by Joe Jackson
One of them lay on the ground for a minute, but eventually he rose to his feet, shook his head, and patted the one who’d hit him on the shoulder, exchanging a brief but not unkind word. They went back to their game as if nothing had happened. Kari half-expected a magical duel to break out, or at least a fistfight, but if there were any hard feelings for the walloping the one had received, it didn’t show. Kari had to imagine that if it had been Typhonix or even Erik on the receiving end of such a hit in a game of sport, they’d have come up swinging.
Kari and her friends watched the practice session for a while. Kari felt as though she was wasting precious time, but she also had to admit to herself that without the help of the mallasti, the only place she and her friends could really go was back home. To have to stay in the village for even one more night seemed like a prison sentence, but Kari had to trust that King Morduri’s and King Koursturaux’ plan took everything into account. Uldriana said the people were willing to help, they were just trying to figure out how to do so, and Sonja had confirmed that.
After a while, Uldriana came and joined the three rir women on the edge of the ball field. She sat on a large rock near the three rir women and watched the practice session for a couple of minutes before she finally spoke. “It is decided; the elders have decreed that we will honor the wishes of our king wholly, as is right,” she said. “I will accompany you on your journey to see King Sekassus, and I alone will be in possession of the offering until it is time to give it up.”
“You’re coming with us?” Kari repeated.
Uldriana beheld Kari curiously for a moment. It was apparent that the nuances of the common trade tongue of Citaria were quite different from those of the mallasti language, and the mallasti girl was trying to keep that in mind when speaking with Kari. “Yes; the elders do not trust that this thing they give up by order of the king will be properly handled by you and your friends. So I will accompany you to Sorelizar, and to your meeting with King Sekassus.”
“Is that what all the arguing was about with your elders?” Kari asked. “Did they not want you to go with us, or did they not want to give up whatever thing that King Sekassus wants?”
Uldriana shook her head. “There was no argument; the king spoke, and though the elders tried to determine how best to honor his wishes, King Morduri’s word will be heeded and carried out. They simply, as you say, do not want me to accompany you: Sorelizar is a dangerous place, the land of our king’s enemies, and my people fear for my safety.”
“Well, you can tell them that as long as you’re helping us, you’ll be under my protection. It may not mean much, given we’re going to talk to a demon king, but–”
“Your protection?” Uldriana scoffed. “You hunt and kill our kind! No, I will not speak these words of foolishness to the elders. They will think you are either a fool, or that you seek to murder me the moment we are away from the village. If you want our help, I would advise you to simply keep your tongue stilled and your mouth closed. Do and say nothing in this turning of the sun that will make my people reconsider the help they have agreed to provide you.”
Kari had to concede the point; would a demonhunter telling a demon that its child was under her protection really come across in any way other than as an insult? She couldn’t help but think of her mission on Tsalbrin, when she’d promised the brys Makauric that he would be safe under her protection. She had led him to his death, and though he hadn’t blamed her for it, Kari had always held it as the truth. She wondered how she could even begin to pretend she could protect a mallasti from the wrath of a demon king…let alone explain why she would.
She followed Uldriana silently into the village, and Sonja touched Kari’s shoulder in a comforting gesture. Kari guessed her emotions were setting off Sonja’s empathic sensitivity like a gong. She hadn’t even known that Sonja possessed such ability for a long time, and she simply hoped her sister-in-law wouldn’t read her thoughts without permission. Kari assumed she knew Sonja well enough to know she wouldn’t do such a thing. She looked at Sonja, and her sister-in-law gave a subdued but sincere smile to try to comfort her. Kari was glad for it.
“How many of your people speak our language?” Kari asked the mallasti girl.
“Not many,” Uldriana answered over her shoulder. Her mood already seemed better, or at the very least, she had returned to that impassiveness that was common among the mallasti. “I take a great interest in languages, so I understand yours, though I am not quite accustomed to actually speaking it. Other than the elders, you will find few others in the village who can understand your words.”
Not sure I mind that at all, Kari thought. As long as a few of the mallasti could speak with her, Kari was just as glad that not all of them would be eavesdropping on her conversations. The four women took seats near the fire pit in the village, and though the mallasti people cast their appraising stares over Kari and her friends every so often, they didn’t impose or make any hostile gestures or remarks. Kari wondered how much the mallasti themselves would tell her about their world, their people, and their kings. She didn’t want to be too inquisitive, but at the same time, if she was going to be spending time among them, and then travelling with one of them, she figured it was pointless to avoid interacting with them.
“What can you tell us about your king?” Kari prodded. She didn’t want to seem like she was taking notes on her enemies, but she was honestly curious what the mallasti thought of King Morduri. If his realm was close to what Kari and her friends might call “free country,” and the demons respected rather than feared him, it made him an interesting character in Kari’s mind.
Uldriana seemed surprised by the direct questioning, but with how broad a subject it was, she didn’t get defensive. She shrugged. “King Morduri Irrasitus is lord of this realm, Pataria, also called The Eastern Meadows,” the mallasti girl began to explain. “He is nicknamed The Reluctant Prince among his peers on the Council of Anthraxis.”
That was the first time Kari had heard that. “The Reluctant Prince? Why’s he called that?” she prodded.
The mallasti woman raised her eyes skyward and muttered something; Kari was pretty sure it was that word ketava again. “You outsiders, do you always talk over and interrupt everyone who speaks?” she asked irritably. “When I am finished speaking, you may speak. Do you wish to know about King Morduri, or do you wish to continue interrupting me with questions you have not given me opportunity to answer?”
Sonja held her hand up, drawing Uldriana’s attention for a moment. “We come from a large family where it can be tough to get a word in around the supper table,” Sonja piped in. “Kari didn’t mean to be rude. Please, tell us more about your king.”
Uldriana accepted the explanation with a nod. “Unlike most of the other nobles among the peoples of Mehr’Durillia, Prince Morduri never wanted to be king. He is a hunter and a sportsman, and he was more content to be a spokesman and ambassador for his father among the neighboring kingdoms. Not many years ago, his father, King Ansular Irrasitus, wound up in a dispute with King Baphomet, our neighbor in the kingdom of Teradda to the east. The dispute led to a fight in which King Ansular was killed, but the blame for the conflict fell upon him, so King Baphomet was held free of consequence among his peers on the Council.”
She paused for a few moments, and Kari spoke. “So King Baphomet outranked King Ansular on the Council? That was why it was important that King Ansular attacked first?”
The mallasti woman nodded. “It was a falsehood; we all know this. King Baphomet murdered King Ansular, and Prince Morduri was forced to ascend to the throne he never wanted. Thus he is now King Morduri Irrasitus, the Reluctant Prince, though sometimes he is called The Cunning Jackal in honor of his father. He descended several ranks down the Council, for he is neither as powerful nor as influential as his father was. However, thanks to his duties as an ambassador and spokesman for his father, he is…well-liked by many of the other kings, if that word is appropriate.”
Kari wa
ited to make sure Uldriana had stopped. “Do your people have any idea why King Baphomet murdered King Ansular, other than the fact that he’s a demon king?”
Uldriana looked at Kari sideways, but she answered, “It is assumed that King Baphomet hoped that forcing the weaker King Morduri to the throne might encourage one of his lower-ranked neighbors to invade, in order to rise up the ranks of the Council. If so, it was a foolish thing to do, for King Morduri and King Emanitar get on well, and have since the day Morduri became the heir apparent, and none of his other neighbors has the necessary resources to attack without exposing themselves to their own neighbors. I suspect it was more because the Ancient Ones simply want to hoard power, and the fewer kings there are on the Council, the more powerful they become.”
“How do you mean?” Danilynn asked while Kari sorted through what they had just been told. “The power of the kings is based on how many of them there are?”
“No, that was not what I meant,” the mallasti woman countered. “While kings grow in power every turning of the era – I believe you call such a ‘millennium’ in your language – I meant more their influence grows as there are fewer of them remaining. There were once fifty-four kings on the Council; now there are only seventeen. The kings now have more influence than they did when there were fifty-four of them. Also, since many of those called Middlings – those too young to be Ancient Ones, but older than Minor Kings – have been killed off, the difference in power between the least of the Ancient Ones – Abaddon – and the next king on the Council – Sekassus – is considerable. If King Abaddon and King Sekassus ever faced each other in a duel or a full-scale war, the Lord of Destruction would crush the Cobra Lord easily. Thus, the Ancient Ones continue to be nigh untouchable, while they encourage the lower-ranked kings to fight and kill each other off.”
Kari tried to keep track of the names, realms, and nicknames as Uldriana went through her brief history lesson. She wondered if everyone in the underworld – Mehr’Durillia – was as well-versed in the politics of the realms as Uldriana seemed to be. It occurred to Kari that the mallasti woman might be able to tell her much of what she was hoping to learn from Se’sasha. The fact that Uldriana was so open with the information further gave Kari hope that Se’sasha might be so as well.
“How often do your people actually see or hear from your king?” Sonja asked. “I can sense that you think of your king with respect; it seems to me that he is a good king to you.”
“As I said, King Morduri never wanted the throne, so he wields his power as sparingly as possible,” the mallasti woman said. She went quiet a moment and pointed to the western valley, where the lake was. “If you were to follow the river that feeds the lake northward for near to a week, you would find the king’s home city of Ruceria, though the likelihood of actually finding the king there, even when the Council is not in session, is small. King Morduri likes to travel his lands and keep abreast of the goings-on among his people, and when he is not doing so, he is just as often found in Tess’Vorg visiting with King Emanitar.”
“Is he married?” Kari prodded, though she knew the answer. Uldriana seemed willing to speak of just about anything, so Kari wanted to take full advantage of it and learn as much as she could. She had an idea of who King Morduri Irrasitus was; if she could get a similar impression of some of the other demon kings, it would be a lot more than the Order knew now.
“Which, King Morduri or King Emanitar?”
“Both,” Kari said with a shrug.
“Hmph, well, I shall speak more of King Emanitar another time. King Morduri is not married; he is whispered to have a love interest, but he does not keep a harem or a mistress as is common among the other kings. There are rumors among the other kings and even some of our people that he does not partake of women, but despite his hesitance to take a wife, he does at times dally with the older women of the villages he visits. Some suggest he has a relationship with King Emanitar, but that is foolishness: they have been friends from the time Morduri was a boy, and King Emanitar not only has several mistresses, but was once the kast’wa of King Koursturaux.”
Kari tried to keep her thoughts straight through the newest revelations. A part of her wondered sarcastically if there was anyone who hadn’t been a kast’wa to King Koursturaux at some point, but she kept that thought wisely shut away. “So he does sleep around when he’s here in the villages?” Kari asked, and her wording surprised the mallasti girl. “Does he have any children, then?”
Uldriana thought to herself for a minute. “King Morduri has no children as of yet; it is believed that he is awaiting the proper time to announce who his kast’wa is, or else take her as his wife,” the mallasti woman continued. “It leaves him in a dangerous position, for if he were to fall at the hands of another king, they could absorb this realm into their own; King Morduri has no heir.”
“But he’s bordered on the south by the Overking, the west by his…friend King Emanitar, and on the east by King Baphomet, who’s too high in rank to attack him,” Kari reasoned. “That really only leaves King Arku to the north, right? Is King Arku strong enough to challenge your king, or be a threat to him in terms of military strength?”
Uldriana seemed to think about that. “That is hard to say; since King Morduri ascended the throne at a young age for a king, he is not much older than King Arku despite the wide gap in their ranks. Pataria is also bordered in the northeast by mountains called the Peaks of Sorrow; there King Lestanaek the Blademaster makes his home in Ekkristis, the Deep Stronghold. He is not a direct threat to King Morduri, but the Reluctant Prince is wary of the Blademaster. King Lestanaek is an erestram noble who rose to a throne several of your millennia ago, so while he is older than King Morduri, he is not a ‘true born’ king, and thus not as powerful.”
Gods, I wish I had a scribe with me, Kari thought. She had already learned far more about the kings in the short time she’d been talking with Uldriana than in the years she’d been at the Academy, or commissioned as a demonhunter. Part of her wondered if everything Uldriana was telling them was true, but she almost laughed at the thought: if not, the mallasti girl was the best storyteller Kari had ever met. “Is there anything else interesting about your king that you care to share?” Kari asked when the mallasti girl went quiet.
Uldriana shrugged. “Well, he is considered handsome, well-endowed, and quite wealthy as well, but I did not believe you would be interested in such things,” she said, and she actually cracked a toothy smile when the three rir women laughed.
“You’re not going to get in trouble for telling us all of this, are you?” Kari asked.
Uldriana cast her gaze to the west but shook her head. “Nothing I have told you is a secret; this is common knowledge to all of our peoples of Mehr’Durillia. I suppose I should not ramble so much in front of a hunter, but it is not as though I am telling you anything you could not learn from the library in Anthraxis, given time.”
Kari glanced at Sonja and Danilynn and saw that they were both pleased with how much they’d been told so far. Kari was glad for their presence; anything she couldn’t remember from these conversations, she was sure her diligent sister-in-law or the priestess would. “Tess’Vorg is a rather strange-sounding name, even among your kind,” Kari said, and Uldriana made a gesture that seemed to agree somewhat. “Does it have some meaning? Or is it just a name?”
“The closest thing I can think of in your tongue would be ‘the birthplace,’” Uldriana explained. “It is where our people are believed to have been created at the dawn of time. Once, in an era long past, Tess’Vorg is said to have encompassed nearly the entirety of this land mass, this…continent, I believe you would say. As the kings have staked their claims to the land, they have given their realms names of their own choosing.”
Kari found that interesting; did that mean King Emanitar had once ruled over nearly all of Mehr’Durillia? She wanted to ask the mallasti girl a slew of questions, but she was mindful of wearing out their welcome in Moskarre too quickl
y, or irritating Uldriana before they ever began their journey. “I suppose helping with your hunting and such is out of the question,” Kari said, and Uldriana made no move or sound of disagreement. “What can we do around here to try to stay out from under foot, but maybe make ourselves useful?”
The mallasti girl looked around at her people for a minute before she met Kari’s eyes with that nearly unblinking, impassive gaze. “My people do not trust you, and though you are allowed to stay among us, you are not truly welcome here,” she said. “They will not trust you to aid them with anything, so you are advised to simply take your meals and stay away from the females with pups. None will protest you watching the youths participate in their games on the eastern field, but bear in mind that if you try to touch any of them, their parents may see you as a threat, and react accordingly.”
Kari nodded. She was disappointed, but as she thought about it, she realized it was the exact same treatment a mallasti “guest” would receive in her own home or city.
“Perhaps…again, if it’s not too much to ask, perhaps you can show me some things about the arcane,” Sonja ventured. “I know you said you had to speak with the elders first; did you ask them whether that would be acceptable?”
Uldriana thought about it. “I will show you what I may after sundown.”
Sonja smiled and nodded her thanks. Sonja was as excited as Kari had ever seen her. That was definitely a more positive development: if the mallasti were willing to help correct some of Sonja’s issues, that might make their impending trip even safer. And that wasn’t even to mention the fact that Sonja would be much more confident in her magic in the future, and an even greater help to the Silver Blades than she already was.
