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The shirtless men sprinted after her to the Mist Maiden, running up the gangplank. Captain Ganley bellowed to the crew members who had stayed with him to defend the ship. His well-practiced sailors moved the webs of lines, stretching the sails, and Nicci used her gift to nudge the sailing ship into motion. Other vessels nearby were also setting their sails. The crews armed themselves with boat hooks and staves.
Harborlord Otto ran to the Mist Maiden’s bow and shouted to the other ships. “We have to drive off the invaders or they will burn Serrimundi. Fight for our city, fight for our families!”
Captain Ganley said, “Many of those ships don’t even hail from Serrimundi, Otto.”
“Then they will fight for their own lives,” Nicci said. “That should be enough reason for anybody.”
She pushed with the wind, assisting the sails, and the Mist Maiden pulled away from the docks, accompanied by three nearby ships. At the edge of the harbor, near the stone figure of the Sea Mother, the krakener had dwindled to a mere curl of smoke, its blackened hulk submerged.
The attacking Norukai rowed swiftly, and the first serpent ship careened into the outlying piers. Raiders swarmed off the decks, and the townspeople rushed to defend the city, but Nicci couldn’t help them, not yet. Right now, she guided the naval attack against the other serpent ships.
“I will try to destroy five of them,” she said to Captain Ganley and Harborlord Otto. “For a start.”
“What are we supposed to do? How do we help?” demanded one of the wishpearl divers. “We didn’t come aboard just to watch.” His companions grumbled as well.
Instead of answering, Nicci turned to Ganley. “I need glass bottles with stoppers, one for each of these men. They will be carrying deadly weapons.”
Frowning, the captain turned to Otto. “What does she—?”
“Do as the sorceress asks. She warned us we might be attacked, and I refused to listen. I will heed whatever she has to say now.”
That was enough for Captain Ganley. He barked orders, and soon his first mate returned with four brown glass bottles from the galley. He uncorked the stoppers and poured the contents over the side, then handed the empty bottles to Nicci. She smelled the pungent tang of spiced liquids, pepper oils, and vanilla tinctures. “These will do.”
Ganley stood on the foredeck and shouted orders as the Mist Maiden moved forward, driven by Nicci’s magic. The serpent ships closed the distance, propelled by pounding drums and lines of razor-edged oars.
Nicci reaffirmed in her own mind how she would destroy five of them. She turned to the surly wishpearl divers. “You have strong lungs. Can you truly hold your breath for a long time?”
“That’s why we bear these marks!” The men indicated the tattoos on their chests.
“Then I need you to swim—deep,” she said.
Carefully, using great dexterity with the gift, Nicci conjured a small ball of wizard’s fire no larger than a grape and dropped it into the first brown glass bottle, suspending it with another spell to keep the destructive force bottled and ready. She pushed the cork into place, and the brown glass container blazed like a lantern. “This is what you need.” She handed it to the first diver, and created another ball of wizard’s fire to put into the second bottle, and then made two more, so that all four wishpearl divers had one.
“The raiders are closing in!” Ganley yelled.
With booming drums, the serpent ships approached the Mist Maiden. The crew cried out in defiance, building their anger in a desperate attempt to overcome their fear.
Otto turned to Nicci. “We are ready to fight, Sorceress. I hope your plan works.”
“Fight them and kill them,” Nicci said. “That is the plan.”
The Norukai aboard the approaching ships rallied an even louder cheer. With their mouths slashed and cheeks tattooed like serpents, the raiders looked like an inhuman army, but Nicci wasn’t so easily terrified.
“Overboard, now!” she told the wishpearl divers, after explaining what they needed to do. “You can win half the battle for us, if you succeed.”
Clutching their blazing glass bottles, the divers agreed upon their targets and plunged overboard, swimming deep.
Nicci looked over the rail and saw the bright lights submerging like glowing night wisps, which then began to move toward the serpent ships.
At the rim of the harbor, Nicci watched two more serpent ships crash among the docked vessels that had not yet managed to set sail. The Norukai threw torches to light the ships and piers on fire, and the blaze would surely spread to the warehouses. Serrimundi could become an inferno.
But before Nicci could fight that battle, she had to destroy these other attacking ships.
The crew of the Mist Maiden waved staves, swords, boat hooks, harpoons. Nicci targeted the carved serpent at the prow of the foremost ship and released a blast of wizard’s fire. The searing flames turned the serpent figurehead to ash.
The Norukai roared their outrage, and Nicci used wind to deflect the oncoming lead ship, shoving it aside so that instead of ramming them, it barely grazed the Mist Maiden. Even so, the ships were close enough that the Norukai men and women leaped across the gap, swinging axes, spears, and swords in mad bloodlust.
Nicci recognized their leader in his sharkskin vest and the implanted fang that protruded from his bald scalp. It was Captain Kor, one of the traders who had come to Ildakar to sell slaves. As his crew swarmed aboard the Mist Maiden, Kor sprang onto the deck. His hard boots landed with a thud. Screaming loudly, more raiders came across, ready to slaughter Captain Ganley’s crew.
The Mist Maiden’s sailors rushed to meet the enemy. Nicci strode forward, her ragged blond hair drifting in the wind, her black dress rippling as she built up her magic. She faced the Norukai captain, ready for blood.
CHAPTER 79
Along with the clash of blades, the thudding of hooves, and the shouts of pain and fury, the Ildakaran strike team fought their way deeper into General Utros’s camp. Nathan hurled more wizard’s fire ahead of them, clearing the way so he and Elsa could keep moving toward their destination. The blazing ball engulfed fifty enemies, but within seconds more ancient soldiers filled the gap, closing in.
“We will not make it much farther,” Nathan said, breathing hard as he and Elsa rode deeper into the camp. “This may be the best we can do. Is it good enough?” Somewhere, she needed to draw her large anchor rune in order for the transference magic to work.
As a half-petrified soldier ran toward the sorceress, Nathan swept out with a rumble of air, throwing the man aside. Under his breath, he said, “I really should have had Nicci show me how to stop a human heart. I never wanted that type of power because it seemed unfair against an enemy.” His long white hair hung in sweaty clumps, dusty and spattered with blood from the warriors he had already killed. “I forgot that in war, everything is fair.”
After Elsa pulled her horse to a halt in a clear area with churned-up mud, she slid out of the saddle. “This place will have to do. I had hoped to set the anchor deeper into the camp so the circle would engulf more of the army.” Her voice was ragged, filled with heartache.
Many of their guardians had already fallen in their push to get this far, but the two morazeth and Rendell were still with them, along with about a dozen others. They didn’t look as if they expected to survive.
“I hope this is worth the price. Oh, Nathan, I hope it’s worth it.” Elsa held her red paint and moved about frenetically, spilling bright lines, creating an intricate design across the cleared space. Her frightened horse galloped off, but she didn’t seem to care.
The morazeth, Thorn and Lyesse, battled furiously to give Elsa room to work, as did many surviving Ildakaran fighters. The toughened silk robes offered some protection against the wild enemy blows. Together, the defenders kept fighting, keeping Nathan and Elsa safe. She just needed time to finish.
As the older sorceress continued drawing her powerful rune on the ground, Nathan sent out a furious shock wave th
at spread in concentric circles, knocking the enemy soldiers back and keeping them away from Elsa. She moved with swift steps along the perimeter, drawing her lines, while the remaining Ildakarans used all their energy to keep the attackers away.
Nathan dismounted to protect Elsa, and within moments he had lost his horse as well. Elsa was gambling everything on this attempt, and Nathan could tell that her thoughts had narrowed down to the singular pinpoint of her task. He had to give her the chance.
But their success depended on the other five teams as well. Without the boundary runes in place, the transference magic would fail. Nathan looked up with a thrill of excitement to see a bright fireball shoot straight into the sky from the farthest of the two southern teams. “Another one, Elsa! Four of them finished!”
