Eve of Redemption Omnibus: Volumes 1-3

by Joe Jackson

  “So what do you want me to do?”

  “Stay by Lord Black’s side, but let him get away from you when the demon wants to go see Turillia,” the demonhunter instructed. “After that, just try to act like you normally would. Tell him about some backup plan you have in case I fail; anything to keep his mind – or rather, his body – in that tower and away from the battle. Once Turillia is disposed of, we can try to drive the demon out of the Earl and the city, once and for all. But for now, we need to keep it contained, and deal with one problem at a time.”

  “As you wish,” Saracht said with a bow of his head.

  “Master Vlad, that means we’re going to need as much help as we can get after the battle, to drive the demon out of Lord Black and banish it,” Kari said.

  “Then I will prepare my fellow priests to do so while you do battle,” he answered.

  “Does anyone have any other questions or suggestions?” Kari asked.

  “Once I have taken my leave of Lord Black, I will be available to help you as well,” Markus offered. “How may I be of assistance?”

  Kari thought to herself for a minute. There was one thing about her plan that she wanted to alter. “How do you feel about landing your griffon on the roof of the old city hall?”

  “You want me to come in through the bell tower to aid you?” he guessed.

  “I can cut off Turillia’s escape on the ground floor, but there’s a chance she can get up to the bell tower and either chase Emma out that way, or just escape that way,” Kari explained. “If you’re up there, and can project an aura the way Katarina did last night, you can help keep her pinned in the building so I can kill her. Plus, your aura might drive off Emma, or at least make sure she doesn’t enter the fray.”

  “I believe I can do that for you,” Markus said. “You said you wished Emma captured and not killed, correct?”

  “Preferably,” Kari answered, though she wondered if Markus was really thinking about engaging the mallasti girl in combat. It was possible his aura would shrug off her magic – Kari guessed it was a lot stronger than even Katarina’s, which might allow him to subdue Emma. If it didn’t, though, he would find himself face to face with his deity in a hurry. Kari figured she would leave it in Markus’ hands: he knew his own limitations better than Kari could.

  “That leaves just one question: when?” Marshal Saracht asked.

  “The night after tomorrow,” Kari said. “That’s when I’ll be telling Lord Black that I plan to go after Emma. Worse comes to worst, if the demon doesn’t take that information straight to Turillia, we’re in the same position we are now. But if it does, we can finally end this. That’s all; thank you all for coming, and for your help.”

  The others bid Kari and each other farewell, and made their egress, leaving only Kari and Eli at the table. The confident nod he gave her when their eyes met told her that he was satisfied with her plan, which she found comforting. He’d been through many similar situations while working for Bosimar, so if he was satisfied with Kari’s plan, then she had to believe she had done a good job, and addressed nearly every possibility. She realized she was lucky to have met so many good, helpful people along the way; trying to go through with this plan with just herself, Katarina, and Sherman would likely have turned out disastrous. She made it a point to remember to be better prepared in the future.

  *****

  Kari lay in bed, considering the entire situation before her. There was something about Emma’s presence that still didn’t make sense to her, though she wasn’t sure if she was just being paranoid, or if she was missing something. Their initial assumption was that Turillia might be feeding a portal or some other form of dark magic, and that was what had drawn Emma to the city. With the information Master Vlad, Sherman, and Sharyn had uncovered, though, they realized that Turillia was feeding the demon and feeding off of it in turn, that Emma’s blood would act as a seal, and that Turillia’s intent was to become a demon king at least, or possibly even a goddess. What troubled Kari was that Emma’s appearance didn’t really make sense in either scenario.

  If Emma was a master of the arcane, Kari couldn’t imagine that Dominick had been able to recognize that the murders were not ritual sacrifice or for the powering of a portal, and yet Emma hadn’t. According to what Eli had found out from the mallasti, Emma was familiar with Sheila DarkStorm’s methodology, and recognized that the entire situation in Barcon was a trap. What Kari couldn't figure out was whether Emma had realized that before or after arriving in Barcon; was it possible she had learned all of it after the fact, just as Kari and her companions had? Emma was a master manipulator, and Kari found it hard to believe she was being outfoxed by the assassin; such would mean that Emma was, in actuality, quite foolish.

  Kari had the sneaking suspicion that Emma’s presence was all but completely unrelated to Turillia’s work: that she was here now to continue her search for Salvation’s Dawn. It was possible that Kari was Salvation’s Dawn, and she couldn’t help but remember the way Dominick had looked at her when his arcane seal passed over her. Had he sensed that she was under the effects of a Blood Oath, or did he perhaps sense that she was Salvation’s Dawn? She wasn’t sure; Dominick seemed to know a bit about the Temple and Salvation’s Dawn, so Kari expected he would’ve spoken to her about it. Still, it was possible that was what he had detected, and like Eli, he didn’t want to distract Kari from her more pressing goal.

  There was another possibility where Salvation’s Dawn was concerned: Katarina and Sherman had also been on Tsalbrin with Kari, they were both young and born in the current generation, and they were both here now. Emma had made no move against either of them, unlike the lightning bolt she had shocked Kari with, which gave some credibility to that theory. Kari also thought their being paladins played into the very name Salvation’s Dawn. But she realized that all of the theorizing went on the assumption that Emma was here for Salvation’s Dawn at all. Ultimately, everything Kari "knew" about Emma was based on assumptions and conjecture.

  Emma is a tough one to figure, Eli’s words echoed in Kari’s thoughts. There was so much Kari needed and wanted to know about the mallasti girl. What were her motives? Who did she serve? How did she get onto Citaria? Why was a creature with so much arcane power at her disposal a slave? Just as she’d said to Eli, Kari thought about subtle demons and how much she preferred the ones that were simply savage, slavering beasts to be slaughtered. It was so much more difficult when they were up to something sneaky, something Kari needed to know about but didn’t have the means to beat the information from them.

  Turillia was a demon Kari could understand: a masterful assassin and slippery succubus, full of passion, ambition, and destructive tendencies. Turillia was the type of demon Kari could track down and kill and never have to worry about who she was, where she came from, or why she did the things she did. Turillia was simply evil, a manifestation of sin and hatred that was to be killed, no questions asked. There were no questions for a demon like Turillia, no desire to know anything about her except what she was up to, and then to put a stop to it.

  How much more difficult a demon like Emma was to deal with. In her second encounter with the mallasti girl and her work, Kari found herself in the same situation: she could see the immediate effects of Emma’s scheme, but not the big picture. What was Emma’s master up to, and who was he? If it was simply the Temple of Archons he was after, what was in there that the demon king wanted? And why had he waited so long to finally make a move toward opening it?

  Of course, Kari thought, sighing lightly at herself. Gori Sensullu is dead; whoever Emma’s master is had to wait until that happened to try to open the Temple.

  That thought helped put the demons’ apparent hesitation into perspective, but Kari was still at a loss as to what could be in the Temple. It was a feeling she was growing quite tired of: knowing so little about the underworld or its demons. Only Turik Jalar had ever spent any length of time in the underworld and lived to tell about it, and what record
s he left for the Order were more about his dealings with the mortals he encountered there. On the subjects of the demons and their kings, Jalar had shared only enough to lead to the legend of him laying a list of demands at the Overking’s feet. That didn’t leave hunters like Kari much to work with when dealing with underworld schemes. Other hunters had spent brief amounts of time in the underworld, but what they were able to share when they came back helped made up the very basics Kari had been reading about earlier in the day.

  Kari’s thoughts turned to Ciceria, and her request of Eli to rescue her daughter from the underworld. How much could a syrinthian priestess tell them? How damning would it be to the demons for one of their own kind to tell the Demonhunter Order everything she knew? Eli said that the syrinthians weren’t demons, but even if Kari accepted that at face value, she understood that the snake-folk still lived among the demons, and doubtless knew a lot about them. Kari imagined the girl – who had to be in her late teens or early twenties by now, based on Eli’s stories – could tell the Order all about each of the types of demons, their society, their kings – everything the Order needed to know to safeguard Citaria.

  Assuming the girl was willing to talk to them, of course. But if Ciceria had been so intent on thwarting the demon kings and had, in fact, been killed doing so, then her daughter might harbor a similar hatred of the underworld lords. She might be reluctant to tell the Order much concerning her own people, but it was possible she’d be all too happy to betray the others because of what had happened to her mother. The only catch, of course, was that she was in the underworld: a place even Eli refused to go, despite the vast amount of valor and courage Kari knew the half-corlyps possessed.

  It was a harrowing thought, even to Kari. Her Order knew little about the underworld other than the existence of a massive city at its center, called Anthraxis. There, Turik Jalar had detailed, the Overking ruled from a towering obsidian keep. The Overking was considered the greatest of the demon kings, and ruled over all of the others, who were arranged into a hierarchy. Kari remembered some of the kings’ names, but she knew little enough about who and what they were, other than purely evil. Each ruled over its own realm, but all answered to the Overking, who was considered lord of the underworld. The Order didn’t even know the Overking’s name; Turik Jalar had said he was referred to only as His Majesty or The Overking, and never by name, even by the other kings.

  Kari’s brow furrowed as she thought of Celigus Chinchala; why hadn’t the Order ever asked him about the underworld? Or had they, and the old king was simply tight-lipped about his past and the place he came from? Celigus had turned coat against his own kind some two centuries before: he began his conquest of Terrassia not long before Kari’s death, but he turned coat and allied himself with the Citarian pantheon through Kaelariel not long after that. No one was sure what his motivations had been exactly, but based on the trust Kaelariel had put in the old king, most of the world accepted him as an ally. Kari was sure such had to put him at odds with the other kings, and especially the Overking, if they were all trying to claw their way onto Citaria. The thought occurred to her: did he keep his mouth shut as proof of loyalty to the Overking, despite his betrayal in allying with the Citarian pantheon? Kari hadn’t really thought about it before, but she realized Celigus had to be treading a very fine line to reside on Citaria and be allied with its deities but still subservient to the Overking. That was a relationship she wasn’t sure she’d ever understand fully.

  Kari dozed off with an amused smile on her features, trying to imagine some poor demonhunters asking Celigus how to kill his own kind. Ally of the gods or not, Kari didn’t imagine such a line of questioning would be very wise when dealing with the powerful demon king. But Celigus had to know nearly everything about his home ‘world,’ its people, its kings, its layout, and most importantly, how to get to Citaria from there without being summoned. If he was willing to tell the Order that much, then they could figure out how demons like Emma kept slipping through the dimensional barriers, and put a stop to it.

  Just as she was about to fall asleep, she was rocked awake by a rolling peal of thunder, the full storm descending on Barcon. The lightning that flashed through the room’s little window was bright and drawn out, and always followed soon after by another crashing boom. Eli was fast asleep; he apparently had no trouble sleeping through a storm, and Kari rolled onto her back and wished Grakin were with her. She missed bathing her son, reading to him while he fell asleep, and watching his peaceful form as he slumbered. And she very much missed making love to her mate, and the way their shared passion and warmth lulled her to sleep so easily.

  Once she finally fell asleep to the rumbling of the thunder, Kari’s dreams revolved around her mate, her son, and her desire to have more children. She dreamed of having a little girl who looked like her, and the happiness the children brought to her and Grakin. Even in her dreams, Grakin was still sick, and it was hard for Kari to think about him without wishing he could be freed from his impending doom. But her heart somehow remained light, basking in the children she bore for him and the knowledge that they would be a form of immortality for him.

  Her dreams became more vivid, and she found herself in her mother-in-law’s garden, busily following her children as they dashed around the fruit-bearing trees and flowering shrubs. Grakin was asleep in one of the rockers on the porch, and Kari was dizzy with delight as she patiently chased her little ones around. Little Gray had a little sister, and she led the romp around the garden while her protective brother followed her around. Kari brought up the rear, making sure the children didn’t stray from the yard or into the streets, where horses and carriages were fairly common.

  Kari checked on Grakin. He looked so peaceful, leaning slightly to the side while he slumbered in the rocking chair, but a part of Kari worried every time she saw him sleeping that he wouldn’t wake up. He twitched slightly, and she breathed a sigh of relief, but when she turned back to the garden, her children were gone. She checked the streets first, but they were not there, and she tried to remain calm, jogging quickly to the corner of the house to see if they’d gone around to the north-side gardens.

  “Mommy?” Little Gray said questioningly as Kari turned the corner. His sister was gone, and Little Gray looked more like the child Kari had left behind in DarkWind. Holding his hand was Turillia, and the succubus had her fangs bared, her eyes narrowed in a menacing scowl.

  Kari beheld the scene for a few moments, and none of the three moved. The sunshine in her dream was strong and bathed her in warmth and comfort despite the situation; Sakkrass was still with her. Kari recognized that what she was seeing wasn’t real, and she worked to convince herself that what Turillia held was merely an illusion, and not her son. The fact that her “son” addressed her as “mommy” instead of “mama,” and in common rather than the rir tongue, made it fairly obvious when added to everything else Kari had witnessed so far. Kari drew her swords but she didn’t approach; she tried to bluff the succubus with a look of terror and grim determination. To have encountered Turillia in a dream again was what Kari had hoped for: to best her here, shatter her confidence, and possibly even kill the succubus in a world of her own making.

  Turillia seemed to recognize her bluff. “Worry not; this is merely an illusion of your son,” she spat in that chill, otherworldly voice. “The real one is already dead. While you have been here, my lord’s servants have slaughtered your precious son and your mate, and left you with nothing! But fear not, for you will see them again soon enough.”

  Kari burst out in laughter and let her swords hang down by her sides. “You idiot,” she returned coldly, still chuckling. “My mate’s mother is the high priestess of Kaelariel. If your lord’s servants set foot anywhere near my home, they’ll be burned to ash before they know what’s happened.”

  Turillia kept her expression from changing. “You assume much,” she returned carefully. “Either way, I have instilled doubt in you.”

  “There's no do
ubt in me, abomination,” Kari said, using Emma’s insult to try to turn the tables on her enemy. It worked: Turillia’s scowl cracked immediately, replaced by a wounded expression nearly raw enough to make Kari regret having said it.

  “How dare you call me that!” Turillia shouted. “You know nothing of what I am!”

  “And I don’t care to,” Kari returned. “You’ll find no doubt in my mind where you’re concerned. I’m going to kill you, and it’s going to be another failure that Sekassus is going to have to swallow.”

  “Sekassus?” Turillia repeated, recovering quickly. “What makes you think I serve him, because my father was syrinthian? You mortals are all the same: blinded by your own petty hatred, while you condemn us for the same.”

  “Honestly, I don’t care who you serve,” Kari told her. “You come to my world, I kill you. It’s that simple. You have two options: get out of my head, or die here. Your choice.”

  Turillia considered Kari and paced around her at a distance. Little Gray was gone, leaving only the two women warriors to face each other in the serenity of the garden. “It need not be this way,” the succubus said at length. “We have a common enemy in Emmalikas. Help me to destroy her, and I will give you my word that I will return to my lord’s realm. My plans do not otherwise concern you.”

  Emmalikas? Kari thought. “Your word is worth less than your miserable kind, and that’s saying a lot,” she shot back. “I’ll deal with Emma, and I don’t need your help to do so.”

  “You overestimate your abilities,” Turillia said, but then she blinked out of existence and back in. Kari wasn’t sure what was happening; was she demonstrating some new power? Or was she planning to attack here and now, to try to kill Kari in her dreams?