Nicci knew how to rally these diverse people, the many factions that disliked one another, the angry rebels who still held their grudges. “We must have warriors, but we know you aren’t all soldiers. Ildakar also needs material support, whatever the city can give. Swordsmiths must create weapons, blades, spears. Fletchers must make many arrows. We need armor and shields.” She swept her gaze across the former slaves in their tiers, the tradesmen, the merchants, even the gifted nobles in the high levels. “The recent uprising nearly tore Ildakar apart, but this is a chance for you to heal those wounds. I urge you to fight for your city instead of against one another.”
Oron gave her a respectful nod and added, “Our best hope is in a surprise attack. Let us train our fighters, gather our gifted. When we are ready, we’ll mass our army just behind the walls where the enemy can’t see us, then we will attack late at night, a strike as swift and deadly as a lightning bolt, and then return to safety behind our walls.” He extended a hand, pointing to the spectators in the stands. “We have to do a great deal of damage in order to make our point.”
Nicci focused on the sea of faces in the tiered seats. The buzz of conversation grew louder in the arena, accompanied by the percussive beat of clapping hands and stomping feet.
CHAPTER 27
The six Norukai vessels arrowed toward the harbor, their rows of oars like the legs of a centipede on the water.
Running along the docks, Captain Norcross shouted orders. He had spent many nights alone at a candlelit desk drawing up scenarios, imagining defenses against the hideous raiders. He had consulted with his fellow D’Haran soldiers, and together they had come up with many ideas, some of them ingenious, some impractical. Norcross had decided to implement everything he could. He didn’t have magic, but he did have tactics.
Now he raced to the end of the southern pier, watching his three large cargo ships move into position, ready to close like pincers around the oncoming Norukai. On the largest ship, helmed by Captain Mills, Norcross could see armed sailors crowding the rail on the starboard side. Bright pinpoints of light sparkled as a dozen archers lit pitch-covered arrows and loosed a volley that rained down on the first oncoming raider.
The Norukai scurried to extinguish the fire on the deck, but several arrows struck the dark sail, which went up in flames. Three of the raiders were killed by the burning arrows, and their crewmates quickly dumped them over the side.
The other five serpent ships pressed forward like hungry predators. Loud, bass drumbeats echoed from the raiding vessels, and Norukai warriors crowded the sides, eager to fight with swords, spears, and battle-axes. They chanted an inhuman-sounding howl.
Out on the water, bright wooden buoys marked positions. The Norukai paid them no heed, but the D’Haran engineers had practiced, setting their aim and their range, and the buoys marked the specific strike points. When the serpent ships approached the line, Norcross fought back a smile. “Catapults!” he shouted, and other soldiers picked up the order. “Catapults!” They knew exactly how and when to fire the giant boulders resting in the cradles.
Soldiers turned the heavy cranks on the siege machines, winding the cables and ratcheting the gears. Ropes groaned and long wooden beams creaked as they cocked back the catapult’s arm. Muscular fishermen loaded a boulder into the cradle, doused it with pitch, then ignited the missile. When a Norukai serpent ship passed the first marker buoy, Captain Norcross gave a signal, and the catapult loosed its stone. With a liberating snap and crash, the arm heaved upward and launched its burden. The giant flaming stone tumbled like a comet through the air.
Aboard the serpent ship, the Norukai shouted in sudden terror as the burning boulder smashed the hull. The people of Renda Bay cheered, seeing the tremendous damage. The crippled enemy ship veered to the south as the raiders struggled to regain control and put out the fires.
Meanwhile, the first vessel that had been peppered by flaming arrows also burned. The sail was nearly consumed, and now the fire spread to the decks and climbed the masts.
As raiders approached the watchtowers at the mouth of the harbor, the Norukai responded with their own fire arrows like a rain of shooting stars. Some defenders raised shields to cover their heads, but others had no such armor. Dozens of people fell, skewered as they fled for shelter.
Norcross felt isolated at the end of the pier with arrows pattering around him, thunking into the wooden boards.
The four intact serpent ships pressed in, relentless. The first raiding vessel ground up against the base of one of the lookout towers at the mouth of the harbor. Its carved figurehead smashed the head of the piers. Norukai boiled off the decks, some leaping into the water, others dropping onto the piers and surging forward.
Seeing them for the first time, Norcross was appalled. The raiders were as hideous as he had been led to believe, their mouths slashed and tattooed to look like serpent jaws, their bodies studded with spikes and horns implanted in their skin. They were monsters as terrifying as Emperor Sulachan’s undead armies, which Norcross had seen only once.
Another serpent ship crashed against the opposite pier and disgorged its army of invaders.
At the top of the twin watchtowers, the defenders shot arrows and hurled rocks down upon the raiders. From their high vantage, they should be able to massacre these invaders. Even so, Norcross felt sick as he drew his sword and ran to fight hand-to-hand. The scarred slavers didn’t seem to care how many they would lose.
Usually during raids, Kor’s warriors were like wolves chasing fat and stupid sheep, but now he saw that Renda Bay would be more of a challenge. The people were putting up a real fight and they had built unexpected defenses.
Kor let out a rumbling hiss deep in his throat. The villagers would still lose, but it would be a test for his raiders, and the Norukai liked to be tested. Harsh challenges made them stronger, just as their bleak windswept islands made them hungrier for conquest. Renda Bay’s resistance would only bring about greater retribution, and that was fine with Kor.
A flaming boulder from the second catapult hurtled through the air after the crack-smash of its released arm. The giant stone whistled overhead, and the Norukai crew on the target ship—Yorik’s vessel—used their oars in a furious but futile attempt to shift course. The projectile clipped the top of the mast, shattered the yardarm, and made the sail collapse.
Kor’s ship cruised into the small harbor, passing one of the new stone watchtowers. His vessel ground up against the nearest pier, and his fighters threw ropes to lash the vessel into place. Norukai warriors leaped from the decks and ran wildly down the docks with weapons raised.
Within minutes, they encountered a force of trained soldiers that stood against them—real soldiers, not simpering villagers, with armor and good swords. Kor resolved to claim those swords, even if he had to pry them from the bloody hands of fallen warriors.
Howling raiders slammed into the soldiers in a spray of blood and a crash of steel. These outside soldiers, strangers to Renda Bay, were well trained and not easily frightened. With some surprise, Kor watched several of his own warriors fall, cut down by the combat skills of their unexpected opponents. Dead Norukai bodies were roughly kicked into the water to get them out of the way.
For his own weapon, Kor preferred a long-handled axe with a rounded stone club on the opposite end. He swung it one-handed as he bounded onto the pier, striking viciously, left and right. He hit the first soldier who faced him, smashing his axe brutally against the steel sword. The soldier’s wrist snapped, and the man reeled away as he gaped at the strange angle of his arm, the protruding bone. Kor swung the weapon again, bashing him in the face with the rounded end. For good measure, he turned the weapon around and sank the axe blade with a wet, meaty impact into the defender’s chest. With his boot, Kor stomped on the fallen man’s ribs to yank his weapon free.