Ava’s spirit reached the stone wall and vanished directly through the rock, leaving only the chaos of settling papers and slumping books in her wake.
Franklin groaned in dismay as he looked at the storm of disrupted volumes. Books lay scattered with broken spines. Many pages had torn, the covers sheared off.
Nathan looked at Verna in deep concern. “We can’t remain hidden anymore. General Utros knows where we are.”
*
In camp after another day of marching through the foothills, the general stared at his campfire, trying to read messages in the flames. He felt the sadness of all he had lost, the loyalty to his emperor, the illicit love of an empress, and the fresh grief of Ava’s death. Utros shouldered the responsibility for those many thousands of loyal soldiers who had died in his service. Was conquering even a continent enough?
Ruva squatted by the fire, hardened and disturbed by the loss of her twin. When Ava’s spirit had manifested itself, Ruva’s broken heart had twisted with an even more intense determination, and now the painted sorceress stared into the flames at the general’s side, both lost in their own thoughts.
The flames flared, and Ava’s insubstantial figure rose from the fire, perfectly formed as in life, identical to her sister except for the mirror-image scars on their outer legs. Ruva gasped and opened her arms in an embrace. Ava drifted close and matched Ruva’s position, overlapping as if the two of them were fusing their auras into one united being.
General Utros faced the oddly doubled figure, awaiting the report of his spectral spy. Seeing the incorporeal image, First Commander Enoch also hurried over from his nearby tent.
When Ava spoke, Ruva’s mouth moved in tandem. Their words overlapped with an eerie resonance. “Beloved Utros, I have vital information. I searched the land, I followed connections, and I found the wizard Nathan Rahl and his infuriating companions.”
Her expression brightened with hungry anticipation. “They have a hidden archive of powerful lore within a few days’ march. The countless books are filled with incredible magic, devastating spells that Ruva could use to help you subdue the land. If you conquer Cliffwall, General, we could take all that information for ourselves.” Her shimmering face smiled. “It would guarantee your victory over the land.”
This was something Utros had never considered. An arsenal of forgotten magical lore? “Can you tell us where to find this archive?”
“Yes, beloved Utros,” the two women said in harmony. “It is hidden in a side canyon, and they have almost no defenses. They rely on camouflage to protect themselves. We would easily take the archive.”
Utros smiled. Even here at night, he kept the gold mask in place as part of who he was. He looked up at Enoch. “Cliffwall is our new target, First Commander.” He stared around at all the bright campfires like winking eyes spread across the hills where his army had camped. “Once we overwhelm the archive, we will strip it clean.”
CHAPTER 42
The sea was wide open around the Norukai ships as they lost sight of shore. Bannon took no joy in the expansive sight, even though it reminded him of how he and Ian had once stood on the beach at Chiriya Island, watching the ships sail by. The two had dreamed of seeing the world, though Bannon mostly just wanted to escape his father.
Now he dreaded where King Grieve was taking them, to the main Norukai islands.
Belowdecks, the oar master pounded on his drum, and the unfortunate slaves chained to the benches pulled at the oars to drive the serpent ships faster than the sluggish breeze.
After being beaten unconscious at the river mouth, Lila had been tossed to the deck near Bannon, her ankle also secured with a chain, the chain that had once imprisoned Erik. Now the morazeth lay bruised and battered, a captive just like him. Bannon couldn’t understand why she had allowed herself to be captured. She had caused it! It seemed a foolish risk.
As she lay motionless under the hot sun, he studied the symbols that marked her skin. The runes protected her against magic, but they did nothing against the brutal Norukai. Her body was mottled with bruises.
Lila finally groaned, and her eyelids flickered open. She snapped awake in an instant, fully conscious and alert. She thrashed against the ankle chain, and her wince told Bannon just how much pain she must feel. When her gaze locked on to his, she visibly relaxed. “So, I succeeded then. My memory is?.?.?.?fogged.”
“You certainly drew their attention.” The words bubbled out of him, rising in intensity. “That was a foolish stunt! Why would you do that? We’re both prisoners. Now you’re in as bad a place as I am.”
“I am in the same place as you are,” Lila said, as if that were reason enough. “That was my intent.”
“But why? What can you hope to achieve here?”
“More than I could achieve if these ships sailed off and I never saw you again. It was the only way I could stay with you. Now we have a chance.”
Bannon hung his head, and his long hair drooped over his face. “A chance? You are maddening. I don’t understand how you think.”
She frowned. “It is perfectly obvious. The Norukai ships were going out to sea, and that was my last opportunity to intercept them. If they had sailed into the ocean, how else could I rescue you?”
“This isn’t much of a rescue,” he said.
“Obviously, I am not finished yet.” She winced again as she shifted her body to inspect her bruises. She flexed her fingers, ran her tongue over the caked blood on her smashed lip. “I will heal.” She strained at the bindings around her wrists until blood stained the knotted rope. “I can work myself free eventually, but the ankle chain will be problematic.”
He looked across the open water, but he could no longer see the coastline, only endless ocean. “I have no doubts about you, Lila. I know what you’re capable of.”
“Of course you don’t have any doubts. I have never given you any reason to.”
Now that she was helpless, he feared the Norukai would drag her across the deck and rape her, although most of the raiders seemed to prefer their own beefy women, and their nightly lovemaking on the open deck sounded more like a brawl. Still, he had seen Norukai men ravish three of the female Ildakaran captives, treating them so brutally that two were mad and one was dead and tossed overboard. They thought of their slaves as nothing more than “walking meat.” Lila was a beautiful woman with a lean and shapely body. He dreaded what would happen to her, but he also felt a sick inevitability.
The first night at sea, a sneering young Norukai with fresh red scars on his face grabbed Lila’s leg chain, unfastened it, and dragged her away. She didn’t scream. Instead, she coiled, made herself ready. Bannon threw himself to the end of his own chain. “Leave her alone!”
The Norukai laughed, but Bannon was more stung when Lila turned and snapped at him, “Be quiet, boy! You only make it worse. I can handle this.” She tugged on her own chain, pulling back against the raider, but the Norukai yanked the metal links, nearly dislocating her shoulder.
After the Norukai man dragged her into the shadows beside stacked crates of stolen supplies, Bannon strained to hear her voice, sure that Lila would challenge her attacker, but she spoke no words. He heard a scuffle, a grunt, then a scream—but it was not Lila’s scream.
The Norukai man reeled back out of the gloom, drunk with agony, as he staggered across the deck. Holding her own chain, Lila stalked back to return to Bannon’s side. Several Norukai came running in response to their comrade’s groans. He pressed his palms to his crotch and blood dribbled between his fingers. The angry Norukai stared at Lila, but she faced them defiantly, holding up a fleshy handful in her palm. “I tore off his testicles, but I stopped at that. If another man tries to take me, I will make him eat them as well.”
She tossed the bloody sac with a splat onto the deck. The would-be rapist whimpered, then collapsed in a bloody mess. The Norukai prowled toward Lila, ready to tear her to pieces.
Bannon hoped his leg chain would be long enough for him to fight. L
ila stood her ground and prepared to die.
King Grieve strode over and saw the writhing, moaning man on the deck, the bloody testicle sac next to him, and he guffawed. Moments later, the other Norukai joined the king in bellowing laughter. “Throw him overboard,” Grieve said. “Worthless.”
They tossed the moaning raider, still alive, into the sea.
Lila went back to her place beside Bannon, and the angry Norukai men glowered at her before loudly declaring that she was too scrawny for their tastes.
*
The next day, after several captives were worked to exhaustion belowdecks, the oar master herded them back up on deck with shouts and growls and cracking whips. Bosko released Lila and Bannon from their manacles on deck and commanded them to go down to the benches. A foul stench wafted around him, which even the sea breezes couldn’t dissipate.
During the stifling heat of the afternoon, Bannon and Lila sat side by side as they pulled on the oars. Lila was a friend and sometimes lover, but she had never been much for conversation. As they pulled on the oars, Lila stared with hatred at the Norukai captors, yet with a calculating gleam in her eyes.
Chalk came down to jabber, fearful of Lila, but fascinated by her as well. In a clumsy whisper that was easily audible over the creaking oars, he muttered to Bannon as if it were a secret, “Pretty lady. Dangerous lady.” His pale face was mottled purple and yellow from where she had struck him. “No love for Chalk, though. Not me. I’ll never have love.”
Lila growled, “Cut me loose and I’ll love you until I break you into tiny pieces.” Chalk scuttled away with a last look at Bannon and retreated up the wooden ladder to the deck above.
“Pull!” the oar master scolded.
