Abducted [W&W Book 3]

Chapter 42

Lord Wildwood visited Ildri in the late afternoon. "My lord, have you decided what you would like me to make for you?" she asked hesitantly, hoping it was something that she could indeed make successfully.

"Actually I am here to enquire if you knew of a potion which could force the subject to speak only the truth, something to produce honesty."

Ildri shook her head. "For that man you captured? I'm sorry, there is not any that I know of, my lord."

"That's understandable. Do not fret, we will find a way to extract information. I actually came for another reason as well. I brought you something."

Lord Wildwood held out a package and Ildri took it. She unwrapped it and found a book that was in excellent condition. The title read Potion Almanac.

"It's for you, but I did think that you might make some of these potions for use at Wildwood. I only glanced through, but there are a number that could be useful, most especially anything that could be used for defence if it comes down to a fight on our land. Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything."

"Thank you," Ildri said quickly. "I've already made up some ignition potions and some smoke juice potions."

"Ah, you already gave me a couple of samples of those, didn't you? Go ahead and give the ones you concocted to the head guard on duty. Just explain to them how they work. And speaking of guards, Ildri, while I realize that you can use many of the plants around Wildwood, I would appreciate if you took at least a soldier with you. And perhaps a few of your potions for protection."

Ildri nodded. "That sounds good. I'll do that."

"I'll give them instructions to find someone to accompany you when you need help," Lord Wildwood said. "I'll leave you to it, then. You've done well so far."

Ildri worked until late in the day, and then she flipped through the new book from Lord Wildwood. Some of the potions she had heard of and a couple Maxine had already taught her to make, but there were many more that she had not encountered.

Ildri learned that there were several major areas that most potions fell into. There was a great deal of healing potions that might do anything from nourish wellbeing or as a general healing salve to curing various ills like split ends or specific types of warts. There was also a branch of healing that dealt with animals and even a few that dealt with curing plants of various diseases. There were both defensive and offensive protection spells, as far as Ildri could see offensive protection spells were simply a nice way of saying that you protected yourself by blowing someone else up. There were also a number of poisons, which were not all fatal, some could make people sleep and various other areas. The book also had a good number of miscellaneous potions as well, such as love potions, Ildri could not help noticing, and the standard harm testing potion that Maxine had taught her as well as a potion that would mask the magic of other potions. Of course there were also some disguise spells, but not as many as Maxine seemed to know.

The last few pages of the book spoke of familiars and how one could make an animal one's familiar. It seemed that if an animal really did not wish to be a familiar would resist, not that Ildri was concerned in the case of Keziah. The parrot was sitting on a makeshift perch and preening her feathers.

Ildri flipped to the next page and read a recipe for bringing out the latent qualities of a familiar in potion form.

Ildri glanced over at Keziah. "You must be good for something beside waking me up too early and swearing too much," Ildri said, eyeing the bird.

"Bloody mess," agreed Keziah sympathetically.

Ildri rolled her eyes and looked through the ingredient's list. She had everything readily available, so there was no reason not to give it a try.