As dusk fell upon the land, torches were lit up around the village. A group of villagers of all ages were kneeling in a clearing in the center of the torches, and most of them were quiet and unmoving. However, some were howling maniacally, and the soldiers would yell warnings at them.
“Silence, you wretch!” Adda whipped a howling villager’s face, and it drew blood. However, the pain only made the villager grunt, and he glared at the princess with bloodshot eyes while he mumbled some unintelligible chant under his breath. “Stop chanting!” The princess whipped him again. “How dare you speak of your evil master before me!”
Adda was whipping faster and faster, and the villager eventually ended up with countless wounds on him. As Adda went on with the torture, the villager’s chant slowly became a whisper, and in the end, it took all he had just to breathe. Only then did Adda stop, but her chest was heaving. “Ungrateful fools! I sacrificed twenty-five elite soldiers to save you, and this is how you repay me? By worshipping that monster?”
“He’ll die if you keep that up. Calm down. We have disposed of your traitor.” The witchers came back and showed Adda the traitor’s head. She looked at it for a moment, and she laughed heartily.
“Good. You live up to my expectations. Now my soldiers can rest in peace.” Adda raised her hand to stop her soldier who was whipping the crazed villagers. “These are the fallen villagers from Sint village. There’s a total of a hundred and twenty-three of them. Thirty villagers are showing more serious signs, and we are unable to communicate with them. Seven of them retaliated on the way, so they were killed.”
The witchers looked at the gathered fallen villagers. Even without using Observe, Roy could feel the dark, insane air that was radiating from the villagers. The group of thirty villagers that the soldiers were keeping an extra eye on reeked of insanity, and even the quietest ones had crazy written in their eyes, and more so than the villagers in Cona village.
“How do you plan on dealing with them?” Adda asked coldly. “If we don’t do something about it, there’ll be more madmen down the line.”
“You wish to kill them?” Roy asked, and the villagers from Sint started to shiver from fear.
“Why not? The moment they start worshipping that monster, they are no longer my people.” Adda licked her lips cruelly. “If killing them means protecting the innocent, then I shall gladly be the executioner.”
“Most villagers haven’t exactly fallen. You need not take their lives.”
“Witcher, you told me that those who fall under the monster’s spell will provide him with endless energy.”
“On one condition. The spell only affects them if they are in range.” Roy looked into the darkness beyond the village. “Black Tern Island is the center of the spell. The closer someone is to that island, the deeper they shall fall under Dagon’s spell. If they get out of that range, they shall be safe, and that monster will be deprived of its source of strength. I suggest that you take the villagers and set up camp ten miles away from Lake Vizima. There you shall stay for three days. But of course, the safest way would be to take the villagers into Vizima.”
“I object.” Adda pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I will not allow them near Vizima. They might spread the infection to my people.”
“Very well, then.” Roy said, “Then head east. If nothing unexpected happens, Letho and I can vanquish the monster after three days and return peace to the lake and the swamp. Boyev, are there any other villages in the swamp?”
“No-Not that I recall.” The frail village chief shuffled over reluctantly, taking fearful glances at Adda from time to time. The princess sounded like she wanted to kill all of us. Thank the gods that the witcher stopped her. Boeyv pinched his mustache. “But if I remember correctly, you will come across Mud village if you head east. It’ll take a day, but the villagers there aren’t affected by the spell.”
“Your Highness, take your soldiers and the villagers to Mud village and stay there for three days.” Roy handed her two doses of paralyzing poison. “If anyone starts to act up during the journey, feed them one drop of the poison. Two drops at most. Any more than that will be lethal.”
“I shall leave matters in your hands now, witchers.” Adda carefully placed the poison in Powell’s hands, and she sighed in resignation. “Come back victorious. Do not let the Lady of the Lake’s blessing go to waste.”
The princess and her soldiers started escorting the villagers east, where they would be out of the spell’s range. The witchers saw them off, and they rode back to the willow tree beside Lake Vizima. Roy hid in a bush nearby and talked to Wilt so his horse would stay quiet.
The moon crawled up into the night sky as midnight approached, and it shone upon the dark, quiet lake. Its reflection lay quietly upon the surface, but a moment later, that tranquility was broken as three gigantic fish heads broke the surface of the lake, and they marched upward onto the land, leaving ripples behind them.
The fallen vodyanoi in the center of the group muttered something unintelligible under its breath, and it turned its grotesque head around to see if there were any dangers nearby. Two vodyanoi armed with bone spears flanked it, but they seemed like they were in their younger years. They were thinner than the vodyanoi in the center, and they weren’t even half the height of an average human adult.
When the vodyanoi in the center confirmed that it was face, it pounced ahead in delight and dug up the soil before the willow tree furiously. To his pleasant surprise, he found a plump dead fish buried underneath, and it gobbled its food all up right in front of its lackeys. Once the creature had its fill, it rolled its eyes and belched happily as it rubbed its round belly.
Its lackeys stared down at the ground humbly and remained in silence.
The vodyanoi burped once more, but that was the last thing it ever did in its life. Without so much as a warning, the vodyanoi fell back down to the ground with a sickening thud, and a bloody hole bore through its forehead. Its lackeys looked at each other nervously, and they tried to pull their leader up, but then, another arrow pierced through the air and killed one of the lackeys. Seeing no hope for itself, the final vodyanoi turned around and made a run for it.
A loud, long neigh pierced through the night, and a brown horse galloped out from the forest around the lake. It ran straight toward the escaping vodyanoi and crashed into it, sending it flying into the bushes nearby. The vodyanoi rolled around a few times and blacked out from the impact. Wilt, who finished its mission, ran back happily, and the witchers came out from the darkness.
“A fallen vodyanoi.” Roy pinched his fingers. “Let’s see what kind of secrets you have in your mind.”
A while later, the surviving vodyanoi was tied to the willow tree.
“What are you doing, kid?” Letho was curious. “Are you going to use Axii on it? We don’t speak their tongue. You’re just wasting your time.”
“I know what I’m doing. Just wait and see.” Roy slapped the vodyanoi, waking it up. The creature bared its fang and hissed at the witchers, but Roy ignored it and cast forced Taming on it. However, his numerous attempts ended in failure.
‘You have bound your mount—Wilt. You are unable to forcibly tame another creature. Do you wish to cancel the bond between you and Wilt? Your current target is under the Devotion status effect. You cannot forcibly tame it.’
“I can’t tame Dagon’s believers because they’re devoted to him? Fine. Guess I’ll have to ask the Lady of the Lake about the rest of the fallen vodyanois’ whereabouts.