Chapter 141

The next day, a little past four before dawn. The stars and moon were dim, the sky a solid mass of darkness, yet Korna Village was already ablaze with lamplight.

With two previous campaigns behind them, the force led by Adda had more or less grasped the habits of the degenerate vodyanoi.

Their sleeping hours ran from roughly three in the deep night to six at dawn. Four o’clock was when they slept the most heavily, when their vigilance was at its weakest.

Under Adda’s command, the knights swiftly checked their packs. Aside from weapons and gear, each squad carried a pitch-black wooden barrel that reeked of something foul.

Then, under the villagers’ watchful eyes, horses bore dozens of knights and soldiers northward in a rolling mass. After traveling about half a mile, they reached the end of the marsh.

“Your Highness, no sign of vodyanoi.”

Adda nodded to the scout and flicked her hand. The men behind her surged toward the lakeshore.

In the cold wind before dawn, moisture hung thick in the air. From the shore, straining one’s eyes into the distance, one could faintly make out a vague black silhouette, and beyond it, on the far bank, the scattered lights of Vizima’s city district.

And nestled shoulder to shoulder in the reeds along the shore lay a cluster of wooden boats, like starving beasts crouched in the dark, nearly ten of them.

The knights divided into groups of four per boat. One man minded the barrel and watched the water. Two worked the oars, sliding silently toward the dark island at the lake’s center.

Each boat kept a distance of about thirty feet from the next. From afar, it looked like a vast fishing net cast from the shore toward the island.

There was wind, the lake surface heaved gently, and the continuous splash of oars was swallowed by the rolling waves.

The movement was all the more concealed.

Princess Adda’s boat lay at the very center of the flotilla. She stood at the bow with whip in hand, gazing toward the distant island, her eyes hard.

Her sharply defined red lips were pressed into a thin line.

For today, she had prepared for a full month.

She had endured for a full month.

Vodyanoi, degenerate vodyanoi. Though they were merely dim-witted humanoid creatures, the taste of their blood far surpassed that of lowly livestock and poultry, enough to satisfy her craving.