by Joe Jackson
Kari ran a hand back through her damp black hair and sighed lightly. “I’ll need a room for at least the night, and a warm bath and a double-godhammer for right now,” she said. She produced a gold coin from her belt purse, set it down, and pushed it toward the innkeeper, but was surprised when he pushed it back her way. “I’m not a half-demon,” she clarified. The declaration drew interested gazes from the other patrons again momentarily.
The barkeep laughed. “Figured that much,” he said with a nod, and he pointed briefly at the dog tags that still hung over Kari’s breastplate. “Don’t see many half-demon demonhunters. But your coin is no good here.” He reached under the counter and produced a long, slender iron key. “The inn’s empty right now; most folks that have been holed up here in recent months have finally begun making their way home, what with the war being over finally. So you can have the master suite, up the stairs at the end of the hallway. I’ll have Millie fix you a hot bath.”
“Thank you,” Kari said. The barkeep pulled up a glass from under the counter to replace the tankard, and began mixing her beverage. It wasn’t unusual for the common folk to provide basic goods and services to demonhunters free of charge, but Kari found it surprising that the barkeep could afford to so soon after the War, which had no doubt severely hurt the man’s business. “You got a name?” she prompted him.
The man fixed her with a curious gaze before the smile returned to his face. “David Marrack,” he said. “Folks around here just call me Dave. Welcome to The Bloodied Blade. Forgive my manners; it’s been an interesting week in the city. I was just trying to figure out your accent – it’s new to my ears, and these ears are pretty old. Had ‘em all my life.”
Kari chuckled. “Solaris, over on Terrassia,” she said, and the barkeep acknowledged his surprise with an appreciative nod. “I was born and raised on Terrassia,” she continued. “Only came over here to Askies to attend the Academy at DarkWind and more recently for the War.”
Dave fixed her with another curious stare, and as he put the finishing touches on Kari’s potent drink, he slid it toward her. “If you’ll forgive my saying so, ma’am, you look a tad young to have attended the Academy and fought in the war.”
Kari couldn't argue that, but didn't feel like explaining. “It’s a long story,” she said. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to take my drink up to my room and bathe now.”
“Not at all; I’ll send Millie up with the hot water right away,” David said, and he turned toward the door to the back room.
The demonhunter rose from her stool and made her way to the stairs in the corner of the inn, and she marked well the eyes of the other patrons as they followed her. Always it was the same: initially they saw the wings and the solid black coloration and assumed she was a half-demon. When it came to light that she was not only terra-dracon but also a demonhunter, the suspicions and hostility melted away immediately, giving way to both trust and admiration. Kari figured she should be used to it, as it was something she had dealt with for so long, but then she wondered if anyone ever got used to such treatment.
The first sip of her potent drink sent a burning heat down the center of her chest as it slid into her belly like liquid fire, and she let out a contented sigh as she reached the top of the stairs. Her quiet footsteps brought her quickly to the end of the hallway, and the door swung open easily as she unlocked it, revealing a large bedroom of impressive décor. The bed, large enough for two, was centered along the right hand wall, flanked by small nightstands with lanterns, and it was covered in clean, crimson sheets. Four pillows sat up against the headboard, and just looking at them tempted Kari to lie down to sleep as she took another intoxicating sip of her drink. Instead she crossed the room to the large double window that looked out over the edge of the bazaar, the neighboring shops, and the eastern part of the city, and after a moment Kari closed the crimson drapes.
An armoire stood against the left wall from the doorway, along with a reading chair upholstered in the same color scheme as the rest of the room. Kari moved to the wardrobe and placed her traveling pack and cloak within, then secured it. She took another sip of her drink, its numbing effect beginning to loosen up her sore muscles, and she inspected the pictures that hung at precise intervals on the bare white walls, but she had no idea who any of the people pictured were. She walked around the bed and placed her drink on the nightstand before she began to remove her armor and lay the pieces neatly on the floor beside the bed. She decided she would wash the entire suit later, and then perhaps stop in one of the local smithies to buy something to polish it with the next day.
Kari’s padded shirt and pants came off soon after, and she tossed them along with her undergarments into a pile by the window. They were filthy, and she failed to suppress a grimace at how dirty she was, excusing herself only because she’d spent the previous couple of weeks coming down out of the mountains and through the riverless portion of the southern forest. Indeed, the only washing she received in those weeks was that of the autumn rainfall, which was neither sufficient nor pleasant. She stood naked and impatient as she waited for Millie to deliver the hot water for her bath. She rubbed her grimy arms once each as she approached the bathtub, only to find there was already water in it.
It was nearly halfway full, so she tested the water briefly with her fingers: it was clean and lukewarm at best, but she climbed in anyway and lay back on the angled end to put her feet up on the other edge. A knock came at the door and she called for whomever it was to simply come in. An elder human woman approached and smiled at her. She handed the demonhunter a bar of soap and then poured a bucket of hot water into the tub, and Kari swirled her hands around to mix in the warmth. After staring at Kari for a moment, Millie walked over and retrieved the drink off of the nightstand, and placed it on the floor beside the bathtub.
“Would you like more hot water?” Millie asked, the southern accent much more homey and charming when combined with the sweet voice of the older woman.
Kari looked the human woman over briefly and didn’t miss the stare she was receiving in return. Among the rir, nudity was neither taboo nor shameful, but it was something that the humans still found curious and awkward, even after three thousand years of assimilation. Millie’s sharp green eyes were studying Kari carefully, and the terra-dracon woman accepted it as the curiosity of a human who probably rarely saw rir in the inn, let alone in the bathtub.
“Just to rinse, and a couple of towels and a scrub brush if you have one,” Kari replied at last. “Wings are a pain to wash, you know?”
“Of course, m’lady,” the human woman said, though Kari reminded herself that the woman certainly wouldn't know. Millie bowed her head and made her way from the room.
Once Millie left, Kari began washing herself in earnest. The soap was smooth and smelled fruity, and she practically purred as the grit and the smell of sweat and weeks on the road began to be replaced by something lady-like. She almost laughed at herself as she thought the last; she always considered herself closer to being one of the boys than a lady, and her muscular build usually made others feel the same way. Kari stood up so she could properly wash her tail and backside, and then bent over to soak her hair. She stood up straight again and began washing her mane, using her small claws to untangle what knots she could before taking a brush to it. While she let the soap settle on her scalp, she reached over the side and picked up her drink, and she finished it in a single, long swallow before placing the glass back down on the floor.
A knock came at the door a minute later as Millie returned with the towels, scrub brush, and a bucket of water for rinsing. Kari wasn’t sure whether to make any effort to cover herself as she stood there, but ultimately she decided against it. There was a brief moment where the human woman simply stared at her, but it was a stare Kari was fairly used to: the one that clearly said the person was impressed by her muscular build and chiseled stomach. Kari reached to take the brush from the human woman, but Millie instead walked around behind the dem
onhunter, took up the soap, and began to gently lather and scrub the backsides of Kari’s wings. Kari thanked her and took up the bucket of water from beside the tub to rinse the soap from her hair. She stood still for a couple of minutes while the human washed her wings, and then Millie left once again to get more rinse water.
Kari sank back down into the tub but made sure to keep her hair outside, and she scrubbed the insides of her wings. Being clean made her feel like a woman, but as the thought entered into her mind, it brought with it the disturbing reminder that she was a lonely woman, without a home or a family, and she wondered exactly where her assignment would take her. Her thoughts turned to her commander, Brigadier Kris Jir’tana, who’d made no secret of his attraction to her throughout the eight years they worked together in the war. Why had he disappeared so suddenly after the war, when she was finally ready to consider courtship? Why had her refusal to start a sexual relationship in the middle of a war surprised him?
Kari sighed, closed her eyes, and rested her head against the warming metal of the tub, and she wondered why she was in this position again. Hadn’t she already served her time, giving the world and the gods a lifetime of selfless service once before? Hadn’t she earned that rest, in that place of warmth and sunshine, apart from the struggles and pains of mortality? What right did Trigonh have to rip her from there, to thrust the mantle of war upon her shoulders once again, to drag her back down into a lonely life lived on the road for who knows how long? What right did he have – indeed, what right did even the gods possess to allow him to bring her back against her will, citing some misguided belief that he was in love or that she could ever love him in return?
The alcohol settled in deeper, warming her even further, and Kari wiggled her numbing toes in the water. But the amusement didn’t soothe the ache in her heart or the uncertainty of her future. She’d been lucky enough to survive the eight year war, and only days removed from it, she was already about to be assigned to another dangerous hunt that could cost her her life. She wasn’t averse to returning to that place of warmth and comfort, but she recalled the amount of pain that had preceded going there the first time. She had died, a slow, horrible, rotting death that took twenty-seven years to come to fruition, and though she was with friends when it finally came, it was something she had faced alone.
Alone.
The demonhunter sighed again, and she held her dog tags up to read their inscription: Karian Vanador, Shield of the Heavens, T03172849. Was that the entirety of what she was to her own deity? Why did the thought of serving a higher power not bring her comfort? Why did she feel apart even from him, from his church and his power, when as a demonhunter she was supposed to be an extension of his right hand, his justice, and his mercy? She closed her eyes and shook away the thoughts; if the Unyielding got the impression her faith and conviction were falling apart, she wouldn’t even have a job – and her job was all she had. She was simply tired, and assumed Zalkar would understand.
Millie knocked on the door again as she returned with two more buckets of warm water in her left hand, and another drink in her right. “Something about you seemed off, so I thought maybe another drink would help you relax. It’s just not right for a pretty thing like you to look so out of sorts,” she said, and she placed the buckets beside the tub and handed the terra-dracon woman the drink.
“Pretty?” Kari repeated hesitantly. She’d never considered herself very pretty, but to be called so by a human was even more unusual. Though the two species assimilated easily and got on well, they were still vastly different in terms of physical attractiveness.
“Och, don’t kid yourself, girl. You’re gorgeous as rir go,” Millie answered with a sincere smile. She looked about the room. “Did you finish your wings, or can I help you rinse off? And would you like me to clean your clothes and your armor?”
“Wings are done,” the demonhunter replied, and she stood up once more. “Would love help with everything else. I have to warn you though, my clothes are pretty gross.”
Millie hardly seemed put off. “I wash the linens here,” she said. “Dirt and sweat are nothing new to me.” She helped Kari rinse and dry herself, and then she gathered up the dirty clothes and armor as she prepared to leave. “My word, this armor is light. Is this paluric?”
“Aye,” Kari said, and she moved to sit on the corner of the bed to let the air dry her more thoroughly. “It was a gift from a friend, a long, long time ago.”
The human woman’s eyes widened slightly, and she let out a short laugh. “Must’ve been some friend,” she said with a wink. She closed the door behind her as she left. The reaction was not completely unexpected: paluric armor was exceedingly rare and worth a king’s ransom, and few people could ever believe that someone had given it to her. It was extremely lightweight, almost completely unrestrictive, and near-impenetrable; that particular suit had protected Kari throughout much of her previous and current lives.
Kari took a sip of her new drink, and chuckled quietly as another knock sounded on the door. “What did you forget?” she called.
She was surprised when a male terra-rir came through the door instead of the human woman. The terra-rir were the most common of the rir species, and the one from which terra-dracon were an offshoot. The man was about a hand taller than Kari, well toned and handsome, with the white hair and green eyes most common to their people. His hair was trimmed short, which was typically a way of saying one was not a fighter: rir fighters wore their hair long as a testament to how long they’d been fighting without being beaten or killed. He wore a tunic and a pair of off-white trousers, and he stepped into the room and closed the door quietly behind him.
“Hello,” he said softly. “My name is Aaron, and I was wondering if you might like some company for the night.”
Kari's brows rose; she had used the services of prostitutes before in her prior life, but never had she had one come up to her room and proposition her. She took a sip of her drink to stall. To find a male rir prostitute in a human city was unusual for several reasons. “You’re a mule?” she asked rhetorically, and he nodded silently in response. A mule was what a male rir prostitute who'd had himself fixed in some way was called; they were uncommon anywhere. As a species the rir were not very sexually active, but there were always exceptions and mules made their living providing services to females who wanted a partner for a night rather than a mate. On occasion they even provided their services to human women, though the differences between the two species made such an event rather rare. “I’m not interested, but thank you.”
Aaron smiled and made no effort to mask the fact that he was admiring her naked form. “If it’s the price that concerns you, my lady, I would offer myself to you freely,” he said.
Kari blushed, and then she laughed and nodded at the compliment. “No, it’s the sex I’m not interested in, sorry.”
“Does my lady prefer to be alone then, or would she be content with some company for the evening?” he pressed.
It was clear he was attracted to her, which struck Kari as odd since as a mule, he was unlikely to ever attract a mate. Why he was interested in spending an evening with a woman who wanted nothing sexual from him was a mystery, and the fact that he would do so for free only compounded the point. Ultimately, Kari figured he was probably just as lonely working in a human town as she was stopping in it. She took some pity on him, though she wasn’t really interested in anything he could provide her with. “I’ll only be in town for the night, most likely,” she said, trying to be tactful.
“A night with a beautiful woman of my own kind would still be more than welcome, my lady,” he said, confirming her suspicions about him simply being lonely. Part of her wondered if he really found her beautiful or if that was simply flattery. She guessed he might try to persuade her to indulge in his other services later in the evening, but decided not to dwell on it. There was something else that caught her attention more at that moment.
“Stop calling me lady,” she said. “My n
ame is Kari.”
He approached and knelt before her, and she had to make a conscious effort not to brush his hands aside when he took up her dog tags to inspect them. “You are a demonhunter?” he asked. “That makes you more a lady, not less.”
Kari shook her head, put her drink on the floor, and rose to her feet, intending to politely show him to the door before he could say anything else. She was lonely, yes, but something about this just struck her as wrong. Aaron straightened up before her but kept his hands to himself, and there was something in his smile and his eyes that put her at ease. Kari put her hands on his chest, and she could feel the sculpted muscle beneath the fabric of the shirt. She pulled him close to her just by touching him, and he put his hands gently on her hips as though preparing to dance. For a moment she felt a release from some of her tensions as she remembered the simple joy of a man’s warmth under her hands. She expected him to make his case for her more forcefully, but he was a perfect gentleman, his hands maintaining their soft perch on her hips as he breathed lightly against the side of her neck. After a couple of minutes, he slid his hands up her back, and his fingers traced curiously along the muscles of her wings before his hands met between them and pulled her close into him. He smelled good, he felt warm, and for a moment, Kari thought perhaps she should indulge herself.
Her thoughts were interrupted by yet another knock, and Millie came in without waiting for Kari’s invitation. She stopped in surprise as she saw the two embracing. “Oh, dear me! Forgive my interruption,” she said. Kari waved off the apology as she separated from Aaron and motioned toward the buckets and brush. “I see you’ve met Aaron. He’s a sweetheart.”
