Bael Penrose

Chapter LIX: Steppe Hunter, Country Bumpkin

Iris

Iris was getting tired of travelling with the princess. The carriage was slow, and she hated riding so close to the road. Too far from practical hunting grounds. Marcus would care for her horse every time she got back to camp, but the animals she brought back were aggravatingly scrawny deer.

Making life even more annoying, the woman they were escorting was damn near helpless. Not that some of the court dandies, men and women both, of the Empire were better, but dear gods, they didn't damage their own feet to make it impossible or them to walk or run properly out of some deranged idea of beauty. That had actually shocked Iris - when hte Princess had stepped out of her carriage, it hadn't shocked her that badly initially, some women just had naturally small feet, maybe the princess was just one of them.

Then she'd seen the princess take her slippers off on one side of the camp, out of the corner of her eye, far away from where Iris worked on the game of the day, and only a lifetime of self control actually stopped her screaming at the sight of bones that had clearly been deliberately broken and tied to heal wrong. Liza came up to Iris's side and whispered, "It's custom. Peasant girls here don't do it. Noblewomen only. Status thing. They never need to go anywhere in a hurry, so they do that to themselves to look dainty."

Iris blinked. "Never need to go anywhere in a hurry? What happens when someone like Thomas is after them?"

Liza chuckled. "Come on. No one can plan for that anyway."

Iris shrugged - it wasn't an unfair point. "Why is that elegant though? Wouldn't it also interfere with dancing?"

"You'd think, wouldn't you?" Liza said, with a shrug. She gave a look to the work Iris was doing. "I appreciate you, by the way. Your ability to find food anywhere is incredible."

Iris smiled. She didn't hear it often - especially from Liza, who she was certain would be negotiating foreign food with far better spices and a far higher-quality palette soon enough. And yet, the bard was giving her quite the sincere smile. She could hear, from the other side of the camp, Marcus instructing Itene in the finer points of swordplay with the new weapon, with some basic work, cut and thrust with a longer weapon.

Nieth was gathering up grasses from the steppe, and grinding them into powders. Another leaf, she was cutting into some kind of tea leaves.

When Iris finished cutting the meat up, she set it in the pan that had been set over the fire, she turned to her companions. "I'll try to go out again tomorrow. How many days would you say we still have on the plains?"

Liza looked at the map. "On the road? I'd say we have another three weeks or so, but we'll hit a village during that. We'll have a week or two after that before we come to a city."

"Got it. Any local customs I should worry about? As a peasant woman and foreign mercenary, I mean."

"We'll probably be given wooden tokens once we escort her to the city. That'll mean we can do things independently. Uh…this country has issues with occasional civil wars where every side takes advantage of foreign mercenaries, but that doesn't seem to be happening now. It's pretty common for the emperor to have one proper wife, and several concubines. The children of these concubines enter the inheritance line for the throne, with the trueborn children always coming first, then all children of the concubines ordered after them by birth order."

Iris chewed that over. "And…lovingly, Liza. How does that affect me, the peasant and foreign mercenary?"

Liza gave her a catlike smile. "Because more than one foreign beauty has caught an Emperor's eye and gained a life of luxury. I recommend avoiding that green dress you wore when you visited the Fiorenz court, I'm given to understand it turns heads. And refusing the emperor would get us into quite the quagmire we'd have to get Thomas or Nieth's poisons to get us out of."

Iris winced. "Got it."

One of the servants travelling with the princess approached the pan Iris was frying the meat in and held up a jar of spices. Liza swore excitedly. "Yes. Iris, nod. She's saying she'll swap you with that for a share of the food. I'll show you how to work that in, and we can have some more stuff that's easy to work with on the road."

Iris nodded. Liza snatched the spice jar, and began tossing a few of the spices into the pan. "You'll like this, Iris. Different than the curry you've always hated."

Iris nodded. "Show me how to cook it then, if it's trail rations."

Liza showed her how to get the spices into the meat, using the oils from both the meat and some small bottle that the servants had to get it to distribute. A small smattering of nuts she'd already found went into the pot, and Iris had to admit, it smelled delicious by the time it was done.

"Anything that makes this meal better?"

"Wild onion if you can get it. Peppers."

Iris noted that for herself. She'd keep an eye out the next day, and then Liza nudged her. "Also, keep an eye out for duck. These people have a way of smoking it that I absolutely have to introduce you to. Though, actually - save it until we get closer to the city. Swap fresh duck with a cook there, they have this sauce…"

Iris snorted. "Liza. I'll shoot a fat duck when I see a fat duck, and when that happens, that happens."

Liza laughed. "Of course."

It wasn't long before the meal was ready. The spices Liza had taught her to add did add something - she'd have to keep this up, if she could get more of this. It was actually good, added a sort of pop to the meat. Though from the taste she could tell she'd be glad they were following a river, it felt like they'd be going through water faster.

Itene was grinning, albeit moving like she'd be sore when she came back into camp. Malzan wasn't unreadable, but looked uncomfortable with the discussion among the soldiers and servants, and Marcus looked like he was looking over the equipment of the bodyguards. He was trying to strike up a rough conversation with them in Common, but the rough trader's argot made for difficult conversation, lacking as it was in idiom or nuance.

When they and he got tired of each other, Marcus plunked himself down next to Iris and ate, kissing her in gratitude. "Thank you."

**

The next day, when Iris decided she'd had all of the awkward conversation she could stand, she rode off into the steppe. She'd be able to circle back and catch up easily with how slow going they were. the plains did seem to keep going forever. In the distance, she saw big herds of antelope. And then, suddenly - something happened. A horse, what looked like a huge horse, far bigger than even Baldor's destrier, bolted into the midst of them. Another hunter, maybe?

The antelope were reacting like it was another hunter, scattering all over the place. Then Iris realized just how big that thing was - that couldn't be natural. The distance and lack of landmarks had tricked her - a common optical illusion on vast stretches of flat ground and identical terrain. She'd thought the horse closer, the herd larger, indistinct against the lack of terrain, but as they scattered it became obvious. The distance became clear - and Iris abruptly realized that that horse was easily thrice again the size of a Faldrean destrier, and if she was not mistaken, there were flashes around its mouth. Almost as though it was breathing fire.

Then she saw plumes of smoke rising from the plains and realized that yes, it was , in fact, breathing fire. That shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did. It also had a single, crooked horn emerging from its head. As she watched, it tore into an antelope and bit the beast in half.

Iris sighed. No sense in trying to get any game with that thing here. She nocked a heavy broadhead to the string and ran up on the murderous, carnivorous horse and shot it in the neck. The heavy draw on the bow put the arrow to the fletchings in the creature, but it didn't fall - though blood and molten fire dripped from the wound, and the beast as a whole let loose strange coughs.

Iris backed up and nocked again, even as the giant monster turned towards her. Before it had finished, another arrow slammed into it, striking between the ribs. It went deep, and the beast let loose another bloody cough, spraying molten blood everywhere and leaving the grass smouldering.

The big creature was now fully turned and began running towards Iris, who turned her steed and bolted, letting loose one final arrow down the throat of the monster. She could tell that it hadn't landed perfectly as she wanted - the angle was strange, and it was a shot from the back of a running horse at another moving target, but it did lodge in the creature's mouth. It screamed, and it began swaying as it ran, every beat of the creature's gargantuan heart making it clearer that the monster struggled. The great lungs heaved, each new breath tearing open the wounds wider.

Iris got another angle, and snapped another shot, this one lodging in the beast's other lung. Allowing herself a savage smile, she continued to move as it tried to charge her down.

Acteon bolted, and the monster tried to run her down, but a mix of wounded lungs and blood loss made it finally stumble. When it did, she dismounted, drew forth her far heavier longbow, and put a single cavalry shaft into the back of the beast's head from about twenty paces.

Then she drew out her hatchet and hacked loose the massive horn. While she had no idea what it would be good for, she had every suspicion that it would be good for something - such trophies could, if nothing else, almost always be sold. She'd head back for a common deer before too long.

Because she couldn't quite bring herself to return without any food, she grabbed a few wild onions that she saw springing up in the plains.

Back at the camp, Iris untied the horn from the saddle, and planted it point down in the ground.

Her companions - or those who had hired them - stared at her. Liza gaped. "Iris. That's a Bo Beast horn. They're…they're a scourge here. A handful of people can sometimes tame them and turn them into warbeasts but most people who do that are madmen. Slaying one is a huge achievement."

Iris grinned. "I am the best hunter in the world. And…we are talking about a giant, carnivorous horse, right?"

Liza nodded.

"Then yes, I killed one."

Neith spoke up. "If you're not gonna use that horn their powders are useful in a few medicines. Not the kind we use but the kind I can sell when we get to a town."

Iris picked it up and handed it to Nieth. "You know how to use it better than I do." Plus, Neith's uses would get them money to move around and pay for lodgings. That'd be worth something in itself.