AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Thora stared intensely down at them. “They will save us.”
Some glared at her in defiance; others turned away, quivering.
At the base of the pyramid, Nicci stepped away from Nathan and used a nudge of her gift to push the crowds aside as she reached the steps. She was going to stop this. “No, Thora.” She could summon a storm of lightning from above, using both Additive and Subtractive Magic. Had the wizards of Ildakar ever seen Subtractive Magic? Nicci doubted it. “If you don’t stop this madness, I will make you sorry.”
Nicci could take them by surprise, incinerate the top of the pyramid and disrupt this ceremony. She also knew that Mirrormask and his rebels were a tinderbox just waiting for a spark to ignite them. Would they rise up and assist her if she provided that spark? Maybe this was the time.
A hush fell over the crowd, as moans rippled through the twelve slaves. They struggled but could not move, locked in place by Thora’s magic. They all faced the reflective trough in front of them, and Nicci knew exactly what it was for. “Sovrena, let me speak on their behalf!”
In unison, as if they had rehearsed this many times before, all five members of the wizards’ duma reached into their robes and pulled out long, ceremonial knives with jeweled hilts and curved blades.
Thora gestured with one hand, and magic forced the gathered slaves to raise their chins high, exposing their throats. Somehow fighting against the puppet control, the dusky-skinned couple reached sideways, touching each other’s hands, drawing strength and comfort in their last moment. Tears streamed from the corners of their eyes, running down the sides of their upturned faces.
Standing with their sacrificial knives in hand, the council members hesitated, looking down at Nicci. She strode up the steep steps, gathering her magic. She could see that several of the wizards were intimidated by her boldness. The crowd had fallen silent, awed that she would stand up to Thora.
Nicci felt magic boiling within her ready to be unleashed.
Elsa and Damon both lowered their knives, uncertain. Maxim appeared to be amused. The rest of the wizards didn’t seem to know what to do.
On top of the pyramid, Maxim said out of the corner of his mouth, “Just get it over with, Thora. No need for such a dramatic flair.”
The sovrena scoffed at the hesitation of the others. In an impatient, offhand gesture, she twitched her finger and gestured down at the line of slaves fifteen feet below her. With a cruel smile on her thin lips, she drew her sharp, lacquered fingernail across the air in a quick, casual slash.
Nicci lunged, building up a swirl of solidified air to knock back the wizards, but before she could release it, Thora’s knife of magic, sharper than the sharpest razor, ripped across the throats of the twelve shocked slaves. All at once, their eyes bulged, and they jerked and twitched, and the puppet hold was released.
The slaves collapsed forward as their knees buckled. Their heads had nearly been severed by Thora’s invisible blade. The slaves pitched into the trough, spilling gouts of blood into the channels in front of them.
Maxim and the five duma members held their ceremonial knives, looking perplexed and surprised. None of them had moved.
Nicci staggered on the steps, astonished. “Dear spirits!”
Blood flowed, and magic built in a rush around the pyramid.
A wind of increasing whispers crossed the crowd. They stood motionless.
Nicci struck out with her wall of air, but Thora responded and knocked her back with a similar blow, throwing her off balance. She tumbled back onto the steep stone staircase. From below, Nathan rushed up to catch her.
As the blood from the slaves filled the mirrorized trough, Maxim raised his hands high and made sweeping gestures. The red river flowed through the gutters, defying gravity as it rolled uphill to the top platform, where it spread out and filled the engraved patterns of the spell-form.
All seven ruling council members gathered around the hemispherical bowl. They grasped the silver edges, turned it so that it was aligned directly upward. When the blood of the slaves had filled the pattern engraved in the platform, the crimson current fountained up in a single stream and poured into the mirrored cauldron.
The sovrena and wizard commander stood in place while the other five wizards retreated. The half sphere vibrated, shimmered, and a column of twisted magic rocketed upward, like a geyser. The swirl rose higher and higher until it reached its zenith far overhead and spread out like falling water, rippling through the air. It curled down to create a transparent dome that covered all of Ildakar, flowing past the outer walls to the river bluffs.
The crowd cheered,
Too late. Nicci felt sick, defeated, as the wizard picked her up from where she had fallen on the steep stone stairs. She groaned to Nathan, “I should have stopped it.” She was angry at herself, but more furious with the sovrena.
At the top of the pyramid, Thora seemed pleased, standing beside her husband as they reveled in their handiwork. The sovrena didn’t even show anger toward Nicci for her defiance, because it had amounted to nothing.
“You didn’t know what was going to happen, Sorceress,” Nathan said, his voice thin and sickened.
“We knew. We both knew. And now we’re imprisoned under the shroud.” Her head pounded. “We can’t stay in Ildakar. We have a mission.”
Nathan squared his shoulders. “Perhaps this confirms that our mission is here. Even if we can’t escape, we have plenty of work to do.” He sniffed. “They will wish we had left when we had the chance.”
Nicci recalled that time passed differently inside the shroud. She forcibly opened her clenched fists. “Even if it takes eternity,” she said quietly.
CHAPTER 45
Two large ships set sail from Tanimura and headed south out of Grafan Harbor. The brisk breeze made the sea choppy, although the sun was bright.
Verna went to the bow of the foremost ship and stood with the wind blowing her graying hair back. The salty spray moistened her cheeks. She realized she was smiling, and her heart was full of possibilities again as she thought of their journey to Cliffwall. It was a strange feeling, and she welcomed it.
“I have a purpose now,” she said to herself.
The young novice Amber came up to join her, her dark blond hair pinned back and her loose dress clinging to her willowy form with the bodice tied tight across her small breasts. “We all have a purpose, Prelate. This is my first great journey. I’m very happy you let me accompany you.”
All of the Sisters had insisted on coming along, and Verna could not turn them away. Those who had returned to Tanimura looking for some small spark of hope in the ashes of the Palace of the Prophets had been disappointed. They had looked to Verna for leadership, but she hadn’t known what to tell them. Now that Nicci and Nathan had blazed a trail across the Old World and sent messages back, Verna clung to the new possibility.
After the camouflage shroud had fallen years ago, the Cliffwall caretakers had sent out a call for gifted scholars to help sort through the immense archive. In retrospect, that had been a dangerous decision, but the isolated people hadn’t been aware of the powerful knowledge in all those volumes. One outside scholar had been Roland, who became the Lifedrinker. Another had unleashed a spell that made the stone walls flow like wet clay, melting an entire tower of prophecy writings.
Verna knew those people needed careful guidance from her and the other Sisters.
A sailor shouted from the lookout, and the crew members paused in their chores, going to the side rails to look, along with many members of the D’Haran army. Amber pointed excitedly. “What are they? Sharks?”
Verna saw the sleek bullet shapes rising up and diving down, like a vanguard to lead the ships along. “Not sharks, child—dolphins. They are considered a good sign among sailors, and it’s a good sign for us, too.”
Amber grinned. “I can’t wait to tell my brother.” Captain Norcross was on the second ship with the other half of the soldiers and six of the Sisters. “What an adventure
!”
“Not just an adventure. This is our mission. We have work to do as Sisters of the Light.”
Oliver and Peretta had also come out on deck. They were inseparable now, relieved to have accomplished what they were sent to do. Oliver squinted to make out the dolphins. “I long to see the canyons again, and all the books in the great library.” He sighed. “I guess I am homesick.”
Peretta’s tight ringlets glistened with diamonds of spray. She and Oliver wore clean traveling clothes, replaced in Tanimura. The girl’s dark eyes looked just as eager as Oliver’s. “I wish you were a memmer. If you had the gift of perfect memory, you could remember every day and every place down to the tiniest detail.”
