Nicci gave him a skeptical frown. “You should not make such a brash offer simply to impress your lovers.”
He turned as red as beet soup. “But, I can help! Sweet Sea Mother, you saw how I fought the dust people and the sand panthers. If we are attacked as we approach the Lifedrinker’s lair, what if I can buy you the seconds you need to complete your mission? That might mean the difference between success and failure.”
Nicci pressed her lips together, assessing the young man. In their battles against seemingly insurmountable enemies, he had indeed killed more than his share of opponents. “I admit, you can sometimes be useful. But know that if you go with me to fight the Lifedrinker, you could face certain death. I will not be able to save you.”
“I accept those terms, Sorceress.” He swallowed hard, struggling to hide his fear, since he clearly understood the risk in what he was suggesting. “I’m ready to face the danger.”
Victoria’s acolytes watched him with admiration, which only seemed to increase Bannon’s eager determination. Nicci doubted she could change his mind, and she admitted she might need him. “Very well. If nothing else, you may be able to distract a monster at a key moment so that I can keep going.”
Audrey, Sage, and Laurel hurried to give Bannon their farewells, and Thistle threw herself against Nicci in a furious hug. “Come back to me. I want to see the world the way it was supposed to be, but I want to see it with you.”
Nicci felt awkward, not knowing how to respond to the girl’s enthusiastic embrace. “I will restore the world if I can, and then I will come back to you.” The next words came out of her mouth before she could think better of it. “I promise.”
Thistle looked up at her with her large eyes. “And do you break your promises?”
Nicci gritted her teeth and answered, “Never.”
CHAPTER 51
After climbing down the outer wall of the plateau on their way to the Scar, Nicci and Bannon made good time even across the rugged, dead terrain. During their earlier scouting expedition, they had cautiously picked their way, exploring, but now that she possessed the right weapon, Nicci had a clear, firm goal. With the Eldertree acorn, she was on her way to kill the misguided wizard who had caused such appalling damage, had sacrificed countless lives, all because he feared his own death.
Nicci considered the Lifedrinker a monster, an enemy to be defeated at any cost; she did not think of him as a sick and frightened man, a naive scholar playing with dangerous magic. He was not Roland in her mind. He was a toxin spreading in every direction. He was a scourge who could destroy the world.
And this was the reason Red had sent her on this journey, accompanying Nathan to find Kol Adair. Save the world. She would do her part.
Bannon kept up with her without complaint as they crossed the worsening landscape, and Nicci was impressed with the young man’s dogged determination. After emerging from the dying foothills, they made their way on an arrow-straight path across the cracked and rocky Scar. Wind whipped the powdery dust of dry lakes into a salty chemical haze in the air.
Nicci focused ahead. She did not run; she simply did not rest. The barren landscape sparked anger and impatience in her. She picked up the pace, covering miles at a steady clip. Bannon kept looking from side to side, wrinkling his nose in the bitter air. They passed under the shadow of a goblin-shaped pinnacle. Spiky branches of a dead pi?on pine protruded from a crack in the rock formation.
Without stopping, Bannon took a cautious sip from his waterskin. A worried frown crossed his face. “Sorceress, is it wise to travel out in the open? Maybe we should try to hide our path so the Lifedrinker doesn’t know we are coming for him?”
She shook her head. “He knows where we are. I’m certain he can sense my magic. Skulking in the shadows would only slow us down.”
When Bannon offered the waterskin to Nicci, she realized her throat was parched. She drank. The water felt warm, flat, and slippery on her tongue. She handed the waterskin back, and Bannon fastened it at his side, then touched his sword and turned slowly. “I sense that something is watching us.”
Extending her gift, Nicci could detect that this desolate place festered with twisted life, the few surviving creatures that had adapted to the Lifedrinker’s evil taint. “Many things are watching us, but they don’t interest me unless they interfere with our mission.” Her lips curled in a hard smile. “If they do, then we will show them their mistake.”
Nicci intended to press forward without rest, without making camp, until they reached the heart of the Scar. They had left Cliffwall with the first glimmerings of dawn, and after they had trudged through midday and into the dry afternoon, their pace began to falter. She and Bannon perspired in the relentless heat, and white alkaline dust clung to them, making both of them look white as stone.
Nicci brushed the powder from her face and arms. Her black travel dress was now crusted with the harsh chemical residue.
After the sun set, thermal currents skirled up dust devils, blowing sand and grit into howling veils. As darkness fell, the building dust storm masked the strange stars overhead, but the two plodded on through the night. Near midnight, the raging winds had reached such a crescendo that she could barely hear Bannon behind her, and they grudgingly stopped in the lee of a tall rock. Nicci said, “Rest while you can. We’ll stop for no more than an hour.”
“I could keep going,” he insisted. His lips were cracked, his eyes swollen and red, nearly puffed shut.
“We are too vulnerable if we continue in this blowing storm,” Nicci said. “If we can’t see, we might fall into a pit, or the Lifedrinker could send dust people to attack us. We will stay here until it calms. It is not my preference, but necessary.”
During the brief respite, she released some of her magic to dispel the gritty residue from their chafed faces and burning eyes, but as she used her gift, Nicci felt the magic thrum and recoil inside her. Something else had detected it, tried to grasp it. This deep into the Scar, the Lifedrinker’s vitality-sucking power grew more oppressive. She immediately felt him struggling to gain a hold on her, to sap her strength and draw away her powers. Her small use of magic had triggered his response.
The howling wind and whipping sand diminished only slightly after midnight, but Nicci decided they had waited long enough. “We need to go.”
Bannon stumbled after her across the parched open terrain. The young man’s determined energy had flagged, and it was more than just weariness after the day’s long, rugged journey. Nicci could not deny what they saw. The closer they came to the Lifedrinker, the more they both began to weaken from his dark and oppressive thirst. He was draining them as well.