Akantha shot a nervous glance at Leonora, who nodded calmly and said, “I explained everything we know of them to her already. She has some… experience in matters such as these,” Leonora finished a little uneasily.
The crone cackled. “’Experience,’ she says?” the old woman’s voice sounded like something out of a bedtime story, all creaks and groans. “Oh, aye, I’ve plenty of experience in poisoning all manner of living things. It was a good choice by your red-haired friend, my Lady, picking the black fungus. It’s a delicate substance, easily destroyed by careless hands, but if used properly there is not a more final sentence of death this side of an axe to the neck.”
“I find myself wishing we had an axe that was big enough for the job,” Akantha said stiffly. “I despise the notion of poison, and if our quarry were men, I would never have considered using such a tactic.”
The old woman cackled again, a disturbing sound which made the hairs on Akantha’s neck stand up. “Young people have their morality, just like fruit trees have their flowers. It’s one of the few things you can rest assured you will lose if you’re lucky enough to live a few years more,” the crone croaked, “but when the time comes, just like with the flowers of the trees, your morality will give way to something much more meaningful. Something you can actually use. Until then, keep being a good little girl and enjoy those pretty colors and the sweet smell,” she spat.
Akantha felt her face flush and she stood to her feet, but Leonora gently grabbed her forearm. Akantha looked down, and saw that Leonora was shaking her head evenly. “I didn’t know how to prepare the fungus,” Lea said deliberately, “but I suspected that in one of the forests near here there would be a wise woman who does. She is the only person who can help us do what we must. And for myself, I have learned to ignore the more pointed bits that slide off her tongue.”
The crone cackled again and waved her bony hand before her, “You have nothing to fear from me, First Daughter of House Zosime. As your dear friend says, it is best to ignore old women much of the time.”
Akantha reined in her temper and slowly forced herself to sit back down at the table. She drew a few calming breaths, then she asked, “What is the plan then? And perhaps more importantly, what is your name?”
The old woman stopped chopping the vegetables for a moment to consider. “My name?” she asked blankly, “why, it’s been so long since I’ve used it, that I’m quite sure I don’t remember. Like anything which has no more use, I have discarded it.”
Akantha clenched her first, but kept her voice as even as she could, “It would be disrespectful of me to call you ‘old woman,’ or ‘nameless woman,’ so I would very much like to know what I should call you.”
The crone nodded and cocked her head to the side. “Your point about the awkwardness of describing me instead of labeling me is an interesting one.” She paused and tapped the fingers of her free hand to her chin, while the hand holding the knife rhythmically tapped the tip on the surface of the table. “What is it that binds all of us together, the thing which we will all share in time, and the thing which provides for everything we see around us?”
Akantha looked to Leonora, who shrugged and rolled her eyes. Fedora and Bernice appeared equally lost, as well. She sighed and thought for a moment. “Are you a riddler as well, then?” she asked the old woman.
The crone smiled, revealing a handful of rotting teeth. “A riddle is only a riddle if you don’t fully understand it. If you understand it, it becomes something… deeper.”
Akantha rubbed her eyes, quickly growing tired of this stupid game. “I am afraid I do not have the patience for this at the moment,” she said.
The crone shrugged her shoulders and returned to preparing the stew. “If you find the answer, you may use it as my name. Until then, you are free to call me ‘old woman.’”
“Very well then, old woman,” Akantha said through gritted teeth. Respect for elders and their wisdom was integral to their society. “What is the plan? How do we get the demon to not only eat the poison, but also prevent its expulsion until it has worked its foul magics?”
The old woman smiled and chided, “Poison is not magic, my sweet. It does not require supplications to dark powers, or the sacrifice of beautiful young flesh,” she said darkly. “It merely requires time to run its course, much like a disease. In some ways, poison is a preferable agent of death compared to disease, since an animal carrying a disease will often show signs of infection, but through careful planning and execution, poison can be made undetectable even after it has been consumed.”
Akantha shook her head. “Nothing can survive the consumption of black fungus,” she said with finality.
The crone nodded her head sagely, “Quite so, quite so… which is why our preparation is so very important.”
“We’re making bread because the old woman claims to know of a recipe for small bread balls which can’t be chewed through,” Leonora interrupted before Akantha could retort. “We’re planning to place small quantities of the fungus extract inside those bread balls, in turn placing those inside of a living animal, which we will finally place in the path of the demons. The large one’s appetite, at the very least, seems insatiable. I have little doubt that it will consume the entire batch if we prepare this bread properly.”
Akantha chewed her lip silently, running the plan through her head a few times to try finding weak points. “Much depends on the large demon consuming this animal. What kind of animal did you plan to use as bait,” she asked, acutely aware of how tenuous all of this really was.
Leonora laughed and nodded her head. “Well,” she began, “the demons at the river didn’t seem too impressed with the fish there, so that was out. We considered a pasture animal of some kind, but then I decided that it might look a little too convenient to the things. We don’t know just how intelligent they are, after all,” she lectured. Akantha hated it when people lectured her, but she held her tongue so that her friend could continue her overly long train of thought.
Seemingly unaware of Akantha’s irritation, Leonora continued pleasantly, “So I got to thinking, and I realized something,” she said abruptly. “I don’t think they’re just here to eat, my Lady,” Leonora said in a serious tone, “I think they’re here on some sort of forage, or an expedition to explore and sample everything that is here, much like ants. If they find something they like, they take it all, as with the plum orchard,” she said with a solemn look to Fedora, who nodded slowly as she listened intently to Leonora, “but mostly I think they’re just here to sample things. I have no idea what they’re after, but…”
Akantha waited a few seconds, and when Leonora failed to continue she finally bit. “But what, Lea?”
Leonora sighed. “I tried to think of something that would most certainly get their attention… something big, and something that they would never find this far west, or anywhere near the farmland here. Something which would only be naturally found in much rockier terrain,” she said hesitantly and looked at Akantha with a guilty expression.
It took a moment, but Akantha finally understood what her friend had done. “You didn’t… Leonora, you didn’t!” she blurted more out of incredulity than fear.
Leonora gave her the same false, sweet smile that almost always preceded trouble. “Why, I don’t know what you mean, my Lady,” she lied.
Akantha couldn’t believe it. The Great Hunts began in just a week, so finding one would be nearly impossible on such short notice, but if Leonora was incorporating something like this into the plan at this late hour, then she knew how to find it and bring it here. The ‘how’ was less important to Akantha than the fact that, out here on the edge of the Hold, Leonora had found a Stone Rhino.
That she had found the perfect carrier for the poison was the good news, as they are the hardiest creatures in the world. Even if a few bread balls ruptured, there was a good chance the Stone Rhino could survive long enough to deliver the rest to its target. The bad news was that only the males ven
tured this far away from their native rocky regions, and it was nearly the peak of rutting season.
Her friend never ceased to amaze, or irritate her.
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.”
Akantha rolled her eyes, but she knew there was no other choice. The old woman had said that the bread balls (which she had frequently referred to as ‘pills,’ a common term for all manner of elixirs and liniments in dry form) would dissolve within twenty four hours after their baking, and that even the acids and biles of the human (or Stone Rhino) stomach could not accelerate the process. Unfortunately, they had no way of knowing if the stomachs of demons functioned differently than those of humans, but there was no other way to deliver the poison in such a short time.
They reached the nearest hilltop quickly enough, and did as the old woman had bidden, spreading the foul-smelling contents of the corked vial around in a wide circle just before the first sliver of the sun was visible over the horizon. Within a few minutes, the entire orb had begun making its daily climb across the sky, and the breeze picked up as if on cue.
While they sat there, Akantha used the time to consider their plan of attack on the Sky Demons. How to best deploy the Black Arrows, how to utilize their motley arsenal of weaponry, and who should go in first while others provide supporting fire with their hunting bows. She was not accustomed to making these decisions, but the theory behind it was something she had learned at her mother’s feet when she was a very small girl.
As they sat side by side, Akantha reminisced about their many childhood adventures, in between more serious contemplations, like those currently before them.
“Akantha,” Leonora interrupted her from her thoughts.
Taking a second to collect herself, she turned to her friend. “What is it, Lea?”
Leonora breathed quietly for a moment before continuing. “Why have you not chosen a Protector?” she asked quietly. “You have been of age for years now, and the finest men in the land have all fought, in their own way, for the right to stand at your side. Some of them have even died for it.”
Akantha was stunned. She had not expected to be re-opening this particular subject until they had returned to the Citadel, at the very earliest. She furrowed her brow and thought about it for a few minutes.
Eventually, she leaned back on the rock they had chosen to sit beside and ran her hand through her hair. “I really don’t know how to answer that, Lea,” she said honestly. “I know that my time has come, and that in order to take my place in the world I must choose a suitable Protector, someone who can not only impose his own will upon the world, but mine as well.”
“I know that you take the burden of leadership very solemnly, my Lady,” she said seriously, and it surprised Akantha to hear her best friend use her title, or any title in private conversation. Leonora hesitated before blurting out, “Is it that you are afraid?”
Akantha’s eyes shot open and she lurched up into a sitting position, fixing her handmaiden with a fiery glare. “What do you mean by that, Lea?” she snapped.
Leonora made a ‘calm down’ gesture with her hands. “I mean no disrespect, Akantha. I do not feel the weight of responsibility that is on your shoulders, but if there is one thing I know above all else, it is that one should never judge another until having walked their path for awhile. Our paths are very close to each other, but they are also very… different.”
Akantha felt the fire leave her eyes, and for the first time she realized just how much had changed during these last few years. They had gone from being childhood playmates to ‘Lady’ and ‘Handmaiden,’ and even more recently they had become sisters in battle. But deeper than all of that was the bond of almost sisterly friendship, which Akantha cherished more than anything she could think of at that moment.
“I’m sorry, Lea,” she said quietly. “I suppose that in a way you are right… I am afraid.”
Leonora grabbed her hands in her own and squeezed them gently. “It’s only natural that a young woman should fear such a deep commitment, both physical and symbolic, not to mention lending her power to a man she does not yet know,” the red-haired handmaiden said soothingly. “You wouldn’t be the only girl to have doubts about the whole prospect, believe me…”
Akantha shot her a look, and after a moment she burst into laughter, which she quickly suppressed. Leonora looked confused, “What is it, Akantha?”
Akantha wiped a tear of laughter from her cheek and shook her head. “No, Lea, it’s not that,” she said and smiled, as if at some inside joke. “I’m not afraid of what passes between a man and a woman. It can’t be any worse than all of this, can it?” she asked, waving her arms at the empty vial and the Black Arrows, who had taken up a well-concealed position under a small rock shelf. At that, both women giggled uncontrollably.
“Even at its worst, it’s never quite this bad,” Leonora eventually admitted with a blush.
Akantha removed her hands from Leonora’s and stood up, walking a few paces before turning back to face her best friend. “No, Lea, I’m afraid of what might happen to my people if I make the wrong decision,” she said, feeling suddenly cold. “Look at my mother, for Men’s sake, the finest Hold Mistress in these or any other lands. Hypatios Nykator has her trapped within her own Citadel like some kind of trophy or prize. That is not the way of o
ur people, Lea,” she spat with a cutting motion of her hand through the air.
Leonora nodded and flicked her eyes left and right across the ground before curtly nodding and standing to face Akantha squarely. “Then you do not shrink from the responsibility,” she said in a tone which suggested she was no longer asking, but simply affirming something she believed, but had come to doubt.
Akantha felt her belly tighten and she took a slow step toward her friend. “Lea,” she began in a low, menacing tone, “if I were one to shrink from responsibility, would I be here trying to singlehandedly fight off an invasion of Sky Demons with nothing but a band of farmers, Ice Raiders, and a bottle of some crazy old woman’s Stone Rhino excrete?”
Leonora met her gaze and didn’t flinch. “Then my Lady must make a decision when we return, and I believe the choice is obvious,” she said tightly.
Akantha blinked and stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean?” she asked, genuinely curious what her friend meant.
“You are afraid of making a poor choice, and having that choice impact your people in a way which is harmful,” Leonora stated matter-of-factly. “Being afraid only means you are intelligent enough to see potential problems before they are obvious, so we should see to it that your first choice is one which can be undone, if necessary. There is no other way to ensure that you are not saddled with a choice which will haunt your forever, as Hypatios Nykator haunts Polymnia Zosime.”
Akantha was having a hard time following Leonora’s meaning, and she shook her head as if to say she didn’t understand.
Leonora smiled mischievously and moved closer to her friend. “What makes Hypatios Nykator so implacable?”
Akantha eyed Leonoroa suspiciously, but decided to play along. “He is a feared leader of men, and he has never lost a battle. No man would dare challenge him in warrior’s combat, for it is a certain death sentence. Even those who have dueled him in a deathless match have invariably become crippled.”
Admiral's Lady: Eyes of Ice, Heart of Fire Page 8
