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“We found a few new settlements in the valley,” Zimmer said. “Before long, agriculture and commerce will be thriving here. There is so much land to settle and explore, I may have to summon many more troops from the New World.”
“Give us time to study the lore contained in Cliffwall,” Verna said, “and we will send an important report to Lord Rahl. He may need to dispatch a thousand new scholars, too.”
“We’ve already sent out the word to the surrounding lands,” said Franklin. “Years ago, after Victoria discovered how to drop the camouflage shroud, we put out a call for gifted scholars from the other towns throughout the valley and up in the mountains. Many responded.” He shook his head sadly. “But they were also untrained. That is where Roland came from, the Lifedrinker.…”
“Dear spirits, we won’t let that happen again.” Verna finished her meat and took a helping of the steamed greens. She was surprised at her appetite.
“If you and your Sisters intend to read our books,” Gloria said, with a smile, “then you must repay the favor by telling us your stories.”
“We have many stories,” Peretta said. “Oliver and I saw things we never read about in the archives.” She mischievously looked over at her companion. “Tell them about the kraken-hunter ship.”
They finished the meal by describing their journeys, while Verna also talked about Lord Rahl and how she herself had found him, untrained, with Kahlan among the Mud People, the “pebble in the pond” as prophesied, a war wizard who would change the world, but only if he could learn and control his gift. In order to save him from deadly skull-splitting headaches, she had been forced to place a controlling iron collar around his neck.
The scholars listened, muttering. Franklin asked, “Will you place iron collars around our necks, too?”
“That will not be necessary,” Verna said. Her fellow Sisters also looked at her, as if they, too, were unsure of the answer. Verna shook her head more vigorously. “We know other ways to train the gifted scholars here.”
After the meal, Verna was anxious to get started. Once the Cliffwall scholars had shown them their guest quarters, as well as a room for General Zimmer to use as an office, Verna gathered her Sisters.
The women went into an echoing library chamber with a roaring fireplace. Books of all sizes filled shelves that reached to the ceiling. Wooden tables with thick legs and carved feet were covered with scrolls and open volumes. Glowing, magical lamps shed sufficient reading light every hour of the day and night.
Verna, Amber, and the others just stood there, smiling. The prelate turned slowly, not sure where to begin. “Dear spirits,” she whispered under her breath.
Beside her, Novice Amber actually giggled. “Just look at the books, Prelate! This might be every word that’s been written in the history of the world.”
Verna smiled. “Not by far, child. Not by far.” But as she stared at the thousands of spines, each volume filled with unread and powerful lore, she breathed a long sigh. “But it may be a good portion.”
For so long she had searched for a new direction after the end of prophecy, and now Verna felt she had a greater purpose than ever before.
With a quick gesture, she scattered her Sisters, not telling them where to go, just urging them to get started. “We have nourished our bodies. Now let us nourish our minds.” Verna plunged into the wealth of knowledge like a swimmer crossing a deep pond.
Without looking at the words on the spine, she chose a thick, impressive-looking volume from one of the shelves and took it to a study table. She sat beside an intent scholar who bent over a long scroll that dangled off the edge of the table. He was hunched so close to the scribed words that he nearly pressed his nose to the parchment. He moved his lips as he read, but didn’t look up at her.
Verna removed the toad figurine that she had already carried all this way. Amused, she placed it on the tabletop in front of her, rotated it so the large, round eyes stared at the stack of books. Then she smiled and turned to her own volume, opened the thick, scuffed cover, and began to read.
CHAPTER 74
Fleshmancer Andre’s bloodcurdling scream echoed through his entire villa, then ended abruptly. In the other room, Elsa backed away, her eyes wide as she glanced nervously at Nathan. “What did he unleash upon Ildakar?”
“I will save us first, dear lady, and then worry about saving the entire city.” He gathered his white smocklike robe around him and took her arm. “It would be wise for us to leave this place.”
Elsa hurried along as they pulled aside the indigo hangings, looking for a way out of the maze that Andre called his studio. With a booming sound and an echoing bellow, something huge hammered through the stone block walls, coming closer.
Before Nathan and Elsa could reach the high foyer at the front of the mansion, the wall opposite them cracked and shivered. A loud pounding blow crashed like a battering ram, and the thick walls toppled. A huge figure threw stone blocks aside like a squirrel scattering leaves in autumn. Nathan’s mouth dropped open in disbelief.
The mammoth warrior was like an insane juggernaut smashing through the support walls.
“Dear spirits, he awakened one of the Ixax warriors!” Elsa cried. Nathan reached out an arm and swept Elsa behind him. The gigantic soldier turned the iron shell of its cauldron-sized helmet toward the sound of Nathan’s voice. Its yellow eyes blazed through the slit.
“Those things were never meant to be activated,” Elsa said. “I didn’t even know they were still alive.”
“Alive and angry it seems.” Nathan raised his hands in a placating gesture, speaking directly to the titan. “But I’m not the one who tormented you. We aren’t your enemies.”
Fifteen feet tall, the Ixax crashed through the broken stone and lumbered into the great foyer. Nathan and Elsa backed toward the vine-covered front entrance. The warrior swung its boulder-sized fists, crushing one of the stone blocks into powder.
“I don’t suppose you’d listen to reason?” Nathan pleaded.
The Ixax warrior charged like an angry bull the size of a mountain.
They scrambled through the spacious foyer, but Nathan knew the Ixax could easily run them down. The enormous armored warrior might merely crush them, or perhaps, like a child tormenting an insect, pull them apart limb by limb.
The titan confronted one of the marble support columns that rose to the arched ceiling. It wrapped its armored arms around the column and strained, cracking the stone, uprooting the pillar like an angry bear tearing up a tree. The Ixax hurled the column toward Nathan and Elsa.
She held up her hand, and with a shove of magic, diverted the pillar so that it spun in the air and crashed into the second tall marble column, cracking it. The ceiling groaned and splintered. Shards tumbled down to the tiled floor. The second support column broke in the middle, and the halves collapsed.
The ceiling cracked, and Nathan grabbed Elsa, pulling her through the arch and outside the fleshmancer’s villa just as the Ixax straightened and raised both gauntleted fists. Then the ceiling collapsed, countless stone blocks burying the warrior under tons of debris.
As Nathan and Elsa ducked for shelter, powdered stone dust swirled all around them, making them cough. The continuing roar of the breaking stone sounded like an avalanche. Andre’s mansion fell in on itself with a roar nearly as loud as the Ixax.
“Do you think that destroyed it?” Elsa asked, shielding her eyes from the clouds of dust.
“Of course not, dear lady,” he said. They backed away, keeping an eye on the smoke and powder from the collapsed building. As he stared at the devastation, Nathan felt a tingle within him, sharp pains that cracked inside his chest, the heavy drumbeat of his heart. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. The lines of Han through his body burned like hot wires, and the gift flowed inside him with a staccato urgency. With Elsa’s help, he had been practicing his magic, but was still unable to perform as the great wizard he had once been.
Even with control of the gift again, though, Nathan d
oubted it would be enough. Andre had been an exceedingly powerful wizard, but he had not been sufficient enough to stand against his monstrous creation. What chance did Nathan have?
“Why would Andre unleash that thing?” Elsa asked. “Why did he do it?”
Nathan shook his head. “Andre was with the two of us, remember? Someone else awakened that giant warrior.”
“But only a great wizard can do that,” she said.
He pursed his lips. “As I’ve been told so often, Ildakar is filled with wizards.”
Like a geyser of erupting stone, debris flew upward as the Ixax warrior blasted its way out of the rubble, tossing massive blocks out of the way as if they were no more than pebbles. Covered in dust but otherwise unharmed, the behemoth rose out of the ruined mansion.
“By now the rest of the duma will be up near the pyramid,” Elsa said. “We have to call them and stand together to fight against this monster.”
Nathan took her arm, and they backed away. “I am generally an optimist, but Andre told me that each Ixax warrior could single-handedly slaughter thousands of the enemy. I’m not sure all the duma members combined will be strong enough.”
