Chapter 15

15

The obvious maelstrom on the horizon gives us less trouble than the surprise gust that knocks into us from behind.

~ Elder Taybarri Ravarn

Kaylina stuck to Vlerion’s side as they descended the stairs to leave the office building. She had a hunch about the identity of the furtive woman but didn’t know how Jana Bloomlong would have gotten a newspaper that nobody else had seen yet. Kaylina assumed nobody had seen it. If a story about Vlerion had gone out that morning, a story with something in it capable of alarming that corporal, all the rangers would have been talking about it.

Boots clomped wearily on the stairs behind as Targon trailed them.

“If this new woman proposes to Vlerion,” he said, “I’m going to start to get envious that I don’t get that kind of attention from the opposite sex. I’m twice as handsome as he is.”

“You’re also twice as old as I am.” It didn’t sound like Vlerion’s heart was in the banter. His eyes were grave as they walked into the courtyard.

The cloaked woman had come on a single horse and stood near the gate with it, another corporal watching her from a few feet away. She didn’t carry any obvious weapons, only what looked like the front page of a newspaper, the single sheet rustling in a breeze.

A boulder of dread thunked down in Kaylina’s gut.

“Jana Bloomlong,” Vlerion stated without surprise as they approached.

“Lord Vlerion.” Jana pushed her hood back, revealing lean features and thick gray hair clasped back from her temples. Jana looked sourly at Kaylina. “I should have known your clingy conniving female would be at your side.”

“Is there a reason other women all have to call me names and put me down?” Kaylina asked, though she focused on the newspaper, more worried about Vlerion than defending herself. It appeared to be only the front page, as she’d thought, not an entire edition.

“They are envious of your beauty and the power the gods have granted you,” Vlerion said.

“I think my father granted me that stuff.”

The father she longed to meet. Speaking of envy, she felt a touch of it herself, knowing that her older sister had met Kaylina’s father when she never had.

“The only thing I’m envious of is her ability to get honey made from altered plants,” Jana grumbled. “ That’s the single difference in our mead. It has nothing to do with recipes or ability.”

Kaylina didn’t think that was true, but said, “There’s honey in the preserve. The bees there defend their hives and have stung the taybarri, but maybe they’ll like you more than them.”

No chance. The taybarri were delightful. And Jana Bloomlong was the opposite of that.

“Maybe I will look for that honey. But not now. I came to speak with Lord Vlerion on another matter, tomorrow’s edition of the newspaper. I was able to get an early copy.” Jana smiled at Kaylina instead of Vlerion.

Kaylina grimaced, certain she was the reason Jana was here, trying to blackmail Vlerion or whatever she planned. She hadn’t succeeded in having Stillguard Castle shut down or Kaylina executed. Was she now going to hurt Kaylina by hurting the man she cared about?

“Have your slowed mead sales forced you to take on a paper route?” Kaylina bared her teeth, not caring that she sounded snotty.

“My sales are fine. I have friends in the city, as well as in the royal castle, friends who keep me apprised on many matters.”

Kaylina knew it was petty, but she hoped Jana learned that the head of the royal kitchen staff was shopping around for a new mead supplier.

Jana looked around the courtyard, making sure no rangers lurked close, then handed the newspaper page to Vlerion. The corporal was still watching her, but he wouldn’t be able to read the words from there. Targon also remained in the area, keeping an eye on them, but he wasn’t interfering. Not yet.

Vlerion squinted at Jana, then walked to a lamp mounted on a wall to read the article. Kaylina went with him, and he held the paper so she could see it.

She glimpsed her own name and sucked in a startled breath. It was down on the bottom corner, something about the grand opening of the Deep Sea Honeybee, the name Frayvar had given their eating house and put on the menu, despite everyone continuing to call it Stillguard Castle or—worse—the cursed castle.

As she tried to read that corner article—Vlerion had let it dangle as he focused on the larger story above—she realized it wasn’t the one the corporal had mentioned. It wasn’t the reason Jana had come. Kaylina caught the words mouthwateringly delicious but made herself focus on the main article. As soon as she did, she slumped.

It started out with the first line all in caps: RANGER LORD VLERION CURSED BY DRUIDS TO BECOME A DEADLY BEAST. It didn’t get better from there, going into great detail describing the creature he became and the great power he commanded to kill. Jana must have blabbed to a journalist, just as she had the queen.

Not only did the article identify Vlerion as a cursed killer beast, but it said he’d murdered Spymaster Sabor and was a threat to anyone who crossed him.

Kaylina looked toward Jana, surprised the article blamed Vlerion for the spymaster’s demise. She’d assumed Jana had witnessed what really happened.

“Oh, did you want credit for Sabor’s death?” Jana asked, as if she knew the exact line that Kaylina was on. Jana sneered. “You’re getting credit for enough. I couldn’t get Lord Havak to take that other article out. Enjoy the free publicity.” Her gaze shifted to Vlerion. “Meanwhile, I hope you, Lord Ranger, enjoy having the populace of the entire city hunting you down. And your fellow rangers should go after you too when they find out.” She waved to indicate the headquarters building, then lowered her voice, almost to a growl. “While you’re fleeing for your life, maybe you’ll have second thoughts about who you get into bed with.” She squinted at Kaylina.

Kaylina tensed, tempted to spring over and throttle the woman.

This wasn’t some back-alley newspaper printed up by rogue operators. Across the top read Kingdom Crier , the same newspaper that Kaylina had once read regularly for the Queen’s Corner. Distributed throughout Zaldor, it was the most read paper in the kingdom, if not in the world.

“This hasn’t been published yet.” Vlerion pointed to the next day’s date at the top.

“It will be distributed in the morning,” Jana said, “unless…”

“What do you want?” Vlerion asked.

She smiled. No doubt, she’d been waiting for the satisfaction of having him ask. “I want you and your rangers to destroy the cursed castle that’s been allowed to fester like an open sore in our city for far too long. And I want her —” Jana pointed at Kaylina’s nose, “—out of business. At least, send her back to where she came from to distribute her druids-tainted drink there.”

Vlerion lowered the paper and stared at Jana, his face flinty.

“If you do that,” Jana said, “I’ll talk Lord Havak into removing the article and printing something else. He only has that story because of me, and I told him I retained the right to have it removed if I wished. That’s our deal. But if I don’t return to him, he’ll send it out, as is. To everyone in the kingdom. By dawn, it’ll be in people’s hands. Unless you agree to my terms and round up your rangers with all the explosives they’ll need.” Her pointing finger shifted in the direction of Stillguard Castle.

Kaylina, after seeing the sentinel shoot deadly purple beams out to kill Kar’ruk invaders, doubted Jana’s plan would work even if Vlerion agreed to it. Which he wouldn’t. Kaylina didn’t know when she had come to know him so well, and to know his heart, but she did.

“Print your paper,” Vlerion said coolly. “I will not be blackmailed. Not by you or anyone else.”

Targon walked over, and Kaylina jumped. She’d forgotten they weren’t alone.

He took the page from Vlerion to read it.

“This is the only chance I’m giving you.” Jana looked at Targon as well as Vlerion. Did she think his captain would convince him that being blackmailed was a good idea?

Targon only grunted and handed the paper back to Vlerion, who remained flint-faced and said nothing more. His muscles were tight though. Some part of him had to want to throttle the woman— all the people who were trying to manipulate him.

When her words fell on deaf ears, Jana finally looked at Kaylina, as if she might sway him.

Her gut knotted. If she wanted to, Kaylina very well might sway Vlerion. She hated the idea of giving up all that she and Frayvar had accomplished, and her heart protested the thought of giving up Vlerion. And that was what she would be doing if she left. His home was here, his career as a ranger, his duty to defend the kingdom and the crown—whether they deserved his loyalty or not.

But Kaylina teetered, wondering if it would be selfish to refuse to give up what she wanted for his sake. To make sure his secret remained safe and that the entire city wasn’t targeting him.

Jana arched her eyebrows, waiting.

Vlerion noticed their held gazes and looked at Kaylina. Maybe he also saw the indecision in her eyes because he shook his head before speaking again to Jana.

“You will leave now, and be grateful the rangers are not arresting you. It is a crime to attempt to blackmail a kingdom subject, even more so an aristocrat.”

Jana glowered at him and at Targon. “It’s a crime to turn into a beast and slay innocent people. You’ll be the one arrested when this comes out—or executed —and the rangers who knew about it will be suspect in the eyes of the law too.”

“So be it,” Vlerion said.

Targon didn’t respond to the threat, though his eyes had grown wishful at Vlerion’s mention of arresting Jana to deal with the problem. But, if her words were true, that wouldn’t stop the distribution of the Kingdom Crier .

Jana stood in place, fuming for several long seconds. Kaylina realized she didn’t care that much about Vlerion’s secret. All she wanted was for her scheme to work so she could get rid of Kaylina and her mead, the threat to Jana’s continued business success.

Kaylina glared at her. Too bad.

Jana opened her mouth to try who knew what else, but the ground shuddered.

“Another earthquake,” someone called.

Targon and Vlerion remained calm, maybe not believing they had anything to worry about in the open courtyard. Kaylina braced herself, not trusting that the shaking wouldn’t get worse.

Glass jars broke in the infirmary, and curses came from the barracks. The taybarri pawed and snorted in the stable. Wood snapped in one of the buildings, and the crash of furniture falling over reached them.

Jana didn’t run—alas—but she did look warily around. “They always come in groups, don’t they?”

Earthquakes? Kaylina had no idea what was normal.

“The last time a number of quakes struck the city,” Vlerion said, “I was a little boy, and the Bushtop volcano erupted.” Vlerion pointed toward the northeast where the Evardor Mountains loomed.

“Just what we need to add to the chaos,” Targon said as the quaking grew less noticeable. “A volcano erupting. Bushtop took out one of the mountain villages with its flow, and it was years before all the ash here washed away.”

When the quaking fully subsided, Jana looked at them again, as if she would resume her blackmail attempt.

But Targon made a shooing motion. “Go home, woman.”

Jana hesitated, clearly reluctant to give in to defeat, then huffed dramatically and stalked out the gate with her horse.

Vlerion calmly ripped the newspaper. Kaylina thought he would shred it into dozens of pieces and toss it into a fire, but he was carefully tearing out the corner. The article about her and her mead, she realized. He handed it to her and then destroyed the rest of the page.

Touched by the simple gesture, the confirmation that he knew what was important to her, she stepped closer and leaned against him.

“Come with me to Stillguard tonight,” she said, then, aware of Targon watching, added, “Please, my lord.”

Targon snorted, no doubt aware that the tacked-on honorific was for his sake. “Nice that she says please and doesn’t just use her powers to force you to comply.”

Vlerion lifted his gaze toward the stars. Thinking about how annoying his captain’s snark was? Or how irritating all these people trying to manipulate him were? Maybe both. But he slid his arm around Kaylina, silently promising that he wasn’t frustrated with her.

She was glad, because she couldn’t help but think about how this wouldn’t be happening if her mead-making business had never begun. If she’d never come to Port Jirador.

“More seriously,” Targon said, “you might want to leave the area for a while. When that gets printed…”

“ Now you say I can leave ranger headquarters?” Vlerion’s tone was more bitter than dry.

Targon lifted his head. “If you want to stay, we’ll protect you from whatever comes of that, but it will be easier if whatever guards, bounty hunters, or assassins that people conjure up don’t know where you are. If nothing else were going on, I would recommend you travel farther than the cursed castle a mile away, but…”

“I will not flee the city when you may need my sword.” Vlerion looked at Targon. “I will go to Stillguard Castle, at least for tonight.” He lifted his chin. “Kaylina needs assistance with washing dishes.”

“By all the craters in the moon, you are controlling him, aren’t you?” Targon asked Kaylina.

She lifted a hand and wiggled her fingers.

“Don’t send your vile druid magic in this direction.” Targon took the scraps of paper from Vlerion, said, “I’ll burn these,” then headed for the barracks building.

Vlerion nodded, though they both knew it wouldn’t matter. Come morning, everyone in the city would be reading that article.