Page 83 of Lake of Sorrow
Someone dead? Fist tightening on her lantern handle, she stared at the inert figure and feared she’d made a mistake in sending Vlerion away.
21
The wilderness is not malevolent but can kill you nonetheless.
~ Ranger Founder Saruk
Though she was tempted to run the other way, Kaylina made herself creep toward the body. Another moan emanated from somewhere above. A chandelier, one of the ones that hadn’t fallen already, shivered, glass clinking.
She’d thought the purple light meant something had changed about the curse, but maybe that had been a naive belief.
The person had died face down, so Kaylina had to set down her lantern and roll him over to identify him. It was one of the Virts who had been with Mitzy, fingernail marks now on his throat. He’d clawed at himself before dying. In addition, there was a red welt where one of those vines must have wrapped around his neck and choked him.
Kaylina eyed the nearby walls. There was no sign of a vine or anything else, but she’d seen them appear and disappear before, so she had no trouble imagining one sprouting from the mortar and attacking.
But why this guy? He hadn’t been a ranger. As one of the party plotting insurrections and assassinations, he’d been an enemy of the rangers. The plant ought to have loved him.
She wondered if it was the man who’d commented that killing her would be a good idea. Was it possible the plant had attacked him to protect her? If so, that was a chilling thought. She didn’t want a magical botanical bodyguard that murdered people.
“Kaylina?” came Frayvar’s soft voice from the kitchen. “Are you in here?”
“Yes, by the body,” she called back, glancing at the open front door and suspecting they were alone.
The Virts must have been scared off by the attack. Kaylina didn’t think much of them if they’d abandoned an ally in need, but maybe they’d tried and failed to save him. When she’d attempted to free Targon from one of those vines, she’d been useless until Vlerion had arrived with his sword and powerful muscles.
“You keep strange company these days.” Frayvar approached warily, a lantern in hand.
“Trust me. I’d rather be back home with Grandpa’s hounds. I’d even take a lecture on hard work and propriety from Silana over this.”
“Would you?” Frayvar stopped well away from the body and looked at her. “I wonder.”
“What, you think I’m enjoying my new life of being a wanted felon branded by sentient plants?”
“Well, aside from our time huddled in the rain on various estates, you’ve fallen into fewer funks since we got up here. Remember the Grouper Gala last year when you didn’t leave your bedroom for a week?”
“I’ve been busy trying to stay alive.”
“So, if there had been more attempts to kill you back home, you would have been perkier.”
“Absolutely. Terror and fear are energizing.” Kaylina eyed the body, not able to smile to make the words a joke. They were all too true. “I don’t know what to do with him. He looks heavy, but we can’t leave him in the vestibule.”
“Maybe his buddies will come back for him. They would presumably have more of an idea about his funeral preferences than we do.”
Kaylina had a feeling the scared Virts wouldn’t risk returning. Mitzy might have been brave before, but seeing the curse in action made bravery evaporate.
“We could try to push him outside.” The way Frayvar clasped his hands behind his back suggested he meant she could do that.
“Vlerion is supposed to bring me something later. He can make arrangements.” Kaylina closed the door, stepped around the body, and headed for the kitchen.
“What if it draws rats?”
“There are some traps in one of the closets upstairs. You can set them out and catch a few for a stew.”
“Oh yes, rat tartare is a dish that’s sure to bring aristocrats and proletariats alike to our door.” Frayvar glanced back numerous times as they departed. “Do you know why… I assume a vine got him, right? What did he do?”
“I’m not sure.”
“He doesn’t look like a friend of the rangers.”