Preludes to War (Eve of Redemption Book 6)

by Joe Jackson

  Kari had the attention of virtually the entire village. “In Ewuaswi, you are to find Kings Emanitar and Morduri. Hand them this pendant and signet ring, and they will know I sent you. Tell them this: two of Sekassus’ princes lie dead on the field of battle, and Amnastru is about to walk into a trap. If the Spotted Lion has any intention of ever invading Sorelizar, now is the time to do so. Tell him that his champion awaits him in Gaeshokk, only do not refer to me by name. Understand?”

  “I understand, my lady. I shall tell them that two of King Sekassus’ princes lie dead, that Prince Amnastru is about to walk into a trap, and that if they wish to invade, now is the time, for their champion awaits them in Gaeshokk.”

  Kari nodded. “Go.”

  “Epaxa chi’pri,” the elestram runner said. She took an offered satchel of supplies from one of the mallasti of Haestronn, and then she ran off to the east with the long strides and almost endless stamina of the jackal-folk.

  “You…this was all King Emanitar’s doing?” the elder asked.

  “King Emanitar had nothing to do with any of this,” Kari assured them. “That, however, is something I think will change the minute he senses the weakness here in Sorelizar.”

  “What weakness?” the elder said, though his words were soft, mitigating the challenge in them somewhat. “Lady, you have done an incredible thing to stand up to and slay two of the princes, but that hardly signifies weakness.”

  Kari pointed at the wagon train. “Already three towns have risen up. No, it may not be much as far as numbers go, but the people are turning against Sekassus. For every prince that dies, the fear that has held our people in the king’s grip for so long slowly dries up. If I kill Prince Amnastru, and King Emanitar crosses that border with the intention of claiming the lands of our people, nothing will hold our people down any longer.”

  She pointed then at the syrinthians. “We will need to work to free our syrinthian brothers and sisters from his rule, but that will be a goal more easily accomplished once we have control of our own lands.”

  “Will the Spotted Lion come to aid you, though?” another of the elders asked.

  “If I kill Prince Amnastru, he will. He may even invade before Prince Amnastru is dead, but I cannot say for certain. It may depend on how much news they have received of other events here in Sorelizar. Do you know any more of what happened at Sekassus’ palace?”

  “I was there when the news reached Prince Amnastru,” an elestram woman chimed in. “It was reported that a false vulkinastra was brought before him. When she was put into the dungeons, she somehow concocted an explosive of some sort. When she was brought back before the king, she detonated it, killing herself and many of the king’s courtiers. No word was given on the king’s condition, but the palace itself was damaged, and the wards that protected it from attack and from any using arcane power within were shattered. Many of the princes were recalled to defend the palace against subsequent attacks.”

  Kari closed her eyes and blew out a sigh. Miessa had known she was risking her life to do as the Wraith requested, but losing her was still a blow, despite the fact that Kari didn’t know her at all. That the woman’s attack had gone off so perfectly was just another weight of proof that the time was right for Emanitar to strike. Kari simply hoped he was as courageous as Morduri had given him credit for; if he didn’t invade, satisfied only with Amnastru’s death, then much of Kari’s work was going to fall flat when she departed. It would be up to the Wraith to push further, but how far could he go without a replacement king to take the reins of the divided kingdom?

  “Amnastru will not return home, I’m sure of it,” Kari said. “All of you need to prepare yourselves for what is coming. Please, welcome your brothers and sisters from Haestronn into your homes where you have the means. When Amnastru comes, you may stand with me and fight, or stand down and let the dust settle. I will not hold either decision against you. All I ask is that when one of two things happens – either King Emanitar invades, or I stand victorious over the body of Prince Amnastru – you stand and fight. Fight for your homes, your families, your friends and neighbors. And, above all, fight for the goddess whose very name is now an offense. Keep her in your heart, and use that light to fuel your fury.”

  “Epaxa chi’pri!” Seanada cried, holding a clawed fist aloft.

  It started slowly, but other clawed, furry fists made their way into the air. The people of Haestronn began dropping to one knee around Kari, and soon the people of Gaeshokk followed suit. Their numbers were negligible in the grand scheme – Kari estimated they had roughly a fifth of the number under Kris Jir’tana during the Apocalypse – but it was the faith of these people that would spread like wildfire. This war would not be won with hands, but with hearts.

  And they saw Kari’s heart, disguised though it was, and they reacted it to it, crying out the Great Mother’s call.

  “Epaxa chi’pri!”

  *****

  Thankfully, no arguments were raised when Seanada asked for permission to sleep in Ilsara’s home along with Kari. At first, Kari suspected the assassin was going to break down and finally show emotion once she was safely hidden in her own home. That suspicion quickly fell away when Seanada invited a mallasti family from Haestronn to join them. It would be crowded, but Kari was satisfied with doubling up in a bed with Seanada to make more room for the guests.

  Dinner was a quiet, nearly somber affair. Though a quiet hymn was sung for Be’shatha, Kari could understand the words now, and it wasn’t as she expected. It was a song of hope and thanksgiving, but more a plea for the Great Mother to waken and come save her people. It was sung from despair, and Kari found she didn’t want to participate in it. If she started to sound desperate in her prayers, what example would that set for the others?

  The other mallasti all stared at Kari as they ate in silence. There was no mistaking the undertones of fear and helplessness that Kari’s enhanced mallasti senses could detect. She could smell and almost taste their anxiety. All about them was a town full of people and refugees that knew death was coming, and there was no confidence that Kari and Seanada would be enough to stop it. All told, there were a several hundred capable fighters here now, but Kari remembered a staggering idea: the kings were reputed to be strong enough to slaughter almost everyone in their realms. If that was even remotely true, and Amnastru was strong enough to be a king in his own right, how much of a chance did they stand?

  They may not stand a chance, Kari thought, but they don’t carry a part of the gods in them like I do.

  Kari glanced at Seanada, and the disguised assassin worked to show that stony façade in her mallasti form. She was afraid, too, but now that fear was mixing potently with anger. Kari was sure that with her mother and brother in danger, Seanada would become even more of a force to be reckoned with, willing to do and sacrifice anything to save her family. And in that moment, Kari thought of how Seanada viewed her, and more pointedly, her family: the assassin would likely do the same for Kari as for her mother and brother.

  “Are you truly planning to fight Prince Amnastru?” asked the mallasti matriarch.

  “We are,” Kari answered. “With as many as are willing to help. He may be stronger than any one of us, but he is not stronger than all of us. And he is not stronger than our goddess. Death is coming, my sister, but it is not coming to us. It is coming to him. Not to us.”

  “Whoever your parents are, they should be proud to have raised a woman of strength.”

  Kari was prepared to hear many things from the beshathan people, but that was not one of them. At first, she was shaken to the core, and from the looks on everyone else’s faces, they knew it. But the dark clouds parted, letting through that gentle light of the moon, and Kari thought of visiting her parents’ graves on her last trip to Terrassia. She had felt such release at forgiving her mother, and as she recalled the last time she’d seen the woman, a little more vivid detail came to the surface.

  Her mother hadn’t just been surprised and ha
ppy to see her; Kari had been armed and armored, wearing her dog tags out proudly for all to see. Her mother had not just seen a long-lost daughter, but a woman of strength and character: a demonhunter. How had Kari not seen it at the time? Because she was blinded by anger; she understood that now. But her mother had not just been happy to see her, but thankful, joyous, and proud to see what Kari had become.

  Kari looked up and managed a smile. “They are,” she said, not bothering to distinguish things for her unknowing guests. Still, she felt she owed them some explanation, if only to ease any guilt they felt at the effect of the matriarch’s words. “Though it is sometimes hard to think of them and not lose hope. I have seen far too many of my brothers and sisters slain by and for the will of these kings. I would rather die on my feet, a weapon in my hand and the name of our Great Mother on my lips, than to spend one more day a hostage to those like Sekassus.”

  “We would aid you, but…”

  Kari looked around at the young children. “You protect your family first. You–”

  “No. I will stand with you,” the patriarch of the family said. “Our children will be no safer if we hide in the shadows than if we stand against the prince.”

  Seanada nodded. “Exactly. Mastriana can do only so much with me by her side. She will need the strength of the people to give her the opportunity to fight the prince himself.”

  “I will go and speak to the elders of this township, and make my case before them,” the patriarch said. “We will rally what forces we may, that even should the prince bring a force of soldiers with him, we may open their lines up for our sister to strike at the heart.”

  This all hinges on killing Amnastru, Kari thought. If she could do that, it would show the people that the kings and their princes were not untouchable. It would cost a great deal of blood, but they could be overthrown or at least forced to change the way they treated their people, if they wanted to have any people to treat.

  A blow had been dealt to Sekassus – the explosion created by Miessa – and word of it was no doubt spreading throughout the realm. Things were at a tipping point, and it would take only one more push to achieve the result Kari was looking for. Granted, killing Amnastru was no small or easy task – it was herculean, in fact. But the possible involvement of Emanitar and even Morduri could sway things no matter what happened in battle with Amnastru. And if Kari could kill the crown prince, that might sway an otherwise hesitant King Emanitar to invade.

  “We will know more once the scouts return, and hopefully, our elestram sister makes it to Ewuaswi in a timely fashion,” Kari said.

  “Toukalla?” Seanada asked. “She is a long-distance messenger. She will reach Ewuaswi in a matter of hours, no doubt.”

  “So we could see help within days,” the demonhunter returned quietly, nodding. “All the better to make sure things go as I hope.”

  “If you would excuse us, it is time we saw our children off to bed,” the matriarch said.

  As much as Kari was getting used to the beshathans, she was still a tad unaccustomed to their family structures. She knew that mallasti typically produced single births, and that they only went into season once per century, according to Seanada. There were several children in this extended family, though, suggesting that some of the females were older than Kari thought. The fact that they had no mates with them pointed to having lost them, either to the war on Irrathmor, or to the more immediate effects of the trouble in Haestronn.

  “Wait not on our permissions; consider this your home while we all are guests here,” Seanada answered, and Kari was happy with that. It was, after all, Seanada’s home.

  Kari and Seanada got drinks and retired by the hearth, where they set a comforting fire. Mallasti fur kept them warm, and the temperature never dropped enough to worry about, but there was just something calming about a good fire. Kari sat nursing her drink while Seanada flipped through her book of mallasti folklore. If Kari wasn’t mistaken, Seanada had returned to her favorite story once again.

  The demonhunter considered the story of Aegonn, and how she was doing something similar. While her involvement was more direct and completely lacking in subtlety, she was aiding the Ashen Fangs across borders, stirring the kings to fight each other, and doing her part, however small in the grand scheme, to bring relief to the beshathan people. There were as many similarities as differences, and Kari wondered if Seanada might be considering the same thing.

  Once the sounds of the town had died off completely and their glasses sat empty beside them, the women retired upstairs. Every room was now occupied by the mallasti family, save for the master bedroom. Seanada and Kari dropped their things near the bed and closed the door behind them. They started to undress, and Kari grimaced and let out a grunt as she wriggled free of the heavy armor she wore.

  “I’m so tired,” she said, stretching out. “Almost feel like I’m pregnant again.”

  Seanada turned those intense eyes on her, a twinge of amusement curling her upper lip. “Are you certain you are not?”

  Kari flopped down onto the bed and folded her hands behind her head. She glanced over at Seanada, who was brushing out a patch of tangled fur using the room’s mirror. “Well, a lot of strange things have happened to me in the last few years, but as far as I know, I still have to mate to have children. And that…well, that hasn’t happened in over a year now.”

  “Ah,” Seanada said, turning back to the mirror.

  Kari snorted. “What, you thought maybe I’d slept with Kris?”

  “I would not be surprised if you had,” she replied, and Kari waited to see what else she would say when her friend put down the brush and turned toward her fully. “There is something there between you two. I could see it from the moment you first saw him up on the ship’s deck. The way you looked at each other, the way he touched you so tenderly and yet unobtrusively when he learned of your husband’s passing…there is a deep love there. Just perhaps buried too deeply for either of you to properly cultivate just yet.”

  “He was my commander during the War,” Kari explained with a nod. “We were very close, but I kept him at arm’s length. Our brigade had rules about fraternizing, and I didn’t think it was fair for us to ignore them while holding our people to them. I was also going through a lot. I was confused, learning this new time and place, so far removed from where I was and what the world was like when I died.”

  “I understand,” Seanada said. “You are also not one for casual relations, I suspect for similar reasons to my own. You have several brothers-in-law who lust after you to some degree or other, and yet I have never gotten the impression you were tempted in any way.”

  “Because I haven’t been,” Kari confirmed. “They’re handsome, intelligent, protective men, but none of them are my Grakin. Not even Aeligos.” Something dark flashed in Seanada’s eyes. “What? What is it?”

  “I do not trust that one,” she said. “There is something not right about him. He wears a mask I am not certain anyone has seen beneath. Even his mate seems oblivious to – or perhaps simply content with – whatever lies beneath that mask. When he returned with you to the inn when we were in Flora, I thought he had hurt you to try to weaken your resolve, to make you more sexually vulnerable. But he is a manipulator; it is possible that is simply what he wants me to see in him. It is hard to know whether I can trust him, so I err on the side of caution.”

  “He’s a good man. You’d probably find the two of you have a lot in common,” Kari said. “I would’ve thought you would talk to him when you roomed together in Flora, but if I remember right, Aeligos said you were rather quiet.”

  “I am willing to speak with you of private things because you reciprocate. Aeligos is quite adept at taking and yet giving back little, even when it seems a conversation is two-sided. I suspected that should I speak with him at length, the Ashen Fangs would have few secrets left, but I would still know little about him.”

  Kari chuckled. “Well, you’re probably right about that.”

>   “So what are our plans for tomorrow?”

  Kari sighed. “Wait for reports from the scouts. Help the people prepare for what’s to come. And pray that our messenger to Ewuaswi comes back with good news.” She glanced at Senada and saw that answer didn’t really satisfy the half-syrinthian. “We’re going to kill Prince Amnastru, Seanada. And then we’re going to save your family. I promise you. But we have to take things one step at a time; tomorrow we have to concentrate on preparations.”

  “Tomorrow, yes. What of this evening?” Seanada asked, and Kari sat up. “I know I would feel much more relaxed if my master were to come and update us on the far-reaching effects of your words and your actions. I am confident in our plans to confront Prince Amnastru, but I cannot help but wonder if a broader trouble is arising around us.”

  “I’d advise you to assume silence from him means we’re doing the right things, and his plan is unfolding as he hoped, if not expected.”

  The assassin sighed. “I suppose. To hear of Miessa’s death, though…I wonder if we are actually but a ruse, a feint while my master struck more directly and forcefully at King Sekassus. It would otherwise seem a waste to bring down the king’s defenses, only to kill his crown prince at the other end of his realm.”

  “Maybe he is, and by killing Amnastru, we prevent anyone from taking the throne if, by some grace from the Great Mother, the Wraith or someone else manages to kill Sekassus. We have our part to play, and it’s an important one. Try not to fret too much on whether we’re the biggest or most important part. Assume we are, and let’s do our job.”

  Seanada shook her head. “When did you become such a speaker? You have always had the benefit of being forthright and honest, and that has ever magnified your words, but since you took this form…you have become something else entirely. But then, I suppose it started even before this, if you rallied the people you called the Red Mask to your aid, and convinced King Emanitar to take an interest in your work here. I think…I am beginning to understand why it is they call you Salvation’s Dawn.”