Page 69 of Siege of Stone (Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles 3)

“We would die,” Oron corrected.

“That is a valid definition of losing,” Nathan said in an acerbic tone.

An unexpected female voice came from the doorway. “You have me.”

With a rustle of armor and heavy boots, two Ildakaran guards led a slender woman in a dress of flowing green silk. Her stiff hair was done up in an elaborate sculpture of braids and ringlets. Her skin was as pale as Lani’s.

Nathan and Elsa lurched to their feet, but Damon turned to greet Thora, extending his arm in a welcoming gesture. “Quentin and I asked for the sovrena to be brought here.”

“She is no longer the sovrena,” Lani said.

“She is still a very powerful sorceress, regardless,” Quentin said. “We should not underestimate her powers. We need all the help we can get.”

Thora walked two paces ahead of the guards, as if leading them. Her hands were bound with thick ropes and chains, but the restraints were merely for show. Thora had proven that she could easily break free with magic if she so chose.

“When I let myself be captured at the wall, I vowed that I would fight for Ildakar. This is my city. My heart is the heart of Ildakar.” She entered the open speaking floor without a glance at her now-empty throne. “When I escaped, my anger caused a kind of madness in me. I did consider joining General Utros to betray Ildakar, and I am ashamed. That will never happen.” She looked at them with her green eyes, strong and confident. “But my gift is powerful, and I can help.”

“Help with what?” Nathan tried to control his uneasiness. “Please explain.”

Elsa’s face was flushed with anger. “You think you can return to our good graces? Damon, Quentin, and I sentenced you because of your crimes against Ildakar.”

“Ildakar is in a different situation now,” Quentin said, embarrassed. “A desperate one.”

Damon cleared his throat and said to the duma, “We have an idea to propose, something we have to consider as our circumstances grow worse.”

Quentin continued in what was obviously a rehearsed presentation with his friend. “We attacked General Utros and stung him like a wasp, but that wasp will be swatted. He is bound to attack us. We bother him so little that he has dispatched a quarter of his army on other conquests. He knows he will crush us, given time. Will we just wait for it to happen?”

Olgya snorted. “And how exactly do you suggest we use Thora to defeat him?”

The former sovrena turned her gaze to all the duma members. “That is a mistaken assumption. We don’t have to defeat Utros to keep Ildakar safe. The solution has been right in front of us all along.” She raised her voice. “How did we stay safe for fifteen hundred years?”

“The enemy army was turned to stone,” Lani said. “But we cannot restore that spell on such a scale.”

“No, not that.” Quentin sniffed impatiently. “Ildakar would be saved if we just raised the shroud of eternity again. The city could retreat safely into time as we did so many centuries ago. Then it wouldn’t matter what General Utros did.”

The proposal left the ruling chamber in sudden silence. “But the pyramid is destroyed,” Elsa said. “All the apparatus is gone.”

Damon said, “I’m a shaper, and I could re-create the equipment. We know how to do the blood magic.”

Oron pondered. “That might work. We could hide for a few centuries, and by then the general’s army would be long gone. None of our concern.”

Rendell was aghast at the suggestion. “But … all that bloodshed!”

“We just returned to the world,” Elsa said. “We would be trapped again.”

“We would be safe,” Damon insisted.

“Dear spirits, that would not be a good idea at all,” Nathan said. “You have to consider more than just this city. If Ildakar vanished, that huge army would range across the entire continent and wreak havoc on city after city.”

“But Ildakar would be safe and intact,” Quentin said with a satisfied smile. “The rest of the world has to defend itself.”

Nathan was appalled. “But all the blood sacrifices! That might be a massacre greater than any attack we could expect from Utros.”

“Yes, it would take a tremendous bloodworking, just as it did before,” Thora said. “Thousands of volunteers. Think of how many people will die if the walls fall and Utros ransacks the city! We cannot let that happen. Better to spend the blood of the people to save the people. I know that enough devoted citizens would make the right choice. Let them decide.”

“And you will need my help to accomplish it.” Thora lifted her delicate wrists to show the heavy bindings there. “I swore I would do what was necessary to help my city. I meant it.”

Nathan heard muttering around the chamber. He looked in alarm at Elsa, who had gone pale. Lani said, “But we have to wait for my Renn to come back.”

“We will wait until it is truly the last resort,” Quentin replied, sounding reasonable, just like Damon. “But for the good of Ildakar, we have to consider our options. Rather than let this city fall into enemy hands, we know what we have to do. Unless someone can think of another way to defeat General Utros?”

“I don’t like this,” Nathan muttered. “Dear spirits, I don’t like this at all.” Maybe when Nicci returned from Tanimura through the sliph, she would bring hopeful news, and they could have a different discussion.

“There is no reason we can’t prepare,” Damon suggested in a smooth voice. “We will spread the word throughout the city, start the people thinking about who is willing to become heroes to save our city by shedding their blood.”

Oron stood. “That is enough discussion for now. We all need food and rest. We are not thinking straight anymore.”

&nbs

p; Lani said in a hard voice, “Thora can’t be allowed to remain free, no matter what she promises. Take her back to her cell.”

“At least for now,” Olgya said.

* * *

Uneasy about the duma’s considerations, Nathan went back to visit the Ixax warriors. This time, he carried a disturbing book he had discovered in Andre’s library, an old diary. In the destruction of the villa, the shelves had collapsed and the volumes were scattered, but Nathan had read the journal with widening eyes.

He understood far more about these towering invincible warriors and everything they had sacrificed to become the Ixax.

As he walked into the chamber where the colossal figures stood, Nathan placed a calm smile on his face. He knew the two giants were watching him, and he wanted to keep them at ease. They focused on him each time he came to converse with them. For many days he had told the silent figures stories, regaling them with legends, even exaggerating some of his own exploits. The armored warriors knew Nathan Rahl as a person now, and he hoped the Ixax also remembered who they had been as humans.

Andre’s diary emphasized the fact with even more poignancy than anything Nathan had told them before. He held up the old journal with its brittle, brown pages. “I know who you are now. This is a diary written centuries ago in the hand of Fleshmancer Andre himself. It is from when the army of General Utros first laid siege to Ildakar, when the wizards were desperate for any means to save the city. Do you remember?”

He sat on a broken pillar of marble and flipped the discolored pages, skimming the scrawled handwriting. “Let me read you some of what he wrote. ‘I fear our city will fall. All of Ildakar is in panic. The wizards seek a way to fight back against this enormous horde. Our walls are strong, and our magic is strong, but the army of General Utros is like a swarm of locusts. Even if all our people go out and fight to the death, it will not be enough. We need stronger warriors, and I can create them.’”

---