Death's Mistress

CHAPTER 62

Nicci did not like to retreat under any circumstances, but the insane jungle was too unpredictable and could easily tear the Cliffwall scholars to pieces. As well as Thistle.

She pulled the girl to safety, away from the thrashing forest. The scholars’ faces were filled with despair after the slaughter of Simon and the monstrous appearance of Victoria and her acolytes, but she shouted, driving them into action, “Get back!”

Nathan and Bannon helped to herd the Cliffwall people away from the boundary of the deadly jungle, and the others needed little encouragement to run.

Nicci glared at the swollen, transformed figure of Victoria. The green female thing had an uncontrolled, hungry magic similar to Roland’s—and just like Roland, Victoria would have to be stopped. For this, Nicci suspected they might need a weapon even more powerful than the Eldertree acorn.

And the Sorceress must save the world. Maybe she wasn’t done here yet after all.

As the panicked scholars fled back to the uplift of the plateau, Bannon withdrew into a sense of sick denial after what he had seen the three young women do to Simon. “Sweet Sea Mother, they were so beautiful, so loving and kind. I loved them, and they loved me.”

“They loved you so much, they wanted your blood,” Nicci said. “They would have torn you apart, but Simon paid the price for you.”

Bannon shook his head. “We have to save them! They’re entangled in an evil spell, but I know their hearts are good. We can bring them back, I know it.”

Nicci frowned at him. “Don’t delude yourself with unrealistic hopes, Bannon Farmer. Those things are no longer the women you knew. We will certainly have to kill them.”

The young man stared at her, his mouth open in disbelief. “No, it can’t be. My life was happy, almost perfect for once.…”

With an understanding nod, the wizard squeezed his shoulder. “Sometimes outward beauty only masks a darkness inside.”

When they finally climbed back up the slope and returned to the hidden archive inside the plateau, Nathan strode directly toward the large library chambers, wasting no time. “Once again, we need to learn about a corrupt, uncontrolled spell,” he said, “so we can fight it.”

Nicci turned Thistle about, leading her toward their quarters. “I will destroy her, just as I destroyed the Lifedrinker.”

The girl hung her head, sniffling. “I just wanted to see my valley restored, but that jungle is almost as bad as the Scar.” Her voice hitched as if her throat were full of tears.

“We must eradicate both threats and help the valley return to normal, without being crushed by evil masters,” Nicci said. “That is what Lord Rahl stands for.” She touched the girl’s curly mass of hair, and Thistle looked up at her with complete faith. “That is precisely why we are here.”

“I know,” Thistle said.

* * *

With no clear leaders, the people of Cliffwall turned desperately to Nathan and Nicci for answers. The old wizard buried himself in the archives again, absorbing volume after volume, scroll after scroll, so that he could counteract the dark fecundity that “Life’s Mistress” had clumsily unleashed.

Mousy, dedicated Mia hovered by Nathan’s side, reading documents with lightning speed, tracing her fingertips over the handwritten lines. She could take in the gist of the text and cull out the important books she felt Nathan should read.

Nicci, though, decided to seek information in a more direct fashion. Because the memmers held the knowledge within their minds, she interrogated Victoria’s people face-to-face.

Marching into one of the classroom chambers where the memmers would recite their lessons, she faced them with her hands planted on the curve of her hips. “Victoria commanded you to search for fertility spells, horticulture magic, even restorative lore that could be applied to wildfire damage in forests. One of you must have recalled the dark spell that she used.” She narrowed her eyes, looking for an unexpected flush or a wary flinch among the memmers. “Someone pointed her to whatever incantation or blood magic she invoked. I need to know what it was.”

“Victoria wanted to save the valley and save us all,” said Franklin, blinking his owlish eyes. “She had only the best of intentions. We all wanted to help.”

“Best of intentions?” Nicci’s glare froze them as if she were a predator about to pounce. “You never learned the Wizard’s Second Rule.”

Gloria, a plump and earnest young memmer, frowned. Her lower lip trembled. “The Wizard’s Second Rule? What is that? Is it in the archives?”

“Any student of magical lore should know it. The greatest harm can result from the best intentions. Victoria proved exactly that. Rather than patiently waiting for nature to reclaim the valley, she unleashed even more dangerous magic, and now it is out of control. With her good intentions, Victoria may well have doomed us all, unless we can find a way to stop her.”

Gloria swallowed hard. “But how can we undo what she’s done?”

“First, we must understand the magic she used, the exact spell she triggered. Did one of you help her to find it?”

The memmers fidgeted uncomfortably in their memorization room. Franklin said, “She hoped one of us might recall something that we had committed to memory, but there were so many possibilities, none of them clear. She wanted to help the valley grow back faster.”

Nicci’s voice was sharp. “I can tell when you are lying.” They feared she was using some rare truth-sensing magic, but she did not need that. She could see their nervous twitches, their averted eyes, the sweat sparkling on their skin. She raised her voice into loud command. “Which spell did Victoria use? Tell me what blood magic she invoked to trigger that wild growth.”

Gloria flinched. “It was an ancient fecundity spell, one that could awaken the earth. It was in an obscure language we didn’t exactly know how to pronounce or interpret.”

Nicci straightened her back. “So she unleashed such a terrible spell without recalling how to say the words?”

“She knew,” Franklin said defensively. “We all knew. Memmers remember perfectly from generation to generation.”

Nicci pressed harder. “You are saying that what we saw out there in the Scar, that explosive deadly growth, was exactly what Victoria intended?”

The memmers were embarrassed. Franklin finally gathered the courage to answer. “We do remember some fertility spells, but we don’t know how to counteract them. Very few ancient wizards ever wanted to stop life, growth, and prosperity.”

“There were some reciprocal spells,” Gloria admitted, “but they are dim in our minds, relegated to minutiae. The details were not considered useful, and our ancestors already had so much to remember and preserve.”

“Write down whatever you remember, and I will study the information,” Nicci said.

Gloria went to a podium in their memorization room, on which an open tome rested on display. During their daily lessons, the acolytes often listened to a speaker, committing line by line to memory. Instead of reading aloud now, Gloria picked up a quill pen, dipped the sharpened end into an inkpot, and began to scratch out words on a scrap of paper. She paused, closed her eyes to summon the details, then wrote more words. She kept her hand on the paper. “This is the spell that Victoria used. I think.”

Franklin came forward to study Gloria’s letters, corrected one piece of punctuation, altered one word. The memmers gathered around, nodding as they proofread. Once they all agreed on the precise formula and the arcane words, they handed the paper to Nicci.

As she scanned the spell, most of the words were mere gibberish to her. “Nathan might be better informed than I.” She tucked the paper into the fold pocket of her dress, then extended a finger, scolding the memmers. “Ransack all the knowledge inside you. Find some way that we can fix the damage Victoria has caused.”

* * *

From the window alcove on the outer side of the plateau wall, Nicci gazed across the tortured valley, where a crimson sunset deepened like the blood of the sacrifices Victoria had shed. She had given the written spell to Nathan, who read with great eagerness, then deep concern.

“This is every bit as bad as I anticipated. Perhaps worse. The power invoked comes from a language even older than High D’Haran. It will be difficult for us to find a magic powerful enough to overturn it.”

“Richard did not send us out to solve simple problems,” Nicci pointed out.

“Of course. I just wanted you to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge.”

As the red-gold rays of dusk fell over the broad valley, she concentrated on the swarming forest at its core, the primeval jungle that glowed an unhealthy green.

Drawn by the view as well, Bannon joined her, gazing out with a forlorn expression. “First, all life was draining away in the world, and now there’s an unstoppable flood of life. How do we fight it?”

“We will find a way,” Nicci said. “And then I myself will destroy the woman who calls herself Life’s Mistress.”

“I want to do something, too,” Bannon said. “You and Nathan can study all the books to look for a solution. You both understand the magic and can read mysterious languages, but I’m just waiting here, feeling useless. Like I was when we waited for a weapon against the Lifedrinker.” He sighed in obvious frustration. “You admitted that I can be useful, Sorceress. Isn’t there something I could do?”

“Help the farmers harvest crops. Tend the flocks, work the orchards,” Nicci suggested. “Learn a skill, perhaps as a carpenter.”

Anger flashed across his face. “That’s not what I mean! There’s got to be some way to save Audrey, Laurel, and Sage.” His face was wrenched with helplessness. “I love them.”

“And they are hungry for you. Remember what they did to Simon.”

His expression grew steely. “We need to understand what is happening out there, Sorceress. You know I can handle myself. I’m going to go on a scout, and I’ll come back and tell you what I see.”

“That’s a foolish risk,” Nicci said.

“You’ve called me a fool before! I want to do this. Don’t try to stop me.”

“I cannot stop you, Bannon Farmer, but if you are going to expose yourself to such great and unnecessary danger, at least make certain you return with valuable information.”

He lifted his chin, relieved that she didn’t argue with him further. “I will.”

Looking long and hard at him, Nicci added in a softer voice, “And be careful.”