Syrina had planned to hurt the shepherd enough that he and the karakh couldn’t go on. She figured she had one clean shot at the karakh where she’d woven the snare out of the remains of the bridge she’d hacked down on the way north. After that, she was going to wing it and rub Storik among the charred ruins of the silos, whether the monster was still breathing down her neck or not. She decided there’d be plenty of opportunities for accidents among the broken machines of a navaras farm.
Now the voice was droning on about how lucky she was that it had panned out so much better than she’d expected. She even had Storik’s personal secretary telling the story to anyone who’d listen, and nothing pointed to a Kalis. Accident achieved.
It didn’t matter how lucky she was. She felt awful. She couldn
