Page 21 of Lake of Sorrow
“Body parts haven’t come up,” Kaylina said.
“No? I’d expect there’s at least one that’s up regularly around you.”
Heat flushed Kaylina’s cheeks as she remembered Vlerion answering the door naked.
“Did you come along to be crude, Jankarr?” Vlerion asked.
“Every chance I get.” That time he definitely winked; Kaylina didn’t need light to see it. “As a future ranger, Ms. Korbian needs to get used to the ribaldry of men. I’m helping her assimilate.”
“Your kindness may make her swoon.”
“Are you swooning now, Ms. Korbian?” Jankarr asked.
“Yes, I can barely contain it.”
“I suspected.”
They reached the back of the castle, the gate closed and the thick wall keeping the courtyard in shadows. Vlerion gave Kaylina a long look that she couldn’t interpret and nudged Crenoch to lead them around to the front.
When they reached the corner tower, Kaylina peered up, wanting to see?—
“What?” she blurted with disappointment. “No.”
The red glow seeping through the narrow tower window had returned. After she’d poured a liquid honey-based fertilizer into the great plant’s pot, its eerie red had turned to a still-mysterious but less ominous purple. She’d thought… Well, she’d hoped she’d found an answer to the curse.
“I rode by yesterday morning,” Vlerion said. “That’s when I noticed the glow had changed back.”
“Was it still purple when you went inside to get my jars of honey?”
“It was.”
“Maybe the change only lasts as long as the fertilizer is moist on its dirt and the plant is drawing nutrients from it.”
Kaylina touched a new pack that Vlerion had given her, one carrying fresh supplies and a jar of honey. She’d left the other three in his cabinet, since they would have been heavy to tote on a journey. Vlerion had promised nobody would disturb them. Since his rooms were on the second floor, she trusted taybarri snouts couldn’t reach through the window on a honey-acquisition quest.
He’d found another copy of The Ranger’s Guide to Honor, Duty, and Tenets and inserted it into the pack along with the supplies. The book was also heavy, but he hadn’t appeared amused when she’d suggested she might leave it undisturbed in his cabinet.
“If we have a few minutes, we can fertilize the plant again. I want to see if we can make it happy. It has to be linked to the curse on the castle.” Her evidence for that was scant, but Kaylina believed it in her heart.
“Hm,” Vlerion said noncommittally.
“It’ll only take a moment.” She dug in the pack and held the jar aloft.
“What is that?” Jankarr asked.
“Honey imported all the way from the Vamorka Islands.”
“Are you hoping the Kar’ruk have tongues for sweets?” Jankarr asked.
“I don’t usually share with people trying to shoot me full of holes, but it could come in useful on the journey.”
As soon as Kaylina slid off Levitke’s back, three large taybarri snouts swung toward her—toward the jar. Copious sniffing ensued.
“Useful to taybarri,” Vlerion murmured.
Kaylina unscrewed the lid, but she didn’t have a spoon. Since the sniffing snouts moved straight toward the jar, she put her finger in it and stuck it out for their large tongues to lick. Not long ago, she would have been terrified of having those fang-filled maws so close, but she trusted the taybarri wouldn’t accidentally bite off her finger.
“That is supposed to make the plant happy?” Vlerion asked.