Page 69 of Lake of Sorrow

“We can work on getting those things. After visiting the plant.”

“How is messing with that plant going to help anything?” Frayvar grunted as he lost his balance. The steps weren’t even.

“I want to see if the druid honey makes it… happy.” What she wanted was to see if it lifted the curse on the castle so she would be closer to figuring out how to lift Vlerion’s curse. Those words she couldn’t speak aloud.

“It’s not going to give its testimony.”

“You never know.”

“Be logical, Kay.”

“You know that’s not my strength.”

Frayvar harrumphed like Grandpa.

Even feeling her way carefully through the dark passage, Kaylina cracked her knuckles against the hard wall that marked the dead end Targon had mentioned. After cursing sufficiently, she slid her fingers over the rough bricks and aged mortar, counting from the bottom to locate the secret switch. Nothing obvious stuck out, but when she found the right brick and pushed, a hidden door ground open.

It sounded like the heavy stone lid of an ancient sarcophagus shifting aside, reminding Kaylina unpleasantly of her time in the catacombs. But, as Targon had promised, his passageway opened into the sewers, not the catacombs.

As soon as the pungent aroma of effluent struck her, making her nostrils sting, she decided the catacombs might have been preferable, even with Kar’ruk statues that spat poison.

“Do you have a lantern handy?” Kaylina could hear water flowing, but no grates let in light from the city above, at least not in this area.

“Of course. Give me a moment.” His voice sounded odd. He was probably doing his best to breathe through his mouth, possibly while pinching his nostrils shut. “I might try to find a gag too. Or a bag to put over my entire head.”

“This is better than if guards had charged into the infirmary and captured you,” Kaylina said, though she also didn’t want to linger in the sewers.

“Are you sure? They might have been interested by my organization methods, which could have led to a lively and stimulating conversation.”

“I can’t believe you accuse me of having hallucinations.”

“You’ve admitted to seeing things before.”

“Only when I’m absorbed by my visions for the future.”

“By your schemes.” After striking a match, Frayvar lit two small lanterns.

“I should have left you in ranger headquarters.”

Unfazed, he handed her a lantern.

“Thank you.”

With the wan light to lead them, they followed a stone ledge along a murky channel. Sludge and slime covered the walkway, making the footing treacherous. It coated the nearest wall as well, and Kaylina was loath to touch it for balance—or for any reason at all. That was hard when they had to duck under periodic chutes in the wall with more effluent flowing out, splashing down into the main channel.

“This might be Targon’s revenge for my irreverence.” Kaylina wiped her watering eyes, the potent air affecting her ten times more than cutting onions. “Or he wants to make sure Vlerion isn’t attracted to me.”

“Why would the ranger captain care if Lord Vlerion is attracted to you?”

“Because…” She realized she shouldn’t have made the joke. “I’m a commoner, and he doesn’t approve of his rangers getting horizontal with such riffraff.”

“He said that? The rangers tend to gossip, and I’ve heard he’s been with a lot of women, nobles and commoners.”

“Double standards.” Kaylina hurried around a corner. It was getting harder and harder to avoid saying anything that might give him clues about Vlerion’s secret.

Intersections forced them to make more turns than she wanted, and she worried they would come up in front of ranger headquarters. Or a pair of kingdom guards. Not that she’d yet seen any ladders or ways out. Maybe there weren’t any. Since Targon wanted her to disappear, he might have decided having her get lost for weeks in the city sewers would be a good way to accomplish that.

“There’s a grate.” Frayvar pointed toward bars across a narrow rectangular opening in the ceiling, a few drops of rainwater trickling down. Though night was deep, a hint of light from a nearby streetlamp brightened the area under the grate. “Have we gone far enough? We might be able to get out there.”

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