by Joe Jackson
Like all of his kind, the brys was short, standing just under five feet tall: nearly the same size as Eryn. He was well-toned but lean, as though he’d never known an idle moment. He wore a set of blackened leather armor which, if Kari’s eyes did not deceive her, was made from the skin of other serilian demons, and a pair of rapiers hung sheathed from his belt. He had three rows of small, rear-curving sharp horns on his head and an overbite that caused his black front fangs to stick out slightly. When Erik stepped beside Kari, the brys tilted his head curiously.
“Are you lost?” he asked. His voice was slightly high-pitched due to his size, and it lacked the malice Kari expected from a brys. There’d been a number of brys loyal to Kaelariel who served in Kris Jir’tana’s brigade, and though technically they were all on the same side, Kari had never gotten to know any of them. Brys were vicious, vengeful assassins who had little in the way of personality, by all accounts, and the ones in Jir’tana’s brigade had been far from eager to spend time with the demonhunter.
“Why do you ask?” Erik returned. He touched Kari’s shoulder lightly and she nodded that she understood he wanted to handle the talking.
The creature waved his unoccupied clawed hand briefly, and said, “Worry not: I will not assault your mate.”
The two demonhunters exchanged a glance, and Erik stepped away from Kari, removing his hand from her shoulder. “She’s not my mate,” he said.
“How unfortunate,” the brys responded immediately. “I have been tracking you since you slaughtered my corlypsi cousins on your way down from Riverport. This jungle is not a place I would expect to find half-breed lovers wandering, though I know that she is neither half-breed nor, as you say, your mate. So I ask you again: are you lost?”
Kari squared her jaw as the brys confirmed her suspicions: she had let her guard down too easily during their journey. Though the brys were nearly impossible to track or detect when they didn’t want to be, Kari had spent enough time amongst the elves in their woodland home to know the telltale signs when someone was following her. The fact that the canopy here was so much higher and the forest was damp and misty was no excuse: she had failed herself and her partner, and had the demon meant them harm they would certainly have been killed already. The one positive, she thought, was that they knew that the creature didn’t mean them harm.
“We’re trying to find the czarikk,” Kari said quietly, and her words drew a glance but then a nod from Erik. She wasn’t exactly comfortable telling their plans to a serilian demon, but since he hadn’t harmed them and had taken the time to speak with them, Kari gambled on the chance that he might know where the czarikk were located and be willing to tell them.
The creature cocked his head again. “So you thought to wander around until you found them? Did no one in Riverport tell you where to find them?”
“They gave us general directions, but we were hesitant to ask too many questions; there’s war brewing among the mortals of this island, and we can’t be too careful,” Erik answered. He turned his back – foolishly, Kari thought – and moved over to don his armor. Dawn was coming, so there was little point to him returning to sleep.
The brys nodded shortly. “I have heard there is the threat of war to the west, but with the troubles here in the east, I have had little time to investigate the other side of the island.”
“Who are you?” Kari prompted.
“I am called Makauric,” he said with a strange gesture of his clawed hand. He leaned back against a tree, stood his bow on end before him, and continued, “I range these woods and north to the mountains claimed by the Tuvurasti. If I am not mistaken, you are Kari and Erik. I am curious why you have come to my forest.”
“Your forest?” Erik echoed with a chuckle as he worked to don his armor by himself.
“My forest,” the creature repeated, and his eyes flicked only briefly to the side before his unwavering, nearly unblinking gaze settled once more on Kari. “If you are here to help, then I will guide you to the czarikk. They will not welcome my kind into their village, but they may feel differently about you – time will tell, I suppose. Unless you know how to communicate with them, you should not expect a very warm welcome. I can tell you from experience that they do not speak the words of either of our creators.”
“You know where to find them, then?” Kari asked.
“I do,” Makauric said. “Your course will take you out of the forest and into the savannah before you ever find them. Someone in Riverport could likely have given you directions; the czarikk are not far from what the mortals call the Ursis River. They draw their territorial lines quite firmly, and the other mortals of the island respect those boundaries.”
“We were told to avoid the city of Ursis because of the threat of war,” Kari said. “How far from here are the czarikk?”
The brys studied her for a moment and gave a noncommittal shrug. “A week, perhaps more, given how fast you have been moving to date,” he said. “Then again, if you know where you are going, then perhaps a little less than a week.”
Erik approached again once he finished putting on his armor, and he looked the brys over skeptically as he stood beside Kari. “You do know we’re demonhunters, don’t you?” he asked.
Makauric stared at him a moment, his impassive expression unchanged, and then gave the same shrug again. “I could have killed you many times had I wished,” he said. “I think you owe me at least the courtesy of keeping your threats to yourself. I sense the hand of the gods behind your presence, so I offer you my aid. This is my forest, and my island, and what I cannot protect myself I welcome the aid of others – even demonhunters – in so doing.”
“Aid in what? What trouble is there here in the east?” Kari prompted.
The brys looked around for a few moments and then gestured for the two to follow him as he headed off between the trees. It was strange for Kari to see a serilian demon turn its back on her willingly, but she fell into step behind the brys, with Erik behind her. Eventually the brys slowed his pace and moved to the side so Kari walked abreast from him. They continued for several minutes and the brys’ crimson eyes darted around while the sounds of the forest awakening rose around them, though he said nothing.
Kari noted as they walked that Makauric appeared very young for his type: his flesh was smooth and almost shiny, like a newly created demon, and there were no scars upon his deep red skin where it showed through the black leather he wore. She knew little about the creation of her enemies: she recognized the types by sight, could name their leaders and important figures within each type’s hierarchy, and knew where to hit each to have the most effect, but when it came to how, when or where Seril had created them, Kari was oblivious. It was well known that aside from Askies Island and Terrassia, the other continents were relatively free of the presence of serilian demons, so to find several on Tsalbrin so soon after their arrival took her by surprise. Her orders from Zalkar had suggested that the demonic influence they were looking into likely originated in the underworld, and she didn’t expect to find serilian demons operating in the same area as an underworld breed. It made Kari wonder how many more there might be, and what effect their presence might have on the overall mission.
After walking for several minutes, the brys finally began to speak. “Several weeks ago, I went to hunt in the mountains to the northeast, as I do every spring when the rams come down from the higher peaks with their mates and young. The hunting is always good, and the flesh of the rams is lean and makes for good salted jerky for my travels. When I arrived I found entire flocks of them already slaughtered, though none of them had been even partially devoured. The marks upon them were from a blade, but it made little sense: even if bandits or frontiersmen had made a home in the foothills or the peaks themselves, they would be fools to not take the meat and skins these animals provide. My suspicions were further aroused when I began trying to track whatever had killed off the animals: there were no footprints, only long drag marks, so at first I believed that perhap
s it was a poor attempt by the perpetrators to cover their tracks. It was also possible that it was a group of men traveling in single file to hide their numbers but dragging a wounded comrade or even a dead animal on a litter. Both of those theories were dispelled when I found the first traces of dung.”
Kari regarded the brys curiously, and he continued. “The creature is very careful about where it leaves its droppings, but my sense of smell is difficult to fool,” Makauric said, tapping the end of his snout. “Based on the droppings, the creature is some sort of reptilian.”
“Did you see the creature yourself?” Erik asked.
“Patience,” the brys said with a glance over his shoulder. “I will tell you all I know, but I will not overwhelm you with details. I must tell you everything in order, and in context, so you may decide what it is that must be done.”
“So after you found its droppings, what did you do?” Kari prompted.
“From there I tracked it farther, though it began to travel atop the rocks to try to hide its path. I located a cave in the foothills before the higher mountains, and the refuse pile outside left little doubt that I had found its lair. Much of the remains outside the cave consisted of destroyed armor and weapons along with the bones of humanoids of many different types. The bones were picked clean but had fang marks on them. The markings on the ruined pieces of armor again suggested a bladed weapon, but there were also puncture marks – roughly as wide as the length of my thumb, and a little more than a hand apart.”
“Sylinth,” Kari said, and her words prompted an mm-hmm from Erik behind her. The brys looked to her expectantly, so she explained. “A sylinth is a type of serpentine demon native to the realm of Sorelizar in the underworld. They’re about fifteen feet from the tip of their snake-like snouts to the end of their tail, but slither upright, sort of like a man.”
“I see,” Makauric said.
“Did you engage the sylinth at all?” Erik asked.
“No,” the brys answered. “I did not get the chance. Something clouded my mind and I left that place quickly, afraid I was soon to be forced into the service of whatever inhabited the cave. I have not returned since, but I have tried to monitor its behavior from a distance as best I can. To my knowledge it has not troubled the Tuvurasti to the north, but the czarikk seem to be even more hostile in recent weeks, so I suspect it may be bothering them. It is difficult to know, as the czarikk are quite adept at finding me when I attempt to get close to their settlement.”
“Perhaps we’ll have better luck,” Erik said, and then he moved up beside Kari. “We should meet the czarikk and make sure it’s the sylinth that’s bothering them, if it’s something demonic at all. Could turn out it’s more of those corlypsi, or something else.”
Kari agreed with a nod, and then turned back to the brys. “Do you know what’s going on in the west at all?” she asked.
“I am not certain,” Makauric answered. He stopped briefly and sniffed the air a few times, and he scanned the canopy above them. Soon he shrugged off whatever he was thinking and continued ahead. “When trouble brews among the mortals, I make myself scarce. Trouble always seems to get blamed on my kind – rightfully so, many times – so normally it does not benefit me to be visible when the mortals are looking to harm someone, or blame someone for harming each other. All I can say with certainty is that there is talk of a war, and I have no plans to be anywhere near the western side of the isle when it comes.”
“Where’s your partner?” Erik asked. Brys typically lived and worked in pairs, which made them so much more dangerous an adversary. To find one operating alone was unusual.
“I have none. My brothers on the island live in the forests on the western edge and I seldom see them,” Makauric answered. He turned his attention back to Kari. “So what exactly is a sylinth doing on my island?”
“That’s what we’re here to find out,” she answered but didn’t elaborate further, and the brys didn’t press.
“You should take your morning meal and relieve yourself before we go any farther,” Makauric said, and he stopped in a small clearing and looked around. He made certain the area was safe and then met Kari’s curious stare. He shrugged. “I have been tracking you for nearly a week; I know your schedule quite well now.”
Kari blushed slightly. “So you saw us down by the river…?”
“I did,” he said with no change in his expression. “That is why I assumed you were mates. I should warn you: you must be careful when drinking or bathing in this forest. The waters are full of many types of parasites and dangerous fish. Have you felt ill at all?”
“No,” Kari answered. She sat down and pulled out her rations, but she stared at her canteen suspiciously.
“Taking the water from the vines was clever,” Makauric said. “If you need take water from the rivers, you should boil it before putting it in your canteen for drinking.”
Kari nodded and ate her stale but filling breakfast quietly, and Erik did the same while the brys stood by stoically, watching the forest around them. Kari met Erik’s gaze and the two demonhunters held a conversation with their eyes. The brys certainly seemed helpful, but Kari wasn’t entirely sure just how much they could trust him. Kari couldn’t easily dismiss the fact that he had followed them for days without attacking, though: brys were not known for subtlety or being overcautious. If he had wanted them dead, he would have watched them, waited until nightfall, and killed Erik while he was on guard before slitting Kari’s throat in her sleep. If he was one of the more vicious varieties of brys, he may have killed Erik while Kari slept and merely disarmed her, so he could harry her for days before taking her life.
They finished their meal and traveled on in silence. Makauric made no attempt at small talk, and Kari understood his breed well enough to not bother trying. His claim that he knew their schedule was no boast, and the timing of his stops to take meals and take care of their other needs aligned nearly flawlessly with Kari’s body clock, which was finely tuned after eight years in Jir’tana’s brigade. The demon himself ate salted meats during their stops and drank carefully from his own canteen, and he began to follow Kari’s schedule rather than his own.
He marched them well into the night before he could walk no farther, and as Kari and Erik set up a small camp, the brys clawed his way up a wide trunk and looked around the forest. Once it seemed he was satisfied that there was nothing nearby that might cause them trouble, he descended and took his meal with his traveling companions, though he remained silent. When he finished eating he clawed his way back up the tree and reclined in its lowest branches, and Kari and Erik looked up at him with interest. “Wish I could climb a tree like that,” Kari said.
“I don’t think I could sleep up in a tree,” Erik commented. He spared the brys another glance before he turned to Kari. “So I meant to ask, did you get your scimitars from that black dragon…Ashurinax, did you say his name was?”
“Ashurinax the Black,” Kari confirmed, but she shook her head. “No, I didn’t get these from him. His daughter used one of those weird double-ended swords. I found these among a demon’s things when I was young and freshly returned to Terrassia after graduating.”
“Really?” Erik asked, and he took one of the blades Kari offered for inspection. Kari knew her weapons well: their craftsmanship was beyond superb, the curve of the blades and every nuance of their backsides and pommels spoke of a master craftsman who had put every ounce of skill and passion into their making. The blades were inlaid with a weave design that was blackened so that it stood out from the silvery brilliance of the metal itself. Near the hilt was a marking that Erik recognized immediately, and his eyes went wide. “This was made by Terx!”
Kari nodded. Terx was a harmauth, a type of underworld demon also commonly referred to as a ram demon. They typically served as generals and bodyguards to the demon kings and nobles, and were masters over all of the lesser types of demons in the underworld. Terx himself was an oddity among his kind, as he had never served as eithe
r a general or bodyguard, but as a master smith who created weapons of unmatched quality for the highest bidder. According to the stories Kari had heard, sometime during the twentieth century on Citaria, Terx was captured during a battle between angels and demons that spilled over into his homeland in the underworld. Taken back to the celestial realm, he was placed under a compulsion by his angelic captors and began making weapons for them: weapons to destroy his own kin. For over a millennium he served that function in the celestial realm, and occasionally his works found their way to Citaria to fall into the hands of exceptionally lucky adventurers. By all accounts, he still worked daily to equip his celestial “allies” with flawless weaponry.
“Who did you kill for these?” Erik prodded.
“A valiras called Alcuron,” she said, referring to another type of underworld demon also commonly called a vulture demon. “I’m not sure how he got here or why he’d come, but I found him in an old abandoned bunker where he’d set himself up as a god among some gnolls north of Dira Ch’Tori.” Kari chuckled and took a sip of her water. “Let’s just say the gnolls didn’t think he was a god when I was done with him.”
“I wonder where he got them,” Erik commented, and he handed the weapon back to her.
Kari shrugged and slid the scimitar back into its sheath. “Not sure; I guess maybe he either killed an angel or whoever had the swords,” she said. “Or he was just lucky and found them. I wasn’t really familiar with scimitars at the time: I trained almost exclusively with a longsword and either a shortsword or long dagger at the Academy. But when I found out these were made by Terx, I knew I’d found something special. When I trained with Suler Tumureldi, he made a master out of me rather quickly.”
“You trained under the Emerald Scorpion himself?” Erik asked with wide eyes, and he shook his head. “I have to say, the history books at the Academy didn’t do your life any justice, just based on what you’ve told me in the last few weeks. They went into a lot of detail about all of your demon kills, but not so much about you, or that you trained under the Emerald Scorpion. I’d think something like that would bear mentioning.”
