Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 43

After Ava’s spirit ransacked the archives, Cliffwall went on high alert. General Zimmer dispatched scouts out of the canyons to monitor the oncoming army that was already marching out of the mountains. Nathan called an emergency meeting so that everyone could discuss how they might possibly prepare against such an overwhelming force.

As he and Verna hurried toward the gathering chamber, the prelate said with hard skepticism, “I’m not confident we have any viable options. This archive is no longer hidden, and Utros is on his way. How can we defend Cliffwall?”

Nathan clucked his tongue. “I’m sure we’ll find something, my dear, if we just think hard enough.”

She walked ahead of him into the large gathering chamber. “You sound like a naive fool.”

“I prefer the term ‘optimist.’ Remember, I’ve helped save the world before.” But he’d had the help of Nicci, and Richard, and others. Knowing that Nicci was still alive did not help him, because she wasn’t there. He had no idea where she actually was, only that she had somehow killed the sorceress Ava.

The prelate responded with only a roll of her eyes.

Franklin and Gloria sat at a speakers’ table before the anxious audience. Zimmer shifted uncomfortably in his seat; his D’Haran armor was clean and professional, as if he were reporting to Lord Rahl himself. Nathan and Verna took the remaining seats at the front table before the gathered crowd. Intent scholars filled the room, sitting on the available benches while others stood shoulder-to-shoulder. The low buzz of conversation was not the casual talk usually heard at such meetings.

Thorn and Lyesse stood with weapons at their sides. Eight Sisters of the Light sat watching the prelate, confident and waiting to learn how they could help. Oliver and Peretta remained close to Amber.

Gloria nodded to her memmers as the Cliffwall inhabitants asked questions of one another. Scholar-Archivist Franklin folded his hands in front of him, waiting for the crowd to quiet down. Crowded at the entrance to the chamber, some of the ungifted workers listened in, deeply worried.

Nathan cleared his throat. “We don’t have time to waste, and someone needs to call this meeting to order, although I believe meetings are often a waste of time when action is required. The enemy army knows exactly where to find us. A hundred thousand soldiers will take over this archive, unless we figure out a way to stop them.”

“How can we possibly stop that many?” cried one of the memmers.

“By killing them,” Thorn interjected, as if the answer were obvious.

Verna looked annoyed. “An excellent suggestion, but unhelpful. We have to prevent them from capturing all the knowledge stored here. They cannot have it!”

“At the pace of their march, they are maybe four days away,” Zimmer said. “But my scouts suggest they have picked up speed.”

A wave of anxious whispers rippled through the chamber.

Lyesse said, “The soldiers are gaunt and hungry, and they are stripping the landscape clean, devouring everything in sight.”

“But they continue to march nevertheless,” Thorn added. “On our last reconnaissance, we killed six of them.”

“Each,” Lyesse added. “For good measure.”

Captain Trevor spoke up, frustrated. “We cannot stop them one or two at a time.”

“With the maze of narrow canyons, the sheer cliffs, the mesa rising above the valley, Cliffwall is defensible,” Zimmer explained. “A small number of fighters can hold the bottleneck at the mouth of the canyon. With the proper preparations, we could ambush the enemy, slay thousands as they funnel into the canyon.”

“Their piled bodies form another wall of defense,” Lyesse said, relishing the thought.

“You are quite ambitious, General,” Nathan said, “but with so many thousands of warriors who refuse to give up, Utros will overwhelm us no matter what his losses are. The soldiers will keep coming and keep coming. Given what his dead sorceress told him, he will want to possess the knowledge stored here, and he is not a man to give up.”

“We can still try to hold them off,” said the wizard Leo. “Can’t we?”

“It remains an incredible risk,” Franklin pointed out. “We must evacuate as many people as possible, get them to safety. I won’t let all those innocent families just huddle here waiting to be slaughtered. We have to accept that Cliffwall may be captured. We could pack up some of the most important volumes and rush them in pack trains up into the highlands above the canyon.”

“I concur,” said Gloria. “If my memmers go with them, at least they will take the knowledge they carry in their minds, and that is the equivalent of thousands of books.”

“The knowledge in the archive is too dangerous,” Verna said. “We must not let that information fall into enemy hands. We cannot!”

“It took years and years to install all those works here,” Franklin said. “Even if we took wagonloads of books above the canyon, we could only save a tiny fraction. It’s simply not possible! We haven’t even sorted them yet.”

“We can’t move the archive,” Nathan said. “That much is obvious. Who would choose the volumes to save? Even if we merely hid the most dangerous books in caves, then what? With limitless enemy soldiers to search the surrounding areas, Utros would find the books. And the spirit of his sorceress can flit anywhere.”

“We don’t dare let General Utros have any of those books. The knowledge is too dangerous,” Verna insisted.

“My memmers are meant to preserve information,” Gloria said, “but if they were captured and tortured…” She looked at her gifted followers in their blue robes. “What might they be forced to reveal?”

Groans of dismay went through the audience. The scholars began to talk heatedly.

Zimmer rose to his feet, crossed his arms over his chest armor. “We have to defend Cliffwall. Evacuate all the civilians to safety, but my defenders must stop the army from breaking through into the canyon. We will stay here and use every possible defense to block the invasion.”

“Ava knows exactly what the archive contains,” Nathan said. “Her sister Ruva is likely still alive, too, unless Nicci killed her as well.” He stroked his chin.

“She is just one sorceress,” Oron said.

“And a hundred thousand soldiers,” Leo pointed out.

“All the wizards of Ildakar could barely scratch that giant army,” Olgya said. “We have far fewer defenses here.”

Zimmer placed his fists on the table in front of him. “Let us be realistic.” Black stubble shadowed his cheeks, and his forehead glistened with perspiration. “I have about fifty D’Haran soldiers as well as a few city guards from Ildakar. We have Oron and Leo, Olgya and Perri from Ildakar, along with Nathan, Prelate Verna and her Sisters of the Light, and some gifted Cliffwall scholars who can fight with magic.” He drew a deep breath. “Even with the natural defenses of the canyons here, I doubt we could hold against General Utros and his army.”

“But we will try,” Captain Trevor said. “We will fight to the last, and make them pay a very high price!”

“Yet they will still break through,” Verna interjected. “No matter how brave and desperate our defense is, if we don’t hold that canyon opening, then all is lost. If this archive falls into enemy hands, then all is lost!” Her voice rose as her anger intensified. “General Utros could use that dangerous information to crush the Old World.” She placed a hand on Nathan’s sleeve as if to draw strength. “The Sisters of the Light revere knowledge, and this is a hard conclusion for me, but I believe it’s the only one.” She stared around the room, her gaze finally resting on Gloria and Franklin. “If that army breaks through, we have to destroy Cliffwall.”

Franklin gasped. “But we haven’t completed our work!”

Gloria cried, “Still so many volumes to memorize.”

“Utros will ransack it. He will find the same deadly spells we are searching for, and he’ll use that magic to destroy the world.”

Nathan could feel the heart beating louder in his chest, and he grimaced as a twinge of dark pain shot through him again. “I remember when Richard brought down the Palace of the Prophets. Such a landmark, so much information in those vaults.” He bit his lower lip. “But the world has survived fine without that knowledge. While I appreciate General Zimmer’s confidence and bravado, Verna pointed out to me that misplaced optimism is only a fool’s weapon.”

“But think of all the sacrifices that went into creating Cliffwall!” Gloria groaned.

Peretta spoke up. “Cliffwall’s magic belongs to humanity, to someone who knows how to use it.”

“For good, not evil,” Nathan said. “We have to face facts. This archive remained safe behind its camouflage shroud for three thousand years, and no one used any of the magic for good or ill. Our civilization bumbled along nevertheless. The world went on.” He tapped his fingernails on the wooden table surface. “Very shortly after the archive was opened again, though, Roland the Lifedrinker abused a spell and made himself into an insatiable monster, as did Victoria after him. Better that the magic had never been discovered at all. We would have been safer.”

Gloria looked away, embarrassed at the mention of her mentor. The other memmers also muttered.

Verna picked up the discussion in a hard voice. “And then there was the student Elbert, who melted the prophecy archive by unleashing the Weeping Stone spell, which he couldn’t control. And those were merely accidents! Think how much worse it will be if Utros intentionally uses that lore to destroy anyone who opposes him.”

Zimmer was impatient. “We should still try to defend the canyon. My men are ready. We can make plans, set traps, kill countless numbers of the enemy. We will never have a better opportunity.” He swallowed. “But if we fail, if General Utros overruns the canyon, can we find a way to destroy the archive? Only then, not before?”

Olgya said, “How will we do that? Burn all the books? Seal the tunnels? How could we do it fast enough if the enemy army has already broken through?”

Verna had a distant look on her face, and Nathan frowned at her. “What are you thinking, my dear?”

“The Weeping Stone spell. Maybe we just need to use it on a larger scale.”