by Joe Jackson
“It’s not even that,” Sonja said with a sigh. “Master Maelstrom says I’m doing things the right way, but for whatever reason, the powers just aren’t responding correctly. You’ve seen it before, Kari: I have no problem conjuring shields and using things like masking spells to keep us hidden when traveling. Occasionally I can even call down or discharge lightning, but I’m so afraid it won’t work in combat that I haven’t tried it in the heat of battle. But the other portions of the arcane…transport, conjurations, summoning, transmutations…none of them work. It’s like I’m cut off from those arcane sciences for whatever reason.”
“But then Maelstrom just tells you to be patient, right?” Kari guessed.
Sonja nodded, and she turned her attention to Danilynn. “Did you ever have problems calling upon your deity’s power?”
The fures-rir priestess shook her head. “Divine spell-casting is a completely different thing,” she said. “I don’t cast spells the way you do; I simply channel my deity’s power through myself. It acts like a spell, but if you did the same gestures and called upon the same influences I did, nothing would happen. You’re not a conduit for Garra Ktarra’s power, or anyone else’s, as far as I know. What you manipulate as a wizard is a natural power that I believe was put here by the gods, but it is not in the possession of the gods, if that makes any sense.”
Sonja nodded as though it did, but Kari had a hard time following it. When she needed to call upon Zalkar’s power to heal wounds after battle, she just did so; she didn’t go through prayer or meditation or make any gestures or chant. She wondered if her divine power was different from Danilynn’s or Grakin’s. Kari had never even thought about trying to learn the arcane: she had a poor education growing up, and many people thought she was fairly stupid based on her limited vocabulary. Living among the well-educated Tesconis family was changing that, but Kari still felt no inclination to try to learn arcane magic.
Her attention and that of Sonja and Danilynn was drawn to the tent of the elder when Uldriana reemerged. The mallasti girl came and stood before Kari and her two companions, but she didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. She stared at the trio with that expressionless gaze, finally asking, “Would you prefer to sleep out here under the stars? Otherwise, you may take your rest among my family in our home.”
Kari looked to her friends, wondering which option would be considered less rude by the mallasti. “Is it going to bother your family if we sleep among them?” she asked.
“We have extended the invitation to please the king and our elders, with whom we will speak come the morning,” Uldriana answered. “I must warn you, however: our families share these tents for a few generations, so it will be a bit crowded within. Try to keep your eyes and your thoughts to yourselves, and get some sleep.”
“All right, thank you,” Kari said as she rose to her feet. Uldriana turned back and fixed her with a withering gaze, but it lasted only a few moments before the impassive expression returned to her face. She said and did nothing in acknowledgement of Kari’s thanks, and the demonhunter wondered if it had simply been foolish to thank a demon. Sonja and Danilynn both seemed put on guard by the sudden viciousness of the mallasti girl’s expression, but they stayed silent and followed Uldriana to her home.
Chapter XI – Lessons Learned
The night in Uldriana’s home was physically comfortable, but quite unnerving. Kari and her friends were unable to sleep near each other, and despite Kari’s attempts to reassure herself that the mallasti wouldn’t do anything against their king’s wishes, she didn’t enjoy the night of sleep amongst them, separated from her friends. She’d expected to bed down near Uldriana, but instead she was put near the outer wall of the tent, with what she assumed was a middle-aged mallasti couple beside her. They seemed to take interest in Kari, but they never spoke to her, though whether because of the language barrier or not, she wasn’t sure.
Kari woke shortly before dawn and tiptoed her way out of the mallasti tent, mindful of stepping on anyone. The rest of the village was still asleep; only a couple of sentries stood on a nearby hilltop or near the north end of the village to keep watch over things. At almost the same time Kari exited the tent, she saw King Morduri emerge from the elder’s home. The demon king already had his sword and his bow across his back, and he seemed amused to see anyone else up at the same time as himself. He nodded toward the hill to the north and walked off, so Kari followed in his wake.
He led her to an area the mallasti used as a privy, then they got fresh drinks and washed their faces in the nearby lake. Kari started to head back to the village once they were finished, but Morduri lagged behind for a minute, so she stopped to see what he was doing.
“I will not be returning to the village,” he said, and Kari’s hackles rose. “I have other places I need to visit, and these people know what I expect of them. Try to be courteous, no matter how they treat you in return, and you should be on your way by tomorrow.”
“Can I ask you something, honestly?” Kari said, and the demon king nodded after only a brief delay. “Do you think this is going to work?”
Morduri snorted. “That depends upon you, of course,” he said. “But as far as whether or not King Sekassus is going to agree to your terms? Yes, he will.”
“Do you think he’ll honor the Seven Days’ Grace law, though?” Kari asked. “King Celigus seemed to suggest he might not.”
The elestram king’s ears perked up at that, and he looked away to the west in thought. “I suppose that depends on how badly he wants to kill you,” he said. “Normally, a violation of the Seven Days’ Grace law would mean either summary execution, or the loss of one’s three eldest children. With you being from off-world, though, I suppose it would depend–”
“On how angry the Overking got that Salvation’s Dawn was killed or captured?” Kari interrupted, surprising the demon king again. “Tell me, Your Majesty, why you’re not interested in the fact that I’m Salvation’s Dawn.”
Morduri snorted and began to ascend the hill. “That’s a myth older than Koursturaux’ tits,” he spat, but then he looked at Kari quickly. “Eh, please don’t ever repeat that to her.”
Kari was stunned, but she managed a chuckle. “Somehow I don’t think that’s something I’d repeat, even to tell her someone else said it.”
“Hmph,” he muttered. “Anyway, from what I’ve heard over the years, it’s a running joke among the older kings: an excuse to send their servants out to die, looking for some mystical keys to a temple that will grant them divinity. You cannot become a deity; deity is something you either are or aren’t. Personally, I believe all of this Salvation’s Dawn and mystical temple nonsense is just a giant game to the Overking, something he uses to keep the rest of us too caught up in to try taking his crown from him.”
“But my peoples’ gods were once mortal,” Kari protested.
Morduri made a dismissive gesture. “And I would wager that they still are. They may have been called to a higher purpose and power, but if you ran them through with your swords, I think you would find they are still very far from being gods.” He met Kari’s gaze, but no words would come forth from her throat. “Then again, Kari, this is all just the ramblings of a king who is barely old enough to not be considered a whelp anymore.”
“But if what you’ve said is true...”
“We are all caught up in a deadly game,” he finished. “You consider me and my peers to be your enemies, but we are as much pawns to the Overking’s machinations as you and your people. To get back to your initial question, know that if King Sekassus attempts to capture or kill you after your meeting, he will have considered every possible ramification, and the odds of each coming to pass. Do not expect the fact that you are Salvation’s Dawn – whatever that truly means – to keep you safe. You will live by your wits and your wiles.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring,” Kari muttered.
“Have a little more faith in yourself,” Morduri countered. “You’ve ma
de it this far, and managed to get one of the most powerful kings to put considerable resources to helping you. I think there may be more to you than I suspected.”
“Yea, well, I’ll try to make sure I survive, but not for the sake of the favor I owe you,” Kari joked, surprised when the demon king actually laughed.
“Well, I look forward to the news of your success,” he said rather amicably. “And I will contact you when the time is right for you to return your favor.”
Kari bowed respectfully, and the elestram king took up a jog and headed away along the side of the hill. She wondered where he was off to, and marveled at how quickly his long strides took him away toward the far edge of the hills and out of sight. For a moment, she wished she could do the same: run for the hills, or rather back to Anthraxis, and safely home to her family. She envied Morduri his free-spirited lifestyle to a degree, wishing she could wander around like she’d done in her prior life, solving problems wherever she went, but never tied down to any one place. It would be an odd thing, she knew, with a mate and child in tow, which confirmed the foolishness of the thoughts to her. She still found a certain charm in the wanderer’s ways.
She walked up to the top of the hill where the sentries stood, and the two mallasti males stared at her with those impassive gazes. Without the nearby protection of their king, Kari felt a little bit exposed, but malice and viciousness were just as lacking in their stolid gazes as any kind of empathy or grace. They turned back to their vigilant watch after a few moments, and Kari took the opportunity to look over the sleepy village of Moskarre under the light of dawn. Only a few mallasti had emerged from their tents so far, some of them relief for the night sentries, others bringing out the remnants of the prior night’s meals to add to the fire pit in the village center.
Kari headed back down to the village and studied the mallasti who went about their morning tasks. There was so much more to them as a people than Kari had expected, though as she thought about it, she realized it was because she’d had no idea what to expect. What had she really thought about the underworld before setting foot here? That it was full of demons, sitting around in fortresses or rubbing their hands together in dark corners, plotting and scheming? To find that they lived and worked – and even played – in much the same way as the societies on Kari’s own world was a strange twist, but then she wondered how else it could be. They weren’t demons in the mythical sense: they had to eat and sleep, they reproduced, and thus they had a working society not all that unlike Kari’s. It was strange, but it also made a certain sense.
Kari suppressed a smile; she didn’t want the people of the village to think she found them amusing or was trying to insult them. She had already begun to find what she was really looking for on this journey. She didn’t just want to find and rescue Se’sasha; she wanted to find out the nature of her enemies and the world they came from. As strange as it was, she was taking in the world and its “peoples,” all the better to learn to fight and counteract them when the time came. And if some time came when her Order and the armies of her world were strong enough to strike here, in the home of the demons, then everything she learned would aid in that. It was a long-term goal, but Turik Jalar had laid the ground work, and Kari was proud to be able to add to it.
Kari ate her fill of breakfast while the rest of the village was beginning to wake up. She had just finished eating when Sonja, Danilynn, and Uldriana awakened and joined her out near the central fire pit. Kari glanced around at all the naked mallasti, but with their heavy coats, Kari somehow didn’t really see them as being naked. As a rir, nudity didn’t faze her anyway; she had a habit of walking around naked when she could do so without upsetting humans or serilian-rir. “Your people don’t wear clothes?” she asked Uldriana.
The mallasti girl shook her head. “We do when we go to the cities, but out here in our own village, it is not a concern. Our people are not sensitive to it, but the elestram, erestram, and syrinthian people are more prudish on such matters, so we do as they do when among them.”
That seemed an interesting development to Kari; she hadn’t really considered there would be societal differences between mallasti, elestram, erestram, valirasi, syrinthians, sylinths, and harmauths. She started to see herself – not to mention her Order – as quite naïve and ignorant where the demons were concerned. That further helped to reinforce her reasons for coming, as she was tired of these creatures just being threats to be killed when they showed up on Citaria. Kari wanted to know what it was that made them such vicious invaders, but now she also wanted to know what made their societies run.
There was little time to pursue the subject, however, as the entire village gathered in the central circle. The elder mallasti from the day before sat with four other elder-looking males who weren’t quite as grayed as he. The eldest-looking one began to speak, and the mallasti all sat and went quiet, as though he had called a meeting to order. Uldriana gestured for Kari and her friends to stay seated and wait. She then moved up to stand before the gathered elders.
They held a conversation for several minutes, and every so often Sonja would quietly say anger, fear, or anxiety. Kari wished the mallasti would simply converse in the infernal tongue; at least Danilynn and Sonja would be able to translate those words. “Do either of you know an enchantment that lets everyone hear everyone else’s words in their own language?” Kari asked her companions quietly. “I remember Sakkrass using one when–”
She shut up, fixed by nearly every pair of mallasti eyes in the village. There was a long, uncomfortably silent stretch as the hyena-demons simply stared at Kari, and she realized she’d somehow offended all of them. Whether it was simply by speaking out of turn, or because of her mentioning Sakkrass’ name, she wasn’t sure. “Tell them I’m sorry,” Kari said to Uldriana. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Uldriana seemed to sigh, and she began speaking to the elders. Kari caught the word ketava among whatever it was Uldriana said, and she wondered if Amastri spoke the language of the mallasti people. Whatever Uldriana said, it seemed to appease the elders and, therefore, the rest of the gathered mallasti. They went back to their conversation, and Kari looked to Sonja and Danilynn for an answer.
Sonja simply shook her head, and Danilynn tried to whisper, “Not my normal area of expertise. I might be able to ask for such a power…”
She closed her mouth, too, as the mallasti all went silent again. Kari had wondered if it was her mention of the name Sakkrass that had offended the hyena-demons, but as they fixed Danilynn with their impatient gazes, Kari realized that wasn’t the case. Danilynn stood up and bowed her head apologetically toward the elders, and then she spoke slowly and calmly to them in the infernal tongue. The impatience of the elders didn’t seem placated at all by the infernal dialect, but the eldest nodded grudgingly when Danilynn finished speaking.
“What did you say?” Kari asked her, seizing the opportunity when no one was speaking.
“I told them that if they expect us to sit here and stay silent, then they should speak in a language we can understand,” the priestess said as she sat back down.
“I will explain what is being said when we are done here,” Uldriana said to Kari and her friends. “For now, simply be patient; we are not discussing whether or not we will help you, but rather how we shall fulfill the wishes of the king.”
“Do you mind if we move to the field in the east, then?” Kari asked. “I’d rather not keep aggravating your elders.”
Uldriana posed Kari’s question to the elder in their tongue, and the eldest of the mallasti nodded his head and waved for the three rir women to take their leave. Kari led her two friends to the football field, where there were a handful of older youths. They looked to be adolescents, and they were playing a different sport than the football game the youngsters had played the day before. The teenagers wielded long sticks with curved baskets on the end, and they were hurling a small, hard-looking ball between them. Kari had heard of a similar sport before, but the name
of it eluded her; it had been some time since she’d seen it played.
“What do you two make of all this?” Kari asked. “Is this all a mirage, or is there more to the mallasti than we’ve always suspected?”
“It’s not a mirage,” Sonja said. “Not in either a figurative or literal sense. If these people were merely acting or putting on a show to help deceive us, I’d sense it. They couldn’t all fool my empathic senses, especially the children. Maybe this is an aberration among the mallasti – we do seem to be far from ‘civilization’ as we know it, so maybe these are simply a different breed than the ones you’ve hunted in the past.”
Danilynn folded her arms across her chest. “Don’t forget that Amastri told you that the realms of Kings Morduri and Emanitar are different from the others; we may be in a place where these demons are a little less…barbaric than is typical. Things could change very quickly once we reach Sorelizar, or even Tess’Vorg, or perhaps even when we leave this village.”
Kari nodded. “I guess you’re right. I had a hard time believing Amastri when she told me that some of the kingdoms aren’t as bad as others. I assumed they were all terrible, and that the ones they considered bad were a living nightmare. To find this place so beautiful and its people, well, not friendly, but at least not hostile…I wasn’t expecting this. Makes me wonder what they think of King Morduri and how he rules them.”
“Well, they respect him, but I’m not sure what that really amounts to, given what they are,” Sonja said. “I can sense that while they want to do as he asked, they’re quite anxious about giving up whatever the king ordered them to give us.”
“I still can’t guess what it could be,” Kari agreed. She went quiet when there was a loud, vicious collision between two of the teenaged mallasti practicing their sport. It was shocking just how hard the two had hit each other; Kari had heard her brothers-in-law, who were muscular and bulky, throw each other around wrestling. The two mallasti colliding sounded like that, but they were nowhere near as large or bulky as Kari’s in-laws.
