Page 103 of Lake of Sorrow

Fooled I.

Kaylina blinked, glancing from Levitke to the brand and back.

“Did you say that?”

She glanced toward the pine, almost wondering if the voice had come from the tree, but that would be even harder to believe.

Levitke gazed toward the shaft entrance, shook her head again, then flopped onto her back with her legs in the air.

“If you were one of my grandpa’s hounds, that would mean you wanted a belly rub.”

Levitke collapsed on one side, then lowered her large head toward Kaylina, resting her snout on the ground at her feet.

Fooled I. That was Levitke speaking.

Maybe she didn’t fully know the human language yet but could use some words. And something had happened so that Kaylina could now hear them.

“Well, you weren’t fooled for long.” She assumed the taybarri had been following the Kar’ruk’s scent when she’d traveled deeper into the shaft. Maybe the warrior had spent time down there earlier and had only left the tunnel when he’d noticed Kaylina and Levitke approaching. He could have waited across the creek for a chance to trap them. But why had he been here to start with? “He was also invisible,” Kaylina added and patted Levitke’s big head.

Yes. Strange. The taybarri sat up, looked toward the body, and tilted her head. They were far enough away that the Kar’ruk was shadowy again. Even in death, the spell—or whatever it was—remained.

“Maybe they’ve found an altered plant that grants them the ability to hide themselves.” Though Kaylina wanted to grab the journal and get it to Vlerion without delay, she made herself creep closer to the body. “If the rangers don’t know about this new ability—maybe it’s something the Kar’ruk just figured out?—that could be why so many of these guys have successfully sneaked into the kingdom.”

Kaylina remembered Vlerion repeatedly saying that shouldn’t have happened. When she crouched right beside the dead Kar’ruk, she could see him well. From this close, she could also see that a faint silvery powder covered his face, neck, and hands. Something made from dried leaves or berries? It even dusted his armor.

When she rubbed a finger over the chainmail, the gritty powder didn’t come off. Maybe it had been applied wet and dried?

“It has to come off eventually,” she mused. “None of the Kar’ruk we ran into in the preserve were wearing this stuff. Maybe it’s rare, and they’ve only got so much of it. And they reserve it for the Kar’ruk who are doing something vital—or sneaky.”

The memory of the Kar’ruk in the catacombs came to mind. He’d been wet, hadn’t he? She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but maybe he’d been covered with the powder to commit the murders. Afterward, he could have been running from guards, or someone who’d spotted him, and fallen into that underground lake. She’d fallen into it, after all. For a big Kar’ruk, it would have been a tighter fit and the ledge just as treacherous.

Levitke issued a questioning whuff. Words didn’t accompany it, but Kaylina could guess at the meaning. What was this guy doing that had been vital to his people’s plan?

“I don’t know.”

Kaylina drew her knife and scraped off some of the silvery powder. As she’d done with the honeycomb, she used a page from her book to wipe it on. Had Levitke not eaten the newspaper article, she could have used that.

The taybarri padded over, lowering her head over Kaylina’s shoulder to watch.

“We need to get this to Vlerion along with the journal. If the rangers don’t know about this, they need to.” Kaylina frowned at the thought of returning to the city where people were hunting her. “Too bad there’s not any powder to hide me.”

She set down the paper and poked into the dead warrior’s pockets and belt pouches, hoping to find more. She didn’t, but she did pull out a few small blocks.

“What are…”

She stared. They were letters for the press.

“Did he stumble across this place and plan to take some of these back to show his allies? Or… You don’t think he was the one setting the type, do you? Copying the journal and making the newspapers?” Kaylina was tempted to dismiss the idea, but the speaker for the diplomatic party had known their tongue. There was no reason some of the Kar’ruk couldn’t have studied human languages well enough to read and write. And the powerful warriors would more easily survive alone out here in the wilderness than city-bred rebels. “If that’s true, then it implies they are working with the Virts. That they made a deal. But for what? Access to the catacombs? When… a new ruler is in power and can allow that? A Virt ruler?”

Instead of answering, Levitke sniffed the powder on the paper.

Kaylina shook her head, finding the situation confusing. She would tell everything to Vlerion, and he and the rangers could figure it out.

Levitke drew back from her investigation of the powder and sneezed.

“Not as tasty as honey, huh?”

The terse whuff sounded like firm agreement.

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