But her body was encrusted with the black things, and they kept drinking her blood. Using her deadly magic, Nicci tried to stop their hearts, but the zhiss had no hearts. They were just tiny ravenous membranes.
Weakened from sudden loss of blood, she dropped to her knees on the amphitheater steps and fought to hold on to her strength. If nothing else, she would crawl down into the crater to contain them, even if she trapped herself as well. She needed to retain enough of her gift to form the shield, or the zhiss would escape. And for that, she had to be alive!
Outside, a woman’s voice was loud enough to penetrate the buzzing clamor. “Here, take me! Feed on me, and follow me to the light!”
It was Cora! The old woman ran from the palace archway, throwing aside her gray cloak to expose leathery wrinkled skin.
Seeing another victim, the zhiss did not need to be encouraged. Part of the swarm around Nicci shifted course, and countless thousands of the black specks rushed in to engulf Cora. The old woman kept running even as the black things covered her skin, plastered her face. She slowed, then staggered until she barely plodded forward, each step taking her closer to the sunken amphitheater. Countless zhiss drifted up after sucking her tainted blood and burst in the air, but thousands more swarmed around the old woman.
With her last energy, Cora reached the edge of the amphitheater and collapsed on the sloping ramp. Her body rolled down the tiers of seats as the zhiss closed in, dead before she slid to a stop at the third tier. Zhiss blanketed her motionless body, but now they were also drawn to the blazing beacon at the central stage.
Nicci pawed at her face to tear away the feeding creatures, felt the countless stinging bite marks on her skin, the loss of blood. Knowing this was her last chance, she called up a powerful wave of her gift. She heated her skin, hardened it, sent rippling bursts of force that scraped the bloodsucking specks away, and then with a heavy wind she herded the entire cloud toward the shining wizard’s fire, the waves of reflected light from hundreds of polished surfaces. The glow was irresistible.
She withdrew her magic from the blazing beacon, which made the light retract, like a setting sun. In the dark and empty city, the zhiss were drawn toward the light, following it like moths spiraling into their doom around a single flame.
Though drained from expending her gift and weak from blood loss, Nicci rose to her feet again and climbed down to the bottom of the crater and the blazing stage. The zhiss cloud closed in, nearly eclipsing the shrinking globe of wizard’s light. When the complete swarm was within the bowl of the amphitheater, she called up another wave of magic to establish a shield, a curved shimmering barrier like a bubble over the stage.
The zhiss were bottled up, but only for as long as she could hold the shield in place.
“Hurry!” Her voice was just a croak. She hoped the Hidden People could hear her. “I need you. Builders—now! You are ready for this.” A flood of gray-robed people rushed out from the sealed buildings.
Though her thoughts were dizzy, she shrank the shield, retracted the bubble to push the bottled zhiss farther and farther down toward the central fire, to contain them in a controllable space. The rim of the hemispherical shield dropped to the middle levels of seats, then kept shrinking, pushing the black swarm into a smaller and smaller confinement.
Inside the palace, Mrra finally smashed through the last shreds of the wooden door and escaped, bounding out of the building and into the streets to help her blood-spattered sister panther. Nicci fell to her knees and felt the blood-soaked fabric of her black dress. Mrra pressed against her, offering strength and protection, but Nicci could not let her concentration falter.
The bubble was now small enough that it was only a dome over the stage at the bottom of the amphitheater, a sealed prison with the waning bonfire and the buzzing zhiss. To maintain her strength, Nicci withdrew her energy that kept the wizard’s light glowing, and the fire died out, leaving the sealed bubble in darkness and all the frustrated zhiss trapped with no light and no blood. They battered against the invisible curved wall like thousands of vengeful hornets.
“Now!” she gasped. “Contain them!”
Architects, carpenters, stonemasons raced out, along with all the labor force they could need. They had drawn their plans, laid down their supplies, gathered their tools, and they were prepared. Working like agitated bees, the builders of Orogang threw long crossbars over the lower part of the amphitheater. They had already sealed the floor of the stage, caulked and bricked even the tiniest of openings. Next, they crisscrossed the beams and added a structural layer of wooden slats, which they covered with opaque tarpaulins, sealing the dome. More teams slathered the thick fabric with fast-hardening plaster. On top of that, they laid layers of bricks, building up an impenetrable cap to cover the imprisoned zhiss.
All the while, Nicci focused her effort into maintaining the shield that trapped the black cloud, holding them until the permanent containment could be finished.
The Hidden People moved in a coordinated flurry. They reinforced their solid barrier, covering any open gaps, then slathered the bricks with more thick plaster and mortar, layer upon layer, to a thickness of many feet and impenetrably black.
Before dawn, hundreds of workers had entirely sealed the zhiss in a prison that would hold them forever. No light, no blood, no freedom. They would wither away and die.
Nicci groggily realized that Asha was shaking her shoulders. “It is finished. You can rest now.”
The sorceress couldn’t even lift her head, but she slumped against the big panther who purred beside her. With a sigh of relief, Nicci released her hold on the gift, letting the inner shield fade. The zhiss were forever sealed within the impossibly thick and opaque walls of their enclosure. The solid barrier held, but the Hidden People would keep reinforcing it, thickening it for days.
Nicci didn’t know how long it would take for the zhiss to starve, to dwindle away to nothing, but she was certain they would never get out.
She didn’t have the strength to struggle as the Hidden People picked her up and carried her back into the shelter. She could rest with confidence now. As her eyes closed, she felt the weakness of blood loss and
the utter weariness from expending so much of her gift. But she would recover.
She had done what she’d promised. Now all she had to worry about was preventing General Utros from conquering the world.
CHAPTER 28
The smoke from moss-covered firewood had a sour smell, but the odor of decaying flesh bothered Lila more. She cautiously hunkered down across from Adessa. The older morazeth had an unsettling gleam in her eyes as she sat by her campfire.
Lila explained, “I am pursuing the Norukai serpent ships down the river, looking for my chance. I need your help.”
Adessa was puzzled. Her voice sounded distant and strange. “Why do you care about Norukai?”
“Much has changed since you left on the night of the revolt.” Lila frowned. “Nothing is left of Ildakar. The army of General Utros awakened and laid siege to the city, and then a Norukai fleet attacked us from the river. Ildakar vanished under the shroud of eternity again, and I was trapped outside. We can’t go back. No one can.”
Adessa turned her gaze to look at the severed head resting on the matted grasses. She glowered at it. “That’s what he just told me.”
Black bugs scuttled over the pus-filled flesh. The head was hideously decayed, the eyes swollen shut, the mouth sagging. It took Lila a moment to recognize the dark hair, the goatee, the distorted features. “That is Wizard Commander Maxim.”
“Sovrena Thora commanded me to bring back his head, and I am doing so.” Adessa unconsciously swatted away a biting insect. “He was Mirrormask and he wanted to bring down Ildakar. He has paid for his crimes, but not enough.” Her expression darkened, and she suddenly yelled at the decomposing horror. “You hear me, Maxim? Not enough! I will place your head on a spike before the gates of Ildakar, where the entire population can know what you did.”
