Exuding confidence for the benefit of her ragtag fighters, Nicci marched into the woods ready with her gift and with her dagger. The twisted branches and thick underbrush made running impossible, but her fighters worked their way closer to where they could hear the clamor of the approaching army. Disappointingly, General Utros was not with this division, but she knew she would have her moment to face him.
She pulled in front of the others, intending to keep them safe. Not far ahead, she heard thousands of enemy soldiers crashing through the woods. She saw the first line of warriors shoving aside branches and underbrush, and they spotted her at the same time. Even though she wore a dark dress, her pale skin and blond hair made her visible in the gloom of the Hagen Woods.
But thousands of them came yelling through the forest, eager to wipe out the refugee militia. The ancient warriors were flesh and blood again, but they were gaunt, hollow-eyed, their cracked lips drawn back. Desperation clung to them like a tight garment.
As ten bloodthirsty men rushed to cut her down, Nicci extended her gift, found two large trees near the clump of soldiers. As she had done before, she heated the sap and flash-boiled the moisture inside the thick trunks. The liquid expanded, exploded, and the shattered trees hurled sharp wooden stakes in all directions. Just in time, she raised a shield to protect her own fighters, but the flying splinters killed dozens of the enemy in an instant. The shattered tree collapsed and toppled onto even more ancient soldiers.
Nicci detonated another towering oak, which wiped out another group of opponents, while additional ranks of the enemy division collided with her militia. Minimally trained but full of angry energy, the refugee fighters engaged in battle under the dark branches.
Nicci flung out walls of air like battering rams to flatten lines of armored warriors. She burst the hearts of some, when she could focus her pinpoint concentration, she struck out with wizard’s fire, and when all else failed, she used her dagger to cut throats and stab hearts.
The ancient soldiers kept coming, plowing into the woods and driving back the outnumbered militia. The enemy sacrificed themselves without even counting their losses. General Utros had given them orders to push forward and sweep into the city, and they would not be deterred.
Overwhelmed, Nicci’s refugees began to falter. Rendell had a deep gash in his arm, and his leather helmet had been knocked off. Thaddeus pulled him to safety as two attackers closed in on him.
Even Nicci couldn’t stop them all, and she felt the tide turning. “Hold the line! We can’t let them get through to Tanimura.” She lashed out with every trick she could think of, but her gift wasn’t infinite. The militia began to stumble back.
But as her fighters faltered and retreated, a tan panther bounded in and mauled one of the ancient soldiers. Mrra flattened the man and tore out his throat. With a roar, the big cat turned her bloody muzzle toward Nicci and thrashed her tail. Nicci felt a surge of delight. “My sister panther!”
More big cats dashed through the thick trees, dozens of them hidden by the forest shadows. As they struck, the ancient soldiers recoiled in primal fear evoked by the feline predators. Mrra’s new pride of cats was not large enough to thwart that many soldiers, but the terrified reaction was effective enough to make them waver for a moment. Mrra bounded close enough to brush against Nicci, and then she sprang away to attack more victims.
Nicci held her ground. Parts of the Hagen Woods were burning after her wizard’s fire, and many trees had fallen, shattered from within. The militia stiffened their resistance and fought harder.
Then more forms flowed through the thick forest like human shadows, a large fighting force of figures cloaked in gray. They attacked the ancient army from its flank, causing a sudden uproar as Utros’s soldiers found themselves fighting on two fronts. The gray-robed people fell upon the enemy division, using antique swords to hack leather and chain mail, severing arms and heads, thrusting through ribs. The unexpected support gave Nicci’s militia another surge of enthusiasm, and they pressed back, regaining the ground they had lost.
Nicci recognized the unexpected reinforcements—the Hidden People! As they fought in a shadowy blur, she saw a young woman with thin hair tied in a ponytail. Her gray hood had fallen back. “Asha! How did you all get here?”
“We came to fight for you, Nicci.” The girl slashed with her sword, catching an enemy soldier in the back. “You freed us from the zhiss, and now it is only fair that we help you.”
Nicci was amazed. When the sliph had whisked her away from Orogang, General Utros’s expeditionary force had filled the square, an overwhelming army. She had thought sure the Hidden People would be massacred. “How did you escape from the soldiers in Orogang?”
Asha laughed. “Escape? We killed them all. We have far more people than you guessed! And we knew where you were going, since you showed us Tanimura on the relief map in the speaking chamber. We knew all the mountain passes, the rivers, and the cities, and we decided we had to come here. We followed your sand panther.”
Nicci felt an optimism that would have made even Bannon proud. “Good. Now we can eradicate this division.”
They fought with redoubled fury and decimated the invaders. Nicci was sad to see how many brave refugees also died in the forest, but over the next few hours they succeeded in wiping out the entire division.
Nicci stood exhausted, her black dress stained and tattered from countless slashes. The forest was a blood-soaked bog, and dead bodies lay piled several deep. Her surviving militia members rallied around her, proud that they had managed to hold the Hagen Woods, but an even larger battle was still taking place in the main city.
Suddenly the branches in the nearby trees whipped about, leaves crackled, and a shimmering feminine form appeared in the air, the green-haloed outline of Ava. She looked outraged. “Utros will send you to the Keeper!”
Nicci summoned the remnants of her gift to tear at the wavering spirit. “I killed you once already.”
The spirit recoalesced from the onslaught and swooped among Nicci’s militia, causing fear but little harm. “Our army is many times stronger! Our forces will crush you all.”
Nicci said smugly, “And yet you will still be dead.”
Screaming with frustration, Ava rattled the trees again. Nicci shoved with her gift, and the spirit swirled away. “I will tell General Utros where you are. He wants to be the one to kill you.”
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After Ava vanished, Nicci looked into the empty air. Her defenders muttered in fear, but she scoffed. “Let him try.”
CHAPTER 79
The ships of the Serrimundi navy sailed north, following the Norukai fleet. The serpent ships raced along toward Tanimura, completely unaware of the armored vessels in pursuit. Olgya had summoned just enough mist to create a veil that hid them from the Norukai lookouts.
Harborlord Otto rode at the front of the Mist Maiden, wrapping his hands around the rail. Captain Ganley stood beside him, shading his eyes. “Are you tense? Or eager?”
“They are ahead of us, and I don’t want to miss the battle,” Otto said. “I’m glad we saved Serrimundi from destruction, but we’re still part of this war. Imagine how much harm a whole Norukai fleet will inflict on Tanimura! A small raiding party nearly wrecked Serrimundi harbor!”
Chuckling, Ganley stroked his beard. “But this time we know how to fight back. And when we come at them unexpectedly, it will be like a knife in their backs. It is what they deserve.”
Otto looked down to the water where the prow cut the waves into white foam. He was startled to see sleek figures swimming beside the Mist Maiden. At first he thought they were dolphins, but he recoiled when he recognized the human forms, the scaly skin, jagged fins. “Selka! Those are selka swimming beside our ship.”
Ganley watched hundreds of the sleek forms streak toward Tanimura, like escorts for the Serrimundi navy. “I don’t think we need to worry about them. The selka and the Norukai are mortal enemies. Ours is not the flesh they wish to devour.”
“We will feed them plenty after today’s battle,” Otto said.
All of the Serrimundi vessels had been armored with metal plating at Nicci’s insistence, and now their crews were trained with swords, spears, and boat hooks. Dozens of expert archers were aboard each ship, ready with baskets of pitch-wrapped fire arrows.
