Page 62 of Lake of Sorrow

“Can I meet him?” Maybe Kaylina should have asked that when the rangers had first started throwing the word anrokk around. As she recalled, Jastadar was almost to retirement age. Targon and Vlerion had implied it was rare for rangers to survive all their years of fighting to be able to retire.

“Yes.” Targon shrugged. “If you stuck with the training, you’d meet all the rangers in this province sooner or later.”

“I’d like to think about it.” Kaylina admitted that because I want to ride a taybarri wasn’t a great reason to become a ranger, to constantly have to put her life in danger. As noble as the profession was, she doubted it would suit her. She hated following orders, even from her own family members, people who loved her. She might end up flogged if she kept training with the rangers. The way things were going, she might end up flogged often.

“Of course.” Targon’s tone was perfectly reasonable. Because he thought she would inevitably agree and he had won?

“Obviously, I’d need to figure out how to clear my name first.”

“Yes, obviously.”

“And I’m on a quest to lift Vlerion’s curse.”

Targon blinked, looking surprised for the first time during their meeting. Maybe for the first time since she’d met him. “What?”

“It has to be possible.”

“I don’t think that’s true. Some of his ancestors dedicated their lives to researching ways to end the curse, and none of them ever figured it out.”

“Yeah, but I’m special.” Kaylina showed him her brand. “You said so yourself.”

“I believe I said you’re strange.”

“I chose to hear a less offensive word, thus to be able to continue having this conversation without thinking of you as an odious villain.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

“Yes. You’re aware that the glow of the plant in the tower at Stillguard Castle changed color after I fertilized it with honey water?”

“I heard it turned purple for a couple of days.”

“I have more honey to try on it, druid honey. I’m going to lift the curse from the castle, and then I’m going to use what I learn there to lift Vlerion’s curse.”

Targon started to scoff but looked at her hand again and didn’t. “I’d never pondered it before, but it does make sense that the two curses might be related.”

“Based on the story I heard, they’re absolutely related. Whatever lifts the curse from the castle might lift the curse of the beast.”

“Are you going to pour honey water on Vlerion?”

“I don’t know if that’s how the curse can be lifted, just that it affected the plant. If people weren’t trying to arrest me, I could have spent time studying it.”

“A team of scientists might be needed after all,” Targon muttered.

“I doubt the plant would permit them to poke and prod it. Even I got zapped when I touched its soil.”

Targon walked to the window and gazed out. “I would like to see Vlerion be able to live a normal life and not have to worry about the beast.”

“Yes. So would I.” Kaylina might not like Targon, but she was encouraged that he cared for Vlerion.

“If he weren’t cursed, maybe he could even…” Targon’s gaze shifted toward the plateau that held the royal castle, but he didn’t finish that sentence. Instead, he looked over his shoulder at her and changed the topic. “I don’t know if I should or shouldn’t point out that if the curse were lifted and his beast element disappeared, he might be indifferent to you.”

Kaylina froze. She’d envisioned that if the curse were lifted, she and Vlerion could be together without concern for safety.

He had denied that the beast had anything to do with his attraction to her—to her anrokk side—but could he truly know that? His mother believed it was the reason, and didn’t mothers know best? Queen Henova, who’d written that famous book on rearing children who became great leaders, had said that.

Without the supernatural link, what if Vlerion no longer found himself so strongly attracted to Kaylina? Or attracted to her at all? Lady Ghara, with her striking blonde locks, might bestir him far more than she.

“I would hope he’s not indifferent, but I would be happy to see the curse lifted regardless of how he felt about me afterward.” Kaylina barely kept from frowning. It wasn’t an untrue statement, but she would be disappointed if he lost interest in her. Devastatingly disappointed. How had she grown to care for him—and want to be with him—so quickly? Would her feelings change if he no longer had the beast within him? What if they both lost interest in each other? She shook her head, not wanting to believe that would happen. “He’s saved my life,” she added, uncomfortable under Targon’s all-too-knowing gaze. “No matter what else might happen, I owe him.”

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