The Norukai attackers were more frenzied after seeing four of their ships wrecked. They became suicidal, attacking without any thought of surviving the battle. It reminded Nicci of when she saw Bannon consumed with his uncontrollable blood rage.
“You will all die!” Kor said. “And you’ll all grieve, just like everyone in Ildakar right now.” He swung his battle-axe and struck the deck boards, gouging out large chunks. “The whole world will know King Grieve, but Serrimundi will never forget Captain Kor.”
Nicci was about to crush his spine, but she needed to know. “What do you mean Ildakar is under attack? How?” She had traveled through the sliph, left the city to face the siege of General Utros, but she had not considered a Norukai invasion.
“Fifty ships, Sorceress. King Grieve has thousands of Norukai warriors.” Kor chuckled. “I have told our king everything he needs to know to take the city. Ildakar will be his capital when he conquers the Old World.”
Nicci imagined a force of ships five times greater than what was now attacking Serrimundi. Could Nathan and the gifted duma members handle such attacks from two sides, the Norukai and Utros?
“I will go back and help them defeat King Grieve as soon as I have eliminated you,” Nicci said. “I will tell your king how you died.”
Kor sneered at her. “I’m already dead. Grieve ordered me to fight until I died in battle, and I intend to do so. But I will see you dead before I fall.” He charged toward her, his eyes blazing.
Since he wanted to die here, she granted Kor his wish. She summoned her focus, shaped the air, and slammed it together, crushing his skull from all sides. She caved in the bone and turned his brain into a pulp.
Even as the Norukai captain collapsed, Nicci turned to the remaining raiders, anxious to defeat them and save Serrimundi. She saw the ships in the harbor and the warehouses in flames. Hundreds more Norukai fought their last battles, but the people had rallied and were driving the scarred warriors back.
Nicci drew one of her daggers in her right hand, and called up magic in her left. For now, she devoted herself to this battle. She had killed hundreds before, and she would do it again today. She got to work.
CHAPTER 81
After the transference magic activated, Bannon hoped Nathan and Elsa had survived out on the plain, which must now be an inferno. The magic left only bitter cold on the cliffs and the frozen Killraven River.
Wearing nothing but her scant leather wrap, Lila showed no reaction to the cold, although the breath steamed out of her mouth when she spoke. “They are coming. Be ready, boy.”
Despite the suddenly frigid temperature, Bannon felt sweat running down his skin. He steeled himself. “My name is Bannon.”
Even though all the Norukai vessels had been locked in fists of river ice, the raiders were not deterred. Ignoring their dead who had toppled from the bluff, they brought out their own siege ladders from the decks and braced the long narrow constructions against the glazed sandstone.
The unstable ice continued to crack and pop as shards broke loose and fell down the cliff like frozen spears, but the Norukai kept climbing toward the cargo platforms and tunnel openings.
Ready to fight, Bannon and Lila watched the raiders ascend, level by level, using axes and daggers to chop handholds in icy rock. “Sweet Sea Mother,” he said, clutching his frigid sword, “we can’t just wait for them to overwhelm us.”
“Agreed,” Lila said. “Let’s go down and stop them from climbing higher.” She swung out of the overhang to the narrow ledge that led down to the next loading platform. The footing was precarious in the best of conditions.
Bannon gasped, “The ice—”
“The ice is in patches. Hold on to the solid rock and follow me down to this scaffold.” She glanced up at him. “Unless you want to stay up there and watch me fight alone?”
“I’ll fight at your side.” He sheathed his sword in order to use both hands as he made his way after her.
Ildakarans poked out of sheltered tunnels, breathing steam in the bitter-cold air. They redoubled their efforts to throw any remaining debris they could find. At the top of the plateau, the three gifted nobles had come back after the abrupt wave of transference magic. Now they used the gift to dislodge ice chunks and send them tumbling down the frozen rock. Bannon couldn’t understand why Damon and Quentin hadn’t responded to the urgent alarm, since they were far more powerful wizards. Ildakar needed them!
Now that Elsa’s transference spell was done, the sandstone began to warm rapidly under the bright sunlight, and veils of mist whispered all around, like a smoke screen. Bannon saw at least ten Norukai warriors slip and fall, screaming, but more kept climbing. The largest Norukai led the charge, a big man with bone spikes implanted in his shoulders and iron plates grafted onto his fists. He was accompanied by a spiderlike albino creature whose skin was pocked by what looked to be countless bite marks.
“My Grieve, King Grieve!” the creature cried as he scuttled upward, finding tiny handholds. “Cold, snow, ice! I told you, I dreamed it. Cold, cold!”
The Norukai king glared down at him. “You were right, Chalk, but you also dreamed a victory. I don’t care about ice. I care about Ildakar.”
Bannon dropped down to an icy wooden platform that was used to raise and lower crates. Anchored to the cliff, the platform had frozen in place, the supporting ropes iron hard, but it was wide enough for Bannon to make a stand. Lila sprang beside him onto the wood, and the two of them watched the first Norukai climbing closer to them.
Bannon braced himself, feeling the anger heat his blood. He pulled Sturdy out of its scabbard and held it ready. Beside him, Lila grinned, holding her short sword and dagger. She spat down at the enemy. “These Norukai may be uglier than Utros’s soldiers, but I think they should be easier to kill.”
The sounds of battle grew louder as more invaders climbed the rocks and reached loading platforms and ledges scattered across the sandstone bluff. On one of the narrow wooden shelves, three defenders—Bannon recognized the young painters who had put the finishing touches on Elsa’s giant rune—fought with sticks and knives. Their platform blocked one of the main entrances into the bluff. They whacked at the clutching hands of the Norukai, but they were overwhelmed.
One of the young fighters was stabbed through the side, and a female Norukai tossed his body from the platform. She and two other raiders climbed up, gripping the edge of the scaffolding. The remaining two young men fought with knives, hacking off Norukai fingers, and three of the raiders fell to their deaths, but it wasn’t enough. Six more Norukai gained the platform, and the young men were doomed. They looked at each other, and Bannon saw a silent, fatalistic understanding pass between them. With the last of their strength, the two bloodied Ildakaran defenders used their knives to slash the ropes holding the platform. The ice-slick scaffolding broke free, dumping the two young men as well as the climbing Norukai down the cliff to the frozen river below.
Seeing this, Bannon let out a moan. “I am not waiting anymore!” He left the safe platform and scrambled down a slippery ladder, not even thinking about the sheer fall. Instead, he dropped to the next shelf and reached another scaffolding platform that dangled against the bluff. Lila scrambled after him.
Nearby, King Grieve and his freakish white companion climbed up, batting away defenders. Bannon saw him and knew his enemy, the leader of the loathsome slavers. “I will kill you, King Grieve,” he shouted.