Serpents Rising (Eve of Redemption Book 3)

by Joe Jackson

  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 waited 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 quickly, 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.

  Kari smiled; already some good was coming from this risky situation.

  *****

  Kari and her friends spent most of the day watching the mallasti children play football, followed by a much rougher game of lacrosse involving the adolescents. While the younger children’s football match involved only mild pushing and shoving when they competed for the ball, the adolescents’ game was much more high-impact and violent. The teens seemed to have no rules against laying vicious hits on each other, and in fact seemed to take a lot of sporting pleasure out of knocking each other to the ground. It was still a game with rules, and scoring was the definite goal, but the lacrosse game was much more brutal.

  Kari wondered if that was the beginning of the mallasti youth “graduating” to a more violent lifestyle that might one day culminate with going to Citaria to cause trouble. It didn’t seem like the case, as mallasti were typically spell-casters, and shied away from physical combat as often as not despite their bulky bodies, sharp claws, and bone-crushing jaws. There was clearly something about the hyena demons that Kari had yet to see: some facet of their society that led these sport-playing youths to become vicious soldiers of the kings.

  Sonja could hardly contain herself, fidgeting and biting her lip every so often, excited for the possibility that Uldriana or the other mallasti might teach her something. As little as Kari trusted them, she knew the mallasti were masters of the arcane, and if anyone could teach her sister-in-law what was wrong with her power, it might be them. Failing that, Kari thought perhaps the elestram, who were also very strong in the ways of wizardry, might be able to do so. At what price, Kari couldn’t say; since they were staying among the mallasti, it didn’t seem like much of an imposition for them to teach Sonja.

  With the afternoon sun retreating toward the horizon, Kari and her friends followed the mallasti youths and their instructors back into the village. Uldriana met them near the entrance of her family’s teepee, but she gestured toward the central fire pit and accompanied them over. “Take your meal out here near the fire,” she said, igniting the wood with a gesture, just as the male had done the night before. “You will not be permitted to sit amongst my family while we share our evening meal. Make yourselves comfortable here, and take your supper, and I will come out and speak with you when I am finished with mine.”

  Kari was disappointed with that, but she didn’t offer any argument, and neither did her friends. Uldriana seemed to be the youngest of the family sharing her teepee, so it wasn’t likely she was asked for input in the decision-making. Kari started to dig through her pack for her rations, but after Uldriana had disappeared into her family tent, a mallasti male came and left a large wooden bowl of cooked meat near the fire. He gestured toward it and then left without a word, and Kari regarded her friends only briefly before they began to divvy up the gift.

  They began to share their dinner, glad to have something hot and fresh to share, but their ears perked up as singing echoed from the many tents around them. Whatever was being sung, it was in that other language the mallasti used, and so neither Kari nor her friends could make out any of it. It was yet another surprise from the hyena demons, who seemed so full of surprises, and Kari wondered how her Order had stayed ignorant about their enemies for so long. She glanced to her friends to see what they thought, but just as quickly as the singing had come up from all around, it ended.

  “That sounded like a hymn of blessing,” Danilynn commented when Kari’s eyes met hers. “I couldn’t understand a word of it, but that’s the closest thing I can think of.”

  “Would make a certain sense before supper, but that demons would do so…,” Kari said, trailing off and shaking her head.

  The meat provided was fowl, and the three rir women ate their fill of it. It was greasy but tasty dark meat, and compared to the dried fruits, breads, and nuts of their trail rations, it tasted like a feast. Kari was glad the hyena demons would share any of their food considering how unwelcome she and her friends were in the village. She mixed in some of her rations with the hot meat, and her friends did likewise. Kari hoped she’d brought enough food for their journey; she had figured it would take no more than six weeks to get back home. If they got stranded somewhere or the trip took longer than expected, their food supply might not be enough, and she had no idea if they could resupply in any of the demon cities.

  “Thinking about our food supply?” Danilynn asked. Kari realized she must have been staring off into nothingness for a few minutes, and she nodded to her friend’s question. “Don’t worry about it too much; I can always conjure something up if it comes to that. The ‘food from the gods’ isn’t exactly the most appetizing thing you’ll ever eat, but it’s sufficient to keep you alive and energetic.”

  Kari nodded again; having logistics covered was always a plus when traveling. It made her think back to her time under Kris Jir’tana’s command in the Great War, and the way he’d handled logistics. Traveling through the mountains for years meant that supply lines were hard to maintain at the best of times, and using wagons or carts to haul supplies wasn’t efficient or, in many cases, even feasible. Supplies had been rationed out with incredibly strict guidelines, and soldiers caught violating orders were punished rather severely. It was part of what had kept Kari on such a tight military schedule when it came to eating and other needs, even well after the War was over.

  “Knowing we have something to eat means one less thing to worry about,” Kari said, and her friends nodded. She glanced to the west, the direction they would presumably be going once they finally left the village. “There doesn’t seem to be any lack of running water here, so as long as we can trust the water to not be poisonous, that should cover our most basic needs.”

 
“I can conjure water, too, should the need arise,” Danilynn added. “The last thing the gods need is their warrior-priests expiring from starvation when out in the field.”

  Kari chuckled. “I’m so used to being on the road all the time, that even having lived in my mother-in-law’s house for three years and enjoyed her cooking for that long hasn’t changed the way I feel about trail rations,” she joked. “They may be on the bland side and even a bit stale, but they stay down nicely in a fight.”

  Her friends chuckled, and Uldriana soon came out and sat on the dusty ground with them. She didn’t say anything, simply taking in the three rir women eating with that impassive gaze. One of the other females from her tent called to her after half a minute, and they spoke back and forth rapidly. Uldriana huffed and gestured while they spoke, and then she finally waved off the elder female’s words. The mallasti woman growled low but then went back inside the tent, and Kari beheld Uldriana curiously. It seemed that teenagers were the same among any species.

  Before Kari could voice her thoughts, the mallasti girl turned to Sonja. “The elders have agreed that I may show you what I know of arcane power,” she said. “Understand that I am still young for one of my people, so my mastery of it is far from complete. However, I believe there will be much I can show you.”

  “Anything you could show me would be helpful,” Sonja said. She pulled her thick spell book out of her pack and laid it on the ground before her. She opened it and flipped through a few pages, but just when she found the page she was looking for, she glanced around the village suspiciously. “I’m not going to attract the attention of your king or one of your enemies if I start weaving spells, am I?”

  “If you are having difficulties with your ‘weaving,’ then I doubt anything you could do would be of sufficient power to attract attention,” Uldriana said with a wave of her clawed hand. “However, I will give you warning now that using arcane transportation to cross the borders between realms, or doing other things such as defacing the land or killing the people of a realm, will surely attract more attention than you would like.”