by Joe Jackson
Kari chuckled and bowed her head respectfully as the carriage pulled up in front of the house. Like the road, the house was in need of repair: painting, new shutters, and some shingles that were missing. Kari wasn’t a carpenter, but she knew that missing shingles meant there was probably a number of leaks in the roof, and if that was the case, the floors were probably damaged. She tried not to get overwhelmed with the thought of how much the repairs would cost, again reminding herself that she had time and, more importantly, somewhere else to live until those repairs could be realized.
The Duke took the time to show Kari around the inside of the house, and just as she’d expected, the floors and ceilings were damaged by water in many places. The ground floor was comprised of a grand, open foyer with a dual staircase leading to the second floor – not unlike the keep of Markus Garant in Lajere. There were two sitting rooms; a library; a long, open dining room; and a kitchen big enough to prepare feasts for the dining room when full. There was a short hallway that led to an attached outhouse, which would be nice during the cold winters. All six of the bedrooms were located on the second floor, along with a second library and reading room. All in all, it was a grand, stately house, damaged as it was, though the books were mostly molded over or rotting, and the curtains and tapestries had been stolen for fuel, blanketing, or other needs.
The Duke showed Kari out to the master bedroom’s balcony, which faced north to overlook the fields. While the southern half of the property was a vineyard, the northern half was an olive grove that climbed up into the distant hills. Kari was impressed; a vineyard would be profitable enough, but both grapes and olives would pull in a small fortune every year. She’d never worked a farm in her life, but she knew this much: wine and olive oil were high-demand items, and with the size of the land she had just inherited, she stood to make an awful lot of money from them. All that remained, she reminded herself, was to find the coin to keep the place going until the money started flowing in the right direction.
“How far out does my property extend, Your Grace?” Kari asked quietly, surveying her land with a discerning eye.
“Out to those hills in the north,” he said. “Beyond that is generally considered no man’s land, so if you can extend your crops a bit further and keep your lands safe and under control, I certainly will not complain. Although I imagine if the DeSales family opted not to expand in that direction, the land is either unsuitable or simply too much to control.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind, Your Grace,” Kari said. “I was more interested in whether or not I could build a temple on my land.”
“A temple? To whom?”
“To the god of the czarikk, called Sakkrass,” Kari answered. The Duke was equal parts surprised and confused, and waited for Kari to elaborate. “I grew very close to their people in the years since the Apocalypse, and I have a rather unique relationship with their god.”
“And you hope to attract some of the lizard-folk to your land by building this temple?” the Duke asked.
“Maybe,” Kari said, and she shrugged. “I guess I'm not really sure what I expect. I just feel like it's something I should do.”
He regarded her for a silent minute. “You realize I must refuse on principle, if nothing else,” the Duke said. “This Sakkrass is completely unknown to me, or any of our people, with the exception of yourself and perhaps a few others. I do not wish to insult you or this deity whom I do not know, but erecting a temple to some unknown god outside of my city…this is something my citizens would not likely tolerate. So I will lay this stipulation upon the both of you: if you wish to build a temple to the czarikk god, then you must first convince me that he is worthy of my trust. Tell him to give me some sign that I can trust him, and I will consider your request. Until such time, the answer is no. Understand that being a landowner will not allow you to circumvent my word on this matter.”
“I wouldn’t even try, Your Grace,” Kari returned with a respectful bow of her head. “I may be the head of the Demonhunter Order, but I’m still a woman under authority, and I will always respect that authority.”
That made him smile genuinely. “I see I should be thankful to the Duke of Sutherland for negotiating this bargain with me,” he said, but then he put his finger before the end of his snout. “Not that I shall ever tell him that, you understand.”
He let out a hearty chuckle and Kari joined him. She was glad to see that her relationship with the Duke was off to a healthy start. With her doubts about the Blood Order, she wasn’t sure how she’d deal with him when they finally met. She followed him down and out of the house, and soon they were in the carriage again, headed back to the campus of the Demonhunter Order. They made small talk along the way, and the Duke gave Kari some advice on raising the funds to have her land and home repaired. He assured her that the upcoming harvest’s profits would be hers to keep, but that the harvest was still some time away, so she would need to take care of things in the meantime. His first suggestion was that she try to borrow it from her own Order, since she could return the money threefold if she wished.
Once back at the gates to the campus, Kari thanked the Duke for his gracious gift to her, even though it was technically from the Duke of Sutherland. She expressed her gratitude for his suggestions about raising capital to get the estate in order. He left her with a cordial goodbye, and Kari walked back onto the campus, trying to ignore the wide-eyed stares of the guards at the gate. Considering the previous Avatar had been the Duke’s son and probably never received such treatment, Kari could well understand the guards’ shock. Then again, she thought perhaps their wide-eyed stares were more in line with seeing something scandalous. She rolled her eyes at herself and tried not to dwell on it: hunters were trained not to partake of gossip, for all the good it did in the end.
Kari returned to the administrative building, but before she could even head to her office she noted the bustle of activity. She suppressed a sigh; this was what being in charge was going to mean for the better part of the next decade or so of her life. She waited while the other hunters and secretaries chatted excitedly amongst themselves, but it wasn’t long before they noted their commander’s presence and saluted her respectfully. It was only then that Damansha approached from among the hunters, and Kari wondered if someone had already come to collect on the bounty she’d placed on Sekassus’ agent.
“Lady Vanador,” Damansha began, maintaining decorum in front of Kari’s Order, “the Commandant asked me to come and make your Order aware of the reports that a werewolf has been spotted in the city.”
Lovely timing, Gil, Kari thought. “A werewolf?” she echoed. “When did this happen, last night?”
“Some of the reports came in last night, yes, but they were mostly dismissed as foolish,” the watch captain answered. “But other reports filtered in just this morning, under daylight, and even a pair of our watchmen witnessed the creature’s presence. No injuries have been reported, and the beast fled when confronted, and our watchmen had little luck trying to track it. So the Commandant has formally requested the help of your Order in tracking down and killing the beast, since our watchmen are not trained to deal with such a creature.”
“I don’t suppose it was silver or gray, and female?” Kari asked. Damansha’s shock answered the question well enough. Kari sighed and held a hand up, expecting protest before she even began to explain. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but go tell the Commandant there’s nothing to worry about. To try to keep this short, I know who this werewolf is, and she’s not a danger to the city. I asked her to come here so I could introduce her to the Council.”
“Why would you do such a thing?” Damansha asked. “With all due respect, Lady.”
“She helped me kill the assassin down in Barcon,” Kari said, and Damansha’s jaw dropped open along with those of several of the hunters present. “Like I said, she’s not here to hurt anyone. I don’t know what she’s thinking, prowling around scaring people, but she’s here at my re
quest. I’m not sure you’ll have any luck trying to catch her, but she should make her way here to the campus eventually. And then I’ll have some words for her.”
“I’ll have some myself,” Damansha said quietly. “Lady Vanador, are you certain this is the same one you…worked with?”
“I asked her to come up for midsummer, but it seems she’s a little early,” Kari said. “I’ll tell you what: tell the Commandant what I said, but that if she hurts anyone, my hunters will be at his disposal to capture or kill her. I’ll pass along the orders through the ranks here. And tell your watchmen if they see her again, to call her by the name Gil, and to tell her to get her ass here to the campus before we come looking for her.”
Damansha saluted Kari respectfully, as did the hunters listening to the conversation. “As you wish, Lady Vanador,” the half-elite watch captain said. “If you’ll forgive my saying so, my lady, I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
“So do I,” Kari said, dismissing the watch captain and her hunters with a gesture. She made her way back to her office before anyone else could waylay her with bad news.
Chapter VI – Apprehension
The days passed slowly, and though she didn't say as much to her family, Kari had already made the decision to go. Eliza's assurances that visiting Anthraxis would be safe was what tipped Kari in favor of going. At the very least, she figured she could get information while she was there, even if she decided to have Eliza bring her back home without ever leaving the city. And with the council of the kings set to meet when Kari arrived, the demonhunter figured it might be helpful to put faces to the names she knew – after all, it seemed at least some of the kings already knew who she was, and possibly even that she was Salvation's Dawn.
Kari's footfalls brought her slowly toward the southeast district, into the rougher part of the city south of the docks, and not far from Charlie's Boarding House, where the first encounter with Turillia had begun just months before. The latest report of a werewolf sighting had come from this area, and after six days of reports coming in, Kari wondered what Gil was doing and why she hadn't come to the campus yet. Kari began to wonder if it was, in fact, Gil, or if it might be one of the others from her pack or a completely random werewolf. The witness reports that the creature frequently talked to itself certainly lent a lot of confusion to the situation.
Once a couple of days had passed, Kari gave a description of Gil to Damansha and the city watch, that they might hopefully find the girl staying at an inn in her human form. Thus far, they'd had no luck locating her, even by questioning citizens around the city about any woman fitting the description. While those who kept late hours on the city streets typically wouldn't speak to the city watch about anything, Kari was certain that the presence of a werewolf would loosen their tongues. Still, the watch had uncovered little besides eyewitness accounts of the creature, but not the woman.
Kari had to consider that it might be a different werewolf. The fact that no one had been attacked or killed – despite some rather ridiculous statements from “witnesses” – at least eased tensions and let the watch proceed on Kari's word. If it wasn't Gil, though, Kari had no idea who it might be or why they were in the city drawing attention. She hadn't seen or spoken with Eryn since the initial reports of the werewolf reached her ears, so Kari had no idea whether the Blood Order was also looking for the creature, and how that might be affecting their search for the agent of Sekassus. It occurred to Kari that the agent and the werewolf could possibly be the same person, but it seemed unlikely; the agent should be keeping a low profile, and prowling about as a half-wolf creature seemed like probably the worst way to accomplish that.
The late spring day was warm, but Kari's eyes were drawn eastward over the water as thunder rumbled in the distance. A storm was brewing over the ocean and threatening to make landfall within a few hours. Summer was coming on fast this year, and the rapid changes in temperature were hitting DarkWind and the eastern coast with powerful thunderstorms. Kari quickened her pace, determined to take a look around at the latest werewolf sighting scene and be back home safely before the storm landed. In the back of her mind, Kari wondered what the weather on Mehr'Durillia would be like, and whether she and her friends would be travelling through similar conditions.
At last Kari reached her destination, and the first thing she noticed was that the area was within view of Charlie's Boarding House. Kari had to wonder if the scent of Turillia was still in the area from their fight, and whether the werewolf's attraction to otherworldly things might have drawn her here. It seemed like the most plausible explanation, but still Kari had to wonder about the reports that the werewolf talked to itself. It was shocking enough to find that the creatures could speak when in their hybrid wolf-man form, but that this particular one either talked to itself or else might hear voices from hallucinations was puzzling and troubling. A werewolf was a dangerous enough thing without being crazy. Gil had seemed about as normal as could be expected for a woman who was also a werewolf, but Kari had to admit to herself that she had only met the girl in passing, and even Sharyn and the rest of the pack didn't know her that well.
There was a watchman on duty in the area, as there was in all the places where the beast had been seen so far. Its appearances seemed random, scattered all over the city from rich to poor districts, trade to housing, docks to inland. The only constants seemed to be that it liked to prowl about in its hybrid form, and no one – not even the city watch – seemed particularly intent on tangling with it. The watchmen had, as Kari suggested, tried calling to the creature by name, but that hadn't gotten them any closer to apprehending or interacting with it.
Damansha had mentioned the watch using dogs to try to track the creature by scent, but the dogs' keen noses only ever led the watch to a dead end where the trail went cold. The beast was covering its track and its scent in remarkable fashion, and even the scent left behind when it changed forms left the dogs confused. Every avenue the watch had thought of to track the beast had come up empty, and Kari wondered if a brys might succeed where all other options had failed. That, though, was a moot point: no brys lived in the city, and the Duke and the watch didn't seen keen on inviting one.
Kari looked around the area, but there wasn't much to see. The proximity to Charlie's Boarding House was the only clue she came up with, which pointed to the presence of Turillia being what had drawn the werewolf to this particular place. That left questions about why it had gone to all the other places it was spotted in the city; had Turillia visited those places? Might there have been murders that were never connected to Turillia, but that the half-succubus had committed before confronting Kari? It was possible, but those bodies were long since interred or cremated, and Kari wasn't going to go digging into peoples' grief to satisfy a curiosity. Not just yet, anyway.
The demonhunter sighed. This was precisely the sort of frustration and distraction she didn't want to deal with when the weight of her impending trip to Mehr'Durillia was so heavily upon her. She had only a few days left to resolve this werewolf situation personally before she would be off to try to rescue Se'sasha, and she wasn't sure how the watch or her Order might handle things in her absence. The last thing she needed was either Gil killing someone in the city, or someone in the city killing Gil. The werewolves might make fine allies, but Kari had no doubt they would make terrible enemies if one of their number was killed and flayed in the city – particularly when she was invited here by Kari.
Kari turned back north and began making her way home. Lightning tore through the skies to the east, followed by a thunderclap that rattled the nearby windows. The storm was coming faster than Kari had anticipated, so she hastened her footsteps. The sun was past its high point, so the land was still bathed in its light while the black mass of clouds approached from the east. The wind hit Kari, though, carrying with it the scent of the salty ocean and heavy rain. She hoped she would end up watching the powerful display from the comfort of her covered front porch, letting Little
Gray enjoy the storm with her.
Any hope of that fled at the sight of Eryn approaching from her left. The half-brys assassin hardly seemed to pay any mind to the watchmen stationed nearby or on patrol, and instead simply drew up beside Kari and fell into step with her. Kari imagined that probably left a sour taste in the mouths of the watch, or else just completely confused them. As the head of a law enforcement agency, Kari was a little uncomfortable being seen speaking with Eryn in public, but if the half-brys woman approached in broad daylight, it had to be important.
“Looking for our werewolf tourist?” Eryn said in her deadpan tone.
Kari sighed. “Aye. I think it's someone I met during my work down in Barcon, but if it's who I think it is, I'm not sure why she's scaring the commoners, and hasn't just come to see me.”
“She's looking for someone or something,” Eryn said. She cast her glare at a couple of people watching from a nearby porch, and the commoners found something else to do. “I'm sure you've heard that she talks to herself sometimes, but I'm sure you've figured out that's not exactly true. She's talking to someone, probably through some arcane enchantment. Some of our people have caught bits and pieces of what she's saying, and it's usually about 'not finding it yet.'“
“Are your people trying to kill her?” Kari asked.
The half-brys assassin shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “Word's gotten around that you wanted her either caught or driven to the campus of your Order, and the Guildmaster seems content with that for now. She doesn't seem to be a threat to us or our network, so for now, the orders are to respect your wishes.”
