She thought of the small bone box and the glowing constructed spell. Despite her best efforts, she had been unable to decipher what Richard meant. Life to the living. Death to the dead. What did that mean? And how could she use it?
So many brave fighters were already dead, and Utros’s ancient army kept coming. The great military force should have been dead many centuries ago, but the petrification spell from the wizards of Ildakar had thwarted the Keeper. Every single fighter wearing the flame symbol should have gone to the underworld long, long ago.
Death to the dead.?.?.?.
With a sudden idea, she snatched out the bone box from her pocket and held it in her bloodstained palm. When the blood touched the bone, the energy of spilled life affected the delicate container and the scratched symbols. The markings intensified, glowed.
Life to the living. Death to the dead.
Thoughts clicked together in her mind, and she suddenly understood what was necessary, the missing piece she had forgotten. The answer had been there, but she hadn’t looked for it in the right way. She hadn’t thought the way Richard would think.
When trying to analyze the glowing, rotating sphere, she had performed a test she knew well. An obvious test. But while she had used Subtractive Magic to ignite a verification web, she had not used it on the constructed spell itself.
It was a form of constructed spell that contained a bit of original magic from the design of the Wizard’s Keep, from a time when wizards also possessed Subtractive Magic. Such a defensive spell from the Keep, she realized, had to contain Subtractive elements. Richard would have known that. Why hadn’t she seen it right away? No wonder Nathan, the Cliffwall scholars, and the Sisters of the Light had not been able to help her.
Her pulse raced faster as the answers came to her in the din of the surrounding battle. Without Subtractive Magic, the spell would be sterile! That was why Nicci could not find anything meaningful when she had initially tried to decipher the contents by touching the tiny sphere with her power.
It would not be meaningful without the direct injection of the Subtractive element! That was the missing piece.
Now she knew what to do, and it was indeed everything she needed, just as Richard said.
Nicci snapped shut the bone box again, covering the glowing spell. A hard smile crossed her face. She saw General Utros on higher ground outside the city, but he was far away, with an entire army between himself and Nicci. She had to get closer.
“I need to get a message to Utros,” she said. “An ultimatum.”
Hidden People slipped in among the attacking soldiers, killing many and then darting away. They were used to moving in the shadows. They crowded in among General Linden’s armed warriors, and Nicci called to get their attention. “Asha! I need you. I have a task for the Hidden People, and the war may depend on it.”
Asha killed another enemy soldier and withdrew, still holding her bloody knife. Five more Hidden People heard the call and fell back to present themselves. “We are ready to do whatever you need, Nicci.”
She leaned closer to the few eager volunteers. “No matter what it takes, I need you to get a message to General Utros. Go around the army or go through them, hide, dodge, but get to him by any means necessary.” She pointed to the distant figure high above the storm of battle. “Tell the general that I demand to speak to him. Have him meet me on Halsband Island.” She paused, and then added with a hard smile, “Tell him it is Nicci—the one who killed his sorceress Ava. He will come.”
Nathan’s eyes went wide. “Dear spirits, do you know what you’re doing?”
She felt the bone box in her pocket. “I’m absolutely certain. Richard told me this is all I need. General Utros has to come face me.”
Young Asha nodded and looked to her fellow Hidden People. “We will go for you, Nicci. At least one of us will deliver the message, at all costs.”
They flitted away through the streets, where their shadowy cloaks made them invisible in the raging battle.
*
As the fight continued and the ancient soldiers swept through the streets of Tanimura, Oliver struggled not to feel dismay. For every soldier that fell, ten more swept in behind him. It was like trying to empty the sea with a bucket.
Fearless, Peretta stood holding up her hands and curling her fingers to summon bright flashes of light she could throw into the faces of the enemy. The ancient soldiers saw what she was doing, though, and that made Peretta a target.
Oliver watched an archer draw an arrow and aim toward her, pulling back the string. “Peretta!” Oliver screamed, but she couldn’t move in time as the archer let fly. Instead, he remembered the training and pushed a gust of wind, creating a burst of air that deflected the arrow’s trajectory just enough so that it barely scratched the young woman’s shoulder as it streaked past.
Peretta ducked, wincing at the fresh wound, then grinned at him. “Thank you, Oliver.”
In retaliation, she blinded the archer with a flash of light, and Oliver summoned a small burst of heat that snapped the bowstring. Released, the bow sprang back, smacking the soldier in the head.
Amber joined them. “We have to find a better wa
y to fight. These spells, one at a time, can’t defeat such a huge army.”
“We’re fighting as best we can,” Peretta said.
Amber’s face was flushed. “But everything we studied at Cliffwall, all that we learned—there must be something we can use!”
Oliver shook his head. “We found the magic to summon all those poisonous scorpions from beneath the ground. That proved to be quite effective.” He sighed. “But there are no scorpions here in the city.”
“Not scorpions?.?.?.?but what else does a city have?” Amber asked. Her lips quirked in an eager smile, waiting for them to answer.
Oliver didn’t know what she meant. He had very little experience with cities. Cliffwall was clean and compact, and he had rarely been elsewhere. Cities like Tanimura seemed dirty to him, crowded and unpleasant. Peretta also shook her head.
Amber’s eyes gleamed. “Rats! Beneath any city there are thousands of rats.”
“Oh! We could use the same summoning magic,” Peretta said, understanding what she meant. “Call up the rats from the sewers, from the alleys, gutters, and midden heaps.”
A D’Haran captain with his group of beleaguered defenders shouted a cry of defiance as they were surrounded by overwhelming enemies. Raising his sword, the captain yelled for the others to join him in a fight to the death. He led a hundred soldiers against a wall of ancient warriors marching through a square.
“Quickly!” Amber knelt and placed her hands against the flagstones of the square. Peretta and Oliver joined her, shoulder-to-shoulder. “Remember what we used for the scorpions. Call them—call them all! Can you feel them?”
Oliver sensed the tingling in his fingers. “Yes, I think so. Little and furry, but with sharp teeth.”
“And hungry,” Peretta added. “They are very hungry.”
With their combined gift, they reached out, sent a call. While the minds of the scorpions had been tiny and susceptible, the rats were more intelligent. But the three young companions were able to convince the rodents that this was what they wanted to do.
