The Huntresses' Game

by Joe Jackson

  “Kari is fine,” she said, waving off the clumsy honorific. “And it depends on the game.”

  “I will give you five-to-two odds that the Crimson Starlets can manage at least a draw against the Rulaj Reds,” he offered.

  That sounded like good odds, but Kari smirked inside. He was obviously baiting her into making a bet she was highly unlikely to win. “I’ll pass,” she said, the faintest trace of a chuckle in her voice.

  She left the inn with Farris beside her, and Durisha approached. “Leaving so soon?” the harmauth asked, and her gaze fell on the elestram. “He did not trick you into gambling on the coming match, did he? Farris…”

  “She turned down the wager,” he replied with a grin.

  “You are wise to not gamble with elestram,” Durisha grumbled, her stare lingering on the jackal-man. “If you cannot calculate odds as quickly as they can, you are sure to be swindled.”

  “Swindled?” he protested.

  The harmauth folded her arms across her chest and straightened out to that imposing ten-foot height. “Farris, Her Majesty would not be appreciative of you swindling her guest and leaving a poor impression on her first stay in Mas’tolinor.”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” he agreed. “I was only jesting.”

  “I was going to watch the youngsters and then the match,” Kari said. “Are you supposed to stay with me until tomorrow?”

  Durisha looked up toward the palace before meeting Kari’s gaze again. “I thought Her Majesty would expect me back immediately, but she never said as much. I suppose I can remain with you and escort you to the palace come the morning. That will free Farris and Illegiu to go and do as they please.”

  “Oh, so you do have a name,” Kari said to the erestram. He smiled, but remained silent.

  “Hmm, I suppose I should go see my wife before I watch the match…,” Farris mused.

  “I’ll give you five-to-two odds that you live longer if you do,” Kari muttered. She was fixed with three stares for only a moment before her escorts began laughing. So, humor is sort of the same everywhere, she thought. It was still strange, even with all she had learned about the beshathan people, to think of the elestram having a wife, much less a sense of humor about it, but there it was. She considered this entire visit might not be so unpleasant if the demon king had even a fraction of the personality her subjects did.

  The erestram and elestram made their way into different parts of the city, and Kari and Durisha returned to the field at the south end. The youngsters were already underway with their match, and with the lighter crowd attending the preliminary contest, Kari was able to find a good seat. She sat at the end of one of the bleachers, marveling briefly at the comfort of the smooth, sanded wood, and she stood Uldriana up in her lap. Durisha was able to stand beside Kari, the harmauth declining to take a seat.

  The youngsters played with fervor, and as near as Kari could tell from watching, their game followed much the same rules as a contest back home. Most of the youngsters were mallasti, with only a trio of elestram participating in the game. The official was an erestram, which Kari surmised meant he had little issue keeping up with the action or having a good vantage point over the adolescents who stood only half his height. The game was rougher than the ones she had watched in the village of Moskarre on her first visit to Mehr’Durillia, but still fairly tame, despite the official having to give out warnings to several players.

  One mallasti teen scored three goals just in the time Kari spent watching, and she knew from things she’d heard that scoring was not often easy in this sport. The young mallasti clearly had a career looming in this soccer-like game, if it was popular enough that the kings had teams that traveled between the realms to contest each other. Kari wondered if the players were well-paid, which she thought was likely if they were entertaining the kings themselves. A player of this young mallasti’s quality was sure to be a favorite of King Koursturaux’, assuming she took enough interest in the sport to watch.

  If he doesn’t get called off to war by the Overking and killed on Irrathmor, Kari thought darkly. She remembered the images of Sakkrass incinerating the beshathan invaders of his world, and though it was probably only symbolic, the truth was still there. She remembered Moskarre and how empty it seemed in the wake of their men – and even some women – being called away to war. Every life lost on Irrathmor was a husband, wife, father, mother, son, or daughter to some family, possibly a highly skilled athlete, or craftsman, or musician. Everything that made them what they were was stripped away, forced to fight in a conflict neither side was truly interested in fighting.

  Kari sighed, trying to push her own battle fatigue from her mind. She had been “at war” for the better part of two lives now, and the more she came into contact with the demon kings and their servants, the more she recognized the toll it was taking. All of the newer facets of her life – being a mother, a wife, a sister-in-law to a large family – were all things she wanted to cling to more. But in the end, she surmised, being willing to fight for those things was what made her who she was. It made her an effective hunter, an inspiring commander, and someone courageous enough to sit at the dinner table with a demon king and negotiate.

  The sound of the crowd cheering broke her from her introspection, and Kari saw that a team of mallasti had taken the field. They were all the reddish-brown that seemed so common among the people of Moskarre, and in addition to the red uniforms they wore – Kari reminded herself that mallasti wore clothes among the other people of Mehr’Durillia – they had the bone-and-bead chest coverings like their cousins in the rural areas. Kari figured these must be the Rulaj Reds, and she was surprised that they received generous applause and cheering from the people of Mas’tolinor.

  “Do your people play any sort of sports?” Kari asked her harmauth chaperone.

  Durisha shook her head. “Our youths find other ways to entertain themselves until they are old enough to work. As you noticed during our journey, my people are herbivores, and as a whole, we are farmers, workers of the land. And the schedule of a farmer does not lend itself to idle time.” She glanced at Kari briefly, and seemed to blush. “I find these games interesting to watch, though I am not certain my people would have the dexterity to partake of it, certainly not against the elestram and mallasti peoples.”

  Another great cheer erupted, and Kari turned back to the field. The other team still had yet to make its appearance, but she saw what drew the reaction from the crowd quickly enough. There, on the far side of the field, stood King Koursturaux herself, and she waved casually to her people before taking a seat on a large, comfortable-looking throne. The Rulaj Reds lined up before her and bowed respectfully, and the king made what appeared to be a welcoming gesture to the visitors. Once that was done, the Crimson Starlets made their appearance on the field and also went to show their respect to their monarch.

  “Does Her Majesty take in games often?” Kari queried.

  “Occasionally,” Durisha answered. She stretched out to her full height and waved until she attracted her monarch’s attention, then she bowed respectfully.

  “Should I get up and bow?”

  “No need; you will have plenty of opportunity to show her respect over the next week,” the harmauth said. “As I was saying, Her Majesty occasionally comes to take in the games, but she makes more of an effort when visitors come from other realms. It is quite easy to cause offense to the other kings, as I am certain you already know.”

  “And they come from the realm of her former kast’wa,” Kari agreed, and Durisha turned a surprised look her way. “Do you have any idea what drove Her Majesty and King Emanitar apart?”

  “I know only that their relationship ended after he was thought killed, murdered by King Sekassus,” the harmauth explained, but she shook her head. “I should not wag my tongue about such things, you understand. Her Majesty will be forthright with you on a great many things, and you may always ask her when it seems appropriate.”

  “Right, sorry,�
�� Kari said, but Durisha waved off the apology.

  The game seemed to go by in a blur. Kari could scarcely believe how fast-paced and non-stop the action was, rarely letting up for even a minute. It was a much more hard-fought game than the spectacles she had ever witnessed back home. Just as her interaction with Farris had foreshadowed, the Reds beat the Crimson Starlets soundly by a margin of five goals to two. The fact that the score reflected the odds the elestram had given her struck her as quite curious, and she wondered at his foresight. Watching the dejected elestram goalkeeper for the Starlets leave the field, she wondered if he had expected the same outcome.

  “What a grand match,” Durisha gushed with approval. “Her Majesty was surely pleased with the excitement, if not the outcome.”

  “I should get Uldriana to the inn to feed her and bed her down for the night,” Kari said.

  Durisha agreed and led Kari back to the hostel. There was a lot of buzz in the air, the many people of Maurinoth clearly pleased by the enjoyment of the game. The inn had filled up with the visiting players before Kari and Durisha arrived, but the harmauth cleared a path through the crowded commons and led Kari upstairs. The inn was a cacophony of excited chatter, people eager to speak with the visiting players and congratulate them on a hard-fought victory. Kari couldn’t understand beshathan just yet, but she could pick up tone and inflection, and the air was warm and welcoming toward the victorious Rulaj Reds.

  After nursing Uldriana and getting her settled, Kari returned to the common room, where Durisha sat by the fire, watching a group of elestram playing cards. From a distance, it looked like they were playing poker, though with a different set of cards. The demonhunter made her way to Durisha and stood beside the squatting form of the harmauth. “Thinking of joining in the game?” she asked.

  Durisha looked up with amusement. “That would be a terrible idea. I believe they have already relieved some of the visiting Reds of much of their money. Hmmm, I have not been in contact with your people often, but I can understand that look. You are going to try your luck, are you not?”

  Kari chuckled. “Why not? I have some marks left over from the last time I visited your world. A drink and a game of cards sounds like a good nightcap, to be honest.”

  “Hmph. Suit yourself. But do not tell Her Majesty I failed to warn you.”

  “Twice,” Kari said, holding up the appropriate number of fingers. “If she asks, I’ll tell her you told me so both times.”

  Kari went to the bar and asked for a drink, something fairly strong but hopefully nothing like a double-godhammer. What she got smelled like a fruity cocktail of some kind. With a drink in hand and her belt pouch full of marks, she made her way over to the table of elestram. They all stopped and looked up at her approach. “Apologies, I don’t speak beshathan,” she said in the infernal tongue. “Mind if I join your game?”

  The five jackal-men exchanged glances but told her to pull up a chair. Kari placed half of her marks on the table, and after a short discussion, new limits were imposed that seemed to give her a chance to play for a little while. They appeared to be playing with multiple decks, and soon the cards were dealt and Kari picked up her hand. The images on the cards were certainly different than she was used to, seeming to depict important figures of the realm, or things related to everyday life, closer to tarot cards than standard playing cards. By the number of images on the cards, Kari could still tell what she had, which really only left the “royal” cards in question. On a hunch, Kari kept any such questions to herself, and surmised that in this realm, the female monarch was the equivalent of the king.

  The first couple of hands left her astounded. The elestram seemed quick to fold, and in both cases where she thought one of them was bluffing, it turned out she was wrong. When they bet big, they had good hands, seeming either unaccustomed to bluffing, or simply folding too soon to ever really try. Kari had to fold or was beaten soundly the first five hands, but just as Aeligos had taught her, she learned something about each of her opponents, even in defeat. The elestram were shrewd and they seemed to count cards, which Kari thought must be difficult with so many players and more than one deck. She thought back to Farris, the odds he had given her, and the fact that they coincided with the score, and she adjusted her game.

  Running low on marks, she began to emulate the elestram players, folding early and often when a hand looked unpromising. On the eighth hand, she turned the gameplay to her advantage and managed to bluff one of her opponents. She was surprised at all the nodding heads around the table, even the last to fold, who cited that she had beaten the odds. With that win, she was just shy of breaking even, and she graciously bowed out of the game. Five pairs of elestram eyes turned to her, in shades of brown, gold, and green, and despite the normally dispassionate stares of the jackal-folk, there was respect on all of their faces. They bid her a kind farewell, and Kari made her way over to Durisha, who now squatted by the bar.

  “Your little one is still sleeping soundly,” the harmauth said.

  “Thank you for checking on her,” Kari returned. She stretched out, feeling the strange warm numbness in her muscles from the Mehr’Durillian spirits. “Now, I think it’s time I went and joined her.”

  “Get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow will be a busy, eventful day, no doubt.”

  *****

  Farther to the west than Anthraxis, the time in Maurinoth more closely approximated where Kari had come from, and she woke just before dawn the next morning. She fed Uldriana and then got busy readying herself for the day. She planned to arrive in the palace armed and armored, a show of both strength and respect to her powerful host. In light of this, she spent some time polishing her blades and her armor, and actually tended to her hair, something she did rarely before she had children, and much less often after.

  Durisha was waiting for her in the commons when Kari descended the stairs, and the demonhunter wondered where the harmauth had slept. The inn was empty and quiet except for the two of them, but Durisha gestured Kari toward a table. Before Kari had even taken a seat, the syrinthian innkeeper came out of the back room with a tray of breakfast. He placed a hot gruel that smelled like oatmeal, a glass of berry juice, and a miniature loaf of bread with a dish of honey on the table, bowed, and departed. Kari sat down and, after giving a quick prayer of thanks – which felt especially odd in this place and situation – she began to eat.

  “Good morning,” she greeted Durisha before she took the first bite.

  The harmauth simply nodded before showing off her blunt, square teeth in a wide yawn. “Tomorrow morning will be better, I suspect, after I have slept in my own bed again.”

  Kari chuckled at that. Despite the many months she had spent sleeping in her bed with her mate, she still felt acclimated to sleeping on the road. No doubt it was different for someone who lived and worked in the palace. It made her think of her days living and training with King Suler Tumureldi in her prior life, and how much of an outdoorsman he turned out to be despite his own position in the palace. The years before he’d taken the crown had been spent riding horses, exploring the forests to the north, and engaging in showmanship and sports, mostly related to the blade. The palace hadn’t changed him much, from what Kari had seen.

  Once she was done eating, they left the inn and made their way to the road that led up to the castle. Despite the elevation, the incline was gradual and winding, which served a double purpose: it was easy for pedestrian traffic and beast-drawn coaches to ascend, and yet it was a long and winding ascension ripe for archer fire should the palace come under attack. Kari had to wonder at that; how large an army would it take to storm the castle of something as ancient and powerful as King Koursturaux? If King Sekassus could tear apart a mallasti girl with willpower alone, just what sort of violence was Koursturaux capable of?

  The thought of her daughter’s namesake being slaughtered put a lump in Kari’s throat, and she had to work to swallow it. “Do not be nervous, Her Majesty has asked you here because she is inte
rested in meeting you,” Durisha cut into her thoughts.

  Kari simply nodded, figuring it wasn’t worth the effort to explain what she was really thinking about. Durisha carried her bag and eventually took Uldriana as well, keeping the little girl perched in the crook of her elbow. The harmauth looked as though the weight barely even registered on her, her strides remaining long but slow to allow Kari to keep up. Though the great ram-folk were not speedy like the erestram, Kari now had to wonder if they had stamina for days like the wolf-folk.

  They reached the front gate of the castle, where another pair of harmauths stood guard, one to either side. Kari immediately recalled her encounter with harmauth guards when crossing Tess’Vorg with her mallasti guide on her last visit. These were clearly male, for though Durisha had no noticeable breasts, these ones had longer hair on their lower bellies that hung down and provided some modesty despite their not wearing clothing. Not much else served to distinguish them from their female counterpart: she was as burly and muscular as either of the males, and even her horns were comparable in size.

  The two males bowed their horned heads respectfully to the king’s bodyguard, and with only a gracious wave of the hand, they directed Durisha and Kari to enter through the open arch. Beyond it was a bailey before a second wall, and this area was populated by a small number of elestram and even a couple of erestram. A quick glance told Kari that these, too, were male, and she wondered at that. “I thought no males served in Her Majesty’s palace?” she queried.

  “Not in the palace itself, no,” Durisha said. She gestured around at the males working the stables and training their combat routines. “What men are assigned to the castle live out here in the bailey, where they train and take care of the outer tasks. Once we pass through the inner portcullis, you will find only females.”

  Kari saw the team of beasts that drew the coach from Anthraxis to Maurinoth in just a few days, lying in the stables, eating and resting. She had so many questions, but none of them were particularly important, so she continued along with the harmauth. When they drew closer, Kari could see that the two erestram guarding the inner archway were, in fact, female. They, too, bowed their heads respectfully to Durisha and Kari, and ushered them inside without delay.