Page 95 of Shadows of Winter

Vlerion only gazed back with somber eyes.

“I mean it.” She made herself meet that gaze. “I owe you. You can trust me with your secret.”

“I have no choice but to do so.” He didn’t sound pleased about that.

It stung a little that he didn’t trust her, but they didn’t know each other well, and she called him pirate. Why would he trust her?

“I thought you might have brought me over here to push me off the cliff.” Maybe she shouldn’t have said that and put the idea in his mind.

“No.” Vlerion smiled faintly. “Crenoch wouldn’t have allowed that.”

Hearing his name, the taybarri whuffed and swished his tail.

“He likes you more than me,” Vlerion added.

“Because you’re haughty, uptight, and don’t give him sweets?”

“Because…” Vlerion turned his palm toward the sky. “He senses what I am—what I can become. They all do. To the taybarri, I am a dangerous predator, not a simple rider.”

Crenoch nuzzled the side of Kaylina’s head.

“I understand, but it still…” Vlerion closed his open hand into a fist and lowered it to his side. “It is petty of me to be annoyed by that, but I always admired them. As a boy, I had a stuffed taybarri toy that I took everywhere. I wanted to be a ranger, partially to follow in my brother’s footsteps, but partially so I could ride the taybarri.”

“They are impressive animals.” Kaylina stepped away from Crenoch, not wanting to give Vlerion another reason to be annoyed with her.

Crenoch washed her ear with his tongue.

“Though somewhat exasperating.” She leaned away and wiped her ear.

“Indeed.”

Her movement brought the city back into her view, and she picked out black smoke that hadn’t been there before. It was coming from…

“The castle,” she blurted, pointing. Fear surged through her veins, not fear for herself this time but for her brother. “It’s on fire.”

23

The pain of a loved one affects us more greatly than our own.

~ Dionadra, Essays on the Motivations of Men

Kaylina rode behind Vlerion as Crenoch carried them at top speed down the slope toward Port Jirador. Arms wrapped tightly around him, she pressed her cheek to his back and willed Frayvar to be okay. Every time she left, something happened to him. Why was the world targeting him instead of her? This was her big dream, not his.

“There’s too much smoke for it to be something burning in the hearth,” Vlerion said as they rode through the city gates, cresting a hill that gave them another view of the castle.

“My brother never burns anything. He tends everything he cooks assiduously.”

“The curse may add an ingredient not compensated for in his recipes.”

If that ugly plant was responsible for lighting the castle on fire, Kaylina would run up there with a sword and lop off every one of its branches and vines.

The air buzzed, and a sharp tingle ran through Kaylina as the world blurred. At first, she had no idea what was happening, but they went from running down a street to landing atop a bridge over the river. Crenoch had flashed.

The ringing of a gong sounded several blocks over.

“That’s the fire wagon,” Vlerion said. “I don’t know if they’ll be willing to step onto the premises though.”

“I’ll step on them. Just get me there.”

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