Chapter 18

18

By the moon's silvery glow, shadows stark and long, the hunt begins.

~ Dainbridge III, the playwright

Kaylina awoke before dawn with her heart hammering and her mind whirling with fear. She lurched upright in her bed and peered around the dark room, her hand diving under the pillow for the knife she'd started sleeping with.

It was still night, with the city quiet, and she didn't hear anything. Nor could she pick out any alarming shadows in her room—no assassins crouching to spring at her. She liked to think the castle—the plant—would protect her if someone skulked toward her room with the intent to kill, but she didn't know for certain that she was safe within these walls.

With the knife in hand, Kaylina slid out of bed and unshuttered the window, revealing fog that had crept in during the night. From the second floor, she could see rooftops over the courtyard walls and streetlamps burning at intersections in the distance, but everything was indistinct from the haze. She almost missed spotting one of the taybarri sleeping on the river trail, still guarding her.

She wiped her damp palm on her pajama bottoms. If Levitke and the other taybarri were snoozing, maybe nothing was wrong. Maybe some dream—or nightmare—had plagued her sleep, and she couldn't remember it.

Lingering at the window, she listened for long seconds but heard nothing except the jangle of a horse harness as a wagon making an early-morning delivery passed. She stepped back, about to close the shutters and attempt to reclaim sleep, but a distant roar sounded, one that she instantly recognized as belonging to the beast.

"Vlerion." Kaylina leaned out the window and looked in the direction the roar had come from.

The park where the assassin had accosted her earlier. Had he returned to camp there again? And had Vlerion—the beast—been waiting?

She bit her lip, worried because that roar had sounded more like one of pain and fury than a battle cry. What if the sage assassin had set a trap and was getting the best of the beast?

The roar came again. Her fingers curled around the stone lip of the window. The beast was in pain.

Going out there at night would be foolish, especially when he was a threat to her as well as others, but if he was wounded, she couldn't leave him to fend for himself. What if he collapsed in an alley with blood streaming from his injuries, and he fell unconscious, as he always did when he turned back into a man? For long minutes, he would be unable to defend himself, completely vulnerable to an assassin's blade.

Terrified for Vlerion, Kaylina hurried to dress. She belted on the sword as well as her sling and knife. Only after she ran out the back gate did she wonder if she should have told Frayvar where she was going. If she got herself killed… Well, there wouldn't be anything he could do. He would find out when the authorities came to report her death to him.

Grimacing, Kaylina jogged up the river trail in the direction of the park. She'd only taken a few steps when Levitke loped out of the shadows and caught up with her, matching her pace and looking over. Was that a reproving look?

"I don't think you and the other taybarri want to come with me on this errand." As much as Kaylina would love their help if she had to face the assassin, they were understandably afraid of the beast. He was as much a threat to them as their enemies.

Her hand warmed, and she heard Levitke speak into her mind. Ride .

More taybarri caught up to them, the bodyguards who'd been sleeping around the castle.

"All right." Kaylina stopped to swing onto Levitke's back. "But don't feel you have to stick with me if we run into the beast."

One of the taybarri issued an uncertain whine, and several others exchanged concerned looks. She believed they knew exactly what— who —she was talking about. Maybe they'd also woken when they'd heard the roars?

As Levitke carried her faithfully up the trail, across a bridge, and toward the park, Kaylina patted her on the shoulder.

"You're a good friend."

Levitke's head came up proudly, and she increased her pace. The other taybarri let her lead, and they kept exchanging looks with each other, what-have-we-signed-ourselves-up-for looks.

Maybe foolishly so, Kaylina was more worried about the assassin, and whatever allies he'd brought along, than Vlerion in his furry form. She believed the beast would focus on her if she arrived with taybarri, and he didn't want to kill her but to make her his mate. Hopefully, if he was injured, that wouldn't be on his mind.

The taybarri galloped into the park.

"Slow down," Kaylina warned. "This is where he is. Where they may be."

She gripped the hilt of her sword, glad she was armed but dreading coming face-to-face with the sage assassin again. With whatever power he possessed, he'd easily immobilized her.

"I didn't have taybarri with me last time," she tried to reassure herself, looking across the fields and into the trees as she did.

Streetlamps burned along the periphery of the park, but it was dark within. Without a command, the taybarri spread out to search the area.

Levitke padded along a trail leading to the path where Kaylina had been attacked earlier. Even though she doubted the assassin was waiting for her behind the same tree, she tensed, her hand almost hurting as she gripped the sword hilt.

As they passed the spot, Levitke sniffed a few times but continued on. She glanced back at Kaylina, as if asking what they were looking for.

"We need to find Vlerion. I think he's injured. And he may still be the beast." Since the taybarri all knew his secret, Kaylina didn't need to worry about telling them, but she kept her voice low in case the assassin was around. "That guy who attacked us yesterday might be here too," she added.

Levitke's whuff sounded like one of acknowledgment.

She passed one of the other taybarri, his snout in the air, nostrils flexing as they sampled the foggy night air. His nose led him across the park, and he gazed toward the flat rooftop of a building across the street. Kaylina recalled how well the sage assassin could climb.

Still on the park trail, Levitke halted abruptly, as if she'd caught a scent. After sniffing a few times, she lowered her snout to the ground. She veered off the trail and through the grass, eventually trotting between trees and coming out on a sidewalk along the street. Still following her snout, she headed for a lamp, then stopped and looked up at Kaylina.

"You found something?" Kaylina slid off the taybarri and crouched. Dread socked her in the stomach. Blood spattered the sidewalk, and it was still damp. "Is it… Vlerion's? Or the assassin's?"

The latter, she hoped, but the grave look Levitke gave her suggested otherwise.

"Can you follow his trail? We need to find him." Again, Kaylina imagined Vlerion unconscious in an alley, the assassin poised to strike.

Levitke whuffed, and Kaylina climbed onto her back again.

Leaving the park, they headed down a street that paralleled the river. Had Vlerion run toward ranger headquarters? This was the right direction for that, but she didn't think he would take trouble to his colleagues—or show up there in beast form.

Of course, as she told herself, he didn't possess his faculties, his rational thoughts, as the beast. As he'd often reminded her, he couldn't tell friend from foe in that state and was motivated by different things than he was as a man. It was surprising he'd believed he could convince his beast half to track down the assassin. Or… maybe not. In both forms, he wanted to protect her. Maybe he'd known the beast would seek to eliminate someone who'd threatened her.

A few of the taybarri followed Levitke down the foggy street, where more riders and wagons were out now on early-morning errands, but others remained in the park.

"Are they tracking the assassin?" Kaylina hoped that meant he'd gone in a different direction, that he wasn't right on Vlerion's trail.

The answering whuff didn't sound that certain. Maybe Levitke didn't know what the others were tracking.

She passed the turn that would have led them to the gate of ranger headquarters. She paused, again near a streetlamp, and pointed her snout to a light-hued cobblestone. The color made it easy to spot the drops of blood.

Moving quickly, with her nose to the ground again, Levitke continued down a side street, passing wide marble steps leading into a building Kaylina recognized. The Gentleman's Steam and Strigil. She and Frayvar had once come out of a catacombs entrance in the basement of the establishment.

At first, she thought Levitke was passing it, but she turned into the adjacent alley. She stopped at a side entrance to the building, the metal door not only ajar but half ripped off the hinges.

"I'm guessing he went in there."

Levitke whuffed.

"At least we know he's still got his strength." Kaylina swung down.

The next whuff was uncertain, Levitke pointing her nose at the door.

"You're too big to go in, huh?" Kaylina paused, debating the wisdom of going in by herself, but, just because the beast had been strong enough to rip open a locked door didn't mean that her fear couldn't come true. If the magic left him unconscious, and if the assassin was nearby… "I have to go in."

Levitke made a mournful sound.

Kaylina bit her lip, wanting to send her for backup, but Vlerion might still be in beast form, and she didn't want to endanger anyone else. Nor did she want to expose his secret. The beast might not have Vlerion's thoughts or be as rational, but he wasn't dumb. He might have deliberately come here because he knew the bathhouse wasn't yet open for the day and people wouldn't be inside.

"Will you get Captain Targon?" Kaylina finally decided on. "But not anyone else, please. He'll help me, and he… already knows everything there is to know."

The answering whuff didn't sound like one of agreement, but Kaylina couldn't stay to discuss the situation further. Vlerion needed her help.