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Once, one of Jagang’s game pieces, doomed after Nicci made a bold move, had tried to run from the playing field, only to be skewered with spears. By the rules laid down by Jagang himself, the fleeing piece meant that his side forfeited the game. In a rage, Jagang had ordered all of Nicci’s pieces slaughtered as well as his own. The evil dream walker had not known how to lose. Afterward, he looked at the slaughtered slaves and huffed. “Let that be a lesson. In war sometimes unpredictable disasters happen.”
Now, as Nicci watched the ancient army, she wished one of those unpredictable disasters would befall General Utros.
Nathan emerged into the tower’s rooftop gardens. Under the open sky, there were hedges in planters, jasmine shrubs, and dwarf citrus trees. Songbirds flitted around without fear now that the hair-fine nets Sovrena Thora had strung around the roof were gone.
Nathan smiled. “I don’t mean to disturb your thoughts, Sorceress. Have you found a brilliant solution to overthrow the enemy army?”
“I am still thinking.” It was in these peaceful high gardens that Wizard Commander Maxim had secretly encouraged her to challenge the sovrena’s corrupt rule. “The duma has to make their own decisions. I am not their leader, and neither are you.”
Nathan stroked his chin. “Agreed, but I am not convinced a surprise military offensive against an army of that size will be as effective as the wizards think it will be.” He mused, “We could send another negotiating party to Utros. Do we have any reason to believe the general might be willing to listen, now that he’s had time to consider the reality of his situation? Maybe his bluster was just a tactic. We did defeat his sorceresses and prove our strength.”
“And now we know we cannot trust him.” Nicci breathed cold air through her nostrils and peered into the distance. “He attacked me, Nathan. I can’t let that go unchallenged. I want to find a way to make him hurt, and if the duma intends to launch a strike with all of their gifted and a great many soldiers, maybe we could succeed, if we targeted a specific part of his army and hit him without any forewarning.”
Humming, the wizard extended his arms in front of his chest, palms outward. Spreading his fingers, he sketched a rectangle in the air, pinched his fingertips, and used his gift to create a distance-viewing lens. The army of General Utros sprang into sharp clarity in front of them, and as Nathan shifted his hands, so did the view, to show thousands of soldiers like individual armies drilling. Smaller parties rode out into the hills on scouting or raiding expeditions.
Nicci raised a hand. “Go back. What was that?”
They watched a group of more than a thousand soldiers marching westward into the hills, a powerful invading force toward the mountains. Another large army marched north into the thick forests and the mining areas in the hills, while a third expeditionary force moved south toward the Killraven River and the lowlands.
Nathan frowned. “He is shrinking his siege force.”
Nicci was deeply concerned. “Very few cities could withstand even one of those splinter armies. Imagine all those enemy soldiers arriving at Cliffwall, or Renda Bay, or one of the larger cities along the coast like Larrikan Shores or Serrimundi. General Utros could threaten the entire Old World.” She squeezed her fists, feeling the chill in her heart, the black ice forming there. She couldn’t stop thinking of what Richard had commanded her and Nathan to do. “We can’t let that happen. We have to work with the wizards here, keep Utros occupied.”
Nathan waved his hands, and the shimmering view dissolved. He spoke in a softer voice. “I have the utmost confidence in your ability to save us. After all, you must save the entire world. It was foretold in my life book.”
“I don’t trust the word of a witch woman, and prophecy is gone. You know that better than anyone. Why should we believe it?”
Rather than arguing, Nathan brought out the book, as if to offer proof of what Red had written. He opened the leather-bound volume and flipped forward from where he had added journal entries of their adventures, from the Dark Lands to the Old World, down beyond the Phantom Coast and now over the mountains to Ildakar. He stopped at the first page to read the lines that both he and Nicci knew well.
Kol Adair lies far to the south in the Old World. From there, the Wizard will behold what he needs to make himself whole again. And the Sorceress must save the world.
Shortly after Richard dispatched them as his roving ambassadors, they had encountered Red in her wilderness of skulls, deep in the Dark Lands. Nathan asked her to create a life book for him, wanting his own story preserved, and the strange witch woman had complied, but not in the way he expected.
Nathan held out the book now, touching it with his long finger. “We can’t dismiss the words entirely, Sorceress. Even though we didn’t know what this meant at the time, Red was absolutely correct. I have the heart of a wizard now, I have my gift back, but you, my dear Nicci, still need to save the world.” He tapped the page. “It’s written.”
Nicci took the book from him, closed it. “Prophecy is gone, as I said.”
“It need not be a prophecy,” Nathan replied, taking the book back. “Maybe it’s just good advice. ‘And the Sorceress must save the world.’”
They continued to watch separate contingents marching from the plain toward unknown destinations. Nicci didn’t disagree with the words Red had written, whether or not she believed the premonition. “I’ll save the world, for my own reasons.”
“That is always best. And I’ll help you in any way I can.”
CHAPTER 23
In the Cliffwall archive, Verna spent the morning inside a library chamber, drinking hot tea and studying the books that the scholars had delivered to her. Two other Sisters of the Light, Rhoda and Eldine, scrutinized volumes, whispering as they compared notes. Novice Amber cheerfully carried in a stack of ledgers, blowing dust off the embossed leather cover of the top volume.
“Here’s another catalog, Prelate.” She deposited the armful on the table, rattling Verna’s cup of tea. “These refer mainly to maps and descriptions. The scholar archivist is still trying to pull the right listings because many books contain more than one subject.”
Verna looked at the open volume in front of her and traced her fingertip down the lines of titles. Many were written in the expansive hand of Scholar-Archivist Simon, who had spent a decade compiling the catalogs, but the new entries were written by Franklin, whose penmanship was much tighter, more efficient.
The prelate looked up at Amber. “The titles listed here contain legends of magical creatures, abominations that were developed as weapons in the ancient wizard wars. The sliphs, for instance.” Verna shook her head at the long list. “And here, two entire volumes on the dangers of succubi! Those creatures were turned loose in the Old World to seduce and destroy men and thereby weaken armies that stood against the enemy wizards.” She pursed her lips in a frown. “I expect it’s quite salacious reading.”
Amber blushed, and Verna wondered how experienced the pretty young girl might be in romance or sex. Turning the page in the dusty old book, Verna recalled being so youthful, but that was more than a century and a half ago, when she and Warren were the same age, trying to keep a professional boundary around their growing affection for each other. When Verna left the Palace of the Prophets in search of Richard Rahl, she had aged during those decades, while Warren remained as young as ever. Dear Warren … she missed him so much.
She flipped a page back, looked at more listings. “Here, they have three books about the selka, one of them a log from an ancient warship captain.”
Amber leaned close. “The selka?”
“Humans transformed into water-breathing creatures that dwell in the oceans. They could battle an enemy navy from beneath the hulls.”
The young girl gave a visible shudder. “We are far from the ocean, here, Prelate. I don’t think I’d like to see them.” She frowned with worry. “I hope my brother’s all right. He’s still at Renda Bay. Do you think the selka might attack the village?”
r /> “Captain Norcross is building defenses for a much more likely enemy, child,” Verna said. “Lose sleep over Norukai raiders rather than the selka.” She realized her words offered the girl little reassurance.
The young scholars Oliver and Peretta entered the study room. Although they had lived all their lives in the Cliffwall canyons, these two had volunteered at Nicci’s request to embark on a long journey to deliver a report for Lord Rahl. They had found Verna and General Zimmer in Tanimura and led them back here. The two shy, diligent scholars were glad to be back home in their sanctuary, but that journey had changed them. Verna could see a restless glint in their eyes, an appreciation of the adventure they’d experienced. The prelate supposed it wouldn’t be long before the two wanted to explore the world again.
“We brought books on healing lore,” said Peretta. She was a thin, large-eyed girl with a mop of dark curly hair. “I’ve memorized them all, but I thought you might like to have a look.”
