“Tonight, we take care of everything,” Nicci said. “Lead on, Bannon Farmer.”
The tall young man trotted off, while Lila darted after him. The group ran past shuttered shops, overturned cobbler’s benches, a ransacked grocer’s stall, and finally into the alley where several potters had set up their wheels along with shelves to display their wares. At the end of the street, near a shared, smoke-stained kiln, anxious people armed with sticks stood together, barely managing to hold three spiny wolves at bay. Several men already lay dead on the ground, their chests torn open, their throats mangled.
Behind the cornered wolves, Nicci heard the wails of two young children and their mother trapped in a small potter’s shop. The door of old planks was too flimsy to offer much protection. One of the spiny wolves growled at the whimpering children and smashed at the door with a large paw, splintering the supports, but the jabbing spears and shovels kept the animals preoccupied.
Rushing toward the end of the street, Nicci snatched up a glazed pot from a nearby shelf and hurled it with perfect aim, shattering it against the skull of a wolf. The three beasts snarled, and the reluctant defenders backed away in fear. Nicci strode forward, palms on the daggers at her waist, while Nathan, Bannon, and Lila joined her.
She saw a flash of tawny fur, heard a familiar growl, and Mrra bounded up beside her. Nicci’s sister panther had prowled the streets of Ildakar after being released from the combat pits. Now Mrra was free, and because of her bond with Nicci, she didn’t attack the humans in the city.
Unlike the sand panther, these three wolves could never be captured and tamed, and Nicci had no intention of letting them terrorize or kill more people. She glanced at Bannon and Nathan. “We need to make this quick. Don’t let them suffer. They are monsters through no fault of their own.”
Lila nodded. “Yes, we have other work to do this night.”
Using her gift, Nicci would have reached out and simply stopped their hearts as the swiftest and most merciful way to end the threat, but the spiny wolves were branded with protective runes that rendered them invulnerable to direct magical attacks. She would have to kill them in a more straightforward way. Nicci drew her two daggers, Nathan held out his ornate sword, Bannon raised Sturdy, and Lila grasped a short sword.
The growling beasts knew their true enemies. They moved together as a pack and lunged. Nicci wielded a knife in each hand, slashing and stabbing. The wolves’ fangs glistened with ribbons of silver drool as they tried to tear into her, but she drove her left dagger up, plunging it into one creature’s throat, and then stabbed the other blade into its heart. Mrra dove on top of the beast, driving it to the ground.
The spiny wolf weighed twice as much as Nicci did, and its sheer momentum forced her to the street, still thrashing. Its paw tore a long wound in her bare arm, but she pushed the knives deeper. The wolf jerked and twitched. Suddenly, its head rolled free as Bannon decapitated it with a stroke of his sword.
Nicci shoved the rank-smelling wolf carcass off of her and found herself soaked with the creature’s blood. She yanked her knives loose, and blood ran down her wrists. She pulled herself up to see if Nathan needed help, but the wizard stood victorious over another beast, his ornate sword wet and red. He wiped the blade on its matted fur. Bannon and Lila had killed the third wolf.
Nicci gathered her composure. Dust and gravel clung to her bloodstained black dress, and sticky blood coated her fingers. She wiped her daggers clean on the wolf fur and sheathed them. Mrra came to stand beside her, twitching her long tail.
In the huddled shack next to the potter’s shop, two little girls and their mother yanked the flimsy door open and rushed out, sobbing, into the arms of a broad-chested man. The crowd cheered, calling out her name: “Nicci! Nicci!”
At the beginning of this violent night, these same people had shouted for Mirrormask, yet Nicci had been a more dedicated leader of their uprising. “Nicci, we continue the fight!” cried a voice. “You helped show us.”
“We’ve got to free ourselves from the nobles of Ildakar!” called another.
She turned to see two burly slaves wearing the drab garments of workers from the yaxen slaughter yards. Proudly, the men carried blood-soaked sacks, as if they held trophies. One man with a burn scar on his forehead strutted forward. He glanced down at the dead spiny wolves. “You killed those arena animals and you helped make the city safe. Meanwhile, we continue to fight our true enemies.”
The bloody sacks made Nicci uneasy. “And do you know your true enemies?”
The two defiant slaves walked up to her, ignoring Bannon and Nathan, while the other people in Potter’s Alley backed toward their shops. Opening their stained sacks, the men dumped the heads of four nobles onto the street. The dead faces wore frozen grimaces, their eyes still open. The neck stumps were ragged and still bloody. “These were cruel masters,” said the gruff man with the burn scar. “They beat their slaves, treated them badly.”
“They might have been gifted, but they were still vulnerable.” The second man chuckled. A few others in Potter’s Alley cheered, though most seemed shaken and nauseated by their own ordeal.
The scarred man said, “Even though Mirrormask deceived us, his words were valid. We will have our revenge, and we have you to help us, Nicci. We demand justice before we rebuild Ildakar. The slaves must be the ones who rule the city now.”
Before Nicci could speak, Nathan expressed his own troubled thoughts. “Dear spirits, you will all have to rule together to build something stronger for Ildakar. If you kill all the nobles and make yourselves the new ruling class, you’ll be as cruel and corrupt as they were.”
“Never!” sneered the scarred man, insulted by Nathan’s suggestion. He kicked one severed head with his foot, and it bounced down the street like a ball in a game of Ja’La.
“The wizard is right,” Nicci said. “I make no excuse for the corrupt nobles—I know what Thora and Maxim did. But Ildakar is your city, so don’t waste the opportunity. You have work to do, hard work, while I have my own mission, given to me by Lord Rahl himself.” She shook her head. “My companions and I have spent far too much time in Ildakar already.”
Even though the two burly, blood-flecked slaves looked cowed by her rebuke, they remained unrepentant as they stared at the four severed heads. Nicci was sure there would be much more killing before this unrest settled.
She couldn’t save the whole city; she knew that. Nicci would not become their new sovrena and impose her own rule. “You’re free now. Understand what that means. The people of Ildakar will have to make their rules and live with the consequences of their behavior.”
“I’m afraid that’s the cost of true freedom,” Nathan agreed. “There might be lean and painful times ahead, but it’s the only way you can truly value what you build.”
After the long and violent night, the sun began to rise on a new Ildakar. The sacrificial pyramid had been destroyed, along with all the bloodworking apparatus that Thora would have used to create a new shroud of eternity. The legendary city was now permanently a part of the real world.
Lila stood silent, looking at the dead wolves. Bannon said with his usual optimism, “This turmoil will settle down soon enough. People will see reason. They want to make a nice life for themselves.”
“They simply need to remember how, dear boy,” Nathan said, sounding reassuring.
An alarm went up as the dawn brightened. Sentries on the high walls that blocked off the city shouted, first one outcry and then dozens. Loud warning bells began to clang.
Lila looked up, frowning. “Those are invasion bells. They haven’t been rung in centuries.”
“What threat could be coming from out there?” Nicci asked, remembering the broad, empty valley bounded by a line of dry hills on either side.