Page 52 of Lake of Sorrow
~ Winter Moon Priest Dazibaru
The overgrown trail Jankarr found through the preserve was too narrow for the taybarri to ride side by side, but that didn’t keep him from sending curious glances over his shoulder at Kaylina. Frequently.
Exhausted, she didn’t ask him what was on his mind. As soon as they escaped the Kar’ruk-filled preserve, she planned to flop her face into Levitke’s fur and sleep until they reached… whatever safe place Jankarr intended to store her. But with towering trees all about, vines flicking now and then, and the threat of invaders remaining, she didn’t dare doze off. So she noticed Jankarr’s glances.
When they reached a wider section of the trail, he slowed his taybarri to walk beside Levitke.
“I have so many questions,” Jankarr said. “Will you answer them if I ask?”
“My favorite color is lavender, I’m sworn to Elsavi, the Forest Goddess, and I cheated twice on tests in school, but only because my grandmother had high expectations and let us know—sternly—if we didn’t perform to her standards.”
Jankarr’s mouth drooped open.
“Those weren’t the questions you were wondering about?” Kaylina didn’t want to answer anything about Vlerion or those clawed and bitten Kar’ruk, and she was positive that was what Jankarr was pondering. She worried about accidentally giving away Vlerion’s secret.
“No, but why your grandmother instead of your parents?”
“My father was long gone by the time I was in school, and my mother was… is more focused on herself these days.” Kaylina didn’t want to talk about her family or her mother’s addiction to tarmav weed either. “Grandma is the founder of the Spitting Gull and the matriarch of the family.”
“Huh.” Jankarr glanced into the forest ahead. The birds were chirping, and there weren’t any musky scents, so hopefully that meant all the Kar’ruk were in a different part of the preserve, being chased down by Vlerion, Targon, and the other rangers. “My first question is why was Vlerion naked in that valley?”
She blinked. “Based on what we were doing when you all showed up, you can’t guess?”
“Well, I don’t know why he would be naked and you’d still be dressed. Sort of dressed.” He glanced toward her chest but quickly looked away. “I could see both naked or both with rumpled clothes, but, uhm.”
“Is this really the burning question that has had you glancing back at me for the last half hour?” Kaylina asked to buy herself time to think of a reason since the real reason was tied up in the beast change.
“One of them. It’s not like Vlerion to let himself be caught with his pants down when enemies might be in the area. And that was a lot more than his pants down.” Jankarr arched his eyebrows. “Your pants were almost down.”
“Yes, thank you for the recap.”
“Sorry.” He shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
As she’d noticed before, he was handsome, and she suspected that sheepish smile had gotten him out of a lot of trouble with women in his life.
“He was tense after the battle,” Kaylina said. “I offered to relax him. I gave him a massage, which he appreciated.”
“Oh, yeah, we all saw how appreciative he was.” Jankarr smirked, then waggled his eyebrows. “I’m kind of tense. It’s been a long day.”
“Are you going to hop off your taybarri and strip if I offer a massage?”
“I might. Did you see the battle with the Kar’ruk? Were you there?”
“I was… hiding in the ruins. I did mess up an archer’s shot with a sling round, but you may have seen in our earlier battle that my lead shots don’t faze them in the least. I cracked one guy in the head, and all he did was look at me.”
“Yeah, even swords aren’t great weapons on them. I’d like to get my hands on one of their magical axes, though I’ve heard the berry juice, or whatever it is they coat them with, wears off and has to be reapplied. Supposedly, the ingredient only grows in their frigid land to the north. Our people have tried to find it, trade for it, and bribe Kar’ruk for information on it, but their people keep the secret close.” Jankarr glanced at her again. “Did the taybarri join in the battle?”
Kaylina started to shake her head but realized he wondered about the claw and fang marks. “Yes. I believe they were crucial in Vlerion’s victory.”
She lay an apologetic hand on Levitke’s shoulder, not wanting to lie about the taybarri involvement, but… if it kept the rangers from figuring out what had truly killed the Kar’ruk, that would be ideal.
Levitke looked back at her without whuffing or giving any indication that she minded. If anything, her soulful brown eyes seemed to hold regret, like maybe she wished she had been there in the battle instead of running.
No. Kaylina patted her. Better that the taybarri hadn’t been where they could have been accidental victims of the beast.
“The Kar’ruk bodies were more, ah, ravaged than is typical for enemies the taybarri take down.” Jankarr watched her.
“Were they? It was a chaotic battle. Vlerion was outnumbered. Like I said, I wasn’t much help, unfortunately.”