Read The Sorcerer's Vengeance: Book 4 of the Sorcerer's Path for Free Online

hunting or warfare but Eislanders used missile weapons purely for hunting, disdaining their use in combat as a coward’s weapon which gave the sailors a slight advantage if it came to blows.
    As the two sailors pondered the significance of the campfire, several pairs of blue eyes watched the ship’s lanterns from the shoreline, their heavy white and grey furs rendering them nearly invisible to anyone more than a few feet away. Large, calloused hands twisted on the smooth wooden hafts of the wicked battleaxes they carried.
    “What do you make of the Utgardr ship, Magni?” one of the powerfully built Eislanders asked. “Do you think they are the ones responsible and followed us north to continue their evil black magics?”
    “”I do not know, Modi,” the other replied through his thick, blond, braided beard, “but if they have, we will find out soon enough. Then we will spill so much of their blood that the snows will melt and the rivers will run red. By Djev’s radiant axe, I swear it!”
    There were no further signs of human life for the rest of the night nor was there in the morning as the sailors loaded up their longboats with the gear each party would need for their hunting forays. Zeb and Toron’s party required the most equipment despite being one of the smaller groups. One longboat was sufficient to ferry every man in the party to shore but three more were required to haul their gear.
    Balor led two longboats carrying two score of men that would go in search of seals out on the ice flows and perhaps a few small whales. The long spiraled tusks of the unicorn whale were especially prized and the meat, blubber, and oil were all prized on the southern markets as well.
    Another group of men in two longboats dropped nets near the mouth of the river and spent much of their days fishing for the prized salmon, ensuring that the ship did not run into any trouble, and provided a rescue force if either of the other groups did not return at their scheduled time.
    Derran was also part of Zeb and Toron’s crew, his sharp eyes invaluable when it came to spotting prey. They and the nine burly rowers set about unloading the longboats. Sleds were assembled before strapping their gear onto them to make for easier traveling and hauling back the results of their hunting.
    Two tents, each with a small iron stove and a sack of coal provided their shelter and heat when wood was unavailable. Foodstuffs went on next as well as spare clothing, rope, and traveling gear. Half the men carried heavy crossbows while the other half carried lighter and less-cumbersome crossbows for smaller game such as foxes and hares, reserving the powerful heavy crossbows for ice bears—or Eislanders if it came to a fight.
    The last things they loaded were a pair of scorpios. Scorpios were nothing more than a very heavy crossbow mounted on a base and were too large and too heavy to be wielded by anyone with the possible exception of Toron, although even he would find the things far too cumbersome to be efficiently wielded by hand. Each scorpio was manned by a team of three who were trained to set it up and have it ready to fire in less than a minute.
    The scorpios were a weapon of dire emergencies. The heavy crossbows and pikes could take down an ice bear, even the big ones that stood over twelve feet tall and could reach a weight near fifteen hundred pounds. However, even the powerful crossbows and large spears wielded by the oarsmen would do little to deter a dire ice bear.
    Dire ice bears were essentially a dire bear that had made its home in the far north, its fur growing in white to help conceal itself from prey in the largely colorless landscape. These fearsome beasts often exceeded three thousand pounds and could shake off all but the most powerful weapons. The scorpios were the human’s only real defense against such a creature and not an impressive one at that.
    Crossbows at the ready and spears close at hand, Zeb let their professional hunter and