Chapter 14

When luck blesses you,do not question it.

~ Winter Moon Priest Dazibaru

Aware of the men gaining ground as she sprinted down the tunnel, Kaylina abandoned her idea of evading them by ducking into the alcove. They were too close behind. She would have to run past the pool, along the river, and hope to reach Vlerion before they caught her.

But as she exited the tunnel, rounding the corner too quickly, she slipped on damp rock and fell. Her hip struck the walkway, and she pitched into the water. The iciness of its cold embrace shocked her system.

“Got her!” one man cried from the tunnel.

With no time to climb out, Kaylina took a deep breath, ducked under the surface, and pushed off the lumpy rock side of the pool. Her clothing and shoes dragged at her, but she swam fast anyway, staying underwater as she put yards between her and the path.

A need for air would force her up by the time she reached the middle of the pool, but neither of those men had ranged weapons. If they wanted to get her, they would have to follow her in. She might not be a fighter, but she’d grown up around the water and played with and raced other children often. She wagered she could out-swim the northern men, and if she bought enough time, Vlerion might return.

Shouts came from behind her. The water garbled their words, but the men sounded pissed. Kaylina took more strokes, the chill of the water invigorating her.

Since the light from the torches didn’t extend below the surface, she couldn’t see a thing. As fast as she was going, she prayed to Anglari, the Sea Moon god, that she wouldn’t smash into a rock.

With her lungs demanding air, Kaylina risked coming up and turned to face the tunnel. Zerek crouched there, glaring around the pool as he searched for her. Legdar had raced to the dock.

Though she wanted to suck in great gasps of air, she forced herself to breathe quietly. They hadn’t figured out where she was yet. The light from the torches didn’t stretch to the center of the pool. She treaded water silently.

“You see her?” Legdar grabbed something out of his boat. A blunderbuss.

Kaylina winced. She hadn’t considered all the weapons they were stashing. Maybe she should have angled toward the dock and hidden under it. But they could have reached her more easily there.

“No, but she can’t hold her breath forever.”

“Why don’t you swim out and get her?”

“Why don’t you? I’ve got a concussion from that damn rock she hit me with.”

“And be eaten by one of the fur sharks? That’s worse than a crack in the head.”

Kaylina wiped water out of her eyes and glanced around. She’d never heard of a fur shark, but maybe she shouldn’t have assumed the pool would be safe. The gods knew fresh-water lakes and swamps on the mainland back home were filled with alligators and turgoraks.

Near the pipe pouring water into the pool, the surface rippled, stirred by more than its flow. Was that a fin?

“There she is.” Zerek pointed at her.

Keeping her head up, Kaylina treaded backward to put more distance between her and the men. The fin or whatever it was had disappeared. Maybe she’d imagined it.

On the dock, Legdar raised the blunderbuss.

Kaylina prepared to duck below the surface, but he called out instead of firing.

“Come on, girl. We don’t need to be enemies. Come tell us what you know about the rangers, and we’ll take you back to one of our headquarters. Our leaders might have a use for you.”

Zerek looked toward the river. “You hear something?”

He jogged along the walkway toward the dock.

“No, I haven’theard anything since those screams.” Legdar kept the blunderbuss pointed toward Kaylina as he responded.

“The other boat should have been here by now.”

“Best assume it’s not coming.” Grim-faced, Legdar called into the water again. “Come tell us what you know about the rangers. How many are down here? Why are you down here? Answer a few questions, and we’ll give you some coin or help you with your inn. We’re not rich, but we’ve got connections. And we’ll run the kingdom before long. It pays to pick the winning side.”

Something brushed Kaylina’s leg. Something large.

She kept from shrieking—barely—and swam several strokes to the side, making exaggerated kicks in case she needed to strike whatever that had been in the head.

A huge creature with oily black fur and a fanged maw broke the surface five feet away. She didn’t know if it was the fur shark the men had spoken of, but that broad jaw and those long pointed teeth promised it could chomp her in half.

Giving up on treading water—and avoiding the men—Kaylina paddled as fast as she could toward the dock. The creature followed.

Something batted her foot. A fin? She kicked hard, splashing and praying to scare the creature away—also praying it wouldn’t latch onto her leg.

Kaylina glanced toward the dock, hoping it was closer than she thought. Legdar aimed the blunderbuss, not at her but at the water behind her.

Knowing how inaccurate those weapons were, she ducked under the surface. That might have been a mistake because that was the creature’s domain. She couldn’t see anything in the dark water, but her instincts warned her of danger. She pulled her knife out, twisted, and slashed outward.

The blade connected, but it clinked off something hard. The thing’s fangs?

The boom of the blunderbuss rang out, thunderous even with the water muffling sound.

Hoping it would scare the creature, Kaylina stuck her knife in her mouth to free up both arms and swam toward the dock. She looked up as she paddled and was in time to see someone in black spring upon Legdar. Vlerion.

His sword glinted yellow, reflecting the torchlight, as he swung it toward the man’s neck. The blunderbuss and Legdar’s head flew off the dock and hit the water.

Vlerion glanced at Kaylina, but Zerek was charging him with an axe, and he had to defend himself.

Water surged behind Kaylina. The creature hadn’t given up. She was only fifteen or twenty yards from the dock and put her head down, stroking and kicking as hard as she could.

Jaws wrapped around her leg, halting her as pain erupted in her shin and calf. She couldn’t keep from screaming, water flowing into her mouth and half-choking her. Terrified, she grabbed her knife and twisted, stabbing wildly.

Between the frothing water and the poor lighting, she could barely see the creature, but she thrust around her leg, hoping to get lucky, hoping it wouldn’t—

There. Her knife sank in deep, and the agonizing grip loosened.

A great roar came from the dock—what in all the altered orchards was that?—and the jaws released her completely.

Yanking her knife free, Kaylina swam away, praying she could reach land—and that the shark-thing couldn’t walk.

A tremendous splash came from her side, creating waves as something plunged in. She glimpsed short, sleek auburn fur. Another creature?

With fear and pain making her frantic, she kept paddling, sprinting for what she hoped was safety. More splashes and another roar erupted from the water behind her. The two creatures were fighting. Whichever one was roaring sounded enraged.

Glancing back as she swam, trying to figure out what was going on, Kaylina almost crashed head-first into one of the dock pilings. With water surging all around her from the nearby battle, she had to grab it to keep from being batted around. She clung to it with both arms and looked for a way up, but the dock and the walkway were higher above than she’d realized.

A shriek of pain came from the fight. She had no idea which of the creatures had made it, but the splashes stopped, the water growing still.

Afraid the winner of the battle was swimming under the surface toward her, she stroked toward the boat. It rocked when she lunged up to grab the lip, but it was wide enough that it didn’t tip. With all the strength she had remaining, she pulled herself out, flopping down in the bottom and crying out when her injured leg struck the side.

The wounds burned with agony, and she had no doubt as much blood as water was dripping off her. All she wanted was to curl on her side in the bottom of the boat and sob, but those creatures might be able to surge out of the water and pull her back in.

That thought sent energy into her limbs, enough for her to push up to her hands and knees. She gripped the edge of the dock and pulled herself out.

“Shit,” she blurted in surprise when she bumped a person lying dead on the boards next to a crate and a pair of boots.

Legdar. She’d forgotten.

Trembling, Kaylina crawled off the dock and used the rock wall to pull herself to her feet. Her injured leg didn’t want to take her weight, and she slumped against the wall for support as she surveyed her surroundings.

Zerek was also dead, floating in the pool near the edge, his axe on the walkway. She didn’t see Vlerion. She also didn’t see the auburn-furred creature that had engaged the fur shark. It, however, floated belly up not ten feet from the dock, one of its fins torn off and its head smashed in, as if a battering ram had struck it rather than claws. It was near enough to one of the torches that she could make out four parallel gashes in its flesh, the wounds deep enough that they’d half eviscerated it.

Remembering the enraged roars of the other creature, Kaylina rubbed her face with a shaky hand. Whatever it had been, it had saved her life, but that kind of fury and power was terrifying.

“Vlerion?” she called softly.

Were there more enemies about? Maybe he’d been forced to run into the tunnels to engage another group of Virts. But she didn’t hear any sounds of fighting. She didn’t hear anything except the trickle of water flowing into the pool.

Should she leave and limp back to the castle? Or wait for him?

“Vlerion, I’m craving your presence for more scintillating conversation.”

Shadows near the river made her tense, lifting her knife.

Vlerion walked out of the tunnel. He was barefoot, and his clothes were torn, as if he’d battled one of the creatures himself, but his sword was sheathed and his face as calm and controlled as ever as he walked toward her.

“I’m here.” He paused to put on the boots he’d left on the dock, then approached, looking toward her leg.

Her trousers were also torn, but she only glanced at the punctures, the throbbing telling her without an examination that they were deep. She would have to find a healer to clean them and sprinkle protective herbs over them to stave off infection. How was she supposed to open an award-winning meadery when she was hobbling around with a cane?

“You were injured.” Vlerion shook his head as he stopped in front of her.

With little expression on his face or inflection in his voice, Kaylina couldn’t tell if that head shake meant he regretted that he hadn’t been able to help or thought she’d gotten what she deserved for not leaving when he’d ordered it.

That probably wasn’t it—his eyes seemed more sympathetic than vindictive—but she couldn’t help but defensively blurt, “They were planning to blow up the castle from below. To distract you from hurting their buddies. I couldn’t let them do that. Frayvar is up there. And we have a lease.” She winced at that stupid last sentence. As if that had been her primary motivation for going after the men. “I had to stop them,” she finished.

“By leaping into the maw of a fur shark?” Vlerion knelt to examine her leg, thankfully not touching the throbbing bite wounds.

Kaylina didn’t look forward to the healer cleaning them.

“I cracked them in the heads with my sling.” Reluctantly, she added, “The maw-leaping came later. The men were chasing me, and…” Hating to admit that she’d slipped and fallen in the water, she finished with, “I didn’t quite make it to their boat to escape.”

“Ah.” Vlerion touched the back of his own head. Maybe he still had a lump from where she’d struck him. “I’ll take you to ranger headquarters. We have the best doctors. Our people are injured often in battle.”

“That’s not necessary. We have money. I can find—”

Vlerion startled her by lifting her into his arms. “You will not spend your coin on this. It is my fault that you were down here where you could be injured.”

Kaylina gripped his shoulders. Though she was proud and wanted to tell him that she could walk, her leg burned like an inferno, and it was a relief not to have her weight on it. Let him carry her. As he’d admitted, he was the one who’d asked her to come down here.

Thankfully, he didn’t point out that she needn’t have left her hiding spot in the alcove. Maybe he understood her reason for doing it. After all, rangers looked out for their own, didn’t they? The same way she had to look out for her little brother.

“Thank you,” she made herself say as he carried her into the tunnel.

With her hands resting on his shoulders, the memory of caressing them in the alcove came to mind, but the rips in his clothing distracted her. Not only his tunic was torn but his trousers were too, and the straps of his leather torso armor had snapped so that it hung loosely. Yet he wasn’t bleeding anywhere, not that she could see.

“What happened to your clothes?” And why had he taken his boots off?

Vlerion bent to grab her pack and lantern, managing to keep her in his arms as he did so. She tightened her grip on his shoulders to help him, and her cheek brushed his hair. Since it was so short, she hadn’t noticed before that it was wet.

“Battle,” he replied.

“You weren’t wounded?”

“No.”

“How did your hair get wet?”

“Splashes.”

“Splashes?”

“Men fell in as they died,” he said tersely, looking at her. Was that… a warning on his face?

As he continued up the tunnel, and they passed under the still-glowing eyes of the statues, their illumination shone on his hair, reminding her that it was reddish brown. Auburn. Like that of the second creature.

She opened her mouth, though she didn’t know what query she wanted to voice.

“Ask me no more questions,” Vlerion said softly.

Yeah, that was definitely a warning on his face.

She thought of the utterly destroyed fur shark, with its head smashed in and its guts dangling. “Okay.”