Page 98 of Lake of Sorrow
Kaylina rocked back when she recognized the voice. It was the guard who’d pretended not to see that the back of the truck was full of rebel-funded newspapers and had told the ranger nothing important was inside. He had to be a Virt. Did he want to detain Kaylina so the queen’s loyal men could drag her to the castle? Or were there Virts around who would take the opportunity to snatch Kaylina?
It didn’t matter. She didn’t want to be detained by either party. She slid her hand into her pocket, using her cloak to hide the withdrawing of her sling.
“She’s training to become a ranger and is on the same mission as I, one assigned by Captain Targon himself. Step aside.” Jankarr sat tall and imposing on Zavron’s back with his hand on his sword.
Even though the guards had blunderbusses, they shifted uneasily, nervous about attacking him. One switched his aim toward Kaylina.
“No,” Jankarr barked, moving to block the man’s sights.
Kaylina loaded her sling, a puny weapon against firearms, but she couldn’t let Jankarr be hurt because of her.
She glanced left and right, but there were no alleys she could veer into, not by the gate. The area was deliberately open.
“Don’t make this difficult, Ranger Jankarr,” the speaker said. “Step down or?—”
Zavron surged forward, Jankarr drawing his sword.
Levitke growled and also surged forward but not to fight. The world blurred as she flashed. Between one blink and the next, she went from inside the gate and in front of the men to the highway outside, charging away from the city.
Kaylina glanced back but also flattened herself, afraid the guards would have a clear shot at her. And a blunderbuss did go off, the boom ringing out. But Jankarr had charged into the middle of the guards and knocked the firearm to the side. Its burst of pellets clattered against the stone wall.
He and his taybarri attacked the men to keep them from aiming at Kaylina. Even though he used the hilt of his sword instead of the deadly blade to strike them, Kaylina worried he would get in trouble for opposing the guard, people obeying the queen’s orders to arrest her.
“Get the horses,” one guard cried. “Go after her!”
“This has not been a good day,” Kaylina muttered as Levitke sped away from the city.
25
By day, a strange noise curiosity sparks; by night, a strange noise fright marks.
~ “Fear of the Dark” by the bard Velvenor
Levitke’s powerful muscles surged under Kaylina, and the city soon grew distant behind them. She hoped the taybarri could outrun the horseback pursuers the guard had called for. She also hoped Jankarr and Vlerion wouldn’t get in trouble for helping her. And that the city and kingdom wouldn’t be destroyed by a Kar’ruk plot. By all the craters in the moon, there was a lot to hope for.
“We’d better find that press before visiting your family,” Kaylina said, though she didn’t know if Levitke had understood her earlier request or planned to take her into the mountains. “Stay on the highway, and I’ll watch for the spot where Frayvar and I came out of the river the other night, and then…”
Then what? It wasn’t as if the wagon carrying the newspapers had left a trail of them that they could follow back to its origins. Unless the taybarri could track the scent somehow.
“Oh, wait.” Kaylina dug in her pocket and pulled out the newspaper article the Virts had left in the castle kitchen. “Levitke. Can you smell this, see if you catch the same scent along the trail, and track it to its origins?”
The taybarri slowed from a gallop to a walk as she glanced back. Kaylina explained the load of newspapers and how she and Frayvar had stumbled upon it. After more than a day, and however many horses and wagons had passed along the highway, this would be a long shot, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
Levitke stopped in the road, her neck turning, and Kaylina held out the paper. The taybarri sniffed it a few times, then bit it, withdrawing it from Kaylina’s hand, and chewed on it.
“Uh, it’s not honey.”
Maybe Levitke hadn’t understood anything and had simply hoped for a treat. Was it Kaylina’s imagination, or did the taybarri’s expression seem disappointed?
A war horn rang out from the direction of the city, and Kaylina frowned. She wouldn’t have thought the guards would prioritize finding one wayward subject when there were Kar’ruk all over the place, but she didn’t doubt that the hunt for her had begun. Again.
Maybe Levitke understood too, because she returned to running, following the highway and the river toward the mountains. If they couldn’t find the press, Kaylina would ask again if Levitke would take her to see her family. The plant had definitely implied that bringing an elder taybarri back to the city would help with Kaylina’s problems. With everyone’s problems.
Levitke slowed from a run to a walk, snout lowering to the ground. Kaylina recognized the beaver dam in the river. This was the spot where she and Frayvar had managed to climb out of the water.
“You did understand me,” Kaylina whispered, awed.
This time, the look that Levitke slanted back seemed on the verge of an eye roll. But, surely, the noble taybarri didn’t do such things. They weren’t irreverent.