by Joe Jackson
“That's him,” came the low voice of Eliza as she drew up beside Kari. The others were all watching the elestram king with interest as well, but Kari turned to face the half-succubus squarely. “I've already let the Overking's servants know that he has requested a meeting with you, so when he makes it known that he is available to the public, you should be contacted with all due haste.”
Kari glanced back down at the elestram king, in his own little world while he worked at whatever he was doing, with the entire lower level to himself. “I don't suppose we could go down and just speak to him now?” she asked, expecting the obvious answer.
“Ah, no,” Eliza said. “No one but the kings or summoned servants may set foot upon the floor of their meeting hall. Violations carry an instant and irrevocable death sentence. As far as I have heard, only one person has ever set foot upon that floor without permission and survived, and he was a member of your Order.”
“Turik Jalar,” Kari muttered, but she thought better of asking more when surrounded by so many large, sensitive, canine-like ears. “What's Lord Morduri drawing? Is he an artist?”
“Oh yes, and a fantastic one at that. Largely considered one of the best on Mehr'Durillia, though great artistry seems to come naturally to the elestram. Come, let me show you,” Eliza said, and she gestured for Kari and her companions to follow. The half-succubus led them to one of the spiral staircases leading up, but before she started to ascend, she turned back to them. “I suppose I should give you a brief description of the layout of the tower, so you can avoid any mishaps. The lower level, as you saw, is the Royal Meeting Hall. The entry level here is for servants and retainers to keep watch over the sessions, and for the ushers to meet and guide visitors to the appropriate destinations. The second floor is the library, where we're headed now. The third floor is the Royal Throne Room; you only go there by summons from the Overking himself, so if you're lucky, you won't see it. The fourth floor, I am told, is the harem. The fifth through ninth floors are guest quarters for those here by the Overking's invitation. The tenth through thirty-ninth floors are reserved for the kings, though many of them have been empty for centuries. And the top floor, naturally, belongs to the Overking himself.”
Forty floors? Kari thought, but she kept her feelings silent and instead followed Eliza up to the library. The piano playing was louder here, but Kari couldn't see where it was coming from with all of the bookshelves set at intervals throughout the cavernous room. The entire outer wall was free of shelves to allow sunlight to stream through the enchanted black glass, and the intervening shelves were set up such that sunlight managed to find its way to most of the room. What areas could not be illuminated this way instead had chandeliers alight by means of magic, rather than standard lighting. Seated in deep, high-armed, and soft-looking chairs around the room were elestram and mallasti perusing the library's many works, which all appeared to be written in infernal.
Eliza led Kari and her companions to the back wall, opposite the side of the tower where the front doors were. Stretched across the wall there, backlit perfectly by the translucent walls letting the sun through, were numerous pencil drawings of incredible beauty. Some of them appeared to be of elestram or mallasti, but Kari's eyes – along with the rest of her friends' – were drawn to the center, to a painstakingly detailed drawing of a horned woman. Morduri seemed to capture every nuance of the woman's expression, from the barely-noticeable dimples to the soft folds of her lips; from the high cheekbones to the slender, delicate nose; from the intricate earrings that hung from pointed lobes to the thin eyebrows that arched gracefully over pools of solid black. The woman was gorgeous, and yet under that beauty was the quiet confidence of great power, and Kari knew instinctively who she was looking at.
“That's her,” Eli answered in confirmation of Kari's thoughts. “King Koursturaux.”
“Lady Koursturaux, or Lady S'Bakthra,” Eliza corrected quietly. “But only while in this city. Remember that.”
“Lord Morduri drew this?” Kari asked, stunned that something so beautiful was crafted by a demon.
“Oh yes,” the half-succubus answered. “He presented it to her as a gift, but she opted to have it displayed here for all to see.”
“Who are all these others? Anyone in particular?”
“I'm not certain about most of them,” Eliza said, “though that one there is Emmalikas. She is often called to stand beside the Overking during meetings, and I believe Lord Morduri finds her a pleasant break from drawing his peers on the Council.”
Kari chuckled. “I see there's no drawings of your father.”
Eliza made a face, then gave a light shrug. “My father and Lord Morduri do not get on well. Father thinks Lord Irrasitus is a little queer.”
There was a brief silence. “Queer like strange, or as in he likes other men?” Eli prodded.
“Both,” the half-succubus answered. “I can't speak to either, myself. Many of the other kings think Lord Morduri is a little strange, too. Mostly it is the fact that he ascended his father's throne but still chooses to wander rather than actively sit as king, and because he has no mate, kast'wa, or harem of his own.”
“That hardly proves anything,” Aeligos said quietly, which drew nods of agreement from Eliza, Sonja, and Danilynn.
“Considering how many unmated brothers I have, there must be more to it,” Eliza agreed.
“Where is your father?” Kari asked.
Eliza gave that slight shrug again. “Most likely up in his chambers, preparing for the dinner feast and the later evening's activities. If things go as they usually do, a brilliant game of chess between my father and Lady Koursturaux will follow the dinner hour, and you'll be hard-pressed to get close enough to the railing to watch.”
“Now, all that being said, this library is open to any and all, so feel free to begin your research here while you wait for your meeting with Lord Morduri. All of the tomes are in the infernal script, but there's several thousand years of history here for your perusal, and you'd do well to take in as much of it as you can. Those of you who can't read the infernal script are more than welcome to come with me, and I'll give you a tour of the city.”
Kari glanced at Sonja and Danilynn, who both silently agreed to begin the studying, but when Kari's gaze swept over Aeligos, he was perturbed. “Do you know the infernal language at all?” she asked him.
Aeligos shook his head. “No, but if I help my sister and Danilynn, I can probably pick up on a lot of it fairly quickly. I just don't want to slow them down by pestering them for a quick study on a language. What do you two think?”
Danilynn beheld Aeligos skeptically. “Do you really think you can pick up enough of it in a few days to let you read any of these books on your own?”
“He'll be reading them himself by the end of the night if we help him,” Sonja commented with a proud little smile. “Kari, you and Eli go take in some of the city; you can tell us all about it over dinner back at the inn. We'll see if we can locate any relevant tomes and get a feel for how the library is laid out.”
Eliza looked around and pointed down one of the aisles. “The incubi here are ushers and servants of the Overking; if you need any help, don't hesitate to ask them. Outside of this place, even I wouldn't trust them, but the ones here are under command of the Overking, and will help you if you ask.”
With everyone agreed upon their roles, Kari and Eli followed Eliza downstairs and out of the tower. The day was passing quickly, the velocity of sands accelerated by the fact that the time here in Anthraxis was several hours ahead of where Kari and her friends had come from. The sun was dipping toward the horizon, and Kari imagined Eliza wouldn't have much time to show them around the city before darkness fell. Kari saw nothing along the streets resembling lamps, and she wondered how dark a city of black glass could get at night. She decided to keep her questions quiet for now, all the better to seem less like a tourist to those demons that were still out and about on the roads.
Eliza headed toward
the northeast of the city, opposite the Mortal Quarter, and it was almost as if she'd read Kari's mind when she said, “Curfew is one hour after sundown. I'll be able to show you a couple of things here in the Trade Quarter before we have to get off the streets. The Trade Quarter is the only other area you'll probably be interested in looking around outside the Mortal Quarter; the other two are the housing and military districts, and as an outsider, you would be watched very closely if you walked the streets of either.”
The half-succubus went quiet again as she led Kari and Eli along, so Kari took in as much of her surroundings as she could. High obsidian buildings lined the streets on both sides once they passed out of the palatial plaza and into the Trade Quarter proper, and a few of them looked like hotels to Kari's discerning eye. She found it likely the city saw hundreds or thousands of demons that came to attend to the Council sessions, either as retainers and servants of the kings or else curious spectators, and the hotels likely saw a lot of business then. She remembered the hostess at the inn mentioning a trade season, and figured the hotels probably saw a great influx of guests then as well. It all made sense, but it still struck Kari as odd when she considered that she was on a world of demons acting somewhat like mortals.
They passed some taverns and eateries, which Kari also found fascinating in a city full of demons, though again, she had to admit to herself that it made sense. She had to ask herself what she really expected Mehr'Durillia to be like; the demons had to eat, they mated and bred like any mortal race, and their needs and desires had to be met by services much the way they would be back home on Citaria. It ultimately came down to her perceptions, and Kari bounced the word demon around her mind for a few minutes. For as long as their people had existed, the rir had long considered the serilis-rir to be demons, and yet they weren't. Despite this, the serilis-rir were so unlike the rest of the rir, the humans, or any of the other mortal races that they were, whether demon or not, just completely different in most regards. Yet here were demons on their own world acting more like mortals than the serilis-rir. It was baffling to Kari.
With the sun beginning to touch the false horizon of the city's circular outside wall, they at last reached what Eliza had been headed for. At first it appeared to be a theatre stage, a long, raised wooden platform with a high-roofed, single-story building connected to it. When Kari's eyes fell across the poles set into the stage at intervals, each with chains and manacles hanging from it, she began to see it for what it really was. The wide open area before the stage saw a lot of traffic based on the dusty footprints and tracks near it, which were about the only dirt or grime Kari had encountered yet within the city.
“As you may have already deduced, this is the slave market,” Eliza said with a gesture toward the stage. “I thought you should see it for two reasons: firstly, you should let your Order know that if it plans to keep anyone in Anthraxis on a permanent basis at some point, this is where they might find people from Citaria – or perhaps other worlds, even – who go missing in the wake of an incursion. And secondly, if you break the law while you are in the Overking's city – with the exception of the capital crime of stepping on the Royal Meeting Hall floor, that is – this is where you are likely to end up. Believe me, you'd be better off getting thirty-nine lashes or something similar back home than being sold to one of the kings or nobles.”
“No doubt about that,” Kari said, and she turned to Eli. “You and Aeligos had better behave yourselves if we have to leave you in the city.”
Eli grunted. “Well, let's just hope that's not the case.”
“You said Amastri gave you a sack of marks?” Eliza asked, and Kari nodded. “Good, then I won't bother taking you to the Exchanges and Taxation House. I can show you more of the city tomorrow, if you like, while your friends are gathering information in the library. For now, we'd best head back so you are safely in the Mortal Quarter by curfew.”
Kari and Eli agreed and followed the half-succubus back to the tower, where they met with Aeligos, Sonja, and Danilynn. The companions made their way back to Hope's End, and left Eliza at the palace, presumably to be quartered there. Once they were back at the homey little inn, the companions accepted the hostess' offer of food and drinks at last. The fare was unlike anything Kari had ever eaten, with some strange meats that had the consistency of beef and yet tasted like seafood. The vegetables were odd, but sampling them let Kari divide them up by tastes she already knew like broccoli, spinach, parsnips, and even squiggly little tubers that, oddly enough, tasted like cucumbers. The drinks, by comparison, were just like what Kari would expect back home, and she indulged in a glass of wine rather than test the limits of the liquor stock in this strange place.
“How's the research going? I know you didn't have very much time,” Kari said. Aeligos responded in what was obviously infernal, and Kari's jaw dropped a little. “Don't tell me you can speak and read it already?”
The rogue chuckled. “No, but I know the alphabet now, and Danilynn showed me how you conjugate verbs by changing their position in the sentence, and not by changing the words themselves. Seems like a pretty fascinating language, so far.”
“Conju-what?”
“When you change verbs, like run becomes ran or running,” Aeligos pointed out politely.
“Oh,” Kari said, and she laughed at herself. “I didn't know there was a word for that.”
The others laughed with her. “I can tell he's going to be a big help,” Danilynn said. “He can already go through titles and find us promising selections, and he's picking up words and phrases faster than anyone I've ever met.”
“If Sonja will forgive me saying so, he's the smartest person I know,” Kari said.
Sonja grunted a laugh and shook her head. “No apology needed there; it's true.”
Aeligos blushed but didn't argue. “What exactly do you want us to focus on, Kari? I was thinking atlases and maps to get an idea of the lay of the land, and then maybe some history so we can get an idea of how the kings all view each other politically.”
Kari nodded. “That's exactly what we need,” she said. “If you can copy it, great, but we need to get a lot of this information back to the Order. Eli and I will find out as much about the city as we can by looking around with Eliza, so if I decide to station a few hunters here, they'll know how the city is laid out and operates before they get here. Oh, Danilynn, I meant to ask why you pointed at the sign on this inn earlier?”
“Just pointing out that one of the languages on it is syrinthian, but I figured you'd know that once you saw the syrinthians that were here. Just to be safe, we should be cautious what we say around them. They may be mortal, but we have no idea if they're loyal to Sekassus, or whether they live here or somewhere else. The same holds true even for the humans and the kwarrasti we saw here earlier.”
“Agreed,” Kari said. “Well, anyway, we're probably going to have a long day of reading and exploring ahead of us tomorrow, so let's pretend Erik is here to yell at all of us, and go get a good night's sleep.”
Again there was laughter, but everyone did as ordered.
Chapter VIII – The Reluctant Prince
Kari was awakened by a knock at the door of her bedroom the next morning, and she found she was groggy. As someone who usually got up around dawn, she found it weird to feel so tired unless it was still very early, which she couldn't tell for the lack of windows. Sonja and Danilynn had also perked up at the knock, and Kari got up and moved to answer the door. She took one of her scimitars in hand before she opened the door, and hid it behind her back, all the better to have a blade close at hand should it be trouble knocking.
Qin Lixiao was standing outside the door, and she bowed her head politely at the sight of Kari's bleary-eyed gaze. “I apologize for waking you, but a messenger has brought word that you are expected at the palace.”
“Is it dawn yet?” Kari asked around a yawn.
“Yes, my lady, the sun is just now rising.”
Kari surmised it was the change
in the hours that weighed upon her. She acknowledged the message and closed the door to get dressed to head to the Overking's tower. Her roommates quickly got ready along with her, both as discombobulated by the time difference as Kari was. Kari washed her face in the provided basin, and then rinsed out her mouth before she belted on her swords. Once Sonja and Danilynn were likewise ready, they left their room and joined Eli and Aeligos, who had apparently overheard the message and gotten dressed quickly themselves.
Without pausing for breakfast or even a drink, Kari and her friends headed to the tower of the Overking. The entry level was almost completely deserted but for a few of the handsome, elf-like incubi who were positioned around to assist visitors. Kari started to head toward the nearest incubus to ask where she was supposed to go, but she froze in her tracks at the approach of a mallasti female.
Emma looked larger than Kari remembered her, no longer the humble-looking mallasti in the worn and slightly-tattered gray robe. She was only slightly taller than Kari, a tad over six feet, but she was stocky and thick, as seemed to be common among her people. Her eyes, the glowing orange orbs that held so much intelligence and yet the slightest traces of coldness, flicked ever so briefly over Kari's companions before settling back on the demonhunter. She wore a beautiful garment not unlike the one Eliza wore, an intricate robe webbed with colors of red, white, and black. The way she moved suggested that if anything remained of the wound Turillia had dealt her just weeks before, it was nearly completely healed. The mallasti female came to a stop before Kari and folded her hands in front of herself.
