by Joe Jackson
We were directed by numerous townspeople in Solaris that Kari could be found nightly at an inn called The Pyre Peaks. Arriving there after the dinner hour, we had half-expected this famous demonhunter to be surrounded by people basking in her glory and listening to her many tales of fantastic battles. Instead, we found a lone terra-dracon girl sitting at the bar, nursing a double godhammer (I still can’t stomach those) and largely being left alone by the other patrons. Hrothgar started to move forward, but I insisted that I should be the first to speak to her, as her reaction to my station as a priestess to CB would tell us whether or not we would receive her help within moments.
As I approached and spoke her name, those intense ebon eyes locked with mine for the first time, and I could see an immediate change in her expression. Again it went against all expectations, as before I could even introduce myself, she rose to her feet, took one of my hands in hers, and said, “You are Carly Bakhor, the priestess?” She then informed me that she had heard much about me, and invited us all to sit with her and share the details of what we required of her. No comments about how my deity was technically a “demon,” no accusations of being a traitor to our people or any of the other nonsense I had heard countless times since I began my field ministry. To anyone that didn’t know me, it may have seemed as though I were a priestess of Zalkar based on Kari’s reaction.
Even as we described the details of what CB had asked of me, it was clear that Kari was as interested in our work as I was. Once the others retired to their rooms, I sat with Kari for several hours, impressed with the way the woman held her liquor, but even more impressed with the way she held herself. This was someone whose name was spreading across the land like a wildfire, whose accomplishments as a demonhunter, whose having won the heart of the shakna-rir king, and whose reputation as a law enforcement official were known or at least whispered nearly everywhere. And yet, as I sat there speaking with her about our lives and the passion of our divine missions, I found something else.
I found my sister.
Sonja closed the book and cradled it tight to her chest, and she fought back tears as she thought of her sister-in-law and the impact Kari had on her friends’ lives. It was already late, and even Typhonix had gone upstairs while she read, so Sonja decided to retire to her own room. She passed the doors of her siblings’ rooms and opened her mental awareness. She found naught but the softly dreaming psyches of sleeping males. She smiled, climbed into bed, and whispered a silent prayer to Kaelariel. She prayed for her friends’ safety and success in both their missions, and drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
*~*~*~*
Kari yawned and stretched, and she felt a soft weight dissipate from her, as if something had slept beside her and backed off when she awakened. A smile came to her face thinking of Sakkrass and his vow to watch over and protect her. Her thoughts threatened to turn dark as she considered his words: that he would watch over her as if she was his daughter. Despite knowing that he meant that in the most loving and protective way possible, the only father she had ever known had been an abusive, molesting bastard, and that remained painfully in the front of her mind. Kari tried to keep perspective: she tried to imagine that she might have something akin to a real father for the first time in her life, and she let that thought permeate her being as she breathed slowly to calm herself.
She thought of Grakin, and of Sonja’s words that night when the scarlet-haired woman mentioned that she was the only woman in the family. Kari wondered if their father had been abusive as well and driven their mother away in similar fashion to the way Kari was driven from her home. She bit her lip and considered she and her mate possibly had yet another sore, painful thing in common, but as she continued to try to keep perspective, she smiled. It was entirely possible they had both been abused as children, but she forced her mind to consider a more prominent fact: both of them had turned out good people regardless, and everything that had happened had brought them together.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about it, but she felt her body relax when a soft breeze blew through her mind, tingling in her brain and sending a shock of tickles below her skin. Sakkrass’ presence was not as strong as it had been the two previous times she’d felt him in her mind, but it still registered as a loving, comforting touch, and she couldn’t help but laugh. She wiped the moisture from her eyes, her heart lightened, and she looked down at her naked form, covered with the slightly smudged but still unmistakable glyphs of the czarikk. Kari had to wonder if they had facilitated the lizardman god’s appearance. They were some kind of ritual glyphs, so she wondered if Oshasis and Savarras knew that painting her in such a way before she danced would bring forth an avatar of their lord. In the end it mattered little: Sakkrass had come on account of her, and she found it both humbling and uplifting, a blessing she doubted many of the czarikk themselves could ever attest to having seen, let alone experienced. Hers was a life of protecting and serving, and though Kari didn’t seek after the rewards such work brought, she had to admit to herself that receiving such an unprecedented and unexpected boon was as pleasing as it was surprising.
The terra-dracon woman rose to her feet, stretched out once more, and then exited the teepee to step into the muted sunshine of the jungle morning. Many of the czarikk were out and about, tending to the ashes of the fire pit, preparing morning meals, or making ready for their patrols. They beheld Kari’s painted, naked form with smiles before they returned to their work. Kari had no doubts they felt the same way about her relationship with Sakkrass as she did, and it made her feel as though she truly was a member of their tribe instead of just an honorary one. Only weeks before she had known little of the czarikk and nothing of their god, but after the previous night she felt as though she knew both as intimately as if she were one of them.
She moved over to Savarras when she saw him sitting near the central fire pit with a female czarikk beside him. Both looked up at Kari's approach, and they smiled and bowed their heads to her in unison. The female was a dark green like her mate, but with a deepening pink coloration across her collarbone and breast, and she had reddish-brown fins that began behind her eyes and ran over the ridgelines of her skull to the base of her neck, where they became frilly. Kari hadn’t studied the females in much detail before, but she found their forms no less handsome than those of their males.
“Good morning,” Kari said in the czarikk tongue, and the two were still surprised to hear her speak their tongue, and so well.
“Blessed morning it is,” the shaman returned. He took his mate’s hand in his before he met Kari’s eyes again. “If you remember our lord’s words last evening, he has blessed us more than we expected: our females have gone into season a second time.”
Kari smiled and touched the shaman’s cheek, and she leaned down and kissed him on the side of his scaly snout, which surprised the female beside him. “My heart warms to hear this,” Kari said with a pat to the side of his face. “Have you seen my companion this morning?”
“He is down by the river, bathing,” the female czarikk said.
“This is my mate, Ansha,” Savarras said, gesturing toward the female with his eyes. Kari bowed her head and Ansha did so in return. “You and your companions are welcome to stay among us as long as you wish. Our people are beginning to associate your presence with the blessing of our lord.”
Kari smiled again. “I am flattered,” she said. “However, my companion and I must meet with his siblings; we still have work to do here on your island. Though we enjoy your company and hospitality, time is short and we must leave this morning, preferably.”
“Would you like me to show you to the river to bathe?” Ansha asked. Kari nodded and followed the slender female through the woods to a fairly wide but slow-moving river. Erik was sitting on a rock near the river’s edge and covered himself when the two women approached. Ansha waved her hand toward him and the river, and said, “I will leave you to yourselves.”
Kari waded out into the river once A
nsha left, and the terra-dracon woman submerged herself quickly. She rubbed the paint off of her skin in the gently moving waist-high waters, and she turned to look at Erik while she bathed. Kari flashed him a smile, trying to gauge what he thought of his own actions during the night. He smiled in return, but there was uncertainty in it that she could see even from the distance between them. She guessed he wasn’t entirely comfortable with what he had done, but he had enjoyed himself, and was trying to reconcile what he felt with what Kari had told him the night before.
“I wonder what your siblings would think if you brought a czarikk girl back with you,” she said after a couple of silent minutes.
Erik started laughing and shook his head. “I wouldn’t even want to find out,” he said.
Kari emerged from the river, and she moved to sit beside him on the sunny rock. “Don’t find them attractive or pleasant to be with?”
The blue-eyed male waved off the question. “It’s not that,” he said. “I find them likable enough, but my siblings – and my parents, for that matter – have certain expectations. Even though Serenjols is the eldest, the expectations that come with being the eldest male have sort of fallen to me, since he’s so shy and quiet. I’m pretty much expected to find a good woman – someone like you – and have a number of children.”
Kari sighed. “I guess one of the positives that came from being a runaway is I’ve never had to satisfy anyone’s expectations but my own,” she said. She took his arm and turned to look at him. “You know you’re never going to be happy if you spend your life trying to make other people happy. Sometimes you have to be a little selfish.”
He looked out over the river and asked, “Why do you assume I’m not happy?”
Kari shook her head. “Erik, I’m not the smartest girl you’ll ever meet, but I’m not stupid,” she said. “You live for Zalkar and to make your siblings and parents happy, and you don’t seem to ever take a minute to tend to yourself. You’re thirty-six and you don’t have a mate, and I know it’s because you’re not even looking. Don’t tell me it’s because you think you have more time as a half-guardian: it’s because you don’t think you can live up to what your family expects.”
Erik looked at her and squinted for a moment, then shrugged. “Do I seem unhappy?”
Kari nodded. “You do,” she said, and she touched his face gently. “You seem to lash out at people around you without even realizing it. Just think about the way you treated me when we first came into this rainforest – you thought I was an impostor? Have you given that any thought since you decided to believe me?”
He shrugged. “I guess it was pretty stupid,” he admitted. “Willful stupidity, since I think it was as much not wanting to believe it was true as not being able to believe you could’ve been returned from the dead.”
“And the way you treat Eryn…”
“She’s a murdering bitch!” Erik snapped. Kari recoiled slightly, and Erik’s mouth tightened, flustered. “She and the people she works for are no better than the demons we hunt. Sorry, Kari, but I’m not wrong about her.”
Kari shook her head impatiently. “There’s more to her than that,” she said, and she put a finger to the end of Erik’s snout to stop him from interrupting. “Not the least of which is: she’s your brother’s mate. You don’t have to like her, Erik, but at the very least, for your brother’s sake, you should try to treat her with some respect. You’re not just Aeligos’ brother, you’re his leader, and it makes it hard for him to trust you when you don’t trust him because of his mate. Consider how you’d feel if you did what I said and brought one of these scaly girls back with you, only to have your siblings hate her and make you both feel unwelcome around them.”
He considered her words - and the slight moisture about her eyes - for a couple of minutes before he nodded. “You’re not wrong,” he conceded.
Kari leaned against him. “Love’s a weird thing, Erik,” she said. “You don’t exactly plan to fall in love with someone. I’ve been in love a few times, and every time it’s been different. When I first met Grakin, I wasn't sure he liked me, since he never talked to me and never even met my eyes, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I don’t know what made Eryn and Aeligos fall for each other, but there’s obviously something there, and just because we don’t understand it doesn’t make it any less real. You don’t know who you’re going to fall in love with until it happens, and when it does, what your siblings think should be the last thing on your mind.”
Erik wrapped an arm around her and hugged her. “You’re right,” he said. “That’s a good way to look at it. You’re a good woman, and a good friend, Kari. And my brother is a very lucky man…makes me wish you had sisters.”
Kari’s thoughts almost turned dark, but she fought the memories back and chuckled along with him. “Don’t want to save yourself for Annabelle Sol’ridachi?” she teased, though she could still barely say the name without tensing up. She stood up and, when she met his stare, she could see he was still curious to know who Annabelle was. “I’ll tell you about her on our way north, but we’d best get ready to go.”
Erik nodded and pulled on his loincloth as he stood, and he and Kari headed back into the village. They gathered their belongings, dressed, and then met with Oshasis and Savarras near the fire pit. The two czarikk males seemed genuinely sorry to see them leave, and Kari took the expressions of the lizard people as a whole as a compliment. Makauric joined them as they sat with their czarikk hosts for the morning meal, and the three prepared to take back to the road immediately after.
“I have one last thing to give you before you go,” Savarras told Kari while she belted on her swords and shouldered her pack. “Sakkrass granted a vision to me of his travels with the wolf spirits of the celestial forests, and he has asked that I bless you with their speed and stamina, to bring you to your friends and destination more quickly.”
Kari bowed her head in thanks, and the entire village gathered to watch the shaman work. He began to chant and waved a hand over his guests. Makauric seemed as though he were ready to attack if the spellweaving proved to be a deception of some sort, and Kari had to suppress the urge to chuckle at him. As Savarras chanted, three blue spectral wolves appeared from the ether, howling in a ghostly shrill that sent shivers down Kari’s spine – and apparently everyone else’s as well. The wolves circled the three companions several times before brushing against them, and when one touched her, Kari felt a surge of power flow through her. It was a strange feeling, almost like a rush of adrenaline, but it didn’t cause her body to shake with the explosive release of energy. She felt as though she could run forever, and the pathways between the trees around the village seemed to grow larger and much more accommodating. Suddenly the jungle was not such an unusual place, and Kari felt more at home within it and its muted sunshine. The scents of the village and its scaled people came more strongly, and without thought Kari’s feet scraped gently at the earth, her clawed toes digging slightly in anticipation.
“Go,” Savarras said. “Go with the thanks of the people, the blessing of our chief, and the favor of our lord. Sakkrass be with you.”
“Until we meet again,” Oshasis added. “Be well, and know that you are welcome to return to us whenever you wish.”
Kari bowed before her gracious hosts, and then she beckoned for her companions to take to the road. Erik and Makauric hesitated for a moment, but Kari broke into a run, bounding along through the village and out into the forest. Her two companions were soon following in her wake, and as her surefooted steps took her speedily through the drifts of fallen leaves and along the cool soil of the pathways, she found that her breathing remained steady and her heart beat comfortably strong. She felt as though she could run all day, and was amazed at how the forest seemed to split before her.
They ran for hours and stopped only for lunch before rushing off through the forest again. They travelled into the early evening, and found themselves out on the savannah before they finally became weary. Ka
ri marveled at the blessing of the shaman, and she and her companions set up a camp as night fell and Makauric headed out to hunt for them. Erik regarded Kari with a smile and they chatted happily about how the shaman’s blessing would likely cut their travel time in half. It had seemed such a minor boon when he had given it, but as Kari considered the results that went beyond just their quickened pace, its actual value became so much clearer.
Makauric returned with a slain antelope, and he prepared several days’ worth of meat for their journey before he offered the remains to the scavengers a fair distance from the camp. The three enjoyed a quiet dinner, and Erik ordered Makauric to sleep first. Kari assumed he wanted to prod her about Annabelle before she took her rest. The brys offered no argument. He curled up and fell asleep in moments, and Kari placed her cloak over him to keep him warm.
“You want to know about Annabelle Sol’ridachi, don’t you?” Kari asked when she turned back to her partner.
Erik nodded. “You’ve kept me in suspense long enough,” he said. “So what’s the story behind the name?”
Kari fixed him with a steady gaze. “Ever fought a vampire?” she asked. His eyes went wide, and Kari blew out a short sigh to keep her thoughts calm. “Annabelle was a friend of mine, a fellow demonhunter I worked with on occasion. She was there when my friends and I killed the red dragons…”
“Wait a second, you killed a red dragon?” Erik asked incredulously.
Kari nodded shortly. “I guess I’m going to have to see what the history books actually say about my career sometime,” she said. She motioned for Erik not to interrupt. “Yes, with the help of a fairly large group, I once killed a few red dragons. But that’s a story for another time. Anyway, Annabelle helped with a couple of my tougher demon kills when I was younger. I got a message from her on one of my stops through Solaris asking me to help her kill a demon that was proving too difficult for her to kill on her own. So I headed up north to a place called Fort Sabbath, which at the time was a known base for a bunch of thieves-turned-outriders. They were unpredictable, but I figured if Annabelle trusted them enough to stay there, then they must be helping her, or at least not interfering with her mission.”
