Chapter 21

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."

"He wasn't." As Kaylina removed the honeycomb from her pack, she spotted a newspaper article clipped out and lying on the counter. "Did you put that there?"

"Not me."

"It had to be the Virts." Kaylina picked it up. It was the article about the beast that they'd already read. Had Mitzy left it for her as a message?

She growled, tempted to use it to start a fire, but she folded it and put it in her pocket instead. If she chanced upon more druidic beehives, she could wrap the comb in the paper instead of having to tear pages out of the ranger handbook.

That done, she located a pot to make her fertilizer. This time, she would heat it so the honey dissolved properly. "Bribery Attempt Number Two coming up."

The back of her hand itched. She frowned at it, then knelt to start a fire in the hearth.

"Maybe you should call it a gift." Frayvar looked toward the walls and the ceiling, as if the castle—the plant —might be listening. Maybe it was. "Or an offering."

"I'm not particular about what we call it. I just want it to lift the curse."

"You think the honey from the preserve will do more than Grandpa's honey? They were both made from bees foraging on altered plants, right?" Frayvar looked wistfully in the direction of the mountains. "I would have liked to see the valley you described."

"We can visit the preserve again when there aren't axe-toting Kar'ruk lurking around every tree." Not wanting him to worry more about the castle than he already did, Kaylina didn't mention the Kar'ruk that Vlerion had killed in the catacombs, fifty yards from their root cellar.

"And with sturdy rangers beside us?"

"Possibly."

Once the fire was burning, Kaylina hung the pot of water to boil. Her hand itched again, then warmed. The desire to go upstairs and see the plant swept over her.

She didn't think it came fully from her, which made her wonder if it had been entirely her will that had prompted her to return to the castle. Was there a reason she kept prioritizing this over solving her own problem? What if the brand could control her on some level?

"Not at all creepy," she murmured.

Frayvar yawned loudly. "Are we sleeping here tonight? Or maybe I should ask if we're sleeping tonight."

"I do miss it."

His yawn made Kaylina do the same. Tears sprang to her eyes, and three more yawns followed the first.

"We'll have to find somewhere safe to do it," she added. "Not in the castle. It's a risk even starting a fire here. Vlerion mentioned spies, more than the one person we saw. It's only that so few people are willing to come in here that I'm not more worried. Also, we could, if we had to, escape into the catacombs."

"Maybe one of the passageways down there leads to the poison-maker's home." Frayvar looked at her, but he didn't repeat his desire to prioritize that mission.

Kaylina sighed. She couldn't blame him for wanting the charges removed and again wondered if an outside influence—she glanced at the brand—might be the reason she kept putting it off. It might just be that she didn't see how finding the maker of the poison would lead to Jana admitting she'd been responsible and that Kaylina was innocent. The poisoner might be a good friend of hers or at least value her as a client. Why would he rat her out to the authorities to protect a newcomer from the far end of the kingdom?

The water boiled, and Kaylina removed the pot to stir in honey. Realizing she hadn't answered her brother's question about whether it was superior, she gave him a piece of the comb to taste.

"It's even better than Grandpa's," Kaylina said. "You've got the chef's palate, but tell me I'm wrong."

Frayvar swept a finger through the comb and touched it to his tongue, then let it linger for a thoughtful moment while she finished making the fertilizer.

"It is good," he said. "It's got a zing to it."

"That's probably the magic."

He snorted but didn't deny the possibility. "I wonder if it conveys any health benefits. Remember when Aplar Dunefar did those scientific experiments on Grandpa's honey?"

"I remember him cadging a lot of free samples under the premise that he was studying it."

"He published his findings in some university journals," Frayvar said, indignation in his tone. "There were charts and columns of data."

"Oh, well if there were charts, I'm sure it was legitimate."

"You're such a skeptic."

"We don't need the druid honey to have health benefits for anyone except the plant. I want it to feel so vibrant and chuffed about life that it lifts the curse."

"You think a plant has that power?"

"I'm hoping that plant does." Kaylina held the back of her hand toward him to remind him how much power it had.

"All right."

She grabbed her ladle and hefted the pot. "Come with me, please, to hand this up to me, then stand back in case I need help."

"Shouldn't I stand forward in case you need help?"

"No, because I don't want you to get cracked in the head by a vine, zapped by branding magic, or otherwise maimed. If you think it's necessary, I want you to run for help."

"Run to whom?"

Kaylina hesitated, reluctant to bring any of the rangers into the castle when the curse wanted them dead, but who else did she know who would help her? No one.

"Vlerion. Or the ranger doctor. Or both."

Frayvar looked at her with grave eyes, probably imagining scenarios that would require him to get the doctor. All he said was a soft, "Okay."

More nervous than she'd been on her previous visits to the tower, Kaylina wiped her hands on her trousers a few times as they ascended the stairs and walked down the hall. She tried not to think of the man the castle had killed less than an hour ago, the body still in the vestibule.

"Was the tower glowing red or purple when you came in?" She wondered if it had turned back to red and that was what had made it grumpy enough to kill.

"Purple."

"Hm."

When they passed the window at the end of the hall and turned into the narrow passageway that led to the tower, Kaylina could see the purple glow for herself, seeping through the gap in the boards she'd made days earlier. More vines than before dangled down. One ran along the ceiling and down the wall, the end lying on the floor, the tip twitching slightly.

"I've invigorated it, haven't I?" Kaylina asked.

"Feed it more honey, and it could take over the city." Frayvar stopped well back. The way he eyed the twitching tip suggested he would have whether she'd recommended it or not.

Before committing to climbing up, Kaylina handed him the pot and walked close to the vine, wanting to see how it would react to her. Even though she believed the plant hadn't marked her out of malice, despite the pain it had caused, she didn't want it to hurt her again. Or worse. By now, it might have figured out that she considered Vlerion an ally. More than an ally.

The tip of the vine twitched toward her and rose a few inches from the floor. It reminded her of a hound with its nose in the air, sniffing the wind.

"I brought some special honey," she told it.

The tip flicked toward the hole. An invitation?

Kaylina took a deep breath. That might be the most reassurance that she would get.

"My brother will hand it to me once I climb up to you," she added, wanting to make sure the plant understood that he wasn't an enemy either.

Again, the tip flicked toward the hole.

"Right."

While avoiding touching the vines, Kaylina climbed the wall, using the rusty brackets that had once supported stairs. The floorboards creaked when she gripped them, but having made several trips up, she trusted them to support her weight. She swung her leg over the edge, and, with a grunt and straining of muscles, she pulled herself into the room.

The purple glow intensified, bathing her in its light. The plant had sprouted more branches and vines from its ancient soil, and several waved in the air.

Afraid one would grab her again, she kept an eye on them as she pushed herself to her hands and knees.

"Is it safe?" Frayvar called from down the hall.

"What's your definition of safe?"

"Protected from and not exposed to danger or risk. Harmless. Offering safety from danger or difficulty."

"I said your definition, not the dictionary definition."

"They're the same. I'm a faithful devotee of dictionaries."

"Yeah, yeah. The plant isn't any of those things. Come to the hole, and hand me the pot anyway."

Since the branches and vines, despite waving in the air, weren't threatening her, Kaylina risked taking her gaze off them to lie beside the hole and lower her hand down.

"I'm not sure why you didn't bring your ra— your new friend for this," Frayvar grumbled as he approached slowly.

"I didn't want him to be killed."

"Naturally, you're saving that fate for your little brother."

"The plant doesn't hate you."

"It's knocked me unconscious before." He glanced from vine to vine, not looking up at her, as he stopped under the hole and held the pot overhead.

"Not hatefully." Glad for his height, Kaylina reached down and gripped the handle.

" So comforting."

The water sloshed, the ladle clinking against the lip, as she pulled the pot up. Before she sat back, vines stretched toward it.

"Don't be greedy. Give me a second." Kaylina set the pot down next to the huge planter and grabbed the ladle.

The vines didn't obey and dipped into the water. One brushed her hand, and she jerked back, the memory of the last time the plant had touched her springing to mind.

But it only wanted the honey-water and didn't reach for her.

"If it understands our language," Frayvar said, backing down the hall, "it might not appreciate you giving it orders. The same way you don't appreciate certain lords giving you orders."

"It's a wise plant." Kaylina plucked out the ladle. "I'm sure it knows they're only suggestions."

"Maybe you should bow and add my lord when you speak to it."

"You think it's an aristocratic plant?"

"It's something . It might appreciate your obeisance."

Kaylina eased closer to ladle her fertilizer over the soil around the inches-thick stem of the plant. The trunk , she amended. It didn't look anything like a tree, but that was a very stout stem.

The purple glow intensified. She hoped that meant the plant liked the honey.

A vine lifted from the pot, water dripping from the tip, and drifted toward her face.

Kaylina skittered back, almost dropping the ladle. "You're welcome. No need for touching. Thanks."

The vine paused, as if considering her words.

"My lord," she added in case her brother was right. "Or lady. Or high plantness."

A snort drifted up from Frayvar, but he didn't suggest another title.

The tip of the vine eased closer to her face, stretching toward her temple.

Heart hammering against her ribcage, Kaylina lifted the ladle to use as a shield and backed away as far as she could. When she bumped into the stone wall, she had to stop. Either that, or she had to dive past the vine, out the hole, and tumble to the floor below, possibly breaking her neck.

The vine paused again, the tip only a few inches from her eyes.

It wasn't aggressively reaching for her—when the plant had branded her, its movement had been abrupt, too quick for her to escape—but she found even this mild interest alarming. Yet it paused, hanging there. Silently asking if it could touch her? She didn't know why it needed to. Before, it had shared visions with her without any contact. No, not visions. It had taken her memories and shown them to her, shown her it could read minds.

But now it seemed to be asking permission.

Kaylina lowered the ladle. "Go ahead."

The vine drifted closer, the cool green tip touching her temple. In the still quiet of the tower, she could feel every rapid thump of her heart. She closed her eyes, hoping she wouldn't regret this.