The Huntress of Iyhiri

Chapter 21

"You're not serious?" Yaalon asked, looking back and forth from Agnez to Rajhani.

"We just didn't want you to think that you have to do this, since the deal that Thalassa made with you never really existed," Rajhani explained. "We still want you to come along. We just don't want to feel like you have to."

"Well, I do! I do have to. This thing, these things are killing my home, too. I may not have had a room to sleep in for the last ten years but Iyhiri is still my home. And maybe I didn't have a family for all this time but, but..."

Agnez waived her hands in surrender. "Of course you can come, Yaalon. Of course you can," she said reaching out and putting the palm of her hand on the outside of his upper arm. "I'm sorry," she said. "We didn't think this through all the way."

"So we do this together?" asked Rajhani.

Agnez and Yaalon nodded. "Together," they said in unison.

They stood near the bluffs where they had found the ship the night before. The salty wind stung Agnez's face. Yaalon pulled the three vials out of his bag and held them in his open palm. "So we drink it?"

"No other way to get it in," replied Agnez, taking one of the vials from his hand.

Rajhani stepped forward and grabbed the third. She held it between her thumb and forefinger and lifted it up, peering at it as she twisted the vial from side to side, watching the liquid inside slosh back and forth. "What exactly is it?" she asked.

"Too late to ask Thalassa now," Agnez responded.

"I suppose so."

Rockdog leaned into Rajhani and let out a low growl.

Yaalon looked down at his friend then back at the woods behind them. "What is it, pup?"

Agnez looked around as well, reaching for her bow. "I don't see anything."

"Me either," Yaalon said.

"Couldn't hurt to check things out. The last thing we need is something waiting for us up here after we get done down there. Ra, wait here with Rockdog," Agnez said, forgetting in her desire to protect her sister that just the night before Rajhani and the wolf had faced off against the Zaryan Priestess. And won.

Rajhani plopped down in the dirt and the wolf sat down next to her, keeping watch. "Sure," Rajhani said to the air, "why not?" She held the vial up to Rockdog. "What do you think it is, Rock Rock?"

Rockdog sniffed at the vial and then licked Rajhani's face. She reached up and used her sleeve to dry her cheek when he finished.

"I guess it's nothing threatening. At least that you can identify."

After a few minutes, Agnez and Yaalon returned.

"Nothing," said Agnez. "If something was there, it's gone now. No burnt trails. No putrid smells. Probably just an animal."

"Well," said Rajhani, getting to her feet and giving her vial a little shake, "let's get to it."

Agnez let out a chuckle. "Okay, sister, you got it."

Yaalon stepped up to the sisters. "We don't know how long this stuff lasts. Maybe we should take it right at the entrance and not waste any time?"

"Good idea," replied Agnez, nodding and placing the vial into a small pocket in her bag.

"Makes sense to me," said Rajhani as she turned to head toward where Agnez and Yaalon had disappeared the day before. As she turned, she caught her foot on a rock and lost her balance. The vial went flying out of her hand.

"Catch it!" yelled Agnez as she and Yaalon dove to catch the small glass ampule.

With the delicate sound of shattering glass, the vial hit the rocky ground beneath them and the contents leaked out, spreading into nothing in the afternoon sun. Yaalon and Agnez landed on the ground, arms stretched out, with hard thuds.

Rajhani watched the liquid disappear as she stood still. The words rushed from her mouth. "Oh no! Agnez, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did that. What are we going to do?"

Agnez and Yaalon got to their knees and rubbed their scratched arms as they stood the rest of the way. "It's okay," said Yaalon. "We'll figure something out."

Agnez sighed.

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"Okay," said Yaalon as he paced back and forth while Agnez and Rajhani sat cross-legged on the ground. "We don't have a way of getting another vial so that means only two of us are going in." He stopped and looked down at the sisters.

"It should be you two," said Rajhani. "It makes the most sense. Agnez, you're a trained huntress. And Yaalon, you've been on your own fighting for ten years, literally to stay alive. I don't have the fighting skills that either of you do."

"She's right," Yaalon said to Agnez.

"I know," said Agnez. "But I can't just leave you here," she said, looking at Rajhani.

"I won't be alone," Rajhani replied. "Rock Rock will be here with me. And I have Cyran's knife."

"Alright," said Agnez. "But let's find someplace safe for you to wait for us."

Rajhani crawled into a dense thicket of hiriberry bushes near the treeline and the wolf crouched down and shimmied in after her. Agnez walked around the bush. "Perfect," she said. "I can't see you at all."

Yaalon stepped up to the hiriberry bush and said, "Stay with her, pup. I'm counting on you."

A quiet huff from inside the shrub was the only response.

"Good pup."

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They stood over the opening they had fallen through the day before. Yaalon held two small torches, one in each hand.

"Alright," said Agnez, looking down at the opening. "Let's get this over with. We get in, learn what we can, get out."

"And stop the Vi'qom if we get the chance?" asked Yaalon with a smirk.

Agnez nodded. "And stop the Vi'qom if we get the chance," she repeated. She wasn't smirking.

They pulled the stoppers from their vials and lifted the small ampules to their lips.

"I don't feel anything," said Agnez.

"I don't either. But I don't know how long we have and I don't want to waste time. Let's get in there and if we start feeling dizzy again, we get out fast."

Agnez looked down at the hole in the ground and nodded.

Then she disappeared. 

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And we're here! In the Vi'qom ship...

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