by Joe Jackson
“You haven’t been invited there for companionship, Kari,” he said, only a slight hint of chiding in his tone. “She will undoubtedly poke and prod you where she can, but remember that you’ve been invited there. Don’t be afraid to refuse to answer more pointed questions, whether they’re about you or Citaria. Just be polite about it. Remember always that she is a king: treat her with the deference due the noble station, but don’t feel beholden to her. She’s not your king. You are her guest.”
Kari nodded. “That makes me feel a lot better.”
“And me as well,” Lord Allerius said.
“Don’t let your guard down, though,” Celigus warned. “Remember, you’re going to see a demon king.”
“I’m seeing a demon king right now,” Kari shot back with a crooked smile.
He snorted and blinked slowly. “I’m a whelp compared to her, Kari. What you’re about to deal with is like nothing you’ve dealt with before. Morduri and I – even Sekassus – are of very little threat to a being like Koursturaux. And, as I’ve already told you, don’t make the mistake of treating Koursturaux the way I or Morduri have allowed you to.”
“How much do you know about my meeting with Morduri?”
Celigus waved a hand and rose to his feet. “I know what the bugger is like. What he lacks in confidence, and what we both lack in years, Koursturaux has in abundance.”
Kari stood. “Thank you for coming, and for the advice,” she said, offering her hand for the demon king to shake. He shook with her, and with Lord Allerius, and he seemed to have taken a new view of Master Arinotte with the priest’s unobtrusive presence. He and the priest shook. “Give our regards to Kaelariel.”
Celigus nodded. “I will. And if you would, tell my daughter to come see her father some time, will you?”
“Will do,” Kari agreed, and the demon king left her office. Kari looked at the faces of the two men left with her, and though they were both still concerned with Kari’s plan, she wasn’t the only one relieved by the demon king’s words. Master Arinotte seemed the more worried of the two, which was saying a lot when Kari considered Lord Allerius looked out for her like a sister.
The priest rose and held his hand out to Kari, but not for a shake. She offered her hand to him, confused at first, but she understood when Allerius took her other hand, and then he and Master Arinotte also joined hands. Kari closed her eyes and dipped her snout toward her desk, and felt a warmth course through her as the priest began a prayer to Zalkar for Kari’s safety. In the wave of emotions and thoughts that evoked, Kari felt one in particular: the knowledge that she was one of Zalkar’s chosen, and that Koursturaux had to be taking that into consideration.
There was still the matter of passing along what she’d just heard to her family, but by contrast, that seemed an easy thing to do now.
*****
Eliza arrived on the specified day to take Kari to Mehr’Durillia, either too busy to come sooner or simply wary of spending too much time among Kari and her Order. Beautiful as ever, the half-succubus was showing the beginnings of a tan, which seemed strange when Kari thought of her usually milk-white skin. Then again, Kari was pretty sure Eliza lived on the northern half of the world, where summer would soon be settling in.
She’d arranged for Eliza to meet her in her office. The last thing Kari wanted was a long, drawn-out farewell or an onslaught of questions and concerns right before she left. Instructions had been left with everyone regarding what to do in her absence, and what to do should she fail to return within the allotted time. Kari had laid out contingencies, but she was hardly nervous at all when Eliza came to transport her to Mehr’Durillia. Everything she’d been told pointed to this being a fairly pleasant business trip, and it was going to let Kari take care of something she’d wanted to for several months as well.
The “customs house” in Anthraxis was still cool, shaded from that angry red sun that beat down upon the rest of the realm. Anthraxis was hazy, hot, and arid, never touched by rainfall or even shaded by an overcast sky according to what Kari had learned. It was a place of discomfort and tension, broken up only if one was lucky enough to be afforded guest quarters in the palace of the Overking. Kari recalled the baths and the luxurious bedrooms there, and now that she thought about it, the interior had often been much more comfortable in terms of temperature than the rest of the city.
No sooner had Kari gotten her wits back about her from the odd sensation of crossing worlds – which felt rather like being shoved through a tunnel of warm water – than she and Eliza were approached by a harmauth. Kari had seen the ram demons – people, she reminded herself – a few times on her previous visit, but only when she and her friends were questioned by a roving patrol had she been this close. The harmauths stood nearly ten feet in height when their legs were completely stretched, but they typically hunched, which still left them around eight feet tall. Muscular and broad, even this female was an impressive specimen in terms of raw strength, and though she wore nothing and carried no weapons, she had a commanding presence.
Kari was shocked when the corners of the ram’s mouth curled upward. “Lady Eliza, it has been some time,” she said cordially in infernal.
“Durisha! I didn’t expect Her Majesty would send you personally to escort Kari,” the half-succubus replied. She bowed her head politely, and the harmauth made a gesture with her hands that seemed to be a warm greeting. Eliza turned back to Kari. “Now you really have nothing to worry about. Durisha is one of King Koursturaux’ personal bodyguards; you’re going to be about as safe as one can be.”
“Good morning, Durisha,” Kari said politely with a gracious nod.
“Greetings, Lady Vanador,” the harmauth returned, glancing at the child in Kari’s arms. “Her Majesty’s coach awaits at the northern gate. If you will but follow me, we will get your journey underway immediately.” Kari glanced at the elestram seated behind the counter, but the harmauth waved off what she was thinking. “Your presence and destination have already been confirmed; you need not speak with them.”
Kari turned to Eliza. “Thank you for bringing me,” she said, and didn’t hesitate when the half-succubus offered a hug, only being careful not to disturb Uldriana too much.
“I’ll see you in about two weeks. Enjoy yourself, but don’t give away all your secrets,” Eliza returned playfully. Kari was surprised, and turned to look at the harmauth. “Ah, don’t worry, Durisha is the sweet one.”
That made the harmauth smile again, and after offering to take Kari’s bag, she gestured the demonhunter toward the exit. Stepping out into that stifling air, Kari turned her head only briefly as she heard the pop of Eliza’s egress. The half-succubus apparently had no reason or desire to stay in Anthraxis, and Kari couldn’t blame her. She was simply thankful Eliza had taken the time to deliver her safely, even if it was to the realm of her enemies. Kari turned left and headed northward along the road between the trade and military districts.
“We need to make one stop along the way, before we go to Mas’tolinor,” Kari said.
The harmauth regarded her skeptically. “I am under orders to deliver you safely to Maurinoth, and Her Majesty mentioned no stops.”
“I need to visit a village on the edge of Pataria,” the demonhunter insisted. “It shouldn’t take very long, and we’ll be on our way to your king’s home as soon as I’m done.”
“I am under orders–”
“I’m changing them,” Kari cut her off. “If your coach and its animals are as fast as I’ve been told, then it will only delay us a few hours. I’ll take full responsibility for the delay if it annoys your king, but if you won’t take me there, then I’m going home, and then you can explain that to your king.”
Durisha stared at Kari and folded her muscular arms across that broad chest. There was a hint of malice in those red eyes, but Kari could easily see the intelligence in them as well. It was obvious that the harmauth knew she was cornered, but that wasn’t stopping her from trying to grind Kari a bit. At la
st, Durisha continued walking and gestured for Kari to follow. “So be it. You are lucky I am the sweet one, as Lady Eliza puts it. My sister would have bashed you over the head and dragged you to Mas’tolinor by the tail.”
Kari considered a retort, but went with a more casual one. “You have a sister?”
“A twin sister, yes. Surisha.”
“Are twins common among your people?”
Durisha glanced at Kari with interest, but turned back toward the road without saying anything at first. After a few moments, she responded, “Twins are rare; females even more so. Twin females are nearly unheard of, hence our great value to Her Majesty.”
“Because she keeps no males on her staff, right?” Uldriana fussed with the conversation, more than likely because of the baritone vibrations of the harmauth’s voice. Kari shuffled and resettled her, and the baby went back to sleep.
“Correct. When Her Majesty was presented with the opportunity to buy twin females, she paid a great sum to acquire us as babes.”
“Paid to acquire you?” Kari echoed, but the harmauth answered only with a nod, and the demonhunter suspected further inquiries might ruin the pleasant mood. Instead, she went quiet and followed the harmauth the rest of the way to the northern gate.
The gateway stood open, the arid, crimson-bathed wasteland of the Overking’s holding stretching out to the horizon. Kari knew there were beautiful realms just a day or so to the north, but this barren badland was still disheartening to look at. She stirred from her thoughts when the two erestram guards at the gate said something to Durisha. Kari turned to take in the conversation, but they were speaking beshathan, and Kari hadn’t even started learning that new language yet.
Durisha’s response, complete with stretching out to her full ten-foot height, striking an elegant pose, and giving a quick lash of her tuft-ended tail, set the two erestram to laughing. Kari found it an odd interaction, but Durisha smiled again and gestured Kari over to a beautiful coach waiting just a few dozen paces from the gate.
“What was that about?” she asked her escort.
Durisha let out a snort. “The erestram are more prudish on matters of nudity, so they like to jest about our people. It is a common bit of humor between our peoples.”
Kari chuckled. “It was the same way with our people and humans for a long time. It still is, in some places.”
She turned to the coach, and was immediately impressed. It was like any of the fancier stagecoaches back home, but much larger to accommodate its tall owner. Four massive beasts were hitched to the front, appearing somewhat like horses but with narrow, bovine-like horns. They had muscular ridges on their shoulders, akin to the hump on a hyena, and their hindquarters were thick with strength. Their tails, tapered but then hairy from halfway down to the end, were almost like a cross between bovine and equine. The beasts themselves were a mottled brown in color, with black hooves and tan horns.
Kari didn’t think they looked like speedy, long-distance runners, but she admittedly knew nothing about them, so she pushed the thoughts aside. Durisha stepped forward and opened the door, and Kari paused only to take in a typical, salt-and-pepper-colored erestram guard that came around the rear of the vehicle. The giant wolfman bowed his head respectfully to her, and Kari mirrored the gesture before climbing into the coach.
The interior was impressive. A large, comfortable, padded seat took up half of the rear side, its other half composed of cabinets with an eating surface on top. Across from this was a wider bench seat, which appeared suitable to being slept upon. The floor was carpeted with a fur rug from corner to corner, the seats were likewise upholstered with soft, short-haired pelts, and from the ceiling hung several lamps that looked like lanterns but lacked any sort of way to light them. They had a little turning knob like a lantern, and Kari wondered if these were arcane in nature, or some amazing craft of the elestram.
Durisha came up into the coach behind Kari and crouched beside the demonhunter. She put Kari’s bag on the floor near what was obviously Koursturaux’ seat, and gestured for Kari to sit down. “Despite the comforts and the speed of the beasts, you will likely need to move around when you can to relieve boredom and cramping. Tug the cord above the seat here if you need to stop and see to your other needs. If you are satisfied, we will make our way to the border of Pataria now.”
“By all means,” Kari said with a grateful nod. She got comfortable in the king’s deep, wide seat, and nestled Uldriana comfortably in her lap. The baby woke up and peeped, so Kari settled her down to nurse and waited for the coach to get underway.
Durisha and the erestram called back and forth to each other a few times, and soon there was a lurch as the coach began to move. Kari swept aside the curtains from the window beside her and saw that the erestram was jogging easily beside the vehicle. She suspected Durisha was either driving or sitting up with the driver, as the harmauths didn’t have the speed or stamina of the wolf-folk. The coach turned north as Kari had instructed, and the crimson-hued, dead wastes of Anthraxis’ surrounding land began to roll by at surprising speed.
Despite the bumps and jolts of the road, Kari found the trip quite comfortable in the king’s seat. She felt a little out of place sitting in the monarch’s chair, but it was what she’d been instructed to do. She found the cabinets filled with various long-lasting foodstuffs and several jugs of clean, if warm, water. All of Kari’s most basic needs were accounted for, from food and drink to blankets and towels, enough of which were present for Kari to build Uldriana a little nest to sleep in beside her.
The coach rolled on into the afternoon, and eventually came to a stop near the stream that marked the southern border of Pataria. Kari exited the vehicle and finally noticed the elestram driver. He bowed his head respectfully when their eyes met, but he offered no words. Dressed casually for the dusty journey, he was still an obvious professional, even armed with a dueling rapier and long dirk should he need to defend his passenger.
“I’ll be back shortly,” Kari said, and Durisha nodded. The harmauth leaned against the side of the coach and folded her arms across her chest, watching Kari cross the stream and start to ascend the hill.
The climb was slow going with Uldriana in her arms and the bag over her shoulder, but Kari trudged on quite soldier-like. The crimson haze had disappeared as soon as she crossed the border, replaced by clean air, blue skies, and strong, beautiful sunshine. Kari only made it about a quarter of the way up before a pair of mallasti guards appeared on the crest of the hill. They called down to her in beshathan, and though Kari couldn’t understand the words, she had little doubt what the inquiry was. Taking her time to articulate properly, she identified herself in infernal, and the two guards looked at each other, apparently having a quiet discussion. She was waved up, and continued the ascent.
When she reached the top, the mallasti guards regarded her with those impassive gazes. These weren’t the same ones as Kari’s first trip here – so far as she could tell, anyway. One of them spat before asking, in infernal, “Are you here by order of the king again?”
“No, I came to visit one of your people, just for a short time,” she answered.
The two looked pointedly at Kari’s weapons, but the bag over her shoulder and the baby in her arms seemed to override any concerns there. “You remember the elder’s tent?” the one asked, and Kari nodded. “Go directly there. He will judge the merits of your visit.”
Kari agreed and paced down the backside of the hill, past the totem poles and into the village proper. It must have been mealtime; the youths were not playing football on the grassy field to the east, and the population was mostly out of sight, probably within their tents. Kari bowed her head politely in response to the few gazes she received from the hyena-folk around the village, and soon found herself before the elder’s tent. She had to wait only moments before the shuffling, aging gait of the mallasti leader brought him out to her.
“You,” he said in the Citarian trade language. “What brings you here?”
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br /> “Greetings, elder,” she returned in infernal. “I know your people do not like this tongue, but now I can at least speak in a language we will all understand. I came to pay my respects to the memory of the young girl who died under my care. If it is not too much of an imposition, I would like to meet with her family.”
The elder didn’t need to say anything. The mallasti woman had already approached from her family’s home, her mate just a pace behind her. As she beheld Kari, she tried to hold up that impassive gaze, but it was difficult to keep the anger and the hurt from her eyes. She may have forgiven Kari’s part in the death of her daughter, but that death still weighed heavily on her heart. Kari wasn’t sure that was a weight that she would ever find reprieve from.
“Why have you returned?” she managed in infernal, without even bothering to spit. Was it because she remembered spitting on Kari the first time, and was afraid of causing offense?
“I am Karian Vanador; I think you already know that. But I have never learned your names,” the demonhunter prompted.
“Cestriana. I am called Cestriana,” the woman answered, then she gestured to the male behind her. “My mate is Amalikor.”
“Cestriana, Amalikor,” Kari greeted the two of them with short bows of her head before holding up her daughter toward them. “This is my daughter, Uldriana.”
The woman’s eyes went wide, her hand coming up to the end of her snout, and Amalikor came forward to lay a hand comfortingly on his mate’s shoulder. “What is this?” Cestriana managed to whisper.
“She is named for the bravest, and possibly the most noble young woman I have ever met,” Kari answered. “Would you like to hold her?”
The mallasti hesitated, but then she held her hands out and took Uldriana from Kari. The baby seemed infatuated with this new face, smiling and cooing while the hyena-folk gathered around her. The village still seemed empty, and Kari wondered if the others were simply keeping their distance, or if maybe they thought Kari’s presence was an ill omen. Tears rolled from Cestriana’s eyes, but there was the warmth of healing in them, and the open wound of having lost a daughter was being cauterized, if only a little, by the moment.
