“She’s important to him,” Fara said, eyes narrowed.
“Deeply.”
“There must be a reason he forgot her,” Fara pressed.
“Perhaps. And that is why I am wary about contacting her, or bringing her up with others,” Grigor said. “If she learns that Rys has returned, she will find him.”
That sounded ominous.
“I get the impression that Rys deals with beings of a level of power I can’t really comprehend,” Fara said.
Grigor chuckled. “We all have time to grow. And Rys is with us. I thought the same thing. My future as a Kashlovian noble demon was dim. Very few of us ever rise to a position of command. We are hunters. Warriors. Respected for our combat abilities and denigrated for the same reason. I am who I am because I became Rys’s sword and shield in the Eternal Game. You can achieve great things with him.”
The Eternal Game?
“That’s what infernals call the contest between Ariel and Malusian, isn’t it?” Fara asked.
Grigor looked down at Fara. “It is that, and much more. The Eternal Game has more than two players, after all. And the pieces are not always infernals.”
Did he mean what Fara thought he meant?
“Come, let us finish this,” Grigor said as he hefted his axe. “Your skills are required for cracking this building’s barrier. Then we can rest and join Rys farther south, comfortable in the knowledge that we have won a great victory.”
The barrier fell quickly. While it was large, and had a massive power source, nothing about it had been constructed with a mystic fox in mind. Fara prided herself on her disruption abilities. She tore a hole in the barrier, and a strike force slipped inside.
She and Grigor entered as well. Armored soldiers shook when Grigor entered, their pikes quivering.
Fara’s tails flicked to one side, and she knocked the guards to the ground like so many toy soldiers. The demons looked at her.
“Take as many alive as you can. We’re not imprisoning them in the castle,” she ordered. “Most of the soldiers are locals of Kavolara. They’re fighting to protect their homes. Once this is over, they’ll be fighting alongside you and paying taxes to King Talarys. Treat them well.”
The demons muttered in annoyance, but nodded. Grigor watched silently.
“What if they’re not locals?” a noble demon asked.
Fara grimaced. She wanted to say that they should be treated the same but…
Rys’s words from the other day echoed in her mind.
And memories of sleepless nights, as she worried about Vallis and her family, struck her. She remembered receiving a sending from Vallis on that fateful day, when Rys awoke. Fara might not have a daughter, but Vallis was the closest thing she had to one. When she went missing that day, only to tell Fara she had nearly been raped and killed…
“You already know how to handle the mercenaries,” Fara said coldly.
The demon grinned. “Got it, chief.”
As the demons fanned out across the headquarters, Fara hugged herself. She had waited for the others to leave, but Grigor watched her.
“It is difficult, but sometimes difficult things are necessary,” Grigor said. “I suggest speaking with Rys later.”
What would Rys think of her? Despite his words the other day, she still couldn’t help but feel her actions were too self-justified and hypocritical. Had she only wanted an excuse to do awful things to people she despised? Was that all she was, a woman who held herself together with a thin veneer over her true desires?
Later, she told herself. She’d worry about this later.
Below them were Compagnon’s guild officers. Harpiscon’s mayor had told them about the secret meeting room in the basement.
Fara and Grigor descended. Her magical senses allowed her to find the false wall, and Grigor pulverized it.
Shrieks of fear told them they had found the right place.
Six elegantly and expensively dressed men and women stood inside the well-apportioned room. Blood pooled at the entrance, where several corpses lay. Fara grimaced. The guards had been at the door, likely listening for intruders.
“You won’t take me alive, demons!” one of the guild officers screamed.
He pulled an ornate saber from his waist and charged them. Fara slapped him aside with a sickening crunch. He collapsed to the ground, groaning.
Fara looked at the remaining officers coldly. “All of you are prisoners of the Kingdom of Kavolara. You are subject to the mercies—or lack thereof—of King Talarys. He will do whatever he wishes to you.”
One of the guild officers, a young woman only a few years older than Vallis, stepped forward. “I wish to meet with His Majesty directly. I can—”
“King Talarys won’t waste his time on people as useless as you. Your cooperation may make your ultimate fate more comfortable, but it is not required. Any lies will be uncovered. Any failure to cooperate will be dealt with as adeptly as we have crushed your entire operation,” Fara said, dismissing the guild officer’s attempt to get into Rys’s pants.
The look of despair on their faces was sickeningly sweet to Fara.
Genuinely sickening, in fact. Fara felt awful for enjoying this.
They had made her suffer for years. The men and women were the leaders of Compagnon, and had killed and terrorized countless people. They had supported some of the worst people on the island. Vallis’s father had died because of them, and Vallis had suffered immensely. Her future as a mage had been sacrificed due to these awful people.
To Fara, nobody deserved imprisonment, execution, or worse more than these human monsters in front of her. But she still felt awful, knowing that she was consigning them to this.
Footsteps sounded behind her. A few Ashen and Lilim entered the room. The barrier must have come down.
“We can take it from here, chief,” the Ashen said. They restrained the officers while Fara watched.
After several long seconds, she left the room.
From a window, Fara surveyed the city. The chaos had died down somewhat. The ships had collapsed into the sea. The headquarters was under their control, and the soldiers and guards defending the city had scattered. The residents of the city watched the infernals from a distance. Realization dawned on the populace that they wouldn’t be harmed if they didn’t fight.
The night dragged on. Compagnon had been crushed. The Kingdom of Kavolara controlled the entire region.
Fara found the largest, plushest bed in the building, then collapsed on it. When morning arrived, she would help Grigor prepare the city for Maria and the rest of the handover. Then they would need to march south.
If Rys was right, the Malus League would soon invade. The true battle had yet to come.
Chapter 37
Rys lounged on the sofa in his war room, a glass of red wine in one hand and a book in the other. The wine was an imported variety from southern Gauron. It was cool-climate, like the local grapes from Kavolara, but from much older vineyards. The difference in quality exuded from every facet of the liquid, and Rys savored the drop.
It had cost him a pretty penny, and Vallis had frowned at the expenditure. That suggested that drinking pricey wines from Gauron might need to go on the “special occasions” list of activities.
Speaking of Vallis, she paced back and forth on the other side of the war room. Tyrisa sat by the map table, scribbling in a large tome. Nobody had said anything all morning.
“Is it always like this?” Vallis blurted out. She threw her hands up and groaned.
“We have news from both Fort Foret and Aretiers,” Tyrisa said, not even looking up from her book. “It might be days before the Malus League reaches Fort Foret. Especially as their mages hinder our scouting.”
“When did you become a tactical genius?” Vallis muttered.
Tyrisa smirked. “I’ve picked up a thing or two. Maybe you should read the meeting minutes I write.”
The two women glared at each other for several minutes.
Rys ignored them. Tyrisa was right, but the waiting was difficult. For Rys, it verged on insufferable.
He wanted to be out there, not waiting until the Malus League was close enough to Fort Foret that he could safely travel there and be part of the battle. This seal frustrated him.
On the bright side, everything had gone according to plan. Grigor and Fara had captured Aretiers in a night raid. The leaders of Compagnon were being sent to the dungeons in Castle Aion, and Maria was seizing control of Aretiers. The future of the city was uncertain, given it competed with Anceston and Port Mayfield, but that was Maria’s problem to solve.
Farther south, Alsia had taken Fort Foret. Compagnon had all but abandoned the place. Presumably, they had no reason to defend a border with the Malus League now that their alliance was public knowledge.
They now waited for the response from the Malus League. Tarmouth had sent word that thousands of soldiers had vanished from the garrison at Gravuskeep the morning after Aretiers was taken. Days had passed without word now.
The cause of the problem was the state of the pass between the Malus League and Fort Foret. The mountains ran just shy of the coastline, creating massive bluffs. Below those was a dense swamp. According to Vallis, a decrepit road ran through the swamp.
For an army, a swamp was possibly the worst possible terrain to traverse. Even if the road had been repaired by Compagnon—highly likely, given the secret alliance between the two powers—it would still be slow going for the enemy.
The swamp also made scouting difficult. Enemy mages might detect the Malakin, and Rys didn’t know the capability of the Malus League’s spellcasters. Until the enemy emerged from the swamp, they were practically invisible. It was a rough border to defend, but that ran both ways. Rys could use this swamp to his advantage in the distant future.
“What are you even writing in?” Vallis asked Tyrisa, drawing Rys from his thoughts.
“Why do you care? You always say I write down too much,” Tyrisa snapped back.
“Because you’re not recording meeting minutes, or doing paperwork. It’s strange to see you doing something different,” Vallis said.
Tyrisa glared at Vallis. The implication that Tyrisa did nothing other than paperwork did not go down well.
“She’s preparing her knowledge Gift,” Rys said, turning his eyes away from book. He snapped it shut.
Tyrisa’s eyes widened, and she covered her tome with her arms. “How do you know that?” Then she blushed. “Oh, right. You’re you.”
Vallis rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’re better off asking about the things Rys doesn’t know. But I thought knowledge Gifts were some mental thing. Like devils sharing their brains with other people?”
“It is, but that’s exactly the problem,” Rys explained. “An unrestricted knowledge Gift gives the user complete access to everything the knowledge devil knows. You could rifle through their memories and learn what they’ve been doing. It’s a very dangerous thing for a knowledge devil to hand out. By writing knowledge into a magic tome, they can control what is accessible through the Gift.”
Rys could do exactly that to Darus with her knowledge Gift, but she’d quickly realize he was responsible. She’d explicitly told him that nobody else had her unrestricted knowledge Gift, after all.
He grimaced at the reminder of the Twins. He’d been ignoring them recently, save for brief visits to learn minor things. The longer he put them off, the worse his next visit would be, he felt.
Tyrisa nodded enthusiastically at Rys’s words. “Exactly right. Only really stupid knowledge devils give out unrestricted knowledge Gifts.”
Somehow, Rys felt Tyrisa had marked herself for death. Those were not words to be spoken lightly, given whose knowledge Gift Rys had.
Rys politely coughed, and both women turned to face him. “Just so you know, I have an unrestricted knowledge Gift from the Darus Twins. I recommend you be careful making such broad statements.”
Tyrisa’s eyes nearly popped as they tried to escape her skull. She shot up out of her chair and sent it flying backward. Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
“Who?” Vallis asked.
“The most powerful knowledge devils still alive!” Tyrisa screamed. She turned to face Rys. “You have their knowledge Gift? You know them? How? Why? When?”
“Still alive?” Rys asked. “What happened to Kauros?”
Tyrisa frowned. “He went missing during the Golden Age. I’ve heard some of the older infernals joke about how he went on a ‘shopping trip to Ahm’ and never came back.”
Rys stared at her blankly.
One of the three archdevils was missing. How the everloving fuck had he missed that?
Rubbing his temples, Rys asked, “Did any other major players go missing or drop dead recently? Argran choke on a turkey bone? No, Grigor’s Gift from him is still active. And I know Lacrissa is still alive.”
“Err, I think Kauros was the most significant change among the infernals since Kushan.” Tyrisa licked her lips. “I didn’t really think you wouldn’t know. Or would pay much attention to knowledge devils. I can’t believe you know the Darus Twins. What are they like?”
To shatter her dreams or not?
“They’d be as likely to kill you as talk to you,” Rys settled on. That was probably a lie. He suspected Darus would kill any woman within several miles of him, given how they’d behaved last time he brought one up.
“Wow,” Tyrisa said, a stupid grin on her face. “Maybe I can pull off what they did and become like them. A knowledge devil capable of terrorizing others, just like a real devil.”
Vallis grimaced. “Not sure I want that.”
“Nobody asked you,” Tyrisa snapped. “Once I have enough valuable knowledge, I can start trading my knowledge Gift to other infernals. That could change everything for me.”
“Is that what this is all about? Power?” Vallis asked, scratching her cheek. “Huh. I guess I read you wrong. Took you for an office girl. My bad.”
“Is there something wrong—” Tyrisa instinctively snapped, before pausing. “Oh, you, uh, don’t think that’s a mistake.”
“Nah, it’s a good idea. I mean, look at king shit of everything over there.” Vallis pointed at Rys. “Kind of living proof that it’s a pretty smart approach to life. Although, I do wonder what he thinks about your plans to leave him.”
Tyrisa blushed. “I didn’t mean to hide it. And I don’t plan to leave you, Rys. I…” she trailed off.
“I’m not stupid,” Rys said. “Knowledge devils gain a lot from being in Harrium. And I know more about infernal sorcery than literally everybody other than maybe Kauros.” He stressed the “maybe” in that sentence. “So leaving me might not be a good idea, given I can teach you a thing or two in the future.”
Previously, he had considered Kauros to be a fluke. The idea that knowledge devils could become supremely powerful had never seriously occurred to him.
But now Darus had repeated the process. Could Rys create his own Darus, except less crazy and utterly obsessed with him?
Something to worry about in the distant future, but Tyrisa showed promise.
Hours passed. Eventually, Tyrisa received word from Alsia.
“You’re heading out?” Vallis asked. “Leaving us poor women behind to cling to our dresses and pray?”
“You’re not wearing a dress,” Rys pointed out. “Neither is Tyrisa.”
“Our skirts, then.” Vallis grinned.
“Who are you going to pray to?”
“Dunno. You? I didn’t really think that far ahead. Do you really need to question this? Kind of ruining my sarcastic jibe.” Vallis shooed him out of the room. “Go on, leave. I have an annoying devil to spank once you leave.”
“The hell you do,” Tyrisa snapped, her eyes flashing. “There’s only one person who is ever going to—” she cut herself off, then buried her face behind her tome.
Vallis winked at Rys.
He rolled his eyes and left them in t
he palace. It took four teleports to reach Fort Foret, which was enough to upset even Rys’s stomach. He sat down for a few minutes at the far end and stared at the fortress from a nearby plain.
Blue flags flew over the small stone fort. The design on it was simple: a black silhouette of the island of Kavolara, with a white wand from Maria’s family coat-of-arms and a jagged scimitar that represented Alsia’s original dain. They were Rys’s flags. The flags of the Kingdom of Kavolara.
The fort was a simple one, but an effective design. A central keep and two layers of concentric walls. Rys reached out with his magical senses. The outer wall lacked any enchantments, but the inner wall was protected by barriers. Neither could stand up to even light magical bombardment for any length of time.
Not for the first time, Rys wondered about how far magical development had fallen. He had laid siege to some of the greatest fortresses in existence and defended others from immense threats. The Infernal Empire had trained companies of dragons, each of which could launch spells capable of vaporizing this little fortress and everything around it.
At the peak of his power, Rys knew he could defeat those dragons. It had taken an army of rebel dragons to destroy the Infernal Empire in a surprise assault on Ruathym, when most of the defenders were away.
This battle was the most important one that Rys was going to fight since waking up. It was also going to be one of the most insignificant battles he had ever fought.
Nothing he could do about it, Rys decided. He stood up and brushed himself off.
An Ashen greeted him at one of the exterior gates, a cigarette in his mouth. Rys wandered inside.
Hundreds of soldiers had encamped inside the outer wall. Rys saw a clear separation between the Kinadain soldiers and the infernals. Although a quick scan suggested that at least a few of them had been lured by the charms of the Lilim.
Almost every Kinadain had a pair of horns on their head, but none of them had the same draconic decoration that Alsia’s had. A handful had wolf ears and a long, fluffy tail, but they were comparatively few. Alsia had been truthful when she explained the racial spread within the demihumans of Kavolara.
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