Shroud of Eternity

CHAPTER 55

Full darkness fell over the city. When the duma members declared a rare nighttime session to discuss the damage done by the rebels, Nicci decided not to wait any longer. She chose her moment—this would be the time.

She was on her own here in Ildakar, and she knew it, but she was never helpless.

Nicci had slain wizards before. She had proven herself again and again. Though she was wary about how Lani had failed in her challenge a century ago, Nicci knew she was more powerful than Thora, and she would demonstrate it.

“I am an enemy unlike any you have ever seen before,” she muttered to herself as she climbed the stairs of the ruling tower. When she reached the throne chamber, the sovrena and the wizard commander sat on their tall chairs while the remaining duma members—Andre, Elsa, Quentin, and Damon—had taken their places.

Nicci kept thinking of Mrra now imprisoned in a cage with the other combat animals. Nathan remained stretched out in the fleshmancer’s studio, breathing, but lost in his coma. They were trapped beneath the shroud that contained all the people of Ildakar, the shroud created when Thora had butchered those twelve poor slaves on the stair-stepped pyramid.

As Nicci walked into the open chamber with the tall windows that looked out to the glittering city buildings far below, she felt the fire within her.

And the Sorceress must save the world.

Perhaps the world didn’t need saving—Richard had already done that, far to the north. But the city of Ildakar certainly needed something. It needed her. She was Death’s Mistress. She would be sufficient.

Stepping forward into full view, Nicci concentrated on her gift, feeling all the powers and abilities she had gathered over the years, spells she had learned, tactics and techniques. The air crackled like an aura around her. The fabric of her dark skirts flowed and stirred. Her loose blond hair drifted faintly as if charged with a building storm.

The morazeth Adessa stood beside the raised dais, watchful, as if she guarded the sovrena like a pet hound. The hardened warrior woman looked at Nicci, did not seem impressed.

Wizard Commander Maxim perked up on his throne as Nicci arrived, and a satisfied smile crossed his face. Sovrena Thora scowled at the interruption, and her sea-green eyes drank in Nicci’s demeanor. “Sorceress, you are presumptuous to intrude on our meeting. You already interfered enough today.”

“Perhaps she should join us,” said Damon, stroking his long drooping mustaches. This evening he had tied tiny garnet baubles into the long pointed ends. “The ruling council is short two members, and she is strong enough. Maybe she offers a valid outside perspective.”

“Actually, we’re short three members from what the duma should be,” Elsa said, glancing over at the statue of Lani frozen in place, “and therefore from what the ruling council should be.”

Nicci announced, “Tonight the council will be short yet another member, after I remove Sovrena Thora from her position.”

Gasps rippled among the wizards seated on their stone benches. Fleshmancer Andre ran his fingers down his thick braided beard. “Ah, so it is a challenge, hmmm?”

“It is a challenge, by the rules of Ildakar,” Nicci said. “I find the sovrena unfit to rule. She is a despot and casts a shadow over this city. The duma members are also partially responsible for this harsh culture that hurts so many of its people.” She looked at the other wizards, accusing. “But the ship goes where the captain guides it. Therefore, I must take the helm and change the course of Ildakar.” She stepped forward, and the crackle around her intensified. “With Thora gone, maybe the rest of you will remember your humanity.”

Maxim chuckled. “Keeper’s beard, how grandiose! This is more entertaining than I had hoped.”

At the side of the dais, Adessa stiffened, ready to attack Nicci, but she did not move, waiting for instructions. Nicci focused on her main opponent.

Thora glared at her husband and rose slowly from her seat. Nicci could sense the roiling power of the sovrena’s gift building around her like a cocoon of invisible but deadly magic. Her complex tapestry of woven braids twitched and writhed like a nest of snakes around her head. “You are not even one of us, Nicci. How dare you challenge me!”

“I dare much,” Nicci said, then lowered her voice. “You made a grave mistake by capturing my sand panther … but that was only your most recent mistake.”

Aloof, Thora glided down the two steps to stand on the open blue marble floor. Maxim leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his black pantaloons and placing his flat palms together. Nicci wondered whether he really wanted her to win—whether, as he’d said, his hatred for Thora ran so deep that he wished to see his wife destroyed—or whether perhaps he just wanted fresh entertainment in what he considered to be an endless boring life. Maxim said, “By our laws, she is allowed to challenge you. You cannot be afraid, Thora?”

The sovrena’s face twisted in a grimace. She glared at her husband, then swung her gaze to encompass the entire ruling chamber. “This foreign sorceress knows nothing about our laws, our traditions. This challenge has nothing to do with a pet animal. She is a spy sowing sedition. She came here pretending to request help for a powerless wizard, but she meant to destroy our way of life from the beginning.”

Nicci stood cold and defiant. “Not true. I would have liked nothing better than to find that this city was worthy of its own legends. But I swiftly realized that this is no perfect society at all.”

“You are in league with Mirrormask and his rebels,” Thora accused. “And I can prove it.”

The duma members muttered. Thora strode past her to a stone side table, where she picked up a porcelain water pitcher. Stepping to the center of the blue marble floor, the sovrena poured the water in a steady stream onto the polished stone. The water spread out in a broad, shallow pool. Thora cast the porcelain pitcher aside, where it shattered on the tiles. She held her hands over the puddle, summoning her gift.

The reflective surface of the water stirred, swirled, and became like a window into preserved images.

“We have been watching these strangers, along with many suspicious people,” Thora said. “This is a trick I learned from Lani before I defeated her. All of the washbasins throughout the city, the reflecting basins mounted on the walls, the still fountains—they are scrying pools.” And now she smiled.

In his tall chair on the dais, the wizard commander perked up, surprised. The other wizards muttered. Even Adessa took a step forward from the dais, watching closely.

“Any such pool is more than a mirror—it is a lens, through which I can observe, whenever I wish. What is reflected on the surface of the water can be reflected elsewhere, and I have watched Nicci and her impotent wizard companion. Behold!”

She swept her hand in a circular motion, and Nicci saw herself reflected in the image standing next to Nathan. The sound emanated from the pool of water. They spoke in low voices in his room, late one night. Nicci remembered the conversation, which took place after she had made contact with Mirrormask and his rebels. Thora had selected the words carefully, pulling out damning snippets.

We must find a way to overthrow this city’s leadership.

The duma members grumbled, but Thora smiled. She flicked her fingers, summoning more words Nicci had spoken in private to Nathan.

When we are doing the right thing, we are always in a position of strength. The ruling council will fall.

Nicci stood straight-backed, cold. The images shifted again:

As a sorceress, I am confident I could stand against any member of the duma. Maybe I should challenge them, become one of the rulers of Ildakar.

She was shocked to hear her own words condemn her, but oddly some of the wizards in the chamber seemed more appalled to learn that Thora had been spying on all of them. “You can do this from any reflecting basin? Any fountain?” Damon stroked his long mustaches, clearly agitated. “You can use a scrying spell to observe any part of the city? Any person?”

“Wherever I choose,” Thora said. Hearing the mutters of consternation, she turned on them. “Why? Are you plotting treason yourselves? If not, you have nothing to fear. Did you not just hear what the sorceress said?” She pointed an accusing finger toward Nicci, then down toward the repeating images reflected in the spilled water. “She has proclaimed herself guilty. Her own words prove that she intends to bring down Ildakar. She came here to sow discord among us. This is all part of her scheme. Watch.”

Next, Thora displayed images at night, from outside in a shadowed city square when she had first met Mirrormask and his followers next to the fountain—a fountain whose water captured the images and words.

I also support you, as do my companions. We can be a great help—if you have a plan. But the oppression in Ildakar is powerful.

And the masked rebel leader’s damning response: You are indeed one of us, Sorceress Nicci.

As Thora continued to show the results of her unexpected, magical spying, Nicci watched the distaste and resentment grow on the faces of the duma members. She defiantly faced Thora, who stood across from her on the other side of the spilled water. “You must eavesdrop on many private nighttime conversations … not just my own.”

She ignored the images wafting up from the scrying pool. “This changes nothing in my challenge to you. I made no secret—I call you out. Without your corrupt leadership, there would be no unrest in the city. There would be no need for a Mirrormask. You created this situation, and you must be removed.” Nicci stepped up to the very edge of the spilled water.

She thought about the lands Richard had freed, the incredible enemies he had defeated, the tyrants he had overthrown. If he could achieve such impossible victories, Nicci could do the same thing in his name.

Thora laughed. “Do you wish to lie? Do you deny your sedition before the members of the duma?”

“I deny nothing, because it means nothing. Those words don’t negate my challenge.” Nicci flashed a quick glance at Maxim, who nodded slightly. “By the laws of Ildakar, I still demand to face you.”