Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 35

The general’s army clashed with the Hidden People in the streets of Orogang. The regimental commanders rallied their troops to face the ragtag inhabitants, who put up a surprising resistance, but Utros’s well-trained soldiers needed no further orders to slaughter the enemy.

More and more pale, gray-clad fighters rushed out of the dark buildings. While the disciplined army used well-practiced battle maneuvers, the Hidden People fought with a frenzy that disrupted the rigid plans. It was like two thunderheads colliding with a sound of thunder.

Nicci struggled to recover after Ruva and General Utros vanished along with the body of the dead sorceress. The clamor was deafening, and she heaved hard breaths, looking at the shattered marble face of the toppled Utros statue. She had expended so much of her gift that she could barely stand. Nicci brushed stone dust from her black dress as she dredged up energy within herself. She had to help the Hidden People in their fight before they were slaughtered. Though her gift was weak, she touched the daggers at her waist, knowing she could always fight with knives.

As the battle raged in the main plaza, the ancient soldiers did not at first realize that their commander had disappeared. They simply kept massacring the poorly trained refugees who threw themselves recklessly upon them. Bodies lay strewn across the plaza, but Nicci realized the Hidden People were inflicting numerous casualties themselves. They were hardened to sacrifices, and they were determined to win this fight.

But they stood against a thousand well-trained warriors in full armor.

Sword fights swirled through the streets, between buildings, under the imposing archways. In hand-to-hand combat, the fighters dodged the rubble of toppled monoliths and shattered statues.

An ancient soldier lurched in front of Nicci, raising his bloody sword and leering at her, as if he assumed she would be an easy kill. He slashed, intending to gut her, but she deftly avoided the strike, slipped in under his backstroke, and jammed one dagger between the man’s legs. She drove upward into the soft but crippling target, and the soldier collapsed with a squeaking wail. She could have taken the time to kill him, but decided to let him lie there screaming as she ran onward. She had to turn this battle and save the Hidden People.

Mrra let out a roar that shattered even the din around them. Thanks to their spell bond, Nicci felt the big cat’s joy, the hot iron taste of fresh blood in her mouth. The sand panther drove a soldier to the ground and tore open his leather armor. With blood dripping down her muzzle, Mrra let out an even louder roar, a summoning.

Sleek, powerful feline forms bounded in, more than a dozen sand panthers in a new bestial army that struck primal fear into the enemy. The ancient warriors screamed as the huge cats bore them to the ground and ripped them open. The panthers somehow knew to avoid the gray-cloaked Hidden People and attacked only the soldiers of General Utros.

Nicci strode in among the enemy, wielding a bloody dagger in each hand. Desperate men cried out for the general, and subcommanders demanded orders, but their leader could not respond. The mood changed like a shifting storm wind as rumors started to spread that Utros had left them. The mounted army started to fight with an increased intensity that bordered on violent desperation.

The poor Hidden People had just been released from their heavy burden with the zhiss, and now it looked as if they would all die before they could reap the benefits of their well-deserved freedom. Nicci felt a flare of anger and sadness as she fought her way back toward the towering palace. Somehow, she would rally the poor people and help them fight such an overwhelming enemy. Nicci did not accept an impossible situation.

She paused to assess what remained of her gift. When she felt the magic resonating within her, she knew that even diminished she was still a powerful sorceress. She could help the Hidden People and save as many as possible.

As she passed the empty sliph well, Nicci called on a few threads of her gift and created a small sphere of wizard’s fire in her palm. She paused there and faced the fighting, ready to make a difference, to help the Hidden People win. Pulling on her magic, she tossed the ravenous fire. The looping, twisting flames flared, then swelled into a greater flash as the fireball engulfed three enemy soldiers before fading. She had hoped for more.

She struggled to find enough of her gift to create more fire. From behind her, she heard an unexpected rushing sound of gurgling liquid that pushed upward.

She whirled to face the low sliph well in the plaza, where a roiling pool of quicksilver rose above the mouth, shaping itself into an icily beautiful human figure. Nicci was taken aback. “Sliph!”

Looming above the well, oblivious to the clamor of battle, the silver woman glowered at Nicci.

Why had the sliph come now? “I called you many times,” Nicci said.

“I heard, but I am not required to heed you.” The sliph’s face pinched into an angry expression. “I accept your terms. I will know about my Emperor Sulachan. Tell me everything.”

“Not now, sliph! I will summon you later.”

“Now,” the sliph said. “I will take you back to Serrimundi as you demand, and you must tell me about Sulachan. That is the bargain.”

Nicci raised a shield, trying to repel the sliph, but it wasn’t enough. “No, sliph! Not now.”

“Breathe!” The quicksilver wave plunged down to engulf Nicci and dragged her down into the well.