Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 66

When Nicci left the ruins of Effren, she directed the fast military ship to stop at Serrimundi so she could check on their defense preparations. From the tension in the air, she knew they all took the threat seriously. Harborlord Otto had dispatched swift patrol ships beyond the rocky mouth of the harbor, and lookouts remained on top of the bluff above the Sea Mother carving. Inside its sheltered harbor, the city remained watchful and safe.

The lookouts had developed a simple but effective means of signaling at great distance, to spread any warning more swiftly. If any patrol ship spotted the Norukai fleet, they could drop and ignite rafts piled high with kindling, pitch, and green wood. The floating fires would produce greasy smoke visible from far away, and the watchers on the bluff could sound the alarm to the city. Norukai raiders would never surprise Serrimundi again.

When her expedition returned from Effren, they brought more refugees to join the crowds that already strained Serrimundi’s resources. Nicci intended to head back up to Tanimura as soon as possible, but she would verify that Serrimundi was secure before she left.

The sheltered harbor remained a blur of activity. By now many of the sunken wrecks had been dismantled to clear a passage for larger trading ships. Rowboats and fishing vessels dodged the burned masts that still protruded from the water. Salvage crews continued to restore the docks while also building up the city’s defenses.

Nicci walked along the harborside in a new black dress, since her old one had been patched and cleaned so many times it had fallen to tatters. The dress fit her well, and she drew the attention of observers as she walked past. Now that her blond hair was growing out again, the strands tickled her neck.

On the new wharf, she found Otto talking with Captain Ganley of the Mist Maiden, which had been too large to sail out safely through the sunken ships. Five other large ships remained at anchor, waiting for their chance to leave, but they were not idle. Salvage crews affixed sheets of beaten metal to the hulls as armor.

The harborlord and Ganley stood beside a stack of crates taller than their heads. Both men turned as Nicci approached. “Thanks to you, Sorceress, my Mist Maiden will be a warship now,” said Ganley, “though I prefer peaceful trading from port to port.”

“Every ship needs to be a warship until the war is over,” Nicci said.

Otto tugged on his wide-brimmed hat, shading his eyes. “By the end of the day, we’ll have a passage clear so the larger ships can leave the harbor.” He sighed. “Part of me just wants Ganley to take my daughter and her children away to safety, so I can focus on guarding my city.”

“They might be safe, but the rest of you wouldn’t be,” Ganley said. “I have my part to play, as do we all.”

“The Mist Maiden is too useful as a warship,” Nicci said. “It will serve as an important defense at the mouth of the harbor if the Norukai make their way past the protective reefs.”

She was pleased to see that hundreds of the initial Effren refugees were now armed and practicing maneuvers in an open area where two warehouses had burned down during Kor’s raid. The men and women, still dressed in rags, wore hodgepodge armor, chain mail, leather, even some plate. They fumbled through their training, clumsily wielding swords, but getting better, hour by hour.

Nicci nodded toward the recruits. “Their sheer numbers will help build a defense force if the Norukai come ashore here again.”

“I intend to stop that from happening in the first place,” Harborlord Otto said. “With our new armored warships we will block the mouth of the harbor. They will never get past the Sea Mother into the city proper.”

Ganley set his jaw. “A line of five large vessels will prevent any invaders from entering the harbor.”

Nicci was impressed. “A significant improvement from how lax you were when I brought my first warning.”

Leaving the two men, she walked to the next pier, where she saw an old man in a loincloth, his head shaved clean and his skin so tanned it looked like hardened leather. With unexpected flexibility, he sat cross-legged on the end of the dock. Four young men dove underwater in front of him. Stone weights of various sizes rested on the dock beside the old man, and the young divers each took one and plunged deep, as if they were intentionally drowning themselves. After a remarkably long time, they would swim back up to the surface, struggling to carry the weights. The old man gave a nod of appreciation when they returned the stones to the dock, but he offered little praise as their teacher.

Nicci saw that his bare chest was covered with line after line of tattooed circles, more than she could count. Her lips twisted in an instinctive frown. “You are wishpearl divers.”

When he raised his head, ropelike tendons stood out on the old man’s neck. “I am the best wishpearl diver. My name is Loren, and it is my burden to train these whelps and find out which ones have the lungs to follow in my path. Some of them die.” He shrugged. “Then I have to go down to retrieve the stone weights myself so the next trainees can use them. It’s quite a bother.”

With an outburst of exhaled air, a young diver splashed back to the surface and slammed the stone weight on the boards in front of the old teacher. Loren said, “Obviously that was too easy. Try a heavy one next.” He handed the young diver an impossibly large stone, which instantly dragged him under.

Nicci frowned at the rippling water. “I have had dealings with wishpearl divers before, not all of them positive. I am Nicci.”

Loren snorted. “Everyone in Serrimundi knows who you are, Sorceress. Not all of my dealings with the divers are pleasant either. None of the trainees comes close to my ability yet, so they have no reason to be arrogant.”

“You sound overly proud of your own achievements,” she said.

“Pride is perfectly acceptable when it is based on true accomplishment.”

All five divers pulled themselves to the surface and hung on the end of the dock, looking at their trainer. “We did every task you set for us, Loren,” said a broad-faced young man. He looked up at Nicci with a predatory grin that reminded her of a shark. She gave him a similar grin in return, and he flinched.

“Then I will set you more tasks,” Loren said. “You aren’t exhausted enough.”

Nicci turned to the old trainer. “Why don’t you tell them to work on the sunken wrecks? Have them do something useful for their city.”

One of the young men treading water said, “Wishpearl divers don’t do menial labor!”

Loren’s darkening expression instantly showed that the young man had given the wrong answer. “You will do whatever labor I tell you!” He pointed to his tattooed chest. “You are not wishpearl divers until I say you are. You still have baby lungs! Inhale a bit of humility.”

During the previous Norukai attack on Serrimundi, Nicci had shamed four wishpearl divers into helping her. They had carried shielded bottles of wizard’s fire, which sank several serpent ships. It almost made up for her despicable first encounter with the arrogant men aboard the Wavewalker, when they had poisoned her and tried to rape her.

Loren leaned over the end of the pier and barked down at his students, “Listen to the sorceress. Go help with the work in the harbor. You will serve Serrimundi.”

“Why should we do that?” sneered the arrogant diver. He kept glancing hungrily at Nicci.

She said, “Because you will receive something better than riches. You will prove you are useful.” The trainees scowled at her as if that were the last thing that interested them. “And if the Norukai overwhelm Serrimundi, they will not be inclined to buy wishpearls … if any of you survive.”

“Go, clear the sunken wrecks!” Loren commanded. “And when you are finished, I may let you have women again.”

Treading water, the divers scoffed at their trainer, “We are wishpearl divers! Women throw themselves at us.”

Loren glared back. “Not if I spread the word that you all have the scabby disease.”

Appalled, the divers swam off toward the nearest sunken wreck in a rush to join the dismantling crews.

The brass alarm gong rang out from the bluff above the Sea Mother, cutting through the harbor activity. Even with the pounding of wooden mallets and the clang of armor plate, a hush fell across the waterfront. Nicci stared toward the lookout on the top of the bluff, who was waving his arms. “Is it the Norukai? Do we have to fight again?”

“No, not Norukai.” Loren cocked his head to listen. A percussive beat rang out three times, then paused, then three times more. “Just cargo ships. Three of them.”

“Three? Why would merchants sail together?” Nicci asked. “They are competitors.”

Loren still sat cross-legged on the dock, baking in the sun. “I have not seen it before. This must be something unusual.”

Before long, as the ships sailed through the narrow mouth into the sheltered harbor, Nicci learned that they had come up the Phantom Coast all the way from Renda Bay.

And that they carried Nathan, Bannon, and others from Ildakar.

Captains Mills, Straker, and Donell anchored the ships near the tall carving of the Sea Mother and dispatched rowboats to bring representatives to the docks.

Though she covered it well, Nicci felt as astonished as a little girl when she saw the erudite wizard with long white hair aboard the first boat. He wore a ruffled shirt, long cape, and vest. Behind him sat the ginger-haired swordsman Bannon Farmer and the morazeth Lila in her distinctive black leather. Nicci had never expected to see them again. She couldn’t guess how they had come to Serrimundi, on the other side of the Old World from where she had last seen them.

Nicci could see that Nathan had never expected to see her either. As the rowboat pulled up to the dock, Bannon lurched to his feet, rocking the boat and waving vigorously. “Nicci! I can’t believe you’re here.”

Lila grabbed the young man’s wrist to steady him. “I would be angry if you fell overboard and drowned now, boy. I’ve worked too hard to keep you alive.”

When the boat was tied up, Bannon sprang onto the dock, unable to stop himself from giving her an enthusiastic hug. “I missed you, Nicci! We’ve been through so much. I know you were worried about me.”

“Not overmuch.” Despite her words, Nicci was glad to see him, too. Her voice caught in her throat, and then she let herself embrace him, a hug that he gladly returned. “I am pleased that you’re alive, but I’ve been otherwise occupied building defenses, fighting Norukai, even clashing with General Utros.”

She extricated herself from the hug, but had only a moment of relief before Nathan also swept her into an embrace. “So have we!” the wizard said. “Much has happened, and the war is right on our heels! I am so glad we’re reunited. We have a world to save.”

“And with all of us together again, we have a much better chance of doing it!” Bannon said.

Nicci’s stern resolve melted with relief, and she stopped fighting it. “I was indeed concerned about you both. I thought we were separated forever. I was sure you must be dead by now, or at least trapped beneath the shroud of eternity.”

“We thought you might be dead, too. I’m so glad you’re alive!” Bannon grinned at her, and Lila gave him an annoyed sidelong glance.

“I see we have many stories to tell,” Nathan said. “Renda Bay is destroyed, and so is Cliffwall. General Utros and his army marched across the land from Ildakar, and we couldn’t stop them.”

Bannon blurted out, “The Norukai fleet struck Renda Bay at the same time, more than a hundred ships. They are sailing northward to ransack the coast, and General Utros will be marching along the imperial roads. I’d wager they all intend to strike Tanimura.”

The observers crowded around them reacted with alarm and dismay. “How can we possibly fight them?” asked Harborlord Otto.

Nicci realized that Nathan, with his scholarly experience and his knowledge of the language of Creation, might be able to help her with Richard’s mysterious bone box. She felt the cold grow more intense in her heart. “This is what I’ve been waiting for all along.”