by Joe Jackson
All, that is, except for one: A serilis-rir stood in the middle of it all, apparently directing the efforts of the others.
He was oblivious to Kari’s presence at first, and by the size of him, she wondered if this might be Atauridar, come back to make Kari pay for her mercy. She realized that wasn’t right after only a cursory examination, though. This man, whoever he was, had long, silky black hair – common among serilian-rir, yes, but unheard of on a full-blooded serilis-rir. That made her briefly think of Kaelariel, but it couldn’t be him. The demon regarded his companion when they tapped him on the arm, and then he followed their pointing finger to behold Kari’s approach.
“That was even faster than expected,” he said, and Kari barely caught it at this distance.
“Commander?” prompted the man Kari held at swordpoint.
The serilis-rir folded his hands behind his back. He was strikingly handsome, like a full-blooded version of Kris Jir’tana. He had red, dragon-like eyes, though, and a no-nonsense set to his features that was only magnified by the red skin, the leather armor, and the beautiful black swords across his back. “If you’d kindly let him go, Lady Vanador, we’ll explain everything to you shortly,” he said.
“Who the hell are you people?” Kari demanded again. “Someone had better start with the explaining, or I’m going to start with the arrests.”
“Gem, where are you?” the serilis-rir man asked the air around him, then he nodded to himself. “Get to the central square on the double.”
What is going on here? the demonhunter wondered, not taking the business end of her sword away from the man she was holding.
“Who are you people?” Kari spat, but she received no answer. There was a commotion to the north, and Kari turned her prisoner that way and kept her sword firmly lodged against his back. The citizens watching from that end of the plaza scattered, and Kari’s eyes widened when a large, gray-and-white werewolf in its hybrid form bounded into the square in broad daylight. “Gods, Gil, what are you doing?”
The werewolf walked up and saluted the serilis-rir, which was strange enough before one took their species into account. Then Gil squatted down by the man’s side and flashed a lupine grin in Kari’s direction that sent a chill up the demonhunter’s spine. “Let him go, Kari,” Gil managed in the growling voice of the hybrid form. “I will explain.”
“Yeah, everyone keeps saying that, but nobody’s talking,” Kari muttered, but she finally let her captive go with a slap to the rump using the flat of her blade. He dashed to stand beside the werewolf and serilis-rir, and the watchmen did the same with their prisoner. “So, for the last time: Who are you people, and how is Gil mixed up in all this?”
“Dynas Kytarras Jir’tana,” the serilis-rir introduced himself, and Kari’s breath caught. “Commander, Royal Special Forces. And before you ask, I didn’t bother answering until Gil got here because I assumed her presence might be the only thing that made you believe me.”
“You’re Kaelariel’s nephew?” Kari asked, and he nodded shortly. “And you said Royal Special Forces?”
“That’s right,” he said. “I know it’s taken some time, but I’ll let Gil explain the how and why later. Right now, all you need to know is that we’re here to wipe out the Blood Order, and that’s already well underway, as I’m sure you’ve seen.”
Kari stood dumbfounded for a time before she turned to Gil. “This is what you’ve been working on the last couple of years?” The werewolf nodded her great, lupine head. “Why didn’t you just tell me? We could’ve helped you.”
Dynas laughed. “You’ll see, soon enough. But suffice to say your ties to Eryn Olgaryn were of great concern to us.”
“Are you going to kill her?” Kari blurted.
“Depends how much trouble she gives us bringing her in,” he answered. He looked off to the side again. “You’ve got Tarek? Excellent, bring him up.”
Kari felt a surge of adrenaline. They’d dismantled at least a major portion of the Blood Order, and if they had Tarek, Kari was finally going to see the guildmaster unmasked. She was concerned with what would happen to Eryn, but the law enforcer in Kari was more pleased than anxious about this. Another terrible thorn in the side of the good, hard-working common people was about to be removed, hopefully permanently.
“What’s going on with this?” Kari asked, gesturing toward the storefront with the plume of smoke coming out of its doorway.
“The Blood Order got wind of what was about to happen, but it was already too late,” Dynas answered. “They tried to escape into a network of old sewer tunnels, but Gem sniffed those out months ago. We’ve got every possible exit from the city covered, and we pinned down Tarek and his second-in-command in the tunnels below the city.”
“His second-in-command?”
“Eryn Olgaryn.”
Kari cursed quietly in her mind. She had always hoped that despite Eryn’s close ties to Tarek, she wasn’t really that integral to the Blood Order. She’d always known it had to be true, but she admitted to herself that her feelings were skewed by Eryn’s relationship with Aeligos. If these men were here to wipe out the Blood Order, Eryn was done for. And there was nothing Kari could do – and, more pointedly, no reason for her to want to. Not officially, anyway.
When the men emerged from the storefront that hid the entrance to the tunnels Dynas was referring to, Kari’s blood froze. The answers to so many of her questions, and the explanation of so much of her frustration strode out between four armed men. Duke Bosimar’s eyes met Kari’s almost immediately, and that scowl that accompanied the worst of his mood swings took over his features with all the fury of a hurricane.
Kari had no explanation for what she was looking at. For the second time in just a few short years, she had witnessed the unmasking of an assassin’s guild, only to find it was being run by the very nobility that was supposed to be rooting it out. Her blood had frozen only a moment before, but now she found it simmering, on its way to a furious boil. So many pieces were trying to fall into place, and she found herself shaken even more than she’d been when she discovered the truth behind Jason Bosimar and Turik Jalar’s records.
Jason Bosimar, Kari thought. Was this why he stayed in Gnarr rather than here? Gods above, did he know his father was the head of the Blood Order and did nothing about it?
Kari didn’t think about wanting to do it, she just spat on the ground between herself and the duke. The spying. The mood swings. The snide comments and the taunt about her house being burned to the ground. All the times he’d acted as though Kari and the Order were the cause of all his troubles rather than the solution.
Gil dashed forward suddenly and put one of her massive, clawed hands to Kari’s chest. “Don’t,” she growled, though naturally, not out of anger.
Kari hadn’t realized she’d started to draw her blades and move toward the duke until Gil stopped her. Anger was the only thing walling up the deepening grief in her heart. Every time she thought someone couldn’t betray her any worse, someone managed to find a new level of treachery. Joaquim’s betrayal paled next to Duke Bosimar’s, and the idea that the duke may have been behind all of it made Kari’s stomach tighten into a knot.
She watched as the duke was roughly thrown down face-first into the dirt, and Dynas put the manacles on the noble himself. Kari wasn’t sure how long she stood motionless, Gil’s furry hand on her shoulder, before another group of men exited the smoky storefront leading Eryn. It was just another person who had betrayed Kari a number of times and a number of ways that her dizzy mind couldn’t sort or fathom. While she couldn’t have expected Eryn to reveal that the duke was, in fact, also the head of the Blood Order, Kari had a hard time forgiving her friend for withholding knowledge that could’ve prevented so many deaths, and perhaps even the arson levied on Kari’s house.
To her credit, Eryn looked down at the ground when her eyes met Kari’s. There was more than enough pain to go around, and Kari did actually feel some pity for her friend. Worse, she could
only wonder if Aeligos knew all of these things. Had he, too, hidden Tarek’s identity from Kari? Or was Eryn’s duplicity perfect enough that it had even fooled the man she shared a bed with for years? Aeligos was so sharp, it was nearly impossible to hide anything from him, but Eryn had hidden something from him throughout their relationship. Had she hidden this, too? Or had Aeligos betrayed Kari as well, to some degree?
Kari sat down on the dirty ground and put a hand to her temple. She was far from the only – or most – confused person here. A quick glance around the area told her that the citizens were just as confused as she, but far more frightened. The duke was being arrested, the city and county were now without their lord, and the Blood Order was being ripped from the city like a deep-dug parasite. But that meant there was going to be a power void, and one that had to be dealt with immediately. And that was to say nothing of the fact that the arrests were being made by a serilis-rir and a werewolf.
Kari rose to her feet. There was no time for wallowing in self-pity. “Watchman,” she called, pointing to one of the nearby guards, and he approached hastily at her officious address. “Take a squad of men and go fetch Lord Stanley from his estate. Have another of your men go tell the commandant that the duke has been lawfully arrested and we need to temporarily apply martial law. Tell him to do it as he sees fit, and I’ll come meet with him and lift it once we have order restored.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a crisp military salute. “Is there anything else I can do for you, ma’am? Should we aid these… Royal Special Forces?”
Kari glanced at Dynas and the others over her shoulder. “Just stay out of their way unless they request help.”
He saluted her again and returned to his comrades, passing along her orders. They split up and left the area with all due haste, and Kari blew out a sigh. She glanced at the werewolf beside her, and realized the watchman must have been thoroughly confused to see that Gil didn’t concern Kari at all. The demonhunter wanted to laugh, but the weight around her heart was still too much of an anchor to be amused about anything at that moment.
“You owe me a big explanation,” she told the werewolf.
“I do, and you will get it.”
Kari approached Dynas. “Do you need anything from me?” she asked.
“You’ve done enough, Lady Vanador,” he said with a bow of his head. “This is our duty, and well within our capabilities. If anything, I could use a couple of your Order’s prison cells to stow these two away until we’re ready to take them back.”
“Back where?”
“To Streka.”
“You really are royal military?”
Dynas pulled up a badge on a chain, not all that different than Kari’s dog tags. She took and inspected it, and it spelled out pretty plainly that he was what he claimed to be. It could have all been a ruse, but then anyone could say the same thing about her dog tags unless they could detect the latent aura around them. It just amazed her that the monarchy – or whoever was the de facto ruler – had taken enough notice of the Blood Order to come do something about it, after all these years.
“Anything you need,” she said, gesturing toward the campus.
“A word, Lady Vanador?” the duke said, his scowl finally having fallen away.
“Not a chance,” she told him without gracing him with a glance. “There’s not a thing you can say to me that’s going to change anything.”
“It’s regarding my son.”
Kari finally looked at him, their roles reversed as she was now the one to scowl. “What about him?”
“Do not let your Order dishonor him.”
He fell squarely to his rump as Kari drove her fist into his face. “Go to hell!” she spat. “Gods, he knew, didn’t he? He knew you were always the head of the Blood Order!”
The duke said nothing, merely wiping his bloody nose on his shoulder and averting his gaze from the furious demonhunter. Kari growled, but then turned to Eryn, who still wouldn’t lift her eyes. “As for you, I want you to tell me one thing.”
Eryn finally lifted her head and met Kari’s gaze. “Aeligos knows nothing.”
“I hope that’s true. This is going to ruin him.”
The assassin shook her head. “This is the end both of us always expected, Kari. I wanted more for us, but…”
“What was it, Eryn?” Kari asked. “What happened to you? What got you wrapped up with these scumbags?”
The half-brys assassin shook her head again, but tears fell from her eyes for the first time Kari could ever remember. “No,” she said. “I will make no excuses.”
“Good, because nobody wants to hear them anyway,” Dynas said. He shoved the shorter woman lightly, then gestured for his men to begin leading her and the bloody-nosed duke toward the campus of the Demonhunter Order.
“Why now?” Kari asked the serilis-rir.
“I’ll let Gil explain things to you in full,” he said. “Suffice to say that preparations for this have been underway for years, but the attack several days ago forced our hand. We’re lucky this city had you to defend it, or the damage may have made this operation irrelevant.”
Kari nodded and waved over a couple of demonhunters that had entered the square. She ordered them to escort the royal officers and their prisoners to the campus, and to give them any and all accommodations they required.
“Where are you going?” Dynas asked.
“I have to restore order to the city before all hell breaks loose,” she answered, and then she blew out a snort.
Dynas chuckled, apparently picking up on her suppressed humor. “Take Gem with you. Here’s your clothes, Gem.”
“Gem?” Kari echoed. “Why do you keep calling her that?”
“Gillian Erin MacKenzie,” Dynas clarified. “GEM.”
The demonhunter gave the werewolf a cool look. “Blame my parents,” the beast said with an exaggerated shrug.
“Let’s go,” Kari said. “We’ve got work to do.”
They started to head north toward the now ex-duke’s castle, but Kari paused and watched Dynas and the others leading the prisoners away. Eryn turned to look back at Kari one last time, and despite all of the anger and hurt, Kari felt a sharp pain in her heart. A friend was being led away, no doubt to her death, and that stung, no matter how much Kari might be angry with her at that moment. It was going to hurt so many other people as well, and the weight of all of it sank through Kari’s shoulders and into her heart like a hot knife.
“Ketava,” the demonhunter muttered.
The sight of a werewolf had terrified the people many times before, but seeing her walk beside Kari piqued their curiosity more than their fears. Now they lined the street to watch the massive creature stride past, upright like a man. She towered over Kari, but the demonhunter was fairly certain the people still saw her as the more dangerous of the two. Gil was a force of nature, for sure, but Kari had battled – and defeated – far worse.
They reached the ex-duke’s castle soon enough, and people stopped to behold an even more comical scene. There was Kari, standing by idly while a werewolf and a half-mallasti got their first good looks at each other. Whatever he thought of Gil, Tor turned his attention back to Kari quickly and graced her with a military salute.
“The commandant has put me at your disposal to aid in restoring order, ma’am. Though I must confess, I am not sure what is going on. But that is irrelevant. Tell me what you need,” the gnoll said.
“Lord Stanley should hopefully be on his way. Send messages to all the other barons to let them know we’re declaring martial law until someone is chosen to replace the duke. In fact, make sure you send out the messages to the other earls of Brunswick. I don’t know much about the Succession Accords, but I’m pretty sure…”
She trailed off and turned to look out over the ocean as realization hit her. Gods above, she thought. Did Jason and Jori-an ever have a child? It would be the rightful heir to the duchy. Could that be the real reason behind Jason’s interest in Turik Jalar’s
records?
Kari shook off the thoughts and turned back to Tor. “I don’t think there’s an heir, so it may be a complicated process to appoint a new duke. But Lord Stanley has a good head on his shoulders, and I’m going to put him in charge for the time being, at least until someone who knows the Accords better can tell us how to proceed.”
“I will have escorts sent to bring Lord Stanley safely to the citadel,” the gnoll agreed with a bow of his head. “Give me just a moment and I will have the correspondence you requested sent to the proper recipients. Then I am free to accompany you.”
“Accompany me? For what?”
“As I said, ma’am, the commandant has put me at your disposal. I believe he would normally have given the assignment to Captain Damansha Tesconis, but with her on leave, he would like me to stay close to you, that our orders’ efforts may complement each other.”
“So the commandant is in control of the army now, too?”
“For the sake of dealing with urban matters, ma’am, yes,” Tor answered. “General Crowley will handle the monitoring of outside threats.”
“All right, get to it, then,” Kari said, gesturing for the gnoll to go pass along her orders. The demonhunter looked up at Gil, who managed to grin – slightly disturbingly so. There had to be some amusing quality there, Gil meeting another canine-like person that wasn’t a werewolf, perhaps for the first time in her life.
Kari still felt no inclination to smile. Too much damage had been done, not the least of which was to her very trust, and Gil and her people were at the center of it all. There was a slight sense of betrayal there as well. Why had they kept Kari in the dark for so long?
