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.
CHAPTER 77
When King Grieve’s ship collided with the Chaser, the impact threw Bannon against a crate on the deck so hard his head rang. He smashed his elbow, but managed to keep his grip on the ornate sword.
But he couldn’t react in time to save Nathan from being thrown overboard.
“No!” Bannon lunged, but the deck boards were slippery with spray and covered with a hard varnish of kraken slime. He sprawled on his back and rolled. Lila seized his wrist before he, too, fell overboard.
“The wizard can take care of himself.” Lila pushed his shoulder, turning him. “No time. Look!”
Bannon reeled backward as dozens of barbaric raiders leaped across the gap. The Norukai were a storm of bladed weapons, bulging muscles, and scarred faces. Their battle cries made them sound like hungry beasts.
“Hold together!” Jared yelled. With a hard, out-of-place laugh, the krakener captain wielded a long-handled hatchet designed for lopping off tentacles. With a sideways sweep, he caught one of the overconfident Norukai by surprise, proving that the hatchet could slice off a human head as easily as it severed kraken appendages.
Bannon braced himself with his sword, while Lila stood at his side with her sword in one hand, a dagger in the other. Her hungry grin looked more intimidating than any of the Norukai did.
King Grieve crashed onto the deck of the Chaser. His heavy boots thudded on the boards, and he swept his war axe back and forth with one hand as if it were a toy. Recognizing Bannon, he laughed aloud. His snort sounded like a loud belch. “Walking meat.” He strode forward. “Dead meat.” The blade of the war axe was as broad as the king’s head. The sharpened crescent edge gleamed like a silver smile.
The ugly and uncouth Atta thumped beside Grieve, and Lila hissed at her own nemesis.
The Chaser’s crew ran forward armed with boat hooks and clubs. They were strong from hard work and brave from wrestling kraken. The ten D’Haran soldiers aboard the ship also threw themselves into the fray.
Ignoring the other raiders on the deck, Bannon stepped up to face King Grieve with his fancy sword raised. “Of all these enemies, you’re the one I want to kill the most.”
Grieve charged like an Ildakaran bull, and the studs of his boots dug into the layers of hardened slime. He swung his axe with both hands, putting all of his effort into the blow.
The weapon would have shattered Bannon’s chest, but he twisted his body out of the way, calling upon instinctive training. He dodged the axe and twirled like a dancer, dropped, bent, and came up again. Keeping his sword low, he struck hard and sideways.
Grieve turned his thick torso so that the sharp steel clanged against the iron links of the chain around his waist, striking sparks rather than drawing blood.
Attacking him from the opposite side, Lila sprang upon the king with her dagger and short sword, slashing with a blur of sharp edges. “We’ll both kill him, boy.”
Then, like an avalanche, Atta slammed into her with crippling force, knocking her away from Grieve. Lila rolled on the deck and turned on her new foe, shifting focus without the slightest hesitation. While sprawled and scrambling to her feet, Lila swung at Atta’s lower legs and stabbed her dagger point deep into the woman’s meaty calf. Bellowing in pain, Atta smashed a hard fist down on Lila’s head, but Lila sprang to her feet and crouched, coiled to fight.
Grieve swung his war axe again with enough force to chop down a mast, and Bannon barely avoided evisceration. “Chalk talked with you. You twisted him. You tricked him. My Chalk!” He swung the axe again. This time Bannon met the blow with the sword. The steel was strong, but the vibration of impact shuddered all the way to the young man’s shoulder.
“Chalk was mad,” Bannon taunted. “You should have let the razorfish eat him down to his bones the first time.”
As expected, the comment sent the king into a blind rage. Bursting with sorrow and hungry for revenge, Grieve snapped his mouth open so that his face looked like a yawning, wet hole. “You will die for that!”
As he fought, Bannon felt a red haze rising around his vision. “A lot of people tried to kill me, and I am still here.” He became stronger, faster, every movement fueled by instinct and adrenaline. The deafening sounds of hand-to-hand combat all around him became more distinct.
Bannon hacked with the sword and carved a bright red furrow across Grieve’s chest. The king didn’t seem to realize he had been cut. He twirled the battle-axe and chopped down again, driving Bannon backward. The young man parried with the sword, slashed low, and nicked Grieve’s thigh, but the king contin
ued pressing.
In the harbor around them, the gifted defenders maintained the turbulence, swamping or crushing serpent ships, slamming wooden hulls against one another. Even with the blockade, dozens of the serpent ships had broken through and headed for the inner harbor, where they smashed into the docks and disgorged wild Norukai. They swarmed into the city, which had already started to burn.
Bannon couldn’t help them, though. He had enough trouble just trying to survive here. He would have to leave the rest of Tanimura to Nicci, Zimmer, and the others.
As if trying to cut down an oak with a single blow, Grieve swung his huge axe again. Bannon lurched to the side and collided with Atta just as she brought down her curved sword at Lila. If he hadn’t dislodged her, she would have severed Lila’s arm. With a snarl, the Norukai woman spun to lash out at him, but Bannon blocked her blade with his own and turned back just as King Grieve followed through with his axe.
Using the moment of distraction, Lila threw herself upon Atta, hacking deep into the woman’s right arm. The Norukai clacked her teeth together as blood spouted from mangled muscle, but she effortlessly switched her blade to the other hand and attacked Lila again. The air around them was filled with a mist of blood.
Grieve struck at Bannon again and again, each blow powerful enough to cleave a man in two. The young man dodged and recovered his balance. He was not afraid of King Grieve, and he did not want to back away. He wanted to kill the awful man. He met each blow with Nathan’s fine sword, striking back as hard as he could.
By now, though, his muscles ached from the effort, and his bones rattled from the abuse. As the red haze crowded in and tunneled his vision, he breathed harder; his pulse accelerated, his muscles tightened. His throat went dry. Every fiber of muscle, every drop of blood, every bead of sweat, every strand of his long hair became consumed with defeating the Norukai king.
