Threading the Needle (54 page)

“Can they get in?”

“We've sealed the gates. According to Ty, we can hold them off, but not indefinitely. Father wants to use the ley against them. He wants to burn them from existence.”

“We can't! That's not what the ley is for.”

“But it was fine for Baron Arent and Prime Augustus to harness it
and use it to control Erenthrall, to control all of the Baronies and wield power in the nations beyond the plains?”

“They weren't killing people with it!”

“His Dogs were. And his Hounds. They were crushing the people of Erenthrall beneath the Baron's heel. The Purge proved that. All for control of the ley. And you were willing to go along with it, to be a part of it, as a Wielder. You would have been a Prime, eventually. Then what? Would you have rebelled once you saw what they were doing, what they were keeping secret? Or would you have fallen into line and become one of Augustus' supporters?”

Marcus had a point. Except he didn't know about Hernande, Cory, and the sands. She hadn't run to the Primes with that knowledge. She'd kept it to herself. She'd like to think that such a small rebellion then meant she'd have fought back once she knew more. It had already begun, after all.

Maybe she wasn't as far from Marcus' ideals as she thought, although it galled her to admit it, even if only to herself.

“We'll never know, will we? But I won't use the ley to kill.”

“We'll see.” He motioned the enforcers that had accompanied them forward.

“Where are we going?”

Marcus turned away, speaking over his shoulder as he moved. “To the pit. Lecrucius is already there, preparing for tomorrow.”

“Allan! Allan, look!”

Allan glanced back over his shoulder at Artras, then followed her finger. She'd stood up in the wagon and now pointed toward the south, the sun nearly sunk beneath the horizon to the west, the sky to the east already pricked with stars. The distortion over Tumbor hulked to the southeast, its purple-red and jagged lightning competing with the sunset, but directly south—

He squinted.

“Is that a spire?” Glenn asked.

“That's what it looks like to me.”

To the east, a shout rang out in Aurek's group. A moment later, he saw Aurek and another rider take off toward the spire. The rest of his men ground to a halt.

“They've seen it, too. Bryce, stay here with the group. Set up camp. No fires.” He hoped Aurek's men weren't stupid enough to light campfires either. “Glenn, you're with me.”

They took off after Aurek and his man at a ground-eating trot, following the dust trail. The sun eased beyond sight, the last flares of day painting the clouds overhead before fading into dusk.

By the time they saw Aurek's two horses drawn to a halt on a ridge ahead, both he and Glenn were huffing. Sweat crawled down Allan's back and his face felt gritty with dust. He slowed as he picked out the others.

Aurek looked back as they approached, his face a pale blur in the deepening dark. “We've got trouble.”

Allan and Glenn drew up beside the other two, gazed down into the flat below.

The entire area was lit with flames and ley light. An army encircled the walls of a small city, the black spire of what Allan guessed was the Needle rising out of its center. He'd seen similar spires in Erenthrall before the Shattering: the subtowers that the Primes had sown to support the Flyers' Tower. Ley globes lined the walls of the city and lit some of the buildings within. Fires also lined the walls, but the majority of the fire lay in a ring around those walls, highlighting where the army was encamped. A wide circle of darkness lay between the walls and the camp.

“Gods. There must be thousands of them. Who are they?”

“Gorrani.” Aurek spat to one side. “I recognized their banners before the sun died.”

“And their drums.” Allan thought Aurek's second was named Devin; he hadn't dealt with him much since they'd left the Hollow.

Allan strained and caught snatches of a hollow drumbeat.

“How are we going to get through them and the wall?” Glenn asked.

“We have the Wielders and the mages.” He emphasized the mages, watching Aurek. Now that the self-proclaimed Baron knew where the White Cloaks were located, he needed another reason to keep Allan and the Hollowers around. The only advantage they had was the power of the Wielders and those from the University. “They'll be able to get us through the army and the walls. After that, it's up to us.”

“Once we're inside the walls, you're on your own.” Aurek jerked his horse around. “Stay out of our way. If you find your Wielders, get out. If we find them first—”

He didn't finish, kicking his horse into motion, back toward their camp. His second did the same.

The two watched them retreat in silence. “Can Hernande and the others get us in?”

“Doesn't matter. It's the only thing keeping Aurek and his men from attacking our group and killing us all right now.” Allan turned to the Needle, frowned in thought, then headed back. “We need to talk to Hernande, Artras, and Bryce.”

Halfway to their camp, the ground shuddered with another quake. He barely broke his stride.

“T
HEY WILL ATTACK TODAY.
They are readying their men to storm the walls as we speak. They spent the night constructing ladders.”

“And driving us insane with their drums.”

Commander Ty didn't acknowledge Lecrucius' comment.

Marcus shifted uncomfortably on their vantage at the highest tier of the temple, where he stood with Father, Ty, Darius, Lecrucius, and Dierdre. An escort of enforcers surrounded them. Father stood at the far edge, looking down over his city toward the walls and the army of Gorrani on the far side. They couldn't see them from here, the angle wasn't high enough, but they could hear them. They'd started chanting at dawn, the drums that had beat a steady rhythm all night long changing tenor and accelerating. The chant rose in waves, cresting, then starting over again. It came from all sides of the city.

The wind flapped in the sleeves of Marcus' white shirt and his cloak. The banners of the White Cloaks snapped behind them.

“Are the White Cloaks ready?” Father asked.

Marcus drew breath to answer, but Lecrucius beat him to it.

“We are, Father. We have been preparing all night. The white fires of your prophecy will burn the Gorrani from our walls at Commander Ty's signal.”

A niggling pain crawled through Marcus' stomach. Ever since his confrontation with Kara the night before, he'd been uneasy. Five thousand Gorrani. Five thousand. Could he kill that many using the ley? He'd never killed anyone.

There was no other choice. If the Gorrani breached the walls, they'd kill everyone here.

Commander Ty glanced toward Marcus. “Until that happens, the enforcers are ready to defend the Needle and keep the Gorrani at bay.”

Below, the Gorrani chant reached its latest peak and broke.

“Then get to the walls. Marcus, Lecrucius, to the Needle. Dierdre, what about the people inside?”

“Most have gathered in the plaza, Father. They're afraid.”

“Then you and I will go down to the plaza and reassure them. By the end of the day, the Gorrani threat will have been eliminated and our cause proven righteous. The god Korma will prevail!”

Lecrucius, Darius, Dierdre, and most of the guards shouted out, “Korma!” but Marcus and Ty remained silent.

As they turned to disperse, a shudder ran through the temple, strong enough to knock a few of them to the ground, although Marcus remained upright. He caught Dierdre, keeping her steady, and she shot him a worried look.

“That's the fourth one since last night, and stronger than the last three.”

“I know.” As the rest of them regained their feet, he held her in reassurance. “Don't worry. Once the Gorrani are taken care of, we'll focus on the Nexus. I know we can stabilize it.”

“Because of Kara? She doesn't have the strength.”

“She's more powerful than Lecrucius, certainly more powerful than me.”

“That's not what I meant.” She grabbed him by the shoulders, looked him hard in the eyes. “You're stronger than her. Look at what happened in Erenthrall. She didn't have the courage to do anything about the Baron or Prime Augustus, but you did. Don't let her control you. Don't let Lecrucius control you either.” She punctuated the last statement with a fierce kiss, then pushed him away. Father was already descending the stairs, Ty and Darius at either shoulder, a dozen enforcers surrounding them. She rushed to catch up.

Marcus watched their retreating figures, then turned to Lecrucius.

“Shall we, Son of the Father?”

“After you.”

“Shit.”

Allan couldn't have summarized the situation any better.

Behind the cover of the ridge they'd used the night before, he, Bryce, Hernande, and Glenn gazed down on the massive army of the Gorrani. They had completely surrounded the Needle—Cutter had taken scouts out to verify this overnight—although there were spots where they weren't as concentrated, mostly away from the three gates. Their chanting rose up from the flat below in waves, had been escalating since dawn had touched the east with a soft but striking orange. The rhythmic beats of the drums awoke something feral in Allan's gut, punctuated by the echo off the walls. From this distance, in the sunlight, he could see figures walking the escarpment, even a few on the rooftops of the temple and buildings within, but they were mere spots of color and movement, nothing more. He couldn't pick out faces; he could barely pick out individuals.

“Can the mentors get us in, Hernande?”

“We can break the walls, but I'm not certain how long it will take. Using the knots as we have in the Hollow isn't a precise science. It may take minutes. Or hours. It depends on the walls, what was used to construct them, how thick they are.”

“But you can get us in.”

“Yes.”

Their safety from Aurek and his men depended on them delivering on their deal, even if Allan had no expectation that Aurek would follow through on his own end of the bargain. “So it's a matter of getting our mages to the walls and protecting them long enough to create a breach.”

“I thought that's what Aurek's men were for.”

Allan had thought to use the ley as a shield, as the Wielders had done in the Hollow, but Bryce's suggestion had merit. “It is now.”

“Once we get inside the walls, what happens next?”

“We find Kara and the others, grab them, and get out.”

“Easy. Where in hells are we going to look for them?”

Hernande shrugged. “The node. Kara will be close to the node, unless they're keeping her away from it purposefully.”

“We'll start there. Work our way outward from there if necessary.”

“It's unlikely Adder, Tim, or Aaron will be with the Wielders. If they're even still alive.”

“But Kara or one of the others may know where they are. It's the best we can do.”

As Allan finished, the ground shook, the tremor shuddering up from his knees into his chest. Everyone stilled, waiting to see if the quake would intensify, but it subsided.

No one said anything.

A patter of displaced rock came from behind them. Glenn looked back. “Aurek and Devin.”

Allan crawled back to meet them, keeping himself below the edge of the ridge. No one on the flat below knew they were here; no use announcing their presence too early.

“What's the plan?” Aurek asked without preamble.

“The Gorrani have the Needle surrounded, but their force is weakest on the parts of the walls farthest from the gates. We'll wait for an opportunity when their force thins out after they've attacked and then hit the wall.”

“How do we get past the wall?”

“Our mages will take care of it.”

Aurek and Devin traded a look. “Are you certain they can get us in?”

“Yes. But they'll need time. Your men—and ours—will have to hold off the Gorrani while they work.”

Devin looked doubtful. “The Gorrani are fierce. I've been to their lands in the south, seen them fight. They will not be easy to hold off.”

Aurek was gazing toward the Needle, even though all but the black spire was hidden behind the ridge. “If they get us inside, it will be worth it.”

Allan didn't understand Aurek's hatred of the Wielders, but it surpassed a simple desire for justice after the Shattering. It went deeper, was more personal.

Before he could ask what drove him, though, the drumbeat from the Gorrani altered, speeding up, the chanting following along, catching up, rising to a higher pitch, echoing from the walls and bouncing back toward the ridge. Allan turned and scrambled up the low slope, heard Aurek and Devin on his heels. He threw himself flat to the ground and scanned the distance—

And the drums and chanting halted, sharply, as if cut off with a blade.

Everyone held their breath, the air still.

Then, with a roar that reverberated through the earth, the Gorrani
charged the walls, defying the sudden flights of arrows that shot from the battlements, a slew of men among them carrying ladders. They converged on all sides at the same time, the tread of their feet thundering up and overwhelming their battle cry. Ladders began to rise, bases planted into the earth, men with ropes sprinting out ahead, lifting them up and over. Before they'd even struck the wall, Gorrani were scrambling up their lengths. From this distance, everything happened with excruciating slowness, all sounds subsumed by the general roar.

Beside him, Bryce licked his lips and said again, “Shit.”

Marcus and Lecrucius were in the outer stone garden of the node when the Gorrani chant escalated and broke off. Both of them halted, looking upward as they strained to hear what might come next.

The roar was deafening. Marcus winced, even though he knew it had been muted by the buildings and the distance between the node and the walls. The earth trembled, only this time it wasn't from a quake.

It was from the tread of five thousand Gorrani warriors.

“They're attacking the walls.”

Lecrucius turned without a word and strode into the Needle ahead of him.

As soon as Marcus stepped through the doors, both of his arms were seized. He cried out in surprise, struggled briefly, but enforcers had hold of him, not White Cloaks.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Isn't it obvious? I think it's time for a new Son to rise. A new dawn, so to speak.” Lecrucius nodded to the guards. “Bring him. Place him with the rest.”

“The rest?” Lecrucius didn't answer. He'd already turned and entered the stairwell leading down to the pit. Marcus struggled a moment more, until one of the guards twisted his arm, pain shooting up into his shoulder. He staggered forward, the guard only releasing the hold slightly when they hit the stairs.

The pit was active, ley spurting up in jets from the well below. White Cloaks ringed it on all sides, over two dozen of them. “Iscivius, is everything ready?”

“The Nexus has been aligned as you requested, Prime Lecrucius. And those you singled out have been secured.”

Marcus' gaze shot toward a small group herded by a dozen enforcers against the pit's wall, near where the crack ran up from the ledge to the stairwell to the ley-veined obsidian ceiling. He picked out Kara instantly, along with Dylan and Carter, the younger Wielder from the Hollow sulking with arms crossed. Two others—Hartman and Jenner—were with them; not a surprise, since they were strong supporters of Marcus himself. But the sixth shocked Marcus to the bone: Okata.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, Lecrucius breaking away, heading toward Iscivius, the enforcers dragging Marcus toward the other group. They thrust him behind the enforcers already on guard, nearly slamming him into the wall. He steadied himself, nodded to the others, but kept his eyes locked on Okata.

“I thought you were one of Lecrucius' followers.”

“He does not trust me because I am Gorrani.”

“What's going on? We were in the middle of preparing for the attack on the Gorrani when suddenly the enforcers showed up and dragged Jenner, Okata, Carter, and I out of the group and stuck us with them.” Hartman motioned to where Kara was partially supporting Dylan. “Iscivius said they didn't want us interfering.”

Marcus leveled a glare at Lecrucius. “It seems our sole Prime has decided to take my place as the new Son, without Father's knowledge.” Hartman gaped in astonishment, proving that Lecrucius had been right to single him out. Jenner pressed his lips together, although he didn't appear shocked.

“He could have trusted me.”

Everyone ignored Carter.

“What about us?” Kara asked. “Why did he bring us down here?”

“He knows you won't help him against the Gorrani. He wouldn't trust you even if you agreed. But it would have been safer to leave you and Dylan both in your rooms.”

Okata stilled. “Unless he intends to resolve all of his problems with some kind of accident.”

Marcus recalled what had happened to Sanderson. He could see the same realization in Kara's eyes. “We can't let that happen.”