Verena's Whistle: Varangian Descendants Book I by K. Panikian (essential reading txt) 📗

We can’t bait a trap with something the prey could not care less about. Second, we know nothing about the Greek fire. How to make it or how to use the projector. What if we set the forest on fire and don’t manage to hit any of the monsters?” I stopped for a breath.

“My second idea is to attack them in the cave directly. We use the projector to send the Greek fire straight into the cave.

“There are a couple of problems with this plan as well. One, what if only some of the besy are in the cave when we attack? We already know they’re sending out scouting parties. What if we only get a few of them? Two, what if the cave is deep and while we fry the first few, the rest shelter deeper in the cave, and then come out raging?”

I paused again. “Basically, I want to use the Greek fire, or some other sort of incendiary weapon, to thin the ranks as much as possible before we engage directly.” I remembered how I felt during the bukavac fight and knew I couldn’t let my cousins risk their lives like that again if we could do it another way. I stopped talking and then waited.

Theo was the first to respond. “I like the essentials of it. We know the Greek fire works on the besy, per Irene’s journal. We also know that we have a weapon that can shape that fire and direct it,” he said, pointing to me. Owen nodded but Julian looked confused. I’d forgotten to update him on what I’d learned about my nightingale magic last night and this morning. I did it quickly and then let Theo continue.

“What I don’t like, and I’m sure we’re all thinking this, is that we have no idea how to create the fire, and no time to experiment.”

“There are modern equivalents, more or less,” Owen pointed out, “like napalm, but stuff like that can’t be bought by civilians. We could probably buy flamethrowers; people use them in farming and land management all the time. But they produce a relatively small stream of fire for only a short distance. The ones that can be weaponized are, again, very restricted.”

“And,” I circled back around, “we don’t know if modern ingredients, or modern projectors, will work around magic.”

Everyone nodded.

“I say we go for it,” Julian finally said. “I don’t know yet if we should do the bait plan or the cave plan, but I think we should try and make the Greek fire.”

Owen agreed. “This feels like the right call to me too.”

Theo raised his hand. “I have the strongest intuition. I’ll take point on mixing and experimenting, if you guys want to find the ingredients.”

“I know quicklime and sulfur will be at any hardware store. Saltpeter, I don’t recognize. Pine resin should be easy enough, I guess,” Julian listed out.

Owen added, “Naphtha is crude oil. That might be tricky too.”

“I can be in charge of the ingredients,” Julian said. “We’ll need some basic lab stuff too, like safety goggles and something to mix it in.”

“In Grandpa Basil’s vision of the Varangian citadel, there was a group of people stirring a big, black pot over an open fire. It smelled like pine and sulfur,” I recalled slowly.

“Got it. Big, black pot,” Julian said, starting a list on his phone.

“My dad’s going to ship the projector that’s in our storage unit,” Theo added, looking at his phone, “but we probably want to think about getting more than one. I’ll set up some eBay alerts. It might also be something we can duplicate, once we have the one.”

Owen jumped in, “I’d like to see the crater and the cave, if we can get up there today. I wasn’t special forces, but I know I’ll have some insights to offer once I see the layouts.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “I’ll take you up.”

“Then Theo and I’ll head to the hardware store,” Julian said. “We may have to go all the way to Chelyabinsk, depending on how big the store is here in Zlatoust. We’ll see.”

We all got up from the couches and went in different directions. I grabbed the nightingale knife again from my room and headed for the entry to get my snow pants and heavy coat on. I slipped the knife around my neck, under my coat. I wanted to take my sword too, but didn’t know how to disguise it. I settled for squeezing the smallest crossbow and some spare bolts into a backpack.

Owen watched me gear up with interest and then copied my cord around the neck for his knife as well. Then, in an underarm shoulder holster he slid a handgun. Another went up his pants leg into an ankle holster under his snow pants.

“Ready?” I asked and when he nodded, I headed into the garage. “Have you ever driven a snow machine before?” I asked.

“No,” he said.

“I think we should double-up on this one then,” I said, patting the blue one closest to the door. “I can teach you to drive it, and Theo and Julian will have the other if they need it.”

“Sure,” he said.

I took a few minutes to point out the controls and then we strapped on our helmets and hit the trail. The familiar hum of the machine rattled my brain as we sped up the snowy, steep trail. Owen held onto my waist tightly and I slowed down once to point out pair of kestrels circling in the sky above and another time to watch my elk pass by, weaving their way gracefully through the trees. I felt their familiar gold sparks from a distance, winking brightly at me.

Finally, we got to the part of the trail that split off to the crater. I showed Owen how to strap on his snowshoes. He picked up quickly how to walk in them and we trekked through the snow relatively gracefully. As we approached the crater, I started to move more cautiously.