Page 103 of Shadows of Winter

“To make it happier.” All right, that sounded dumb. “To give it some nutrients,” she corrected. “Like I said, honey is rich in them, and I thought… Well, it couldn’t make things worse.”

“I wouldn’t count on that.” Targon stepped away from the pantry and pointed at the staircase. “I’ll go with you.”

“Uhm.”

“Vlerion wouldn’t be happy with me if a plant strangled you while I was supposed to be keeping an eye on you. He’ll be on his way back soon. We’ll check the catacombs then.”

“Suit yourself.” Kaylina didn’t want the captain’s company, but maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to have someone nearby if her experiment went awry. She didn’t think things could get worse, but that was a big assumption to make about this place.

After mixing the honey water again, she grabbed a ladle and a lantern, and headed for the stairs. They creaked as Targon came up behind her.

As if to verify her doubts, another flicker along a shadowy wall drew her eye as she climbed.

She paused. “Did you see that?”

“All I can see is your ass.”

That made her walk faster, to remove her rear anatomy from his line of sight.

“A gentleman wouldn’t look at that,” she muttered.

Targon scoffed. “That’s not true—he might not tell you he was looking—but I’m hardly a gentleman.”

“Aren’t you a noble?”

“The bastard son of King Gavatorin’s now-dead younger brother, which makes me… not much of anything. I was lucky to get invited into the rangers. Twenty-five years ago, when I joined, even a lot of full-blooded nobles weren’t accepted in.”

“How did you end up in charge?” After they reached the landing, Kaylina led the way down the hall and turned toward the tower.

“By being stronger and more ruthless and useful than my contemporaries. Most rangers strive to be honorable and noble of heart as well as blood, but my predecessor knew the troubled times we were entering. He knew it would take someone who wasn’t afraid to do dirty work.”

The boards that Kaylina had pried free remained on the floor where she’d left them, and red light seeped down through the hole. Most of the plant wasn’t visible from below, but two vines dangled through the opening. She hadn’t left them that way and eyed them, waiting to see if they twitched or whipped about. They hung limp.

As she looked up, she realized it would be hard to replicate her climbing feat while holding the pot. “Will you hand this up to me?”

“Not only haven’t you called me my lord once since I arrived, but you want me to be your lackey.”

Kaylina thought about asking if bastards were considered aristocrats, but he probably merited the title for being in charge of the rangers if not fully for his lineage.

Despite his sarcasm, Targon held his hands out for the pot. “Vlerion hasn’t trained much respect into you yet.”

“We didn’t get to work together for more than an hour.”

“Had you been at headquarters today instead of chatting with his mother, he might have had time to whip some discipline and respect into you.”

“What a shame I missed that.” Feeling self-conscious with Targon watching, Kaylina picked a careful way up the stone wall, thinking that she should have found a rope to make her second ascent easier. Of course, she hadn’t originally planned to return, not until she’d had this silly idea.

Maybe she could have climbed one of the dangling vines, but touching any part of that plant did not seem wise. Watering it might be foolish. It might not have been watered in two centuries, and it was doing fine.

After she swung her leg up and pulled herself through, Targon probably watching her ass again, Kaylina knelt beside the hole. The red glow was bright enough that she didn’t need her lantern. The large pot remained in the same place, but the gnarled branches and vines had rearranged themselves, not only the two that had lowered through the hole. One was poised in the air, like a whip about to crack.

“You’re an interesting plant,” she murmured. “What species were you before you were altered, I wonder?”

Chilly air whispered in through the window, and a leaf rotated toward her on its stem.

Creepy.

Kaylina dropped to her belly on what she hoped was sound wood—the original flooring, not to mention the staircase, had been torn away. Someone must have been trying to remove the plant. Had its pot remained, floating even after its support was gone?

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