by Joe Jackson
After nearly four weeks out of Flora’s port, the island of Tsalbrin appeared on the horizon. The call arose that land had been spotted, and Captain Galdur called his passengers together for one last speech. He looked them over and cracked a smile, and Kari figured he must’ve been happy that they’d proven such an easy lot to manage. Only Aeligos and Eryn’s fighting had proven to be any concern whatsoever, and though it waxed and waned over the last month of the trip, it was quite bearable. Discipline came naturally to Kari as a demonhunter, but she imagined that when confined to a ship for months, even the best-natured of land-dwellers usually became antsy and, consequently, troublesome.
“As you’ve heard, we have reached our destination. We’ll be docking in the city of Riverport, on the southeast coast,” the captain said as his passengers stood at attention before him on the quarterdeck. “Riverport sits at the mouth of the Ursis River and is a busy trading port for ships coming from Terrassia, or Dannumore to the north. However, it’s unlikely you’ll want to start your actual journey in Riverport: there’s nothing but rainforest around it, and it would take you considerable time to pass through the jungle. If your presence here is for the reasons I’ve heard, then most likely you’ll want to find a ship to take you up the coast to Tingus.”
“Why don’t you just take us to Tingus, then?” Erik asked.
“I would if I had the time,” Captain Galdur said, and he removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “Unfortunately, what it comes down to is this: our job was to get you to Tsalbrin, and bringing you here is not the only reason we’ve come this far west. We’ve other things to attend to and a strict timetable for doing so, so we must continue on our way quickly.”
“So you’re just abandoning us, then?” Erik pressed, and he folded his muscular arms across his chest. Kari sucked in her lower lip; Erik could be very bull-headed at times, and he was about to throw away what had been a good relationship with the captain and his crew over something that was a minor inconvenience at worst.
“Watch your tone,” Jori-an said from up on her platform, “or you’ll be swimming the rest of the way to the island. We were contracted to get you here, and we’ve done that. We’ve upheld our end of this bargain.”
Erik sighed and turned back to Galdur, but Sonja put a hand on his shoulder and spoke before he could. “And we appreciate your help,” she told the captain. “I don’t imagine it will be difficult to find a ship heading along the coast from Riverport to Tingus, will it?”
“Not at all,” Captain Galdur said with a semi-apologetic look. “There is a major shipping lane along the east coast, from Riverport up to Dannumore and back, for bringing supplies and trade goods back and forth to the mainland.”
Erik gave a curt nod, though he was clearly not happy with the turn of events. “Then that will have to do. Very well, thank you for your hospitality, captain,” he said before he turned and fixed Jori-an with a squinting stare. “And that of your crew.”
The first mate fixed Erik with a smile that could have said any one of a hundred different things, but she held her tongue. Kari wasn’t sure what the issue was between the two; whatever had transpired that made them dislike each other had happened when Kari wasn’t on deck. Kari followed her companions back down below decks to gather their belongings. When she returned to the quarterdeck, she dropped her pack, approached Jori-an, and shook the first mate’s hand.
“Thank you for letting us use your quarters,” Kari said. “I’m sure it’s not something you’re used to doing. Or required to, for that matter.”
“You are paying passengers,” Jori-an said with a shrug. “Making sure you’re happy and comfortable is a part of my duty.”
Kari shook her head. “You have the heart of a romantic,” she said, pointing at the first mate, “whether you’d ever admit to it or not.”
Jori-an said nothing and smiled only slightly, but a deeper one showed in her eyes. The mysterious look returned to her face after only a moment, and Kari had to wonder how good the seterra-rir first mate would’ve been at their poker games. On a hunch, Kari reached down as though pulling a coin from her purse, and she held her pinched fingers before her face before turning her empty palm and moving it away in a dismissive gesture. Jori-an’s expression changed only slightly, but Kari could tell she was surprised and intrigued. As Kari expected, the first mate answered her gesture by reaching behind her ear as though pulling something forth, and then repeating the same end to the gesture as Kari had.
“Be safe,” Jori-an said quietly after a moment. “And good luck in your mission.”
“Will you be picking us up when we’re done here?” Kari asked her.
“Possibly; it will depend on the timing of your success and our return.”
Kari nodded, having received as detailed an answer as she expected, and she sat down on the bench across from the seterra-rir first mate. Soon Grakin and the rest of the group returned to the quarterdeck, and they waited patiently while the ship made its final approach to the island and eventually pulled into the port. Like in Flora, the passengers were required to remain on board while the captain and Master Calhoun went down to speak with the port authority, and Jori-an blocked egress. Nearly a half hour later, with daylight beginning to wane, they were invited down onto the pier and allowed to head into the city to find lodgings.
Their farewell from the captain was short and cordial, and they watched only briefly as he walked back up onto the deck and gave Master Calhoun the signal to get the ship underway. Erik waved for the group to follow him and made his way farther into the city. There were no inns down near the dock, so after looking around, he began to lead his companions higher up into the city. His stare drew Kari’s back over the ocean to behold Karmi’s Sword turn and begin heading farther west, and the blue-eyed male gave a tight-lipped sigh and beckoned for the group to follow. He muttered something about the importance of whatever Captain Galdur was on his way to do, but dismissed his own words with a shake of his head.
Riverport was a tiered city. The wooden docks constituted the lowest of the tiers, where the gapped planking showed slick rock below and there were no shops or services to be found. The only doors Kari saw on the lower tier were those of the port authority and harbor patrol, with a station on the centermost of the five piers for the guards. Farther to the west, she could see that there were other, angled piers for boats coming down the river. The mouth of the river was much larger than Kari expected after Captain Galdur first described the city and its location. There was a delta, suggesting the depth was insufficient for deeper-running ships like Karmi’s Sword to head farther inland, and her thoughts were further enforced by the flatboats, barges, and skiffs she could see at those other piers. She wondered briefly how far inland the river went and whether she and her companions could find what they were looking for at the next port upriver.
Erik led everyone up a wooden staircase to the next tier of the city, and from there Kari could see much more of Riverport. The second tier was comprised mostly of warehouses and storage facilities, and the outer rim was lined with wooden cranes to ease the transport of cargo from the holds or decks of ships up to the higher level. Laborers lined the edge of the wooden overhang, which was set farther back than the lower level, and human and rir alike watched the group pass before turning their attention back to their work. From the higher vantage point, Kari could see there were two more tiers, and she wondered how much higher up the level ground was from the water. Erik quickened his pace, motioning with his hand for the others to keep up. Kari understood that he wasn’t interested in being exposed with the possibility that Gaswell had eyes in the port city.
They reached the next stairway upward and ascended to the third tier of the city, and Kari saw this level was comprised of shops, inns, and taverns. In an uncharacteristic display, Erik headed into the first inn he could find, a ramshackle place with a little painted sign that simply read The Port. It seemed to matter little to Erik, and it was obvious he just wa
nted to get the group off the streets as quickly and quietly as possible. He gave the inn’s interior only a cursory glance before he waved his siblings and friends in and then shut the door behind him as he entered last.
The inside was only slightly less dreary than the outside suggested, and it was obvious even from a glance that there weren’t enough rooms for everyone. The common room was efficient but a little too cozy, with only half a dozen tables spread throughout, a hearth on the far right wall, and a bar that took up half of the back wall. The inn was unoccupied but for a single terra-rir standing behind the bar. He looked bored and cast a curious but neutral glance at the large party. He appeared to be fairly young: his long, vibrant white hair was tied back in a ponytail, and his ruby eyes were full of youth that was still obvious despite the boredom that filled them. He stood up straight and waited for the group to approach, so Erik gestured for the others to be seated and moved over toward the terra-rir. Kari followed him. When they reached the bar, Erik towered nearly a foot taller than the apparent proprietor.
“Welcome to the Port,” the man said with a distinct lack of emotion. His accent was unfamiliar, thick with a drawl that Kari had never heard before, though it was not unpleasant. “Name’s Marshall Landrie, proprietor. What can I do for you?”
“Erik Tesconis,” he said, extending his hand, though the man simply stared at it a few moments before meeting the larger man’s gaze again. Erik pulled his hand back and continued, “We could use lodgings, at least for the night, and would appreciate some food and drink in the meantime.”
“And why should I let you stay here?” the man asked evenly. Young or not, his facial expression was quite unwelcoming, and he leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. Kari found the reaction strange, given the size of the man he was speaking to.
Erik was taken aback. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because you’re obviously half-demons,” Marshall said. “It’s dangerous to associate with your kind these days.”
Typhonix started to rise from his seat but Erik motioned for him to sit back down. Kari had little doubt what Typhonix’ solution to the innkeeper’s attitude would have been. Erik simply reached into his coin purse, pulled forth three platinum coins, and set them down before the man. It was an exhorbitant amount of money to spend on a single night’s stay at an inn, but Marshall looked the coins over for only a few seconds before he picked them up and slid them into his pocket. He studied the group briefly once more, pulled a number of pewter mugs from under the bar, and began filling them with ale and placing them before Erik.
“Excuse my manners, but with all this nonsense going on with Gaswell, my inn’s been empty for weeks. Having it suddenly fill with half-breeds won’t look good,” Marshall said after he’d filled the last tankard. “Let me give you some friendly advice: I’ll let you stay here the night, but be out of the city by morning. Likely the local goons have already either noticed your presence or been told about you. Rest assured that trouble’s going to find you if you stay here more than a day.”
Erik ignored the half-breeds comment. “Do you have any news?” Erik asked, and Aeligos approached when he overheard the conversation.
“You just land here?” the innkeeper asked, and Erik nodded. “If you’ve ever heard of Eric Gaswell, one of his descendants has been pushing to ‘purify’ the island by removing anyone not terra-rir from it. Even our brother races – shakna-rir, fures-rir, even you half-demons – to him, no one else is welcome.”
“That much we know,” Erik said. “What’s been happening more recently?”
“So far, nothing,” Marshall said, and he began polishing the bar despite the fact that it was spotless. “Most of what he’s done so far is just posturing, but rumors started spreading around the city recently that he’s holding some kirelas-rir war wizard or such. Most folks seem to think he’s going to use her as a hostage, but since nobody’s really sure what he’s after, it’s hard to know what to expect.”
“Anything else you can tell us?” Aeligos asked as he leaned forward against the bar.
“About what?” Marshall returned.
“Have you heard anything regarding demonic activity of any sort?” Erik asked. The question seemed to catch the innkeeper off guard, and Kari took a chance and pulled out her dog tags. When Erik did so as well, Marshall seemed to immediately grasp the reason he had a room full of half-demons. His demeanor changed, though still not to a friendly or welcoming one.
“Thankfully, I haven’t,” he said with a shake of his head. “I think there’s a church to Zalkar up on the topmost tier of the city, if you’re here for work. If we’re lucky, Gaswell’s little crusade will include the serilian demons, too. We don’t see many of them around these parts, especially since you foreigners won the war, but if there’s a church to Zalkar here and a bunch of demonhunters sitting in my inn, I guess there’s enough of them to be a problem.”
“Well, thank you for the information,” Erik said, though Marshall simply shrugged. “How many rooms do you have available?”
“Six,” Marshall answered, casting a glance toward the doors spread at even intervals along the north side of the room, and there were two more on the back wall beside the bar. “You’re free to take them all. As I said, I haven’t had a customer in weeks. But the rooms will not be available tomorrow night, if you catch my meaning.”
“Clearly,” Erik said, and he, Kari, and Aeligos took up the drinks and headed over to the rest of their companions. “We’ve only got six rooms, so a few of us are going to have to pair up. Kari and Grakin can obviously share one room. Sonja and Eryn can take another, and…”
“Eryn can stay with me,” Aeligos said.
“Are you sure?” Erik asked. “You two can’t have a fight and draw attention to us. From what the innkeeper said, we’ve already attracted too much attention and are likely to attract a lot more before we can get out of the city.”
“There won’t be an issue,” Eryn said evenly.
“Fine,” Erik said. “Ty and I will take the third room, Jol and Sherman can take the fourth, and then Sonja and Katarina can have their own rooms.” There were nods all around the table, and Erik paused a moment to take a sip of his drink and look over his shoulder at the innkeeper. Marshall seemed to remember something that needed tending in the kitchen and left the group alone.
“All right, we need to go over some things,” the blue-eyed male said, scratching absently at the side of his snout. “First thing being our mission here: you’ll have to forgive me but I haven’t exactly been forthright with you all regarding the reason we were sent here. In addition to everything else going on here, my superiors have reason to believe there’s demonic activity as well. Since we don’t have a lot of details, we’re going on the assumption that it is somehow connected to Gaswell’s sudden interest in purging the island.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this during the trip?” Sonja asked, flustered.
“To avoid weeks of argument,” Erik said. “There’s no room for debate on this. Kari and I have been assigned to look into the situation while the rest of you start gathering information and allies to quell the brewing rebellion.”
Sonja was clearly not happy with the revelation, but it was Typhonix who spoke up next. “They don’t want me to help you?” he asked with a disappointed look. Kari could imagine how he felt, being the only one of the three demonhunters that was not a part of the plan.
Erik took a long sip of his ale and let the silence hang for a minute before he continued. “The Order assumes that Kari and I will be enough to handle whatever the problem is,” he said. “With the amount of actual detail they’ve received, it’s obviously nothing so powerful that it requires three of us to look into. Ty, I need you with the group for this: they’re going to need your muscle and your brains. Getting information is not going to be easy, especially if Gaswell has as large a following as I’m starting to suspect. Be sensible: let Aeligos and Sonja do the talking when there’s talking to be
done, and if that doesn’t work, then you can try strong-arm tactics. This innkeeper’s not exactly chatty, so we still need to learn a lot before we can establish a plan. You know I don’t like leaving you all, but I’ve got orders and my first duty in this situation is to Zalkar and what he needs done. I trust you to get the rest of our mission started, and Ty – I trust you to keep the others safe.”
Typhonix nodded and leaned forward on his elbows as Sonja spoke. “Do you know where you’re going to start looking?” the scarlet-haired woman asked.
Erik looked briefly to Kari, and she nodded her head upwards. “As I said, we don’t have any details, really. But the barkeep said to check farther up in the city for a church of Zalkar, so we’ll start there. The rest of you should head farther north to Tingus like Captain Galdur said. If I recall correctly, there’s a shakna-rir kingdom to the north, and I’m sure they won’t be too happy about some warlord wanting to push them off the island.”
The others laughed. The shakna-rir kingdoms were matriarchal but tended to be heavily militaristic, and when threatened, they didn’t hesitate to crush their enemies. The only advantage one could realistically gain over them was that of climate, as they couldn’t tolerate the cold for very long and their armies generally failed under wintry conditions. In almost every other circumstance, thanks to their highly organized militaries and considerable populations, they had virtually no equal in war. The thought that Gaswell might actually challenge them with an army comprised of only one race was baffling. He surely would have no luck gaining an advantage due to the climate here on Tsalbrin.
