Chapter 3
As the last ferry of the night paddled across Luminous Lake, wind whipped along the water and clouds scudded through the night sky, obscuring the stars and moon.
Rylana had almost talked herself into ignoring the family castle.
It had been seventeen years since she’d been inside, and her father hadn’t invited her to visit, so it wasn’t her responsibility.
But… a few minutes after she’d returned to the diner to help with the closing-time cleanup, Vernest Vormalt’s face had floated through her mind.
Since she’d returned to Tranquility, he’d shown up numerous times, admitting a keen interest in the castle—and a desire to get inside.
Was it possible that he’d heard about Father’s business trip and was over there now?
Up to something that could cause a building to glow?
Father had mentioned that Vormalt had tried to gain access to the castle a number of times over the years.
“That still doesn’t make it my responsibility,” Rylana muttered.
Her father had been the one who’d wanted her to marry Vormalt. She’d rejected his proposal. More than once.
“So, we’re going to visit for curiosity’s sake?” Sylin adjusted the hood of her cloak, fighting the wind to keep her head covered. Fortunately, it was dark enough that her pointed ears and forest-green hair weren’t that noticeable.
She and Rylana were the only pedestrians who’d walked onto the ferry for this last run. The handful of coachmen who’d brought horse-drawn wagons and steam-powered carriages were leaning against them with their eyelids drooping, none on the lookout for assassins.
“Well, I have a friend who needs a place to stay,” Rylana said instead of trying to explain her sense of responsibility for Vormalt.
“Your friend rejected the suggestion of a glowing castle as an appealing place to settle in for the night.”
“Yet the above-tavern room where two drunks knocked on the door to proposition you for sex was acceptable.”
“I leased that place more for you.”
“Thoughtful.” Raindrops fell, slanting sideways in the wind and spattering Rylana’s cheek.
“Elves don’t mind sleeping in tree branches or under stone benches.”
“There are both on the family estate. There’s even a boathouse attached to the dock.”
“Is it glowing?”
“Not that I can see from here.” Rylana pointed across the lake to the bank below the point where the castle perched, overlooking the water.
Since the beach and dock were in deep shadows, she couldn’t make out the boathouse, but she knew it was there.
If it had been glowing, they would have seen it.
“You might like it. There’s no bed or chairs—no amenities whatsoever.
Just the boat my father takes into the wetlands to duck hunt with his hounds. ”
“That does sound somewhat appealing, assuming it’s free of elves.”
“It’s been years since I visited the boathouse, but I don’t remember anyone with pointy ears being enticed to lurk in it.”
Rylana yawned as the ferry passed the midpoint in the lake.
Already, she wished she’d ignored the glow and gone to sleep in the storeroom.
Between the chilly rain and wind, it felt more like winter than spring, and they would be stuck on the opposite shore until the ferry started running again in the morning.
If the wards wouldn’t let her into the castle—or if the butler or whoever her father had left behind objected to her staying—it would be a long night.
She might end up in the boathouse with Sylin.
“What in both hells is that?” one of two crewmen who’d paused by the railing asked.
“That’s Avandar Castle, isn’t it? Why is it beaming blue light into the sky?”
Rylana turned to better hear the men. It wasn’t surprising that others had noticed the glow—on the dark cloudy night, it was hard to miss—and she wondered if the ferry workers knew anything about it.
Like if it had appeared on previous nights.
But if it had, these men wouldn’t sound surprised, would they?
“Avandar must be putting in a new magical security system or something,” another crew member said. “You know those rich lords have to make sure not so much as a squirrel can get in to mess with their stuff.”
“That’s the truth.”
“Maybe I should put in gnomish security to protect the room I let in Orc Stone Market. To keep my beer and hazelnuts safe.”
“They’re only in danger from you. Security won’t help that.”
Giving up on the notion of hearing anything useful about the castle, Rylana moved toward the bow of the ferry so they would be ready to depart as soon as it arrived. Up there, she noticed glowing pools of blue, purple, and green plankton floating in the water between the vessel and the shore.
“Is it my imagination,” Rylana asked when Sylin joined her at the railing, “or are the luminescent plankton brighter than usual tonight?”
Further, there were atypical patterns among the pools. She picked out a few cylindrical shapes, and that area over there looked like a pair of quarter moons. Usually, the formations were amorphous, and she couldn’t remember seeing shapes in them before.
“As a newcomer to Tranquility,” Sylin said, “I’m not that familiar with what’s normal in the lake. Wouldn’t there naturally be some seasonal variations?”
“The magical glowing water life is much brighter in the summer, yes, but we’re far from that.” Rylana pulled her cloak tighter against the wind and rain. “And I’ve never seen them make patterns before. They usually float about in blobby clumps. Look at that purple patch. It’s almost a spiral.”
“Do you think it has something to do with your glowing castle?”
“It’s not my castle,” Rylana said but eyed the sprawling structure again.
Now that they were closer, she could see the blue glow through some of the windows that overlooked the lake.
In addition, a beam of blue rose vertically through the roof and up toward the cloudy night sky.
“As for the plankton, I’m not sure how they could be related to that. ”
“Maybe someone painted the walls inside with lake water.”
“I don’t think that would work. The plankton die if they’re not in the water.”
“Maybe magic is keeping them alive.”
“I’m positive my father didn’t hire someone to paint the interior walls of the castle with bioluminescent plankton.
Even if that was a quirky new interior-decorating trend, he wouldn’t partake.
” The ferry drifted through one of the red pools as it docked, and the water life dispersed, the patterns broken.
Rylana told herself it was probably a coincidence and there was no link, but she again wished she’d gone to bed and left the glow for her father to figure out when he came home. Between the chill and the rain, there was nothing appealing about being out in the night.
“Thanks for coming along,” she said to Sylin, glad for company.
“You’ve enticed me with talk of your boathouse hostel.”
“I talked about that after you decided to come.”
“Yes, but I was also enticed by the unlikelihood of running into suspicious elves stalking around on this side of the lake.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to think about leaving the city?” Rylana asked as they disembarked. She led the way onto the road that followed the shoreline and meandered along the waterfront estates, including her family’s castle.
“I think about that daily, but the availability of quality coffee is inconsistent if not altogether absent when one is traveling.”
“For the sake of your caffeine addiction, you’re going to stay and deal with elves who are trying to hunt you down and drag you to the enclave?”
“You’re the one they tried to drag to the enclave. Presumably to question about me.”
“Yeah, they must think I’m your trusted and devoted lover and know everything about where you are at all hours of the day.”
“As if I’d have a lover with inferior round ears.”
“That’s your main objection to the idea of us together?”
“It’s an objection.”
“You don’t even like your people,” Rylana said. “Pointed ears shouldn’t be a draw.”
“True, but it’s in my blood to long for them. The wolves had pointed ears too. I grew up accustomed to them.”
“I hope you wouldn’t consider one of them for a lover.”
“Maybe a werewolf. If his ears were appropriately shaped in both forms.”
“Putting all that aside—far aside—I got lucky the night your elven kin wanted to grab me. Jildarin happened to come out to check on me, and they didn’t want to cross him. By myself, even if I had the use of my weapons, I doubt I could fight off two strong elven warriors in their prime.”
“Probably not in hand-to-hand combat. Your preferred method of dealing with enemies is safer when it comes to elves.”
“Shooting them from a distance while hiding behind a tree?”
“Quite.”
“Does it bother you that they’re hunting you down? For no reason other than that you’ve a reputation as an assassin?”
The road turned steeper as they climbed toward the bluff, passing a complex of stone dwellings that had once been the stables and the outer grounds of the Avandar Estate.
Centuries earlier, they’d been sold off and extensively remodeled, now belonging to a prominent family of dwarven craftsmen.
They’d made their fortune helping the gnomes build much of Tranquility.
A few logs lay decoratively on either side of the driveway, and a tiny flash of green light caught Rylana’s eye. A pixie, probably one who’d claimed the spot for a home—and a repository of swiped magical treasures. That was probably not the use for the log that the landscaper had intended.
“I’ve had little interaction with elves in my life,” Sylin said. “Their opinions are of no consequence.”