“It will succeed, my dear, and I will do everything I can to help you. Over the past two days we gathered a powerful force and they are well trained and well motivated to protect the six strike forces. We have to be swift and focused. They all know what to do to help you, and they all know what is at stake.” He smiled. “We’re ready to move.”
Elsa reached out to squeeze his hand. “Truly, it would not have been the same without you, Nathan. I’m glad you will be by my side for this.”
“Be brave. Dear spirits, we will do what we need to do.” He stroked his chin and frowned. “Are you certain you don’t want to wait for Nicci to return? The sorceress is more powerful than any of us.”
“No,” Elsa said abruptly. “We don’t know when she might come back, and we are ready. The rune is painted. The six teams are armed and trained.” She straightened, but still seemed edgy. “It has to be now. I’ve made up my mind.”
Nathan squeezed her hand in response. “I understand. We can be just as impressive without Nicci.”
Today, Bannon and Lila were preoccupied on the bluff, adding finishing touches to the enormous transference rune, though the giant design had been completed the night before. Nathan had sent Bannon, tasking him with guaranteeing that every detail was correct. That would keep the young man away from their desperate charge, though he would not like it. It was very possible the fighters and protectors would not survive the desperate ride, and Nathan knew this last battle against Utros would be decided by magic. More than enough fighters would guard the separate gifted parties assigned to scribe the proper boundary runes.
Under gray skies, he and Elsa hurried along the wet streets toward the long wall where the separate strike forces were gathering. The horses were saddled, the fighters wearing their armor and holding swords and iron-tipped clubs. It would be another surprise operation, but unlike the first testing foray, this one had a clear goal. Elsa’s transference magic would do the bulk of the work, provided that the gifted designates completed their runes on the battlefield.
Nathan whispered close to Elsa’s face. “I trust your abilities implicitly.”
The largest concentration of fighters had gathered here at the main gates to accompany Nathan and Elsa on their charge to the heart of the camp to lay down the central rune, but five other teams, led by Oron, Olgya, Justin, Perri, and Leo, had been dispatched to secondary gates up and down the wall. They would all rush out at the same time, each with a very specific destination and assignment.
Olgya had presented each of them with a new cloak made of the impenetrable armor silk to serve as both protection and camouflage. The worms in her warehouse had spun themselves into exhaustion, but they had produced countless bolts of the special cloth. All of the escort fighters were likewise protected.
Nathan and Elsa wrapped their silk cloaks around themselves, sashed tightly at their waists. Nathan had his ornate sword at his side, with his black pants and traveling boots. He felt like an adventurer and a wizard, as well as Elsa’s protector.
The ranks of the city guard, infuriated by the brutal execution of High Captain Stuart, had supplied many of the volunteers for the escorts. “For Stuart!” the guards called, raising their swords.
Each of the teams also had two morazeth warriors. The women had sworn their lives to protect the gifted team leaders while they marked the spell-forms.
“We have to be fast,” Nathan called out. “Our purpose is not to engage the enemy and fight. Each team must get to its position and lay down the boundary runes.” He smiled. “Then Elsa will do the rest.”
The older sorceress sat silent and preoccupied on her chestnut gelding, which she had agreed to ride because they required speed. Nathan sat astride a sturdy gray horse close to her. The escort fighters gathered around their respective teams at the different gates, hard-bitten arena veterans as well as uniformed city guard. Not long ago, these groups had been bitter enemies. Now they would all go out to fight together.
“So much has changed,” Nathan muttered to Elsa. “Amazing how facing a common enemy can form fast friendships.”
She looked over at him, her face filled with emotion. Tears sparkled in her eyes. “Thank you for being my friend, Nathan. I am glad you came to Ildakar, and I am glad I got to know you. You’re the first man since Derek who has truly warmed my heart.”
“I hope I continue to do so, my dear. But now it is time. We should be off!”
Elsa nodded, biting her lower lip.
Nathan saw the freed slave Rendell among the fighters, a man who had served Mirrormask and then become the first member of the lower classes to have a seat on the duma. Rendell raised an iron club in salute to Nathan. “I am fighting as well, Wizard. I may not have magic, but I have a sword arm and my anger is as great as anyone else’s.”
“We will celebrate together afterward,” Nathan said.
They had decided not to blow defiant war horns, but would simply ride out unexpectedly into the morning rain under the gray skies. Even a few minutes of surprise might make a great difference.
The main gates began to open, and the tense guardian soldiers pressed closer around Nathan and Elsa. They all held their swords ready to charge.
Elsa carried a large bladder of bright red paint, identical to the pigment used to mark the giant rune on the cliff wall. When it came time, she would snip the corner and draw a spattering line across the ground to outline her anchor rune. Oron, Olgya, and the other three gifted nobles had similar sacks of paint to draw boundary runes in the proper places. After they all sent up a signal to indicate they had completed their work, Elsa would connect the boundary runes with the anchor rune, and transfer all the heat stored in the cliffs and the river right into the midst of the ancient army.
Nathan gave Elsa a confident smile as gates opened up and down the main wall of Ildakar. “We are off, my dear! Let us go see what victory feels like.”
He kicked his gray horse, which galloped ahead with Elsa racing beside him. The rest of the escort fighters charged, ready to battle to the death for this desperate plan. Nathan was already calling lightning with one hand, while summoning wizard’s fire in the other. He planned to make quite an impact.
“For Ildakar!” he cried. The words echoed from countless other throats.
CHAPTER 76
All the flatboat pilots, fishermen, and river traders had been warned away from Ildakar as soon as the giant transference rune was painted on the bluffside. When Elsa activated the towering spell-form, the backlash would be dangerous for anyone in the vicinity.
Lila stood with Bannon at the edge of one of the tunnel openings, peering down the network of ramps, stairs, and cargo platforms to the river below. Considering the huge painted design, the morazeth frowned. “I should not have allowed you to hang from a rope while you painted. It was a risk, and I promised to keep you safe.”
“There are different ways of fighting the enemy.” Bannon gestured with pride at the prominent design, which stood out bright and red on the cliffs. “And I needed to help.”
She scoffed. “You could have fallen.”
“I’m not clumsy.” He was exasperated with her attitude. “Neither of us needs protection here. The battle is on the opposite side of the city, and I am worried about the strike teams, and Nathan. By now they should be ready to ride out to place the boundary runes on the battlefield, and that is far more dangerous than anything I’ve done here.” He looked behind him into the tunnels and the city beyond. “Nathan tricked me. I wish he had let me go along with him.”