Page 120 of Lake of Sorrow

Vlerion’s lips pressed together, but he didn’t deny it, other than to mutter, “I think you would have let me.”

“Yeah. That’s the problem.” Kaylina smiled sadly at him.

Vlerion clasped her hand across the boulder. He mustered a reassuring look for her while glowering defiantly at the taybarri.

The test is ready to begin. You will each consume four wazistar berries. The female elder pointed her snout at the flat rock.

After unwrapping the hide, the male taybarri had stepped back to join the others. He’d revealed a few bunches of shriveled berries smaller than but reminiscent of cherries. Desiccated cherries on the verge of turning to dust.

“Are you sure it’s safe to eat those?” Kaylina asked. “They look… past their prime.”

They are dried to enhance their hallucinogenic potency. You will suffer no harm from consuming them. They are from altered plants harvested by the sandsteaders, and you will find that, in addition to giving vivid dreams, they allow one to see more than human eyes can normally see. A wider spectrum of light. I am uncertain as to this, but you may also find that they, for the time you are influenced by them, will allow you to see through the magic of the altered lithop powder to the Kar’ruk beneath.

Vlerion’s eyes sharpened. He removed four for himself and chewed them down. “Do you have more? If there’s a remote possibility that these will help us in battle with their kind, I would like to give them to the rest of the rangers.”

Let us first see if you pass the test. I’ll admit, it was contemplating the lithop and how it might be combatted that prompted me to remember that these exist in our cave of alchemy and herbalism.

“Meaning we brought this test upon ourselves?” Kaylina asked.

The means of enacting it, yes. The female gazed at her. You must both swallow the berries, then grip each other’s hands.

Kaylina wasn’t as quick as Vlerion to snatch up the dried berries, but she doubted the taybarri wanted to kill her, so she gingerly placed them in her mouth. They tasted like chalk more than anything else. She wished she had a cool goblet of cyser to wash the powdery gunk down.

Though she couldn’t guess why they needed to hold hands, especially when they were already tied to the same boulder, Kaylina threaded her fingers between Vlerion’s. As she waited for the berries to take effect, she did her best not to notice the strength in his callused grip, the strong line of his jaw, and the corded muscles of his arms and shoulders. She did let herself admit she took comfort in having him close. Even if, in this case, she shouldn’t have.

The female turned her backside toward them and laid the tip of her tail across their clasped hands.

Considering her concerns about Vlerion, her choice to be that close was surprising, but was it possible she could affect their hallucinations that way? With some taybarri magic?

While Kaylina contemplated asking, the lighting shifted, growing brighter. No, that wasn’t quite it. It grew more colorful.

Where before, Kaylina had interpreted sunlight and shade as little more than bright or dark, she now saw gradations. Pinks, purples, blues, and reds. She was so intent on noticing them that she didn’t realize her surroundings were changing. At least, her eyes believed they were.

The valley and the taybarri disappeared, leaving her standing beside a sandy white beach lining a sparkling lake. At the end of the beach, muddy shallows supported reeds and lily pads, their greens so vibrant it almost hurt to look at them. The scenery reminded her of the lake in the preserve—the one that had inspired Vlerion’s brother’s painting. Thankfully, no druid ruins stood in sight. She’d had enough of those.

A warm breeze whispered past, teasing her bare skin.

Kaylina blinked as she looked down at her very bare skin. Her only coverings were snips of white fur that were more for decoration than privacy. They curled around her breasts without hiding their swell or her nipples and dangled to her pubic area.

“What in all the altered orchards is this?”

When she looked around, she expected to see taybarri, but she couldn’t remember why she expected that. Her thoughts had grown muzzy, and she couldn’t recall where she was or how she’d come to the lake.

Shadows stirred among aspen trees that rose beyond the beach. A naked male human walked into view, the dappled sunlight slipping between the leaves to draw attention to his powerful muscles. He wasn’t adorned with fur.

His head was almost shaven, auburn hair so short as to be bristly, and scars marred his cheek and drew down the corner of one eye. He shouldn’t have been handsome, but Kaylina’s body hummed with awareness at his approach.

Vlerion, came a whisper from the back of her mind. She knew him. And she knew she wanted to mate with him.

Mate? A strange word that she wouldn’t use. It sounded like something for animals.

She wanted to have sex with him.

And from the heated way his gaze traveled over her body, she believed Vlerion wanted to be with her too. His muscles rippling in the sunlight, he strode straight toward her. Lust sparked in his blue eyes.

Wait, there was something besides the lust… something dangerous.

Then she remembered. If Vlerion lost control of his emotions, he would turn into a beast. A deadly beast that could kill her.

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