AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Quentin nodded quickly. “It has to be now. Any duma members who would speak out against the action are on the battlefield, and Nicci is still gone. That means we can make this happen, if we move quickly. We have to do something before Ildakar falls.”
Damon clasped his hands together. “Please, Sovrena, we need your help. You are the most skilled at bloodworking. You’ve raised the shroud before.”
“I promised I would help,” she said, moving toward the doorway.
Quentin hurried her along. “We have already dispatched guard teams throughout the city. They have the names of volunteers and will round them up.”
Damon added, “Along with the provisional lists.”
Galvanized, Thora followed them at a brisk pace through the stone-walled corridors, following the bright torches that lit the way. “It is a sacrifice we must make to save Ildakar. Those brave volunteers will rescue us.”
“Eight hundred are being brought now,” Damon said as they ran along the corridors.
“We will need at least a thousand for a bloodworking of this magnitude,” Thora said. “And nobles, if you can find them. Gifted blood is powerful. That would decrease the number necessary.”
“But the ungifted are easier to catch and kill,” Quentin said. “The guards are gathering great numbers of candidates. Since the murder of High Captain Stuart, they have grown much more bloodthirsty.”
They passed under the stone archway and emerged into the open outside air. Thora looked up into the gray sky and scanned across the top of the plateau. “The pyramid is destroyed. Where will we perform the magic?”
“We don’t need the pyramid,” Damon said. “We just need the spell-forms and the apparatus.”
“And the blood,” Quentin said. “We had to find a place that could hold so many people.”
The city was in a panic as word of the Norukai invasion spread. Citizens ran through the streets, some rushing for shelter, others grabbing weapons and racing toward the bluffs to help fight the raiders. Soldiers ran to defend the main gates and the outer walls in case General Utros should retaliate in response to the strike teams outside.
When Thora saw where the two wizards were leading her, she was pleased. Quentin and Damon took her through the high entrance to the huge combat arena. A buzz of frightened conversation echoed among the large crowds that had already been herded here. City guards roughly rushed people through the entrances, deaf to their pleading. Many of the men and women were weeping, while others walked in a daze. One older couple stared ahead and held hands, walking with grace as they willingly entered the sacrificial arena.
Inside on the combat field, Thora saw that Damon had re-created the silver crucible, the metal channels and troughs to hold the blood, the great mirrors that reflected the wan sunlight and directed it toward rotating prisms of quartz. Across the raked fighting field, Quentin had drawn the complete spell-form.
“It is just waiting for all the blood it needs,” Damon said.
As more and more people were herded into the arena waiting to die, Thora nodded. “We should start immediately.”
CHAPTER 78
Ten Norukai ships smashed into Serrimundi Harbor, skirting the wreck of the kraken hunter, like wolves ignoring prey they had already killed.
From the docks, Nicci shouted, using her gift to manipulate the air so that her voice boomed out. “The Norukai will destroy the harbor. Prepare to fight.”
The wishpearl divers forgot about their lewd laziness. “The woman isn’t lying.”
A second diver looked appalled at what he witnessed. “We have seen Norukai before. They are animals. They don’t care about money or wishpearls, just flesh.”
“I heard just this morning that Effren was burned to the ground, everyone slaughtered by Norukai raiders. I didn’t believe it.”
Nicci narrowed her eyes. “Believe it. Are you going to help fight now?” She was surprised the men actually lurched to their feet.
The burning krakener sank slowly at the mouth of the harbor. Sailors raced back to their ships from the city streets and dockside taverns. Once aboard, crew members climbed the rigging, unfurled sails. Several ships anchored in the open water prepared to set sail, though Nicci doubted they could get past the Norukai vessels blocking the exit to the sea.
Farther down the wharf, Captain Ganley of the Mist Maiden yelled for his sailors to return. “We need to get to open water, where we can defend ourselves!” Half of his sailors obeyed, crowding the deck to fight for their ship, while the less brave ones bolted into side streets to hide in the fish markets and warehouses. Other Serrimundi residents fled into the hills.
The ten serpent ships pressed into the harbor in search of easy targets. A volley of flaming arrows set a cargo ship alight, and as its sails caught fire, many of the crew dove overboard to escape. A Norukai vessel careened against its hull with a crash and crack of splintering wood. Scarred raiders leaped over the rails wielding axes, swords, and clubs to slaughter the remaining sailors on the cargo ship.
Harborlord Otto ran down the dock with his daughter in tow. Seeing Nicci, he cried out. “Sorceress, you warned us! I’m sorry. Now we have to fight. What should we do?”
“You should have maintained defenses all along,” Nicci said in a harsh voice. “Did the Imperial Order teach you nothing?”
Otto was flushed. “Emperor Jagang spared us because we had no navy. We paid him heavy taxes, and his armies moved up the coast without wasting blood or effort on conquering us. We thought Serrimundi was safe.”
“The Norukai are not interested in a tithe or your surrender. They are here to destroy. I watched them burn Renda Bay. Serrimundi is just a bigger target to them.” She wondered how many other coastal towns the raiders had already struck.
Nicci stared at the oncoming serpent ships and the coordinated rows of oars that propelled them forward. Two of the ominous vessels closed on either side of a cargo ship that lumbered toward the mouth of the harbor. They crashed into the helpless ship, boarded it, and methodically killed every sailor aboard in a very short time.
Otto squeezed his daughter’s shoulder and gave her a push toward the city and the hills. “Go to the old house, Shira. Find your children and hide. Barricade the doors in case the Norukai make it into the city.”
&nb
sp; The young woman’s eyes filled with tears. “I can’t leave you, Father. I can’t leave my fiancé.” She gestured back to the Mist Maiden.
“You must not leave your children,” he said. “Now, go!”
Nicci added, “If the Norukai get into the streets and ransack the city, then that means your father and husband are already lost.” She turned her hard gaze to the harborlord. “We can’t let that happen.” She regarded all the vessels tied up to the docks, including the Mist Maiden. “We need to make use of these ships. They cannot just wait here to be burned and they cannot try to flee. Look—you have a navy here, and it is ready to launch, if the captains and crew are willing to fight.”
“They are—or they will be.”
With booming drums, the serpent ships pressed into the harbor, attacking any vessel that attempted to get away. The Norukai launched volleys of fire arrows. Most of them fell short, but some struck the extended piers of Serrimundi, while others hit smaller fishing vessels. The flames started to spread.
Nicci held out her hands, called upon her gift, and pushed, sending a focused whirlwind to scour and whip past the ships. The wind snuffed out the small fires before they could catch hold, and she hammered again with an even stronger wind, raising whitecaps that rocked the foremost Norukai vessel.
After Shira ran off, Otto turned to Nicci. “Now that I know she is safe, what do we do?”
Nicci saw that the Mist Maiden was almost ready to depart, with Captain Ganley shouting orders. His sailors untied the hawsers from the docks. “That will be our flagship. You know the captain. Will he follow orders?”
“He will know he has to save sweet Shira and her children.”
As Nicci turned to run with the harborlord toward the three-masted ship, she called to the four wishpearl divers, “You want to fight? I have a job for you. Are you brave enough?”
With a haughty retort, the man who had made the lewd comments said, “Don’t insult us.”
“Then don’t give me reason to. Come!”
