Rhinespire
Rhinespire is a sedative liquid, murky brown and kept corked in small glass vials, strong enough that touching even a small drop can knock a person out for days.[1][2] It is used to take a target out of a fight rather than to kill: Aero Ellisvat carries a vial of it on jobs in Varaar, and the Rewakan gang use it on him in turn.[1][2]
Handling
Rhinespire works through the skin, so anyone using it works gloved. Aero pulls on a pair of leather gloves before he uncorks the vial, and is careful not to let the liquid touch him while he is working with it.[1]
It is delivered by point rather than by drink. Aero dips cactus needles into an open vial and lets them soak until their surfaces are dyed brown, then blows them one at a time from a hollow bamboo stalk.[1] The same effect is got from a blow dart, and from a plain needle jabbed in by hand: a gorilla of the Rewakan gang drew a vial and a needle from a leather pouch strapped across his chest, dipped the needle in front of his victim and drove it in beneath the ear, then took a second needle from his pocket for the next one.[3][2]
Effects
Numbness comes first, at the fingers, so that a victim clawing at the needle in his neck can barely get his fingers on it. The legs sway next, and then he crumples, limp and unconscious.[1] It runs the same course whoever takes it. Aero's eyes turned glassy and lolled in his skull, his words came out a jumbled mess and his head dropped to the floor, and Reagan, dosed a moment later, felt her legs turn to noodles before her knees buckled and she could not move a muscle.[2]
The dose is judged against how long the victim is wanted out of the way. Aero gave the Rewakan guards small doses because he meant to spare them, and the gorilla who took Aero to the Varaar Colosseum said he needed him unconscious only for the trip.[1][2]
It works on animals as well. Aero put a needle into the neck of the hound Rhazgol, which howled, snapped once more at his face and collapsed.[1]
Pulling the point out quickly enough changes the outcome. Tab took a blow dart in the throat at The Avonbourn and went down mumbling, but Reagan pulled the dart free, and instead of staying under Tab brought the dose back up out of a broken window. Aero, picking the dart off the rug and dabbing what was left of the liquid on his lower lip, named it rhinespire and told her she must have pulled it out just in time.[3]
Known uses
- Aero cleared a path through the Rewakan compound in Varaar with needles of rhinespire, dropping three guards and the hound, sparing them because he intended to kill one man only.[1]
- A crocodilian intruder darted Tab through an upstairs window at the Avonbourn before going for the Eyearke Stone at Reagan's throat.[3]
- A gorilla of the Rewakan gang dosed Aero and Reagan on the floor of the Avonbourn and had them carried off to the Varaar Colosseum.[2]
Behind the scenes
Rhinespire is listed in the pronunciation guide at the front of A Sacred Tale Collection as Rhine-spire, under Other. Neither novel's guide carries it.[4]