The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way (46 page)

Cazia’s grandmother, the Queen Counsel—was dead.
 

The roars from outside were sudden and vicious—what had happened in the tower had not gone unnoticed. The husband and wife clung to each other in terror where they stood against the wall, and the others, five soldiers in uniforms, stood in utter disarray.
 

Fire and Fury, they had to do better.

Issilas began to chatter at them, telling them about the stones. At least, that’s what Cazia assumed, because the soldiers immediately began snatching stones from the floor.
 

The merchant couple stayed where they were, apparently content to let others fight to save them. Cazia came down the stairs carefully, making sure she did not step on any loose kinzchu stones, but the soldiers had been quick to gather them up.
 

There was her mace, lying in a far corner in a puddle of nasty-smelling water. “Give me that,” she said impulsively.
 

“I will,” the husband said. He picked up her weapon and offered it to her handle first.
 

“Hello, new translator,” she said to him. He looked ready to object, but she didn’t give him a chance. “You and your wife are to start picking up these kinzchu stones. That’s what they’re called. Explain to the soldiers that none of the stones should touch me or I’ll lose my magic and won’t be able to make more.”
 

“B-but we—”
 

“Are not. Helpless. Bystanders,” Cazia said. “You’re going to fight. Now explain it.”
 

He began speaking to the soldiers in Surgish, and Cazia could only hope that he was telling them what she’d told him to say. His wife collected stones in the center of the room where a few had rolled far from the Evening Person’s body and Eshla’s, too.
 

Grandmother.
Cazia had learned she had a grandmother on the same morning she’d been Fire-taken from The Way. The same morning. Once, she might have complained that it was unfair.
 

Glancing through the doorway, Cazia saw blue-furred grunts running toward them. “Ready!” she shouted, pointing at them. The soldiers stood some way back, their arms cocked, and when the beasts appeared in the doorway, they sent a volley of stones through. The grunts collapsed. The merchant’s wife followed with one of her own that struck the lintel. Oh, well, at least she was trying.
 

Issilas joined the soldiers, her arm cocked to throw. Two more grunts tried to rush the doorway but collapsed when the stones struck them.
 

Then the two grunts lying atop each other in the doorway bellowed out their death cry, and all movement in the courtyard stopped. They began to burn, and so did the two farther out, which made the beasts in the yard flee in terror.
 

“We can’t stay here,” Cazia said, and the merchant repeated her words in Surgish. “We have to drive them out of the rest of the city.”

One of the soldiers responded to the translation with words of his own. The merchant said, “He wants to retake the sentry towers. He says it’s vital.”

Fury guide me. Monument sustain me.
“Fine,” Cazia said. “Let him know we’re moving this fight into the open.”

Chapter 29

Cazia sloshed through the stinking water close to the doorway and began another spell. This time, she created the biggest block of stone she could manage out in the courtyard beside the wall of the tower. The defeated grunts in the doorway were still burning when she hopped over them and knelt beside the block of granite. The First Plunder took some time to cast, compared to other spells, and she needed to be close to the stone. Hopefully, the burning grunts beside her, and their death cries, would keep the beasts away until she could finish.
 

The others chattered to each other in rapid, low Surgish, but Cazia ignored them easily. More difficult was the smell of burned fur and meat, the screams and roars from the other parts of town, and the knowledge that she’d just seen her own grandmother die.
 

No. She pushed all that aside and remembered the presence of that Other. Vast and powerful it was, and imagining she was communing with it was almost like the real thing. The gray emptiness that came over her thoughts was deep and silent, and she realized suddenly that the First Plunder was made powerful by the tremendous nothingness in her thoughts. This spell would be her most powerful yet.
 

The anti-magic spell passed into the huge granite stone almost as easily as pouring water in a cup. She gasped when she was done, and immediately cast the spell to break the stone apart.
 

It crumbled. Cazia snatched up her mace and backed away from the spreading pile. “Here!” she shouted. “Here are your weapons!”
 

Four naked young men in the doorway, newly restored to themselves, crouched low and tried to cover themselves. The soldiers in the tower pushed through them and began gathering stones in their arms. A grunt raced at them from around a corner, charging from the southern end of the yard, and the soldiers began hurling stones at it. One struck, finally, and it collapsed.
 

A wave of two dozen smaller grunts raced over the bridge and bounded toward them, jaws gaping. The soldiers bellowed out a war cry and began throwing stones as fast as they could grab them. The naked men joined in, one throwing stones by the handful in a spray.
 

Five or six of the grunts collapsed, one because it stepped on a stone that missed its original target. Their death cries caused the others to falter and glance back at them, which allowed the soldiers to throw at stationary targets.
 

After three more hits, the creatures retreated in terror. The men cheered, a sound that Cazia knew would draw more grunts.
 

The merchant couple emerged from the tower, their arms loaded with stones of their own. The husband spotted a grunt coming at them from the other side of the tower and he hurled a stone. It was a lucky hit, and the beast fell. The couple smiled at each other in open astonishment.
 

Another massive purple grunt charged from the north at the same time several blues came from the south. Issilas joined the others in throwing volley after volley.
 

It was working. Fire and Fury, it was really working. They were holding off an invasion of grunts by
throwing rocks
the way the Tilkilit did.
 

The purple grunt they’d taken down at the edge of the courtyard burst into flames, sending a wall of fire in every direction. The humans quailed from it, but the fire dissipated before it reached them. They lunged for the shrinking pile of stones once again.
 

At the other side of the door, Cazia began the process again. First, she created a block of granite, then infused it with anti-magic, then broke it apart. She ignored all the screams and roars, all the death cries and the crackle of flames. Even the steady, frantic pounding from inside the sentry tower meant nothing to her.
 

By the time she finished, at least thirty more humans had joined their ranks. They were men and women, young and old, all naked and filthy, and all burning to drive out The Blessing.
 

“Here!” she called, backing away. “Here!”

Many of the people crowding around the first pile of stones raced toward hers. Three soldiers grabbed an armload and ran into the sentry tower.
 

That left the transformed humans, the merchant couple, and Issilas out in the courtyard with Cazia. Surely that would be enough. Even better, the yard was littered with thrown kinzchu stones, which meant that, with each attack, more grunts collapsed simply because they stepped in the wrong place.
 

Fire. The wall of fire that had roared up from the fallen purple grunt had not reached the people throwing kinzchu stones, but it had reached the market buildings at the other side of the courtyard. They had caught fire, and the wind was blowing the flames toward the rest of the city.
 

Cazia began the Ninth Gift, glad she’d had a chance to practice it in Qorr during their escape. She felt the power reach out and wash over the city, smothering the fire with only her will.
 

She turned her attention back to the courtyard. The humans, kinzchu stones cradled in their arms, ventured farther from the tower to throw them at nearby grunts. For their part, The Blessing came only to the edge of the courtyard, their ears flat and their rear ends low to the ground. They paused only long enough to glance at the advancing humans and retreat in terror.

“We’re winning!” Cazia cried.
 

One of the men nearby burst open like a bag of blood.
 

A massive stone had struck him in the belly, tearing straight through him with a shocking red splash. Cazia was so startled by the sight that she just stood there, staring at his torn, twisted body. How strange a person looked when they were broken so completely; he no longer looked like a human being.
 

The others had stopped and stared as well. Then a second stone flew in, shattering against the granite wall of the tower. A third caught a woman on the top of her head, shearing it off.
 

The grunts had gathered at the farthest part of the courtyard they could, all the way out by the bridge and the river. The blue ones ran back and forth from the riverbank--it was too far to see clearly, but Cazia realized they must have been carrying stones of their own--while the larger ones threw.
 

To their credit, the people redoubled their efforts, screaming in defiance as they hurled rocks with all the strength the could muster, but the grunts hung back at the very edge of the courtyard, well out of range. Those who ran forward to move within range were targeted by the beasts and cut down.
 

“Issilas!” Cazia called. The girl rushed to her. Her face was streaked with sweat and her eyes wide with terror. Cazia held up five fingers, then turned her palm to the sky. The girl understood immediately. While Cazia began a spell, the servant gathered five kinzchu stones and held them in her upturned hands.

The Tenth Gift—the dart spell—didn’t actually require the scholar to hold the dart they were shooting. They usually did, out of convenience, but it wasn’t necessary. Another stone shattered against the tower, raining dust onto Cazia’s neck. Then one hit the first pile of kinzchu stones, spraying them across the courtyard. A third tore through a young man’s hip, leaving him screaming in the muddy yard.
 

Cazia and Issilas stood unmoving, far from cover, while Cazia went through the hand motions to cast her spell.
We are exposed.
The two of them would die as soon as one of the grunts chose them as a target. If they chose someone else, the girls would live. Only luck would determine if she died here.
Concentrate
. Only luck.
 

Issilas’s hands didn’t even tremble. When the spell went off, the five stones shot out of the girl’s palm. Each struck one of the blue grunts perfectly, and they collapsed. The purple grunts beside them stumbled backward in fear and surprise

“
Shihrah
!” was the cry, and two dozen filthy, naked people charged barefoot across the open field, stones in hand. Song knew their bravery was astonishing. Just astonishing.
 

Issilas had already picked up five more stones and Cazia began her spell once more, but she was barely halfway through when a sudden deafening roar from much too close behind her broke her concentration.
 

Without thinking, she ducked low and grabbed her mace. Something passed just above her, hitting the servant girl with a vicious wet smack.
 

Issilas! Cazia didn’t stand. She spun and saw that a massive purple grunt had gotten behind them somehow--Great Way, the thing was
huge
--and it was not alone. She jabbed her broken weapon against its foot.
 

The kinzchu stone in her mace was more powerful than the ones she made from scholar stone, and the beast collapsed immediately. The mace in her hand began to vibrate, the metal shaking so hard, it stung.
 

The second grunt lunged at the merchant couple, arms outstretched. “Blessing!” Cazia shouted, stealing Tejohn’s trick. The beast halted and turned toward her, its eyes wild with animal rage. Fire and Fury, how could Old Stoneface have given her the idea that this was something she should do?

She dove flat to the ground as the grunt lunged at her. Its raking claw caught on the back of her jacket and tore it, then it staggered, one of its feet pressing down on her left arm. Great Way, it was heavy.
 

Rolling onto her left side, Cazia lifted her vibrating mace and pressed it against the beast’s crotch. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to wait—

The kinzchu stone burst. The mace jumped out of her hand and struck her on the temple, making stars appear in her eyes. The grunt screamed and fell back, its fur matted with repulsive gray blood. Cazia rolled away from it—directly onto a kinzchu stone.