Page 41 of Lake of Sorrow

“Your older sister is also beautiful?”

She shrugged again. “She’s fine.”

“Fine,” Vlerion mouthed, his eyebrows rising.

“She’s married and has kids. Her husband is into her. Her beauty must have appeal.” Kaylina returned to hacking at the vine, not comfortable with what he was implying. “We all like books and mead.” She glared at him as she hacked.

“Is that supposed to be evidence of a hereditary link?”

“You don’t think mead-adoration is in the blood?”

His eyebrows remained up. Skeptical.

“Look, I’m not adopted, or whatever you’re trying to imply, okay? I look a lot like my mother.” Kaylina had the same dark hair and brown skin anyway. Just as Frayvar and Silana did. And all their cousins. She scowled.

“It is not my intention to offend you. Nor am I certain that being an anrokk is something passed along by one’s parents. It’s rare enough that I haven’t seen many people who qualify, but Sergeant Jastadar’s parents are adored by the taybarri as well.”

“I’d like to meet him and see someone else constantly get their face licked.”

“I’ll introduce you when we get back. When I’ve escaped.” With his own energy perhaps renewed, Vlerion returned to shifting and trying to twist his way free of the vines, but they gave no more than before.

Kaylina backed away and called, “Crenoch!” into the bushes in the direction the taybarri had gone. “Levitke!”

“Their bites might be able to break through these vines,” Vlerion said, guessing her reason for wanting them to return. “But I don’t blame them for running. Their ears are much more sensitive to noises, especially high-pitched noises, than ours, and those flowers were dreadful.”

“Yeah, but they’re quiet now.”

Kaylina opened her mouth to call again, but Vlerion’s nostrils twitched, and he whispered a quick, “Ssh.”

She sniffed the air and caught what he’d caught. A faint musky scent blowing in from the lake.

“The Kar’ruk are returning,” Vlerion said.

11

After error, verity a rarity.

~ Ganizbar, the poet

“I did determine that there were more than two sets of tracks by the lake.” Vlerion flexed his shoulders, wrestling with the vines suspending him several inches above the ground. Like this, he was defenseless. If the Kar’ruk charged into the ruins, they would be able to kill him easily. “I’m still flummoxed as to how so many Kar’ruk could have slipped past the rangers in the watchtowers. The city may be in grave danger.”

Kaylina was far more concerned about Vlerion than the city. As the breeze carried the Kar’ruk’s musky odor toward them, panic surged through her. It renewed her strength, and she hacked at the vines with fresh vigor, chopping tiny gouges into their rubbery flesh. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted to call again for the taybarri, but if the Kar’ruk were close, they would hear her and know she and Vlerion were in trouble. That might bring them more quickly. Even the noise from her blows worried her.

“Stop,” Vlerion whispered. “I appreciate your effort, but it’s not working.”

“I know.” Sweat stung her eyes, and Kaylina dragged her sleeve across her forehead. “But I don’t know what else to do.”

“Hide.”

“You can’t hide. You’re out in the open.”

“If you get away, you can find the other rangers and bring help. I should have sent you to look for them right away.”

Kaylina glared at him in exasperation. “Even if Targon gathered men and came as soon as Jankarr got back to the city, they’d have to be hours behind us. Besides, I can’t leave you here alone.”

She looked around, hoping to spot blue taybarri fur.

“You need to get away,” Vlerion said firmly.