Weapons.
What’s a fantasy or sci-fi adventure without awesome weapons? I’ve been fascinated with swords probably since I read The Sword of Shannara and with bows and arrows since I watched Disney’s Robin Hood. And then when Lord of Rings came out in film, Peter Jackson’s version, I was mesmerized by them.
So, of course I had to have swords with names and what not in The Hidden Dagger trilogy, but nothing like the lineup you’d find in Chris Smith’s The Lord of the Rings Weapons and Warfare.
In Secrets Kept, we have many common weapons such as swords, axes, halberds, daggers, bows and arrows, and such. And then we have dragons.
The most prominent weapon is the Corrupted Dagger, also known as the Dagger of Raemoja, which we’ve learned about earlier in the series. Technically, it isn’t a weapon, but a tool used in ancient rituals and sacrifices.
While Ayianna and her companions are in Bonzapur, they prepare for their next part of their journey. A journey that will take them into the wildest parts of Nälu, where creatures of the night still exist and regular blades fail.
One such weapon is the klhodda zudchiddi–a wooden throwing moon, much like the boomerang. Designed by the pygmy tribes of the Rimanga Jungle for hunting, the dwarves have treated it to be used against the spectral beings that haunt the mountain passages of the Kha Vaaro Mountains.
Kael was given Skagog, a blade crafted by the Igazin Dwarf Clan and acquired by Tariq for his earlier journey east. There were five swords made and these alone have the ability to penetrate the skin of the giant, gorilla-like beings that haunt the heart of the jungle.
Ayianna received an elven sling and special fairy-crafted Noqui stones that turns its victims into salt. Good thing she knows how to use a sling!
These are a few of the weapons you’ll find on the quest for the tonic’s ingredients, but as we approach the final showdown between the Sorceress and the Alliance, we will see other weapons come into play.