Admiral's Lady: Eyes of Ice, Heart of Fire by Luke Sky Wachter

Author:Luke Sky Wachter [Wachter, Luke Sky]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-04-13T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven: Wild Things and Deep Wounds

“So how are we supposed to find a Stone Rhino, exactly,” Akantha quipped at Leonora as they slogged through the muddy hillside. The sun had yet to crest the horizon, but its light was steadily creeping across the landscape like a herald proclaiming its coming Ladies and their noble Guardians. Persus followed a discreet distance behind them, keeping company with (or watching over, Akantha couldn’t be sure) three of the Black Arrow Ice Raiders’ finest archers. The band needed to be small to avoid detection, and Akantha didn’t trust these northerners enough to give them the advantage of numbers on an expedition like this.

Leonora kept her eyes forward as she replied, “The old woman seemed to think that with the proper use of some local herbs and spices, we would not have to track the beast.” She reached into the folds of her cloak and produced two small clay vials, one with a brown cork stopper, the other with some sort of melted wax covering the mouth. “She said we are to open the corked vial when we are standing atop the highest hill before dawn fully breaks and drip its contents in a wide circle, and if the winds are with us, the Rhino will come before the hour is up,” she explained.

Akantha was skeptical, but she had been taught long ago not to openly mistrust a wise woman, especially one from the wilds. “And what then? Will it follow us unquestioningly, knowing full well that we desire to sacrifice it to save ourselves?” Akantha was mostly just teasing her friend, but part of her was understandably very concerned about this particular aspect of the plan.

Leonora rolled her eyes as she would usually only do in private and returned to lecture mode. “No, my Lady,” she stressed the last word just enough to tug a smirk from Akantha’s lips, “after we confirm that the Rhino approaches, we are to dip the black stone arrowheads in the contents of the second vial, being careful not to breathe its invisible vapors in the process. These arrows, if they sink in to the shaft, should paralyze it within moments. The paralysis should last for eight to ten hours, depending on how large the Rhino is.”

Akantha blinked. “This is your plan, Lea,” she hissed under her breath, trying to keep her voice low enough that Persus and the Black Arrows could not hear. “We are to take stone-tipped arrows, dip them in poison, and lodge them to the shaft into a male Stone Rhino a week before peak rutting season, but only after we have poured whatever that is,” she pointed to the cork-stoppered vial, “out onto the highest hill before the sun fully rises into the sky? I never took you for a superstitious person, but perhaps I had you wrong.”

Leonora snickered and shrugged her shoulders. “My Lady is wise, as I have always known,” she said with a wink. “Besides, if that doesn’t work, I’m sure we’ll think of something.

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