Chapter 1

1

Fleeing proves only fear, not guilt.

~ Ranger Sergeant Mlokar

In the foothills under the Evardor Mountains, with the setting sun painting the snowy peaks pink, hounds bayed. Though rain, cold, and weariness had long since sapped the strength from Kaylina Korbian's muscles, she forced herself to stir.

"Do you think that's for us?" From a hilltop, Kaylina peered around the crumbling remains of an ancient windmill, looking for the riders that had to accompany those hounds.

"No." Her brother, Frayvar, pulled his damp cloak closer around his frail body. "I'm sure the king sent his guards out to hunt raccoons in the aftermath of a rebellion, an assassination attempt, and a plucky southerner trying to poison the queen."

"I didn't try to poison the queen." Kaylina speared him with the dirty look the comment deserved. Her brother might have been nursing his wounds in ranger headquarters during the chaos in the royal castle, but he knew her better than that. "I was framed, and as soon as the Kingdom Guard and rangers stop hunting us, I'm going to find that awful Jana Bloomlong and punch her in the face until she confesses that she stole my mead, laced it with a deadly substance, and had a lackey deliver it to the queen."

It wasn't fair that Jana walked free while Kaylina had wanted posters nailed to posts and trees all over Port Jirador and the surrounding countryside. Ugly wanted posters drawn by a dubious artist with a shaky hand who could only have caught a fleeting glimpse of her. In the portraits, her black hair stuck out oddly, like she had porcupine earmuffs, and her pouty lips seemed cruel, her warm brown eyes sinister.

"Logic suggests you'll need to cajole a confession out of her before the authorities will stop hunting for us."

Hunting for her. Frayvar hadn't been on the wanted poster, one small relief. Kaylina didn't want to have to write a letter to their mother and grandparents, explaining that she'd gotten her little brother killed.

"Is cajole the right word when fists are involved?" she asked.

"No, but you're my older sister, and I prefer to imagine you nobly pursuing victory through words and craftiness rather than physical violence."

"I'm too tired to be crafty. Or wordy."

As the hounds bayed again, Kaylina attempted to muster the energy to run. All she wanted was to curl up somewhere warm and sleep for two days straight. Enticing thoughts of her bed back home—back home and more than a thousand miles to the south—flirted with her mind.

"Springing into a fisticuffs battle doesn't require vigor?" Frayvar asked.

"The frustration simmering inside me would give me energy."

"At least the rangers aren't trying assiduously to find us. Yesterday, that taybarri looked right at us with its nostrils twitching, and the rider kept going."

"I'm out of honey. It had no reason to leave the path and veer into our bushes."

That was true, but Kaylina knew she had Lord Vlerion to thank for the rangers' half-hearted search attempts.

Thinking of him brought a pang of longing to her, and she remembered the kiss they'd shared before parting ways. The hot fiery kiss that made her want to do exactly what he'd commanded: clear her name and return to him.

Even if he hadn't made it a command, she would have wanted to do those things. She longed to walk freely in the city again and help him lift his curse. After Vlerion had saved her life, she owed him. More, she wanted him to be the man he could be if he didn't have to worry about losing his equanimity and turning into a murdering beast.

Frayvar pointed toward the road that passed below the sprawling country estate they were hiding on, the manor house miles from the abandoned windmill and the meandering stream it perched near. Eight men on horseback rode closer with their hounds running ahead and through the fields to either side.

Kaylina rose to her feet, careful to stay hidden by the ruins, and grabbed her pack. It had grown lighter these past days as she and Frayvar ate through the food Vlerion had given them.

The hounds turned up the drive for the estate, sniffing at the ground Kaylina had walked across before dawn.

Crouching beside her, Frayvar pointed at the stream. "That way? They'll have no trouble following our trail if we don't hide our scent in the water."

"I know." Kaylina had grown up hunting grouse and small animals in the Vamorka Islands with her grandfather and his hounds. She knew their abilities well. "But it leads…"

She trailed off, gaze drawn to the dense forest bordering the estate. The ancient trees grew thick, tangled undergrowth flourishing between the trunks, and twilight appeared to have already fallen within its bounds.

"To the Daygarii Preserve," Frayvar finished. "A spot we've been avoiding for the last three days, but it's the only place the hunters may hesitate to follow us."

"The rangers won't go in there—Vlerion said the preserve is as cursed as the castle we leased and hates their kind. I'm less certain about guards and bounty hunters."

But what choice did they have? They had to avoid being imprisoned if they were going to eventually sneak back into the city and clear Kaylina's name.

Frayvar only shrugged and glanced nervously toward the approaching riders.

Summoning her flagging energy, Kaylina stepped away from the windmill, descended the backside of the hill, and stepped into icy water that flowed off glaciers in the mountains. Frayvar splashed after her.

"Be careful not to brush any branches." She pointed toward rhododendrons, goatsbeard, sword ferns, and other plants she couldn't yet name. It was only because of drawings in the ranger handbook Vlerion had tucked in with their supplies that she could identify any of the local flora. As her reading had emphasized, the royal rangers were hunters and trackers as well as defenders of the borders.

"Easier said than done." Tall and gangly, Frayvar slipped on every other rock, wobbling even without a pack or any weapons weighing him down. And was he wheezing slightly? His recently cracked ribs had to be bothering him.

As the baying grew louder, the voices of men now audible, Kaylina and Frayvar fell silent. They hurried up the stream toward the looming forest, glancing back every few steps.

Ahead, a bridge arched over the waterway, its stone framework already in shadow as twilight approached. Kaylina didn't notice anyone on it until a taybarri reached the top, the ranger mounted on the creature's long back gazing downstream toward her and Frayvar.

Surprise and the immediate hope that it was Vlerion made Kaylina misstep. Her foot slipped on a slick rock, and she flailed, her pack slumping off her shoulder.

The ranger couldn't have missed the movement, but his chin lifted, his gaze shifting farther downstream. The taybarri looked right at Kaylina, its floppy ears twitching, its long, thick tail swishing on the bridge.

The shadows made it hard to see the ranger's face, but he had too much hair to be Vlerion. Disappointment filled Kaylina, as well as the certainty that this guy would impede them.

She lifted a hand to keep her brother from running into her and glanced toward the right bank, thinking of crawling into the undergrowth. The forest rose in that direction, but they were still a quarter mile away. It would be a long crawl. And the blue-furred taybarri had nostrils as good as any hound's. More, it could run as fast as a horse, even faster if it used its flash power. If the ranger wanted to catch them, he would.

The man shifted his cloak aside, the gesture oddly flamboyant, and drew something from his belt. A weapon?

Kaylina tensed and grabbed Frayvar's wrist, ready to yank him into the brush.

The ranger held up something flat and rectangular. An envelope. He looked like he was trying to read it by the vestiges of the sunset but shook his head, as if there wasn't enough light. He set the envelope on the stone railing, then rode off the bridge.

The taybarri trotted down a trail that headed downstream, rustling encroaching foliage along the way. As the ranger passed close to Kaylina and Frayvar, he didn't look at them, instead gazing with determination toward the hounds and horses.

Would he stop the hunters? Try to get them off Kaylina's trail?

She doubted it. So far, the rangers hadn't tried hard to catch her, but they were on the same side as her pursuers.

That thought didn't keep her from hurrying upstream, climbing out, and heading for the envelope. Her boots squished on the stone bridge, leaving wet prints that even a nearsighted grandma could follow, but it couldn't be helped. Kaylina wanted whatever the ranger had left. Something from Vlerion, she hoped.

The light had grown too dim to discern much, but she could make out the word pirate in dark ink on the envelope and grinned. That was what she called him , and it irked him to no end, but Kaylina had no doubt the message was for her.

After tucking the envelope into her waistband, trusting the belt to keep it secure, she climbed back into the water. Ducking low so they wouldn't be seen, she and Frayvar continued under the bridge and upstream.

The bays had shifted to whines, the hounds right alongside the waterway now and almost to the bridge. Kaylina worried their pursuers would continue into the preserve after them and she and her brother wouldn't be able to escape.

"Lord Ranger," a rider called from the path, the words barely audible over the gurgling water. "We're on the trail of the fugitive from the south."

"I glimpsed her near the manor, but she was heading into the mountains. I believe she may have caught a ride on one of the mining wagons." That voice was familiar. It belonged to Jankarr, Vlerion's handsome comrade.

"That's not what our hounds think."

"No? Then by all means, follow them. Their noses are much keener than mine."

"But not that of your taybarri."

The words grew harder to make out as Kaylina continued to creep upstream. It sounded like the speakers had stopped moving. Maybe Jankarr was blocking the path and buying her time?

"The taybarri will not help hunt down an anrokk ," Jankarr said. "It is why we've struggled to capture her ourselves. Several times, they've led us—we believe—deliberately astray."

"What in all the altered orchards is an anrokk ?"

"One to whom animals of all kinds are drawn. They're believed to have druids in their distant ancestry."

Kaylina halted. She hadn't heard that before. Vlerion had only said that animals were drawn to anrokk , and his mother, Isla, had implied that he might be drawn to Kaylina because the curse turned him into a beast, something more akin to an animal than a man.

"That girl has druid blood?" Skepticism dripped from the guard's voice.

Jankarr chuckled easily. "Maybe, maybe not. Who knows how much faith to put in the old stories. All I know is that the taybarri all like her and won't turn against her."

"Fantastic. Then you'll have to step aside so we can capture her. Your taybarri is blocking our hounds."

Too bad the dogs didn't mind turning against Kaylina. Though it was possible that once they found her, they would jump on her and lick her.

A concerned whine suggested the hounds weren't so much blocked as intimidated by the much larger beast. The taybarri might have soft blue fur and floppy ears, but their powerful muscles, rows of fangs, and sharp claws made them fearsome predators.

"Is he?" Jankarr asked. "Not by my choice, but as I said…"

Frayvar poked Kaylina in the shoulder and pointed toward the preserve.

Right, they needed to use this time to put more distance between them and their pursuers. As badly as Kaylina wanted to hear the rest of the conversation, she continued upstream as it curved, following the terrain toward the forest.

They were almost to the first trees when Jankarr called, "Best of luck to you on the hunt, but be careful in the preserve. The animals in there may aid an anrokk."

"They can aid her all they want," the guard called back, "after we've peppered her with crossbow quarrels."

Kaylina glanced back. The horseback riders crested the bridge and headed toward the preserve.

Jankarr must have continued downstream because he wasn't in view. The rangers might help Kaylina in small ways, but they wouldn't openly attack the guards, not for her. Probably not for anyone. After all, they all served the king and were on the same side.

A feline screech came from the forest, and Kaylina whirled toward the trees, images of panthers and tigers from the south springing to mind. There were even larger and more dangerous predators up here in the north. She remembered Vlerion battling a yekizar and had heard of powerful crag cougars.

Something moved in the shadows to the side of the stream. Kaylina yanked out the only weapon she had, a sling that her grandfather had given her.

From the dark trees, yellow eyes glinted as they looked toward her. They disappeared before she could take aim, and a faint rustling sounded as the creature sprang away.

A moment later, a horse shrieked in fear.

"Malikar!" a rider cried, naming an animal Kaylina had only read about, a shaggy sabertooth cat larger than a tiger.

Hounds barked, and branches snapped as some creature ran away. A blunderbuss fired, the boom drowning out everything else.

Kaylina didn't know if the great cat was attacking the hunters—it sounded that way—but she gripped her brother's arm and led him deeper into the forest. Though she hoped none of the dogs or horses would be hurt—she was more ambivalent about the men who wanted to pepper her with quarrels—she intended to take advantage of the distraction.

She and Frayvar left the stream behind so they could travel faster. They pushed through the undergrowth in the direction the malikar had seemed to come from. Hopefully, its appearance would rattle the hounds, and they would shy away from traveling deeper into the preserve.

Men shouted, and the blunderbuss fired again. The twangs of crossbows were too soft to hear, but Kaylina trusted the guards were unleashing all their weapons. She was surprised the malikar was sticking around to be shot at. Or did it think it could best them all and feast on the flesh of men?

She shuddered at the idea but didn't stop moving until the sounds dwindled and her breathing grew ragged. Her leg that had been bitten weeks earlier throbbed, a reminder that the deep wounds would take a long time to heal fully.

Frayvar tripped over a root and rasped, "I need to stop."

"Me too."

They put their backs to trees and listened. They could see little, the darkness in the forest deep, no hint of the waning daylight filtering through the thick canopy. The attack must have alarmed whatever creatures lived nearby—Kaylina's and Frayvar's breathing was the only sound. Conscious of that, she did her best to quiet hers.

"Maybe you are an anrokk ," Frayvar said.

"Because that cat attacked the men?" Kaylina wasn't as skeptical as she would have been a couple of weeks ago when she'd argued that the taybarri only liked her because she had honey. Too many weird things had happened since then for her to dismiss the possibility that something about her attracted animals. That great cat had looked right at her, a far easier target than the hunters, before springing into the middle of all those armed men and dogs.

"Among other things."

Kaylina eyed her brother in the dark, but she could barely see him much less consider his expression. She hoped he wasn't implying anything about Vlerion—and the beast curse. She'd promised Vlerion that she wouldn't share his secret with Frayvar, but her smart brother figured a lot out for himself.

"I don't see why, if it's about blood, I would be an anrokk and you wouldn't," she pointed out.

As far as she knew, animals had never taken to her brother. Which was probably good since cats, dogs, horses, and who knew what else roused his allergies and made him sneeze.

"I don't either, but you're the only one in the family grandpa's hounds follow around faithfully."

"They follow him around."

"Because he feeds them, but they also trail you and, I don't know, show off for you."

"If you mean they wrestle right next to me and knock me over, that's a true honor."

" They probably think it is. What is that envelope the ranger left? Was that Jankarr?"

"Yes." Reminded, Kaylina drew it from under her belt and eased her pack off her shoulders. "Do you think I could risk lighting my lantern to read it?"

"It's more of a risk not to read it. If it offers help… we need help."

"True."