Chapter 12

12

When your forces are insufficient for a forward assault, you must tempt the enemy into a trap.

~ Lord General Menok

The carriage pulled off the highway and onto the drive for Havartaft Estate, and Kaylina put down her book. The sign and manor house were as she remembered them, but, as Vlerion had mentioned, a silo and the stable had been damaged by fire. Work crews were replacing the charred wood, the bangs from hammers drifting across the countryside.

Since her last visit, the snow had melted, and greens thrust up from garden beds, while fruit was starting on vines and trees. On a grassy hillside, lambs cavorted about between grazing sheep.

With the mountains rising beyond the estate, peaks still blanketed in snow, it was a beautiful area, the kind that made a visitor feel at peace and long to stay. Now that the weather was warmer, Kaylina could imagine reading her book underneath one of the trees, with a gentle breeze rustling through the grasses.

If not for the family curse, Havartaft Estate would have been a wonderful place to grow up. But that had to loom over everything. Kaylina well remembered Isla speaking of eventually losing Vlerion, the same as she had her husband and her firstborn son. She'd spoken of when it would happen, not if.

Since she had warned Kaylina to stay away from Vlerion, to keep the beast from rising unnecessarily, Isla couldn't have given up on him completely. But she was probably the pessimistic sort. With her background, how not? Maybe she always expected the worst even as she fought for something better.

The same butler answered the door, passing the mead bottle to the kitchen staff and leading Kaylina into the castle. Isla sat in a room of tufted couches and chairs, a low table waiting with a pitcher of tea, cups, and a plate of biscuits and butter.

The last time Kaylina had visited, there had been sweets as well, and Isla had liked her honey drops. Maybe Kaylina should have brought those instead of the mead. Or in addition to the mead.

Isla, her dress plain and her face without makeup, the same as it had been before, nodded when the butler led Kaylina in.

"I'm pleased you could come, Ms. Korbian, and do I understand that you brought another bottle of your wonderful mead?" Isla smiled, and, unlike with so many others Kaylina had encountered recently, it seemed genuine, if sad. There was a graveness in her blue eyes that probably never left.

"I did. Word travels fast in your home." Kaylina couldn't help but glance at the scars—the claw marks —on Isla's neck.

During her first visit, she hadn't known where they came from, not until Isla told the tale of being wed to Vlerion's father before she'd learned about the curse. Her husband might not have killed her when he'd turned into a beast, but he'd hurt her when they mated. Now that Kaylina had seen Vlerion change a number of times—and knew his beast wanted to claim her as his female —seeing the scars was much more chilling.

"The house is quiet with Vlerion moved out and only me here most of the time," Isla said. "The staff lacks for gossip or much to talk about, so they overexert themselves in that area when visitors arrive. I do wish it were possible for my son… Well, I've told you why there should never be a wife and children for Vlerion."

"Yes," Kaylina said, her mouth dry. She was nervous, expecting the worst. What had Isla really invited her here to talk about?

"You've seen it— him —now." Isla held her gaze, the words a statement of certainty, not a question. "You understand fully."

"I… yes."

"You've not been able to stay away from him." It also sounded like a statement of certainty. Surprisingly, it didn't come across as an accusation. Isla almost sounded sympathetic, as if she understood fully. Of course she did. She'd spoken of the allure of the beast, of how women were drawn to the Havartaft men, even when they knew better.

"Well, I'm training to be a ranger." Kaylina felt she needed to give an excuse. It wasn't that she'd wanted to defy Isla, who had given her good advice and who doubtless wanted the best for her son. "And with everything going on… the gods keep throwing us together."

"So he said when I spoke to him." Isla sighed and leaned forward to pat a chair adjacent to the couch. "I do not blame you. And, as you might guess, I was unsuccessful in convincing Captain Targon to put aside his notion of training you to be a ranger. He's convinced you have some… power." Isla's forehead creased as she looked Kaylina up and down as if she couldn't believe it.

Since Kaylina struggled to believe it herself, she wasn't offended. She doubted she had much in the way of inherent power, maybe nothing more than the ability to attract animals. It hadn't been until the plant branded her that she'd started being able to do odd things. Most likely, she was a conduit for its power.

"More than that of an anrokk ," Isla added.

"It's hard to explain." Kaylina perched on the edge of the seat. "I do seem to have a link to Stillguard Castle and its curse. Do you know about the druid plant that resides there?"

"Vlerion mentioned it, but he's terse whenever he speaks about you—and things revolving around you. He knows I feel you two should stay apart, and he doesn't want to upset me, but I can tell… Well, I understand he's not been successful in staying away from you either." Her mouth twisted, the sadness in her eyes deeper.

"The gods keep throwing us together," Kaylina said again.

"The gods are capricious."

"Yes."

A soft knock sounded, and a female server brought in another tray. It held the opened bottle of mead, more than a few sips missing, and two crystal goblets.

"Did it pass the taste test?" Kaylina recalled that even a horse had gotten a lick last time.

The server smiled, dimples appearing. "Yes, ma'am. If the kitchen staff—and the butler and the gardener and the stable master—didn't know my lady enjoys your mead, the entire bottle might have disappeared."

"Really," Isla murmured.

The server bowed her head, poured drinks, then departed.

Last time, Isla had only seemed moderately interested in the mead, surprising Kaylina when she'd spoken of its excellence toward the end. This time, she didn't hesitate to pick up the goblet and take a sip, swishing it thoughtfully in her mouth before swallowing.

"A different recipe, for certain, but was it also made using different honey?" she asked. "The first varieties you brought were wonderful, but this has something extra to it."

"You have a sensitive palate, my lady." Kaylina found it easier to throw the honorific on her sentence for Vlerion's mom than for him. Maybe because she wasn't pompous. "That's one of my first batches made from honey crafted by bees gathering pollen from altered plants in the local preserve." Kaylina waved in the general direction, though the dense forest didn't border Havartaft land like it did some of the other estates outside of the capital. "I stumbled upon ancient druid hives while I was, uhm…"

She wondered how much Isla had heard about the poisoning charges and Kaylina being chased around the countryside by the authorities. Her cheeks warmed. It shouldn't have mattered what Isla thought of her, but, for some reason, she didn't like the idea of Vlerion's mom believing she was a troublemaker. Even if she'd eventually been cleared of that crime, she couldn't help but feel she'd been shortsighted along the way and gotten herself into that mess.

"While I was temporarily unable to stay in my home," Kaylina finished.

Isla's graying eyebrows twitched faintly at that interpretation of events. Kaylina had a feeling she'd heard the story from Vlerion or someone else. After all, her wanted posters had been all over the city for a while.

"When that was resolved, I went back and collected enough honey to turn into mead," Kaylina added.

"There are Daygarii traps on this land, vestiges of their previous settlement, that are quite dangerous to those who don't know to avoid them. We've used it to our benefit when it comes to pirates and other marauders from the strait and the mountains, but one is left with the impression that their kind loathed humans—or anyone who presumed to touch what they claimed." Isla tilted her head. "Are there not traps on the hives? One would think such a precious commodity wouldn't be given up lightly—by the bees or those who placed the hives centuries ago."

"The taybarri and probably the local animals aren't able to raid them. There's some magic that guards them." Kaylina thought of the star-shaped leaf mark on the hives, the one that matched her brand, and glanced at the back of her hand. "I was able to take honey without being attacked."

"Interesting." Isla also glanced at the brand. She didn't appear surprised by its presence, so maybe she'd heard about that too. "Not long ago, when I was visiting the capital to arrange some business matters, Spymaster Sabor's minions showed up and invited me to a meeting at the royal castle. I would say commanded me to attend a meeting, but Sabor phrased it politely. He plays by the rules and lets us nobles pretend we outrank all those but the king and queen themselves." She smiled tightly.

"I met Sabor. He's an ass."

"Yes." Isla chuckled and sipped from her goblet. "You've a blunt tongue for one lacking the protection of a noble title."

"I know. Captain Targon keeps suggesting Vlerion flog me."

Isla's eyebrows twitched again. She wasn't the most expressive woman and even reminded Kaylina of her grandmother, but Grandma was much more acerbic.

"I was about to say I'm surprised Targon wouldn't handle discipline of ranger trainees himself," Isla said, "but I realized Vlerion wouldn't allow such actions when it comes to you, and Targon won't cross him."

"Targon says Vlerion has sworn an oath to him and the crown, and that Vlerion is honor-bound to do whatever he commands." Kaylina made a face, not liking the idea of Targon making Vlerion do something unpleasant, whether Vlerion had sworn an oath or not.

"When it comes to normal ranger duties, yes, Vlerion would follow Targon's orders, but I assume that you… He will protect you." Her eyes sharpened, and she lowered her voice. "Am I wrong?"

"No."

"Targon wouldn't risk arousing the beast by harming one of Vlerion's… friends." A twist to Isla's lips promised she knew they were more than that.

Since she'd ordered them not to become more than that, Kaylina didn't know what to say. She sipped from her own goblet to give herself time to think.

"Sabor, on the other hand," Isla continued, "must believe his position would somehow insulate him because he's more interested in rousing the beast. He asked me if you can control him in that state."

"I can't." Kaylina lowered her eyes and took another sip, guilt creeping into her because it wasn't a complete truth. She felt compelled to amend it. "I mean, I've been able to kind of soothe him when I can tell he's getting irked and might change, but I definitely can't control him once he's changed. He listens to me as the beast, but he's not willing to, ah, put aside what he wants."

"You." Isla gazed steadily at her.

"Yeah."

"Has he…?" Isla glanced at her neck, as if expecting to find scars there.

"No. So far, I've gotten lucky, and he's only come to me after a battle. He's been tired and collapsed before he… did anything." Did much , she thought, remembering the tear to her dress. But that had been a minor thing. He hadn't hurt her.

"But he wanted to," Isla said softly.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry." Isla shook her head and set down the goblet.

"It's not your fault. And it's fine anyway. Nothing happened." Yet , the back of her mind whispered.

"It is my fault. He is my son. I bore him even after I knew all about the curse. After Vlarek, my husband and I decided not to have more children, but he came to me again as the beast, and I had no choice." Isla held her gaze. "Kaylina, it is not a path you should continue down. It's dangerous—and could be deadly—for you. Vlerion is at least as strong as his father was—as dangerous. And you… You have a gift." Isla waved at the mead. "And you're so young. To die because of this curse… It would be tragic."

"I agree. I'm not planning on dying. I'm doing some research and figuring out how to lift Vlerion's curse." Kaylina didn't know if pouring honey-water on a plant counted as research, but she continued to believe that lifting the curse in the castle would give her a clue about how to remove Vlerion's curse.

"It's noble that you wish to help him, and I believe you've a good heart for wanting to do so, but it's not possible. As I told you before, numerous cursed Havartafts have dedicated their lives to trying to figure out how to remove the curse."

"They didn't have the blood of the druids in their veins."

"And you do?" Isla sounded skeptical.

Vlerion must not have explained his belief that such ancestry was what gave her the anrokk power.

"So I've been told by numerous people, er, entities. The taybarri queen said so, and the cursed plant in Stillguard Castle implied the same. It gave me this, which is conveying… I'm not sure exactly but some kind of power." Kaylina showed Isla the back of her hand. "I intend to use it to help Vlerion."

"I wish that were possible, but everything has already been tried." Isla shook her head sadly.

Vlerion didn't think Kaylina would be able to lift the curse either. She didn't know if she was naive to believe otherwise, or if a fatalistic streak ran in their family.

"Also, for your sake and his, I wouldn't speak of what that does or doesn't convey." Isla reached over, clasped Kaylina's hand, and pressed it down onto the chair, as if that could hide it. "Sabor is already too interested in you. And in Vlerion. He wants to control the beast, supposedly for the good of the kingdom, but I think for his own interests. He's heard about the power Vlerion has in that form and wants it for himself. I know Sabor isn't aligned with the Virts, but… I'm also not positive he's interested in maintaining the current order. He seems content to have a hand in ruling now while Gavatorin is going senile, but when the king passes, I suspect he might not throw his weight behind Prince Enrikon as the successor."

"I just want to help Vlerion, my lady." Kaylina wouldn't say she didn't care about politics or whether the existing regime retained control, since politics had decided to care about her , but her interests were in much more personal matters.

"I appreciate that, and you're a good girl, one I would approve of for my son if circumstances were different."

Longing crept into Kaylina, a wish that circumstances could be different. She would love to have the approval of Vlerion's mother, for Isla to believe Kaylina good enough for her son, even though he was a noble.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"Unfortunately, I can't encourage you two to spend any more time together. I don't want the beast to ravage the city and end up killed, the way Vlarek was. I also don't want you to be mauled or murdered."

"That won't happen."

But hadn't it almost happened? More than once?

Kaylina bit her lip and looked away.

Eyes all too knowing, Isla gazed at her for a long moment before rising and walking to a table with drawers. She slid one out and extracted a thick envelope, the edges filigreed in lacy gold. She returned, sat, and placed it in front of Kaylina.

"Dedrik, my chauffeur, told you I'm interested in investing in your business?"

"Yes." Kaylina didn't know what to make of the abrupt topic change and flattened her hands to her thighs instead of picking up the envelope.

"Stillguard Castle sounds like an unwise place to launch such an enterprise."

Something Kaylina could not deny, not when Frayvar had been out hunting for affordable leases that very week.

"It presents a few challenges," she murmured.

"That envelope contains twenty thousand liviti. It's yours to invest in your business, no equity required to be shared with me, if you return to your homeland to open it."

Kaylina blinked. "Pardon?"

"Go back south, dear," Isla urged. "To your Vamorka Islands or elsewhere in that province. You'll be closer to your family. It'll be for the best. Don't let yourself fall into the clutches of the Virts or Spymaster Sabor, and don't…" She closed her eyes. "Please don't see Vlerion again."

"Oh," Kaylina whispered with understanding.

This wasn't an investment. It was a bribe.

"I'll leave you to consider my offer." Isla rose. "I urge you to take it."

Goblet in hand, she walked out of the room, leaving Kaylina alone with the envelope, with more money than she'd ever seen before.

With twenty thousand liviti, Kaylina and Frayvar could do exactly what Isla asked, start over somewhere else, somewhere far less dangerous. She could pursue the dream she'd left home to follow without all the caltrops that had been thrown in her path. She could prove herself to her family. Once, that had been all she wanted to do, everything that mattered.

Now…

Now, other things were as important to her. To leave without helping Vlerion… Kaylina couldn't do it.

Without looking in the envelope, she rose and walked out of the room. Maybe she was supposed to wait for Isla to return, but she didn't want to discuss the matter further with her.

The hallway was empty, with no sign of Isla or any of the staff. Since the back door was closer, Kaylina left the manor that way, though she would need a ride back to the city, so it wasn't as if she could simply walk away without speaking to anyone else.

"Too bad I can't summon Levitke," she murmured, glancing at her hand. She'd succeeded at telepathically communicating with the taybarri before but not from miles away.

Assuming the chauffeur would take her back, Kaylina followed a path past flowering gardens and manicured hedges that led around the side of the manor to the front drive. The carriage wasn't there, so she headed for the stable.

A few horses hung their heads over half doors, waiting for their pasture time. Their nostrils twitched as she approached, and she again regretted not bringing honey drops.

The front door was open, and Kaylina heard voices inside, so she slowed to listen.

A horse nickered at her. She held up a finger to her lips. It whuffed, not dissimilarly to the taybarri. It might have been one of the horses that she'd fed honey drops to the last time she'd been here.

"This is a lot of coin to deliver to a random thug in a rough part of town," a man inside the stable said. "Maybe I should take an escort."

"You're afraid you'll be mugged along the highway on the way to the city?" a woman asked.

Kaylina debated between listening— eavesdropping , as Vlerion or Captain Targon would be quick to call it—and walking in to ask about a ride.

"More likely in the city," the man said. "Though after the fire—the whole Kar'ruk invasion—I don't feel that secure riding through the countryside either. I wish my lord Vlerion were on patrol on the border, not bogged down in that quagmire with the rebels in the city."

"Deliver that coin then. If my lady is correct, he'll be less endangered once the girl is gone."

Kaylina lifted her eyebrows.

The girl? Her ?

"She is pretty, and I can see how a young lord would be distracted by her, but I don't understand why some fling matters so much that Lady Isla is willing to pay to get her out of her son's life."

Kaylina frowned at the paint on the side of the stable. This had to be about the bribe. But that didn't make sense. Nothing about the bribe should have required a staff member delivering coin to someone in the city. The money for it was presumably all in that envelope.

"She's a commoner," the woman said. "And Lady Beatrada and Lady Ghara think she's after his money."

"Cheaper to pay her to stay out of his life then, don't you think?" A bag of coin jangled. "This is a lot of gold, not to mention that Lady Isla already paid for one attempt. If this one succeeds, what's to say the girl will stay in the south after she's ousted?"

"She will if she knows what's best for her. My lady could as easily pay to have her killed, but she's got a good heart. She only wants to protect her son."

Kaylina leaned back as the realization slowly dawned. Jana Bloomlong wasn't the person paying to have her kidnapped. Vlerion's mom was.

A horse harness jangled, and hooves clopped on the flagstone floor of the stable.

Kaylina scurried away from the building. She managed to back up about ten steps before a horse and rider appeared in the doorway. A middle-aged man with a goatee, he gaped when he spotted her.

"Hi," she blurted with a wave to pretend she'd just arrived. "I'm looking for the carriage. My meeting with Lady Isla is over, and she said her driver would take me back to the city."

Even as she spoke, hooves rang out on the cobblestone driveway. The carriage and the chauffeur came into view, exiting from a structure on the other side of the manor.

The horseback rider gave a long look over his shoulder into the stable—toward the woman he'd been speaking with?—but he only pointed Kaylina toward the approaching carriage. He had to suspect she'd heard them speak, but she hoped he wasn't certain. She also hoped he wouldn't tell Lady Isla. She might adjust her plans if she realized Kaylina had learned about them.

Not that Kaylina could do anything even with this knowledge. All she could do was brace herself for another kidnapping attempt.

No, she decided. She had to put a stop to this. With her sister in town and the grand opening a day away, Kaylina couldn't risk having hired thugs come after her again.

Once she returned to town, she would tell Vlerion and hope he could talk his mother out of this. She would tell him about the bribe too—the supposed investment. She didn't want to drive a wedge between Vlerion and his mother, but this was a problem that only he could solve.