opened it to the beginning pages where Red’s words had been scrawled. The Wizard will behold what he needs to make himself whole again. And Nicci knew the additional instructions written there, clearly for her, And the Sorceress must save the world.
“What if the fleshmancer doesn’t restore your wizard’s heart, Nathan?” Nicci said. “There could be another answer here in Ildakar. Perhaps what you need to make yourself whole is to make this city whole.”
“And that’s also how you plan to save the world, Sorceress?”
“I’ve looked into the eyes of the duma members,” Nicci said. “I told them about Lord Rahl and his vision, and I saw how their thoughts mock me because he is impossibly far away.” She gritted her teeth and lowered her voice. “But I am not far away. I am here, and that is what they should fear.”
Yes, they had come to this city to assist Nathan, but after talking with Mirrormask she was no longer so anxious just to leave. Maybe Ildakar was her mission. When she studied the aloof wizards as they sat superior in their ruling tower, she would not just try to understand them. She would search for weaknesses.
Nathan looked saddened and uncertain. “Again, Sorceress, I would vow to help you, but we are not in a position of strength.”
Nicci narrowed her eyes. “When we are doing the right thing, we are always in a position of strength. The ruling council will fall.”
She rose from the corner of the bed and paced around his room. Beside the reflecting basin in his wall stood a tiny vase with a sprig of herbs—rosemary, from the scent. She glanced at her reflection in the water, then turned back to him. “Maybe we shouldn’t be so eager to leave here. Maybe the most important thing we can do is to stay and make sure this city changes for the better. As a sorceress, I am confident I could stand against any member of the duma. Maybe I should challenge them, become one of the rulers of Ildakar.” Her lips pressed tight in a hard smile. “Overthrow them if they do not cooperate. We could change Ildakar that way.”
“We could, dear sorceress,” Nathan said, frowning down at the life book. He flipped the pages and found the end of his handwriting. “Indeed we could.”
CHAPTER 32
Loaded with its smelly cargo, the kraken hunter ship rode low in the water. The sails and ropes groaned with exhaustion as the vessel finally came into Grafan Harbor. The sailors whooped, flailing their hands and waving caps long before anyone onshore could see them. The ship’s sails were patched and drab, gray canvas, brown canvas, and a startling square of clean white fabric.
At the rail, Oliver leaned over and retched one more time, though he had long since emptied the contents in his stomach. The s
eas were calm and the kraken hunter ship swayed with the slow swell of the waves. It wasn’t so much seasickness that churned Oliver’s guts, but the stench that permeated the ship.
Next to him, Peretta stood straight-backed, as if someone had lashed a spar to her spine. Her skin was pale and her lips were drawn back. “As a memmer, I have preserved every moment of our long ordeal on the voyage from Serrimundi,” she said, then swallowed. “Sometimes that gift is a curse.”
The krakeners laughed and jostled one another, pleased to come into port. “It’s the brothels first for me,” said one man with a horselike face that could only be made attractive with sufficient coins, preferably gold ones.
“A fine meal and too much drink for me, first,” said another sailor. “Then the brothels.”
A skinny young man no older than Oliver, but whose hands were scarred from hard living, called out, “This is Tanimura, lads! Plenty of dockside hospitality houses serve all three, so you don’t have to make a choice.”
The man with the horse face nodded gravely. “And if you find yourself too drunk to move, you can stay overnight in the same place, for an extra fee.”
Captain Jared, the brother of the Serrimundi harborlord, strode out on deck, grinning into the freshening breeze. “The prices won’t be a matter of concern for any of you. We’ve got such a good haul of kraken meat, I’ll give you each a five-silver bonus, and another two if you come back for the return voyage.”
Oliver dry-heaved over the rail one more time, swiped the back of his hand across his lips, and said in a rough voice, “Peretta and I won’t be coming back, I’m afraid.”
“Didn’t expect you to,” said the captain.
Peretta turned to him with pained formality. “We have other business in the D’Haran Empire. Thank you for the passage.”
As the ship lumbered into the harbor, heading toward an open dock, the krakeners donned gloves, while the younger sailors were ordered down into the hold to attach ropes. They also brought cleavers and saws so they could chop up the slimy, sucker-studded tentacles into easily distributed slices.
