by Joe Jackson
The patrol leader bid them stay by the main fire pit and set his warriors to watch over them. He made his way to a decorative teepee that had many simple but bright, colorful designs painted upon its walls. He scratched at the door and disappeared inside after a moment, and Kari took the opportunity to look the younger males of the patrol over. They fidgeted under her scrutiny, and she had to stop herself from laughing, reminding herself that the honor-driven people might not understand her amusement and take it as an insult.
“Do any of you young men speak elvish?” she asked in that tongue, but she received no response from the males as they looked to each other in confusion. It left her to wonder why the patrol leader was able to understand some of it, and how the tribe as a whole might have come into contact with it. Were there elves here on Tsalbrin, possibly in this same rainforest?
She turned her attention to the females then, and watched as they worked to prepare the gathered foods and hunted meats for the tribe’s evening meal. They paid almost no attention to the newcomers, and set about their tasks with grim-faced determination. Like the males they wore no clothing, but many had decorative bone hoops in their pierced fins or, in a few cases, string belts around their waists that were punctuated by a single bone circle that hung down before their lower bellies. Kari wondered at their meaning, but her thoughts came to a quick end when the patrol leader returned with another male at his side.
“You are she who speaks the words of the elves?” the other male asked in elvish as he drew up before the small group. His accent was wondrous, retaining the sibilance of his native language even while speaking the flowing tongue of the elves.
“I am,” Kari said, and she touched her hand palm-up to her breast before waving it slowly in the direction of the elder. “I am called Karian Vanador; I am a hunter of demons in service to Zalkar. The male to my right is called Erik, and the demon to my left is called Makauric. The demon has served as our guide so that we could find you easily; he will bring you no harm.”
The elder considered her words for a minute, after which he motioned for the patrollers to return to their duties. He waited for the others to depart, and Kari looked over what she assumed was a tribal shaman. The male wore brightly colored woven garments, though they still didn’t quite classify as clothes. They appeared more like vestments of priesthood, embroidered simply with depictions of a large lizardman with a sun behind him, holding a hand out over many smaller lizardmen who knelt in supplication. His face had small yellow and red designs painted under his reptilian eyes, and a feather-adorned headdress covered his crown, its plumage comprised of a myriad of tropical bird feathers arranged in a careful pattern that was impressive to behold. He didn’t have the woven-grass bracelets that Kari assumed denoted authority, but she guessed that it was because his shamanistic vestments did that well enough.
After a few more moments, with the patrol well out of earshot and the females behind them busily tending to the cooking meal, the shaman spoke once more. “I am called Savarras,” he continued in elvish. “I am the high shaman of our family, and speak for our chieftain. For what purpose have you come among the people?”
Kari nodded appreciatively for the creature’s fluency in the somewhat stilted and overly formal speech of the elves. She wondered again where he had learned to speak it, but decided not to dwell on it: she was simply thankful that he did indeed understand her. She looked to Erik and then Makauric briefly and let her expression tell them to relax and wait for her to explain what was being said afterwards. The brys shouldered his bow, and the czarikk in the area were all visibly relieved.
“Erik and I are hunters of demons,” she answered, and then she gestured lightly toward Makauric. “This one has earned our trust for the time being, and indeed led us to you. We have been tasked by our lord to hunt a much larger and more dangerous demon called a sylinth. We have come among your people to ask if you have any knowledge of such a creature.”
Something flashed in the shaman’s eyes, but after a moment he blinked whatever it was away. “Remain here at peace,” he said. “I shall return to you shortly.”
Savarras returned to the teepee from which he had come. Erik approached and touched Kari’s shoulder and she turned to face him. “What happened?” he asked.
“Just introductions so far, but did you see him flinch when I asked about the sylinth?” she asked, and Erik nodded. “He’s probably asking his chief how much to tell us, and letting him know we’re here to help. The one I’ve been speaking to is Savarras; he’s the tribe’s shaman.”
“I am not certain it was your sylinth,” Makauric said, “but looking at these people, they have clearly been hurt by something. Look at the faces of the females.”
Kari followed Makauric’s gaze to the czarikk tending to the cooking, and Erik did the same. The females didn’t bother to even acknowledge the guests, so Kari studied them for several minutes. Though she had only met czarikk a few times in her life, as she watched the females closely she could see there was truth to Makauric’s words. There was something about the downturn of their reptilian mouths, the slight narrowing of their eyes, and the tightness in their throats that suggested anger, fear, or pain.
After a couple of minutes, Kari turned back to the brys. “How did you know those were females?” she asked. Makauric simply tapped his slitted nostrils. Kari tilted her head, and she glanced at Erik as he snickered quietly into his hand.
Savarras soon returned and held his hands out to the sides with the palms up. “My chieftain has tasked me with showing you what it is you have inquired about,” he said to Kari. “First, however, he has welcomed you to stay with the family for the evening, to share in our meal, and even to watch as we perform a fire dance for Sakkrass.”
Kari touched her hand to her breast and bowed her head. “We are grateful for your hospitality,” she said. “Is Sakkrass your deity, then?”
“Indeed,” Savarras said. “We believe our lord is displeased with our family, so tonight we will perform a fire dance to attempt to return to his good graces.”
That piqued Kari’s interest, and she folded her arms across her chest. “Your women appear to be in pain,” she said quietly. “Is this related to Sakkrass being displeased?”
The czarikk shaman nodded with a sigh. “Come, and I will show you,” he said, and he led the trio across the village. They came to a dome-shaped skin hut, but the shaman pulled up short before the door. “I cannot enter until the time for the cleansing rites is upon us, but look you well upon what has happened to us.”
Kari steeled herself, opened the flap to the tent, and crouched to step inside, and she was immediately assailed by a horrid stench. When her eyes adjusted to the low light within, she saw that the wider tent had a depressed, sand-covered floor that served as a rookery. All of the eggs within were smashed, and it appeared some of them were near to hatching at the time they were destroyed. Kari put her hand to the end of her snout, trying not to be sick or burst into tears as Erik came in behind her. In all her years as a demonhunter, even with all of the atrocities she had come across, never had she seen something so base and horrible – not even the massacre in the city of Seren during the Apocalypse.
“By the gods,” Erik muttered as he came in, and he gave Kari's shoulder a comforting squeeze.
She stayed only another moment, fighting hard not to burst into tears, and she scrambled out of the tent to get back to fresh air and away from the gruesome scene before them. “Forgive me, I was not prepared to see such a thing,” Kari said to Savarras. She took a deep breath and rose to stand straight before the shaman, whose eyes showed the telltale traces of withheld tears in their depths. “What happened here?”
“I do not know,” the czarikk shaman said. “Sakkrass has hidden his face from me and I cannot divine his wishes for the people. He allowed a snake to kill our children, like the old gods did to the people many generations ago when we turned our backs on them.”
There was clearly a lot more to the
story, but Kari’s attention was fixed on the shaman’s mention of what could’ve been the sylinth. “A snake?” Kari repeated. “Tell me: was this snake twice the length of a man, and did it slither upright like a man?”
“We did not see,” Savarras answered with a shake of his head. “This was done in the dark of night when we were in our sleep cycle. We assume it was the snake, as it has previously attempted to make us bend knee to it: to make us turn our backs on Sakkrass as he has turned his on us. Its scent lingers, though we have not seen it since our refusal to swear fealty to it.”
Kari didn’t know how the shaman would react to her trying to touch him, but she slowly laid her hand on his shoulder and met his stare evenly. “Sakkrass did not do this to you,” she said confidently. “This was done to you by a creature we call a sylinth, a demon that shares the characteristics of a snake. This is the very creature we have come to hunt.”
Savarras shook his head. “But Sakkrass ignores my pleas…”
“No, he does not,” Kari said forcefully, but she softened her gaze. “His answers are being blocked by the sylinth. They are crafty adversaries, and they confuse and blur the minds of men to attain their evil ends. It wants you to believe Sakkrass has turned his back on you so that you will serve its own master.”
Savarras considered her words for a minute, trying to keep up with translating what she’d said, and recognition filled his eyes. “Like the old one!” he exclaimed. “Then Sakkrass has not turned his back on us, I have simply failed him?”
“No, no,” Kari shushed him. “You have failed no one! This is something beyond your control, and this is why my lord has sent us to the aid of your people. Sakkrass has likely asked my lord for our help,” she said, for though she hated to lie, she knew the shaman needed to be bolstered. “Sakkrass will want to see your fire dance tonight. Honor him and stay true to his service, and when we remove the sylinth, you will feel his joy again.”
Savarras studied her eyes for a few moments, and she could see the joy spread through his own. “I must inform my chieftain at once,” he said. “Please, make yourselves comfortable near to the fire pit, and I will join with you as soon as I have spoken with Oshasis.”
Kari nodded and the shaman made his way hastily to the chieftain’s tent. She led her two companions back to the fire pit and sat on a nearby log. Erik knelt before her and Kari fell into his open arms, and he hugged her tightly and stroked her hair. She felt foolish, or even a little weak, and she figured that he probably expected someone much tougher in a partner, especially now that he knew who she was. If he felt that way, though, nothing in his touch showed it. He pulled away from her lightly after a couple of minutes and met her stare evenly, and Kari could see there was no judgment or disappointment in his eyes, only concern.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
Kari shook her head. “Gods, Erik, it killed their children,” she said, blinking back a few fresh tears, and Erik nodded solemnly. “It’s going to pay, Erik. This thing will beg for death when we’re done with it. I swear it.”
“Yes, it will,” he agreed with a grim smile.
“The czarikk think their god turned his back on them,” she continued. “The sylinth tried to force them to serve it, and killed their children when they refused. But it was too cowardly to fight them. It slipped in during the night and smashed their eggs when they weren’t awake to defend their young. That kind of cowardice doesn’t seem to fit a sylinth; it sounds more like something a corlyps would do.”
“Or a brys,” Erik said, turning his stern gaze to Makauric, whose own eyes narrowed.
“This was not my doing,” the brys said simply.
“So you say,” Erik returned, “and I’ll take you at your word for now. But I’d better not find that you’ve lied to us, brys. If this was your doing, in whole or in part, you’d best disappear before I find out.”
“Save your threats,” Makauric said evenly, his voice impassive even in the face of the accusation. “I am not afraid of you, and regardless, you have no cause to suspect me.”
“Let it go,” Kari said, touching the end of Erik’s snout to silence him before the argument could get any more heated. She glanced at Makauric and he nodded, and he climbed a tree, apparently wanting some time alone.
Kari sighed, turned back to Erik, and stroked his face. “I’m going to swear a Blood Oath,” she said, and his eyes widened. “If our guide was responsible, it’ll become obvious immediately.”
Erik was speechless for the better part of a minute. “You’re a better person than me, Karian,” he said, and she didn’t bother to correct him. “While these people have my sympathies, I don’t think I could muster the fury to swear the Blood Oath. Does that…make me weak?”
She regarded him curiously in light of her thoughts only minutes before, and she cradled his cheek. “We all became demonhunters for different reasons,” she said. “I don’t know why you did, and I was confused about what would drive a half-demon to despise his father’s kind enough to hunt them for a living. I think I understand that now, but honestly, I don’t really care. You’re a good partner, and I know I can depend on you.” She paused with a sigh. “But what we saw in that tent…that’s why I became a demonhunter, Erik. That kind of pain is something I can identify with, something that no one should ever feel. And we have to make the ones responsible pay for it; that’s why I do what I do. I’ve walked across a good bit of this world, and everywhere I can see the hurt and pain the demons cause written on the faces of nearly every person I pass. If we didn’t stand up and do something about it, that would make us weak.”
“Did they kill someone in your family?” he asked, and she was shocked. “I only ask because when you ran away in Flora, Eryn and Ty said they’d found you in the graveyard.” Kari bit her lip and looked away as tears welled up in her eyes again. Erik touched her face gently and said, “I’m sorry. Forget I asked, I didn’t mean to hurt you again after what we just saw.”
Kari shook her head; she wasn’t ready to tell him the whole of it, but she realized it wasn’t fair to keep it from him altogether. “I had an abusive father,” she managed quickly. She closed her eyes and fought to keep her emotions in check, and she took a deep breath after she’d said it. “I went to the graveyard to remind myself that he’s dead, and that he can never hurt me again. And despite everything he put me through, I’m a good enough woman to impress a man like you…and more importantly, your brother.”
Erik smiled and gently pulled her into another embrace, and he held her tightly for a few minutes. “I suppose I am rather hard to impress, but that’s a product of my character more than others’,” he admitted. “But Grakin…he’s a better judge of character…and a very lucky man.”
Kari wiped the traces of tears from around her eyes when Erik released her. She fought for something to say, but ultimately just smiled, and Erik returned it in full. “So what’s our plan?” he asked, cocking a half-smile. “I know I’m supposed to be in charge, but since I don’t speak elvish, I’ve no idea what you two have been talking about.”
“We’ve been invited to share dinner with them and then watch them perform a fire dance to Sakkrass,” Kari said. She elaborated, “Sakkrass is their god, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard his name before. After their fire dance we’re welcome to stay the night in the village.”
He nodded. “Well, that’s helpful. We should have Makauric lead us to the sylinth’s lair at first light. Once it’s dead we’ll come back and let these people know, and then try to find out where the rest of my siblings and the twins are. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but these people deserve whatever help we can give, even if it’s just the strength of our presence, right?”
“Well said,” Kari agreed.
The two waited for nearly a half hour before Savarras returned with the chieftain at his side. Kari expected the chieftain to perhaps have a more elaborate headdress or facial markings, but instead he was clothed with short, tanned animal hide breeches an
d an open leather-like vest of a similar color. He had golden bands around both of his upper arms and a bone necklace that hung down over his breast, and the clothing and simple jewelry distinguished him greatly from his people. The outfit reminded Kari of the wolf people of southeast Terrassia, called luranar: she remembered that golden bands were their way of denoting royalty, and that the tanned leggings and vests were very popular among them. She found it curious that a czarikk would be wearing a similar outfit, and wondered if it meant there were luranar here on Tsalbrin.
Kari rose and bowed before the chief, and Erik did the same in turn. The czarikk male held his hands up before bringing them quietly together before his face and nodding his head. He said something in his sibilant tongue to his shaman, and then he folded his arms across his chest and waited for his shaman to translate his words.
“This is our chieftain, Oshasis,” Savarras said, gesturing toward the other male. “He welcomes you to the home of the people.”
“We are honored to be welcome among your people and share in the comforts of your village,” Kari returned with a bow of her head.
Savarras translated her words to Oshasis, and the lizardman’s expression changed enough that Kari understood he liked her formal greeting. The two czarikk males exchanged words a few more times before Oshasis uttered what Kari assumed was the czarikk phrase for excuse me and made his way to sit on one of the logs around the fire pit. Savarras approached Kari and Erik and said, “Oshasis is deeply thankful for your promised efforts to rid us of the snake. His thoughts and prayers go with you, and the spirit of Sakkrass will watch over you.”
Kari thanked Savarras and his chief for the blessing, and they took their places around the fire pit at Oshasis’ direction. Kari explained what Oshasis had said to Erik. They shared in the evening meal when the rest of the tribe came out to join them, though Makauric stayed perched up in his tree. Not including those on patrol, there were well over one hundred czarikk, and all of them came out to share dinner with their chief and shaman. They sat in a cozy but large circle around the central fire pit. Kari spent most of the mealtime telling Savarras a little bit about herself and her partner, their adventures, and their mission to find and strike down the sylinth. Kari swore to them that she and Erik would not let them down.
