by Joe Jackson
The corridor eventually ended at a sitting room. It had several deep, comfortable chairs, but these had fallen apart due to neglect, leaving Erik to wonder how long this place might have been abandoned before Seril had died. The walls were covered in tapestries with old, forgotten coats of arms; had Seril taken them from people she had killed over the course of her life? There was a hearth, and though there was no wood, Sonja was able to set a good fire in it, albeit one with blue flames, which was as eerie as it was unusual.
Erik had no idea what was burning, so he turned to Sonja. “How do you do that?”
She waved a hand around. “It’s complicated to explain, but the arcane power draws out flammable gases and contains them in a controlled blaze.”
Erik shook his head. “What?”
She smirked. “It’s magic, Erik.”
“Right, nevermind,” he mumbled, drawing laughs from some of his companions.
Most interesting were the bookshelves lining most of the room’s walls. Erik ordered everyone to start pulling volumes off of them to try to find anything interesting. Though most of them turned out to be books by human or rir authors, Aeligos found a weathered, handwritten journal. It was penned in serilian, and Erik didn’t miss the widening and then the set of Aeligos’ eyes as he skimmed through it. “What is it?” he asked when Aeligos looked up.
“Notes on the creation of the serilis-rir,” the rogue answered. “Though this one begins with the elites. I wonder if there are more here that talk about creating the others. This one talks about the elites, the guardians, and the Tilcimer.”
“Read the whole thing as quickly as you can,” Erik directed. “The rest of us will look around for anything else. There’s got to be more to this place.”
“There is a stairway behind this wall,” Gabrius said, knocking on some of the brick and mortar work. “The Tilcimer went that way, but not alone, I do not think.”
“All right, keep alert and let us know if you hear anything approaching,” Erik said, and the half-brys nodded and took up a position near the concealed door.
Jol was perusing a thick book that didn’t look like a diary or journal, but Erik left him to his research. Sonja and Corbanis were scouring the shelves for more handwritten works. Erik wanted to go back and check on Katarina, but he poked around the furnishings and tapestries on the walls, looking for anything hidden. He didn’t turn up anything, and neither did his father or sister, but it didn’t take long for Aeligos to come across something.
“What’s the name of the demon king Amastri serves?” the rogue asked.
“Koursturaux?” Erik answered.
“Yes, but her whole name,” Aeligos pressed.
“King Koursturaux S’Bakthra,” Sonja elaborated.
“That’s what I thought,” Aeligos said, and he turned the book around and handed it to Erik, opened to a specific page. “What does this say right here?”
Erik took the book and began to translate it aloud, “And though it is a mindless killer, the Tilcimer shows no fear, no signs of loyalty; its allegiance cannot be bought or even coerced. This is my contingency, my poisoned well, as it were: that should my efforts at last prove to be completely vain, I will leave Citaria with a plague that will carve the name Chiylija S’Bakthra into their hearts and minds forevermore. Or, at least until they die screaming in flames.”
“What the hell?” Corbanis blurted.
“Shelia Suh-bock-thra?” Jol echoed. “Is that Seril’s true name, then?”
“Looks like,” Aeligos said, maintaining eye contact with Erik.
Erik stood dumbfounded for what felt like hours. “Damnit,” he grumbled. The last thing he wanted, when they were this close to their quarry, was to lose someone else. And yet that was what he needed to do. He turned to his sister and handed her the journal. “Sonja, this must get back to the Order, and Kari specifically. If we don’t survive this, she at least needs to know what we’re up against, and just how untrustworthy Amastri and her master are. Teleport to DarkWind with this, and get it to Kari and the Council as quickly as possible.”
“You’re sure you want me to go?” she asked.
“You know I don’t,” he said. “But we have to think of the bigger schemes here.”
Sonja looked at their father, and he nodded his agreement. “Erik, if I leave, I can’t teleport back here without letting everything sensitive to it know where we are,” she warned.
“I know,” he said. “Don’t come back. If you don’t hear news from us within a week, have Kari put together a stronger force.”
Sonja bit back a sob and hugged him tightly. “Be careful!” she said, looking around at her family and friends. She made a gesture, and her globe of light began to follow Erik. She lit a few oil lamps around the room with her arcane sparks. “Gods be with you.”
She was gone with a rush of wind and a pop, and Erik moved over toward Gabrius. “Can you get this door open?”
“Certainly; pulling the rope beside this tapestry here should open it,” he said. “Why Seril even concealed it is beyond me. Even the dimmest dullard would eventually find this.”
Erik didn’t bother refuting that. He pulled on the rope, and the door unhitched. Though it appeared to be made of stone, it was a false face over a heavy wooden door. Once unhitched, it swung open easily even after so many years of neglect. Erik glanced at his companions, nodded, and then began to descend a dark staircase.
Chapter XV – The Name of the Beast
Grakin was able to come home after only a couple of days. Kari found herself more and more stressed by the lack of news from the south, her pregnancy, and worrying about whether she needed to keep an eye on Grakin and their son more often. Fortunately, the fact that she was pregnant and pretty far along allowed her to take more time away from work when necessary. That, of course, left her with more time at home to think about everything going on, which only served to make her even more restless.
The only news that had come from the south in recent days was from Markus. By the paladin’s account, he had taken the reins of Marsdale County with the blessing of the Earl’s wife and son. Within days, Markus had issued orders to tighten security in the major cities, and for those in the less-defended villages and farms to evacuate to the safer strongholds. His efforts had yielded good results: only one village had been destroyed according to reports, and though the death toll was high, the potential for things to be much worse was still there.
The last Kari had heard from the Silver Blades had come from the city of Ballycastle, from which they had begun an active pursuit of the demon. But she had heard nothing since then. She didn’t know if Corbanis had reached them, if they had encountered or confirmed what they were hunting, or if her friends were all right. Kari trusted that her friends weren’t dead; if they had fallen in their mission, she was pretty sure Kyrie would know about it, at least. That made her consider whether the church of Kaelariel could be used to keep closer tabs on whether her hunters were slain in their missions, but tucked that aside for the moment. Grakin was asleep, and she didn’t want to disturb him.
Another wrinkle had appeared in the fabric of her life as well: after consultation with the Duke of Sutherland, his ancestor Turik Jalar’s tomb was opened, but no journals or scrolls were found within. It had confirmed, to some degree, Kari’s suspicion that the plundering of the tomb had been nothing but a distraction to cover the disappearance of the records. Kari knew full well the embarrassment for the Order that could result from the records being exposed to the public without sufficient research into all the details. It was yet another thing she needed to set people to tracking down, but with the contingency that they couldn’t really know the importance of what they were after. Kari needed to have all the facts before the details could become common knowledge.
Kari looked across the sitting room at Liria, who sat attentively by the fire. So far, the girl had shown herself to be a very capable and useful assistant to Kari. She had proven herself time and again since b
eing offered the opportunities to do so, but Kari still had doubts. At this point, she figured she was better served keeping Liria close, and giving the girl all the rope she might need to hang herself. If Kari’s secrets continued to end up in the ears of Amastri and whoever else, it would mean that there was a link in the chain of spies that had yet to be exposed.
That brought Kari’s thoughts to her former assistant, Joaquim, and what she was going to do with him. Working with demon kings was enough to earn him a death sentence, but Kari wasn’t in a hurry to pronounce such a verdict. After all, she was working with demon kings – not in the same way, and she was working to safeguard her people, but in the end, she was. Kari knew she needed to disentangle herself from King Koursturaux. That would still leave her in debt to Morduri, but she found that troubled her less than her relationship with the female demon king.
“I’m curious,” Kari said, drawing Liria’s attention fully. “What do you think I should do with the traitor?”
The syrinthian went back to watching Little Gray play on the rug for a minute before she answered. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I think of him in terms of my own people, and how easily you and Lord Allerius could have simply had us executed. I think of him as someone’s child, as someone with the potential to be redeemed, and it makes me glad such decisions aren’t in my hands.” She looked back to Kari. “I have no issues killing people in defense of myself or others, but executing people is something I’ll never have the stomach for, Lady Vanador.”
Kari nodded, but she wondered if there was any way someone who had betrayed her as badly as Joaquim had could ever redeem themselves. The syrinthians had infiltrated the Order and possibly caused the deaths of some of Kari’s hunters; that was true. However, they had done so under coercion, given a choice of serving Sekassus or watching their families be slaughtered. Joaquim had been under no such circumstances that Kari knew of, but then that thought gave her pause. Was there more to the situation than she had seen so far?
“I think I’ll let him stew in prison for a while, and then we’ll see how willing he is to talk,” Kari said.
“It worked rather well with my people, didn’t it?” Liria replied.
Kari chuckled. “And keep him from taking a bath.”
Liria laughed at that. “I should be getting back to the campus soon, ma’am. I don’t want to miss the afternoon classes.”
As if on cue, there was a knock on the front door. Liria went to answer, and spoke with whoever it was for a few moments before she returned. “Your sister-in-law just arrived on the campus, and apparently caused quite a stir,” the syrinthian said. “Your presence is requested at once, ma’am.”
“All right, we’ll go together,” Kari said. “Let me just tell Grakin that we’re going. We’ll take Little Gray with us.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the syrinthian girl said.
Kari took the stairs slowly to avoid any extra strain, and she roused Grakin just enough to let him know she was going to work and taking Little Gray with her. Content to have the quiet house to himself, Grakin went back to sleep before Kari had ever left the bedside. He insisted he was feeling better, but he had been sleeping a lot since the incident, and Kari couldn’t recall if she had ever done the same in her prior life. If her memories were correct, she had rarely sat still, too instilled with a sense of duty to give in to the demand to be idle, even as sick as she was.
Kari thought of what Brother Thomas had told her, and figured she was just as happy if Grakin stayed home more often and refrained from healing people all the time. If he had truly entered the final phase of Dracon’s Bane and his life was coming to a close, she didn’t want him doing anything to speed up the process. Having known Grakin’s fate ahead of time, and indeed having experienced it herself once before, did nothing to help Kari accept it now. She wanted every possible last second she could get with him.
Kari put on her armor as well as she could in her condition, and belted on her swords. She wasn’t going to be a very effective fighter if someone attacked her, but she would have Liria with her, and the syrinthian girl had already put herself between Kari’s people and danger several times. Kari didn’t trust Liria completely, not yet, but she was satisfied taking only the minimum precautions with the prospect of being escorted to the campus by the syrinthian.
Liria and Little Gray were already out on the porch waiting when Kari returned to the main level. Kari could see the vigilance in the syrinthian’s appraising gaze as her head swept side to side. It was no mystery that the people of the city trusted the snake-woman far less than Kari did, and that Liria was just as leery of walking among so many potentially dangerous strangers. Most curiously, the syrinthian was holding Little Gray’s hand protectively while they waited, and the boy didn’t seem to pay any mind to the species of his protector.
Kari smiled briefly, and let Liria keep hold of Little Gray’s hand while they made their way to the campus. The reactions they received were mixed, no doubt because the Grand Commander of the Order was walking beside a syrinthian that wasn’t in chains. The people simply wouldn’t know how to react; Kari and her Order had not released a lot of information about the syrinthian infiltrators or their pending sentence. The Duke wasn’t happy about them walking the streets, even under escort, and Kari didn’t need to go to his court to know that.
Tensions were running high on the campus. From the moment the guards at the gate saw her, Kari could tell something important had happened. There were groups of hunters gathered here and there, several of them with their gear packed up in preparation for journeys. That put Kari on edge; she had to wonder if Sonja had returned as the sole survivor of their mission, and perhaps reinforcements were being sent south to salvage the situation. She tried to keep her emotions under control, and after a brief inquiry, she was directed to the temple.
“Ma’am, may I ask you something somewhat personal?” Liria asked while they walked.
Kari looked at the girl quizzically. “Is this really the time?” she replied. Liria looked down and away, but Kari blew out a sigh. “Oh, go ahead. Just be prepared to not be answered.”
The syrinthian girl stopped and looked back over the grounds of the campus, drawing Kari’s gaze with her. A few classes of recruits were just getting started with their afternoon calisthenics, and others were sparring or grappling. Liria was clearly behind schedule, but she seemed content staying with Kari until dismissed – or perhaps just until she got the answer she was looking for. But the girl hesitated, even in the face of Kari’s permission.
“What is it? Speak your mind,” Kari encouraged her.
“It’s just…I have studied much of your career while a cadet here,” Liria began. “Tales of your skills and your sword-fighting prowess are the constant focus of the recruits. I’m just – and forgive me if this is being too forward, ma’am – I’m curious why you’ve never taught any of your students your fighting style?”
Kari stared at the girl for a minute, which made Liria fidget, but then Kari turned and looked out over the grounds. It was a perfectly valid and logical question. Kari had spent most of her life on the road, hunting and fulfilling other obligations for the Order. Now, however, she had spent the better part of the last three and a half years on campus as an administrator, a job she wasn’t exactly well-suited for, to her own thinking. Why hadn’t she ever chosen or asked to be a teacher, and taught some of her more promising cadets Tumureldi’s fighting style? Was she just jealously guarding the one thing that she felt made her truly unique in this time?
As she thought on it, Kari wondered if Tumureldi would be disappointed that she had never taught anyone else his style. It was his legacy, the ultimate gift he had given Kari, and she had never shared it with anyone else. Liria’s question was on-point, and it made Kari consider how she would spend the next few years while she raised her child. She wouldn’t be allowed to undertake hunts while her child was still an infant, but she would be expected to work part-time on the campus, at least. An
d despite her position as head of the Order, she thought she could make it even more effective if she took Liria’s cue and started training her hunters to be even better fighters.
Kari turned back to Liria, and the girl had her upper lip sucked in as though she thought she had misspoken. “You interested in learning?” Kari asked, and those wide, golden eyes went even wider. “I won’t be teaching anyone for a few months yet, not until after I’ve had my baby, but I think maybe you’re right: I should be teaching others and not keeping Tumureldi’s gift to myself.”
Saying the words Tumureldi’s gift made Kari consider her fight with Turillia, when the half-syrinthian, half-succubus assassin had called Kari’s fighting style just that. It was strange that a couple of off-world syrinthians – or half-syrinthian, in Turillia’s case – would give Kari such insights into her own style, and a fresh perspective on her relationship with Suler. He had given her a gift, and Kari couldn’t imagine he expected her to keep it to herself. Here she was, resurrected nearly two hundred years later, with the opportunity to teach hundreds or thousands of others to fight as her mentor did.
“Ma’am, I would consider it an honor, as would every other man and woman on the grounds of this Order,” Liria assured her. “I have heard some of the cadets mention that you killed the White Serpent, and though they don’t seem to truly understand what that means, I do. You defeated one of the Ashen Fangs’ greatest fighters, a woman whose name was known across the entirety of our world.”
Kari got her feet moving again, not wanting to keep the Council waiting if she had been summoned to the temple. “What can you tell me about the Ashen Fangs?” she asked. “Are they an assassin’s guild like we suspect?”
