Next to Nathan, Bannon watched the inevitable approach of the dark blue sails of the pursuing ships, his face flushed with anger. “Looks like I’ll have another chance to kill some Norukai.” He touched the sword at his hip, a standard blade that General Zimmer had provided from the D’Haran spares. “Any sword is good enough, but I miss Sturdy.” He looked down at his unfamiliar weapon.
“You’ll get practice soon enough, boy,” Lila said. She was armed with a dagger and a sword she had retrieved in Renda Bay, and she looked fierce. “Stay by me, and we will make a good accounting of ourselves.”
Nathan knew how much the ungainly sword had meant to Bannon. Sturdy was a lot like the red-haired swordsman himself, unimposing and plain, but deceptively deadly. Nathan pondered the more ornate sword he had carried since leaving D’Hara. He had chosen it along with fine travel clothes to be part of his swashbuckling image. Nathan had considered the showy blade to be an important accessory for an adventurer, but now that he had his gift back, his real identity was that of a wizard. He could still fight with a sword whenever necessary, but the fancy, expensive weapon was not nearly as important to him—not as important as it would be to Bannon.
He undid the buckle and removed the scabbard. “My boy, you deserve this.”
Bannon looked at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Take my sword. It should be the best ever forged, considering how much I paid for it. The blade has served me well in many adventures, as you certainly know, but you would value it more than I.” He extended the sword. “It is my gift to you.”
Bannon was hesitant to accept it. “I’ve never used such a fancy blade.”
“You stab with the point and cut with the edge,” Lila said. “Nothing unusual about it.”
Nathan pushed the pommel toward him. “You’d best take this before I change my mind.”
Bannon accepted the sword from him. “Thank you, Nathan!” In wonder, he drew the blade out of its scabbard. Tears shone in his hazel eyes as he held the gleaming steel up to the sunlight. “Maybe King Grieve will see it and run away.”
“I would prefer that he come closer, so you can stick it in his heart,” Lila said.
Nathan felt warm satisfaction. “Give me your borrowed blade in exchange, so I’m not entirely unarmed.”
Bannon handed over his sword, then proudly strapped on Nathan’s belt and scabbard. “It is a sword more worthy of your skills,” Lila said.
“I still miss Sturdy,” he replied.
“You are the weapon, Bannon Farmer. A blade is just a blade.”
The hounding Norukai kept closing the distance, and it was clear they would converge soon with their furious rowing. From the deck, Nathan could hear the shouts of angry warriors and the pounding beat of the oar master. “They are relentless. And a bit foolish.”
One serpent ship pulled ahead of the other four, its oars moving like the blurred legs of a centipede. Standing behind the carved serpent figurehead, one Norukai roared out a challenge. He swung a spiked iron sphere on a chain.
Bannon recognized him. “That one is named Bosko. He forced Lila and me to row until we were ready to die.”
“He thinks highly of himself,” Lila said with a snort. “I can smell him from here.”
Bannon looked at her with a hard grin. “His stench could be fierce enough to kill an enemy.”
The foremost serpent ship raced ahead of the others as if Bosko wanted to capture them by himself.
Amber, Oliver, and Peretta huddled together in a quick conversation. “We can help,” Amber said. “Watch this.”
Oliver and Peretta stood beside her at the rail, shoulder-to-shoulder. They unleashed their gift and sent a joint wave of water and air that pushed across the sea and slammed the side of Bosko’s ship. Aboard the vessel, the Norukai scrambled to hold themselves in place as the force shoved them sideways and snapped several oars. Some Norukai ran to the rigging, while others crowded the opposite side of the tilted ship, adding weight to bring it back level. The oars began moving again, but the wounded ship cruised erratically.
The three young friends cheered. “We did it. We stopped them!”
Captain Mills shouted, “Steady ahead! We can gain more distance.”
Scrambling to gain purchase on his buffeted ship, Bosko held the carved figurehead as he swirled his spiked mace. He roared a challenge, calling them cowards.
Oron waited next to Nathan, his lips twisted in a frown. “It will not come to hand-to-hand fighting, not yet.” Impatient, he lifted a hand, palm outward. “We can strike them from here.”
Nathan smiled. “Those trainees did a good job, but we can put an end to this right now.” Together, the two wizards summoned twin lightning bolts. Both jagged spears of energy struck at the same time, blasting the prow of the serpent ship and vaporizing Bosko in the blast of magic.
“Must be all the gas pent up inside him,” Bannon said. Lila snickered.
The rest of the Norukai ships pressed closer, and Captain Mills looked grave. “Good thing those other fishing boats got enough of a head start. I hope they found coves and other places to hide, but those Norukai will keep after us for day after day.”
Behind them the smoke of Renda Bay towered like an anvil in the sky. The passengers stared at it, knowing their homes were now obliterated. The rest of King Grieve’s fleet clustered around the harbor town.
“We have to get ahead of them and sound the alarm to the other cities on the coast,” Nathan said. “They will turn around soon enough once they know they can’t catch us.”
“There’s another way I can help,” Olgya said. “A trick I learned back in Ildakar, and I used it to some effect back at Cliffwall.” Using her gift, she reached out to the water all around them and manipulated the weather to raise droplets. She summoned a fog bank as large as an island that spread out in a smoke screen behind them. White curls of vapor filled the air, hiding them from the Norukai captains. Soon, the evacuating ships disappeared entirely.
Nathan smiled as he saw the swirling fog. Olgya seemed in a trance as she thickened the wisps, weaving it like a great silken cloth of vapor. The serpent ships were quickly lost inside the smoke screen. “Most excellent. Now we can be on our way unimpeded.”
Racing ahead of the wall of mist, the ships sailed under sunn
y skies, heading toward the large cities in the Old World.
CHAPTER 65
Renda Bay burned uncontrolled for two days before all the fires died out, leaving nothing more than ashes and foundation stones. The main Norukai fleet had closed in outside the harbor, while several of the vessels pursued the three sailing ships that had fled the destruction. Eventually, they returned.
Meanwhile, Utros ruled only ruins.
During the worst of the blaze, First Commander Enoch sent scouts back up the river, keeping to the water to make it through the fires to reconnect with the main body of the army, which was trapped on the other side of the conflagration. Thousands of troops rushed to cut firebreaks with axes and swords and formed lengthy bucket brigades from the river, but still the town burned.
Despite their best efforts and inexhaustible manpower, the army saved only a few dozen homes and shops, a pale victory since the buildings were empty anyway. Afterward, while ransacking the ruins in search of any scrap of food, they discovered more than two hundred charred bodies caught in the backwash of the fire, their bones mingled with ashes. More losses.?.?.?.
Ruva combined her gift with Ava’s spirit to clear some of the burned buildings in order to fashion a command camp, and General Utros used one of the intact houses as his base. He looked at the devastation and said in a low voice that only First Commander Enoch and the sorceresses could hear, “I had hoped to feed my soldiers here. Are they supposed to eat ashes?”
Ruva glided up against him. “My preservation spell will last. The soldiers can keep marching all the way to Tanimura.”
Utros rounded on her, glaring through his gold half mask. “And what if they burn Tanimura to the ground, too? And every other town on the way? What if those people are willing to devastate every city in the Old World just to deny me a victory? How long can we last?”
Ruva gently stroked the skin on his intact cheek. “We will last as long as we need to, beloved Utros. We are loyal to you.”
