Scarlet Tempest, #1

by Juniper King

  “I still don’t like the idea of taking her to see Kue, Aksel. Is it really necessary to tell him that she’s a daemon?” Ayre asked.

  “You said it yourself, we can’t split up, so we have to bring her with us. As for telling him she’s a daemon, I don’t particularly like the idea either, but this is Kue we’re talking about, I’m sure he already knows everything we’re trying to keep from him, anyway. This could work in our favour though; we’ll get more information from him if his own curiosity kicks in. A bounty put on a human by a human would be of no concern to him, but a human putting a bounty on a daemon would pique his interest. If nothing else, we need to know what we’re walking into when we meet up with that man.” Aksel’s tone darkened when he referred to the man posing as my father.

  “Kue is arguably more dangerous than any human. Even if it’s an ambush of some kind waiting for us when we drop her off, we can handle it.”

  “You’d opt to walk in completely blind? If they are after her because she’s a daemon that means they’re more than likely equipped to handle daemons. They might be more than we’re prepared for. Besides, if we assume that Deramore isn’t their destination, we don’t even know where they’re taking her.”

  “You think my father knows that I’m half-daemon?” I piped in, carefully keeping the annoyance of being talked about like I wasn’t there out of my voice.

  “We tossed the idea around when we first met you, but we can’t be sure.”

  Surprisingly, that idea hadn’t even crossed my mind when we’d discussed the topic of my father. “So, keeping any personal feelings and other motivations out of the equation, what would a human want with a daemon?”

  Aksel shook his head with a look on his face like he’d eaten something distasteful. “You mean if everything he said was a lie? There’s a small number of humans who have this belief that daemon blood has restorative properties. If this man is one of those people, it could be that his entire story was made up just to use you as some kind of… fountain of youth. But that still doesn’t explain how he knew about you and your mother personally, so that’s a little bit more unlikely.”

  “You of all people know what daemons do to each other, Aksel,” Ayre barged in again on the same topic from earlier like he hadn’t even heard our recent exchange. “You got caught up in their petty power grabs yourself. We can’t risk him knowing about her.”

  Aksel fell silent, a shadow crossing over his face. “You think I would let the same thing happen again? Things are more stable now than they were back then. If I thought he would try to hurt her I wouldn’t risk it, but Kue has been outside of Kimyr for decades now, I don’t think he would have any reason to hurt or use her.”

  “But what if he sells the information to someone who would?”

  “What if, what if, what if! We could go round and round for hours thinking of all the ‘what ifs’ that could come from this.” I’ll admit I appreciated Ayre’s underlying concern for me, and him trying to find any reason to make sure I didn’t meet Kue was a little bit unnerving, but I agreed with Aksel that we needed more information. “You two need to stop arguing, we have to be on the same side here. I’ve had enough people trying to kill me over the last few weeks, we don’t need to be making enemies of each other too”

  Ayre turned away, clearly miffed I had scolded him, but I touched his arm and waited for him to focus on me. “I appreciate your concern, I really do, but I agree with Aksel, we need all the information we can get. Besides, I’ve never even met my real father, what possible political advantage would someone get by hurting me? He probably doesn’t even know I’m alive, let alone care about me.” I tried to lighten the mood, but my smile was a little too tight. “Bottom line, we need a plan, and the more information we have, the better a plan we can make. The messenger you guys met with is going to take me away the moment you drop me off and I’m not really too eager to improvise if things go south.”

  We finally came to a stop outside Road’s End. It was much less ominous without the din of music and conversation that had been pouring out of it last time. Now it looked like any other run-down warehouse.

  I looked up at the looming building trying to imagine what kind of person—or in this case, daemon—would hang out in a place like this at all hours of the day and night. Did he have a home here like I’d had in The Sluggish Nymph?

  My thoughts were interrupted by Ayre sliding his fingers around mine. I looked over and saw him give me a rueful smile. “Ready?” he asked. I nodded as he pushed open the door.

  The creaking of the door echoed through the large open room as the three of us walked inside. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the muted lighting inside the bar. It was empty save for a bartender wiping down the counter and one person passed out at the end of the bar.

  “Is this place even open this early?” I whispered, trying not to gain the attention of the very large and grumpy looking barkeep.

  “It’s always open, but it doesn’t start to see many patrons until dusk,” Ayre answered, “We’re still a little early.”

  Aksel placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me towards the back of the bar to a doorway. The three of us followed the narrow hallway in a single file line with Aksel taking the lead. The end of the hallway dropped off to a steep flight of stairs leading down to a basement door. At least, I assumed there was a door hidden behind the gigantic, hulking man watching our every step down the stairs.

  The creaking of each step only built up the ominous feeling in my chest. The man in front of the door was humanoid with pointed ears and glimmering black eyes. I couldn’t be sure since I’d never seen one, but I had a feeling this man was also a daemon.

  Without a word from the daemon, Aksel unbuckled the sheath from his waist and put his weapon in a wooden crate standing to the side of the door. Judging from the shuffle of material and ringing of metal from behind me, I could assume Ayre was doing the same thing.

  Once Aksel and Ayre were clear of their weapons, the daemon opened the door with a nod and we were allowed to file inside.

  The room was as dimly lit as the bar upstairs and sparsely furnished, though you would hardly even notice with the two daemons lurking in the back corners of the room like stone golems. They were both gigantic and corded with muscles, but the one on the left had to be well over six feet tall with muscles that threatened to rip his shirt to ribbons.

  In front of the two golems, closer to the middle of the room was a couch, a table and a daemon.

  Kue was… not what I had been expecting. After all of the apprehension, all of the warnings and fear for my safety, I had pictured him as some kind of brutal, intimidating figurehead of daemon society. At the very least I had expected a hint of regality in his appearance, someone who commanded authority.

  Instead, all I saw was a rail thin man, lounging on a leather couch with his legs propped up on the low table, wearing a large-brimmed hat hanging so low I couldn’t even see his face. The boots on his feet looked clunky and unwieldy for someone of his size, complemented by skin-tight pants and something that resembled a mix between a tunic and a poncho covering his upper half. Everything he wore appeared old and worn, with some spots even held together by patchwork.

  “I was wondering when you would be back.” He didn’t even lift his head to speak. All I could see was thin, straw-like strands of blond hair peeking out from the bottom of his hat. “You disappeared so abruptly last time, before we even had time to chat.” His voice was quiet—hoarse and gravelly. But it was still somehow the kind of voice that could command a room. Though he was not a physically intimidating man, after he spoke there was something about him that set my teeth on edge. The fear that he seemed to command in his patrons was beginning to make sense.

  “I had some pressing matters to attend to,” Aksel replied stoically, exuding his full deydric mercenary persona.

  “Indeed. The life of a mercenary is a busy one.” Kue finally lifted his head. Two gleaming eyes, black as pitch,
peeked out from beneath the brim of his hat. Even in the low light of the room I could tell that his skin was pallid and weathered looking. “Especially when he has to reclaim his stolen charge from a sadistic finman.” The weight of his words struck me with a dizzying force I tried desperately not to show. Aksel and Ayre had warned me of Kue’s apparent omniscience but it was eerie hearing it firsthand. Did he really know everything about us? “From what I understand, you were offered quite a handsome price for the acquisition of a man’s lost daughter. Can I assume this is said daughter?”

  “We’re here for information, Kue, not to engage in small talk about the target of our most recent contract,” Aksel sidestepped Kue’s question with a cool indifference, but I could see the tension cording through his shoulders.

  “Isn’t everyone? But you know my information is not free, deydre.”

  “Name your price.”

  “I’m interested to hear what you think a penniless mercenary can offer.”

  “I’m not interested in playing games, just tell me what you want?”

  “Ahh, yes, I had almost forgotten about this game that you play,” he sounded skeptical when he spoke. “Well, allow me to play along, what if I said I wanted her as my payment?”

  “What would you want with a human?” I’m not sure if Kue could notice it from where he was sitting, but standing so close to Aksel I could feel him stiffen beside me.

  Kue shrugged. “Nothing in particular. Though I do wonder, with such a simple retrieval mission, why would she still be in your possession? It’s been weeks since you found her after all. She is worth quite the sum, but I wouldn’t think enough to risk going to Finfolkaheem, not for a worthless, xenophobic human. That is what you think of humans, it is not, deydre?” A smirk split his cracked lips as he looked over to me, my body tense at his comment. Kue had said that Aksel had been playing a game, and I think Kue was playing one right back, insulting me and possibly trying to turn us against each other. But I wasn’t going to bite. Aksel was tight as a bowstring beside me.

  “Could it be because she’s not fully human,” Kue finished.

  He was toying with us. He’d known I was half-human since the moment we walked in, probably knew the other half was daemon, too. We’d even been careful to make sure my hair was covering my ears, just in case. I hoped Aksel was right in his initial thinking that Kue would be of more help if he didn’t think I was human.

  “I’ll ask again, Kue, what do you want in exchange for the information we’re looking for?”

  Kue’s smile faded. Perhaps he was annoyed that Aksel had interrupted his fun. “You have yet to ask me what information you are looking for, deydre.”

  Aksel paused, no doubt thinking which of our many questions would be best to ask. “Are there any other human settlements close to Deramore?”

  “I’m sorry, you seem to be mistaking me for a common map.” It seemed Aksel knew just how to handle Kue, and remained silent. Kue sighed. “While I enjoy your petty show of defiance and bravado on occasion, you would be wise to remember who it is you’re speaking to.”

  The two bodyguards at the back of the room shifted, as if they were reminding us they were there and more than just decorations in the room. But having these two guards, plus the one outside, could Kue actually be an important figure in daemon society? I’d thought all daemons were basically royalty in the supernatural realm, but Aksel and Ayre had told me that there was actually a confusing hierarchy within the daemons. Kue didn’t seem like any kind of royalty, nor did his guards. Perhaps he was just paying them very well.

  “I assume you’ve already entertained the idea that this man is offering such a high price because he knows she’s a daemon?” Kue continued.

  “We had a suspicion.” Aksel had been right, Kue knew the entire time, and there was no sense in trying to lie.

  “And yet she was raised in human society and has no ties to the daemon world, what worth does she really have as a daemon?”

  “Humans have rumours about daemon blood.” Aksel offered.

  “I know mercenaries are used primarily for their brawn, but do try to use your brain, deydre. How would he know a human from a no name town would have daemon blood? The messenger, as you call him, knew who she was just by seeing her, as did her supposed father, so it stands to reason they both knew her mother and they look similar.”

  “So what does he want with her?” Aksel dove right into our real reason for being here.

  “I would have no way of knowing. But I will give you the piece of the puzzle that you’re looking for. Based on his meeting location, I would suspect Deramore to be a ruse. He’s actually from Ilonvale.”

  “Ilonvale?”

  “Ilonvale is a small town hidden away in the mountains. Only the current residents seem to know of its existence, and they are very happy to keep it that way. All I know, in fact, is that they are a daemon worshipping society.”

  “They worship daemons?” Even Aksel didn’t bother to keep the surprise from his voice.

  Kue’s lips broke into a slight smile. “Humans are an interesting species. It is not the first instance I have heard of worshipping Kimyrians.”

  “They want her to worship her?” Aksel said skeptically, “What can you tell us about this human community?”

  “Nothing more than I have already told you. I met a man from Ilonvale a handful of years ago. I did find it strange, however, that though they worship daemons, he was not reverent in my presence. But he was an absolute, quivering wreck with only one thought in his mind; trying to coerce me into giving him a portion of my blood. I asked him to leave of course, but he put up a struggle, and in the end was killed. I’m impressed deydre, you have actually given me an interesting question to mull over.”

  I was a little concerned Kue had just openly spoken about killing a man, but I was more concerned about my own plight. “But you just said it was unlikely they were looking for blood. If a man came years ago looking for your blood, then am I just their back up plan?”

  “Selynna…” Aksel cautioned.

  I ignored him. “But then why would they know me personally?” It didn’t make any sense.

  “I also said there was probably more to the story. Unfortunately, I couldn’t glean anything more from that human.”

  Couldn’t glean? Is that how he gets his knowledge?

  “So there’s nothing else you can offer us?” Aksel asked again.

  What? No, that couldn’t be all he had. “What does this man want with me?” I blurted out. We’d come so far looking for information, we couldn’t leave with nothing.

  “There is nothing else I have to offer. I will consider the unintentional information you have given me to be your payment.” The tone of his voice was a clear and indisputable dismissal.

  With that, we were ushered from the room and left with more questions and even fewer answers.

  Like a ghost I followed the two Supers to a small inn. It had been my mistake to get my hopes up, but I had truly believed Kue would give us all the answers we were looking for. Clearly that had been unrealistic. How could he know what a human’s intentions were when he’d never even met them?

  A daemon worshiping society. My mother would have worshipped daemons as well then, and she gave birth to me. Was I fathered by a daemon they were worshipping? It makes even less sense now then that she would have abandoned me. Perhaps she was the villain and my pseudo-father was trying to bring me back to my rightful home, maybe my biological father is there as well. But that doesn’t explain why someone from the city was looking to get blood from Kue, or why, as Aksel had pointed out before, they were treating me like a commodity, or why my real father wouldn’t have just come himself if he wanted me back. I was beginning to get a headache.

  We entered the inn where a large, bearded man sat behind a desk which looked far too small for him. Was it a requirement in this town for all the owners of the establishments to be large, hulking men?

  “Impressive.” He put down the
book he’d been reading.

  “What’s impressive?” Aksel asked.

  I looked up, curious about their exchange when he inclined his chin in my direction. “Your little friend. Can’t say I’ve even seen a human woman with a satyr and a deydre before.” His attention shifted directly to me. “You’ll have your hands full tonight, little girl.”

  “Oh, no…” I quietly started just before an arm slithered around my waist while another slipped across my shoulders.

  “We’ll be sure to keep her busy.” Ayre crooned as his hand wandered down the curve of my hip, his fingers leaving a trail of tingles down my side.

  “And satisfied.” Aksel added, his breath just a little too close to my ear. My stomach flipped over in itself, face blazing.

  The boys continued the charade until we were out of sight at the base of the stairs, where I shifted their arms off. I’d been around them long enough now to understand their intentions. That was one way to keep me distracted from my thoughts, alright.

  “Must you two make a fool of me every chance you get?” Heat was still ebbing from my body, leaving me wanting.

  “Yes.” They answered in unison.

  I leaned on the balcony railing, looking over the now bustling city. A breeze weaved through my hair, tossing it over my shoulder. I felt like a fly on the wall, quietly observing all the different kinds of supernatural creatures congregating below, stumbling and shouting, catcalling and mingling. It was still strange seeing so many Supers all gathered in one place. Until I’d met Aksel and Ayre I saw a Super maybe once a month, if I was lucky. During those times, it had always been a nice change of pace from my daily life, surreal yet somehow comforting.

  I had always dreamed of what it might be like to live in a town with more of a supernatural influence. I suppose after being around humans for so long, and getting harassed on almost a daily basis, I had put Supers on a bit of a pedestal. They had always been polite to me when they were in town, I’d thought it was just their personalities or just an inherent politeness among their species, but now I felt it was more like them being on their best behavior around humans and bounty hunters. I’d thought it would be wonderful to live in a town with a mixture of Super and human culture.