Chapter 13

13

Paths are rarely as direct as we would like.

~ Lord General Avingatar

Evening approached as the carriage rolled into Port Jirador. Kaylina asked the chauffeur to drop her off in a park along the river between Stillguard Castle and ranger headquarters. She said she needed to walk a bit after the two long rides. The arched eyebrow he slanted back at her suggested he knew she was up to something, but he didn't object.

Though she felt guilty for not going to the castle first to check on Frayvar and Silana, Kaylina worried she didn't have a lot of time until the next kidnapping attempt. On the way back, Isla's rider had passed them on the highway, and she'd imagined she could hear the bag of coins jangling as the stallion galloped by.

After stepping out of the carriage, she waved to the chauffeur and headed toward Stillguard Castle. As soon as he was out of sight, she turned and veered across the grass toward a path headed to ranger headquarters. The sooner she let Vlerion know what his mother was up to, the sooner he could convince her to put a stop to it.

Clouds had wafted in, and rain drizzled from the gray sky. With the deteriorating weather, the park was empty of visitors. Or so Kaylina thought. She was almost to the street when a shadow detached from a tree and lunged for her.

She sprang away, reaching for her knife—why hadn't she thought to bring the sword?—but the man was too fast. Before she could draw the blade, he grabbed her and spun her to grip her from behind, his arm wrapping around her. She tried to stomp on his instep, hoping his grip would loosen, but he evaded her foot and pressed a cold blade to her throat.

She snarled. This was happening to her way too often.

"I wish only to speak," the man said in a soft accented voice.

"We couldn't speak without you manhandling me? And knife -handling me?" Kaylina didn't know what in all the moon craters that meant, but she was flustered and afraid.

"I suspect you'd be less motivated to tell the truth in such a situation," he said mildly.

That accent. She'd heard it before recently. Where?

The sleeves of his brown shirt were loose, and the one on the arm holding the knife to her throat had fallen back enough for her to glimpse a long tattoo pointing toward his wrist. In the fading light, it was hard to tell, but it might have been a sagebrush branch. Yes, that's why the accent was familiar. This was one of Vlerion's would-be assassins.

"What truths do you want?" Silently, Kaylina attempted to marshal whatever power flowed through her veins to call out telepathically in the direction of ranger headquarters. Levitke, if you can hear me, I need help!

Did the brand on the back of her hand warm slightly? Or was it her imagination?

"Tell me what power Lord Vlerion of Havartaft commands," the assassin whispered.

"What power? He's just a man. What power do you command? You guys are fast and deadly, and you skimmed up a brick wall like a caffeinated banana spider."

The knife dug in, and a drop of blood dribbled down Kaylina's throat. She closed her eyes, fear rather than power surging through her veins.

"When you are in the position you are in, with me in the position I am in, it would be wise for you to answer my questions."

"Nobody's accused me of being wise before."

"It was chance that brought you to the encampment we've chosen, yes? We have been watching the ranger compound to study our prey, but since fortune has favored me, I will now know what you know."

"What do you want to know? I don't understand what you mean by power." Kaylina eyed the nearby trees, wondering if she could convince any of them to help her. In the mountains, a pine had kindly dropped a branch on a Kar'ruk attacking her, but it had also been pissed because he'd sunken his axe into its trunk.

She stared at a willow alongside the path, its branches dangling overhead. Will you help me? Kaylina attempted to ask it. I'll bring you a special fertilizer if I can get away from this guy. It uses delicious honey made by bees that forage on altered plants.

"Lord Vlerion moves faster and has greater strength than a man should," the assassin said.

"You were speedy yourself." Kaylina kept herself from mentioning that Vlerion usually beheaded his opponents without receiving any wounds, at least when he was in his human form and battling fellow humans, but that would only support the assassin's beliefs about him.

"You are his female, yes?" His tone was more thoughtful now, and the knife dug less deeply into her skin. "If you were used as bait in a trap, he would come for you."

She'd liked it more when the guy had simply been threatening her. She didn't want to be used against Vlerion. "He's a good man. He would come for any woman being brutalized, threatened, and held against her will."

Again, she tried to stomp on the assassin's foot. This time, she clipped the inside of his boot, but he didn't flinch.

When her foot touched the ground again, a faint vibration came up through her sole. From the dirt? Or maybe caused by the tree's roots?

Help me, please, she urged again. The honey water is great. You'll love it. I'll gently and lovingly bathe your roots in it.

The vibration came up through the ground again. She squirmed as much as she dared and gripped the assassin's wrist to distract him. She was surprised he hadn't yet reacted to the vibration—unless it was some magical message directed only at her?

"A mouthy warrior woman is what attracts him?" he asked calmly, his grip remaining implacable. "Like the chieftain Delzari? Strange. It is our way that women raise children and cook, not make battle. The men protect them and value them."

"Thanks for the culture lesson."

"What marks your hand? I saw it earlier but not well."

"A leaf."

"It is magical. When I use my gods sense, I can feel it."

What in all the altered orchards was a gods sense ?

"No, you're mistaken," Kaylina said. "It's just a brand. They're trendy in Port Jirador this season. You should get one too."

"Have you any other marks on your body?"

"No, I do not."

The dagger lowered from her throat, but she couldn't feel any relief because the assassin used the sharp blade to cut open her shirt. Bastard.

She jammed her elbow backward and tried to twist away, but his grip around her waist was of steel. Even though she struck him hard in the abdomen, he again didn't flinch. He didn't even seem to feel pain.

"Careful," he said softly, the tip of the dagger touching her breast. "It is not our way to harm a female, but accidents happen in situations such as this."

"You maiming me with a knife wouldn't be an accident, asshole."

His dagger moved, lifting her shirt.

"I sense…" He'd closed his eyes, and he inhaled slowly. Maybe his gods sense came in through his nostrils. "Only your hand is marked by magic, but all of you… Yes, your blood has power. From a plant? Or from an ancestor?"

She drove her elbow into his gut again.

The bastard smiled, opening his eyes and regarding her again, first her face and then his gaze shifted lower, to the flesh he'd exposed. "You are most appealing."

"Thanks. I love it when strangers with daggers think so."

"I see why he has claimed you as his female, and I believe he will come for you."

Yeah, he would. That was the problem.

"Look, why don't you let me go, and I'll tell Vlerion you're looking for him. You say you're staying here in the park? I'll send him to visit." With a squadron of guards and rangers at his side…

The assassin snorted softly. "Tell me what altered plants he eats to gain his power. He is not part druid. I am certain. Tell me what I wish to know, and I will release you. To use a female as bait in a trap would not be honorable, even if pragmatism prompts me to contemplate it. Though my tutors taught me this language and the ways of Zaldor, I am at a disadvantage as a newcomer to this land."

Another vibration, a greater one, emanated from the ground.

"You didn't seem disadvantaged in that fight." Kaylina hoped the tree was doing something. "What altered plants do you eat?"

Before Vlerion had mentioned the possibility, she hadn't heard of plants that could convey greater fighting ability to a man, but she wouldn't be surprised if they existed. The fact that the assassin was asking about it seemed a confirmation that he used such things himself.

A crack came from above them, and branches rattled, foliage rustling. The assassin tensed as he glanced up.

A thick willow branch swept toward his back. He released Kaylina and dove to the side, rolling away so quickly that it left her off-balance. The branch caught her , sending her tumbling forward. She flailed but kept her feet, then ran toward the river.

The assassin had already risen, crouching with his knife in hand as he glanced from the tree to her, his eyes narrowed. Only after the branch returned to its original position did he run after Kaylina.

A roar came from the far side of the park. A taybarri roar.

Though she hoped that signaled help for her, Kaylina didn't slow down. Even with an ally, she didn't want to fight the assassin and risk losing, being caught again and used in a trap against Vlerion. Whether it was honorable or not.

She sprinted for the river, the sliced open halves of her shirt flapping.

The assassin stopped, turning to face the long-bodied blue-furred taybarri that ran toward him. Levitke.

Thank you for coming, Kaylina thought, willing the brand to convey the words to her, to let them communicate telepathically as they had before. But don't get in a fight with that guy. He's dangerous. Just keep him distracted for a moment, will you?

These ones attacked us before, came Levitke's reply, along with an image of the battle in the alley, of an assassin almost cleaving Kaylina's skull in two with his sword.

Oh, I remember.

She reached the river and turned to follow the trail that ran along it, but she spotted a cloaked figure at the apex of a bridge ahead. A hood and twilight hid his face. Another of the sage assassins?

Cursing, Kaylina followed her original instinct and veered toward the water, hoping she could swim away from the area and that the assassins would lose her in the darkness. As she leaped off the bank, more taybarri roars came from the far side of the park, and she glanced back. Several rangers rode off the street and onto the grass. Her assailant had disappeared.

As Kaylina hit the water, its glacier-fed iciness shocking her body, she realized she might not have needed to douse herself. She swam out into the current anyway. The person on the bridge was far enough from the approaching taybarri that he might not worry about them.

Unfortunately, the flow of the current took her in that direction. She thought about swimming against it, but if the man had a bow or other ranged weapon, her movements would draw his eye, and, unlike his colleague, he might shoot at her without having a chat first.

Kaylina stayed still as she floated under the bridge, hoping the darkness would hide her.

"Where'd she go?" a familiar voice called from the park. Was that Jankarr?

I'm heading out to the harbor, she thought but didn't yell, not when she was passing under the bridge. The cloaked figure didn't miss seeing her. He switched sides so he could watch her as she continued downriver. If he held a weapon, she couldn't tell, but she kept her mouth shut. He continued to watch her, unconcerned by the rangers in the park.

She was far downriver before he disappeared from her sight.