by Joe Jackson
“So she wants to stay in the shadows,” Kari mused.
“She didn’t say as much, but she’s probably also prodding your Order toward a specific goal,” Eli added. “She’s a master manipulator. If she wanted to kill Turillia herself, I’m sure she could do so in a way that still wouldn’t attract attention. She wants you to do it, probably to lead you toward another of her master’s goals. No sense killing her master’s enemies and getting them angry with her, when she can have your Order take care of it and shoulder the blame.”
“So we can probably assume her master is the one interested in the Temple of Archons,” Kari agreed with a nod. “I suppose that’s not really a concern right now. Can we assume that Emma won’t fight against us when we make our final attempt on Turillia?”
“Better off not making any assumptions,” Eli said. “It’s a good way to get killed.”
“I agree,” Dominick interjected. “Even if you share a common goal, trusting this Emma can lead only to ruin.”
Kari chuckled; just a few days before, she would’ve been the one saying such things to her friends and allies. The last few days had been so strange, but she recalled Eli telling her that just because demons were evil didn’t mean they couldn’t be useful. Kari considered that it was possible Emma had been using her right from the beginning, when the mallasti initially caused the uprising on Tsalbrin. It seemed to add more credence to Erik’s suggestion that Kari might be Salvation’s Dawn, but the fact that the mallasti girl had hit Kari with a lightning bolt still left a lot of room for doubt. Kari still considered Emma a problem and an enemy, but she was growing fascinated with the complexity of the mallasti’s actions and plans. She made a mental note to have a long chat with Aeligos when she got home, and ask him all about Emma’s involvement in the slaying of Curlamanx.
“Dominick, I was wondering: do you know of any type of magic that lets a person be in two places at once?” Kari asked.
The wizard considered the question for a few moments, a hand to his lightly bearded chin. “Well, there are several illusions I know of that could produce that effect, and well enough that the caster could perform certain actions through the illusion,” he answered. “I assume you are asking because of the similarities between Kaelin Black and BlackWing? As I believe was already explained, neither of them were under the influence of illusion or shape-shifting magic when their fight in the bazaar took place some years ago.”
“So only illusions?”
“The only other option would be the creation of a simulacrum, which would register as a form of alteration when investigated,” the wizard said. “Are you still convinced that Lord Black and BlackWing might be the same person?”
“Or long-lost siblings, or maybe father and son…I don’t suppose the investigative divinations used would’ve revealed that, would they?” Kari asked, and she chuckled at herself as Eli’s brows rose. She could hardly believe she hadn’t tripped over the words, herself.
“Hmmmm, no, but father and son? You raise a fascinating possibility,” Dominick said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully once again. “I don’t think anyone had even considered that at the time, as everyone was convinced that one or the other was an illusion or under the effects of polymorph. Now I am almost sad that BlackWing was killed; you have presented me with a truly exciting puzzle.”
“But BlackWing crumbled to dust when the demon left him,” Kari offered.
Dominick nodded. “Yes, exactly. Was he already dead when the demon took possession of his body? Or did the demon kill the man who was actually BlackWing, to claim his body for itself? The range of possibilities…and we know so little about these shadow demons. This bears investigation, my lady. I think I will go speak with some of the priests on Temple Street, and see if there are any spells of the necromantic variety that might gain us insight on this matter, even post-mortem. Such information would undoubtedly be of great value to your Order. However, I can investigate this matter for you while you deal with Turillia and Emma – and I will be very much happy to help.”
Kari nodded and turned toward Eli, who, while interested in the conversation, had kept quiet. “Did you find Emma at the town hall?” Kari asked.
“Yes. The building is boarded up and abandoned, and she’s living upstairs. She’s got the place masked so the average person won’t notice her presence, though.”
The demonhunter nodded. “Perfect,” Kari said, glancing toward the old city hall.
“So, what now?” Eli asked.
“Now…we set the trap,” Kari answered.
Chapter XIX – The Hunter’s Mind
Everyone was gathering for dinner, just as Kari requested. Eli had pushed together a few tables in the center of the room, but left soon after to take care of something before supper was served. Alyssa and Chelsea worked quickly to lay out place settings for each of the guests. Kari decided it would be best to have a long, comfortable dinner, and wait until the other patrons left before she brought the actual meeting to order. At present, she sat on the wooden bench on the inn’s front porch, listening to the distant sounds of thunder, the scent of rain in the air. She hoped the thunderstorm would bring in warmer air; she was getting quite tired of the chilly southern spring.
Nearly everyone was inside already, so Kari relaxed on the front bench and waited for the stragglers: Sherman, Sharyn, and Eli. She had a suspicious feeling about why Sherman and Sharyn were late, but she brushed it aside. As she’d said the prior night, she did trust both of them, and if they decided to explore the path of romance, that was no business of hers. As long as they could properly focus on their assigned tasks and were more help than hindrance, Kari saw no reason to butt into their private affairs. That, she mused, would be Lord Garant’s job.
Eli returned, his footsteps hurried as a flash of lightning from the north illuminated his face and the majority of Temple Street. The rain hadn’t started yet, but it was getting windy, and Eli had his wings folded tight against its pull. His smile was all at once warm, confident, and appreciative when he stepped before Kari, and she found the expression was contagious. She wondered why he’d left the inn, but Eli looked around at some of the other patrons coming for the evening meal, and apparently decided against talking out in the open. Instead, he simply patted Kari’s shoulder and headed inside.
The soft tap of new rain on the earth started a minute later, and Kari glanced in all three directions down the streets that fronted the inn, looking for any sign of her other two friends. They were approaching down the western road, and picked up their pace to get out of the rain. The thunder crashed again, louder and closer but still far off; Kari hadn’t even noticed the preceding lightning strike. Sherman and Sharyn reached the porch shortly after, and Kari motioned for them to stop and speak to her before they headed inside. Once the porch was clear of other patrons, Kari rose to her feet, glanced around, and stood straight before her friends.
“Did you find anything?” she asked.
“We didn’t find her, but there were definitely signs that she’s been in the southwest,” Sharyn answered. “I’m pretty sure she’s been living there, I just can’t pinpoint exactly where.”
“No matter,” Kari said with a dismissive gesture. “I think I’ve figured out how to bring her to us this time. But we’re going to have a nice, quiet dinner – I don’t want anyone talking while the inn is full of townsfolk.”
“Understood,” Sherman said, and he opened the door and held it for the two women.
Alyssa had prepared a fine meal for them, and the large group took its time eating and chatting lightly about unrelated topics. There was an assortment of meats for their carnivorous half-demon friends to choose from, and plenty of roasted or stewed vegetables to go with them. Kari would’ve almost described it as a feast, and she was content sitting among so many new friends. It was almost like dinner at home, when she sat at her mother-in-law’s table surrounded by her large family. Kyrie and Grakin also prepared large meals, but Kari had to say that what Alyssa
had put before them was astonishing.
They were careful to avoid speaking of the incident at the graveyard, any mention of the demons, or anything that could potentially be damaging if the common folk began spreading gossip. For once, Kari was glad to talk a little bit about her past glories, happy to do anything to keep away from the more sensitive issues. She told the group about her friend Carly Bakhor, who’d been sanctified as a saint by the gods after she passed. Kari found it was actually fun to speak of her old friend and some of their minor adventures, and even the townsfolk took great interest in her words. While many people knew that Kari had been resurrected, just as many had no idea, or thought she was someone else entirely. Master Vlad took particular interest in her stories, and Kari saw that while Marshal Saracht’s expression rarely changed, he was clearly impressed as he learned more about her.
Once Kari grew tired – or rather, more guarded – of speaking about her past, the other patrons gradually began to leave. Alyssa delivered some sweet cakes and rolls to her guests, and the friends enjoyed dessert while they waited for the inn to empty. Like a good hostess and friend, Alyssa gently prodded her other patrons to leave in a timely manner, and soon she had cleared the inn but for Kari and her friends. The innkeeper then went so far as to latch the door, and she took Chelsea in the back room to give her guests their privacy.
Kari couldn’t help but think of Aeligos, but she decided not to stand to address her friends from the head of the table. She wasn’t anxious with all eyes on her, but she felt more relaxed staying seated, and it seemed to help her keep her thoughts in order. “The time to strike is just about here,” she said. “Let me lay out my plan, and if you have any questions or suggestions, we’ll address those once you’ve heard everything.”
She looked from face to face and tried to decide how best to lay out her strategy for everyone. Her gaze finally fell across Markus. “Change of plans, Lord Garant,” Kari said. “I know I asked you to keep Lord Black holed up in his tower to keep him away from Turillia. But I actually need you to do exactly the opposite of that. I think the mistake we’ve been making is trying too hard to track down Turillia; what we need to do is make her come to us. We know what she wants: Emma. And now, we know where to find Emma. So the trick is to force her hand, and make her go after Emma when we’ll be there and ready for her.”
“The wards Zalkar’s priests put around Lord Black’s tower will keep the succubus out, but I don’t think they’re going to keep the shadow demon in,” Kari continued. “Lord Black doesn’t even know that the demon was in him, and I think it still is in him, hoping to use him to find out information about us and our plans. So we’re going to use that to our advantage.”
“The demon has gone into Lord Black?” Marshal Saracht interrupted, and he made an apologetic gesture as if he expected Kari to throw something at him. “When did you discover this? Is this related to what happened last night?”
Kari’s mouth tightened and she sighed through her nose, trying to keep her emotions under control. “Last night, when I said the demon blindsided us...it blindsided me,” she said. “It was in Lord Black, and it tried to...take advantage of me, using a charm not unlike a sylinth’s.”
“Gods, Lady, why didn’t you say something?” the marshal asked, but his tone was quiet and gentle, a depth of compassion in it that Kari hadn’t heard before. The rest of the table echoed his concern with their postures and expressions, though they didn’t give voice to them.
Kari shrugged. She didn’t want to give them all the details. Though she’d explained her abusive childhood to her family, Eli was the only person present that had any clue what she’d been through. Now was certainly not the time to divulge such specifics, so she tried to keep her answer vague but satisfactory. “I was still in shock,” she said. “The main point is that it’s still in him, and I doubt it has any plans to leave without being driven out. It’s likely trying to use him to find out about us and about our plans – so we’re going to let it.”
“You’re going to use the demon to bait Turillia,” Eli said.
“Yes, and Emma is going to be the bait this time. Markus, you can meet with Lord Black as usual tomorrow, but I’m going to come interrupt your meeting to tell him that we’ve found Emma and are preparing an assault.”
Lord Garant nodded. “And then I shall take my leave so he may take charge of the situation, allowing the demon to go alert Turillia of your ‘plans,’” he offered.
“Exactly,” Kari said. “My belief is that he’ll go straight to Turillia and tell her when and where we plan to strike at Emma. Turillia needs Emma’s blood to make this plan of hers work, so she’ll have to try to stop us, or else go kill Emma first. And that’s where we’ll set our snare. With any luck, we’ll catch two demons in one noose.”
“You’ll want to keep this small; if too many of us are about when Turillia approaches the trap, we’ll spook her and she’ll leave,” Eli said. “You won’t want more than three or four of us in the area, at least until the trap is sprung.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Kari confirmed with a nod. “What I’ll probably want everyone else doing is cutting off avenues of escape. I don’t think Turillia can teleport away any more, so if she tries to escape, it’s going to have to be on foot or by wing. Either way, I’m going to want some of you down each road leading away from the old city hall, and there’s a few of them, if I remember right from seeing it from Lord Black’s tower.”
“Six roads leading away from the building,” Eli offered, and Marshal Saracht confirmed the half-corlyps’ count.
“Can you draw us a picture?” Kari asked.
Eli nodded, and they cleared away some of the dishes to make room in the center of the table. He used knives and forks to draw a rough diagram of the area around the old city hall. He spent a couple of minutes describing the boarded-up old building, the orientation of the bell tower to the streets, how Emma was getting in and out of the building, and even how the building was laid out inside. Kari was impressed with his analysis, and it was clear the others were as well – even Sharyn. For the briefest moment, Kari considered the work Eli had done for Jason Bosimar, and wondered: did that work teach him to be analytical, or was he already analytical, and that was part of why his team succeeded?
Kari assigned each of her friends to watching one of the roads leading away from the city hall. Between Sharyn, Sherman, Katarina, Piotyr, Deirdre, and Eli, Kari could have each of the roads covered. That still left Master Vlad, as well as Marshal Saracht and his men, free to take care of other things, and Dominick as well if he decided to get directly involved in the trap. Kari hadn’t invited Dominick to dinner; she wanted to keep him away from Emma to avoid the possibility that a magical battle might break out. She supposed she might be able to ask him to help make sure Turillia didn’t escape, but with the shadow demon still on the loose, her instinct was to let him stay safely at home.
“Are you planning to engage her in the city hall?” Markus asked, pointing a finger to the building made of forks on the table.
Kari nodded and folded her hands before her on the table. “Her power is fading by the hour, and she hasn’t been able to feed from the shadow demon for a while. She lost her ability to teleport, and there won’t be any corpses around the old hall for her to raise. I think once she’s in there, I should be able to take her down in a stand-up sword fight.”
“What of Emma? Will she not also be in the tower?” the paladin prodded.
The demonhunter shrugged; there was no easy way to say what she thought. “Emma presents one of three possibilities: she’ll either help me, which seems unlikely; she might just watch, and then leave when Turillia is dead, which seems most likely; but then there’s also the possibility she attacks me. I think that’s highly unlikely, since she’s had the chance to kill me before, and as Eli theorized, she seems to want me – or rather us – to kill Turillia for her.”
“What about once you’ve killed Turillia?” Deirdre asked. �
�Would Emma not be free to kill you then?”
“Emma is an observer,” Eli answered. “As much as the opposite might seem to be true, she generally tries to avoid notice, either from Kari’s Order or from the other demon kings. If she can get Kari to kill Turillia for her, then her hands are clean. If killing Kari was either her goal or even just an option, she probably could’ve and would’ve by now, and Turillia too.”
“This feels too risky,” Katarina commented, “though I see no other promising option.”
“What would you have me do?” Marshal Saracht asked at last.
Kari met the human’s unblinking gaze. “Have your men patrol the streets normally,” she said. “This has to feel natural, or Turillia will know it’s a trap. If there’s too many of your men in the area, she’ll know, but at the same time, if there are no guards in the area, she’ll probably get suspicious. Whatever your normal patrol routes have been since the murders started, keep your men to them.”
“And what of Lord Black? If the demon is in possession of him, then it will undoubtedly try to aid Turillia,” the marshal added.
“It can’t,” Kari said with a dismissive gesture. “If it wants to keep up appearances, it can’t let Turillia feed off of it while it’s in possession of Lord Black. All this talk about Emma’s blood being the seal leads me to believe she’s not drawing power from the demon by carnality; she’s taking it from the blood of whoever it’s in possession of. So if the demon plans to keep up the ruse of being Lord Black, it can’t walk around with bite wounds all over his neck.”
“That makes sense, but at the same time, what if it doesn’t care about keeping up the appearance?” Saracht countered.
“You have to understand something: it’s a demon. It’s not here to make Turillia stronger, or help her become a goddess. To the demon, Turillia is a plaything, just like the rest of us. It has the means to take over an entire city and county, and spread death and misery; what little amusement it gets from Turillia has got to be less of a priority to it than that. It’s not going to risk this wonderful opportunity it’s found just to have some fun with a succubus, and especially not to make that succubus more powerful than itself,” Kari said.
