For the next few days, we were all extraordinarily busy, except when we were extraordinarily anxious with nothing immediate to do.
After assembling the crossbows, Grigor and Lorenz checked out their every operation. They test-fired them, they ranged them, they disassembled them, they cleaned them from top to bottom, and they reassembled them.
While Grigor continued practicing with the crossbows, and searching out the best places to conceal them, Lorenz spent two days in serious laboratory work with me as his awed assistant. He now had the full measure of my equipment and supplies. His techniques were wondrous. What I learned from watching him would help me in the preparation of all sorts of potions new and old. What he shared from his knowledge of herbs’ potentials would take me years to plumb.
After the first day I told him, “You are welcome to come back any time. Only allow me to assist, so I may learn more.”
Lorenz smiled.
The second day was appropriately stormy. The essential materials we were working with were rare, with dark reputations in the world of magical herbalry, and so I kept such small quantities on hand that even Lorenz’s skill was tested. In the end, we had two flasks, both glowing with a villainous light, one purple, one green.
“These must be mixed on-site,” said Lorenz, “just a few minutes before they are used.”
“They look deadly. But from what I can tell of the ingredients we have used, it doesn’t seem like they will be terribly … toxic,” I commented.
“And that is where you were going wrong in your initial endeavors. This final potion will not be terribly toxic; instead, it will be terribly fast. You must think like the tiny wasp who slays the large spider. The first purpose of the wasp venom is not to kill but to paralyze. A Dragon is hard to kill, but if she can no longer move, you may take all the time you need.”
We packed the vials carefully.
The next to last day, back at the workshop the ladies and I uncrated and readied the Dragon Day machine. It was a useful decoy in two ways. For one, while we they worked, it kept the ladies from thinking about how they would be rescued. And if Queen Almidahl had not confronted me for years while I cavorted just within her lair, it might in part have been because she was not sure of the capabilities of my machine.
I spent this final night alone with the ladies—no wild party, no drug-induced haze—a quiet night of cuddling and massaging and loving. They offered me their wrists and I bound them loosely with meters of rope, so they would be comfortable for a long time, but quite as happily helpless as if they were tightly bound. I covered them with kisses and fragrant oils. They filled my ears with sighs of delight and my skin with the delicate caress of their lips and fingers. We were in no hurry. Somehow, we fell asleep early.
We had bonded tightly, indeed.
The next day, before the night of the full moon, was a day of ritual. I brought out the dresses that Marija and Ana wore at their first sacrifice; I brought out an equally fine dress for Adrijana.
“I will wear my old dress,” she said when she saw the new one, her warrior spirit stirred.
“It would please me greatly if you would accept this in its place,” I said gently.
“Then I … I will take it, gladly,” she smiled. I was thrilled. A warrior spirit tempered with love and social graces makes for an extraordinarily powerful woman.
Finally, Grigor and Lorenz brought up two large tarpaulin-covered wagons ready to haul the crossbows, dragon machine, and other gear all prepared for assembly.
“Will she attack the wagons? Will she leave the machine alone? Will she find the crossbows?” I worried out loud as they prepared to ride off to the lair.
“Almidahl wants the ladies,” replied Lorenz. “She will feel that letting the machine be assembled is a small price to pay if you bring them.
“And your Grigor will disguise the crossbows even better than he disguises his frightening competence.”
They left, and I followed a few hours later with the ladies. Once again I tied my ladies hand and foot. Once again they rode in the back of a wagon to meet their destiny. But how different their hearts were this time! I hoped that difference was well founded.