by Joe Jackson
Master Bennet held his hand up. “Your Grace, please, we are gathering our resources and information even as we speak. Lady Vanador will be making the final determination as to who and what to send once we have all the relevant facts.”
Duke Bosimar looked at Kari and his gaze softened. In those black eyes, so much like her own, she could see the anguish he felt looking at her. She now held the office his son had just a decade earlier, and Kari had little doubt the Duke was wishing his son had never set foot on the campus of the Demonhunter Order. Jason Bosimar was one of the finest examples of her Order to ever grace the post of Avatar of Vengeance, and had served with distinction for years before being slain in the Apocalypse. Kari saw the grief in the old man’s eyes and she couldn’t help but wonder how she would feel if her son was killed at any age.
And then it hit her: her brother-in-law Typhonix was at the temple of the healer god, Tigron, paralyzed from the waist down without much hope in sight. She felt so helpless where he was concerned, and it only added to the weight already on her shoulders as the head of the Order and an expectant mother. What Kari really wanted to do was organize a hunting party to track down the Demon Prince and cut him into about two dozen pieces; they’d see if he could somehow survive that. Of course, she knew that such wasn’t even a possibility with the weight of what stood before her.
“Your Grace, we’ll have people on the way to Marsdale by tomorrow,” Kari said to the Duke. “If you could get us a ship and commission it to take our people south, that would be the best help you could give right now. If you’re thinking about military help, then you’ll want to talk to the Duke of Sutherland first. I can’t speak for him on military matters.”
“Yes, of course,” he agreed. “I will have the fastest ship in port commissioned to take your people south, or I will commandeer it. I am just…do you have any word on Earl Marsdale? If something or someone has killed him, we need to determine if it is simply aggression or a planned strike against the nobility.”
Kari nodded, and she stretched and refolded her wings behind her nervously. Absently, she scratched at her snout with her small black claws, wishing the Duke would go away so she could freely speak her mind to the Council and other heads of the Order. There were things she wanted to discuss – the possibility of Seril being alive not the least of them – but not in front of the Duke or anyone else with loose lips. There was also the nagging issue of her suspicion that there was a mole among the Order, which was something else she didn’t want to say to, or in front of, the Duke.
“If I may make a suggestion, Your Grace,” Kari said, more than a little surprised when he seemed to hang on her every word, “you may want to begin mustering the garrisons and put the baronies on notice. It’s too early to say how big a threat we’re dealing with, but if towns in the south are being sacked and the Earl of Marsdale really is dead, then we need to be prepared in case this turns out to be another invasion or war of some kind.”
Duke Bosimar nodded curtly, his own anxiety fleeing in an instant when addressed more like a military commander and less like a pampered noble. “Yes, you are right, Lady Vanador,” he said calmly. He turned to the Council. “Gentlemen, I will have a ship prepared for your people within the hour; it should be ready to set sail by dawn. In the meantime, I will busy myself doing as Lady Vanador has suggested: sending orders to the barons to muster their own garrisons to fortify the cities and our southern border. I expect that a number of your own hunters will be made available to our vanguard?”
“As always, Your Grace,” said Master Perez, one of the eldest of the council and a highly respected former military officer. “Once we have conferred with Lady Vanador on who to send to Marsdale, we will send an appropriate number of our hunters to integrate with your army.”
Satisfied with that, the Duke nodded politely and made his way from the chamber. Kari watched him go, and once he was out of the room, she turned back to her brother-in-law. “Erik, I want you to see to this personally,” she said, and he nodded without hesitation. “Take Aeligos, Serenjols, and Sonja with you.”
“What about Eli and Danilynn? They seem pretty capable from what you’ve said,” he returned.
Kari shook her head. “No, I need them here for something else. Masters, who do we have on assignment in the deep south? Anyone?”
Master Arinotte consulted his notes briefly. The dark-skinned human looked over his records, and when he looked back up toward Kari, his lips were pursed. “We have very few on assignment in the area right now. The closest hunters would be Gretchen Dolivant and Ephraim Blackwolf, both of whom are stationed in the holy city.”
“Damnit,” Kari muttered. “Those are both kids. We can’t send them into something like this blindly. But it’s going to take time to get our people there, and time is something we don’t have. What do you figure, it’ll take a couple weeks to get people to Marsdale County by ship?”
Master Perez nodded. “Two weeks, perhaps a little less, seems like a good estimate.”
“All right, I need messages sent to Gnarr, Lajere, and Marsdale,” Kari said, commanding everyone’s attention instantly. “Get word to whoever’s taken over things in Marsdale that they need to order all of their cities fortified and prepared for a possible invasion. Send word to the Duke of Sutherland that we need to call on his offer of Avengers to help put a stop to this. It’s his own duchy under attack, so I expect he’ll be all too happy to provide us some paladins. And speaking of paladins, get a message to the Earl of Lajere and tell him Karian Vanador needs him and his two students to join in this hunt.”
There were only hasty Yes ma’ams uttered as several of the officers dashed from the Council chamber to do as instructed. Even passing messages through the clergy via prayer, they were still on the defensive and pressed for time; at the very least, Kari figured Duke Krycyd Jalar of Sutherland and Earl Markus Garant of Lajere would have the requested aid ready when Erik and his siblings arrived. There were still many other things to discuss, but Kari didn’t want to tell the Council about her suspicions regarding the mole until she was alone with them. She glanced at Erik, who was still waiting for a direct order, and she ran her fingers through her hair.
“Take the ship Duke Bosimar provides tomorrow morning, and sail down to Port Kristofer,” Kari ordered him. “You take Aeligos, Sonja, and Serenjols if they’re willing, and Duke Jalar should have some help waiting for you there. Then you can pick up Earl Garant, Sherman, and Katarina in Lajere and get to Winter’s Bounty as quickly as possible. You may have to sail farther along the coast – I think Newport is the next major city – or you might be able to get information and start the hunt right in Winter’s Bounty.”
“We’ll take it from there,” Erik answered, and Kari was hardly aware of the stares of the Councilors until her brother-in-law amended, “Ma’am.”
“I’ll send more help once we know what we’re dealing with,” Kari said. “But we have things we have to look into while you’re on this hunt – Taesenus hurting your brother not the least of them – and with this poorly-timed pregnancy, I won’t be going with you.”
Erik waved off the comment. “We’ll handle it, don’t worry…ma’am,” he said.
Kari chuckled, but the sudden rigid military decorum brought something else to mind. “Masters, we also need to send a few more hunters to the Temple of Archons; our hunters that were stationed there were murdered. We think it was Taesenus that did it, but more alarming than that is the military unit stationed there didn’t even notice. Can I leave it to you to speak to the Duke about replacing the officers in charge over there?”
Master Perez frowned, the lines on his forehead more pronounced because of his shaved scalp. “I assume you already notified the secretaries?” he asked, to which Kari nodded. The elder priest sighed and put the tips of his fingers together before him. “I will see to informing the Duke personally. The battalion stationed there was supposed to support our hunters, and if they failed to even notice that our people w
ere slain, then they have been of no use to anyone.”
“My feelings exactly,” Kari said, and she turned back to Erik. “Get going; go see your siblings and see if they’re willing to go with you.”
Erik saluted Kari and left hastily, leaving only Lord Allerius with her in the Council chamber. The terra-rir former head of the Order had been silent thus far, and Kari wondered what he was thinking. She guessed he was probably impressed with how easily she was taking over the reins of the Order, and didn’t want to interrupt or second-guess her orders. Still, she respected his input and his vast experience, and she motioned for him to stay with them while she got her thoughts in order. None of the other Silver Blades arrived in the chamber, and Kari assumed Erik had or would intercept the rest of them before they arrived. With just the Council and Lord Allerius before her, Kari decided she’d better get to the sensitive matters quickly.
“Masters, there’s several things I need to go over with you that we have to look into right away,” she said. “The first is the fact that Taesenus isn’t dead. Kaelariel said he killed the Demon Prince during the War, but if it turns out that’s not true or Taesenus was able to survive somehow, I’m left to wonder if his mother is truly dead, either.”
“You raise an interesting point,” Master Bennet said, “but we must hold to one of two assumptions: either Seril is dead, or her power is so completely depleted that she is not a threat in any way other than influence. I say this because, if you remember, the entirety of the population of solas and kryon demons was rendered lifeless at the conclusion of the War.”
Kari considered that. All of the weakest of the serilis-rir had dropped dead at the moment their creator was killed; of that, there was no doubt. Still, it left Kari to wonder if Seril had survived by stealing the lifeforce from the weakest of her creations to sustain herself. “What if she used the lifeforce of the solas and kyrons to keep her spirit alive, even if Kaelariel killed her body?” she asked.
“I’m not sure there’s any way for us to verify that, one way or the other,” Master Arinotte said. “It’s certainly a theory with merit, though.”
“When I was in Barcon a few months ago, a wizard there used a spell called an Arcane Seal to detect Emma and Turillia,” Kari said. “What if the gods can do something similar, but over the entire world? They might be able to at least determine if Seril is alive somewhere.”
“Likely, if she lives, she has taken great pains to conceal herself until she regains much of her power,” Master Perez said.
Kari shrugged. “Still, I would think the gods would be able to find one of their own,” she said, and she was quickly fixed with ten surprised stares. “Make no mistake, Masters: we may have called Seril the Devil Queen, but she was a goddess. Her picture is even on the front of the Temple of Archons.”
“Lady Vanador, what do you mean?” Master Goldberg, the historian among the Council, queried while adjusting his spectacles. “Our records indicate that the likenesses of Gori Sensullu and Tisa Ch’Brakkh grace the front of the Temple of Archons.”
Kari shook her head. “No, I got a good look at the face of the Temple when we were there. That’s not Tisa Ch’Brakkh; it’s Seril. That’s what she really looked like.”
“What makes you say that?” Master Goldberg pressed.
Kari bit her lip and then shrugged. “Because I met her several times in my…previous life,” she said. This wasn’t what she wanted to end up talking to Lord Allerius and the Council about when she had their undivided attention, but the looks of incredulity on the ten men’s faces told her she would have little choice. “I met her in Solaris back then, but I didn’t know who she was at first, obviously. She was this gorgeous, golden-eyed terra-bengal woman with snowy hair, and she was probably the prettiest woman I’ve ever met. Tisa Ch’Brakkh looks a lot like she did, but there’s some subtle differences between them.”
“What did she go to Solaris for?” Master Arinotte asked.
“As far as I know, to talk to me,” Kari answered with another shrug. “She took a great interest in me, probably because I was killing a lot of her servants and didn’t have the backing of the entire Order the way Turik Jalar did. If she wanted to kill me, though, she never made good on it. After a couple of these chance meetings, she told me who she was. I suppose some may think I should’ve attacked her, but…well, when a goddess offers you a drink and their company, I think being polite is the only real option.”
There were scattered chuckles amongst the Council. “Why have you never shared this tale with the Order before?” Master Bennet asked.
“She asked me not to,” Kari answered. “Most of what we talked about was personal. It’s not like she told me her plans or her goals; she wanted to know about me, but she was pretty tight-lipped about herself, understandably. I’m really only telling you this now because of the chance that she’s still alive. In fact, it reminds me of something King Morduri said to me when I spoke with him. He said something like, ‘you cannot become a deity; you either are or aren’t a deity.’ Maybe he meant that deities can’t die? That maybe Seril is still alive – but wouldn’t that mean Gori Sensullu was, too?”
“These are deep, troubling questions to which we do not have answers right now,” Master Bennet said. “Let us look into these things. In the meantime, let us get back to speaking about the survival of Taesenus. Where is he now?”
“On Mehr’Durillia,” Kari answered. “The underworld, that is. The portal that Eli and Danilynn told us about opened up and he went through it. Don’t worry, Masters – Se’sasha destroyed the thing. I’m not sure how she did it, but it’s a relief that she did. So Taesenus is stuck on Mehr’Durillia unless he can find a way back here, but from what I learned while I was there, the kings – and especially the Overking – guard their means of coming to Citaria very closely. So I don’t expect we’ll be seeing him again soon.”
“But he crippled Typhonix?” Master Arinotte asked.
Kari nodded and blew out a sigh. “He did a lot of damage to Ty’s back, and even though my mate was able to heal a lot of it, Ty still can’t move his legs at all.”
“This is most distressing news all around,” Master van Holtzer said.
“That’s not even the worst of it yet,” Kari returned. “Masters, you’re going to have to bear with me while I explain this, but I think we have a mole in the Order.”
“Another one?” Master Bennet asked. “So soon after we exposed and captured all of the syrinthian spies? Are you sure of this?”
“Not sure, no,” Kari said. “But information that gets passed around the Order is ending up in the ears of our enemies way too quickly. The times I’ve spoken to Amastri, she’s already known what I’ve gone to tell her or I’m planning to do before I even speak to her. There’s no way our intelligence is getting to her that quickly unless someone is specifically selling it to her.”
“Any idea who to look into?” Lord Allerius asked.
“Not yet, but I have an idea of how we might be able to expose them,” Kari said.
She was about to elaborate, but a hunter entered the chamber, so they all went quiet. The young human came up and handed Kari a folded letter, saluted her, and then quickly left without a word. Kari recognized what it was within moments: it was the same type of folded parchment the first letter from the demon king Koursturaux had been written on, and it was sealed with that red wax with an impression of a rose. Kari regarded it for a few moments before she looked up at the Council, and she couldn’t stop a laugh from escaping her.
“It’s another letter from King Koursturaux,” Kari said. “I’m guessing she didn’t like my suggestion that she shove the first one up her backside.”
“You didn’t…,” Lord Allerius began, his mouth agape.
“I did,” Kari said, but then she wondered. “How did she get a response to me so fast? I just….I just spoke to Amastri a few hours ago.”
“Perhaps it is not related to your response at all, then,” Master Bennet said. �
�Would you care to read it aloud for us, or do you suspect it is something private?”
Kari shrugged and broke the seal on the letter, and she unfolded it and read it over as quickly as she could. It was written in that same impeccable script as the first letter, and once she had finished reading it, Kari re-read it aloud for the others:
Lady Vanador,
You are hereby cordially invited to meet with Her Majesty, King Koursturaux S’Bakthra, at your earliest convenience. You are welcome to bring your immediate family with you; however, friends and extended family will not be admitted. You will be expected to spend no less than one week’s time in Her Majesty’s palace, after which you will be escorted safely back to Anthraxis for your egress. Your response may be given to Lady Amastri D’al’cinyiore to be passed back to Her Majesty.
Just as with the first letter, it wasn’t signed, merely sealed again with a splotch of red wax and the rose imprint. “Uh, oh,” Kari said. “I think I’d better go talk to Amastri again.”
“What did her first letter say?” Master Bennet inquired.
“It basically said, ‘this is what you get for interfering with the kings,’” Kari answered, rolling the letter up to tuck it into her belt. “I thought she’d betrayed us and told Taesenus where we were going so he could ambush us, but I don’t think that’s true. I think he’s working for one of her enemies, so maybe…I don’t know, maybe I misunderstood all of this.”
“Well then, go and sort this out with Amastri, and we will discuss your plan to expose this possible mole first thing tomorrow morning,” Master Bennet said.
Kari nodded and, after saluting her superiors and being saluted by Lord Allerius, she took her leave to go speak with Amastri, however briefly.
*****
