Page 88 of Shroud of Eternity (Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles 2)

From a side passage, where Nicci knew the apprentice handlers lived and slept, came the three who had replaced Ivan—the ones who had helped capture Mrra. Dorbo, the angry lantern-jawed man, stalked out, his hands clenched into fists. “By the Keeper, what do you think you’re doing?”

When Dorbo recognized Mirrormask, his mouth dropped open. The rebel leader said, “Why, we are throwing Ildakar into turmoil. It’s a shame you won’t see it.”

The rebels flung open cages and ran away as the animals burst out: emaciated and desperate spiny wolves, snapping swamp dragons, and blood-maddened boars. From a large pen two hooded figures loosed a gigantic scaly bull with two sets of prominent horns. The creature charged through the tunnels, bellowing. Its enhanced hooves clattered sparks from the floor.

Dorbo and his two companions stood in the way with raised hands, using their gift to deflect the stampeding monster, but the huge bull charged forward, drawn toward the handlers rather than shying away. The beast ran harder and faster.

Mirrormask ducked against the side wall as the bull thundered past. One of the apprentice handlers shrank away and fled, while tall Dorbo and his companion desperately worked their magic, trying to bring the monster under control. But it was too late.

At the last moment, Dorbo turned to escape, but the bull gored him, impaling him on all four thick horns. The senior apprentice vomited blood as his eyes bulged. He flailed, clutched at the ivory spear points that had sprouted from his chest.

The second handler went down, smashed under the onslaught, and the bull kept charging with Dorbo’s body dangling from its horns. The third apprentice was trampled under the steel-hard hooves, crushed into a broken horror of blood and shattered bones.

Now that the handlers’ manipulative gift had vanished, the freed animals rampaged with greater fury. Rebels spread through the tunnels, releasing countless creatures, while Nicci went ahead, looking for one particular barred lair. Mirrormask followed her, nodding at the mangled bodies of the three dead apprentices. “That went well, I think.”

Nicci felt a surge of relief when she saw the alcove that held her sand panther. She turned to Mirrormask. “Go find the fighter trainees and release them from their cells. You’ll find weapons there as well. Tell them to fight for their lives. This is more important than any arena combat.”

“As you command, Sorceress.” A hint of sarcasm tinged his muffled words behind the mask.

“Find Bannon, and tell him I am here.”

With a swirl of gray robes, Mirrormask flitted down the main tunnel to where the passages connected with the training chambers. The shouts of responding guards and warriors were drowned out by the cacophony of roars from liberated beasts.

Nicci stepped up to Mrra’s cage. The big cat looked thin, beaten down by captivity and brutal training, but she recognized Nicci, her sister panther. Mrra roared in triumph. Her feline eyes blazed golden.

Nicci wasted no time. She worked the latch, yanked the cold iron bars to open the door, and Mrra launched herself out, growling and purring deep within her chest. She licked Nicci’s hand with her hot, bristly tongue. Though other freed animals bounded past, the big cat did not want to leave Nicci’s side again.

“Come, Mrra.” She sprinted down the passageway to where it opened into the periphery of the warrior barracks. She stopped, because Mirrormask stood ahead of her with his back turned. He stretched out both arms, holding a curved sacrificial knife in his left hand, the one with which he had killed the Norukai captive, Dar. He glanced at her over his shoulder. “We have a problem, Sorceress.”

He faced a grim and snarling Adessa. The morazeth leader stood before him with her short sword raised. Smoldering piles of brown rags and greasy smoke, the remnants of incinerated rebels, lay on the floor on either side of Adessa. She must have killed them the moment they surged into the fighters’ barracks.

Now she blocked Mirrormask with a hateful look in her eyes. “You are a traitor, a gadfly, a hateful annoyance.” Adessa lunged forward with the point of her sword, and Mirrormask danced out of the way. He held up his sacrificial knife, clanging its blade against hers, but he had little finesse as a fighter.

“I will kill you in short order.” Adessa slashed a long cut in his gray robe, and he struck out with the knife, but the morazeth batted it away. “You seem to be all talk. You let others do the fighting for you—because you have no skill.”

Mirrormask glanced toward Nicci. “A little assistance, please, Sorceress?”

“I would be happy to.” She and Mrra bounded forward.

Adessa caught the rebel leader unawares when she swung with her brass-studded gauntlet, punching Mirrormask in the stomach, and as he buckled, she drove the butt of her short sword into his face.

The round pommel struck the polished mask with a hard shattering noise that broke his mirror into several pieces. Crying out, he reeled backward, dropping his ceremonial knife with a clang to the stone floor. He used both hands to hold the broken pieces of his reflection in place. Blood poured from between the cracks.

Nicci and Mrra both threw themselves upon Adessa. The big cat drove the morazeth to the ground while Mirrormask, sobbing for breath, scrambled away. He held his hands against his face as he disappeared into one of the many side tunnels that branched out from the training grotto.

Adessa fought off the sand panther, pummeling her with the hard gauntlet, and tried to stab her with the sword. The instant before the blade could pierce Mrra’s vulnerable hide, Nicci lashed out with her magic. She knew she could not strike Adessa through her protective spell runes, but she realized what she should have done during the combat in the ruling tower.

Nicci sent a surge of incandescent heat into the hilt of Adessa’s sword, and the morazeth yelped and dropped the blade. Even so, she managed to punch the sand panther in the throat, knocking Mrra away from her.

Just as Nicci and the sand panther were poised to attack, three more morazeth women charged in, blades drawn, ready to fight. Nicci saw no sign of Mirrormask, who had fled. No matter. She was ready to fight all of them.

With a squeal and a snort from behind them in the tunnels, two speckled boars charged into the chamber, thrashing with their tusks. One of the new morazeth shrieked and spun away, but the first boar gored her, ripping her thigh all the way to her crotch. The woman collapsed, fountaining blood, and the great pig stomped on her neck with a sharp cloven hoof.

Nicci and Mrra ducked into a side tunnel as the second boar thundered into the chamber, followed by three howling spiny wolves. Nicci hated to retreat, and longed to have her real rematch against Adessa, but the other morazeth had scattered as well, and more animals raced into the warrior barracks.

As Adessa retreated and the animals continued to rampage, Mrra growled, as if longing to join them, but Nicci placed her fingers on the panther’s well-muscled back. “We’ll have our chance. We will fight her again.”

She looked forward, remembering the tunnels, knowing where they led. “First, let’s go release Bannon.”

CHAPTER 70

Blood and magic hung like a vibrant mist in the air as the night deepened. Amos could smell it. He could sense it. He found it exhilarating, even arousing, and the young man knew exactly what to do with his arousal.

He had a few hours before the ceremonial killings at the pyramid. His mother and father would be making their preparations along with the duma, but the young man had no part in that, nor did his friends. Someday, Amos supposed, he would become a member of the council, if any of the other wizards ever died. He doubted they would retire.

But he was not overly eager. He had everything he wanted and no responsibilities. For tonight, he would merely be an avid spectator, watching the cascades of blood spout from hundreds of slashed throats. He hoped he could be close enough to smell the moist iron in the air. He licked his lips in anticipation.

While he wouldn’t mind having the shroud drop at occasional times, so he and his friends could go out and vandalize the stone soldiers, he

knew they would find other amusements even if the protective bubble remained permanently in place. No doubt there would be more entertaining battles in the combat arena. His lips quirked in a smile. Soon, according to the morazeth trainers, the bumpkin Bannon would be ready to die in the arena. Amos looked forward to watching what the cabbage farmer might do.

“That will be a thing to see,” he said aloud.

Beneath him, Melody whimpered.

He slapped her again for good measure, and she bit back another outcry of pain. The bitch simply wouldn’t learn. “If you stop making noises, I’ll stop hitting you. You’re so stupid.”

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