Nathan took a seat and patted the bench beside him. “Now, let’s study those records you found. The more we understand, the better chance Nicci has.” He knew they could never go back to Kuloth Vale and demand another rib bone from the gray dragon if this one failed. “We’ll only have one chance.”
He and Mia sat in a small alcove lit by bright candles, leaning close to study the blackened, curled pages of the volume. “I don’t know if this is anything significant,” she said as she flattened the pages and pointed out lines written in an eclectic dialect. “But it does mention a bow made of a dragon’s rib.”
“That can’t be a coincidence. I never heard that dragon skeletons were particularly useful.” He touched his lips. “Though I admit they are certainly impressive.”
The young woman frowned at the smudged writing, the scorched paper. “No one noticed this spell before, because we were looking for a spell to block the outpouring of life.” She gave him a faint smile. “After you left, I searched for such documents, and another scholar referred me to this book. He was actually researching a cure for impotence.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It took some doing to get him to admit that.”
“A cure for impotence? I suppose that fits with the restoration of life,” Nathan quipped. “And is there a counter to it?”
“For his purposes, he did not find the spell he needed, so he placed the book back in the corridor shelves to be returned to the archives in the normal course of work. As it happens, the shaksis attacked before the book could be reshelved, and it went missing. Some of these pages are damaged, but I noticed a mention of the dragon-rib bow, and I knew you would want to see it.” She pointed to a deep brown spot on the paper. “Look here.”
“Indeed. We already knew the power of the bones, my dear girl. It references the weapon we want?”
“Yes, the bow itself and the powerful gifted person required to be the archer. But that is only part of the spell! This section, the damaged part, mentions requirements for the arrow as well. We didn’t have all the information before.”
Nathan’s brows pulled together in a troubled frown as a chill ran down his back. “You’re certain the arrow has to be special, too? The bow doesn’t impart the required magic? I hadn’t considered that. How discouraging. What more do we have to do?” He squinted, but the blackened char on the edges had destroyed the ink. He knew Nicci would certainly not want to be delayed. “It’s too damaged to read.”
“I can attempt to fix that,” Mia said, smiling. “I found a trick when I was studying the old books, but I didn’t want to try unless you were here. I’ve never done it before, but I think I understand the magic involved.” She traced her fingers along the outside of the pages, then released a tiny trickle of her own gift. To Nathan’s delight, the edges of the paper became white again, then tan. The damaged page healed and stiffened, clarifying the ends of sentences that had previously been obscured.
Marveling at what she had done, and how easily, Nathan let out a sigh. “I forgot how many people here are gifted, even if they are untrained.” He sniffed. “And I’m supposedly the great wizard and prophet.”
“It’s a simple spell, really,” Mia said, embarrassed. “Nothing dangerous.”
“Starting a fire is also simple if you have a spark. But without the spark…” He shook his head, and focused on the newly restored writing. “Never mind. Now, what does it say?”
Mia concentrated on the words she had just restored. “Hmm, the couplet only refers to a ‘properly prepared arrow.’ And this section here”—she tapped with a finger—“says, ‘Only one kind of poison is appropriate.’”
“Dear spirits, a poison? What kind of poison is it?” Nathan groaned, fearing they would be faced with some other lengthy and difficult quest before they could fight Victoria. “And where are we supposed to find it?”
Mia turned the pages and they scanned the other spells, including the most effective cure for impotence, though they needed the opposite sort of magic to stop Victoria. “In this next line it refers back to the original spell book, and we didn’t read all of that, either. I thought we had all the information we needed, but some of those pages were damaged when it was fused with the stone wall.”
Nathan gave her an encouraging smile. “You’ve just demonstrated your proficiency with the new restoration spell. Maybe you can fix those pages, too?”
Mia stood from her seat, ready to do whatever he asked. “Perhaps I can.”
Still weary from the journey, he sipped his tea and pondered while the young librarian ran into the archives. She knew where to find what she was looking for and soon returned with the damaged book that Nicci had extracted from the melted stone wall.
Together, they turned the pages, assessing the smears of dust that obscured the ancient writing. Using her gift, Mia held her hands over the pages, squeezed her eyes shut in deep concentration, and worked her fingers over the smeared writing. Some of the stone powder flaked off like dried mud and lifted free in tiny specks of dust, floating away to expose words that had previously been damaged and lumped together.
“I thought we had read the whole spell before,” Nathan said, “but this section on the next page…” He leaned closer to read what she revealed.
Mia cleared away and freshened the distorted ink, pleased to use her newfound skill. When the letters became dark and clear, Nathan read the precise instruction for preparing the arrow to be shot from a dragon-rib bow, an arrow that could kill the wielder of the uncontrolled fecundity spell.
It was the key to defeating Life’s Mistress, the poison that they needed to accomplish their task.
In a long, hoarse whisper, Nathan said, “Oh no.”
CHAPTER 72
When she was finished, Nicci considered the dragon-bone bow a work of art, a work of death. The surface of the magic-infused ivory was veined with lines of faint gold that were intrinsic to the dragon itself, threads connected to the world and life.
She couldn’t wait to use it against Victoria.
In the Cliffwall canyons, the isolated settlers often hunted with bows of their own making, and the best archers had already provided sturdy bowstrings made of woven sheep gut. At Nicci’s request, they had also offered a selection of long arrows fletched with crow’s feathers and tipped with splayed iron heads, their razor edges sharpened to a bright silver edge.
After she strung the graceful recurved bow, it thrummed with the energy of one of the world’s most magnificent creatures, a dragon tied to the source of life deep within the earth—likely the same source of power that the Eldertree had drawn upon. The bow vibrated in her hand, as if Grimney’s spirit was eager to be released for one last quest.
Nicci was ready. The arrows were ready.
She took her weapon and headed through the winding tunnels until she reached a gathering hall for the Cliffwall scholars, deep in the heart of the plateau. She found Nathan already there, his face stricken, his skin ashen. Beside him, the young scholar Mia looked terrified.
She immediately sensed something terribly wrong. Her hand tensed around the bow. “What is it, Wizard?” Nathan opened his mouth, closed it, as if he couldn’t find the words. “Tell me.” The sharpness in her tone startled the answer out of him.
“The bow isn’t enough,” Nathan said.
Just then, Bannon entered the room with a jaunty step, full of energy. Thistle accompanied him like a little sister, washed, dressed, and rested now. Bannon’s eyes sparkled in anticipation of the great battle that was to come. He seemed too naive to be afraid. “I am ready to fight Victoria! Just like when we destroyed the Lifedrinker together. Will I join you, Sorceress?”