Chương 73: Leading Squirt

Staring at the devastation of the treebed she had led them to, Squirt found that she was not the only one stunned speechless. The ground had been ripped open, the roots and trunks ripped apart, and a tunnel at least twenty feet wide that went down into the ground, ripping up trees in its wake. And not a feybeast in sight. Turning Mole to race around the treebed to the other side, she found a gapping chasm, a valley of toppled trees and dirt at least twenty feet in diameter.

Black splotches and smaller groves in the dirt denoted other beasts that followed—basilisks. Lord Prince Ranin met her with Lord Norland on the other side, cursing at the sight of the destruction. He turned to Lord Norland.

"What is northeast of here?" Squirt answered first.

"A village, not a day's ride away." The lord prince turned his attention on her as she continued to have Mole pick his way across the devastation.

"What are we dealing with here?" Chief Huntress Lobelia rode up next, her face sour.

"A quake wyrm and a nest of basilisks." Squirt nodded in agreement, turning Mole around quickly returning to the lords.

"At least thirty, lord prince." The lord prince nodded.

"What do I need to know about a quake wyrm?" To his surprise, Squirt's eyes turned to Chief Huntress Lobelia. The other woman's eyes narrowing in dislike before she answered bluntly, "Four hundred razor sharp teeth in a circular mouth that expands and then collapses on its prey, the teeth pointed inward such that the only way to be released is to move back further into its mouth. It has enough earth magic to level half the forest and uses it on attack. The ground will shift." She nodded towards Squirt with a scowl.

"Fliers will be essential. It's weaker to wind attacks, immune to lightning and water." Squirt nodded.

"Ice might slow it down, but it's unlikely. It's strong enough physically to just smash straight through." Lord Prince Ranin asked Squirt, "And the Basilisks? Those are the ones with venom, correct? That we saw in Everwinter." Squirt nodded.

"Basilisk venom is deadly enough that one splash on an open wound would be a horribly painful death without immediate healer attention. Unless the healing potion is star quality, it will do nothing but prolong it. The venom drips as they move." She pointed.

"There. You can see the remnants." Lord Norland frowned.

"Need we clean those from the forest?" Squirt shook her head.

"No. It acts as fertilizer." Chief Huntress Lobelia did a double take. Squirt, unaware, continued as she was.

"After an hour, its benign. It's why I don't collect the basilisk venom, and why it's rarely used in assassinations—it's a nightmare to work with and starts losing potency immediately after hitting the air, a chemical reaction after that initial interaction that makes even dimensional pouches with time dilation ineffectual after a few hours. There may be a problem with overgrowth this time next year, because the same reaction that makes it lose its potency makes it better fertilizer."

Dropping her arm, she returned her gaze to him.

"My village used to use it on our fields. I might not be collecting it right now, but in general feybeasts are an important part of the ecosystem for a reason. They all provide something." He nodded once.

"I am concerned about the town." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Squirt bit her bottom lip.

"There are technically two, but the one in the most direct path accepted our solution to the traps. If we're lucky, that will divert it northward." Chief Huntress Lobelia's eyes flickered between Squirt and her lord before she burst out, "What solution?" just as Lord Norland asked, "And if we're unlucky?" Squirt blinked, leaning back slightly from them both before answering in order of rank. Bowing politely to Lord Norland, she intoned, "Then it will divert south and hit the village that chased us out."

Then repeated the bow to the Chief Huntress in pure deference as she said, "Our solution was to plant lantern peppers and have the wood cutters build stands for them at equidistant locations around their fields—""Are you mad?" she hissed out. Squirt glared and answered coolly, "The surge we experienced after doing it saw a 95% reduction in feybeasts reaching their walls." Chief Huntress Lobelia opened her mouth to say something then snapped it shut. Then narrowed her eyes slightly.

"It's too dangerous." Squirt waited. Lobelia's anger grew at her silence until Lord Norland cut in and asked, "Are there any concerns to be had about this development?" Exhaling out her nose, Squirt answered, "The only downside is that it makes the crops spicy—there's extra distance between the plants to give space to roads.

Travelers will be able to pass by safely so long as they remain on the roads, and so long as you don't intend to harm the plant or get too close to the bird nests in the upper reaches, the birds leave you alone. You can even harvest the peppers at night when the birds are asleep, so long as you don't move the plants too much, and the birds eat pests like insects and field mice that might otherwise eat at the crops." Lobelia gave her a hard stare. Lord Norland blinked repeatedly.

Lord Prince Ranin interrupted their brief interlude.

"Let us consider this possibility later." Waving his hand, he made a midair three-dimensional map of the area appear floating between them, and with slight twitches of his fingers, he manipulated the elements to draw in color on the thing with a thought. Squirt was so furious she almost didn't pay attention.

"Considering this trajectory… we should send a forward party. How fast does one of these things travel?" Lobelia answered while still staring suspiciously at Squirt. They discussed how far and where the wyrm likely was, and decided to send a faster, smaller party of hunters to provide the villages with aid and, hopefully, draw the creature in a particular direction.

Anvanil would go with the forward party, communicating with Ranin when they discover the creature's heading had changed so the reinforcements could head in as straight a line as possible. Luckily, the giant crescent in the earth meant an easy path for fast steeds.

"Alright. That will be the plan, then. Athereon, I want you to lead the forward party—" Chief Huntress Lobelia burst out, "What—" The lord prince just talked over her protestations.

"—and take your group with you, as well as Huntress Lobelia—"" Chief Huntress—" the woman snapped out. Distinctly annoyed, Lord Prince Ranin continued, "—and a team of her hunters. Between the heavy hitters on your team and their local knowledge, I'm hoping you can contain it. If the villages have been hit, call for Jezalin using a beacon—""A beacon —" Lord Prince Ranin must have had enough interruptions. One moment, he was in his saddle.

The next, his riderless horse reared, prancing in nervous energy while a blast made Squirt's ears ring. As the dust settled, her eyes fell on Lord Prince Ranin standing with his boot on Chief Huntress Lobelia's chest, a sword of ice nicking her neck, a drop of blood tracing a line up towards the back of her jaw. From the wideness of her eyes and the distinct, visible heaviness of the air around him, he was crushing her with the sheer force of his magic as he stood over her.

His voice echoed with power not of command over her, as she was not beholden to him, but with the inherent power he'd been blessed with.

"You will put aside your differences, Chief Huntress. Do I make myself clear?" Having no other recourse except to die, she gave the barest of nods. He pulled the sword off her but kept his boot on her chest.

"Good. Lives are at stake. I have no time or patience for your petty jealousy. Should I find that you have shirked your honor, there will be no corner of this realm that you could go to escape your punishment. Athereon is in charge. You are her second. There is to be no further discussion—you have ten minutes to leave. Pick your team well." Squirt's face had gone a sickly pallor as she stared at the display before her. Was he mad? She didn't get the chance to ask as he turned his furious eyes on her next.

"Ten minutes, Athereon. We have fey to save." She bowed, valuing her life too much to argue, before she turned Mole around and dashed back towards the group to rally her team. Gods. This was stupid. She was going to die. Stupid fucking titled fey.