Page 108 of Lake of Sorrow

“This is my weirdest kidnapping ever.”

The female returned, carrying a flagon and the vial to a campfire. She poured the contents of both into a cauldron and lowered it over the flames. Several males circled the area, and everyone started chanting.

Why did Kaylina have the uneasy feeling they were going to drink a concoction made with her blood? She’d heard before that Kar’ruk didn’t mind eating human flesh when their favored prey couldn’t be had, but this was chilling.

She glanced down at her wrist as a drop of blood dribbled into the undergrowth. The leaves rustled slightly, and a few rotated toward her.

“You are absolutely an altered plant,” she murmured.

The chanting grew louder as more Kar’ruk joined in, circling the fire and waiting for the strange brew to heat.

Kaylina flattened her palms onto the leaves underneath her and silently asked them for help. What two-inch-high berry plants could do, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if they could send vines to choke her captors or hurl heavy branches at them. Unfortunately.

The leaves rustled, and an oddly warm breeze swept through the valley. A tingle ran up Kaylina’s arms, and a vision filled her mind.

Hundreds if not thousands of Kar’ruk were marching into the area from the end of the valley. Two females, including the one who’d taken her blood, greeted them in a grassy section near the pool. Thick stakes had been driven into the ground around the water, and fire burned in wolf skulls mounted atop them.

As the horde of warriors approached, the females gesticulated and chanted, invoking some ritual. They opened a large cylindrical container on a flat rock near the water. Made from bone and stretched hide, it looked like a drum until the lid came off.

The females wet their hands in the pond, then dipped their fingers into the container and pulled out silver powder. They rubbed it onto the faces, hands, and armor of the new arrivals. Even though the females were brisk and the powder didn’t coat the Kar’ruk completely, it caused them to fade from view, the same as the invisible warrior that Kaylina had battled.

The vision blurred, shifting to a nighttime view of Port Jirador. Camouflaged by the magical powder, the Kar’ruk sneaked into the city through the catacombs and flowed up out of entrances, including the one in Stillguard Castle. They charged into the streets with their axes and torches, cutting down humans and setting buildings on fire.

The guards weren’t a match for the invaders, and, for some reason, there weren’t many rangers and taybarri around to fight them. Soon, Port Jirador burned to the ground, the inhabitants either killed or forced to flee. Afterward, Kar’ruk stomped about in the ashes, celebrating that they’d reclaimed their land.

As the vision faded, Kaylina withdrew her hands, regretting that she’d put them down.

Why all the altered plants liked to share these horrible potential events with her, she didn’t know. Nor did she know if that vision was guaranteed to pass or if it was a possible future that might be avoided.

The plant leaves rippled under her knees.

“I don’t suppose you could let me go instead of filling my head with visions?” Kaylina whispered, looking toward the pool. The stakes and skulls weren’t there yet, but the cylindrical container rested on a rock, the same as the plants had shown her.

Too bad it was a hundred yards away. If she could slip away and reach it, she might slather that powder on herself and disappear.

One of the male Kar’ruk stopped chanting and strode toward Kaylina. Had he been watching her communication with the plants? Something contorted his bumpy face into a dyspeptic expression.

He grabbed her and drew a bone knife.

Kaylina twisted, trying to escape while silently asking the plants to help, but they didn’t seem capable of more than rustling their leaves.

The Kar’ruk sliced his blade through her wrist bonds but left those tying her ankles. He hoisted her in the air and carried her away from the undergrowth. Some of the plants rustled, but they did nothing more. That didn’t keep him from glancing warily at them and toward the female who’d taken Kaylina’s blood.

She nodded gravely and pointed to a stout pine, but then shook her head and redirected him toward an eight-foot-stump, the top torn off long ago in a storm, moss covering the rotting remains.

The Kar’ruk pressed Kaylina’s back to the stump. When he shifted to move around her, she tried to jump free, envisioning rolling and untying the bonds around her ankles before he could capture her.

But another Kar’ruk rushed forward to keep her pinned while the first yanked her arms behind her back. He tied her wrists again, this time around the stump and behind her. Her shoulder blades ached at the uncomfortable position and pressure.

“This day keeps getting worse.” Kaylina looked down, but there were no altered plants beneath her, and the tree had died long ago. She doubted the lingering stump could help her in any way.

With their task accomplished, the Kar’ruk returned to the gathering. The chanting had grown faster and more eager. The female withdrew the cauldron, the concoction inside steaming. Not waiting for it to cool, she passed it around, and each warrior drank from it.

Kaylina tilted her head back against the stump, groping for a way to escape being killed by these people.

A furious roar rang out from the head of the valley. A familiar furious roar.

Vlerion. And he’d already turned into the beast.

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