“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 notmycastle,” 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 thechill 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 thatafteryou 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 yousureyou 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’rethe 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’syour main objection to the idea of us together?”
“It’sanobjection.”
“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 ofthemfor a lover.”
“Maybe a werewolf. If his ears were appropriately shaped in both forms.”
“Putting allthataside—far aside—I got lucky the night your elven kin wanted to grab me. Jildarin happened to come out tocheck 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.
