by Joe Jackson
With the sun beginning to touch the false horizon of the city's circular outside wall, they at last reached what Eliza had been headed for. At first it appeared to be a theatre stage, a long, raised wooden platform with a high-roofed, single-story building connected to it. When Kari's eyes fell across the poles set into the stage at intervals, each with chains and manacles hanging from it, she began to see it for what it really was. The wide open area before the stage saw a lot of traffic based on the dusty footprints and tracks near it, which were about the only dirt or grime Kari had encountered yet within the city.
“As you may have already deduced, this is the slave market,” Eliza said with a gesture toward the stage. “I thought you should see it for two reasons: firstly, you should let your Order know that if it plans to keep anyone in Anthraxis on a permanent basis at some point, this is where they might find people from Citaria – or perhaps other worlds, even – who go missing in the wake of an incursion. And secondly, if you break the law while you are in the Overking's city – with the exception of the capital crime of stepping on the Royal Meeting Hall floor, that is – this is where you are likely to end up. Believe me, you'd be better off getting thirty-nine lashes or something similar back home than being sold to one of the kings or nobles.”
“No doubt about that,” Kari said, and she turned to Eli. “You and Aeligos had better behave yourselves if we have to leave you in the city.”
Eli grunted. “Well, let's just hope that's not the case.”
“You said Amastri gave you a sack of marks?” Eliza asked, and Kari nodded. “Good, then I won't bother taking you to the Exchanges and Taxation House. I can show you more of the city tomorrow, if you like, while your friends are gathering information in the library. For now, we'd best head back so you are safely in the Mortal Quarter by curfew.”
Kari and Eli agreed and followed the half-succubus back to the tower, where they met with Aeligos, Sonja, and Danilynn. The companions made their way back to Hope's End, and left Eliza at the palace, presumably to be quartered there. Once they were back at the homey little inn, the companions accepted the hostess' offer of food and drinks at last. The fare was unlike anything Kari had ever eaten, with some strange meats that had the consistency of beef and yet tasted like seafood. The vegetables were odd, but sampling them let Kari divide them up by tastes she already knew like broccoli, spinach, parsnips, and even squiggly little tubers that, oddly enough, tasted like cucumbers. The drinks, by comparison, were just like what Kari would expect back home, and she indulged in a glass of wine rather than test the limits of the liquor stock in this strange place.
“How's the research going? I know you didn't have very much time,” Kari said. Aeligos responded in what was obviously infernal, and Kari's jaw dropped a little. “Don't tell me you can speak and read it already?”
The rogue chuckled. “No, but I know the alphabet now, and Danilynn showed me how you conjugate verbs by changing their position in the sentence, and not by changing the words themselves. Seems like a pretty fascinating language, so far.”
“Conju-what?”
“When you change verbs, like run becomes ran or running,” Aeligos pointed out politely.
“Oh,” Kari said, and she laughed at herself. “I didn't know there was a word for that.”
The others laughed with her. “I can tell he's going to be a big help,” Danilynn said. “He can already go through titles and find us promising selections, and he's picking up words and phrases faster than anyone I've ever met.”
“If Sonja will forgive me saying so, he's the smartest person I know,” Kari said.
Sonja grunted a laugh and shook her head. “No apology needed there; it's true.”
Aeligos blushed but didn't argue. “What exactly do you want us to focus on, Kari? I was thinking atlases and maps to get an idea of the lay of the land, and then maybe some history so we can get an idea of how the kings all view each other politically.”
Kari nodded. “That's exactly what we need,” she said. “If you can copy it, great, but we need to get a lot of this information back to the Order. Eli and I will find out as much about the city as we can by looking around with Eliza, so if I decide to station a few hunters here, they'll know how the city is laid out and operates before they get here. Oh, Danilynn, I meant to ask why you pointed at the sign on this inn earlier?”
“Just pointing out that one of the languages on it is syrinthian, but I figured you'd know that once you saw the syrinthians that were here. Just to be safe, we should be cautious what we say around them. They may be mortal, but we have no idea if they're loyal to Sekassus, or whether they live here or somewhere else. The same holds true even for the humans and the kwarrasti we saw here earlier.”
“Agreed,” Kari said. “Well, anyway, we're probably going to have a long day of reading and exploring ahead of us tomorrow, so let's pretend Erik is here to yell at all of us, and go get a good night's sleep.”
Again there was laughter, but everyone did as ordered.
Chapter VIII – The Reluctant Prince
Kari was awakened by a knock at the door of her bedroom the next morning, and she found she was groggy. As someone who usually got up around dawn, she found it weird to feel so tired unless it was still very early, which she couldn't tell for the lack of windows. Sonja and Danilynn had also perked up at the knock, and Kari got up and moved to answer the door. She took one of her scimitars in hand before she opened the door, and hid it behind her back, all the better to have a blade close at hand should it be trouble knocking.
Qin Lixiao was standing outside the door, and she bowed her head politely at the sight of Kari's bleary-eyed gaze. “I apologize for waking you, but a messenger has brought word that you are expected at the palace.”
“Is it dawn yet?” Kari asked around a yawn.
“Yes, my lady, the sun is just now rising.”
Kari surmised it was the change in the hours that weighed upon her. She acknowledged the message and closed the door to get dressed to head to the Overking's tower. Her roommates quickly got ready along with her, both as discombobulated by the time difference as Kari was. Kari washed her face in the provided basin, and then rinsed out her mouth before she belted on her swords. Once Sonja and Danilynn were likewise ready, they left their room and joined Eli and Aeligos, who had apparently overheard the message and gotten dressed quickly themselves.
Without pausing for breakfast or even a drink, Kari and her friends headed to the tower of the Overking. The entry level was almost completely deserted but for a few of the handsome, elf-like incubi who were positioned around to assist visitors. Kari started to head toward the nearest incubus to ask where she was supposed to go, but she froze in her tracks at the approach of a mallasti female.
Emma looked larger than Kari remembered her, no longer the humble-looking mallasti in the worn and slightly-tattered gray robe. She was only slightly taller than Kari, a tad over six feet, but she was stocky and thick, as seemed to be common among her people. Her eyes, the glowing orange orbs that held so much intelligence and yet the slightest traces of coldness, flicked ever so briefly over Kari's companions before settling back on the demonhunter. She wore a beautiful garment not unlike the one Eliza wore, an intricate robe webbed with colors of red, white, and black. The way she moved suggested that if anything remained of the wound Turillia had dealt her just weeks before, it was nearly completely healed. The mallasti female came to a stop before Kari and folded her hands in front of herself.
“You are expected upstairs to see Lord Morduri,” she said in that interestingly-accented voice. “This one is tasked with showing you the way to Lord Morduri's personal chambers.”
“How's your side?” Kari asked.
The question clearly caught Emma off-guard, and she tilted her head before answering. “This one has healed well despite the grievous nature of the wound.”
“How have you been, Emma? It's been ages,” Danilynn said quietly, as if afraid the incubi might take except
ion to their conversation.
“This one is not here to exchange pleasantries, but to deliver Lady Vanador into Lord Morduri's presence. As it stands, you are wasting his time, and what time he has afforded you.”
“Lead on, then,” Kari said.
Emma turned to go, but then whirled back to face them all. “Lady Vanador is the only one invited to see Lord Morduri,” she instructed. “The rest of you would do well to find other places to be.”
Kari nodded to the silent questions of her friends. “Go get some breakfast, then get back to what you were doing. I'll go meet with Lord Morduri and see where we stand.”
Once the others had left, Emma met Kari's eyes and then turned to lead her around to the back side of the tower's entry level. Kari had to remind herself that she was standing on the demons' home world, in the palace of their Overking, to keep from wanting to grab two fistfuls of the mallasti girl's robe and start shaking answers out of her. It made Kari wonder if that very urge was the reason Emma had been chosen to show Kari the way to Morduri's chambers, and if such meant that the Overking, among others, was privy to Kari's intentions. She thought back to what Eliza had said about the kings being just as interested in her as she was in them, and that they would be taking advantage of any opportunities to learn more about Kari and her Order.
Around the back side of the entry level was an intricate stone dais with an odd glyph carved into its surface. Kari thought it might be a word in infernal, but when she recalled Aeligos mentioning an alphabet, she wondered: did the infernal language also have one-symbol calligraphy like the rir and some of the human languages? Emma watched as Kari hesitated, and the mallasti stepped up onto the dais first and gestured for Kari to join her. No sooner had Kari stepped up next to the mallasti then they were whisked away through the distance, to arrive on a similar pad in an enclosed, circular room. Kari was pretty sure her stomach was still on the entry level somewhere.
“The Overking's servant, Emmalikas, bringing a guest by Lord Morduri's order,” Emma said, and one of the walls slid aside to allow access to a sprawling, semi-circular bedroom.
Kari stepped into the bedroom behind the mallasti female, and her mind barely registered that she had just entered the bedroom of a demon king, overwhelmed as she was by the décor. A bed that was larger than the one Kari shared with Grakin stood against the left-side wall, flanked by nightstands and bookshelves stacked deep with literature. There was no sign of the demon king the room belonged to, and Kari's eyes were drawn to the bright morning sun streaming in through a broad glass doorway that led out onto a balcony. The sunlight spilled onto the straight right-hand wall, where it drew attention to the numerous portraits and drawings. These, Kari saw instantly, were far more personal to the demon king: some of these were nudes, while others were obvious pictures of his parents or close family.
Emma didn't pause, passing through toward the back of the bedroom to a doorway on the inner wall. Once Kari caught up to her, the mallasti knocked on the door and waited until told to enter before she ushered Kari through. This room was a bath chamber, though when Kari's eyes took in the size of the bath itself, it seemed more like an indoor pool. At the end near Kari and Emma was a gurgling whirlpool sucking the water down into the floor, while at the far end, the pool was fed by a waterfall cascading from an unseen source in the ceiling. Kari glanced from source to drain and wondered if the water was coming from someone else's bath chamber above. Such a thing would certainly remind the kings of who was above them, to Kari’s thinking.
From out of the cascading water stepped the purple-eyed elestram king, and Emma bowed deeply to him when he made his appearance. Kari wasn't sure how deep the water was, but Morduri was submerged up to mid-belly, and Kari knew that he had to be easily seven feet tall, not counting those long, pointed ears. Standing before her, clothed only in the modest waters, Kari could see that Morduri was lean but muscular, an obvious hunter and athlete as he was reputed to be. He wore no jewelry – at least not in the bath – and had no distinctive marks, such as tattoos or brands, upon his person. Despite Kari's prejudices against demons, he was a fine-looking elestram male.
“You are dismissed,” he said evenly to Emma in the Citarian trade language, and the mallasti female bowed without a word, and departed the chamber. Once he and Kari were alone, Morduri gestured toward Kari and then the water. When she hesitated, he blew a wispy chuckle through his nose and said, “Worry not, Lady Vanador, I have no intentions of taking advantage of you. This bath chamber is one of the only places in this city where you and I can talk without being overheard by anyone. Join me and enjoy a bath while we speak; it may be your only opportunity to do so while visiting Anthraxis.”
His words brought to mind the wash basin at the inn and the fact that Kari and her friends hadn't been offered a bath. Was water perhaps a precious commodity here, flaunted by the kings while the rest of the population languished? She supposed it was entirely possible, if not outright probable. Without hesitating too much longer and possibly insulting her host, Kari removed her armor and her clothes and slipped easily into the water. The floor of the pool was graded in steps to accommodate the short and the tall alike, and Kari stepped out into the center so she was submerged above the breasts, maintaining some small semblance of modesty.
Morduri beheld her with those purple eyes, a hair shy of glowing even in the bath chamber, flooded with light as it was by the enchanted ceiling. He seemed neither amused nor desirous, as though the only thing on his mind at that moment was the pending agreement between them. After studying her for what felt like a solid minute, the elestram king moved over to the side, retrieved a bar of soap, and tossed it casually to Kari. She caught it and smelled it; it lacked any of the typical fruity scents the soaps back home had, but she figured demons probably didn't like smelling like a fruit salad. Its scent was neutral, but soap was soap, so Kari began to wash herself while she waited for Morduri to speak.
“I spoke with Lady Koursturaux last night regarding what you want, what she wants, and what I can expect to receive in return,” he said plainly. He lacked the accent that either Emma or the Wraith had; he definitely didn't speak like a Citarian, but his voice came across as neutral and that of a practiced speaker. “I have to say, I am not satisfied with this arrangement at all. I am asked to give up something and receive little in return at all but the pleasure of seeing Lady Koursturaux enjoy the fruits of my sacrifice and your labor? Ketava, to think I already have a reputation for being this much of a pushover.”
“I was afraid you were going to say something like that,” Kari said. His brow came low, and Kari wondered if she had spoken out of turn or simply too casually to the king. She started to try to find words of apology, but after a moment, he gestured for her to speak freely. “With all due respect, your majesty…your lordship…I'm not sure what I'm supposed to call you here…I have no reason to trust Lady Koursturaux, or you, or Lord Emanitar, whose realm I might have to cross to accomplish this task of ours. I don't imagine you have any more reason than I do to trust your fellow kings.”
He chuckled, but it sounded only partially amused. “You may well understand the way of our world better than I was led to believe,” he said. “To answer your question, while we are here in this chamber, you may simply call me Morduri; we will save worrying about Lord and King when we are outside among others. In this city, Lord Irrasitus or Your Lordship will suffice; among my people, you should call me Your Majesty to maintain decorum. I have not been a king for long, Lady Vanador–”
“Kari,” she interrupted, then gave an apologetic nod.
“Kari, then…as I was saying, I don't generally stand on ceremony except when I must to maintain decorum. And you are quite right, I have no more reason to put my trust in Lady Koursturaux than you do, or to go out of my way to make her happy. I am far too lowly in rank for her to get her hands dirty trying to murder me, and our lands do not border each other, so she has little means to harass me. I fail to see any reason I should
do as she has demanded, but for one: you.”
“I don't understand,” Kari said.
“You are a demonhunter, and one of a rather high rank,” he said, putting emphasis on her profession. “I may have use for you in the future, but at the same time, I think I know what reaction I can expect for suggesting you put yourself in my debt. As I already said, I am not satisfied with the terms presented by Lady Koursturaux, and will not aid either of you in this endeavor under those terms. If, however, you will agree to perform a service for me in the future, I will do as you ask.”
“What kind of service?” Kari asked suspiciously. That semi-amused expression crossed his face again, but Kari tried to deflect whatever offense she may have caused before he could reply. “I can't be in your debt if you're going to end up asking me to kill people on my world, or help you come across to kill people yourself.”
Morduri seemed surprised by her addendum, and his ears angled outward sharply with his brow coming low as he considered her. “Please don’t pretend to understand my wants or my motivations,” he said evenly, and Kari bowed her head deferentially. “All I will say in regard to the service I would ask of you is that it will not be something that goes against your nature. If I know your kind at all, I doubt the word of a demon king is going to ease your tension, but if you consider what it is you came here for, you’ll realize you are already taking several of us at our word.”
Kari nodded. “Why, though? Why do you need me to do something for you? You’re a high-ranking king, you must have people better suited to doing your bidding than me.”
Morduri scoffed. “High-ranking,” he muttered. “Ketava, you have no idea what it’s like to be a Middling. Too low in rank to stand up to the Ancient Ones, too high in rank to rest easy around the Minor Kings. I thought I made it rather clear that all the benefits of this plan of Lady Koursturaux’ go to her and to you. I would get nothing out of this deal except the opportunity to wedge my nose under her tail in exchange for her good will.”
