by Joe Jackson
“That’s the killer from the inn!” Lord Black said from behind Kari. “Look at her weapons!”
Kari largely ignored him. She wasn’t sure what he meant and assumed he was lying anyway, so she focused more on the fanged grin of the assassin in front of her. Kari moved to capitalize on Irressa’s flanking maneuver, but the assassin sidestepped and drove the younger demonhunter back with a vicious double swipe at her neck. Irressa wasn’t as well-armored as Kari, so she dove backwards to avoid the decapitating blades and then scrambled away on her backside while Kari moved to regain the assassin’s attention. Kari checked briefly over both shoulders to be certain no one else was engaging them, and she could see that the guards were warily defending Black. Aeligos knelt beside the guard captain, his face showing obvious concern as he used his cloak to keep pressure on her wounded neck as best he could. Kari shrugged her shoulders to work her cloak back between her wings and, throwing her wings out behind her to cut a more imposing figure, she approached the assassin warily.
The assassin mirrored her motions, and Kari hesitated in shock when she saw that the syrinthian woman had blue-black, leathery wings. Nothing in Kari’s education ever mentioned syrinthians having wings, and as she considered that, the assassin’s coloration also seemed wrong: she almost appeared albino. Kari came to the realization that she faced something different, something her Order knew little about. The woman’s skill with her twin straight-blades was both efficient and impressive. Kari’s contemplations came to an end a moment later when one of the guards behind her blew his whistle, and soon it was answered by the piercing sound of watch whistles echoing down the long streets. Kari let forth a sigh of relief. Irressa was back on her feet and slowly circled to get the assassin between her and Kari again.
The syrinthian woman checked Irressa’s position and Kari pounced, leading high with her right blade but preparing an eviscerating follow-up with her left. Kari could scarcely believe the reaction she received: the syrinthian woman jabbed Kari hard in her armored belly with one of her blades while lifting Kari’s right scimitar harmlessly high with the other. The assassin dashed with blinding speed under Kari’s right arm and kicked her hard in the side in a move reminiscent of Aeligos’ training, but Kari’s reflexes and instincts allowed her to turn with the blow and bring her left scimitar around. She parried the assassin’s neck-strike hard with her left scimitar, and then spun back the other way with a decapitating cut of her right scimitar.
The syrinthian woman was surprised at Kari’s speed, but she ducked out of range of Kari’s counter-strike. The two faced each other for a moment and Irressa approached, once again circling to try to flank their enemy. “Black is mine,” the woman hissed in an otherworldly voice that seemed unaccustomed to speaking the humans’ common tongue. Her angled, golden, slit-pupiled eyes fixed Kari with a baleful gaze, but in that cunning stare Kari could see that the assassin understood she was soon to be outnumbered and overwhelmed. “You cannot protect him forever.”
Kari started to ask what the assassin meant, but the woman shrank back into the folds of her cloak and then vanished completely. Kari had seen sorcerers do a similar thing. Though her sister-in-law, Sonja, was still learning the nuances of arcane travel, Kari understood that the assassin had teleported away. Exasperated, Kari looked around for a moment to be sure the assassin was truly gone, but then she pointed at one of the guards with a scimitar. “You! Go fetch a healer from Tigron’s temple, quickly!”
The guard saluted her and ran off without question, and Kari regarded Aeligos and the bleeding watch captain. “We can’t move her,” Aeligos said. “That healer had better get here quickly, I’m losing her.”
Kari bit her lip for a moment; she had been in this situation before. She cast her gaze over Black, who had made no move to help with the assassin and said nothing with regard to what the assassin wanted. Kari knelt beside the wounded captain and channeled what little of her deity’s power she could to help start the healing process, but she quickly realized that it would make little difference. She glanced once more at Black over her shoulder and said, “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
It was hard to tell in the dark, but she was pretty sure he had to suppress a smile.
Chapter III – Blood Oath
Once Black was secure on the campus of the Order, and the priests there began their interrogations of the Earl and the innkeeper, Kari made her way to the temple of the healer god from Koryon, called Tigron. She hoped Captain Sul’Imadra would be all right; after her friend Makauric died in a similar way on Tsalbrin three years before, Kari hated the helpless feeling that clung to her. Aeligos split off from her after leaving the grounds. He wanted to find Eryn and see if she knew anything of the incident at Charlie’s Boarding House or of this other assassin prowling DarkWind’s streets. Kari was glad for the unsanctioned help, and kept her pace brisk as she jogged to Tigron’s temple.
The temple itself was more like a hospital. The outside was white and sterile, with little in the way of decorations other than Tigron’s symbol: a light-blue ankh perched above the open doorway. Inside were a small altar and some stone benches for petitioners offering prayers, but the majority of the white stone building was comprised of rooms and beds for the ill and injured. Tigron’s priests were not only amazing healers because of the divine power they channeled from their deity: many were also skilled alchemists and physicians who used all manner of methods to tend to the wounded. Kari briefly recalled when Aeligos had broken his arm during a rigorous workout at the local dojo, and how quickly he had recovered even under the more mundane ministrations of Tigron’s priests. Their skills allowed them to reserve calling upon their deity’s power for only the most severe of cases – such as the one involving Captain Sul’Imadra.
A young human acolyte directed Kari to one of the rooms on the temple’s west side, where Captain Sul’Imadra was being tended. Kari was surprised to find Serenjols in the room when she arrived, and he seemed just as shocked when Kari entered the room. She broke her attention away from him for a moment, casting her gaze around the sparsely-decorated room and its other empty bed before settling it on the captain. Two human priests of Tigron were tending to her: one was suturing the wound with a needle, while the other prayed quietly over her, channeling divine power to ensure she had not lost too much blood to survive. The priests looked up only briefly to mark Kari’s presence and give her a polite nod before they returned to their work.
Kari regarded her shy brother-in-law who seemed to be blushing, though with serilian-rir it was difficult to tell due to the color of their skin and blood. It dawned on Kari after a minute just why he was there, though, and she approached and wrapped her arm around him in a gentle hug, which he returned after a moment. No words were exchanged, but Kari could feel Jol’s concern in the well-concealed trembling of his body. She had to wonder if that was part of why Aeligos didn’t accompany her to the temple: if he was worried about being there and possibly embarrassing Jol when his relationship came to light. Kari realized it explained the strange way Aeligos had looked at the captain when they’d first arrived at Charlie’s Boarding House.
“How is she?” Kari asked quietly. She was almost afraid to break the silence and possibly distract the priests from their delicate work any more than she already had.
“She was gravely wounded but is doing fine,” said the suturing priest. “The young man who stanched the bleeding did well, and your field ministrations may very well have saved this young woman’s life.”
“What happened?” Jol asked, though his eyes remained fixed on the captain.
“Is that my Jo-jo?” the captain asked weakly when she heard Serenjols’ distinctive, deep voice. She didn’t open her eyes, but she came as close to a smile as she could, floating on the edge of consciousness. Serenjols quickly moved to kneel beside the bed and took the captain’s hand in his own, and the priest offering prayers paused for a moment to lay one hand on the captain and one on Jol.
“I a
m here, Damansha,” Serenjols said gently, and he rubbed the end of his snout against her hand as tears rolled from his eyes. “You are safe. You are with us now.”
Her arm went limp and Serenjols gasped in alarm, but the praying priest hushed him before he could voice his concerns. “She is fine,” the priest said. “She is very tired; she lost a lot of blood. If you would like to spend the night, you may take the other bed here in her room.”
Jol nodded and rose, and Kari wrapped him in a comforting hug. Given his size and build, it would’ve appeared strange to many to see the massive serilian-rir crying, but Kari knew Jol better than that. Serenjols was extremely protective of his friends and family, even for a half-guardian, and he had a sensitive side that was well-masked by his imposing physique. Normally Jol was the quietest of his siblings, soft-spoken much like Grakin, and Kari couldn’t think of a single time when Jol had spoken ill of anyone. In battle he was a fierce and protective warrior, using his mass, incredible weapon skill, and tactical proficiency to safeguard his siblings and allies. To see him like this left Kari with little doubt that Captain Damansha Sul’Imadra was the woman Aeligos had meant when he spoke of Jol seeing someone romantically.
“She’ll be all right,” Kari assured Jol, holding tightly to him.
“What happened?” he asked again, and his voice threatened to break.
“I’m not really sure,” the terra-dracon woman answered. Once they finished their work, the priests came to stand near Kari and Jol, and they apparently wanted to know the specifics of how the captain was injured. “We were escorting a prisoner to the campus of my Order, and this assassin just…I don’t know, it was like she was waiting for us, invisible. She just appeared out of nowhere and laid the captain…Damansha low. I never really even saw what happened; one moment we were walking, and the next the captain’s blood was on my face and she was falling to the ground.”
Jol put his hand to the end of his snout, and Kari laid her hand on his shoulder. “She wasn’t after Damansha,” she explained. “The assassin wanted our prisoner; Damansha was just in the way. I’m so sorry this happened, Jol. It should’ve been me.”
“No!” he almost shouted, and with the depth and power behind his voice he clearly shocked the priests. “No, do not say that. Do not ever say that!”
He hugged Kari tightly again, and she stroked his long black hair absently and sighed. “I’ll tell Kyrie what happened,” Kari said, and Jol drew away slightly so he could meet her gaze. “Apparently, everyone already suspected you were seeing someone when you started working so late, Jol. But everyone wants you to be happy; nobody is going to bother you about it until you’re ready to tell them, okay?”
Serenjols nodded and kissed Kari on the side of her snout affectionately before wrapping her in another tight hug. “Thank you,” he whispered, and Kari patted his back before they separated.
“Take good care of her, and let me know if her condition changes,” Kari told the priests, and they both bowed to the veteran demonhunter. “Please also send a runner to the watch commander if you haven’t already; they need to know that one of their captains is injured.”
With their agreement, Kari bid her brother-in-law goodnight so he could stay with Damansha, and she left the temple to tend to her own problems. The appearance of an assassin on the very same day Kaelin Black arrived in DarkWind asking for help with a serial killer could not be a coincidence. Had it simply been members of the Blood Order trying to kill Black, Kari would’ve been comfortable leaving well enough alone: the Guild attacking a visiting noble would be the Duke's problem. Kari disliked the Guild and didn’t understand why her Order – and more pointedly, the Duke – did nothing to disband it, but she understood enough to know the Guild must have some political connections that were not easily severed. At the very least, it hadn’t been Guild members that attacked and nearly killed a captain of the guard – and Serenjols’ girlfriend, no less. Had that been the case, Kari guessed the Duke would’ve found his hand forced with regard to taking the Guild to task.
The assassin was a winged syrinthis, something Kari had never even heard of, much less seen or battled. The woman’s speed and reflexes were incredible, even for the agile snake people, and her skill with blades was sharp enough that it gave even Kari pause. It was clear the demoness was trouble of the kind that would not be long in rearing its beautiful head again. What puzzled Kari was the thought that this was likely the very assassin that was killing people in Black’s city; why, then, had she helped him kill three members of the Guild? Black tried to deny that he was involved in the killings at all, but had implicated the syrinthian assassin. And yet she had the opportunity to kill him but chose not to; none of it made any sense to Kari. If the syrinthian woman wanted to kill Black, why didn’t she make an attempt on his life in the inn once the three Guild members were dispatched? Or simply helped the Guild members kill Black? Kari turned the thoughts over in her mind as she walked east toward the demonhunter campus.
Her swords were in her hands near-instantly when someone approached from her left. Kari carefully replaced her scimitars in their sheaths as she saw it was Aeligos, and the rogue fell into step beside her and kept his voice low. “Eryn says no attacks were ordered on Black. The Guild granted him immunity because he’s a noble, and they know he’s under the protective eye of your Order, so the guildmaster ordered a no-harm directive. Those Guild members at the inn were there for food and drink, it would seem. But now that they’re dead, the Guild has put a price on Black’s head. You’d best get him out of the city as soon as possible.”
“How high a price?” Kari quipped. “I might just kill him myself.”
Aeligos chuckled and his hand appeared from the folds of his cloak to scratch his snout absently. “Fifty thousand gold coins,” he said quietly.
“Fifty thousand?” Kari repeated, stunned. She wasn’t very skilled at math – she hadn’t received anything resembling a formal education until she was in her late teens – but she knew enough to understand that it would take her decades to earn fifty thousand gold coins working for the Demonhunter Order, if she ever could.
“It’s a long story, and I know you hate politics,” Aeligos said. “To make it simple, the Guild, like everyone else, believes that Black is the head of the Black Dragon Society. Suffice to say that Black’s syndicate and the Guild are direct competitors, and now that he has Guild blood on his hands, any mutual respect between them is gone. They want him dead, Earl or no, and badly enough that risking the wrath of the Duke seems of little concern to them.”
“Are you talking war on the streets here?” Kari asked as they passed through the front gates of the campus. The guards there turned to watch the two and listen in on what they’d overheard. Despite the lapse in decorum, Kari didn’t bother to discipline them; possible war on the streets of DarkWind was everyone’s business.
“No, not that type of conflict,” the rogue assured her, and the guards turned back to their watch. “The Guild and Black’s syndicate work in much more subtle circles. His influence is primarily in the south, and the Guild’s influence doesn’t extend much out of Brunswick. It’s unlikely we’ll see any direct conflict: it’ll mostly be posturing and threats unless something like this happens again. I doubt even someone as skilled as Eryn wants the blood of a major noble on their hands. Fifty thousand gold coins don’t do much for a dead person. So as much as the Guild may want him dead, it would be a huge political risk to kill him, since it would also draw the eye of the Duke of Sutherland this way, putting political pressure on the Duke of Brunswick…but, I know you hate politics, so that’s as much as I’ll bore you with.”
Kari sighed and wondered again why the Order didn’t just make a concerted effort with the watch and the Duke’s militia to wipe out the Guild altogether. Although she didn’t want to see her friend Eryn get hurt, Kari had little respect for organized crime, even the kind that seemed to help keep the peace. She resolved in her mind to look into smashing the Guild if and when
she became Avatar of Vengeance, or if her brother-in-law, Erik, got the post before her. It was an entertaining notion in one sense, but Kari understood the amount of loss of life that would no doubt come with such an endeavor. It made her consider what price she was willing to pay for freedom, and what her mate – who worshipped the god of freedom – might have to say on the matter. It was certainly a topic of conversation for a less hectic time.
Kari and Aeligos passed into the administrative offices of the Order. At the very rear of the building was a large conference room where the heads of each of the Order’s departments met to discuss policies and procedures. Black was at one end of the long, polished wooden table, and a balding, slightly overweight human sat a few seats down from him, apparently the owner of Charlie’s Boarding House. Several demonhunters and lower-ranking priests of Zalkar saluted Kari and bowed their heads respectfully to Aeligos when the two entered, and then they went back to asking their questions. Lord Allerius approached from his own position near Black, and glanced once more at the Earl before he met Kari’s eyes.
“How is the captain?” Albrecht asked.
“The priests say she’ll be all right,” Kari answered, looking around. It was oddly cold in the conference room, and she glanced to one of the administrative staff who was tending to the fire in the hearth. It was almost as if one of the windows was open, though there was no draft or breeze to suggest that such was the case. Kari shook off the feeling and continued, “I want to know who that woman was that attacked us. Black knows.”
