Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 76

Although the initial clash took place out on the water, Nicci and the ranks of D’Haran soldiers took their positions along the docks, ready to drive back any raiders that managed to break through the line of ships. With Grieve’s reckless navy, at least some of the vessels might make it to the city and wreak havoc.

Many Sisters of the Light were out in the harbor, but Nicci remained on shore with Sisters Eldine, Rhoda, Mab, and Arabella. She was armed with her two daggers, as well as her gift. She still carried the small bone box Richard had given her, even if she had not yet deciphered its purpose. Richard knew there was something special about Nicci’s background, her knowledge, her gift. In the meantime, she had plenty of other ways to fight a war.

Linden had dispatched scouts to ride into the hills above Tanimura, looking for any sign of General Utros’s army, but the scouts had not yet returned. Meanwhile, the Norukai were attacking now. The soldiers lined up, ready to protect the city.

In front of a group of waterfront warehouses, General Zimmer sat high on his warhorse, surveying the tremendous naval battle under way out on the water. His mount snorted and shifted from side to side, sensing the violence in the air. Along the extended wharves, all the piers were empty, every ship dispatched to fight the Norukai. His men moved restlessly in ranks, hands on the hilts of their swords, anxious to cut down any raiders that made it to shore.

The serpent ships plowed into the Tanimuran blockade. The gifted fighters summoned great waves to disrupt the Norukai advance, and even from the docks Nicci could hear the distant clamor of raider ships smashing into one another. Thunderclouds gathered as the wizards lashed out with storms.

At the forefront, King Grieve’s ship rammed into the Chaser, causing tremendous damage. Nicci watched two Norukai vessels flank Captain Mills’s ship and throw grappling hooks so the raiders could swarm aboard. Though many serpent ships crashed into one another, hammered by waves and driven back by the gifted defenders, others succeeded in breaking through the blockade and pushed directly toward the city. Dozens of enemy vessels had already sunk, and yet they kept coming.

Angry, Nicci longed to be on the front lines using her gift to destroy the Norukai. She did not like to feel safe while others were dying, but she would not leave Tanimura so vulnerable. “We will have our time soon enough,” she muttered under her breath.

Waiting on dry land, the soldiers sent up a cheer, hurling angry insults out toward the enemy. General Zimmer shook his head in disbelief. “The Norukai are insane. Look at them! They do not value their own lives. They sacrifice five or ten for every one that gets through.”

The Norukai plowed forward despite the storm winds and crashing waves. Thirty raider ships penetrated the blockade, leaving many more behind as they charged straight toward the docks.

Nicci turned to the Sisters. “Nathan and the others will do their best on the water. Now it is our turn to mop up the rest.”

“I’m glad to fight beside you again, Sister Nicci,” said Eldine. “It is good that you came back to the Sisters of the Light.”

Nicci’s eyes hardened. “I did not come back. I’m not a Sister of the Dark, nor am I a member of your order. I serve Lord Rahl, and I serve myself.” She flashed a glance at the gathered women. “But we are Sisters in our own way, against a common enemy.”

As the handful of serpent ships careened toward the docks, Zimmer dispatched armed companies up and down the waterfront to meet them. Their boots created a staccato thunder as they ran along. Vengeful refugees from Renda Bay and Effren joined the D’Haran army to help fight, but the professional soldiers would bear the brunt of the first onslaught. Zimmer spurred his horse, and the soldiers yelled as they charged.

Several raider vessels also approached the shores of flattened Halsband Island and the new connecting bridges to the main city. Sister Rhoda looked at where the Palace of the Prophets had once towered above the city and flashed a hungry smile. “Maybe Halsband Island will grow green again if we drench it with enough Norukai blood.”

Nicci smiled. “I like that kind of thinking, but these nearer ships will cause a problem first.”

A trio of battered raiders headed for a patch of open shore at the far end of the main piers. One hull bore burn scars from where lightning had scorched the wood. The dark sails showed gaping holes, but a few intact oars pushed the ships along on a drunkard’s path until they ran aground on the stony shingle. Scarred raiders boiled off the decks and dropped onto land.

Two more serpent ships slammed into one of the empty docks, grinding against the pilings. Muscular slavers leaped over the rail and bounded toward the city, weapons drawn and ready for mayhem.

Nicci and the D’Haran soldiers were there to stop them. The Sisters of the Light lashed out with icy rain and sharp projectiles of hail, but the Norukai hunched down and charged ahead with their axes, spiked maces, chained balls. Opening their scarred mouths, they howled.

One of the new D’Haran soldiers was terrified. “They’re monsters.”

Nicci said, “They bleed like humans and they die like humans.”

To demonstrate what she meant, she summoned wizard’s fire in her palm. As raiders stormed toward her, their screams changed when Nicci’s flaming ball exploded in the first man’s chest and spurted out his back. The unstoppable fire roasted three other Norukai close behind him.

She summoned a second sphere and hurled it higher, so that the fireball dropped down into the ranks behind. Though many died screaming, the Norukai did not halt their charge for an instant. Even as their comrades fell dead, waves of raiders stomped over the charred bodies and kept running.

“Shields!” Zimmer shouted, and his soldiers held their shields edge-to-edge to form a solid barrier. They advanced slowly, swords extended to meet the enemy with a resounding slam of leather, wood, and metal.

Nicci lobbed another fireball high over their heads, and it exploded on the nearest serpent ship, igniting the deck and mast and killing the last few Norukai trying to disembark.

The disciplined D’Haran soldiers held a firm line, but the Norukai were in a mindless battle rage. Many angry refugees broke ranks and ran into the fray, throwing themselves upon the wild raiders who had destroyed their homes and killed their loved ones. Town leader Thaddeus leaped in, swinging a boat hook. He bashed skulls and stabbed faces with the pointed spar. Renda Bay survivors followed his example with enough fury to stall the initial Norukai charge. Zimmer’s men regrouped and moved forward.

From the roofs of waterfront warehouses, D’Haran archers fired volley after volley into the swarm of raiders. Soon the streets were piled high with Norukai bodies, and blood ran through the gutters. But the raiders kept coming.

Ten more serpent ships crashed against the empty piers and disgorged a thousand yelling warriors. Heedless of their own safety, raiders rammed into the lines of D’Haran defenders, plowing past the shields and running to the warehouses, which they set on fire. As flames caught on the wooden walls, bales of fabric, and stored sacks of grain, thick smoke curled upward. The archers on the rooftops had to leap for their lives.

With twin bolts of lightning, Nicci blasted several attackers into red mist and blackened meat. Every Norukai that ran onto shore seemed to expect death, and they meant to cause as much destruction as they could before they died.

One warrior with a face like a misshapen potato stalked toward General Zimmer, who was engaged in mortal combat with another opponent. Seeing that he needed help, Nicci extended her gift, found the ugly raider’s heart, and made it explode. The Norukai man dropped like a felled ox. Four of his comrades looked at him, unable to understand what had happened. Nicci released her gift again and stopped their hearts as well.

Out in the water, the naval battle continued. At least forty serpent ships had already been wrecked or sunk.

As Nicci worked to create more wizard’s fire, a Norukai woman swung a spiked club at her head. Nicci ducked and plunged her dagger into the woman’s heart. Even with the blade stuck in her chest, the woman still pressed the weight of her heavy body against Nicci. While Nicci was distracted, the wizard’s fire flickered in her hand, but she slapped the remnants into the woman’s face, and her head burst into flame. Nicci shoved the weight aside and turned to face her next victim.

Then, in the heat of the battle, the sound of the clamor changed. Nicci heard loud shouts from the outskirts of the city, a banging of drums, a howl of alarm. Scouts galloped along the hill roads and raced into Tanimura, shouting in panic.

Though their voices were diminished by the distance and the chaos of the battle at the waterfront, Nicci recognized the scouts. Ice formed in her gut as she saw a long line of soldiers coming behind them at a fast march. They wore armor and carried standards that she had seen before, the mark of an emperor who had died fifteen centuries earlier.

Nearly a hundred thousand strong, the army of General Utros rolled over the hills toward Tanimura.