Page 63 of Siege of Stone (Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles 3)

Barking dogs chased chickens into alleys. Children walked with their mothers, carrying dough for community ovens where the women would bake the day’s bread and carry it home in baskets. Nicci walked among them, calling no attention to herself. She remembered Tanimura as a thriving place with markets, crowded dwellings, inns and brothels, glassblowers and leatherworkers. She wasn’t a customer, though. She needed to find the D’Haran garrison.

Richard had begun to consolidate the new reaches of his empire. The first soldiers had come down to Tanimura by the time she and Nathan arrived here on their travels. Now she hoped the military had a significant presence in Tanimura so she could deliver her report about Utros’s huge army.

Pausing at the stall of a man who made jaunty hats, she asked, “Where can I find the garrison? Surely there is a commander here.”

“Of course!” the hatmaker said. “My, but they are excellent customers. Soldiers off duty love a fine hat for when they flirt with the ladies. My partner in the next block makes felt jackets and fur-lined cloaks. He and I are the ones who make the D’Haran army look so dashing.”

“I don’t care whether they are dashing,” Nicci said. “They need to be warned. Where can I find them?”

The man straightened his hats on display, running his fingers along a dyed feather. “General Linden is in charge of the garrison, since General Zimmer and Prelate Verna took a large expeditionary force to the south.”

“Verna?” Nicci asked, remembering Verna from the Palace of the Prophets. She was the one who had finally brought Richard in so he could begin his training. “With the Palace of the Prophets ruined and prophecy itself eliminated, I’m surprised there are any Sisters who need a prelate at all.”

“Oh, there are still Sisters, my lady. I don’t know what the world would come to if there were no Sisters of the Light! Who would hold the Keeper at bay, I ask you?” He chuckled nervously.

“Who indeed?” Nicci asked, then added in a firm voice, “Tell me how to find the garrison.”

It was midmorning by the time she worked her way around the bustling harbor, through market squares, to the district where the D’Haran garrison was. Because she had spent so much time in the city, some of the townspeople actually knew Nicci. Her dress was distinctive because she had always worn black, even among the Sisters who more often chose bright colors.

The D’Haran army had coopted several multistoried inns and warehouses. The buildings had been gutted and remodeled, and lumber from numerous sawmills brought in to erect barracks inside the compound. Soldiers wearing the armor of D’Hara marched on patrol. Tanimura would be a good beachhead for Richard’s expanding empire. Even though the city might have seemed the southern limit of civilized lands, Nicci now knew there was far more to the Old World, including General Utros and his vast army.

As two soldiers walked toward her, side by side, nodding politely to passersby, Nicci was glad to see that the Tanimurans were not frightened by the soldiers, unlike the reaction when Jagang’s army occupied a town. Nicci stepped in front of the pair, blocking their way. “Gentlemen, I need you to take me to your commander.”

The two young soldiers blinked in surprise. “That’s most irregular. I—”

“I am the sorceress Nicci. I fought with Lord Rahl.”

“Nicci?” cried the other guard. His eyes ran up and down her form. “I know your black dress, but your hair—what happened?”

“Are you soldiers or hairdressers? I need to speak with General Linden. I have news that Lord Rahl must learn immediately.”

“Yes, Sorceress, of course!” The two men turned about and walked at a pace brisk enough to satisfy even Nicci.

They led her through the gates of the garrison, where soldiers were practicing swordplay in the yard. They all stopped and looked at her. Someone whispered loudly, “That’s Death’s Mistress.” Nicci ignored the comment.

The headquarters building was a two-story wooden structure with open double doors. The three hurried up a staircase of fresh pine boards to the second level, where General Linden sat in his main office. He was busy at his desk, writing reports, folding them, dribbling red wax to seal them, and pressing the wax with the stylized “R” of Lord Rahl.

“Excuse me one moment,” he said without looking at them. He folded another document, scribbled with a quill pen, then sealed it with more wax, which he set aside to dry. Then he glanced up.

The two soldiers stepped forward to report, but Linden turned his full attention to Nicci. He was obviously surprised by the intensity he saw in her. The thin officer was no older than his midthirties, with a port-wine splotch high on his left cheek. The crookedness of his nose implied that it had been broken at least once, but he seemed a calm man, not an embittered veteran.

“General Linden, this woman is…” The soldier’s voice faltered.

Nicci stepped between them and approached the desk. She removed the rectangle of glass from her side, but kept the wrappings in place. “I am Nicci, companion to Lord Richard Rahl. On his orders, the wizard Nathan and I are exploring the Old World as his ambassadors.”

Linden sat back in his desk chair and smiled. “Yes, of course. I am honored to see you, and more than a little surprised. We received messages up from Renda Bay and a report from Cliffwall. Thanks to your message, General Zimmer and Prelate Verna took a hundred soldiers as well as the Sisters of the Light to protect the great archive there.”

Nicci was pleasantly surprised. “I am glad to hear that. The knowledge in Cliffwall would be very dangerous if it fell into enemy hands. Now, it is more important than ever to keep the archive protected.” She leaned across the desk and impatiently moved aside the document he had just signed. “General Linden, we must send word north to the People’s Palace as well as make preparations throughout the cities of the Old World. A vast army from ancient times has reawakened, and they are on the move.”

“Ancient soldiers?” Linden asked. “That sounds like a story told in the tavern.”

“It’s true, and they have laid siege to the city of Ildakar. So far, the wizards there have held them off, but now General Utros is dividing his forces, sending thousands of troops on exploratory missions. Sooner or later that great force will move north.”

Linden looked at the papers on his desk as if one of them might contain instructions for a situation such as this. Behind Nicci, the two escort soldiers muttered in surprise.

“I can’t emphasize the danger enough. Lord Rahl needs to know, and you must prepare. We have to fortify not only Tanimura, but all the cities up and down the coast. We need the D’Haran army.” She unwrapped the cloth from the glass rectangle Elsa had created. “Here is the proof you need.”

Nicci turned the magical window with its implanted images so Linden could see Utros’s ancient army covering the plain.

?

??They have already begun to move, General, but you have the advantage of time and distance, so long as you begin your preparations now.”

Linden stared at the images in the glass. “Dear spirits…”

CHAPTER 48

As the expedition departed from Cliffwall, Verna felt optimistic. The company included General Zimmer and half of his D’Haran soldiers along with the guard escort that had accompanied Renn on the journey from Ildakar. Captain Trevor and his men were pleased to be going home, although none of them relished the thought of another hard trek.

“A journey doesn’t need to be difficult if you know your way,” Verna said to the uneasy Renn, who was torn between his desire to go home and his wish to stay at the comfortable archive. He expressed his worries about getting lost, running out of supplies, fending off wild beasts, and countless other wilderness hazards. This time, though, they all rode horses from the D’Haran expeditionary force, and General Zimmer’s men knew how to make efficient field camps along the way.

Riding along, the wizard looked over at Verna. “I much prefer this to walking on sore feet, although I may change my mind after several days in the saddle.” He shifted his position, holding on to the reins of his ash-gray mare, and rubbed his already sore buttocks. “In Ildakar we have few horses. The city was bottled up for so many years, where would we ride? How would we feed them?”

“Didn’t your nobles use carriages to travel about the town?”

“Oh, sometimes, but they live in the higher levels and rarely need to go down to the lower districts, since they have household servants to run errands for them.” He rocked back and forth as the horses continued at a fast walk.

Verna stared ahead at the severe line of mountains that rose out of the great green bowl that had once been the Lifedrinker’s Scar. The wizard seemed intimidated by the range ahead of them, remembering the hardships of their first crossing. The people of Cliffwall had spoken of the legendary beauty of Kol Adair, although Renn had an entirely different experience of the windy mountain pass. He had complained about the thin air, stumbling over loose rocks, fighting through willows in the tundra. He hadn’t seen much beauty.

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