Threading the Needle (41 page)

“Demons!” someone roared from within the attackers. “Mages! They're using the very earth against us! Fight them! Kill them before they destroy us all!”

Another explosion rocked the path, close enough that Cory raised his sword arm to protect his head from the dirt pattering down on him. Seizing the Tapestry, he reached out near the center of the melee before him, deep underground, and wrenched.

Earth erupted, flinging the bandits into the air and opening up a pocket of empty space in the fighting. The men he'd caught in the blast crashed down into their fellow attackers, knocking even more aside. Before they could recover, Cory reached left and then right, two new explosions breaking the attacker's loose formation, joined moments later by four more earsplitting cracks farther up the rutted road.

The attackers were screaming now, some in pain, others in panic.

“Stay close! Defend Baron Aurek! Stick with your units!”

But the unearthly attacks of the mentors and their students continued, some of the explosions stronger than others. Those engaged in fighting Bryce and the rest of his Dogs were the only ones not being targeted. Cory could see the sudden fear eating at the corners of their defense. Those farther up the path from Cory suddenly surged in retreat, piling into those fighting with the Dogs. When Bryce and the rest stood their ground, holding them back, a group of twenty broke toward the forest to Cory's right. Cory reached out, felt his fellow University students do the same, and earth and tree boles exploded. Three trees groaned, their trunks splintered by knots, and began to fall, the twenty men crying out and scattering to get out of the way, the earth continuing to geyser around them.

The raider's leaders roared orders, calling those who fled cowards
and bastards, their comments broken by curses and grunts of effort as they continued to fight. Cory straightened, sword dangling, and noted that the main group of fighters had maintained position. Another group had broken for the trees and the stream to the left, most of them charging through the barrage of earth geysers and split trunks without pausing, oblivious to the snap and crack of branches as even more trees toppled. When a few of them made it through unscathed, more broke for the safety of the surrounding hills.

But not all of them. Those that stayed still outnumbered Bryce and his men, and were now fighting with fear-driven fervor and intensity. Cory unleashed another knot as he saw two of Bryce's Dogs cut down. Through the hole made as their bodies fell away, he caught sight of the leader, his lord's jacket splattered with blood. He fought with a calm focus and grim set to his jaw, eyes narrowed in anger and determination. He wasn't bellowing orders to regroup, or berating his men for fleeing. He simply fought.

Until he caught sight of Cory. Then he paused. He raised his sword and pointed it toward Cory.

Cory raised his free hand—he never even considered raising his sword—and reached for the earth beneath the lord's feet.

Before he could twist the Tapestry into a knot and release it, ley fountained up from the earth on all sides. It poured skyward in curling tendrils and sheeting curtains, hemming the attackers in on three sides, leaving them only one avenue of escape.

Those hardened enough to withstand the geysers of earth broke beneath the onslaught of ley, crying out in sudden horror. They surged forward against Bryce and his men, no longer trying to fight free, simply fleeing in terror. Those few who tried to hold ground, including the leader, were shoved aside. A few fell and were trampled as Bryce's defenders were overwhelmed. They charged down the path, directly toward Cory. He dodged to the side and into the trees, ready to unleash a knot if necessary, but none of them even glanced in his direction as they sped past.

“Cowards!” one of the remaining men shouted from his position near Aurek, the leader surrounded by a dozen stalwart men who'd remained behind. “Cowards! Come back and fight like the Dogs you pretend to be!”

Aurek raised a hand to silence him. “Let them go, Devin.” He
glanced around the rutted road, pocked with craters from the knots Cory and the others had thrown, littered with over twenty bodies. The wall of ley curved around his position, hemming him and his men in, although it hadn't moved. None of the Wielders had the skill to shift the ley into new pathways yet. They'd barely managed to control it without an established network like the one in Erenthrall during their practice sessions.

Aurek's gaze dropped from the ley to where Bryce, Braddon, and the others now stood, shoulders bristling, hands clenched tight to hilts. The Hollow's Dogs had regrouped after being thrust aside by Aurek's fleeing men. The two remaining groups were about evenly matched.

Aurek and Bryce locked gazes. Both groups tensed, men shifting positions subtly, Devin stepping slightly in front of Aurek.

“You're aiding Wielders.” Aurek motioned to the gouts of ley behind him. “Hiding them. We've proof of it now.”

“So what?”

“They nearly destroyed us all. They need to be eradicated, before they can finish the job. Give us the White Cloaks and these mages of yours and we'll leave you alone. We only want the Wielders and their compatriots.”

“Like hells. You forget you were attacking our wagons before you even suspected we had Wielders. I don't believe for a second that you'll leave us alone once we've handed them over. And right now, I'd say they're our best protection against you lot.”

“Why you little shit.” Devin stepped forward, sword raised.

Aurek reached out and caught his fellow's arm, halting him. “You're making a mistake. I saw you fighting, Dog. We could use men like you in Haven.”

“At the cost of those who saved me in Erenthrall and have protected me since.”

“They'll turn on you, eventually, as they turned on us all.”

“No one knows what happened in Erenthrall. Least of all you, Baron.” Bryce twisted the title with contempt.

Devin's shoulders bunched again, and the tension ratcheted up another notch as everyone on both sides raised swords and settled their weights for another fight. But Aurek tugged Devin toward the path instead.

“We'll go. Quietly.”

The two shared a look and Devin relented.

The attackers edged down the path, toward the remains of the Hollow, everyone moving cautiously, ready for any sudden moves from the other group. Braddon gestured to Bryce, asking to attack, but Bryce shook his head, his eyes never wavering from Aurek or Devin. When the attackers from Haven had shifted past them, the Dogs stepped out into the road, the ley a white fluid backdrop behind them, and watched as Aurek and his twenty guardsmen began trotting into the distance.

Cory stepped out from the trees. “Are you letting them go?”

“We don't have the men here to pursue them, unless you've suddenly become a master of the sword.”

“Not recently.”

“So what are we going to do?” Braddon asked. “They're running, but they aren't done with us yet.”

“No, they aren't.” Bryce raised his voice. “They're gone, for now. Who's out there?”

Behind, the spouting ley died down, sinking back into the ground without a trace, like water absorbed by the earth after a hard rain. Behind the curtain of ley, Cory was shocked to see Sovaan, flanked by Jasom, Raven, and Mareane. Mareane looked pale, obviously not fully recovered from her seizure earlier. As the ley died, she lowered her arms and sagged into Raven for support. Behind them, a group of two dozen Hollowers—led by Paul and brandishing pitchforks and knives—wiped the fear-sweat from their foreheads. Hernande and Jerrain appeared from the left.

“Where were you?” Sovaan huffed. “I had to cloak the cavern entrance myself!”

“We were investigating the disturbance in the Tapestry. Research. Perhaps you've practiced it a time or two.”

“You cowardly little . . . cloaking the caverns was your job!”

Hernande stepped between the two mentors. “I'm certain you handled it magnificently in our absence, Sovaan.”

The pompous mentor settled down, rolling his shoulders back, chest pushed out. “Of course. It was nothing—”

Hernande didn't wait for the rest, shifting to Bryce's side. “What should we do? What do you need from us?”

“They're not going to retreat. My guess is they'll regroup back at the Hollow, then come after us again. We need to get everyone here that's
been injured back to the caverns, then cloak the path and entrance as best we can.”

“Paul, Sovaan, and the rest of you, see to the injured and get everyone back to the caverns. Jerrain, Cory, and I will handle hiding the path. Raven and Mareane, stay with us in case they return faster than we expect.”

Paul motioned everyone forward, and they began checking all of the bodies, carting off anyone who was still alive. Raven made certain Mareane was recovered enough to stand on her own then began to help, doing triage on anyone with visible wounds. Mareane was still trembling, too weak to help, her pallor gray.

Bryce had turned to his men. “Quinn, you and Reiss follow Aurek.” The two trackers took off, splitting up, each taking one side of the rutted path and vanishing into the woods. Bryce had already turned to Hernande. “We'll pull back to the caverns slowly. Are you certain you can hide the path?”

“We can.”

Bryce glanced over the pitted ground with a frown. “Did you and your students do all of that?”

“We did.”

“Well done. I doubt we would have driven them off without you.”

“It was the ley that drove them off. We only scared them.”

“True.” Bryce switched to Mareane, since Raven was still dealing with the wounded. “I knew you Wielders would come in handy.”

Mareane looked uncertain, as if she couldn't decide whether to be angry, affronted, or thankful.

“I thought you could use these knots of yours to kill, not simply move earth and fell a few trees.”

“It's too risky. People move, the earth and trees do not. The knot you intended for their heart ends up in their arm or in empty air or in one of your own men instead.”

Bryce considered for a long moment. “You'll have to work on that.”

Paul approached. “We have everyone who's still alive, including two of this group's men.”

“Good, we can question them about this ‘Baron' Aurek and his Haven. Maybe we can find out where his main camp is located. In the meantime, how many dead?”

“Four of our own, ten of the attackers.”

“Considering they outnumbered us at least three to one, I'll take it.” The Dog surveyed the stretch of path between forest and hills. “We're done here. Let's get everyone back to the caverns.”

As everyone began to pull back, returning to the caves, Mareane pointed to the sky behind them, in the direction of the Hollow. “Look.”

Cory turned, along with many of the others. Above the trees, blotting out the blue of the sky and the front of thick clouds rushing toward them, a heavy column of black smoke rose.

“That's too close to be the buildings in the Hollow.”

“It's the fields. They're burning the crops in the fields.”

A
TREMOR SHUDDERED THROUGH THE WAGON
, a counterpoint to the mind-numbing clatter of the wheels on the paved road, and brought Kara out of her light daze. As had happened during every earthquake since the quickening of the distortion over Tumbor three days before, shouts raced through the Kormanley group and the wagon ground to an abrupt halt. The enforcers closed in around it, while everyone else turned their attention to the gold-red-purple distortion that had grown on the horizon as they traveled.

“What's happening?” Adder reached to haul himself up from where he'd been sleeping into a seated position. He winced as he did so, his body still bruised from the fight. He raised a hand to the lump from the stone that had taken him down, still ugly, although the swelling had gone down appreciably.

Dylan handed over a flagon of water. “Another tremor. Not as bad as those first few after the distortion, but enough to be felt.”

“Are the White Cloaks behaving the same way?”

“They've formed the circle, to the east this time.” Kara waved toward where the enforcers were clustered protectively around Iscivius and the others, Marcus at the center. He'd driven a staff twice as tall as he was with a metal spike on the end into the ground as far as he could, then reached out to the others in the circle. Now he stood with head bowed down, eyes closed, as if he were praying.

“Any ideas at all about what they're doing?”

“I've been thinking about something Marcus said when they captured us, about the quakes redirecting the ley lines. I think they're checking to see if anything's changed since the last quake.”

“So what's with the spiked staff then?”

“A divining rod of some sort, maybe.” Both Kara and Adder turned to face Dylan. He shrugged. “We used to search for sources of water using a forked branch. Why not search for the ley the same way?”

“Like how Hernande and Cory use the sands. The rod helps them map the ley lines.”

“It can't possibly be as precise, though. The staff probably helps them travel the lines farther than they could if they were doing it individually. I don't see how it could give them the entire picture.”

“We could ask Carter.”

Kara's gaze flicked from Marcus to Carter, who stood in the circle with the White Cloaks, Iscivius on one side, Irmona on the other. Both of them had kept a close eye on Carter since Marcus had declared him part of their group, but Carter had kept his distance from Kara and the rest of them, never coming within twenty feet of the wagon, and he'd kept a low profile amongst the enforcers and the White Cloaks. Even Riley had stopped watching him, leaving it up to Iscivius.

“I don't think Carter would tell us, even if he were still speaking to us.”

Marcus suddenly shuddered and raised his head. His eyes locked with hers for a moment, before turning away to stare at the distortion. Then he broke his contact with the circle of Wielders and yanked the staff from the ground. He handed it off to Okata and began issuing orders.

“That was fast. They usually spend twice as long messing with that thing.”

“Maybe there weren't that many changes. It was a small quake.”

“Somehow, I'm not reassured.”

The circle of White Cloaks scattered, Okata and Irmona heading back to the lead wagon and horses with Marcus, the rest ranging throughout the group. The enforcers raced to new positions as well.

Kara hesitated, then made for the back of the wagon.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to talk to Marcus.”

But before she could climb down from the wagon, Riley grabbed her by the arm and thrust her back. Caught off guard—they'd been allowed out of the wagon to walk at various times over the past three days—she fell onto her ass, her elbow striking a crate with a painful jolt. Adder edged up to her side protectively.

“I need to speak to Marcus.”

“Not now.” Riley pointed at the wagon. “Stay here.”

“Can we get out to walk?”

“No, stay in the wagon. We're almost to the Needle.”

He stalked away, two other enforcers stepping up to take his place. They motioned them away from the edge of the wagon bed, and both Adder and Kara shifted backward.

As soon as they rejoined Dylan and Aaron at the back, Adder said, “Riley was afraid of something.”

“So were the White Cloaks. They were moving with a little more urgency than usual.”

“Riley said we were getting close to the Needle. Maybe that's it.”

No one responded.

The wagon lurched into motion again, Aaron straightening enough that he could see ahead of them. “Look.”

Kara, Adder, and Dylan shifted position so they could see over the driver's bench and around the driver and his enforcer guard. The guard glanced back at them, but said nothing.

Ahead of them, to the south, a thin spire rose out of the plains, black with a cold sheen to its sides, like obsidian. It cut into the horizon and blue sky like a blade, edged, and as the wagon rose over a small hillock in the plains they could see down into a wide, shallow depression at the spire's base. It rose from a massive, three-tiered temple that gleamed a dusky granite gray, stark against the yellow grasses and reddish soil of the land surrounding it. The temple exuded age, obviously built by masons, not Wielders, with stone quarried from a distance and carted here. The labor involved without the use of the ley to mold the stone must have been immense.

The temple and spire were surrounded by a ring of more mundane buildings built long afterward, with a city of tents around those. Spire, temple, buildings, and tents were enclosed by a circular stone wall. Blazing white banners flew from the walls and the temple, and they could clearly see guards, especially near the northern gates. More people were milling about inside the enclosure. Smoke rose from a few cook fires and chimneys, but Kara felt her skin prickling with the ley. She gasped as she recognized ley globes floating at various points around the ramparts, like those that had sat on the walls of the University in Erenthrall, although none of them were currently lit. They
didn't need to be; it was midafternoon, the sun high. But based on the power she could already feel emanating from the enclosure, they'd be lit by dusk.

“That has to be the Needle.”

“It's a damn fortress.”

“No. It's a node. An active node.” Kara tried to shift closer for a better view. “And based on what I can feel coming from it right now, it's the focus of all of the ley lines in the area.”

“Like the Nexus?”

Kara grabbed the front of Dylan's shirt in one fist. “It's exactly like the Nexus. Remember all of the nodes and ley lines we found in and around Erenthrall?” Dylan nodded, one hand holding her wrist now, although he wasn't struggling. “They were channeling the ley in an odd direction. Not toward Erenthrall, but farther to the west.” She released Dylan, who slumped back against the crates they'd been using as seats. She shifted to stare out the back of the wagon toward the northeast, toward where the distortion over Erenthrall squatted on the horizon, dwarfed by the much larger—and much closer—distortion over Tumbor. “They'd been altered.”

“Because of the Shattering.”

“No! They'd been disrupted by the Shattering, but since then they'd shifted. We thought it was because the ley lines were trying to stabilize somehow, to return to some sort of natural order, and I think that's true. But they couldn't, because the distortion blocked the ancient nodes in Erenthrall, like the one in Halliel's Park.”

“But that's not the case.” She could tell Adder still hadn't made the connection to the Needle yet.

“The ley lines we found in Erenthrall haven't been rerouting themselves. They've been redirected on purpose. By the White Cloaks. They're creating their own Nexus here at the Needle, channeling all of the ley lines to this one point.”

“And if they're right that the quakes are side effects of the ley lines reorienting—”

“Then the reason they check them after every quake is to make certain some of them haven't shifted their direction elsewhere.”

They all considered this in stunned silence, the wagon bouncing as they crested the rise and began to descend toward the Needle. Ahead
of them, a contingent of mounted enforcers raced ahead of the group, Kara assumed to announce their imminent arrival.

Another thought struck. “The quickening of the distortion over Tumbor must have wreaked havoc with the system. It must have cut off a significant number of ley lines connected to the Needle. The quakes must be those ley lines attempting to adjust, now that the nodes in Tumbor have been blocked.”

“And if what happened after the distortion in Erenthrall is any indication, the quakes are going to continue, possibly become even more violent.”

“That must be why the quakes around Erenthrall weakened in the last few months. The Kormanley stabilized the area by shunting the lines here.”

“But that doesn't make any sense. The Kormanley were trying to destroy the Nexus. They wanted the ley returned to its natural order. Why would they be creating their own Nexus now?”

Kara drew breath to answer, but held it when she realized Adder was right. It didn't make sense. “I don't know. Maybe they realized that the ley wasn't stabilizing itself because the natural nodes were blocked, so they were trying to fix it themselves.” But that didn't feel right either. She shook her head, more confused now than before. “Whatever it is they're trying to do, they need more Wielders. And now that Tumbor has quickened, they likely need them more than ever.”

The wagon jolted and Kara grabbed the back of the driver's bench to steady herself. The enforcer there jerked. “Sit back down and stay there, unless you want to lose a hand.” He shifted his own hand to the hilt of his sword for emphasis.

Kara pulled back, settling in next to Adder, Dylan and Aaron across from them. Both Dylan and Adder looked thoughtful, both churning over what they'd realized about the White Cloaks now that they'd seen the Needle and had some idea of what it was.

“What's going to happen to us once we reach the Needle?”

Kara didn't answer Aaron. Carter had probably already told Iscivius and Marcus that Aaron was just one of the Hollowers, there to help them with the horses and wagons. What did they do with those who couldn't control the ley?

Shouts rang out as they approached the gates, enforcers on the wall
ordering those below to get out of the way. A bell clanged, atonal, as if it were cracked, announcing their arrival. Kara strained to see ahead of them, but the enforcer next to the driver ordered her back down again. She could still see out to the sides where a line of enforcers had formed, holding a group of men, women, and children back so that the wagons could pass through. The enforcers wore the same red shirts and black breeches as those that had captured them, although they were cleaner, but the people all wore clothing like what Kara had seen throughout the Eld and Stone Districts in Erenthrall before the Shattering. The cloth was faded and worn, but it had been cleaned recently. The people appeared healthy and well fed, and all of them were pointing excitedly toward the White Cloaks, Marcus in particular, their faces lit from within with a mixture of awe and hope, as if they were witnessing one of the lords or Barons walking amongst them. Most of them carried baskets or bundles of cloth or were loaded down with crates on their shoulders.

“They look prosperous.”

“More so than even those of us from the Hollow.” Certainly more so than the groups Kara had seen scattered throughout Erenthrall.

“Maybe this Father they're all talking about isn't as bad as we think.”

“Erenthrall was prosperous, too, but everyone was still beneath the Baron's heel.”

As they passed into the shadow of the gate, Kara looked up. The stone archway was thick, at least ten feet wide, and riddled with small holes the size of her fist. The clop of the horses' hooves echoed oddly inside, deadened slightly by the heavy wooden doors banded with iron that had been swung open on either side. They passed beneath a slit with the sharpened points of an iron gate hidden in the shadows. She'd seen such things throughout Erenthrall—in the University gates in Confluence, as decorative spikes on top of the walls surrounding the manors of the lords, even as motifs in the mezzanines of the ley stations—but all of those instances had been decorative, or on gates rusted with age or disuse.

This gate had been cleaned, the spikes that drove into holes in the stone passing beneath them recently sharpened.

They passed into the Needle's courtyard.

The open area beyond the gates was crowded with tents, like a marketplace, but as they progressed toward the buildings surrounding the
temple and spire Kara realized that it wasn't a market. The tents were homes, like what the refugees had used this past winter for shelter, except these tents appeared more permanent. Ley globes hovered inside the few that had open tent flaps, and she caught heating stones scattered both inside and out. They passed a ley-heated oven, shimmering with heat as a baker reached into the central chamber with a long wooden paddle and pulled out two fresh loaves. A shift in the breeze brought the heavy aroma of the bread, making Kara's stomach clench with a sharp pang of hunger as her mouth filled with saliva. Dylan craned his neck around to catch sight of the oven. More scents assaulted them as they pressed deeper into the tents—the spicy sizzle of roasting meat, both fowl and something juicier, like boar; the tang of lye and soap; the stench of butchering; and the reek of manure and livestock. It was as if all of the districts of Erenthrall had been trapped behind the walls. A man herding five goats and a sheep fell in behind them for a time. Children raced around them, staying clear of Riley and the enforcers but otherwise running wild. A woman outside one tent stirred a deep pot of what smelled like beef stew, singing quietly to herself. A gaggle of two elderly women and a young girl were seated around pile of clothes, stitching. Two men were working on repairing a yoke and set of traces.