“We will help you, Oron!” Renn yelled.
Despite the mayhem all around her, Verna saw that the other strike forces had formed pitched battles at generally equidistant points around the hills, like a loop that enclosed nearly a quarter of the ancient army. Verna still didn’t know what they were doing, but the groups anchored themselves and fought hard to allow their gifted commander to create a spell-form on the ground, similar to what Oron was doing.
The protectors around Oron fell back in a last desperate defense, but the Cliffwall expedition crashed into the enemy soldiers, scattering them and giving the wizard all the room he needed. Verna and Renn rushed up to him. The rune drawn on the ground was unlike anything Verna had ever seen.
“That looks like transference magic,” Renn said.
Oron squeezed the last droplets of red on the trampled dirt and finished his pattern. He looked up, his face serious, showing no surprise or welcome. “Renn, it is about time you came back. We need more wizards to help in the fight.”
“I brought these others with me. They can help, too.”
Exhausted, Oron looked at the design on the ground and spread his palms above it, as if warming his hands over a fire. He pressed down, meeting some invisible resistance, and a shimmering transparent glow covered the paint. “There, the rune is preserved and intact, and Utros will not be able to damage it until Elsa can finish her work.” He swiped perspiration from his forehead. “If her plan succeeds, we might not need another army of our own.”
He glanced around the valley and saw the other strike forces also completing their work. He quickly explained about the five squads, each led by a gifted noble, like himself. “The teams are each laying down a boundary rune, while Elsa and the wizard Nathan are pushing into the heart of the camp, where Elsa herself will anchor the transference magic and then trigger it. We might destroy a significant portion of the enemy army.”
“All the more reason for us to help,” Renn said.
Oron jabbed his hand toward the sky and released a bright fireball that rocketed higher and higher, like a flare. “Now they know my rune is in place.” Thousands more enemy soldiers began to close in, rebounding from the unexpected attack. Oron tossed his thick yellow braid over his shoulder. “I would like to live long enough to see the effect.”
By the time Bannon and Lila rushed back to the bluff’s edge, the first five Norukai ships had slammed against the docks below. Bannon ground his teeth together. “I can smell them from here. They stink of blood, pain, and ugliness.”
Lila flashed him a grin. “I would have enjoyed killing them regardless, but if you tell me there is even more reason to hate them, I will enjoy the fight all the more.”
The raiders threw ropes, tied their serpent ships to the pier at the base of the bluff, and swarmed off the decks. The river behind the hideous fighters was crowded with serpent ships, all converging on Ildakar.
On the cliff face, more than a hundred city fighters appeared at the openings of various access tunnels, holding weapons ready to defend against the assault from the river. As he stood at the opening, Bannon glanced at the intricate transference rune he had helped paint on the sheer stone. Above, on top of the bluff, though, he didn’t see the duma members he expected. “Where are Damon and Quentin? They should be here fighting! We need their magic.”
The Norukai began swarming up the platforms and carved stone steps like a line of army ants. Beside him, Lila had a short sword and a dagger, but she slid both weapons back into their sheaths at her side. “I will fight with those later.”
Instead, she picked up a barrel of flour from among the supplies stored in the tunnel and hurled it straight down. The cask crashed into two of the Norukai climbing the lower steps, knocking them both loose. Blood sprayed from their broken heads mixed with the cloud of white flour, and they tumbled down the bluff, knocking down other raiders who climbed behind them. Bannon liked the idea and did the same, tossing a small cask down to smash more Norukai.
In the other tunnels the Ildakaran fighters did likewise, grabbing sacks, rocks, even a crate of old fish that they dumped down the bluff face, pelting the oncoming Norukai. But raiders continued to swarm up from their ships, ignoring their losses as they climbed the cliff.
At last, waves of magic from above whooshed down the sandstone wall with a snap and a shudder. Bannon craned his neck and saw several figures in silken robes unleashing their gift from the top of the bluff.
“Now we have some help,” Lila said.
The docks anchored at the river’s edge disengaged from the rock, making the lashed serpent ships grind together, their hulls creaking. With an outcry of dismay, the Norukai still on the decks clambered over one another, some diving into the river as their ships shifted.
But the Norukai kept coming. More raiding vessels crashed together, clogging the river, piling up until the raiders tied their hulls together to form a boarding ramp and they ran from ship to ship to reach the cliff face.
The wizards on top of the bluff released more magic, and spouts of water thundered out of the cliff face. Drainage from the streets and sewers gushed out upon the swarming Norukai. Although the cliff was already wet from the morning’s rain, the effluent drenched the attackers.
Bannon lugged a heavy barrel over to the opening. “Sweet Sea Mother, is this thing full of rocks?” He only cared that it was heavy. With a lurch, he tossed the barrel out the opening and watched it tumble and smash into one of the platforms far below just as the Norukai tried to climb up.
Lila seemed to be enjoying herself. “Let us each do that a hundred more times. Even so, we may still have to face the rest of the Norukai with our swords.” She grinned at him. “Then the real fun will start.”
Thora rose to her feet inside her dungeon cell as the heavy door crashed open. Quentin and Damon stood there, sweating and terrified. “It is time, Sovrena! If we don’t work the blood magic now, Ildakar will surely fall.”
“Has General Utros breached the wall?”
“The other duma members are out battling his forces now, trying to implement Elsa’s transference magic,” Quentin said.
Damon interrupted, “And a Norukai attack fleet just arrived on the river! Fifty serpent ships and thousands of raiders are attempting to breach the city through the bluffs. We cannot survive both attacks.”
Thora raised her eyebrows. “So, you have decided to raise the shroud once and for all?”
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.”