by Joe Jackson
Kari tilted her head. “So Sekassus' spies don't alert him ahead of time,” she ventured. Amastri didn't answer, but the set of her eyes did that well enough. “Do you know who his spies here in the city are?”
“You already captured most of them,” Amastri said, but then she shook her head. “If there are others, they keep themselves well hidden from me.”
Amastri rose and bowed her head slightly to Kari. She drew out a stack of folded papers from her purse and laid them on Kari’s desk. “It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Hand of Zalkar,” she said in what sounded like sincere tones. “These pages contain a written explanation of what we have discussed thus far. Bear in mind that Her Majesty would not have involved herself in this plot of yours if she did not feel you had a good chance of success.”
Kari nodded to that and put the Celestial Token on her desk for Amastri to take. When the woman picked it up, Kari said, “I’m honestly curious how she even knows enough about me to think so, if the Overking doesn’t know who I am.”
Again that smile crossed Amastri’s face. “You have a mutual friend who has told Her Majesty much about you. Do what you think is best, Lady Vanador, and should you choose to go, I shall look forward to seeing you safely returned.”
I’ll bet you will, Kari thought. The thought that she and Koursturaux had any kind of mutual “friend” left a bad taste in Kari’s mouth, but she didn’t say anything about it. Such might have pointed to yet another plant among the Demonhunter Order; after all, Jason Bosimar had let Amastri stay in the city for however many years, and Lord Allerius hadn’t seen fit to remove her even after Bosimar’s death. If the syrinthians could plant spies in the Order and a servant of King Koursturaux herself could live in the city free from harm or trouble, what other parasites did the Order have that Kari and her superiors weren’t even aware of?
Amastri left the office and Kari glanced to Aeligos. She was surprised he’d had so little to add, but she took it to mean Amastri had been quite thorough in her disclosure. In his gaze Kari could see concern: he was clearly thinking about Amastri's suggestion to not bring any men, and he was not happy about it. Kari was glad for his protective nature, but she realized that it meant she was going to get a lot of resistance from her other brothers-in-law, from Grakin, and from Eli if she followed Amastri's advice. None of them would be content letting the women go separately into such a dangerous realm.
“Aeligos, am I crazy to even be considering this?” she asked. “Be honest with me.”
“I’d be a hypocrite if I told you that you were,” he answered with a shrug. “After all the times I’ve snuck into castles full of enemies and demons and whatever else all by myself…no, I don’t think you’re crazy. Very brave, probably a little foolish, but I know what you’re trying to do and why. It just aggravates me that I might not be able to help.”
Kari nodded; she knew that already. “But her information sounded good? To be honest, it was a lot more detailed and open than I was expecting.”
“Her info was good, and what she said about King Koursturaux putting effort into your plan…there’s something to that,” he said with a nod. “If you’re killed, Koursturaux doesn’t get her payment, and they know that now. It’s entirely possible she’s not really interested in it and she just wants to get you killed, but if that was her goal, I’m sure she has better resources at her disposal that don’t require such elaborate schemes. So yes, I think Amastri’s information was good and you can trust it, as much as you can trust anything the demons tell you. The question that remains is whether it was enough.”
“And did you make anything of the Overking’s rules?” she prodded.
“Sounds like he’s a smart king,” Aeligos answered with another shrug. “It doesn’t matter how powerful he is, if he has all those other demon kings under his rule, he’s got to use more than strength to keep them in line. Sounds like he has a system of rules and laws that keep them fighting and undermining each other so they can’t undermine him.”
Kari rose from her seat with a sigh. “Subtle demons,” she muttered. “Well, I guess there's no avoiding it. Let's go tell the others what we've found out.”
*****
The family gathered for dinner again with all the same guests except for Eryn. The half-brys assassin had flat-out refused to set foot in the underworld, and despite the fact that neither Kari nor Aeligos had taken offense to it, Eryn then ducked out of joining them for dinner as well, probably out of embarrassment. She insisted it was because she had to hunt down the agent of Sekassus, but it was precisely the type of reaction Kari had hoped to avoid getting from her friends and family. She already knew what she was planning was dangerous and, despite what Aeligos had said, crazy to some extent, and she didn’t want anyone to feel ashamed for not wanting to go with her.
Everyone ate quickly, apparently eager to hear what Kari had to share after her second meeting with Amastri. It was late; Kari had stayed longer than anticipated at the campus to let the Council know what she'd found and to get their input. It seemed to Kari that Amastri had been honest and straightforward with her, and yet it didn’t ease Kari’s suspicions all that much, let alone those of the Council. She knew that on top of being vicious and evil, the demon kings were also cunning and could be subtle when they wanted to be, and the Council had warned her to take great care before jumping into the situation. Fortunately, Kari had eleven days to reach her decision: a part of her wondered if she was being baited into a trap by Koursturaux, though Kari couldn’t imagine what she’d done to draw the demon king’s attention if that were so.
Once the dinner plates were cleared away and everyone was sharing an after dinner glass of wine – the ouzo hadn’t lasted beyond the first night it was open – Kari pulled out the stack of notes Amastri had given her. “So, we met with Amastri, and the information she gave us was thorough,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it was good, though. The first thing you should know is she advised against me taking any men to the underworld. She said that would increase our chances of being attacked for whatever reason.”
Erik bristled at those words but held his tongue for the time being, so Sonja took the opportunity to speak. “But she said you can take other women with you?” she asked.
“Yes, but she suggested only taking a couple,” Kari said. She nodded toward Danilynn but kept her eyes on Sonja. “Danilynn already wants to go; I know that. Are you comfortable going? I already asked Eryn, but she said she was busy with something else. I mean, Amastri suggested I only take women, but that's not an absolute. I can take whoever is willing to go, but she seemed to suggest that a small group of women would get a lot less attention.”
Aeligos’ expression barely changed as Kari hid Eryn’s reasoning behind a polite fib. “Don’t feel pressured to go, Sonja. This is not a hunt or a fight Kari’s walking into,” he told his sister. “It’s just a negotiation. Might be that you could help her with the actual negotiating, but if you’re leery about your spells not working or anything else, just keep in mind this is supposed to be small and subtle.”
Kari nodded in response to Aeligos’ words, but Sonja waved them off. “No, I want to help,” she said. “If I can get a good look around at some of the cities or towns, I’ll probably be able to send us there in the future if I ever master transportation spells. I’ve also been studying the infernal language – spoken and written – in my spare time, so it might do me a world of good to go there and actually encounter it in use firsthand.”
Danilynn seemed to appreciate that development. “That’s helpful,” she said. “I’m quite well-versed in the infernal tongue myself, but multiple ears may hear different messages in the same words.”
“So after you finally get me to agree to go, I guess I’m not expected to help,” Eli said to Danilynn. She stroked his jawline with a smile, but said nothing.
Erik agreed with Danilynn. “That’s a good point. You’re certain this isn't going to turn into a fight?” he asked, turning his attent
ion back to Kari. “I’d honestly rather send enough muscle with you to make any demons you come across in your travels think twice about coming after you.”
Kari understood the sentiment, doubly so because of the physiques of her larger brothers-in-law, but sensed it might be misplaced. “More muscle would make it more likely we were attacked, from what Amastri suggested,” Kari returned. “She seemed to be saying that if it’s just a few women, then demons would be afraid to do anything on the off chance we belonged to a king. If there’s men with us, they’d probably assume we belonged to the men, and that wouldn’t end well.”
“Sounds like a swell place,” Jol muttered, probably the only bit of sarcasm Kari could ever recall hearing from her eldest brother-in-law. It made her realize just how uncomfortable he was with her plans, regardless of how muted his emotions typically were on the surface.
“What’s your plan? And how long will you be there?” Erik asked.
“From what Amastri told us, we wouldn't be heading there until eleven days from now,” Kari answered. “We won't know exactly where we're headed – aside from Sorelizar, that is – until we arrive in Anthraxis and speak with King Morduri. It seems King Koursturaux wants to pin all this on him if something goes wrong, so he's our main contact once we get there. If I go talk to him and it seems like a poor plan or a trap, though, we'll have the option of just coming home and forgetting the entire deal. That's why some of you can at least come with us to Anthraxis, and then we can see what King Morduri has to say about you going with us to see King Sekassus.”
“But you don't know how long you'd be gone?” Erik reiterated.
“Well, from the way Amastri described the travel, about six to eight weeks or so,” Kari answered. Grakin stiffened up at those words, and Kari bit her lip; she knew he was already anxious about her going, but if she was going to be gone that long, it was so much worse. She had only been home from her hunt in Barcon for a day, and that hunt had taken her away for over a month as well. “On the positive side, if everything she said was true, there really won’t be too much danger involved. There shouldn’t be any fighting, and she said the most likely dangers would be natural ones – weather, animals, stuff like that.”
“How do you plan to get back home?” he pressed.
“The same way I plan to go there: with help from Eliza Chinchala,” Kari said. Everyone perked up at her mention of Celigus' daughter, especially Sonja. “I'm assuming she'll be able to take us there, and if she's willing, I'll ask her to bring us home, too.”
“And you got all this from a succubus?” Typhonix asked incredulously.
“She’s not a succubus,” Kari said. She was confident in her conclusions after her first meeting with Amastri. Had the woman been even part succubus, Kari was certain she would’ve sensed it. What she had sensed was a hint of elf, and the woman’s surname – assuming it wasn’t false – certainly seemed to confirm that. Kari was fairly certain Amastri was a half-elf, though what her other half was and how she’d come to work for a demon king were two questions Kari couldn’t answer. “She’s part elf; I’m thinking she may be a mixture of races that are stuck in the underworld. But she’s definitely not a succubus. She doesn’t have the teeth.”
That piqued Eli’s interest, and the half-corlyps warrior reached up absently to touch the side of his neck where Turillia had bitten him. Kari didn’t miss the gesture, and she wondered if he and his companions had any idea when they’d dealt with Amastri. While a succubus most often hid her fangs through illusion or shape-shifting magic, Kari found they were usually easy to spot because they never quite got the teeth right. Also, in their efforts to seduce and tempt mortals, they typically made themselves too attractive. Amastri was a beautiful woman, but the way she used makeup, hair-styling, and fancy clothes to accentuate that beauty tipped Kari off. Had Amastri been a succubus, she’d likely have just made herself a “perfect specimen” and then used those gifts she possessed as a demon to do the rest. And even if Kari was wrong, it was still irrelevant: Amastri didn’t use the gifts even if she had them.
“Well, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it,” Erik said. “I don’t want you to go. I think it’s a bad idea, I don’t think you can really trust this Amastri character, it’s probably all some elaborate trap to get you down there after they failed to get you in Barcon. All that said, you’re the head of the Order now, and I trust you’ll make the right decision. Just tell me that if you go, it’s going to be because you want to, and not because you feel like you have to, or you're trying to live up to Turik Jalar’s reputation.”
Kari bristled somewhat at that insinuation, but she didn’t get the chance to voice her thoughts right away. “Lord Chinchala said not to go,” Kyrie added quietly, as was her way. “You should consider that he may know something he doesn’t want to share, but which would convince you not to go if he did.”
Kari waved her hand and the conversation came to an abrupt halt. “I haven’t made my decision yet,” she said. “I have a lot to think about before I make up my mind. On the one hand, we’re stumbling around in the dark when it comes to these underworld demons, and yet when they come here, they seem to know exactly what they’re after and how to get it. None of us are safe as long as they know more about the Temple of Archons than we do, and we can only react to their efforts for so long before they simply overwhelm us. What I have here is an opportunity to go down there and find out what we need to know to smash them in the mouth for a change, and with really as little risk as anyone could expect. But on the other hand, the plan hinges too much on avoiding notice and trusting in demons to follow some laws made to protect them, not us. My only consolation right now is that we have an escape plan if we do go and things turn against us. And this has nothing to do with Turik Jalar.”
Erik bowed his head somewhat apologetically. “When do you think you’ll make your decision?” he asked.
“I’m going to wait to talk to Eliza, if she comes to see me,” Kari answered. “Like I said, Amastri told us eleven days from now will be the perfect time to go, so there's no rush to come to a decision. The rest of you can make up your own minds…I'm not asking anyone to go with me, but if you want to come, the choice is yours. Just remember, it may just be us girls leaving the city, if that's what King Koursturaux and King Morduri think will best keep this all a secret.”
“I'm in,” Aeligos said.
“Same here,” Eli added.
Erik stared at Kari for a minute, but then shook his head. “I think I'll stay behind with Jol. One thing that's bothering me about this plan is that this whole thing may be a trick to get us to leave Grakin and Little Gray unprotected. I think Jol and I can handle things, and maybe Damansha can convince the Commandant to assign some watchmen to keeping an eye on the house while you're gone.”
“I'd be happy to,” Damansha said. “I'm certain the Commandant will be glad to assist the head of the Demonhunter Order.”
“Where do you want me, sis?” Ty asked. “If you're going for subtle, that's not my strong point, obviously. Do you want me to stay here and help Erik and Jol keep an eye on things?”
Kari nodded. “I think that would be best,” she said. “Aeligos and Eli both have more experience in moving around unseen and avoiding notice. Even if they get stuck in Anthraxis, I can have them nose around and see how much they can find out about, well, everything. Just everyone keep in mind, I haven't made a decision yet, but this needs to be kept quiet until we've already gone. Damansha, that means you'll want to wait until after we leave to mention extra guards around our house.”
Damansha agreed. With the conversation over, most of the others got up and left the table, some to go to bed, others to read by the fire. Damansha and Serenjols headed upstairs to Jol’s bedroom, and Kari smiled. She’d noticed earlier in the morning that Serenjols had slept on the floor the night before. Damansha had stayed the night as a guest, but she and Jol still hadn’t shared a bed so far as Kari knew; they were taking their rel
ationship slowly. It was a pleasant thing for Kari to see, since she understood they were basing their relationship on something other than sex. In her experience, those were the relationships that lasted a long time.
She almost laughed at herself when she considered how quickly her romance with Grakin had proceeded. Kari wasn’t normally one to believe in love at first sight, but she knew Grakin was the right man within minutes of talking to him. It made her think that perhaps she wasn’t the best person to be passing judgments on the quality or strength of others’ relationships, but her instincts seemed to be pretty good where her family was concerned. The only relationship Kari still knew little about was Kyrie’s: her mother-in-law had never actually divorced from her mate, but she never spoke of him and neither did her children. Kari knew he was a demonhunter, so she wondered how rude it would be to find out who he was from the Order. At the very least, she thought she could find out where he was stationed and for what reason.
“You know I love you and I trust you,” Kyrie said, and she reached her hand toward Kari. Kari met her halfway and Kyrie took Kari’s hand in her own and gave a squeeze. “I have tried to find out as much as I can about the underworld from Kaelariel. Since he grew up there, he knows a little of its layout, but not much of its politics. One thing he mentioned that goes with what Amastri has told you: the city of Anthraxis is completely neutral territory. None of the kings may hunt you or harm you while you are within the city, except for the Overking. As long as you avoid his attention, you should be somewhat safe while you’re there. I am worried for your safety, of course, but if there is one person on Citaria I believe could accomplish this task of yours, it is you.”
“I can’t give you any real reason I would trust any of these demons or so-called demons,” Kari said. “But this seems too complicated to be a trap; they’ve had so many opportunities to kill me, and they haven’t. If anything keeps me safe, it may just be the fact that I’m Salvation’s Dawn. That doesn’t mean they won’t capture me, but they may be afraid to kill me if they know I’m needed for whatever their real goal is. That’s the only reason I’m considering this.”