Chapter 3

3

The gods blessed the world with life but also filled the moon with craters.

~ Summer Moon Priestess Tya

After the river flowed out of the preserve, it grew wider and calmer. Battered and in pain from striking her shoulder, Kaylina alternated paddling toward shore and looking for her brother.

"Frayvar?" she risked calling, hoping they'd left the authorities and the Kar'ruk far behind. "Are you there?"

Even as a strong swimmer, Kaylina struggled to pull herself out of the swift current in the center of the river. Another mile passed before she neared shore, finally snagging in a beaver dam that thrust into the waterway.

"Kay?" called Frayvar from the shadows. "Is that you?"

"No, I'm a Kar'ruk maiden who fell in love after hearing that you sprinkle perfume on letters, and I leaped into the water after you."

"Funny."

"As I always strive to be." Kaylina pushed wet hair out of her eyes and used the jumble of branches and logs to pull herself toward Frayvar and the bank.

"From what I've read, the Kar'ruk females are almost as likely to be warriors as the males, though some are holy leaders, alchemists, and sacred gatherers—that's someone who specializes in finding and collecting useful parts of altered plants." Only Frayvar could give a lesson on culture while clawing his way along a beaver dam to shore. "It's too bad the Kar'ruk were aggressive. I wish I could have asked them about their people. What humans have recorded and what's reality might not be the same. Although the primatologist Denri Morvarian, after spending a few years studying gorillas in the jungles of Egorth, lived for a time among the Kar'ruk. She's believed to be the only one who's ever been permitted to do so, likely because she became the mate of one of their chieftains. She wrote a fascinating text."

"On how to make love to a man with horns?"

"It was a scientific study of their people, culture, and social dynamics."

"I bet she learned the other thing along the way." Kaylina reached the boulder-strewn shoreline and pulled herself out of the water, then lowered a hand to help her brother.

"I suppose that could be accurate."

The snort of a horse kept Kaylina from making another comment.

"How many people are out here in the middle of the night?" she whispered.

Frayvar groaned softly and flopped down on his back. Not caring if guards found them?

After being chased by the arrow-shooting Kar'ruk, Kaylina almost wanted to return to the relative safety of a dungeon cell, but her time in the royal castle hadn't been uneventful either.

"Stay there," she whispered, though Frayvar didn't look like he would move until dawn.

His second groan sounded like compliance.

Kaylina crept up the slope, lamenting that they'd lost their lantern and pack—she hoped Vlerion wouldn't be upset that she'd lost his book as well—and peered out onto a dark field. There were enough hills that she couldn't see the city in the distance, but the map in her mind told her they had to be near the highway that followed the river toward Port Jirador and Frost Harbor.

Yes, there it was. A team of horses pulled a covered wagon along it, one a white mare that stood out even in the dark. A sleepy-looking driver with his chin to his chest rode on the bench. The wagon was heading toward the city, the team ambling at a sedate pace.

Kaylina scrambled down the slope to shake Frayvar. "Up. We're getting a ride."

"Uh? With rangers?"

"No, in a wagon."

Or maybe under the wagon. The back might be searched, but if they could find a way to hang on underneath, this could be their way to sneak into the city.

Not explaining further, Kaylina tugged Frayvar to his feet. He groaned again, but at least he had stopped wheezing.

"Follow me," she whispered.

They scrambled up the slope, the rush of the river and clop of horse hooves hopefully drowning out any noise they made. The wagon had passed their position and was continuing toward the city. The driver was the only person visible, and none of the weary horses flickered their ears as Kaylina and Frayvar crept closer.

The darkness and a flap hid the contents of the wagon. Kaylina hoped there wasn't an army of guards or army of anything sitting on benches inside.

When they caught up, they gripped the edge of the tailgate, and Frayvar untied the flap. Kaylina started to whisper her plan to hang onto the frame and ride underneath, but Frayvar slithered over the gate and inside. Nobody shouted an alarm. Good. If they had miles to go, it would be hard to hang on from below.

Kaylina pulled herself in after her brother and winced when her shoulder struck something again. Not a boulder this time but a… what? She groped about a huge stack of papers tied together. It was one of many that filled the wagon, leaving little space for them to hunker down.

"These feel like newspapers," Frayvar whispered.

"Ssh."

They couldn't see the driver, but they were close to him now. Even a sleepy man would notice people talking behind him.

"Why would someone be taking newspapers into Port Jirador?" Frayvar asked. "The presses are in the city. Papers might be distributed out of Port Jirador—we get the Kingdom Chronicle all the way down in our islands, after all—but into it?"

Kaylina, worried her brother was musing too loudly, clasped a hand over his mouth.

Frayvar huffed but stopped talking, and they rode in silence. Her hand didn't keep him from untying one of the bundles, removing a newspaper, and stuffing it into his wet shirt.

She almost said he was stealing, since he hadn't left any coins, but the wagon was slowing down, the road noise quieting, and she dared not speak. She released Frayvar and eased aside the flap to lean out for a look. Just ahead, walls, watchtowers, and lights marked the eastern edge of the city.

A guard called out to the driver. "Stop to be searched."

Kaylina was on the verge of telling Frayvar they needed to crawl under the wagon, but he'd wedged himself into a tight space between stacks of paper. She hesitated. It wouldn't take a thorough search to find them, but maybe the guards wouldn't investigate newspapers that closely. She squeezed in beside him.

A whinny sounded, followed by a whuff that belonged to a taybarri instead of a horse.

Two clinks followed as the tailgate fasteners were pulled out, and it clanked down. Kaylina grimaced and sank lower, afraid the guard was going to investigate the newspapers closely.

The wagon bed creaked as someone climbed in. A lantern shed light over the stacks, and she slumped in defeat, certain they would be caught.

"What is it?" a man outside asked.

The bed creaked again as whoever had climbed in leaned back out. "Looks like mining equipment that needs repairs."

Kaylina frowned. What?

The taybarri whuffed again, and sniffing noises came from the side of the wagon.

"My mount thinks there's something interesting in there."

"Might be some food too." The bed creaked as the speaker hopped down. He secured the pins and pulled down the flap. "Maybe a rat or two."

"Taybarri aren't mousers."

"Your mount ate the label off a can of beans the other day. They don't seem that particular."

The other man—he had to be a ranger—grunted but didn't ask more questions. The wagon rolled into motion, the horses pulling it through the gate and into the city.

"Fray," Kaylina whispered. "Do you see any mining equipment in here?"

"I do not."

She left her nook and opened the flap enough to peer out. A guard leaned by the gate, lantern dangling at his side, and the back end of a taybarri was also visible, its rider out of sight.

"What's going on?" she wondered.

"Shenanigans."

"That's your educated opinion based on all the books you've read?"

"It is. For now." Frayvar rattled the newspaper he'd taken.

Yeah, Kaylina wanted to see what it said too.

With no light inside the wagon, they had to wait for it to slow again. They took the first opportunity they could to climb out, slipping into an alley without being spotted.

Kaylina, mindful of Vlerion's warning, tugged her damp hood over her head. As soon as the wagon was out of sight, and they made sure nobody was around to see them, they headed for a streetlamp.

Frayvar held the paper up to the light and read the front-page article aloud. " Mystery Beast Slays Another Innocent Commoner. Rangers Believed to Be Responsible or Colluding with It ."

"Beast?" Kaylina whispered, fear for Vlerion rearing up.

Had something happened to cause him to shift forms again? And to kill someone? Even if that had happened, why would the newspaper journalist have believed the rangers were involved?

Worry for Vlerion made Kaylina struggle to focus as her brother continued to read aloud, the words detailing how a factory worker had been killed near a canal, his throat torn open by claws. Two rangers had been spotted in the area by witnesses claiming they'd done nothing while the man had screamed. People speculated the rangers might even have brought the beast to do their killing, releasing it into an area where only commoners lived.

" The Court Cryer. I don't recognize this newspaper." Frayvar turned the page and skimmed through some other articles. "I've read the ones printed in the city since we've been here. This isn't as thick or professional. There was a typo in the first paragraph."

"An even worse crime than the one reported."

"It might have been put together by some small organization," Frayvar said. "Some small quasi-illiterate organization."

"I'd call you a snob, but whoever wrote that is making the rangers look bad."

"And you like them now?"

"Well, I like Vlerion. And Doctor Penderbrock."

"So, two of them."

"Yeah," Kaylina said. "I also like the taybarri."

"Me too."

"I wonder where the newspaper originated." Frayvar gazed back toward the gate.

"I don't know, but we need to show it to Vlerion. And we need to tell him about the Kar'ruk in the preserve." That might cause the rangers more concern, especially if they didn't already know that the mortal enemies of humanity were lurking so close to the capital.

"I thought we were on a mission to clear your name."

"We are, but these things are more important." Kaylina waved toward the paper, but the Kar'ruk were foremost in her mind. "They could be a threat to the entire city."

"Have you noticed how complicated our lives have become since we came north to open our meadery?"

"Grandma has always said that starting a business is hard."