Serpents Rising (Eve of Redemption Book 3)

by Joe Jackson

  A mallasti appeared on the top of the hill, and for a moment, Kari thought the hill was much higher than it had appeared. The mallasti seemed to be much farther away than Kari first thought, but then she realized that wasn’t the case; it was a child she was looking at. Silhouetted against that bright blue sky, Kari could make out a lot of detail in moments: the child was only about half her height; its fur was a reddish-brown not unlike Emma’s; and there was a decorative bone and bead piece over its chest as the only clothing it wore. The child skidded to a stop when it beheld the three rir women, and after only a slight delay, it called something over the hill.

  “Uh oh, what did it just say?” Kari asked over her shoulder.

  Danilynn’s brow knitted in confusion. “I don’t know,” she answered, and Sonja shook her head negatively as well. “Whatever that language was, it wasn’t infernal.”

  “He is calling the adults, just as expected when he sees a band of strangers approaching,” Morduri answered before the women could get too anxious. “Bear in mind that my people rarely see rir, if they have ever seen them at all.”

  An adult appeared on the hill beside the child and its reaction was immediate. The adult yelled something else over the hill, again in the language neither Kari nor her companions could understand. It then scooped the child up and ran back over the hilltop. Kari regarded Sonja and Danilynn for a moment, but Morduri continued forward. Regardless of the initial response, Kari didn’t want to dally halfway up and make it seem like she was there for – or expecting – trouble. The hill was steep and her steps were slow, and Sonja and Danilynn kept pace behind her.

  Two more adult mallasti appeared at the top of the hill: one was armed with a spear, the other carried no visible weapons. Each of these wore chest pieces like the child had worn, and their coats were highlighted in places by bright, colorful painted markings. They reminded Kari somewhat of the czarikk, but that thought fled quickly when the unarmed mallasti’s hands began to crackle with lightning. Despite the apparently hostile reaction, the lightning-wielder didn’t immediately strike, instead calling down the hill in that unfamiliar language.

  Morduri called back in the same tongue, and among his words was his surname Irrasitus. The mallasti reaction turned suddenly excited, and both of the males at the top called over the hill in rapid chatter. Kari and her companions continued the steep ascent up the hillside behind the demon king. The two mallasti watched her and her companions skeptically, but they seemed much more concerned with the arrival of their king. When Morduri reached the hilltop, the two mallasti guardians bowed low to him and spoke what seemed to be a royal greeting in respectful tones. Morduri said something to them casually, and they stood up straight and took stock of the king’s guests.

  When Kari reached the hilltop, she met the golden and orange-eyed stares of the two defenders. Both of them were a little taller than Kari, standing just over six feet. Just as Kari remembered Emma, the stares of the two mallasti were impassive: if they were angry, curious, distrustful, or any combination thereof, they kept it from their countenances well. Kari could smell their musky scents, more common among the furred demons, though it wasn’t unpleasant. They wore no clothing but for the decorative chest pieces, but their heavy coats made identifying their gender almost impossible but for the lack of breasts. The one holding the tasseled and feather-adorned spear gestured down the far side of the hill, and it was only then that Kari took in the sight of the village.

  It was smaller than Kari expected. Moskarre was a collection of roughly two dozen large, animal-skin teepees and huts, arranged around an open central area with a fire pit. Kari took in the village with great interest, comparing it to that of the czarikk she’d spent time with on Tsalbrin. Their homes were similarly decorated with colorful painted designs and calligraphy, though all of it was lost on Kari at first glance. The area was tidy, and the village was ringed on its outer edge by totem poles, something Kari hadn’t seen before. She knew of their use among shamanic practitioners, but just what they did, she had no idea.

  The most curious thing about the village, however, was the flat-grassed area to its east, wherein a couple dozen mallasti children and a number of adults stood watching the strangers with great interest. The field was arranged with markers and paint in some areas, and there were wide woven nets at each end. It took Kari only moments to realize it was a football – soccer? – field, but it took her mind much longer to process having found one in the home of demons. She hesitated for a moment, but soon got her wits about her and kicked the ball over toward the field. It had been some time since Kari had played a sport of any kind, but her drop-kick was good and accurate, and sent the ball nearly the entire way to the children waiting for it. The two males standing beside her regarded her with interested looks. Morduri laughed outright and gestured for Kari and her friends to follow.

  Kari looked around more as they descended the backside of the hill. What she could see of the realm of Pataria was a breathtaking landscape of rolling hills and grassy valleys. To the west was a deep valley with a sparkling lake that fed the narrow river they’d crossed. The air was warm, as though in early summer, and a persistent but gentle breeze blew from west to east. Kari couldn’t see any other towns or villages from their vantage point, and she wondered why the village of Moskarre was perched on a hillside so close to the Overking’s realm. Given the desolate state of the Overking’s realm, Kari thought perhaps it had to do with being far from other people, but it was hard to know; did demons avoid each other in their own realms?

  Pataria held a certain charm, and Kari had to work to make sure her defensiveness in the face of that charm didn’t show. She didn’t want to give the mallasti the impression that she was expecting trouble, particularly in their home. While the beauty of the realm and its similarities to her own home put Kari on guard, at the same time, she allowed a part of herself to hope that the vast majority of her travels with Sonja and Danilynn would be through terrain such as this. The Overking’s realm was desolate and sterile, but hopefully the next time they saw it, their mission would be virtually complete, so they could look forward to simply getting home.

  They passed the outer edge of the village, and Kari got a brief but close-up view of one of the totem poles. It appeared to be carved directly into a tree trunk, and there were four animal faces that made it up. The carvings were incredibly detailed, and from bottom to top Kari saw a bear, an elk, a snake, and a hawk – or at least, whatever the underworld counterparts of those animals might be. She supposed it was all the same regardless of how they were called, and she wondered again what the totem represented to the village. The carvings were painted and had an almost life-like look about them; Kari found herself impressed with the artistic prowess involved.

  Kari looked to Sonja and Danilynn and saw they were similarly curious about the village and the realm around it. As pleasant as it seemed, Kari was sure neither of her two companions had expected what they’d found any more than she had. Danilynn in particular gave a confused shrug when her eyes met Kari’s. Sonja seemed aloof, but Kari understood her sister-in-law was likely using her empathic sensitivity to get a better feel for the reactions of the mallasti people. After being stared at a few moments, Sonja finally met Kari’s eyes and gave the barest of nods; Kari took that to mean that all was well for the time being.

  There were a few mallasti in the village when Kari and her companions were led into it by their two guides and the elestram king. Most of these appeared to be females. They, too, wore nothing in the way of clothes, but several had woven pup carriers wrapped around them, and most of these had one or two pups riding around in them. Others sat in the doorways of their teepees nursing young, as many as three or four at a time in some cases; it seemed they had several smaller nipples along their bellies. Kari was astounded; she’d had enough trouble with nursing Little Gray. The females paid little heed to the visitors but to stare curiously, but they all dipped their heads reverently when they saw their king.
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br />   Eventually, Kari and her friends were brought before the largest of the teepees, decorated in such a way that suggested it was the village elder’s home. The male with the spear called out to whoever was inside. They didn’t have to wait long before another male emerged from the tent. This one was clearly an elder: he had white-gray fur on his muzzle and cheeks, and he walked with a gait that suggested his legs had carried him through many, many summers. His yellow eyes took in the visitors quickly, but then he bowed as low as his aged legs and back would allow to greet his monarch.

  The elder and Morduri had a brief conversation, during which Morduri gestured toward Kari and her friends several times. The reactions of the mallasti elder and the two guards were unmistakable: Morduri clearly asked them for something they did not want to give up. After a couple of minutes of this, he said something to the elder and the guards, and they all turned and fixed Kari with those stares, though now they weren’t so impassive: they were afraid.

  “I thought we were going to be of more help to you,” Danilynn said to Kari when there was a break in the discussion. “But whatever language they’re speaking, I can’t understand a word of it. And frankly, that makes me nervous.” Morduri regarded the fures-rir priestess and said something to her in the imperious, gruff-toned language Kari had heard almost exclusively in Anthraxis. “Yes, I would feel better if Sonja and I could at least understand what you were talking about, Your Majesty.”

  The elestram king turned to Kari. “You don’t speak the infernal tongue, do you?”

  “No, Your Majesty,” the demonhunter answered. “I don’t speak any of the languages of Mehr’Durillia.”

  Morduri nodded and turned back to the elder. He said something else to the elder and the guards in that other language again, but soon their conversation switched to infernal. The elder said something to the guards and gestured them away. The males left Kari and her friends in the presence of the king and the elder, who continued to study them with that same impassive look and an obviously discerning eye. “So, you are a hunter,” he said, surprising Kari when he spoke in the Citarian common tongue. His voice was clear and strong, but there was a tiredness behind it that Kari couldn’t quite understand, unless it was simply a product of his age.

  Kari started to introduce herself by her Lady title, but thought perhaps it would be best if she was as unassuming as possible. “Karian Vanador,” she introduced herself, and then she gestured toward her friends. “These are my friends, Danilynn Stahlorr and Sonja Tesconis.”

  The elder mallasti studied Danilynn and Sonja for a minute before he turned his gaze back toward Kari. “You may stay here for two nights, demonhunter, just as His Majesty has ordered, and we will aid you in the way His Majesty has decreed. Understand, however, that you are not welcome here, and we do this for His Majesty’s sake, and not yours.”

  Kari bowed her head. She hadn’t expected a warm welcome, and wasn’t getting one; there was little surprise there. “You have what we’re supposed to deliver to King Sekassus?” she prodded.

  “We do,” the elder responded with the barest of nods. “It will be provided to you, just as His Majesty has decreed. We will speak more on this later. For now, go and sit by our people on the field; let them get used to seeing you among them.”

  Kari wasn’t exactly pleased with that idea, but if she and her friends would be staying in the village for a couple of nights, she figured she’d better get used to the hyena demons as much as possible. She turned to Morduri, who nodded but otherwise made no protest or complaint about how the elder had addressed Kari and her friends. The two guards returned at a beckoning gesture from the elder, and Kari glanced at Danilynn and Sonja again. Before either of the two women could ask a question, one of the guards spat on the ground and then spoke to them in the infernal tongue.

  There was a brief exchange between Sonja, Danilynn, and the guides – complete with spitting – and then Danilynn turned to Kari. “What’s with all the spitting?” Kari asked. “Not that I was expecting a warm welcome, but…”

  “It’s the language,” Sonja said. “Every time we speak to them in the infernal tongue, I can feel them get offended. It’s not what we’re saying; it’s the language we’re using to say it.”

  “Correct,” Morduri said. “They consider the infernal tongue to be the language of evil, and accordingly, they don’t like to speak it unless they have to.”

  “Well, that’s certainly…surprising,” Kari muttered. She wondered exactly what sort of language they considered their own tongue to be, but decided that would probably be a rather poor question to pose on their first meeting.

  Morduri gestured the women away, so they followed their guides to the clearing on the east side of town. The majority of the mallasti people were watching the football contest among the youngsters. Kari could scarcely believe her eyes, but it was an actual football match taking place. Eleven youngsters wearing the wood-and-bone chest pieces were playing against eleven others who wore nothing. The mallasti didn’t seem to bother with clothing, even for modesty’s sake. It was an interesting contrast to the elestram, though Kari had only ever seen Morduri in the nude.

  The match continued for some time, and Kari studied the mallasti rather than paying any real attention to the score or play. The majority of these mallasti had the deep, reddish-brown coats with the dark spots, and black hands, feet, and snouts. There were a few that had lighter tan or brown coats with more of a charcoal gray coloration to their extremities. Interestingly, the color of their ears seemed to have little to do with the coloration of the rest of their coats: some had tan ears, others black, and others gray. Most of them had yellow eyes, but some had brown or even green eyes, and a rare few had that fascinating orange color that Emma possessed. All of them had short, furry tails, and stood between six and six-and-a-half feet tall.

  Kari listened to the barked instructions of the coaches, the calls from the adults watching, and even the banter of the players as the match wore on. She tried to place the language, hoping there might be some memory of it from Sakkrass buried deep in her subconscious. Nothing came to mind, and Kari became increasingly glad that the mallasti could at least speak infernal, no matter how much they might have disliked it, and that the elder did indeed speak the common trade tongue of Citaria. Kari wondered how many others besides the elder could.

  Kari hardly noticed when the match came to a close. She was sitting in the short grass at the side of the field, generally ignoring the adults and their children as they made their way back to the village. The mallasti seemed just as happy to ignore Kari and her companions, and Kari was having a hard time understanding just what was going on around her. She knew the demons reproduced the same way mortals did, but that their children partook of sports struck Kari as out of place. Her hackles rose as she felt herself being lulled into a state of complacency, and she glanced around suspiciously, taking in the faces of her companions to gauge their thoughts.

  Before she could even establish eye contact with either Sonja or Danilynn, one of the young mallasti came up and handed Kari the leather ball. He said something to her, but it wasn’t in infernal, so neither Kari nor her friends had any idea what he was saying. The youngster left Kari with the ball and ran to catch up with the other mallasti heading to the village. Kari looked at the sun, past the apex and retreating towards the distant hills to the west, and then she spared her two friends a glance. They seemed just as bemused by the entire ordeal, so with a shrug, Kari got to her feet and followed the mallasti back to the center of the village.

  “What’s going on here?” Kari asked no one in particular. Many of the families were gathered around the center of the village, where Morduri stood with the elder. The demon king and the elder mallasti were conversing in that other language again, and Morduri was clearly perturbed by the topic at hand. When Kari and her companions made their way to the demon king’s side, the demonhunter repeated her question.

  “My favorite part of every visit to one of my
peoples’ towns or villages,” he answered sarcastically. “When I have to explain to them that I’m not interested in marrying any of their young, unwed daughters. Or older, married ones, for that matter.”

  Kari had to stifle a laugh, and the way Danilynn and Sonja suddenly found some of the villagers very interesting told her they felt the same. Still, as amusing as the situation was – not to mention the elestram king’s perturbed reaction – Kari guessed it had to be rather frustrating to constantly have people trying to marry you. Suddenly, the way her brothers-in-law were treated on a regular basis made her feel uncomfortable, and she wondered if the continued pestering they received from their mother and others had anything to do with their resistance or inability to settle down. When Kari considered her suspicions about how Morduri really felt about Emma, it almost made her pity him.

  Several anxious, young-looking mallasti girls were being prodded before the demon king by their overzealous family members, and Morduri went back to trying to delicately explain why he wasn’t interested. It went on for some time, but once it became apparent to the mallasti that Morduri wasn’t going to change his mind, they gradually gave up, allowing the embarrassed young women to retreat to other parts of the village. There they congregated and talked amongst themselves, though whether they were glad for his lack of attention or disappointed that they had missed an opportunity to marry the king, Kari couldn’t tell.

  A part of Kari expected them to have a large communal gathering around the bonfire, but the families each retired to their teepees for supper, leaving the three rir females alone near the village’s central fire pit. Morduri bid Kari and her companions stay near the fire pit while he went into the large dwelling of the elder’s family. No fire was burning yet, so Kari sat down and pulled her pack between her knees, and she began to dig through it for the rations she’d brought. The smells of roasting meat filled the village before long, and Kari was strangely disappointed that the mallasti didn’t offer her any of their food. She and her friends began to eat their rations quietly, and Kari wondered when the elder would come out to speak with them again.