Page 27 of Lake of Sorrow
Branches rattled, and an inhuman yell—almost a roar—erupted as something big sprang out of the brush toward Jankarr.
Vlerion and Crenoch sprinted forward.
Between the tree trunks and branches in the way, Kaylina couldn’t see how many enemies attacked the rangers, but Levitke and Jankarr’s mount also charged into the fray.
She crept forward at a more reasonable pace, afraid to get in the way. One of the horned Kar’ruk came into view, looming two feet taller than the rangers. He swung an axe fearlessly at them, ducking between trees to avoid the snapping jaws of the taybarri. A soft blue powder coated that axe, and did it glow slightly?
Almost blurring, the blade swept toward Jankarr’s head with alarming speed. He barely managed to duck and avoid it. Vlerion sprang to his side to help.
Kaylina eased closer, but she couldn’t aim effectively through all the branches. And with the taybarri joining the battle, it was soon too chaotic to follow.
“I hate their damn axes,” Jankarr snarled, his words the only ones among the grunts and growls of the Kar’ruk and the taybarri.
As usual, Vlerion remained silent, his face a cool mask of focus as he deflected powerful blows that could have beheaded him. That blurring axe cut a six-inch tree in half as if it were a reed. Vlerion barely reacted, even when another Kar’ruk appeared.
Beyond the battle, Kaylina glimpsed a pond in an open area, the remnants of a campfire smoldering beside the water. Behind it, three humans—two men and a woman—had been stripped of their clothing, tied to trees, and tortured. Or… killed? Someone had moaned, but none of the bound figures were moving, and at least one of the men was dead, his throat slashed open.
Kaylina shuddered. That had almost been the fate of her and Frayvar.
She lifted her sling in the hope of helping bring down the Kar’ruk, but the rangers and taybarri had the two horned warriors surrounded. That didn’t mean victory was assured. With those deadly axes, the Kar’ruk kept them at bay. Crenoch roared in pain as a blade clipped his shoulder.
A vine flicked at the corner of Kaylina’s vision. She whirled, realizing the forest might attack the rangers and tilt the odds in favor of the Kar’ruk.
But all that vine did was twitch a couple of times. Something else moved to Kaylina’s left, something she wouldn’t have seen if the vine hadn’t drawn her eye. Half-hidden by the foliage, another Kar’ruk stood, this one raising a bow. It was the same archer who’d fired at her the night before.
Afraid the rangers hadn’t seen him, Kaylina loosed a lead round before her self-preservation instincts pointed out that drawing the attention of an archer was a bad idea. Especially when her round slammed into the side of his head and… did absolutely nothing.
The Kar’ruk looked at her, giving no indication that the blow had hurt, and shifted his aim between her eyes. The dark iron arrowhead came into sharp focus across the distance.
“Archer!” Kaylina called to warn the others, then threw herself to the ground.
The arrow thudded into a tree behind her.
Branches snapped as someone charged past. Humming floated to her ears.
Vlerion. Trying not to turn into the beast at the threat to her.
“Stay down,” he whispered, then returned to humming and hurled a knife, following it toward his target.
On the ground, with undergrowth all around, Kaylina lost view of him. She could only hear the archer’s roar-yell as he engaged with Vlerion.
Before rising to her feet, she crawled behind a tree for cover. Somewhat protected, she risked leaning out, intending to help the rangers if she could.
One of the Kar’ruk near the camp was down, and the taybarri had a second surrounded. They’d forced him hip-deep into the pond. Jankarr had drawn a bow of his own, his arrow pointed at the enemy.
Since that portion of the battle was under control, Kaylina stepped away from the tree as thrashes and clangs came from Vlerion’s skirmish. He and the Kar’ruk were within melee range now, the bow cast aside in favor of an axe. Like the other, it glowed a faint blue, leaving a trail in the air as it swept toward Vlerion’s head.
He ducked, then charged in, his sword blurring as he stabbed and slashed at the Kar’ruk. His foe swung his axe down like a logger splitting wood. But Vlerion anticipated the attack and darted out of the way, lunging past the Kar’ruk and around to his back. Vlerion slipped his blade between his enemy’s ribs, then launched a kick. The heavy Kar’ruk didn’t fly as far as a man might, but he did stumble forward, fumbling the axe.
Vlerion sprang onto the warrior’s back, legs wrapping around his torso as he gripped a horn and pulled the Kar’ruk’s head back. His long sword should have been too unwieldy for throat slashing, at least from that position, but he whipped it in as if it were a dagger. As the Kar’ruk tried to buck him off, Vlerion twisted the warrior’s head and sliced the blade into his thick throat, cutting deep into arteries.
“No!” Jankarr called as Vlerion’s foe sank to his knees, gripping his bleeding throat.
Worried the other half of the battle wasn’t as in control as she’d thought, Kaylina stepped in that direction as she raised her sling. The Kar’ruk in the pond was wobbling, not attacking. His axe slipped from his hands, and he tottered sideways, splashing into the water.
The taybarri that had surrounded the warrior whuffed uncertainly. Crenoch stepped forward and nudged the Kar’ruk with his snout. The warrior didn’t react. He’d tilted onto his back and floated face up. His eyes were frozen open. In death?
“What happened?” Vlerion asked Jankarr as he came up beside Kaylina, his sword in hand, dripping blood. He looked her up and down.